Darkstalker has quite a bit of backstory, but the whole thing of the first game is just "flaming alien god drags supernatural beings from earth to a tournament just for the hell of it"
When I hear Donovan bitch about how "Life is pain" and "I have darkness inside of me" and all that rubbish, I think about the Confessor from the Astro City comics. The Confessor was a priest turned vampire who decided to use his abilities for the betterment of mankind. When asked why he fights even though the world hates and fears him, he responds: Because they need me. No angst. No sadness. No doubt. He fights for mankind because they need him. Not for glory. Not to fight against his dark urges, but because they need him. Writers... take note from that.
Characters who are half human half monster/demon are certainly one of the toughest kinds of characters to write (or at least for me), as bad writing can lead to two problematic directions. First is that the character becomes a unsympathetic and selfish whiner, like Donovan demonstrates. The second "problem path" is that, unless you can established some really good reason(s) why it doesn't, the story can negatively trivialize the effect of being half monster would have on the character (like having no drawbacks to it, like a half vampire who can smell blood without going into a feeding frenzy) and their relationship to others (no "normals" ostracize the character for being part monster out of fear and no "pureblooded" monsters treat him/her as inferior for being part human). In the story that I'm working on, my secondary protagonist is a human and monster hybrid who I plan to take him in the direction like the Confessor; going about helping others and striving to better the world even when they give him shit for being who he is. I do intend to put in some angst about his nature, though mostly when he is growing up (especially during the teen years) or when his nature dose actually get the better of him and somebody is extremely hurt or dies as a result (not like in the "there is a darkness inside of me that is constantly trying to escape" but more of a situational kind of thing like "Oh god! she is bleeding and . . . and . . . it smells so good (*a sudden and ravenous hunger yawns to life inside of him*) . . . oh shit."). Though he has a whole life to learn how to deal with it and keep up a relatively cheery face the problems and prejudice. That and he has the protagonist (his adoptive mother) there to either comfort him or slap sense back into him. Sorry for the length of this comment.
***** Thanks. I'm glad that you found the explanation good, though I'll admit that issue of non-existing angst, while I harped on it more, dose not show up as much as the excessive angst issue and it is the easiest of the two to avoid (though whether it is still important issue to talk about it and which the two issues is worse to commit in a story, is a matter can still be up for debate). As for the story, yes it is a book (potentially a series of them) that I'm working on, as the focus of a project that I began a decade ago: write a fantasy "epic". I'm glad hear that just the stuff concerning the deuteragonist sounds interesting to you, but unfortunately the book has a long way to go just to finish the first draft (damn writers block, procrastination, idea changes and perfectionism). Fortunately I'm still young (23) so I can take my time with it, though whether it will end up as a good story or bad one remains to be seen.
Honestly, I didn't have any problem with Donovan... or the OVA itself . I just don't see the point in harping on him : a rambling dhampire can be ...just that ! Besides , it's based on a video game so it is actually nice considering the source . I didn't find Donovan that bad honestly ( and bear in mind I went Tabula Rasa on the whole OVA), he rambles a lot ? Sure . Not that original ? Yes, he 's kind of stock (then again VG character !). But he simply isn't deserving of a cringeworthy rant like Sage does here or the hatred that gets thrown at him. Plus, objectively speaking , he gets shit done and helps a kid... so I can indulge his bargain bin ranting.
Pyron's motivations are actually pretty simple. He collects planets like marbles, keeps them in an alternate dimension inside himself. But when he gets to Earth and sees how the beings there are able to become stronger the more they battle, he remembers his own mortal origins and his desire for battle comes back. Basically, the reason he didn't just outright swallow Earth and took a form vulnerable to harm is because he wanted to have a fight with a worthy opponent before collecting the world.
***** Not that fighting is logical per say. He was once mortal. Through battle he became a god and started collecting planets. Seeing the warriors of Earth reminded him of a feeling he'd forgotten. That rush you get from the challenge.
Badly written or not, David Kaye was a perfect choice for the voice of Pyron. Whether he's Armada Megatron, Treize Khushrenada, Animated Optimus Prime, Professor X, OR Beast Wars/Beast Machines Megatron, Mr. Kaye's voice is always a welcomed pleasantry for the ears. And he can make any moment funny, scary, brilliant, or intriguing depending on the lines he's given and he can OWN every single one of them. Truly an actor deserving of such tremendous admiration. Yessss....
He voiced Lord Raptor in this OVA too. Legend has it that his voice for Raptor in the cartoon was so beloved by the staff and fans (almost certainly a bright spot in a below average series) to the point that he was asked to play the role of Raptor when the OVA was being dubbed on the strength of the previous performance of the character. He does great for sure. His performance in the OVA is so good, I almost feel like a Raptor Felicia and Talbain centered OVA would've made for an even better OVA than what we got, but alas they are all not really the center stage here...
Donovan wasn't introduced until the 2nd game and cut from the 3rd. But he's the most human of the playable cast, so I figure that's why they centered the story on him.
bulliwyf If only they made him into a fatherly/mystic character with a proactive inquisitive attitude, this would have been so much better. Basically, a middle-aged Vash the Stampede
He was in the third but different versions, most notably in the vampire collection on ps2, there was a secret version of vampire 3 and it’s “upgrades” had featured a version of Donovan that gave in to his vampire side (he’s a Dhampire, or half vampire) in accordance his original ending in Darkstalkers revenge, when completing one of secret versions as this, it’s implied Anita put him to rest, ending his suffering
Why wasn’t raptor the protagonist of this? Seriously scott McNeil is so goddamn entertaining as a voice actor (his piccolo will never be topped!). Seriously he needs some more protagonist roles.
Ok, I spit my coffee in laughter with the sandwhich scene. Thank you Sage, for giving me the experience of having hot coffee with sugar and 10% cream come out of my nose on a friday morning.
You know, I had this idea for changes in this OVA, where it was not just focusing on Dovavan going after Pyron but all the other Darkstalkers going after Pyron, like maybe Pyron can issue a challenge at a nearby town where if anyone can destroy him, he'll give up his invasion on Earth, they can still have Felicia & Raptor fighting back the hunters at the concert but after they take them down but they hear Pyron's announcement on the news and decide to work together to destroy Pyron in order to become famous for saving the world then in the second part as they're about to leave they detect some magic from a nearby movie prop storage house where they come across Victor who, was the original Frankenstein Monster that was abandoned after the Doctor was executed and the tales of his experiment was adapted into the Frankenstein we know today with Victor being found years later and used as a Frankenstein movie prop for years until a shock from a lightning storm one night brought him back to life, joins Felicia & Raptor to go destroy it for fame but it turns out in the beginning of the third part Felicia & Victor finds out that Raptor plans on letting the two of them do the hard stuff, and when the both of them are killed & Pyron is weakened, Raptor would kill him and take all the credit, and after telling him off and calling him a weakling, Raptor releases that he is strong enough to take on his own, and kicks both Felicia & Victor out of his cadillac convertible and leaves them in the desert, then you can still have Jon Taliban rescuing them and nursing them back to health, only there's also Rikuo, Sasquatch, & Anakaris, where the three of them are apart of another subplot in the OVA where in the first part Sasquatch defends his village and a washed up Rikuo from an army of Huitzil who both decide to team up to go fight Pyron when he made his announcement cause Rikuo's people were wiped out by the Huitzil as well and heads out to fight them, and in the second part they meet up with Anakaris who gives the two a sneak attack but end up joining the two when Rikuo saves both Anakaris from a bunch of hunters, but is still only wanting to only try to restore his kingdom even though it's been dead for millions of years, and it turns out they got met up with Jon Taliban because the three of them were passed out during the long hike and were picked up by Jon Taliban anyway you can still have all 6 of them trying to stop the train bomb from detonating, where if the bombs stop they blow up, while an army of Huitzil attack them as they drive down in Jon's old Model A car, but Sasquatch sees a fox cub on the tracks and tries to stop the train to guarding it with his strength and icing the tracks and it works till the bomb blows with the fox cub being safe and Sasquatch sacrificing himself, and the five of them going to fight Pyron and the fourth part begins with Raptor showing up to Pyron's location to fight him (at a little later when Raptor kicked Felicia & Victor to the curb) and puts up a good fight but still easily gets destroyed, then as everyone is getting together with the five gang and Donavan & Hsien-Ho showing up as well (where their plot is the same as this version along with Dmitri's & Morrigan's) with Donavan fighting the other Darkstalkers group cause he thinks they're here to destroy, only with Pyron interrupting the fight the fight to accept the challengers for the day, Dmitri has his fight with Pyron like in the original, and after the fight Anakaris gets pissed off that he's a not just a pharaoh he's a warrior and goes wailing on Pyron but doesn't do much getting him killed, then as Pyron is taking a rest, Victor sneaks up behind him and tries to blow Pyron up with Victor's electrical powers mixed Rikuo shooting Water on Pyron creates Hydrogen & Oxygen and since Pyron is made of fire it would end in a big blast, but it doesn't work ending up killing Victor, and then the same thing happens with Donavan fighting Pyron, but Pyron sends down a whole army of Huitzil to attack, and as Felicia & Taliban are trying their damn hardest to fight them, Donavan realize that the world needs to have a balance between Light & Darkness to exist in harmony, and this gives Donavan to go Super Powered and is able to destroy Pyron in a big blast, and that amount of energy also restored all the creatures that were killed by Pyron, even the Darkstalkers that were killed, and the OVA ends with then seeing over a sunrise over a cliff, and the end credits sequence for the fourth part having an epilogue of what the Darkstalkers are doing now based off the endings from the games all with the same balance of dark comedy and drama like what the games are supposed to be like do you think that would've been better?
Hey, Bennett, concerning Morrigan's accent, you forgot to take something into account... Both versions shown at 4:53, and 5:05, were voiced by the same actress, both times... Kathleen Barr. She did the second one first, and then later, voiced Morrigan in the anime. I always just figured that she downplayed the accent a bit, to make her sound more regal, and less like an ornery witch. I'm pretty sure you can actually make out that she does have a Scottish accent in the anime, but, it's week and hard to notice. Perhaps they though that a strong accent would be two hard for some to understand. I know British accents have been known to throw me for a loop, once in a while.
I'm Scottish but I don't have a strong accent (it's usually only other Scottish people who can spot it) thanks to being encouraged to speak "proper" English from an early age.
@@RichardWatt Here's something funny: when watching DOCTOR WHO, I had an easier time understanding the 12th Doctor's Scottish accent (I forget which part Peter Capaldi hails from) than the 13th Doctor's Yorkshire accent.
What would of worked (at least in my opinion) is have an OC travel around the whole dark stalkers world and meet up with the characters, probably have him traveling along with Morrigan, and have them try to stop this big evil threat to them. (Main villain can differ depending on which game they base it after
Lord Raptor is AUSTRALIAN NOT BRITISH, there IS a difference!! Also, ironic that Scott McNeil, a Australian-Canadian voice actor voiced him. Also, please review the Tekken animated movie.
Darkstalkers suffers from the same illness that has affected anime and manga from always... they want to be deep in morals and whatnot, but they end up doing kindergarden philosophy, and it's the same emo shit over and over again. Instead of focusing on the plot, they end up messing up everything.
Wait, where have I heard Dmitri's backstory before? "IT IS NOT BY MY OWN HAND THAT I AM ONCE AGAIN GIVEN FLESH. I WAS CALLED HERE BY... *HUMANS* WHO WISHED TO PAY *ME* TRIBUTE." Oh...
I've read it 4 times and I didn't grow up with this story. So don't try use some excuse like I'm blinded by nostalgia or that I'm some fanboy either. When adapting a story like the Hobbit I understand that there's going to be changes, but at the very least the changes need to make sense and be worth a damn. SPOILERS The painfully forced love interest sub-plot was entirely pointless and led to an even more WORTHLESS ending of Tauriel crying about how love hurts. The battle scene was rushed, horribly paced, and un-focused. The movie had the opportunity to expand on the battle scenes that were only touched upon in the book and have moments of triumph like Thorin and the other dwarves adorned in their suits of armor leaping into the battle. There was none of that in this film. I really enjoyed the first Hobbit film showed a lot of potential and filled me with hope that things were looking bright (another good trilogy), but the second film made me start to question the decisions of the screenwriters. I went into the 3rd Hobbit film with low expectations (to avoid disappointment) and literally with my fingers crossed only asking that the trilogy end on a good note, but it turned out to be the worst of them all. What I saw was a tired, rushed film that didn't have any heart. Yes, the acting was good, but not even the great Sir Ian McKellan could save this film. I wanted to like the Hobbit trilogy, but the product they presented was overall VERY disappointing.
ninjawraith17 What, are you saying the movies would've been better if they had those ENDLESS scenes in Murkwood where it's nothing but the Dwarves moaning and whining and complaining endlessly?
28:29 But Sage, I really don't think you understand. You see Donovan can never find peace because he has a darkness within him. A darkness born of his tainted blood. The humans will never accept him because half of his blood is the blood of the dark ones. It is truly dark how dark his blood is. He must wage a never-ending battle against his darkness, but he is destined to lose to the darkness, because darkness is a totality. Darkness is infinite. Eventually the darkness always wins because of his darkly dark blood. Darkness.
Seriously, Morrigan and Lillith should have been the main characters, then you've got a fine package of interesting moves, potentially interesting characters/ chemistry/ lesb... COUGH and of course - fanservice.
Why even have set main characters? Take advantage of the episodic format to move from a character or a pair of characters to the next, giving each an episode as they go through their own small arc. Gets all the characters a little show time, gives the writers time to figure out what stories work best (how serious, how humorous) without having to hamfist a larger plot - and learn which characters are the most popular or interact well and would work for a potential larger story - and avoids the whole mess that it actually became. It's especially frustrating because that's almost what they actually did, with how the story keeps jumping around. They just didn't commit to that and instead tried to tack on smaller stories to a large, confusing plot with a main character without much real depth beyond declaring himself complex.
Instead of being an OVA, why couldn't they make an anime of Darkstalkers with each episode being different & centering around the character(s) of the week. After all, each character has chapters & their own perspectives of the story/fight: B.B. Hood is a young bounty hunter wants to hunt down the Darkstalkers (mainly Talbain because she thinks he is the werewolf that killed her grandmother) Rikuo is searching for more of his kind to save, while also protecting his family & kingdom John Talbain wants to regain his humanity, but is still shunned due his backstory Felicia doesn't want to fight, but has no choice but to do so, to save humans & hopefully gain their trust Morrigan and Dimitri have a long family rivalry for centuries, and neither side has won Lilith is a missing half of Morrigan, but enjoys being her own identity, she didn't want to disappear from existence if fused with Morrigan Hsien-Ko and her sister want to avenge their mother And ect.
Agreed. You could have episodic focuses on each of the characters from the game, be it origin stories or vignettes in their lives, and still tie into the overall tapestry of the main arc and their place in it. And adapt the arcs from the games: the Pyron arc, the Jedah arc (would be great to FINALLY see this adapted properly somewhere), and if it’s successful enough to get Capcom to make a new game, any future game arcs.
Donovan isn't even the main character of the games, that's technically Demitri, as the series' original name in Japanese is "Vampire". Maximoff being the only one of that race in the first game, and its canonical ending according to CAPCOM is Demitri defeating and absorbing Pyron. Donovan doesn't even figure in the plot of the third game. Morrigan, Lilith and Jedah do. Donovan really has no relevance to the overarching plot of any of the games and its Bosses. And if Demitri is Darkstalker's Ryu, Morrigan is like his Ken or Akuma. Pyron would be Sagat or Bison. Donovan is... Dhalsim? Not even a Guile, Chun-Li or Cammy who actually have relevance in the story despite not being the main protagonists. I'd argue even T-Hawk has more importance to Street Fighter's plot than Baine has for Darkstalkers.
Oh my god...I just realized that Dimitri is voiced by the same guy who does the voice of Captain Gabriel Angelos and Eliphas the Inheritor from Dawn of War.
As a fan of the series and to just see how each character was butchered, I found out an interesting way to look at Capcom as a company Being open to license brands, characters etc (why do you think there are so many vs Capcom titles or Capcom guest characters in video games) But whoring out a license isn't the way to go with everything either, otherwise potential is wasted Here's my opinion on what the show did wrong MAJORLY 1st up, the franchise would be better off as an anime, if it has to be a cartoon, maybe one of those cartoons meant for teens rather than kids, the atmosphere of the franchise would fit that audience better and actually make each character more close to their video game personality counterparts 2-A LOT of the characters at the end of the day are sterotypes if you think about it, some of the way they approach things along with the accents and attitudes 3-First up is that NONE of these "villan" characters should be "minions" of pyron, EVERY character was after pyron to acheive something, whether it be finding something out or getting power 4-BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT SOME OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM THE GAME WERE RUINED-Rikuo was basically turned into a lizard man version of vega, only more out of character (Rikuo is supposed to be a ruler of the oceans who wants to find out the origins of his past and possibly reunite with more of his "fish kind" and often HATES "land dwelers" or "air breathers" Morrigan is supposed to be playful (by playful I mean not take anything seriously while making witty banter) and she's also supposed to come off as vicious, the funny thing is is that she's not even a villain, she;s more so a mercenary that utilizes dark magic and often is up to mischief (she's supposed to be a troublemaker kind of character with part of her personality) Lastly-Is Huitzil is just barely even around, let alone actually grabs any time on screen, he's just there to be there Don't get me wrong, every character is butchered, but I don't want to type the whole night Either way, this was wasted potential and felt like it capcom took a dump at a meeting and this was the turd chunk that came out
@Audrion Irks She (according to lore) is supposed to be a viscious/seductive succubus, I get this is supposed to be a kids show, but I think if she had a Poison Ivy kind of attitude she would've been better, its wouldn't have been the first time a kids show had some adult esque/oriented characters in subtle ways
The reason why Darkstalkers focuses on Donovan because in the Japanese version it's called Vampire and in later installments of the game we see that indeed the story does focuses on him, rather than Demitri or Morrigan because they're the bad guys
5:56 Does Lord Raptor have the special power of being able to play an electric guitar at full volume without the aid of an amplifier? Because I didn't see a lead hooked into that guitar.
"The blood that sprays forth from violated flesh". That actually sounds like something Rob Zombie would write. Also, 11:04-11:18: You're under arrest for contemplating murder. ... THIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny thing is in the games continuity ( yeah i know) it's heavily implied by the final game that Donovan actually succumbed to the darkness and Anita had to kill him. Knowing that makes the anime's ending all the more pointless.
It's 3 days until the four year anniversary of this episode being posted. It was my first ever Anime Abandon episode, and it is still my favorite one. I own the dvds to this OVA, and I also own the comic adaptation that came out years later of it, too. The comic is leagues better than the OVA. Less Donovan, better explanations for things, better character set-ups, etc. They even made the ending where Morrigan, Dmitri, and Donovan converge to stop Pyron. The only downside is that there's no Lord Raptor. If you like Darkstalkers, go read the comic. You can find both volumes on amazon. If you want to torture your friends on a bad movie night, you can also find the OVA on amazon. Long live terrible anime, for as long as it lives, we will always have Anime Abandon.
25:25 LOL, ok, I wasn't expecting that face to appear, man that was hilarious. XD It's like... (ok serious fight to the death-time...) "DERP!!!!" HAHAHAHAHA~!
Kinda late to the party here, but this anime did have one good thing going for it: the soundtrack of Kow Otani. As for the show, Dark Stalkers would have worked better as an Anthology series, telling the tale of each of the Darkstalkers with each episode, instead of this disjointed mess. It would also probably have raised less questions, like how there are medieval villages when there are also rock concerts being held. Speaking of concerts, I would have loved to see the story of how Lord Raptor came to be. He does one of the most metal things in the history of metal and that's just his backstory.
Jurassic Reptile They were the characters I'd actually heard about before watching this review. Felicia in particular I was seeing fanart of all over the place.
The converging thing could have been. "That's like if the power rangers only way to defeat the monster was to form the megazord but Jason jumped up and stabbed it dead"
God I remember this. Never watched the OVA, but I sure as hell remember the ad for it on the back of one of my viz pokemon comic books (not Manga, literal american style comic books).
I still would love to see a new Darkstalkers OVA or animated movie in my opinion, give it to the right writers, animators and voice actors and that would be badass and unique my opinion.
4:24 "If there is a more popular character with fans who have never played the source material, then I do not know it." ....Renamon from Digimon. Krystal from Star Fox. Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. I could go on.
Watching this every time after the first viewing, everytime it comes to the part where the girl is about to cry I tense up in anticipation. The music builds and you know its coming, the horrible noise.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought this Anime sucked. At least in the campy, unpolished ass cartoon, there's more motivation, character, and fun to be found.
Actually, yeah, funny thing about Morrigan being accentless. It actually makes total sense. Her backstory explicitly states she's not even from anywhere in the human world, let alone Scotland. The "Scotland" thing is about as valid as the claim that Raptor was born in the 1800s. Also, trust me, Donovan is a much better-written character in the games. I'd also hardly say it's fair to call him "emo" when he has a legit reason to be the way he is, what with having to struggle to maintain his humanity and keep from permanently becoming a horrific murderous monster. Oh, and the canon pronounciation is in fact "syen-ko". A pronounciation that's actually used IN the very anime you're reviewing here. Everything else is wrong.
You are correct. The only time she's mentioned being Scottish comes from the first game's manual and that game was completely retconned by Darkstalkers Revenge. It was probably done to make the series become more than just Street Fighter with horror movie monsters.
I actually enjoyed watching SF the animated movie, but this one... I remember how pretentious the dialogue was. I remember that the story really never made any sense. I remember not getting any of it. Now, I realize that it was a truth I just never wanted to recognize...it was shyt.
I can't find the Spoof where there a Scott mcneal voice dub, where he says he really likes the house. I'm bit wondering what that anime is called as well.
"Fatal Fury - Double Impact" has already been reviewed. you can go to his site, he's already about five or six reviews past this. he just covered "Dark Cat" today.
Right after you gave that text for after making the sandwich, I thought "he's probably going to use the roar of the T-REX from Jurassic". After you bite on the sandwich, "IS I THE GEEBUS?!?!"
I don't know if anyone has pointed this out yet, but Pyron is voiced by David Kaye, AKA Beast Wars Megatron. Yessss...
Darkstalker has quite a bit of backstory, but the whole thing of the first game is just "flaming alien god drags supernatural beings from earth to a tournament just for the hell of it"
Donovan is the reason you don't hire a philosophy major to be your anime director 😴😴😴😴
When I hear Donovan bitch about how "Life is pain" and "I have darkness inside of me" and all that rubbish, I think about the Confessor from the Astro City comics. The Confessor was a priest turned vampire who decided to use his abilities for the betterment of mankind. When asked why he fights even though the world hates and fears him, he responds: Because they need me. No angst. No sadness. No doubt. He fights for mankind because they need him. Not for glory. Not to fight against his dark urges, but because they need him. Writers... take note from that.
Characters who are half human half monster/demon are certainly one of the toughest kinds of characters to write (or at least for me), as bad writing can lead to two problematic directions. First is that the character becomes a unsympathetic and selfish whiner, like Donovan demonstrates. The second "problem path" is that, unless you can established some really good reason(s) why it doesn't, the story can negatively trivialize the effect of being half monster would have on the character (like having no drawbacks to it, like a half vampire who can smell blood without going into a feeding frenzy) and their relationship to others (no "normals" ostracize the character for being part monster out of fear and no "pureblooded" monsters treat him/her as inferior for being part human).
In the story that I'm working on, my secondary protagonist is a human and monster hybrid who I plan to take him in the direction like the Confessor; going about helping others and striving to better the world even when they give him shit for being who he is. I do intend to put in some angst about his nature, though mostly when he is growing up (especially during the teen years) or when his nature dose actually get the better of him and somebody is extremely hurt or dies as a result (not like in the "there is a darkness inside of me that is constantly trying to escape" but more of a situational kind of thing like "Oh god! she is bleeding and . . . and . . . it smells so good (*a sudden and ravenous hunger yawns to life inside of him*) . . . oh shit."). Though he has a whole life to learn how to deal with it and keep up a relatively cheery face the problems and prejudice. That and he has the protagonist (his adoptive mother) there to either comfort him or slap sense back into him.
Sorry for the length of this comment.
It's cool. I'm a writer too. I understand the problem.
TS2dethmonkey That's a very good explanation on the subject. If this story is turning into a book, I would love to read it.
***** Thanks. I'm glad that you found the explanation good, though I'll admit that issue of non-existing angst, while I harped on it more, dose not show up as much as the excessive angst issue and it is the easiest of the two to avoid (though whether it is still important issue to talk about it and which the two issues is worse to commit in a story, is a matter can still be up for debate).
As for the story, yes it is a book (potentially a series of them) that I'm working on, as the focus of a project that I began a decade ago: write a fantasy "epic". I'm glad hear that just the stuff concerning the deuteragonist sounds interesting to you, but unfortunately the book has a long way to go just to finish the first draft (damn writers block, procrastination, idea changes and perfectionism). Fortunately I'm still young (23) so I can take my time with it, though whether it will end up as a good story or bad one remains to be seen.
Honestly, I didn't have any problem with Donovan... or the OVA itself . I just don't see the point in harping on him : a rambling dhampire can be ...just that ! Besides , it's based on a video game so it is actually nice considering the source . I didn't find Donovan that bad honestly ( and bear in mind I went Tabula Rasa on the whole OVA), he rambles a lot ? Sure . Not that original ? Yes, he 's kind of stock (then again VG character !). But he simply isn't deserving of a cringeworthy rant like Sage does here or the hatred that gets thrown at him. Plus, objectively speaking , he gets shit done and helps a kid... so I can indulge his bargain bin ranting.
Pyron's motivations are actually pretty simple.
He collects planets like marbles, keeps them in an alternate dimension inside himself.
But when he gets to Earth and sees how the beings there are able to become stronger the more they battle, he remembers his own mortal origins and his desire for battle comes back.
Basically, the reason he didn't just outright swallow Earth and took a form vulnerable to harm is because he wanted to have a fight with a worthy opponent before collecting the world.
So basically he's Brainiac from Superman who thinks fighting is just as logical? Fuck it! I'm down...
*****
Not that fighting is logical per say.
He was once mortal. Through battle he became a god and started collecting planets.
Seeing the warriors of Earth reminded him of a feeling he'd forgotten. That rush you get from the challenge.
......Of.....course?
horaciosi
Who are you replying to?
Banchoking To your explanation of Pyron's motivation. It's supposed to be a joke (the "Of Course!" meme)
Badly written or not, David Kaye was a perfect choice for the voice of Pyron. Whether he's Armada Megatron, Treize Khushrenada, Animated Optimus Prime, Professor X, OR Beast Wars/Beast Machines Megatron, Mr. Kaye's voice is always a welcomed pleasantry for the ears. And he can make any moment funny, scary, brilliant, or intriguing depending on the lines he's given and he can OWN every single one of them. Truly an actor deserving of such tremendous admiration. Yessss....
The voice cast was great and so was the animation but the story was plain out disjointed.
Agreed. Yessss....
Yeessss...
Kaizer Convoy
He also voiced Hardshell in Transformers Prime.
Kaizer Convoy and now voices Jedah in Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. The few VAs that seem to sound like they give a shit in that game
I think a way to make fighting game adoptions work is to make them over the top crazy instead of serious
I find it funny that Scott McNeal also voiced Lord Raptor in the crappy Darkstalkers cartoon.
and piccolo in ocean dub dbz
+Drixenol86 Scott McNeal is an Aussie national treasure, with roles like Raptor and Commander "Spehs Mehreens" Baldeale
+Drixenol86 lol ,,seriously its shocking tbh
+PooperScooper99 and one of the best wolverine in x men evolution.
He voiced Lord Raptor in this OVA too.
Legend has it that his voice for Raptor in the cartoon was so beloved by the staff and fans (almost certainly a bright spot in a below average series) to the point that he was asked to play the role of Raptor when the OVA was being dubbed on the strength of the previous performance of the character. He does great for sure.
His performance in the OVA is so good, I almost feel like a Raptor Felicia and Talbain centered OVA would've made for an even better OVA than what we got, but alas they are all not really the center stage here...
Donovan wasn't introduced until the 2nd game and cut from the 3rd.
But he's the most human of the playable cast, so I figure that's why they centered the story on him.
bulliwyf If only they made him into a fatherly/mystic character with a proactive inquisitive attitude, this would have been so much better. Basically, a middle-aged Vash the Stampede
He actually is from the third just in different versions of it like vampire savior
He was in the third but different versions, most notably in the vampire collection on ps2, there was a secret version of vampire 3 and it’s “upgrades” had featured a version of Donovan that gave in to his vampire side (he’s a Dhampire, or half vampire) in accordance his original ending in Darkstalkers revenge, when completing one of secret versions as this, it’s implied Anita put him to rest, ending his suffering
Why wasn’t raptor the protagonist of this? Seriously scott McNeil is so goddamn entertaining as a voice actor (his piccolo will never be topped!). Seriously he needs some more protagonist roles.
they must have liked him as Lord Raptor in that god awful "Darkstalkers" kiddie cartoon....well, he was the best thing about it.
Scott McNeil, that name sounds familiar. I want to say he was on BEAST WARS and at least 1 other Transformers series.
I like morrigain more because of her Japanese voice actress in a few of the games, Rie Tanaka is amazing
Am i Glad I read lord of the flies? No sage, no I am not.
Ok, I spit my coffee in laughter with the sandwhich scene. Thank you Sage, for giving me the experience of having hot coffee with sugar and 10% cream come out of my nose on a friday morning.
I never heard dark stalkers story till now and I love it immediately, a concept where universal horror movie monsters fight is awesome
You know, I had this idea for changes in this OVA,
where it was not just focusing on Dovavan going after Pyron but all the other Darkstalkers going after Pyron, like maybe Pyron can issue a challenge at a nearby town where if anyone can destroy him, he'll give up his invasion on Earth, they can still have Felicia & Raptor fighting back the hunters at the concert but after they take them down but they hear Pyron's announcement on the news and decide to work together to destroy Pyron in order to become famous for saving the world
then in the second part as they're about to leave they detect some magic from a nearby movie prop storage house where they come across Victor who, was the original Frankenstein Monster that was abandoned after the Doctor was executed and the tales of his experiment was adapted into the Frankenstein we know today with Victor being found years later and used as a Frankenstein movie prop for years until a shock from a lightning storm one night brought him back to life, joins Felicia & Raptor to go destroy it for fame
but it turns out in the beginning of the third part Felicia & Victor finds out that Raptor plans on letting the two of them do the hard stuff, and when the both of them are killed & Pyron is weakened, Raptor would kill him and take all the credit, and after telling him off and calling him a weakling, Raptor releases that he is strong enough to take on his own, and kicks both Felicia & Victor out of his cadillac convertible and leaves them in the desert, then you can still have Jon Taliban rescuing them and nursing them back to health, only there's also Rikuo, Sasquatch, & Anakaris, where the three of them are apart of another subplot in the OVA
where in the first part Sasquatch defends his village and a washed up Rikuo from an army of Huitzil who both decide to team up to go fight Pyron when he made his announcement cause Rikuo's people were wiped out by the Huitzil as well and heads out to fight them, and in the second part they meet up with Anakaris who gives the two a sneak attack but end up joining the two when Rikuo saves both Anakaris from a bunch of hunters, but is still only wanting to only try to restore his kingdom even though it's been dead for millions of years, and it turns out they got met up with Jon Taliban because the three of them were passed out during the long hike and were picked up by Jon Taliban
anyway you can still have all 6 of them trying to stop the train bomb from detonating, where if the bombs stop they blow up, while an army of Huitzil attack them as they drive down in Jon's old Model A car, but Sasquatch sees a fox cub on the tracks and tries to stop the train to guarding it with his strength and icing the tracks and it works till the bomb blows with the fox cub being safe and Sasquatch sacrificing himself, and the five of them going to fight Pyron
and the fourth part begins with Raptor showing up to Pyron's location to fight him (at a little later when Raptor kicked Felicia & Victor to the curb) and puts up a good fight but still easily gets destroyed, then as everyone is getting together with the five gang and Donavan & Hsien-Ho showing up as well (where their plot is the same as this version along with Dmitri's & Morrigan's) with Donavan fighting the other Darkstalkers group cause he thinks they're here to destroy, only with Pyron interrupting the fight the fight to accept the challengers for the day, Dmitri has his fight with Pyron like in the original, and after the fight Anakaris gets pissed off that he's a not just a pharaoh he's a warrior and goes wailing on Pyron but doesn't do much getting him killed, then as Pyron is taking a rest, Victor sneaks up behind him and tries to blow Pyron up with Victor's electrical powers mixed Rikuo shooting Water on Pyron creates Hydrogen & Oxygen and since Pyron is made of fire it would end in a big blast, but it doesn't work ending up killing Victor, and then the same thing happens with Donavan fighting Pyron, but Pyron sends down a whole army of Huitzil to attack, and as Felicia & Taliban are trying their damn hardest to fight them, Donavan realize that the world needs to have a balance between Light & Darkness to exist in harmony, and this gives Donavan to go Super Powered and is able to destroy Pyron in a big blast, and that amount of energy also restored all the creatures that were killed by Pyron, even the Darkstalkers that were killed, and the OVA ends with then seeing over a sunrise over a cliff, and the end credits sequence for the fourth part having an epilogue of what the Darkstalkers are doing now based off the endings from the games
all with the same balance of dark comedy and drama like what the games are supposed to be like
do you think that would've been better?
Would Donnavan's dialog be less insufferable if someone redubbed it in Linkara's Superboy Prime voice?
"Everything was better on my- I mean....without Dark Power!"
I’LL KILL YOU ALL. I WILL KILL ALL TO DEATH.
I just tried, it's even worse, somehow
Just to tell you: Scott McNeal was the voices of Piccolo from Dragonball Z, T. Hawk from Ultimate Teacher, and Lord Raptor from Night Warriors.
Also Duo Maxwell in Gundam Wing and half the cast of Beast Wars
@@r.babylon2885 And a bunch of the older Warhammer 40K games
METAHL BAWKSES!!!
@@chrishorobin1751 SIIINDRRRRIII!
AND IM BRINGING HELL WITH ME!!!! *ding* Ohhh cookies, lololololololol
Always remember cookies will stop those who want to visit you with hell
not me, im bringing cookies with me to send some bastard to kill a bastard
***** crumble the cookie to look more intimidating
i'll make like one that's a cookie I don't like for that, or maybe bite cookies that have like cherry filling in them to be more intimidating
Literally started to drink something at the start of the line. At the end it came out my nose.
Hey, Bennett, concerning Morrigan's accent, you forgot to take something into account... Both versions shown at 4:53, and 5:05, were voiced by the same actress, both times... Kathleen Barr. She did the second one first, and then later, voiced Morrigan in the anime. I always just figured that she downplayed the accent a bit, to make her sound more regal, and less like an ornery witch. I'm pretty sure you can actually make out that she does have a Scottish accent in the anime, but, it's week and hard to notice. Perhaps they though that a strong accent would be two hard for some to understand. I know British accents have been known to throw me for a loop, once in a while.
Brain Nanon
Oh yeah? Then who did Kathleen Barr voice in the Cartoon, then?
Harry's mom. I checked.
Some British accents used to get to me, but I can understand a Scottish accent easily. I think they played it down a little too much.
I'm Scottish but I don't have a strong accent (it's usually only other Scottish people who can spot it) thanks to being encouraged to speak "proper" English from an early age.
@@RichardWatt Here's something funny: when watching DOCTOR WHO, I had an easier time understanding the 12th Doctor's Scottish accent (I forget which part Peter Capaldi hails from) than the 13th Doctor's Yorkshire accent.
What would of worked (at least in my opinion) is have an OC travel around the whole dark stalkers world and meet up with the characters, probably have him traveling along with Morrigan, and have them try to stop this big evil threat to them. (Main villain can differ depending on which game they base it after
Lord Raptor is AUSTRALIAN NOT BRITISH, there IS a difference!!
Also, ironic that Scott McNeil, a Australian-Canadian voice actor voiced him. Also, please review the Tekken animated movie.
Wait a sec, Donovan was the main character of the games this whole time? I always thought it was Dmitri, Jon Talbain and Morrigan.
He's not. It's Dmitri.
The only saving graces of the anime were lord raptor and david kaye (beast wars megatron) as Pyron. Kaye's voice is soooo sexy.
Yeeesssssss
Kaye's voice is just the perfect voice for a villain with a great sense of humor.
Felicia was awesome, too. I guess.
i can hear linkin park every time donovan talks
CRAAAAAAAAWLING IIIIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIN
I don't think you fully understand how complex the Donovan character is Bennett.
What universe?
What inside?
What self?
Well said...XD
Darkstalkers suffers from the same illness that has affected anime and manga from always... they want to be deep in morals and whatnot, but they end up doing kindergarden philosophy, and it's the same emo shit over and over again. Instead of focusing on the plot, they end up messing up everything.
Shows like this go better going over the top, balls to the wall, insane and not taking itself completely serious
Wait, where have I heard Dmitri's backstory before?
"IT IS NOT BY MY OWN HAND THAT I AM ONCE AGAIN GIVEN FLESH. I WAS CALLED HERE BY... *HUMANS* WHO WISHED TO PAY *ME* TRIBUTE."
Oh...
You've never seen so little stretched so far until you saw The Hobbit Trilogy.
The 3rd movie was PAINFUL.
ninjawraith17 What? The book was as perfect as you think? Seriously try reading it sometime.
I've read it 4 times and I didn't grow up with this story. So don't try use some excuse like I'm blinded by nostalgia or that I'm some fanboy either. When adapting a story like the Hobbit I understand that there's going to be changes, but at the very least the changes need to make sense and be worth a damn.
SPOILERS
The painfully forced love interest sub-plot was entirely pointless and led to an even more WORTHLESS ending of Tauriel crying about how love hurts. The battle scene was rushed, horribly paced, and un-focused. The movie had the opportunity to expand on the battle scenes that were only touched upon in the book and have moments of triumph like Thorin and the other dwarves adorned in their suits of armor leaping into the battle. There was none of that in this film. I really enjoyed the first Hobbit film showed a lot of potential and filled me with hope that things were looking bright (another good trilogy), but the second film made me start to question the decisions of the screenwriters. I went into the 3rd Hobbit film with low expectations (to avoid disappointment) and literally with my fingers crossed only asking that the trilogy end on a good note, but it turned out to be the worst of them all. What I saw was a tired, rushed film that didn't have any heart. Yes, the acting was good, but not even the great Sir Ian McKellan could save this film. I wanted to like the Hobbit trilogy, but the product they presented was overall VERY disappointing.
ninjawraith17
What, are you saying the movies would've been better if they had those ENDLESS scenes in Murkwood where it's nothing but the Dwarves moaning and whining and complaining endlessly?
Don't you dare put words into my mouth. I didn't say anything like that and you know it. You better have a better argument than that.
28:29 But Sage, I really don't think you understand. You see Donovan can never find peace because he has a darkness within him. A darkness born of his tainted blood. The humans will never accept him because half of his blood is the blood of the dark ones. It is truly dark how dark his blood is. He must wage a never-ending battle against his darkness, but he is destined to lose to the darkness, because darkness is a totality. Darkness is infinite. Eventually the darkness always wins because of his darkly dark blood. Darkness.
It just occurred to me that Donovan is essentially a discount Guts. That makes his whole "arc" all the more cringe inducing.
He's a discount Guts who constantly muses about how much he is a discount Guts.
Based on this review alone I have to ask, how can an anime based on a fighting game have so much TALKING??
Seriously, Morrigan and Lillith should have been the main characters, then you've got a fine package of interesting moves, potentially interesting characters/ chemistry/ lesb... COUGH and of course - fanservice.
I think it's got all of those, there just isn't a particular focus on any one character. But i'm cool with that because it's like a pulp fiction.
Vinny Raptor Like many 90s anime. Especially the videogame ones. Don't remember if Street Fighter Alpha was from the 90s too, though.
MforZorro | Movesets mmm no just a few.
MforZorro | Movesets well maybe a good number of them but alot also had a main story and focused direction.
Why even have set main characters? Take advantage of the episodic format to move from a character or a pair of characters to the next, giving each an episode as they go through their own small arc. Gets all the characters a little show time, gives the writers time to figure out what stories work best (how serious, how humorous) without having to hamfist a larger plot - and learn which characters are the most popular or interact well and would work for a potential larger story - and avoids the whole mess that it actually became.
It's especially frustrating because that's almost what they actually did, with how the story keeps jumping around. They just didn't commit to that and instead tried to tack on smaller stories to a large, confusing plot with a main character without much real depth beyond declaring himself complex.
4:46 0_0
She's Scottish?
…
I love her already.
You missed the best part. The part when Donovan defeats a sentient cursed armor with an emo logic bomb.
Instead of being an OVA, why couldn't they make an anime of Darkstalkers with each episode being different & centering around the character(s) of the week.
After all, each character has chapters & their own perspectives of the story/fight:
B.B. Hood is a young bounty hunter wants to hunt down the Darkstalkers (mainly Talbain because she thinks he is the werewolf that killed her grandmother)
Rikuo is searching for more of his kind to save, while also protecting his family & kingdom
John Talbain wants to regain his humanity, but is still shunned due his backstory
Felicia doesn't want to fight, but has no choice but to do so, to save humans & hopefully gain their trust
Morrigan and Dimitri have a long family rivalry for centuries, and neither side has won
Lilith is a missing half of Morrigan, but enjoys being her own identity, she didn't want to disappear from existence if fused with Morrigan
Hsien-Ko and her sister want to avenge their mother
And ect.
Agreed. You could have episodic focuses on each of the characters from the game, be it origin stories or vignettes in their lives, and still tie into the overall tapestry of the main arc and their place in it. And adapt the arcs from the games: the Pyron arc, the Jedah arc (would be great to FINALLY see this adapted properly somewhere), and if it’s successful enough to get Capcom to make a new game, any future game arcs.
You can almost smell how much Bennett wants to love this series.
I just let her go, long ago, for... _(whiny endless monologue ensues)_
hmmm.
Congratulations. You have now made Andrea Libman crying the most infuriating sound I've EVER HEARD!
Who the hell is that, and why does it matter?
That's the actress
Sheridan Mann Okay, but what makes them important? I have never heard that name in anime voice dubs.
She doesn''t do anime. She normally does cartoons
I press the mute button and said to myself: 'There, much better.'
I can feel my brain melting while I slip into madness just watching the clips with Donovan and the little girl.
28:29 to 28:55 That's me in my own head. That entire segment was just SO SATISFYING.
Donovan isn't even the main character of the games, that's technically Demitri, as the series' original name in Japanese is "Vampire". Maximoff being the only one of that race in the first game, and its canonical ending according to CAPCOM is Demitri defeating and absorbing Pyron.
Donovan doesn't even figure in the plot of the third game. Morrigan, Lilith and Jedah do. Donovan really has no relevance to the overarching plot of any of the games and its Bosses. And if Demitri is Darkstalker's Ryu, Morrigan is like his Ken or Akuma. Pyron would be Sagat or Bison.
Donovan is... Dhalsim? Not even a Guile, Chun-Li or Cammy who actually have relevance in the story despite not being the main protagonists. I'd argue even T-Hawk has more importance to Street Fighter's plot than Baine has for Darkstalkers.
It's only Vampire for the first game. The original Japanese name of Night Warriors is Vampire Hunter
Oh my god...I just realized that Dimitri is voiced by the same guy who does the voice of Captain Gabriel Angelos and Eliphas the Inheritor from Dawn of War.
+SMAXZO
Paul Dobson?
Wait until you find who voices the little girl
Sheridan Mann
Who?
Andrea Libman
And Folken Fanel. And of course THE JUGGERNAUT BITCH.
The Netflix adaptation would be awesome in an awesomely bad movie
Morrigan is actually Morgan le Faye, from the Arthurian legend,that's why she's Scottish
No, she isn't. She may have been inspired by le Faye, but Morrigan is a succubus.
28:53 "Yeeeeees! Yeeeeessss! Feed me your nerd rage! The more you do, my power grows! Muahahahahahhaa *strips and flickers tongue* "
Is that a reference to something or are you just crazy ?
+damir divovic I think he's referencing Jeremy Irons in the first Dungeons & Dragons movie
SymAntares yeah now that i take a closer look, it does look like one, but irons didn't strip
+damir divovic thank God for that
SymAntares Indeed
Glad to see that someone is hip to this series
I came here for Rebeltaxi's review for The Darkstalkers cartoon
As a fan of the series and to just see how each character was butchered, I found out an interesting way to look at Capcom as a company
Being open to license brands, characters etc (why do you think there are so many vs Capcom titles or Capcom guest characters in video games)
But whoring out a license isn't the way to go with everything either, otherwise potential is wasted
Here's my opinion on what the show did wrong MAJORLY
1st up, the franchise would be better off as an anime, if it has to be a cartoon, maybe one of those cartoons meant for teens rather than kids, the atmosphere of the franchise would fit that audience better and actually make each character more close to their video game personality counterparts
2-A LOT of the characters at the end of the day are sterotypes if you think about it, some of the way they approach things along with the accents and attitudes
3-First up is that NONE of these "villan" characters should be "minions" of pyron, EVERY character was after pyron to acheive something, whether it be finding something out or getting power
4-BIGGEST PROBLEM IS THAT SOME OF MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM THE GAME WERE RUINED-Rikuo was basically turned into a lizard man version of vega, only more out of character (Rikuo is supposed to be a ruler of the oceans who wants to find out the origins of his past and possibly reunite with more of his "fish kind" and often HATES "land dwelers" or "air breathers"
Morrigan is supposed to be playful (by playful I mean not take anything seriously while making witty banter) and she's also supposed to come off as vicious, the funny thing is is that she's not even a villain, she;s more so a mercenary that utilizes dark magic and often is up to mischief (she's supposed to be a troublemaker kind of character with part of her personality)
Lastly-Is Huitzil is just barely even around, let alone actually grabs any time on screen, he's just there to be there
Don't get me wrong, every character is butchered, but I don't want to type the whole night
Either way, this was wasted potential and felt like it capcom took a dump at a meeting and this was the turd chunk that came out
XxsuperconsolebrosxX I kinda disagree on what you claimed that most characters are "stereotypes"
XxsuperconsolebrosxX sorry i AM NOT reading all of that.
@Audrion Irks She (according to lore) is supposed to be a viscious/seductive succubus, I get this is supposed to be a kids show, but I think if she had a Poison Ivy kind of attitude she would've been better, its wouldn't have been the first time a kids show had some adult esque/oriented characters in subtle ways
@Audrion Irks Perfect example
(From the game Cross Edge)
"Oh the ecstasy of bloodshed how alluring it can be"
@Audrion Irks I disagree with you on not being vicious, but to each their own
The reason why Darkstalkers focuses on Donovan because in the Japanese version it's called Vampire and in later installments of the game we see that indeed the story does focuses on him, rather than Demitri or Morrigan because they're the bad guys
When Mortal Kombat and Fatal Fury/KOF has a somewhat cohesive story.
5:56 Does Lord Raptor have the special power of being able to play an electric guitar at full volume without the aid of an amplifier? Because I didn't see a lead hooked into that guitar.
Probably. He even does it in the games.
yup. is a bonus
He's a fuckin mechanized zombie rocker. Aside from the fact he probably has some sort of amp stowed away in his body, _that's_ unrealistic to you?
"The blood that sprays forth from violated flesh". That actually sounds like something Rob Zombie would write.
Also, 11:04-11:18: You're under arrest for contemplating murder.
...
THIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny thing is in the games continuity ( yeah i know) it's heavily implied by the final game that Donovan actually succumbed to the darkness and Anita had to kill him. Knowing that makes the anime's ending all the more pointless.
It's 3 days until the four year anniversary of this episode being posted. It was my first ever Anime Abandon episode, and it is still my favorite one. I own the dvds to this OVA, and I also own the comic adaptation that came out years later of it, too. The comic is leagues better than the OVA. Less Donovan, better explanations for things, better character set-ups, etc. They even made the ending where Morrigan, Dmitri, and Donovan converge to stop Pyron. The only downside is that there's no Lord Raptor.
If you like Darkstalkers, go read the comic. You can find both volumes on amazon.
If you want to torture your friends on a bad movie night, you can also find the OVA on amazon.
Long live terrible anime, for as long as it lives, we will always have Anime Abandon.
This OVA has some of the best fights. Pyron is beastly.
25:25 LOL, ok, I wasn't expecting that face to appear, man that was hilarious. XD It's like... (ok serious fight to the death-time...) "DERP!!!!" HAHAHAHAHA~!
Dang Bennett, LOL! You had me Lol literally with that "Pyle" imitation! Every episode you literally have me LOL!
Kinda late to the party here, but this anime did have one good thing going for it: the soundtrack of Kow Otani.
As for the show, Dark Stalkers would have worked better as an Anthology series, telling the tale of each of the Darkstalkers with each episode, instead of this disjointed mess. It would also probably have raised less questions, like how there are medieval villages when there are also rock concerts being held.
Speaking of concerts, I would have loved to see the story of how Lord Raptor came to be. He does one of the most metal things in the history of metal and that's just his backstory.
One don't realize how strange some things are unless one speaks them out loud.
I think the anime is good. It could definitely use a little more focus and goal but it's more of a pulp fiction and does it really well.
I think Felicia and John Talbain are even more popular among a group of people who've never played the games than Morrigan is.
+Nathan Karr Really? I have never seen that before.
Jurassic Reptile They were the characters I'd actually heard about before watching this review. Felicia in particular I was seeing fanart of all over the place.
Nathan Karr Yes but was that fanart made by Darkstalker fans or non-fans. Plus Lord Raptor has a ton of art yet he's deeply part of Darkstalkers
+Nathan Karr I literally had no idea who John Talbain was until this.
+Nathan Karr I knew about Felicia and Morrigan, but I'd never heard of John Talbain. I'm kind of surprised you didn't mention Hsien Ko.
As bad as this was, its STILL better than the Saturday morning cartoon. (Which ironically both used the same theme song "Trouble Man.")
The converging thing could have been.
"That's like if the power rangers only way to defeat the monster was to form the megazord but Jason jumped up and stabbed it dead"
God I remember this. Never watched the OVA, but I sure as hell remember the ad for it on the back of one of my viz pokemon comic books (not Manga, literal american style comic books).
I still would love to see a new Darkstalkers OVA or animated movie in my opinion, give it to the right writers, animators and voice actors and that would be badass and unique my opinion.
Donovan wasn’t even in the first two games
4:24 "If there is a more popular character with fans who have never played the source material, then I do not know it."
....Renamon from Digimon. Krystal from Star Fox. Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. I could go on.
Watching this every time after the first viewing, everytime it comes to the part where the girl is about to cry I tense up in anticipation. The music builds and you know its coming, the horrible noise.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought this Anime sucked. At least in the campy, unpolished ass cartoon, there's more motivation, character, and fun to be found.
humanconvertable dude that cartoon was dumb has an ass
For some reason kind of reminds me of Netflix Castlevania
Sage... You realize of course that you must wear the Fatal Fury hat throughout the entirety of your next review, yes?
Just checking. B|
I caught that Buster Poindexter reference. You have good taste in music, Sage.
Bennett I know you might not reply but will you ever do a review of Guyver Dark Hero like you did with the first Guyver?
I think Captain Falcon is the only other popular character whose fans have never played the game he's from.
14:32 After hearing that, I always feel compelled to add, "But enough talk! HAVE AT YOU!"
16:09 Just call her LeiLei.
Call her Hsien
Call her LeiLei
Call her Hsien
Call her LeiLei
i remember when i watched it, i like it, every single part ..........that didnt contain that emo monk of couse
Since you've done a review of the 1st live action Guyver Movie, think you will do the Dark Hero Version?
does anyone know how the song in the outro is called?
i figured it would be out of a darkstalkers ost but i cant find it
I enjoyed this series won't lie
"Oh, Cookies!" *still laughing
perfectly timed!
Actually, yeah, funny thing about Morrigan being accentless. It actually makes total sense. Her backstory explicitly states she's not even from anywhere in the human world, let alone Scotland. The "Scotland" thing is about as valid as the claim that Raptor was born in the 1800s.
Also, trust me, Donovan is a much better-written character in the games. I'd also hardly say it's fair to call him "emo" when he has a legit reason to be the way he is, what with having to struggle to maintain his humanity and keep from permanently becoming a horrific murderous monster.
Oh, and the canon pronounciation is in fact "syen-ko". A pronounciation that's actually used IN the very anime you're reviewing here. Everything else is wrong.
You are correct. The only time she's mentioned being Scottish comes from the first game's manual and that game was completely retconned by Darkstalkers Revenge. It was probably done to make the series become more than just Street Fighter with horror movie monsters.
At least the voice actors tried their best to salvage this mess
5:30 Respect cat wamen
That sandwich making scene gets me every time
I actually enjoyed watching SF the animated movie, but this one...
I remember how pretentious the dialogue was.
I remember that the story really never made any sense.
I remember not getting any of it.
Now, I realize that it was a truth I just never wanted to recognize...it was shyt.
it is a failure.
Bennett yours and Spoony's hair kick soooo much ass! rock the long locks sir! you rule!
Thanks for that scrubs reference!
The Ultimate teacher clip just earned you a thumbs up.
This movie needs more Lilith and BB Hood.
I can't find the Spoof where there a Scott mcneal voice dub, where he says he really likes the house. I'm bit wondering what that anime is called as well.
th-cam.com/video/mF5NHl0ydT0/w-d-xo.html
Prepare to have your brain suckerpunched.
I mean morrigan being Scottish you can know without playing the source material, because of mvc3
"Fatal Fury - Double Impact" has already been reviewed. you can go to his site, he's already about five or six reviews past this. he just covered "Dark Cat" today.
Hey, Sage!
What you think about reviewing Blackjack? :33
Damn you Sage! That clip of the Darkstalkers cartoon just made me vomit out my soul.
There is a fact that makes the anime alil better Felicia is technically naked the white patches on her body are fur not clothing
Quick question... How does hunky undead man dude widdle his electric guitar...
Whilst it is NOT plugged in? Just... gonna move on from that?
Unless I remember this incorrectly, did you know that Scott McNeil does The Lord Raptor voice for both the anime and the local DarkStalkers cartoon?
6:06 Queue Soulstorm's SPHESS MEHREENS and METAL BAWKSES
Right after you gave that text for after making the sandwich, I thought "he's probably going to use the roar of the T-REX from Jurassic". After you bite on the sandwich, "IS I THE GEEBUS?!?!"