Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge Anime Review

Quick Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-06-15 (updated 2010-09-27)
• 2.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge is yet another fighting video game turned anime. It has something of a classic ultraviolent anime feel to it, and the majority of the series is composed of very bad people meeting bad ends at the hands of not-quite-as-bad people. All the badness is largely an excuse for fighting, but it does work in some worthwhile story about prejudice and persecution surrounding the handful of characters who're trying to do good in the face of overwhelming darkness. The plot devolves into metaphysical sci-fi chaos at the end, but even before that it's jumpy and uncoordinated. Then again, that's common when you're squeezing in a heap of game characters for obligatory face time, and it is, after all, an action series. On that end, it's an attractive gothic series except for the battles--they're so faithful to the 2D button-masher it's based on that most of the fights look rather silly.

Night Warriors is no masterpiece, but it is a decent dark action series. Fans of the video game should find all their favorites even if the action is often a little too faithful, and if you want violent action with plenty of evil to go around, it's a solid piece of anime.

Read the full-length review...

Full Review

• Reviewer: Marc
• Review Date: 2006-06-15 (updated 2010-09-27)
• 2.5 stars out of 5 (?)

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge is yet another fighting video game turned anime. This particular one isn't bad, and has the general feel of old, ultraviolent classics like Fist of the North Star. It's not full-on splatterfest, but there is plenty of gore, and the majority of the series consists of bad people meeting bad ends.

One thing I was a little put off by is that almost everybody in Night Warriors is bad. Some of the Darkstalkers are really bad, most of the humans are pretty bad too, and the big, bad man from outer space is really, really bad. There are a few good guys, but they paint such a bleak picture of the world that you wonder if anybody's even worth saving.

To be fair, all the misery is sort of the point, as the story offers an unusual take on the theme of prejudice and suspicion. Most of the humans hate the powerful Darkstalkers because they are different, most of the Darkstalkers hate the humans for rejecting them, and only a few can see beyond the differences, lead by a man who is not entirely of either world. The series is at its best, dramatically speaking, when it addresses paranoid rejection or focuses on the few characters who try their hardest to be kind despite the prejudice.

The rest of the time, all the badness just seems like an excuse for a lot of fighting, which is why Night Warriors doesn't end up breaking with its genre despite squeezing in some depth between brawls. The story is often jumpy and random, partly from the old pitfall of trying to cram a gameful of characters into a short OAV series. Since they can't very well have the main characters offing each other, the Huitzil robots keep showing up en masse to give them something to tear apart.

Ignoring the folks who're only around for obligatory face time and a few punches (a few of the sillier ones thankfully get pretty much stiffed), the characters and their development are divided into two basic camps: There are Darkstalkers who are trying their best to be accepted and help folks despite the prejudice toward them (Felicia) and people on a personal quest trying to come to grips with themselves (Anita and Donovan, as well as the ghost sisters). Well, there's also the malevolent duo of Morrigan and Demitri, but they don't do much other than scheme and look cool.

Felicia is a reasonably sympathetic character, and the wandering duo of Donovan and Anita actually seem to have something resembling plot following them around. Though Donovan sounds like he's trying a little too hard to be deep, I must admit that the unlikely pair have unusual and at times very effective chemistry going. These three serve up some surprisingly good dramatic moments, in particular a powerful, albeit short, scene at the end of the third episode.

The series builds some momentum as it goes along, so I was optimistic going into the last episode, but the plot goes haywire at the very end. A weird blend of heavy-handed sci-fi, metaphysical rambling, sword surfing (?!), and who knows what else completely breaks with the fighting game theme, jettisons the worthwhile drama, and doesn't make much sense on top of it. Disappointing on multiple levels, and entirely unsatisfying.

Visually, Night Warriors offers plenty of moody backgrounds and cool-looking gothic locales, in keeping with the grim theme. The character designs are sharp, varied, and a little out of the ordinary--this is often a strength of fighting game-spawned anime. Anita is my favorite; her face is subtly expressive and much scarier than any of the big monsters.

As you'd expect, there's plenty of action, but sadly, the adaptation is a little too faithful; many of the fights look exactly like the game, which is to say spastic and kind of silly when put beside the rest of the more realistic animation. Cool, anime-ized adaptations of classic 2D fighting game showdowns are usually a highlight of this sort of series, but here several scenes might as well have been replaced by sprites from the game. Other than that (and it's a huge "that"), the action is fine.

Much of the dialogue is intentionally wordy and archaic-sounding, but the acting itself is solid in both English and Japanese. One strike against the dub is that the script is identical to the subtitles; the stilted dialogue reads better than it sounds when spoken. I like the Japanese casting (loaded with big names) even if it is more or less formula, and the English casting matches up well. I do think Ari Solomon sounds a tad old as Donovan in English; I much prefer Unshou Ishizuka's subdued, menacing baritone in the Japanese. The standout Japanese performance, however, is the versatile Akiko Yajima as Anita. She's believable for her age, her hurt but slightly scary (not scared--scary) tone is seriously unsettling, and what few lines she has are acted effectively. The aforementioned short scene at the end of episode three is particularly good, though she's a little less interesting at the very end.

The music isn't terribly noteworthy, but is appropriately dark and gothic sounding. I'm sure fans of heavy metal will enjoy "The Trouble Man," the end theme. (It was originally recorded in English despite being by a Japanese group, in case you were wondering.)

Overall, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge is no masterpiece, but it is a decent dark action series. Fans of the video game should find their favorite characters, and all the moves look just like they're supposed to--often too much. For some violent action and plenty of evil to go around, Night Warriors is a solid piece of anime.

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