History WesternAnimation / Darkstalkers

* AdaptationalVillainy: This would be the first of many depictions of Morrigan Aensland as a villain rather than a relatively NiceGirl demon as she is in games. Her appearance in the cartoon is evil, power-hungry and spiteful.

* AnimatedAdaptation: The first of two based on the ''Darkstalkers'' video games, the other being the later ''[[Anime/NightWarriorsDarkstalkersRevenge Night Warriors]]'' OVA.

* AdaptationalUgliness: Most of the evil Darkstalkers, especially Morrigan.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Morrigan and Donovan.

* KissOfDeath: In Donovan's Bane", Morrigan attempts to drain the life energy of a drifter through a kiss. The kiss is interrupted and the drifter escapes with his life. This is the only time in the series where she tries this.

* ToServeMan: It is said that Morrigan actually eats her victims.

* AdaptationalModesty: Morrigan and Felicia were covered up in order to show less skin than their video game counterparts. Felicia is even drawn with a white bikini top.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Morrigan, Demitri,[[note]]Who technically was a villain to begin with.[[/note]] and Anakaris. To some extent, Donovan as well.

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: This hits the series hard. The evil Darkstalkers were given uglier designs than their video game counterparts. As if that was not enough, said video game counterparts are, for the most part, more benevolent.[[note]]Except when they aren't. It's complicated.[[/note]]

* Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Pyron.

* VanHelsingHateCrimes: Donovan's defining characteristic.

* WouldHurtAChild: Demitri apparently murdered Hsien-Ko's sister and drank her blood, and the only reason he didn't get Hsien-Ko too is because she managed to run away.

The plot is that the fire elemental Pyron wants the Earth to collect. When he came 4,000 years earlier, the Earth had lots of monsters who viewed him as a god. Now, Pyron is disappointed by the billions of common, scrubby little beings with no powers, magic, or mutations. His ball asks him why he does not just kill all of man. Pyron says he wants the old races awakened, starting with Demitri Maximoff, the vampire lord. Once that proves to be a success, the two suck up Morrigan Aensland, Anakaris, Bishamon, and Lord Raptor. However, Jon Talbain, Rikuo, Sasquatch, Victor, and Felicia manage to avoid the beam. In addition, Felicia partners up with [[MightyWhitey Harry Grimoire]], a descendant of Merlin. Ultimately, the escapees decides to team up in order to stop Pyron.

* Merchandise Driven: While no toy line was ever made, this is probably the reason Rikuo once had his own personal jet (the 'Sky Fish'), just screaming to be made in plastic.

* EndingTheme: The one thing this series got right: the end credits theme is still "Trouble Man".[[note]]But only in the later episodes; originally it was just a repeat of the instrumental theme.[[/note]]

* DeathByAdaptation: Huitzil is blown to pieces. [[spoiler:This is later subverted, as it starts to rebuild itself after everyone is gone.]]

* CaptainErsatz: Subverted. Despite looking like a blatant Franchise/HarryPotter ripoff at first glance, Harry Grimoire actually ''[[OlderThanTheyThink predates]]'' Creator/JKRowling's work.

* KissOfDeath: In the second episode, Morrigan attempted to drain the life energy of a drifter through a kiss. The kiss was interrupted and the drifter escaped with his life. This was the only time in the series she tried this.

** Hsien-Ko has mechanical hands instead of the oversized claws at the end of her sleeves.[[note]]In the games, she ''does'' have real hands, but they are tucked inside her sleeves to hold said claws.[[/note]] As if that wasn't enough, the decision of to give Hsien-Ko a normal skin tone instead of her usual [[UndeathlyPallor undead blue skin tone]] makes her {B{lush Sticker}}s stand out much more than normal.

** Hsien-Ko has mechanical hands instead of the oversized claws at the end of her sleeves.[[note]]In the games, she ''does'' have real hands, but they are tucked inside her sleeves to hold said claws.[[/note]] As if that wasn't enough, the decision of to give Hsien-Ko a normal skin tone instead of her usual [[UndeathlyPallor undead blue skin tone]] makes her {{blush sticker}}s stand out much more than normal.
** Felicia completely averts this. She stays the same, except for larger fur patches.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Anita's[[note]]Referred to as "Amanda" in this series.[[/note]] hair is changed from brown to blond.

* AdaptationNameChange: Many. For example, Sasquatch is called Bigfoot.[[note]]In the original game, "Bigfoot" is referred to as his species. On the other hand, the original mythical Bigfoot has also been referred to as "Sasquatch", which is likely what this series was referring to.[[/note]]

* CaptainErsatz: Subverted. Despite looking like a blatant Franchise/HarryPotter ripoff at first glance, Harry Grimoire actually ''[[OlderThanTheyThink predates]]'' J.K. Rowling's work.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Anakaris. Apparently the writers took the "brain removal" part of mummification and ran with it, resulting in him being a TalkativeLoon who speaks primarily in WordSalad.

* SecretMutantHeroTeam: The good Darkstalkers form a partnership.

The plot is that the fire elemental Pyron wants the Earth to collect. When he came 4,000 years earlier, the Earth had lots of monsters who viewed him as a god. Now, Pyron is disappointed by the billions of common, scrubby little beings with no powers, magic, or mutations. His ball asks him why he does not just kill all of man. Pyron says he wants the old races awakened, starting with Demitri Maximoff, the vampire lord. Once that proves to be a success, the two suck up Morrigan Aensland, Anakaris, Bishamon, and Lord Raptor. However, Jon Talbain, Rikuo, Sasquatch, Victor, and Felicia manage to avoid the beam. In addition, Felicia partners up with [[MightyWhitey Harry Grimoire]], a descendant of Merlin. Ultimately, the escapees team up to stop Pyron.

The plot is that the fire elemental Pyron wants the Earth to collect. When he came 1,000 years earlier, the Earth had lots of monsters who viewed him as a god. Now, Pyron is disappointed by the billions of common, scrubby little beings with no powers, magic, or mutations. His ball asks him why he does not just kill all of man. Pyron says he wants the old races awakened, starting with Demitri Maximoff, the vampire lord. Once that proves to be a success, the two suck up Morrigan Aensland, Anakaris, Bishamon, and Lord Raptor. However, Jon Talbain, Rikuo, Sasquatch, Victor, and Felicia manage to avoid the beam. In addition, Felicia partners up with [[MightyWhitey Harry Grimoire]], a descendant of Merlin. Ultimately, the escapees team up to stop Pyron.

* AdaptationalModesty: Morrigan and Felicia were covered up in order to show less skin than their video game counterparts. Felicia is even drawn with a red brooch of sorts to join her breast fur patches together.

''Darkstalkers'' is a short lived cartoon series made by Graz Entertainment (the company behind ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeExtreme'', and ''WesternAnimation/SkeletonWarriors'') for FirstRunSyndication, and is based on the Creator/{{Capcom}} fighting game series [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} of the same name]].

** Demitri is a straighter, downplayed example, as he was made ''less'' scary. In the games and the ''Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge'' OVA, his entire mouth is full of sharp teeth. Here, only his canines are unusually sharp and elongated, which is the norm for a vampire.

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: This hits the series hard. The evil Darkstalkers were given uglier designs than their video game counterparts. As if that was not enough, said video game counterparts are, for the most part, more benevolent[[note]]Except when they aren't. It's complicated.[[/note]].

* AdaptationNameChange: Many. For example, Sasquatch is called Bigfoot.[[note]]"Bigfoot" is the name of his species.[[/note]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: This hits the series hard. The evil Darkstalkers were given uglier designs than their video game counterparts. As if that was not enough, said video game counterparts are, for the most part, more benevolent.

''Darkstalkers'' is a short lived cartoon series made by Graz Entertainment (the company behind ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeExtreme'', ''WesternAnimation/SkeletonWarriors'', and the ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'' cartoon) for FirstRunSyndication, and is based on the Creator/{{Capcom}} fighting game series [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} of the same name]].

** Inverted with most of the evil Darkstalkers, especially Morrigan.

* EndingTheme: The one thing this series got right: the end credits theme is still "Trouble Man". [[note]]But only in the later episodes; originally it was just a repeat of the instrumental theme.[[/note]]

The show is similar to the American ''Street Fighter'' cartoon, not just in terms of being kids-friendly cartoons based off of Capcom fighting games, but also in regards to quality: [[OffModel inconsistent animation, bizarre-looking character designs]], unfaithfulness to the source material[[note]]That said, [[ExcusePlot there isn't really much to the games]] (of which there were two at the time) other than various supernatural creatures fighting to "rule the night". Additionally, Morrigan uses her soul fist move in at least one episode (albeit none of her others. Even then, none of the other characters [[CallingYourAttacks call their attacks]] is this in the show.[[/note]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking having the main antagonist voiced by]] Creator/RichardNewman.

Still, it at least didn't suffer from an identity crisis like the ''Street Fighter'' cartoon did (which couldn't decide whether to base itself on the games or the movie), and it's also fondly remembered by some as a similarly SoBadItsGood show worth watching for the laughs, not being without its few good points (two in particular are the use of "Trouble Man" as the ending theme, and Creator/ScottMcNeil's standout performance as Lord Raptor, the latter of which lead to [=McNeil=] reprising the role in the English dub of the ''Anime/NightWarriorsDarkstalkersRevenge'' [=OVA=]).

* AdaptationNameChange: Many. For example, Sasquatch is called Bigfoot.[[note]]On the other hand "Bigfoot" is his species, plus "Sasquatch" is just another name for "Bigfoot" anyway.[[/note]]
* AdaptationalVillainy: Morrigan, Demitri[[note]]Who technically was a villain to begin with.[[/note]] and Anakaris. To some extent, Donovan as well.

* CulturalTranslation: Hsien-Ko is referred to as a ghost rather than a [[ChineseVampire jiangshi]][[note]]That being said, while jiangshi are sometimes called (Chinese) hopping vampires, they are technically a kind of ghost.[[/note]], presumably because the latter is more obscure in the West.

* EndingTheme: The one thing this series got right: the end credits theme is still "Trouble Man" [[note]]But only in later episodes; originally it was just a repeat of the instrumental theme[[/note]].
* EnemyCivilWar: Demitri and Morrigan's constant attempts at one-upping each other (which did happen in the games), which end up being one of the major impeding factors in the progress of Pyron's plans.

* FamousAncestor: Morrigan is descended from Morgan Le Fay, and Harry from Merlin, both figures from the Arthurian legends)

* {{Grimmification}}: Morrigan is far closer to the mythological succubus here, with her ugly appearance, inherent demonic malevolence,+ and the consumption of her victims.
* LighterAndSofter: The violence and horror elements from the games were toned down. It was also more comedy oriented.

* OffModel

* PlanetOfHats: [[ImpliedTrope Implied.]] Pyron mentions "the Great Collector" as the leader of his civilization, suggesting that stockpiling valuable objects and territory is fundamental to their culture.

* SecretMutantHeroTeam

* SpeaksInShoutOuts: Lord Raptor does this at times.
-->"[[Creator/PaulMcCartney Live and let die]] is what I say. [[Creator/BillyJoel It's still rock 'n roll to me]]."

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: This hits the series hard. The evil Darkstalkers were given uglier designs than their video game counterparts. As if that was not enough, said video game counterparts are, for the most part, more benevolent (except when they aren't).

''Darkstalkers'' is a short lived cartoon series made by Graz Entertainment (the company behind ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeExtreme'', ''WesternAnimation/SkeletonWarriors'', and the ''WesternAnimation/StreetFighter'' cartoon) for the Creator/USANetwork and Creator/{{UPN}}, and is based on the Creator/{{Capcom}} fighting game series [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} of the same name]].

The show is similar to the American ''Street Fighter'' cartoon, not just in terms of being kids-friendly cartoons based off of Capcom fighting games, but also in regards to quality: [[OffModel inconsistent animation, bizarre-looking character designs]], unfaithfulness to the source material, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking having the main antagonist voiced by]] Creator/RichardNewman.

* AdaptationDyeJob: Anita's hair is changed from brown to blond.

* AdaptationNameChange: Many. For example, Sasquatch is called Bigfoot.
* AdaptationalVillainy: Morrigan, Demitri and Anakaris. To some extent, Donovan as well.

* CulturalTranslation: Hsien-Ko is referred to as a ghost rather than a [[ChineseVampire jiangshi]], presumably because the latter is more obscure in the West.

* EndingTheme: The one thing this series got right: the end credits theme is still "Trouble Man".
* EnemyCivilWar: Demitri and Morrigan's constant attempts at one-upping each other, which end up being one of the major impeding factors in the progress of Pyron's plans.

* FamousAncestor: Morrigan is descended from Morgan Le Fay, and Harry from Merlin.

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: This hits the series hard. The evil Darkstalkers were given uglier designs than their video game counterparts. As if that was not enough, said video game counterparts are, for the most part, more benevolent.