Night Warriors Darkstalkers Revenge Anime Ova Morrigan

Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (known in Japan as Vampire Hunter: The Animated Series) is a four-part OVA adaptation of the first two Darkstalkers video games, produced in 1997 by Madhouse and DR Movie.

The plot to some extent follows that of its namesake video game: an alien demon known as Pyron invades Earth, while in the midst the vampire Demitri Maximoff and succubus Morrigan Aensland duke it out to see who's the strongest, Felicia attempts to showcase her live music performance, Hsien-Ko and her sister Mei-Ling search for a way to free their mother's soul, Donovan Baine walks the earth fighting the forces of the dark with Anita by his side, and the long dormant Huitzil robots awaken and set their sights on exterminating humans and Darkstalkers alike.

The OVA was initially released in America on VHS and DVD by Viz Video and Pioneer, with an English dub by The Ocean Group, before going out of print. It has since been licensed and rereleased on DVD by Discotek Media.

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This OVA contains examples of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: A couple effects stand out in the fourth episode, such as Donovan's Blizzard Sword.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Hsien-Ko is depicted as an irritable and openly rude Deadpan Snarker, as opposed to the more openly friendly but also clumsy girl she is in games.
• Adaptation Expansion: The origin of Donovan's large prayer beads is revealed here: A Buddhist monk of the Tainted Valley gave his prayer beads to him as a way of encouragement to Donovan, so he could learn how to find inner peace and happiness within himself.
• Animated Adaptation: The second one of Darkstalkers, after the So Bad, It's Good american cartoon by Graz Entertainment.
• Behemoth Battle: The final battle with Pyron involves both a giant Huitzil robot and a Kaiju-sized Pyron.
• Berserk Button: Downplayed; Anita's stoicism makes her barely react to anything, but she doesn't like anyone messing with her doll, the only surviving memento she has of her decimated village. She shows off her Psychic Powers for the first time when a trio of church boys throw away her doll and try shooting at it with a Dark hunter's rifle. The angriest she had been when she gives Donovan a Death Glare for beheading her doll and tries wielding his own sword, Dhylec, with her Psychic Powers in an attempt to kill him, though he easily evades her attacks.
• BFS: Donovan's hooked sword, Dhylec. Its might is depicted in the OVA when Donovan summons Ifrit Sword for the first time and carves a massive wedge in the ground, scaring away the humans who tried shooting him out of fear. Anita also tries using it to kill him after he beheads her doll by using Psychic Powers to carry Dhylec, though Donovan evades her attacks easily.
• Big Bad: Pyron, as in the video games.
• Blood Knight: Pyron has been visiting habituated planets for eons to satisfy his own lust for battle, and then destroys said planets when they fail to entertain him. He has set his sights on Earth where he starts off by killing many heroic Darkstalkers such as Victor, Rikuo, Anakaris, and Sasquatch.
• Break the Cutie: Happens to Anita a few times.
  • The men of the traveling troupe who picked her up mention that she's the Sole Survivor of a village that got utterly massacred by Darkstalkers. This traumatized Anita so much that she became an Emotionless Girl to protect herself from the pain of overwhelming loss.
  • The first time she actually cries is when Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling go to fight Pyron, causing her to realize that they left knowing that they'll likely die in the process. Donovan understands that her actions were appropriate, and vows to help her remember what it's like to feel happiness.
  • She cries again in episode 4 when Pyron defeats and mortally wounds Donovan.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Many, over the course of the OVA.
  • In the first episode:
    • Two demon thugs working for Demitri encounter Morrigan in the sewers and try to fight her. Morrigan easily kills them both.
    • A horde of Huitzil robots emerge from the depths of the ocean to kill Demitri and Morrigan, having sensed powerful lifeforms. They don't stand a chance against the royal Darkstalkers' might, both combined and individually.
    • Lord Raptor easily dispatches a group of Dark hunters for trying to kill Felicia and harvests their souls for consumption. Not even their flamethrowers were very effective against him.
  • In the second episode:
    • Hsien-Ko and Mei Ling easily defeat a group of demonic spiders in a river cave when they combine mind and body to be like their video game self.
    • It happened off-screen, but Mei Ling discovers that the Darkstalkers she and Hsien-Ko were hired to fight were already obliterated by Donovan.
    • When a group of drunk men try accosting Mei Ling, she merges with Hsien-Ko and easily defeats them.
  • In the fourth episode:
    • The opening has Pyron easily defeat and kill Darkstalkers such as Rikuo, Anakaris, Sasquatch, and Victor. Of them all, Rikuo's death is the most graphic as he is shown bleeding.
    • Demitri doesn't stand a chance against Pyron and is easily sent crashing into his own castle, reducing it to rubble. He only survives when Morrigan arrives, giving him prime opportuinity to feed off of her.
    • Hsien-Ko and Mei Ling also don't stand a chance against Pyron, as he can absorb their attacks easily.
• Death Seeker: Implied with Anita; Donovan states that Anita has closed off her own emotions because, as the Sole Survivor of a village decimated by Darkstalkers, she doesn't think she deserves to live. In order to prove to her that she does have the right to live, Donovan brings out rage in Anita by beheading her doll. This is what likely led to Anita's decision to travel with Donovan.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Anakaris, Rikuo, Sasquatch, and Victor are given their only canonical appearance in this series as cameos in the opening of the final episode, where they get annihilated by Pyron, Sasquatch has it the worst as he doesn't even appear in the previous openings like the other characters do.
  • While not reduced to simply cameos, Lord Raptor and Jon Talbain are rather inconsequential to the plot, only showing up as One Scene Wonders in the first and third episodes, respectively.
• Due to the Dead: The village Donovan travels to is holding a mass funeral for those who have died fighting off a Darkstalker.
• Emotionless Girl: Anita. Donovan implies that she closed off her own emotions so she could protect herself from the emotional fallout she would potentially suffer from both witnessing her entire village being butchered by Darkstalkers, and the suffering she would bring to others with her Psychic Powers. However, it's deconstructed; Donovan also points out that in doing so, Anita has become selfish in believing that she herself has "no right of existence", and immediately tries proving her wrong by beheading her beloved doll, provoking the closest thing she has to rage. She also refuses to acknowledge Donovan as her "friend" when he is severely injured from saving some humans from Hannya, prompting Hsien-Ko to angrily yell at her. Mei Ling also speculates that stubbornness to remain closed off from her emotions is the only thing she has as protection from the world's horrors. That said, Anita gradually defrosts throughout the course of the OVA thanks to Donovan's kindness, even openly crying twice and eventually smiling in the end.
• Enemy Mine: The house of Aensland propose a temporary alliance with the other noble houses of the Demon World in the wake of Pyron's easy defeat of most of the Darkstalkers. They refuse, asking Morrigan Aensland to defeat Pyron alone instead, while they prepare to attack house Aensland in the chaos.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Hannya throws a fit over Donovan's decision to save some humans from falling off a cliff instead of leaving them to die, because he cannot comprehend the idea that a Darkstalker - even someone who's half-Dark - would still save a weaker species, given their heritage. He is so enraged and confused that he actually deactivates. Afterwards, he rants about how Donovan's compassion "does not make sense" to him.
  • While "Evil" is a massive overstatement, Anita cannot fathom Donovan's stubborn quest to rid the world of the "dark" and believes humans in general are weak due to her closed-off emotions. She gradually gets better at the end.
• Evil Smells Bad: Felicia can Detect Evil through smell. When she travels to the human world to get her license to perform there, she is bowled over and left dizzy from an unknown stench, commenting that the town "smells so wrong". As it turns out, human hunters are out to pursue Darkstalkers such as Lord Raptor, who saves her from them during his concert.
• Evil Sounds Deep:
  • Subverted with Lord Raptor; in the English Dub, Scott McNeil gives him a deep, rumbling voice in his human guise, but in his true form as a zombie Darkstalker, his voice takes on a rasping quality. While he's a villain in the game series, he's more of an Antihero here, as he saved Felicia from a group of Dark hunters.
  • Played straight with Pyron, the Big Bad of the OVA, who has a deep voice and seeks to obliterate Earth.
• Everyone Has Standards: Lord Raptor takes umbrage with the church members attacking Felicia at his concert.

  Lord Raptor: No mercy for women or furry animals, is that it? For a bunch of monks, you sure got some nasty habits and dark hearts. I LIKE IT! When feasting, I always did prefer the dark meat! HERE I COME, BABY!

• Fantastic Racism: Humans are shown to fear and despise the Darkstalkers. The same applies vice versa if Jon Talbain is any indication.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: At Lord Raptor's concert, instead of regular audience members, he finds church goers wielding flamethrowers (as well as garlic and silver bullets).
• Garlic Is Abhorrent: One of the things the Dark hunters employ is cloves of garlic. It's subverted as Lord Raptor comments that as a powerful Darkstalker, they don't affect him.
• Happiness in Slavery: Discussed; during a conversation with his butler, Demitri believes that eternal servitude to a vampire lord is the "greatest happiness" humanity can only achieve.

  Demitri Maximoff" Is not a lifetime of faithful servitude to me the greatest happiness their kind can attain?

• Heel–Face Turn: Bishamon after his fight with Donovan, which is justified as the benevolent human spirit within the demonic armor, Hannya, was freed. However, after witnessing a greedy human be reduced to nothing but bones after donning Hannya for himself, Bishamon decides, to Anita's shock, to don Hannya as he believes that only a true warrior could truly fight the demonic armor and defeat it from the inside.
• High-Altitude Battle: Demitri faces off against Morrigan on the top of his airship while it's flying towards Morrigan's kingdom. However, when hordes of Huitzil robots come pursuing them, they end up fighting together.
• Humans Are Flawed: Humans are arguably shown at both their worst and their best. Many times the Darkstalkers are discriminated against by humans, some of which act even worse than the Darkstalkers at times. There are some humans are willing to help, such as the doctor who helps Felicia after her encounter with the Huitzil. With that said, some darkstalkers are truly evil dangerous monsters and humans have the rightful fear of them as they've been subjected to several attrocities by darkstalkers (the biggest one being Demitri taking over the sun and leaving the humans out of resources and dying).
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Hsien-Ko acknowledges it and laughs it off:

  Thug: You monster!

  Hsien-Ko: Monster? I'm offended! I'm a kuang-shi! Wait a second. Oh, yeah, a Chinese vampire is a monster, isn't it?

• Instant Awesome: Just Add Mecha!: A giant Huitzil robot emerges in the fourth episode to do battle with Pyron, who grows large in return.
• It's All About Me: Pyron believes that all lifeforms exist to provide him entertainment and satisfy his bloodlust. This ends up getting him killed when Donovan, a Darkstalker-Human hybrid from Earth, manages to fatally defeat him in space.
• Karma Houdini: Demitri. He took the sun away (which also limited human's food resources and lives) and also killed innocent people all while acting arrogant. He not only survives at the end, but it's implied Morrigan will share the throne of Makai with him and he may become ruler of the demon world as he such much wishes, along being in love with him.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Donovan is at war with himself for being half-Darkstalker and is jaded with the atrocities, racism towards Darkstalkers, and inner evil of humanity, but he still won't hesitate to save innocent lives and oppose evil Darkstalkers whenever he can. The fact that he saves a few humans from falling off a cliff despite being severely wounded sends Hannya into a Villainous Breakdown, as he cannot fathom the very idea of someone even with a hybrid lineage choosing to defend a weaker species instead of feeding on them like Darkstalkers generally do.
• Lack of Empathy: Justified with Anita; while she does understand what emotions are, she has willingly closed them off to protect herself from the pain of losing her entire village to Darkstalkers and out of belief that she as the Sole Survivor doesn't deserve to live. It's deconstructed in that in protecting herself, she cast off what made her human and behaved selfishly, stubbornly believing that humans are "weak" and initially refusing to call Donovan a friend despite his kindness. She later averts it when she does finally gain enough emotion to cry and smile.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: In the opening, Rikuo unleashes his Sonic Wave move on Hannya, bowling him over with a burst of sound. When that didn't work, he summons a tidal wave.
• Making a Splash: Rikuo summons a tidal wave against Hannya in the opening.
• Mercy Kill: A priest attempts to do this with Anita, since her powers result in other humans shunning her and he believes that death would be a better alternative than letting her live on in suffering. In the end, he can't go through with it, and Anita instead goes with Donovan.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Lord Raptor tours all over the human realm as a handsome rock star. When admiring himself in a mirror backstage, his reflection briefly shows his true form as a long-dead zombie.
• Missing Mom: Justified with the mother of Hsien-Ko and Mei Ling. When they were younger, she cast a powerful spell that defeated the Darkstalkers attacking China, but condemned her own soul after death in the process. As in the games, Hsien-Ko and Mei Ling's goal is to save their mother's soul, not caring what happens to them in the process.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Demitri makes a rather unsettling grin full of sharp teeth as he unleashes his strengthened power on the human hunters occupying his castle.
• Ms. Fanservice: Morrigan and Felicia, as usual. Morrigan even appears naked when swimming in a lake on the demon world, where she shows her lovely body.
• Never My Fault: The leader of the militia who beseiged a town to combat the Darkstalkers has his soldiers fire on Felicia's train that's carrying innocent passengers, leading to many casualties and thousands more injured. He then pins the blame on Felicia for being a "spy" just for being a Darkstalker, even when Felicia makes it clear that he was responsible for all those deaths.
• No-Sell: Lord Raptor gets roasted onstage by a bunch of Dark hunters wielding flamethrowers. But when they turn their flamethrowers on a vulnerable Felicia, Lord Raptor reveals that the flames didn't really affect him at all, and proceeds to open a can of whoopass on Felicia's attackers when they try to flee the premises.
• Off-Model: The Huitzil robots appear with the character's alternate grey palette instead of the usual gold. Likewise, the giant Huitzil is gold during his introduction scene, only to somehow be grey when he shows up to fight Pyron.
  • Jon Talbain is similarly colored with one of his alternate palette from the second game.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: Being a Darkstalker, Bishamon can wield his gigantic katana with one hand.
• Oral Fixation: Lord Raptor in his human guise has a cigarette dangling from his mouth. It's shortly averted when he reveals his true form as a zombie Darkstalker onstage to combat Dark hunters.
• Papa Wolf: In episode 3, Donovan protects Anita from being attacked by an angry mob of humans simply by planting his sword into the ground, as if to daring them to provoke his wrath. The humans immediately get the message and back off.
• Readings Blew Up the Scale: Donovan's power as a half-Darkstalker is so great that an attempt to analyse it during his fight with the Huitzil robots blows out their scanning monitors.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: The Dark hunters attacking Lord Raptor and Felicia get scared and try to flee when the former reveals that their flamethrowers didn't really affect him at all. Lord Raptor proceeds to attack in kind and harvest their souls for nearly killing Felicia.
• Sole Survivor: The traveling troupe that took in Anita mentions that she's the only one of her village who wasn't "half-eaten" by Darkstalkers. This had a large part in shaping Anita's personality.
• Staircase Tumble: Felicia meets Lord Raptor this way; severely disoriented by the smell of Darkstalkers, she ends up tumbling down the stairs backstage.
• The Stoic:
  • Donovan never emotes much, jaded by the hardships he endured for being half-Darkstalkers. Even while angry, he never loses his cool.
  • Anita is also one, being an Emotionless Girl who was affected by being the Sole Survivor of her village.
• Stripperific: Morrigan and Felicia again, with the former even sometimes wearing casual attire that fits this trope.
• Tough Room: During his own concert, Lord Raptor enthusiastically shouts, "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?!" expecting a cheering audience. He quickly learns that the chilly reception is because Dark hunters have attended his concert instead, armed with holy weapons designed to take out Darkstalkers. Lord Raptor lampshades it.

  Lord Raptor: Bloody hell, this crime's so dead it's starting to attract flies.

• Tranquil Fury: Donovan never loses his cool even when angry.
• Truer to the Text: To date, this OVA is the most faithful depiction of the Darkstalkers series than the western animated series, manga or Udon comics have been.
  • Morrigan does not undergo any form of Adaptational Villainy. While she's never seen interacting with humans, she's shown genuinely want to stop Pyron's attack on Earth and is depicted as being friendly despite avoiding her job as queen. In the end she even saves Demitri and express her faith on the humans stopping Pyron.
  • Pyron is shown to be a genuine threat over the more comical portrayal in the cartoon, in fact he has no comedy moments at all.
  • Demitri is also depicted as being a genuine threat and a cruel vampire. He wants to drink Morrigan's blood and take over the demon world by force. And unlike the udon comics, he does not need any portal to go to the demon world, he is capable of doing it on his own like the games.
• Worthy Opponent: Demitri and Morrigan regard each other as such for giving the other a good fight. Demitri even gives her a small token of thanks when she destroys a Huitzil robot about to attack him from behind.
• Would Hit a Girl: The Dark hunters pursuing Lord Raptor wouldn't hesitate to train their flamethrowers on a weakened Felicia and burn her alive for being a Darkstalker, regardless if she actually did anything wrong against humanity. Lord Raptor takes offense to this and harvests the Dark hunters' souls for consumption to protect her. Demitri also has no problem attacking Morrigan, neither does the two vampires thugs Morrigan meets in the human world.
• Villainous Breakdown: Hannya suffers this during the battle with Donovan, when the latter helps some humans who are about to fall off a cliff, as he cannot fathom why Donovan, who is half-Darkstalker, would bother helping humans at all.
• When She Smiles: Anita makes an adorable smile when Donovan defeats Pyron in episode 4.

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Night Warriors Darkstalkers Revenge Anime Ova Morrigan

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/NightWarriorsDarkstalkersRevenge

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