Kite

Killing people for a living isn't something Sawa chose. After her parents are murdered, the two detectives assigned to her case take her in — then spend years grooming her into a captive assassin, using the promise of vengeance to keep her compliant. Politicians, businessmen, whoever they point her at. She handles it with a custom handgun that fires rounds designed to do maximum, visceral damage, and she doesn't miss. That's the setup, and it does not get lighter from there. This is a two-episode OVA from 1998, directed by Yasuomi Umetsu, whose fluid animation and distinctive character designs reportedly caught the attention of directors like Tarantino. The action sequences have a weight and specificity that most anime from that era couldn't touch. What makes it stick is the bleak psychological undercurrent — Sawa isn't a power fantasy. She's a trapped kid trying to hold onto something human while being used as a tool. When she crosses paths with Oburi, another young assassin caught in the same system, the drama gets genuinely affecting. Fair warning: this is an adult OVA in every sense. The violence is graphic, and the content gets deeply uncomfortable in places. If you liked Gunslinger Girl or Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, the premise will feel familiar, but A Kite is rawer and more uncompromising than either. Think of it as the grim foundation those shows were quietly built on.