Huyao Xiao Hongniang: Zhu Ye

Do you know the feeling when the best part of an anime is way into it and yoy can't recommend just that part? Well, this is different. You can view it as a standalone and enjoy it, not fully but way better than starting a whole series just to watch this masterpiece worth part. 

Both are mature prequel stories for long-running, more fun-oriented anime. They both have romance and tragedy and are set in an historical setting. The tone in Rurouni Kenshin/ Samurai X in general is a more serious and Fox Spirit Matchmaker is a chinese prduction, that also has supernatural elements. So they are also rather different but I found them to be the hidden gems that sparkel in the same way in otherwise more generic (sorry to the fans, I don't think at all that they are bad) series.