The Warriors of the night come out to play!
A vampire sits on his throne, biding his time as he waits for his power to return. A succubus princess
searches for excitement amongst the mortals in the human world. An undead rock star takes to the
stage, even as robed figures clutching holy symbols fill the stands.
Though different in nature, these beings all have one thing in common: they are the Darkstalkers,
creatures of legends once thought to be only myth, but now are all too real! In this world, the Earth
we know is merging with the world of demons, and the Darkstalkers have come out to play. But an alien
force is returning to Earth, just as the fighting is about to heat up.
(Source: Discotek)
Oh boy, where to begin. Let's start by saying this: I wasn't expecting this 4-episode OVA to be a masterpiece. I mean, look at most videogame adaptations, just mere publicity stunts to sell us merchandise or promote new material. There's always the occasional diamond in the rough, or even some adaptations that may even only appeal to long-term fans. But these OVAs are not even that kind of fanservice. It's pretty safe to say that not a single person in the studio tried to understand the source, why their fans love it, what makes the game tick and the universe profitable. And I assure you, it's not me being all _old man yells at cloud_ about it. There's definitely something off here, way off. I'll try to pinpoint what's wrong with Vampire Warrior or whatever it's called in your country. ___ __1: The Plot__ In a game about monsters beating the hell out of each other, with amazing over the top (and even cartoonish) animations, these OVAs chose to orbit mostly around some random HUMANS. Simple, common humans. A sage, a war general, a butler, some townsfolk, everyone gets their dialog lines. All the main franchise characters don't get to explain their motivations, or what are they doing besides trying not to be killed. Let me repeat that so it's completely clear: it's neither about the monsters, nor _some human that's relevant to the Darkstalkers universe_. This is about humanity itself and its impending doom, because apparently those pesky monsters are trying to annihilate everyone around. And that somehow should matter to the spectator... I guess? I think that the studio tried so hard to tie every single character in a single plotline. Problem is... how do you make sense out of _werewolf fighting furry catgirl and vampire vs cursed samurai armor_? How do you draw a cohesive line that connects all these strange characters together? Their solution to this problem was this: there's monsters. Monsters and humans don't mix. There's mostly bad monsters but also good monsters. Bad monsters are bad and try to eradicate humans. Good monsters then try to stop it. So, then again, humans are key to the whole plot. Did I expect, when watching a Darkstalkers OVA series, to watch 10-minute long conversations between absolutely irrelevant humans? Well, of course I did, because that's what the games were all about! ___ __2: The Animation__ While the animation doesn't _suck_, it's kinda bland and generic-looking. These OVAs take themselves way too seriously, making some stylistic changes that don't seem to work that well. They made everything too dark and grim, where the original material had tons of humor and self-awareness galore. And bright colors, goddamn, just look at the original art direction, the contrast, the palette choices, anything. And there is a yet another annoying thing about it, tho. Maybe the animators were way too eager to show us that they could replicate the characters' signature moves, you know, the _hadoukens_ and _kamehamehas_ of this franchise, but they spent so much time animating EVERY. SINGLE. MOVESET. of EVERY. CHARACTER. in EVERY. SINGLE. FIGHT. And then, it also fails to do so. Pixel art doesn't translate perfectly or easily to traditional animation, and in result everything looks overly stiff and choreographed. I mean, it's fanservice. But I feel it's _bad_ fanservice, the one that tries to push all the right buttons as fast as posible and be over with it. I felt like I was being milked while watching this. The occasional signature move or reference would have been a great thing, don't get me wrong, but this felt disingenuous. ___ __Conclusion__ Watch this one if you want to know how _not_ to adapt a videogame to an animation series. Long gone are the quirk and charm of the source material, the original vision and design, and any reason to possibly love these OVAs and the Darkstalkers games at the same time. But... maybe that's the marketing strategy? It really makes you miss the original games so much you end up buying more of their stuff. As you read this last line, I may or may not have bought their last compilation game, Darkstalkers Resurrection, on my PS3.