Nightwarriors: Darkstalkers Revenge Review

Hi guys. I'd like to start off by saying that the SOPA blackout demonstrations were kick ass! That definitely got people's attention, and even the news channels managed to make a story or two out of it. Despite the voting being delayed until February, I think we sent a clear message to the politicians in Washington and the various companies supporting it that the Internet is nothing to tamper with. I understand protecting power & money, but SOPA (& PIPA) are not the way to do that.

Now that moment of seriousness is out of the way, lets get to why you're here. Presenting now is the review for one of the rarest animes out there, Nightwarriors: Darkstalkers Revenge.

Directed in 1997 Masashi Ikeda, and dubbed between 1998 to 2003 by VIZ Media, Nightwarriors tells the story of a Earth covered in darkness. With nothing but shadow covering every inch of the planet, the creatures of myth and legend surfaced. Now, vampires, werewolves, catgirls (thank you god), and many other entities now share our world with us. Unfortunately, there isn't much love between Darkstalkers and Humans, and violence between the two groups is common place, with a few certain exceptions.

This all leads to our cast. Demitri Maximov the Vampire and Morrigan Aensland the Succubus are leaders of the Vampire & Demon worlds. Demitri wants to take over the Demon world out of a desire for revenge, while Morrigan simply wants to enjoy the human world, and isn't necessarily the best ruler of the Demons. Felicia the Catgirl just wants to get along with Humans and make them happy, and goes on a singing tour to bring that joy to as many as she can. Donovan, who has the blood of both Humans and Darkstalkers in his body, wanders the land killing everything that is evil. Lin Lin and her vampiric sister Lei Lei became dark ones to avenge the death of their mother, and they wander around killing evil. These characters, along with the appearance of many others, eventually run into the fiery alien entity Pyron, who desires to rule the world after everything is destroyed. Lots of fighting ensues, along with some of the greatest story in anime.

Speaking of story, that is one of the positives of this show. In actuality, there are numerous stories. There is the main story of Pyron and his world-taking plots going on throughout all the episodes, yet there are a few side-stories going along with the main one. Somehow this works, as the side-stories supplement the main one, and even interact with the main story at certain points. I was a little confused with all the stories, but only at first. By the time I got to about (emphasis on about) half-way through the second episode, everything melded together. In addition to this, the show in general is about of the the best fighting game to anime adaptions that I've ever seen, and I'm not the only one who says this.

Nightwarrior's second positive is the visuals. The show is outright f!@#$%g amazing! The characters, whether primary or secondary, look positively stunning. When the fighting scenes (of which there are many) appear, everything is fluid and beautiful. Even the world looks impressive, as the bleak landscapes instill a feeling of hopelessness. If you think that this is just my opinion, you're wrong. Just about every positive review of this show that I've come across has stated that the looks of Nightwarriors is one of it's high points.

Which leads me to the next positive, the dubbing. During the 90s, voice acting tended to fluctuate. Some shows had good dubs, others had okay dubs (Sailor Moon, I'm looking at you), while a few others had some of the most horrible dubbing in the world. Nightwarriors is in the good dubbing category, as I had no desire to punch the TV screen. The voice actors that they picked for this show fit the characters that they played. Kathleen Barr provides a sultry, sexy voice to the succubus Morrigan, and Janyse Jaud creates a perky, happy tone for the equally perky & happy Felicia. Just like the visuals, the dubbing is one of the high points for the reviews that I've seen.

The 4th positive of Nightwarriors is the length. This is another 4 episode show, which is pretty standard for some anime out there. What makes this one a bit different is the episode length, as each episode clocks in at 45 minutes. This makes the episodes into miniature movies, and actually stretches things out. I kinda like this, as I watched Nightwarriors over the course of two days, thereby increasing my enjoyment of watching it.

However, all is not good in the land of Nightwarriors: Darkstalker's Revenge. There are some pretty big negatives that are attached to this show, and the first is the rarity. This show is based on one of the most successful fighting franchises of all time, and because of that popularity, the DVDs were bought up quickly. Finding a copy of the DVDs (there are 2 episodes on a single DVD), is incredibly hard to find. You have only two options if you want this show:

A) Go to Amazon. I found my copies here, but I had absolutely no choice but to buy used copies. When I bought the both of them, the total price came to a little over 70 dollars (thank the heavens above for gift certificates). As I'm typing this, a few more used copies have come in on Amazon, lowering some of the prices. Guess I should have waited.
B) Download. I know, with all of the downloading issues that are circulating right now, that sounds stupid. However, giving how hard it is to find physical copies, it is a possible option. I won't say what sites would be useful in this venture, but I will say that there are a bunch of sites where you can find this show.

The second negative is the amount of characters. If you remember from my Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie review I said that some characters were giving a lot of screen time, while the others had only a little bit of time. This show has the exact same problem. Demitri, Morrigan, Felicia, Donovan, Lin Lin, Lei Lei, and Pyron receive the majority of the screen time, while a few of the equally iconic characters receive just a few moments of on screen time (although to be fair, John Talbian the Werewolf does have a good chunk of screen time in episode 3).

Nightwarriors: Darkstalker's Revenge gets a 8 out of 10. The main & side-stories work together, the visuals are out of this world, the dubbing is equally out of this world, and the length of time for each episodes makes for a longer enjoyment, but the DVDs are rare, and some characters don't show up much.

Until next time, stay Otaku!

SOPA: The End of the World? & Issues with Downloading

Ladies & Gentlemen, we're in for some very interesting times. On the 18th of this month, congress will cast it's vote on SOPA, a bill that will grant the recording, film, game, and other entertainment industries unparalleled power over content on the internet. It's a very frightening thing, as there has never been anything this damaging to so many internet sites before, other than the usual stuff.

What makes this all the more tragic & pathetic is the fact that the government already has a hand in on the internet. Due to legal items in place since the internet's inception, the government monitors for any sign of human trafficking, piracy, and terrorism. This is all that we need to keep the web safe. We don't need a bill (whether complete or crippled) that could potentially damage many of the internet sites that we know, love, and use on a daily basis. Sites like Youtube, Veoh, Dailymotion, and many others would become shells of their former selves, and sites with partial use of custom videos, like Destructoid and it's kin, would take an immense amount of damage.

The way I view SOPA, and probably most of the other people who protest against this bill, is that it's nothing more than a weak, knee-jerk reaction by a dying industry. With the music & movie industry losing control to services like Youtube and other similar sites, it's only natural for them to try & regain some control...for all the wrong reasons. The feeling is very evident in some of the companies that support bill.

All of this leads to my issue in regards to downloading. It doesn't matter what gets downloaded: music albums, video games, movies, or anime. Everything that we love is being hurt by illegal downloads. The anime industry itself hasn't been doing well in the past few years, with ADV Films (R.I.P.) closing in 2009, and a host of other companies either closing or having severe downsizing issues. Movie, game, and music companies also have been receiving some damage due to piracy. However, there is something else to discuss.

We can all agree that downloading is damaging, but certain industries sometimes blow it out of proportion. On top of that, movies, games, anime, and music that is no longer in print really doesn't cause any kind of damage. In particular, games that are no longer in print, or the companies just don't really use anymore, are what gamers call Abandonware. Essentially, they're games that can be downloaded without any form of retaliation from the game company. Even with movies and music, the older or less used it is, the less likely that you'll get in trouble. Anime, on the other hand, is a bit of a different picture.

With the blows the anime industry has taken in the past 2+ years, it's easy to see why downloading can be a bit of an issue. Voice actors and the companies they work for speak against it, fans speak against it, and plenty of others speak out against it. The way I see it, if you download new animes (that have been dubbed), then you're an idiot. If you download titles that are no longer in print, or the license has been lost or expired, then I see no reason why downloading is a problem. I have only downloaded one anime in my entire time (so far) as an otaku, and that's because it's from 1994, happened to have been subbed, and the parent company never gave a license to a company in the U.S. to dub it.

In the end, what I'm trying to say is that there is room for some kind of compromise. We need the people and the government to work together to create a bill that somehow works for both sides, not just some internet-mangling piece of paper that will benefit those that are higher on the food chain.

On an more pleasant note, I'll be putting up my review of Nightwarriors: Darkstalker's Revenge sometime this week or next week. Until next time, stay Otaku!

Burn Up Excess Review

Happy New Year! I would have put up a review sooner, but I was enjoying a good chunk of my Christmas gifts for the past few days, including the show that I'm doing this review for. So, without any other delay, here's a review for Burn Up Excess.

Directed by Shinichiro Kimura and airing in Japan between 1997 to 1998, and dubbed by ADV Films (R.I.P.) back in 2002, Burn Up Excess tells the tale of Team Warrior and their premier member, Rio Kinezono. Now, if you recognize the just mentioned names from my Burn Up W review a few months ago, you wouldn't be wrong, but I'll deal with that later.

As I was saying, this show tells the tale of Team Warrior, and their crime-fighting exploits within Neo-Tokyo. All is not well, as a rash of crimes spring up, calling the team into action within the city, and outside it's confines. There's a villain working behind the scenes, and it's going to take the entirety of Team Warrior to take him down...in a rather sexy manner, might I add.

Burn Up Excess has some good positives within it, and two interesting ones that I'll start off with. If you watch Burn Up W and Burn Up Excess side by side, you'd swear that they look exactly the same. The truth is very simple to understand: Both were created by the same studio (AIC), but W was done back in 1996, while Excess was done in 1997. Because of that, the two shows look just about the same, although Excess (in my opinion) looks and feels slightly smoother than W, but not by much. The other interesting thing about Excess is that it has the exact same voice cast: All of Team Warrior have the exact same voices, but some of the other characters, whether minor & major, may have had their voices changed (I didn't pay much attention to most of the other characters).

Burn Up Excess also has some standard positives, including availability and price. Despite it's age (more on that later), copies of the individual volumes are fairly easy to find. Over on Amazon, used copies are in plentiful supply, and new copies are also in supply, but on a smaller level. The pricing of these DvDs are also quite fair: new copies range from a little over 7 dollars, and go as high as 15 dollars, while used DvDs range from close to 3 dollars to 7 dollars. The new copies might be a little too much for some penny pinchers, but the used copes are very easy on the wallet.

Like the other Burn Up series before it, Excess has the right mix of comedy, fanservice, action, sci-fi, and a few touches of drama. Some episodes concentrate on certain aspects more than others, but the shows manages to keeps the themes as even as possible.

Another one of Burn Up Excess's positives, at least for some people, is the fanservice. Unlike Burn Up or Burn Up W, Excess supplements the sci-fi portions of the show with a healthy dose of panty shots, boob shots, and seeing the main cast of the show in their undergarments at certain points within some of the episodes. Personally, I don't have a problem with this, but others may, and I'll get to that point in a little bit.

Now, onto Excess's negatives, and they're big ones. Like I mentioned earlier, this show looks almost like it's predecessor, and it sounds like the exact same thing. To me, this is a cheap tactic. It's not that I have a problem with similar looking or sounding shows, it's just that I have a problem with animes that look almost the same (more so with older series), and have the same english voice actors. Very lazy, if you ask me.

Secondly, Burn Up Excess is an old show, as far as dubs in this country are concerned. It'll be 10 years old sometime this year, and most anime fans who are into mainstream shows more than likely never have heard of this series. On top of that, the full set of Burn Up Excess is hard as hell to find. As I'm typing this, there are only 8 copies on Amazon: 4 new & 4 used. The new copies start at a whopping 126 dollars, while the used copes start at a much lower, yet still wallet breaking, 85 dollars. If you're absolutely desperate for the series all together, then buy used. Otherwise, you'll probably rip out a kidney trying to pay for a new copy.

Third negative is the fanservice. Like I said, I don't have a problem with seeing panties, boobs, and girls standing around in undergarments or in the nude. For the fans who have enjoyed the original Burn Up, and even Burn Up W, the fanservice at times is a bit overwhelming. Some scenes pour on the fanservice a lot, and that'll probably push some prospective fans away.

Fourth and final negative of Burn Up Excess is the story. I understand not touching on the original story, as that was a bit on the dark side, but I can't forgive them for not even at least touching up on Burn Up W's storyline. Instead, Excess is a completely new story, and it doesn't touch up on W's story at all. On top of that, some of the sidestories sometimes cover up the main story, confusing anyone that is watching.

Burn Up Excess gets a 6.5 to 7 out of 10. It looks and sounds just about the same as the previous show, is very easy to find and the price isn't terrible, the various themes are fairly balanced, and seeing girls in their skivvies is always pleasing to the eyes for some of us, but the same looks and voice dubs is a cheap tactic, is rather old, the fanservice won't be for everybody, and it doesn't go back to W's original story.

Until next time, stay Otaku!