Oh god I remember watching the 2019 anime but getting really confused a few episodes in because things just seemed off and like I was missing something. When I searched for it the next day on the site I was using showed the 1998 OVA "series", and I thought it might provide the context I was missing. And oh boy it certainly did, just not in the way I expected...

Never knew it had such a big role in Visual Novel history. That's cool to learn!