Customer Reviews

Darkstalkers - Out of the Shadows

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

An American based cartoon based off of the Darkstalkers series, but despite having the Darkstalkers name this cartoon is anything but a faithful representation of the series. Exactly what was Graz Entertainment thinking when they decided to stick an extremely stupid (to say the least) wizard, who doesn't even look like a wizard, and has absolutely no relation to the series whatsoever, in as a main character? And even worse, to put him as Felicia's love? Felicia's an exotic dancer not a princess dedicating her life to a 12 year old who probably doesn't even know what puberty is. This Harry Potter ripoff pretty much kills the quality of the cartoon right there. "Ooooh. I'm mad at you! Why don't I just call Merlin for help to defeat you! I'm Merlin I will use a flashlight to defeat you!" All the other characters have flashlights in their hands as well. This shouldn't be called Darkstalkers. It should be called Harry's Magic Show. Graz Entertainment was so stupid to make up fake names for characters that already have names. Lets take Anita, Donovan's assistant, and lets change her into a blonde haired girl named Amanda so us Americans can understand her easier. Oh, and lets change Donovan's name to Donavon. Also, the bigfoot's name is Sasquatch. Graz decided to make it Bigfoot the Sasquatch. Rikuo's a hard name to pronounce so lets change it to Rikou. Morrigan, she's from Scotland so why not give her a hardcore British accent and make her look like a barbie whose hair turned green and sprouted wings. Demitri comes next. Lets see, lets make him toss balls of orange gas all the time. What is that stuff, coming from his armpit? Victor shows up, then he falls head over heels in love with Clouse, another random geek Graz Entertainment decided to stick in just for the heck of it, claiming they are decendants of one another. Oh, and he's played by Arnold Schwartzinegger, who makes an appearance himself somewhere in the cartoon. Lord Raptor. Hmmm, lets see how many times he screams his name like an idiot in a single episode shall we? Hsien-ko comes next. Um, lets pretend she don't even have a sister. She don't even know she is a Chinese ghost. She's just hellbent on killing Demitri because he destroyed her family. At least that's what the cartoon says. Bishamon, better not leave him out either. Make him have the voice of a 500 year old guy who's already dead, and have him pick a fight with Donavon for no reason whatsoever. Pyron has control of his own little ship complete with computer that likes to yack yack all day. Huitzil hates aliens, so he takes Pyron hostage in one episode, and despite Pyron wanting to rule earth, all the "friendly" darkstalkers are more than convinced to help him anyways, even when a crew of Pyron's evil twins come aboard for a shot of whiskey or something.

Finally, to top it all off, lets have a bunch of random stories that make absolutely no sense whatsoever in a season.

Us Americans, or Canadians, have a real good imagination when it comes to making video game based cartoons, don't we?

The bottom line is, get the Japanese anime, the Night Warriors series. Despite being only 4 episodes they are 10 times better and more representative of the actual game than this is.

Through some accident, I ended up acquiring both bits and pieces of television-taped episodes of Darkstalkers: the American adaptation, as well as a couple episodes of the original anime a few years back from a friend. (Possibly we were both interested in one of the voice-over artists or something; I don't really remember now.)

I realize that they are technically both based off of the video game to some degree, but I wholly recommend viewing/thinking of them as separate entities. They are, in my opinion, most enjoyable this way. The anime is action-packed, mystical, slightly violent and not a little sexually charged (the ending credits roll over a shot of one of the male leads pretty much fondling his female counterpart, for instance). The cartoon, conversely, is severely kidified; the characters are less ambiguous and more cleanly drawn, and in true DiC fashion, a twelve-year-old boy becomes more the centerpiece of the thing than any of the Darkstalker warriors.

In truth, the cartoon does a major disservice to the anime/video game when you hold them up for comparison; the cuts and changes divert the point of the entire series, and a lot of the initial 'umph' is lost in the adaptation. On the other hand, as an average 90s American toon following the popular, "normal-ish kid meets up with strange group of mystical creatures to battle zany yet dangerous enough villains and learn more about his/her own destiny" motif, it's actually pretty engaging. The voice talent is fun, the story is engaging enough, and the themes of fate and friendship and exploring one's potential are always great kids' show components. It reminds me fondly of Mighty Max in some ways, though I recognize that the DS cartoon will take a lot more flack for its inception because it doesn't remain 'true' to its Japanimation origins.

Either way, however, it stands on its own feet as a fun slice of American animation, and its lack of following on the Internet was part of the reason I seeked out the commercially-released DVDs. It's not perfect, but I'll take it.

This show aired back in 1995. I remember getting up to watch it mostly because the character Morrigan (a succubus) was in a really low cut outfit. Yeah, what can I say, adolescent boys will be boys. Watching it again all these years later, the episodes were still pretty entertaining. The cast of characters is based on the Darkstalkers video game, but centers around a kid named Harry who's descended from the great wizard Merlin. Felica (the catwoman) has to help defend him from the evil Darkstalkers led by the alien Pyron. In different episodes, she gets help from various other good characters.

If you have good memories of the show, it's a nice walk down memory lane. If you haven't seen it before, it's really not worth the bother. The stories are cheesy and the animation isn't the greatest, but that didn't stop He-man from being fun. Despite low production values, Darkstalkers still manages to be quite enjoyable.

Not to be confused with the Nightwarriors-Darkstalkers' Revenge OVA series, this was a 13 episode TV series done in America based on the hit Capcom fighting games. Here, the evil alien Pyro comes to Earth to take it over. He employs evil monsters also called Darkstalkers to help him. The lord of vampires Demitri, succubus queen Morrigan, wacked out mummy Anakaris, and the zombie punk rocker Lord Raptor, all swear loyalty to him. Fortunately for mankind, there are some good Darkstalkers. The handsome merman Rikou, the Frankenstein-like Victor, and a friendly tribe of bigfoots(or is that "bigfeet"?). Also on our side is the sexy catwoman Felicia and her human companion Harry(a pre-Harry Potter boy magician). Plus, there are the vengeful demon hunters Donovan and Hsien-Ko. Despite the animation not being as great at the OVA series, this one came out first though! Plus, Bulleta from Darkstalkers 3 doesn't show up here. But despite that, its a funny show, and fans of the video games should get a kick out of it!

Though this isn't the story that most fans are used to, it still is a solid story nonetheless. The main character, Felicia, ends up in the middle of a fight for keeping Earth from becoming enslaved by Pyron, intergalactic collector of planets. Felicia ends up bringing along a young boy named Harry, who is a descendant of Merlin. The adventure is wonderful, even if it isn't faithful to the real one.

The fight scenes are great. your gonna like it if your a fan of the video games or just a fan of anime.
The Animation is Flawless Enjoy

I have only watched three of the twelve episodes because I am watching one episode each Saturday morning. This is just great Saturday morning entertainment for kids of all ages ( I'm 31). I even receive a lot of enjoyment just listening to the theme song "Because baby I'm a troubled man".

You might be interested to know that there is one set of extras on this 3 disc set. Each disc contains 5 different previews of other ADV titles, for a total of 15 previews. On a humurous note on the first disc, the voice-over naration of the previews of "Street Fighter" and "Mega Man" have been transposed.

The only problem I have with this set is that there are no sub-titles. This is a problem when your trying to figure out what the insane pharaoh is saying. If it had sub-titles I would give it five stars.

I admit that I didn't do my research and thought I was buying the anime. Still, I watch it with my 2-year-old son so it does have some redeeming value. The best part about the series is the mummy. If you can tell what he is saying, it is hilarious. I would rate it TV-7 for suggestive outfits and mild violence.

13 episodes (1 full season) on 3 DVDs. 5 episodes each for Disc 1 and 3, 4 episodes for Disc 2.

If anyone needs any more information, the following is taken from the back of the case:

"To conquer the world, the fiery demon Pyron assembles an army of supernatural beings with magical powers: the DarkStalkers! And two of the biggest and vilest lead Pyron's army: Demitri Maximov, Lord of the Vampires, and Morrigan Aensland, a powerful succubus.

"But the good guys are fighting back! Around the catwoman Felicia rallies a band of freedom-loving DarkStalkers: the merman Rikou, the werewolf Jonathan Talbain, the golem Victor von Gerdenheim, the sasquatch Bigfoot, and his nephew Hairball. To crush the rebels, Lord Demitri and Morrigan send the lunatic pharoah Anakaris, the zombie guitarist Lord Raptor, and the cursed samurai Bishamon. Things get complicated when demon hunters Donavon Bane and Hsien-Ko decide that all DarkStalkers - both good and bad - must die!

"Yet the fate of the world depends on a human, teenager Harry Grimoire. If Harry can master his secret magical legacy - and the intricacies of alien computer technology - the world might have a chance!"

This is anything but anime...and definitely anything but a worthy representation of the Darkstalkers series.