#Dark and light taming darkstalker series#

This being a fighting series, it should come as no surprise that the main attention of the show, and thus the art and animation, is on the fights. Not only are all characters very different in basic design, but many of them sport different styles of drawing and animation, again following the differences in style from the games closely. Not only do they move fluently and have a wide range of facial expressions, they all follow the designs from the game very nicely. The characters are all very well animated. Brighter colours are generally more subdued, with the occasional dashing reds if the situation warrants it. The setting in general shows quite a few distinct locales, and the colorisation is very good: as could be guessed, use is made mostly of the darker colours of the palette, with much of the story taking place under a darkened sky or in the shadows. Like in most OVA's of the time, backgrounds range from quite good to simply gorgeous, often giving the impression as if they were hand-drawn. Now, the art is without a doubt the high point of this OVA. What makes the characters all far more interesting is the way they are portrayed. Characterisation itself is based heavily on the snippets of information given in the games, making the characters have somewhat distinct (even if largely clichéd) personalities, and having them act on these. Running for 4 episodes with a total length of about 160 minutes, Vampire Hunter seems to have found the ideal length for its approach: each of the characters is given a fair amount of time to be introduced and play his or her plot line, while none of them are given too much screen time. Vampire Hunter, on the contrary, picks up about half a dozen of the characters, and expanding a bit on the background of each of these. Most anime based on fighting games opt to pick one main hero and one main villain and have them duke it out, with all the other characters dropping in for a cameo at one time or another to please the fans, leaving the uninitiated utterly confused as to who this or that new guy that never reappears was. On the other hand, the presentation of the characters themselves is not half bad. This in effect means that the story becomes a garbled mess, with many a character running around seemingly without a purpose.

In the meanwhile, a few other characters from the game appear with their own back stories, which are touched upon and sometimes played out for a bit, but these stories are only very loosely, if at all, tied to the greater plot.

#Dark and light taming darkstalker series#

Moreover, the plot takes itself far too seriously for something based on what is in fact a somewhat goofy, over-the-top series of fighting games, resulting in overly dramatic scenes tied to a plot that is paper thin and clichéd at best. Or, to put it even more simplistic, it boils down to 'Hero battles Villain'. As could be guessed, this someone of course shows up, in the guise of a man tormented by his being half human, half Darkstalker (Donovan).

By and large the main plot consists of a human world that has been ruled for some time now by monsters and creatures of legend called Darkstalkers (mainly Demitri Maximoff, for those who know the games) having evolved too much, giving rise to an invasion of robots (Huitzil/Phobos) that are programmed to wipe out advanced civilisation, while at the same time some universal overlord (Pyron) descends on the world to find someone who is strong enough to oppose him.

It seems to be targeted, as most such anime are, to fans of the original game, and, as such, seems to take it for granted that the public has some knowledge about the characters, their backgrounds, and the overall back story.Īs I'm not an aficionado of the games myself, having played them only every now and again, it's somewhat difficult for me to say whether or not the anime really ties into the games, so this review will mainly focusĪs might be expected from an anime based on a fighting game, the story is the weakest point. Vampire Hunter is the animated version of the 2D fighting game by Capcom of the same name, perhaps better known as Night Warriors: Darkstalker's Revenge.