If the Darkstalkers series passed you by, you missed out on a good 2D fighter drawn from the Street Fighter mold. Depending on your level of adoration for the games, which were released mostly over Sony consoles during the last decade, this anime may please or delight. Going under the name, Night Warriors, Darkstalkers' Revenge: The Animated Series, there are two collections on UMD now from VIZ. Alpha and Omega - that's "first" and "last" to you ignorant non-Greeks - throw us right into the action, which may be a little confusing to those who haven't been waving the Darkstalkers fan these many years. But I have developed the perspective that suspension of disbelief and comprehension is a must to all devoted anime fans anyway. So read on, intrepid fanboy...

Volume 1: Return of the Darkstalkers mostly introduces the hunky Demitri Maximov and his luscious antagonist, Morrigan, the succubus. Morrigan, who dresses dark like a vampire, but who has major cleavage that just screams "succubus!" If you start harboring lust in your heart for Morrigan, watching her tear it up with Demitri will cure you of thinking she's cute and cuddly. We don't know exactly why Demitri is so pissed off, but he's been banned from the Demon World, we presume for some malfeasance that he never mentions. As the dark knight of Demon World, Morrigan is sent to keep Demitri at bay. Unlike every Sandra Bullock movie, she doesn't fall for him, and they proceed to scrappin'. During the fight, which really ends in a draw, there are other players entering the stage.

Volume 2: The Blood of the Dark/The Power of the Dark goes a ways toward explaining why everything is so durn murky in these parts. For "Dark" read evil, taint, corruption, perfidy, etc. Demitri's got it, a crawling horde of demons want it, and the only man strong enough to fight it is Donovan. Besides having incredibly large earlobes, Donovan sports the biggest sword in the film and a necklace that looks like it should be trimming a Christmas tree in its spare time. Did I mention he's got some "dark" in him? He's the one who is short on talk, until he meets Anita. Anita is like a young Drew Barrymore, but without the cocaine habit. She can pass for human, but she's basically a mutant. A more obvious mutant is Felicia, who really is cute and cuddly, in the form of a cat-woman. The only other characters who play a major role are Mei-Ling and Hsien-Ko, apparently modeled on Thelma & Louise. The characters don't all converge by the end of the series, but each of them has a good story to tell.

The animation style is good, but since this series is vintage 1997, the presentation isn't breaking any ground by today's standards. The music is great, and the voices are basically an all-star cast, from the Japanese side. Donovan is voiced by Unshô Ishizuka, whose credits include Cowboy Bepop and Wolf's Rain, and the English voices bring back He-Man memories. Subtitles are a must, but you can't go wrong either way. The verdict on this release is that it will mainly reach hard-core fans of the game, or collectors of classic anime.