Rurouni Kenshin
Once upon a time... I showed up to two or three of the anime club meetings at my college. They would screen anime on a projector, and one meeting they did Kare Kano and one meeting they did Kenshin.
I don't really remember whether I saw a few episodes of the main series during this meetup or if it was another time, but they definitely screened the prequel, a 4-episode OVA set 10 years before the series and in a very different, more serious style. And I definitely remember the room when the movie ended. Everyone was stunned; the collective response was "whoah". And then, when the silence finally broke, "that was incredible".
I had never seen an animated film remotely like that. It was really intense. And really well-directed. And definitely, definitely not a movie for kids. It was, I decided, one of the best films I'd seen in my life, in any category.
The main series, on the other hand, was pretty typical mainstream anime from the 90s: episodic, silly, caricatured, strolling along almost aimlessly, and, at least in the first season, quite cheerful. And there were 93 episodes. Ain't got time (or money) for that. I was mildly curious what the main series had to say, but not enough to invest in it.
Well, here we are in COVID-19 lockdown and while it took me 3 weeks to resort to Netflix & co, I finally decided I have enough spare time to watch some TV. I watched all of Violet Evergarden (14 episodes and a movie). And then, well, why not Rurouni Kenshin? 93 episodes to kill some time with, and it's available to stream on Funimation for < $8/month, much less than ~$12/VHS.
So now I'm watching Rurouni Kenshin, the series. I'm on episode 14 or thereabouts. It is pretty fluffy. But once in awhile you see the intensity of Kenshin's past show through. It's the same voice actor, too, so for me, memories of the prequel are layered into into his voice whenever he speaks. I'm not sure what I think about the series, but I profoundly love this character.