Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (anime)

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (originally titled Vampire Hunter: The Animated Series (ヴァンパイアハンター THE ANIMATED SERIES) in Japan) is a four-episode OVA anime series by Madhouse Studios under license from Capcom, directed by Masashi Ikeda[1] and originally released in 1997–1998. It is an adaptation of Capcom's Darkstalkers series of video games.

Night Warriors:
Darkstalkers' Revenge
North American DVD cover
Original video animation
Directed byMasashi Ikeda
Animation directors:
Hideki Takayama
Hiroyuki Tanaka
Produced byMasayuki Miyashita
Kenichiro Zaizen
Masao Maruyama
Written byMasashi Ikeda (eps 1-2)
Tatsuhiko Urahata (eps 3-4)
Music byKow Otani
Eikichi Yazawa (end theme)
StudioMadhouse
Licensed by
Released March 21, 1997 – March 27, 1998
Runtime40 minutes (each)
Episodes4

Plot

In the midst of a war between the families of Demitri Maximoff and Morrigan Aensland for control of the Demon World, alien invader Pyron arrives on Earth and plans to take it over by taking out those who stand a chance of stopping him, namely the Darkstalkers. Meanwhile, dhampir Donovan Baine seeks to rid himself of the cursed blood which runs through his veins.

Four of the original Darkstalkers, Anakaris, Rikuo, Sasquatch and Victor, were featured in the intro but not in the OVA's main storyline, apparently having been killed by Pyron in a flashback sequence shown in the beginning of the fourth episode.

Characters
See also: List of Darkstalkers characters
CharacterJapanese voice actorEnglish dubbing actor
Morrigan Aensland Rei SakumaKathleen Barr
Demitri Maximoff Akio ŌtsukaPaul Dobson
Donovan Unshō IshizukaAri Solomon
Felicia YukanaJanyse Jaud
Gallon (Jon Talbain) Fumihiko TachikiAlvin Sanders
Hannya (Bishamon) Masashi EbaraDon Brown/Michael Dobson
Phobos (Huitzil) Jūrōta KosugiWard Perry
Pyron Shinji OgawaDavid Kaye
Lei-Lei (Hsien-Ko) Yūko MiyamuraNicole Oliver
Lin-Lin (Mei-Ling) Maya OkamotoJane Perry
Anita Akiko YajimaAndrea Libman
Zabel Zarock (Lord Raptor) Kōichi YamaderaScott McNeil
Lei-Lei and Lin-Lin's mother Kumiko TakizawaKathleen Barr

Episodes
  1. "Return of the Darkstalkers"
  2. "Blood of the Darkstalkers, Power of the Darkstalkers"
  3. "Pyron Descending"
  4. "For Whom They Fight"

Production

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge is based on the Darkstalkers series of gothic-themed fighting games by Capcom. Characters were designed by Shūkō Murase and the animation was done by Asami Endo and Yoshinori Kanada. The ending theme for the series, "Trouble Man" by Eikichi Yazawa, was also used as the opening theme in the Japanese home port of the video game Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors.

Release

By the time the first episode of the series was released in Japan, Viz Media had secured the U.S. rights and announced plans to release the series later in 1997.[2] Despite this, Toshifumi Yoshida and Trish Ledoux did not produce an English-dubbed version until 1999. The series was released on VHS, DVD and UMD in 2000. The North American anime company Media Blasters distributed it via rental kiosks in 2010.[3] The series was re-released on DVD in 2012 by Madman Entertainment.[4] Discotek Media released a remastered version on DVD in both language versions in the fall of 2015.[5]

The original soundtrack CD for Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge: The Animated Series (B00004SPLQ) was released in the United States by Viz Music in 1998. The anime series' manga and drama CD adaptations of were published only in Japan.

Reception

Nigh Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge received good reviews in the Western game magazines, with scores including B+ from GameFan in America[6] and 4/5 from Consoles + in France.[7] Bryn Williams of Gamers' Republic too gave it a score of B+, praising its "superb" animation "with vivid colors and smooth motion,"[8] as well as "gorgeous" character designs.[9] Dave Halverson from the same magazine opined it was "the finest video game-based anime produced to date," citing animation quality, "spectacular" and "breathtaking" art and vibrant colors; the English dubbing, "while not perfect," was described as very good.[10]

Darkstalkers is featured in the 2009 book 500 Essential Anime Movies by Helen McCarthy. Richard Coombs of Blistered Thumbs ranked it as the seventh best video game cartoon in 2011.[11]

References
  1. "Anime: Nightwarriors, the Anime: Interview". Web.archive.org. 2001-03-05. Archived from the original on March 5, 2001. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  2. "Darkstalkers Anime Answers Call of the Bloodthirsty". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 95. Ziff Davis. June 1997. p. 22.
  3. "Media Blasters Launches Anime DVD/Blu-ray Kiosks - News". Anime News Network. 2010-10-14. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  4. "Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge". Madman.com.au. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  5. "VIDEO: Discotek Previews "IGPX," "Darkstalkers" "Lupin vs Conan," and "Iria" Releases - UPDATED". Crunchyroll. 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2015-08-25.
  6. "AnimeFan". GameFan. 6–2: 92–93. February 1998.
  7. "Vampire Hunter, the Animated Serie". Consoles +. 64: 50–51.
  8. "Gamers Republic - No. 03 (1998-08)(Millennum Publications)(US)". Archive.org. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
  9. Gamers' Republic issue 8 (July 1999), page 106.
  10. Dave, Halverson (June 1998). "Anime Republic". Gamers' Republic. 1.
  11. "The Top 10 BEST Video Game Cartoons - Blistered Thumbs". Web.archive.org. 2013-02-18. Archived from the original on February 18, 2013. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
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