Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko is a fantasy OVA from 1985 about Yohko Asagami (Hiromi Tsuru), an Ordinary High-School Student who is in love and unable to confess her feelings. Her angst inspires her to compose a piece of piano music that much to her surprise acts as a magical trigger and transports her to another world called Ashanti. There she learns that she is the legendary warrior of Leda and is tasked with bringing down the evil Master Zell (Shūichi Ikeda) who wants to use Yohko's composition for his own nefarious purposes.
The OVA is created by Kaname Production and directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, with the screenplay by Yuyama and Junki Takegami.
This anime provides examples of:
- Big Bad: Master Zell.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Yohko, towards her unnamed crush.
- Chainmail Bikini: Yohko wears a blue one after she transforms. Yoni's outfit also resembles this trope, although its less armored-looking.
- The Chosen One: There's a prophecy in Ashanti saying that whenever Leda's power is used for evil, a warrior from another world will come to protect it. In this case, that warrior is Yohko.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Zell wears makeup, long nails, and jewelry, and it's definitely played for creepyness.
- Disney Villain Death: Zell falls down a deep shaft into the magma pit after Yohko stabs the eye in his turban.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: By the end of the OVA, Zell is permanently destroyed, Ashanti is saved, and Yohko finally returns to Earth to profess her love to her crush.
- Face–Heel Turn: Zell used to be a supporter of Leda before he betrayed his comrades and turned evil.
- Faceless Eye: Zell has a big eyeball on his turban that's quite icky-looking. He uses it to attack people's psyches.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold/Innocent Blue Eyes: Yoni, to emphasize her role as Leda's shrine maiden.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Two of Zell's robots get bisected by Yohko shortly after the latter obtains her powers.
- Have You Seen My God?: Leda is said to be/have been a goddess, but in present-day Ashanti, she's mostly remembered as a legend, her shrine has fallen into ruins, and only one of her shrine maidens has survived.
- Humongous Mecha: Yohko awakens hers in Leda's shrine. Yoni also has a clunkier less-cool-looking one.
- Interdimensional Travel Device: Yohko's walkman.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Zell traps Yohko in one towards the end, but she breaks out after she spots the thread.
- MacGuffin: Yohko's walkman. Or more accurately, the song recorded on the tape inside the walkman.
- Magical Girl Warrior: Yohko, in a manner similar to the Magic Knights.
- Miko: Yoni describes herself as Leda's shrine maiden, although her outfit is completely different from real-world mikos.
- Musical Trigger: Yohko's piano sonata on her walkman acts as a bridge between Earth and Ashanti.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Not long after her arrival in Ashanti, Yohko's clothes are transformed into a Chainmail Bikini, which she wears for most of the runtime. Everyone present only brings up the narrative implications her new outfit holds, and other characters who meet her since then never make note of its skimpiness. Yohko's ally, Yoni, is dressed in similarly-scant attire, and this likewise receives no comment.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Yohko can only gasp in shock the moment she's transported into Ashanti at the beginning of the OVA.
- Yohko and Ringhum have a small panic when Zell's search party steals the former's walkman in search of Leda's heart.
- Ominous Floating Castle: Zell lives in one, although it used to belong to Leda's supporters.
- "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: The OVA ends with a quick pan up from the ground to the city skyline just as Yohko is about to profess her love to her crush.
- Satellite Love Interest: Yohko's love interest. It's clear that Yohko loves him, and she composed an entire song just to show how much she loves him, but... she's never spoken to him, doesn't really know anything about him, he doesn't do anything besides walk down a road, he never speaks aside from inside Zell's illusion, but that one's a fake anyway, and we never even get to see what he really looks like. He only exists to motivate Yohko to compose the song at the start and later return to Earth. And to establish that she is an Ordinary High-School Student with a crush.
- Save Both Worlds: Yohko's mission, since Zell is plotting to invade and conquer Earth.
- Stuff Blowing Up: The final battle goes all out with the explosions.
- Summon Everygirl Hero: How Yohko ends up in Ashanti. A weird case since Zell is the one who summons her (because he wants her MacGuffin), but she still serves the role of supporting La Résistance.
- Talking Animal: Ringhum, the talking dog.
- Transformation Sequence: Yohko gets eaten by a giant flower during hers.
- Trapped in Another World: The plot revolves around this trope.
- Villainous Breakdown: At the end of the OVA, Zell gets more and more freaked out as the situation develops, to the point where he furiously lunges at Yohko.
