Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge contains some of the most unusual character designs in recent anime. Imagine the Street Fighter team dolled up in threads that combine Victoria's Secret and Glam Rock with the Groovie Ghoulies and you'll have a *very* good idea of what the characters look like.
The character designs obviously taxed the limits of the Night Warriors' creative team, because nothing else in the four-hour video comes close to the outrageous looking heroes and villains. There's very little actual animation in the OAV, with most of the movement limited to camera trickery. The plot is alternately confusing and sleep-inducing, attempting flaky epic proportions but failing to do anything but connect fight sequences. And Viz's dubbing isn't an enhancement.
Other OAVs based on video games (such as Tekken and the Final Fantasyseries) do a far better job in adapting a game to the demands of animation. Even the fight scenes of Night Warriors are unusually poor, and fight scenes are usually the strong points of similar OAVs.
If Night Warriors was merely a second string release by a minor label, once could enjoy the pumped-up Mummy, the luscious Morgana, and perhaps Felicia the Cat Girl, forgiving the rest of the OAV as filler. But Viz actively and aggressively promoted Night Warriors in the lull between Dragonball Z and Pokemon. Viz should've spent the energy (and money) into bringing Galaxy Express Eternal Fantasy to America, or perhaps researching ways to rerelease older videos at budget prices.. If you'd like to enjoy Night Warrior's excellent character designs, save yourself the money of a rental and browse the Anime Turnpike's image archives.
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Other Anime Reviews Dragonball Z:The Movie Review* Fushigi Yuugi Review* Galaxy Express 999:Eternal Fantasy Review* My Neighbor Totoro Review* Neon Genesis Evangelion Review |
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