Virtuacall

For a while now, Emily has had feelings for her neighbor Hasegawa that she's been sitting on. He's friendly, he's around, he just doesn't see her that way. When he starts venting about his romantic frustrations, Emily does something that backfires spectacularly — she introduces him to Virtuacall, a virtual service that lets users interact with an idealized fantasy partner however they want. Hasegawa gets hooked. Emily watches the guy she likes disappear into a digital relationship instead of the real one right in front of him. That's the setup, and it's a genuinely interesting one for a two-episode OVA from 1997. The tension comes from a pretty relatable place: what happens when escaping into fantasy feels easier than dealing with the person who's actually there. There's a sci-fi layer here, but the emotional core is old-fashioned unrequited longing with a virtual reality twist. If you've seen older anthology-style adult OVAs like Cool Devices or Cream Lemon, you'll recognize the format — short, contained, character-driven rather than purely episodic. It's not trying to be a full series; it tells one story and wraps it up. For something from the late 90s, the premise holds up better than you'd expect, and the romantic tension between Emily and Hasegawa gives it more weight than the runtime might suggest. Worth a look if you want something brief with an actual emotional thread running through it.