Photos courtesy of IMDB.com
Darkstalkers animated debacle stains the sterling Vampire name
This needs to be said immediately: I love the Vampire/Darkstalkers series. I fell in love with the fighting games about the time that Vampire Savior was released, and I learned to love the other games in the series for what they are. I’m the Vampire fan that plays with Morrigan no matter what game she’s in. We also have shown a lot of love at GI for the series in Issue 46, which was dedicated to the series. So, know that there is massive love for the series in our hallowed home for the freaks and monsters of the night despite Capcom’s neglect. But we must take a harsh tone with one property associated with the series: The USA Network Animated Series.
This series is a stain on the Darkforce of Vampire. From the opening episode’s explanation of the Darkstalkers through the gathering of the Darkstalkers, everything is terrible. It’s as if someone with limited knowledge of the series said here’s a sheet with the characters, figure it out.
The darker characters are headed by the alien entity Pyron (the boss of the first and remake/second game), and he makes it a point to find Demitri, subjugate him and task him with finding other like-minded creatures whether they want to join him or not. Some of the intended targets like Jon Talbain, Rikuo, Victor, Sasquatch and Felicia manage to get away. Others like Anakaris, Lord Raptor and Bishamon willingly join. This brings us to our first problem. None of this happens in the game lore. Demitri and Morrigan are rivals, yes, but no one joins Pyron in his quest to conquer Earth. The story and its random elements do not gel well even if it weren’t based on the game, but with the game lore it’s a no go.
The second issue – and the most glaring – is the animation. By Grimoire’s beard, it is the worst I’ve seen in a long time. Sister animated series Street Fighter had problems also, but that looks like a modern Sistine Chapel compared to this. The animation is wonky everywhere, but it is particularly noticeable in individual character sprites. Morrigan, already piled on for reusing a sprite from 1994, looks the most egregiously drawn. Based on this alone, the show was a nonstarter. There are sporadic moments of decent animation but then Morrigan’s face shows up again and it’s terrible.
The saving grace of the show is the voice acting. It’s good and works well with the characters despite all the characters undergoing a personality change from the games. Five actors from the SF animated series are also featured here, and they do decent work with what they have.
Darkstalkers’ animated series does absolutely nothing to enhance the reputation of the series. It almost would be helpful to pretend it doesn’t exist and only acknowledge the Night Warriors OVA (Editor’s note: See the Property Review of Issue 46). This is not worth the time and the struggle to make it through bad lore revision and horrible animation.
HOW WE GRADE
We score the properties in three categories: Casting (or voice acting in cases of animated), plot and similarities to its source material. Each category receives points out of the maximum of 10 per category and 30 overall. The percentage is the final score.
Like the games: 1
Voice Acting: 8
Animation: 0
Total: 9/30 or 3.0
