Nightwalker originally started as a 3 episode OVA (original video animation) or basically a direct to video film. However it started such a following they decided to expand the originally 3 episodes into a normal 12 episode ova. I'm glad they did.
The story is about a vampire under the name Shido Tatsuhiko who runs a detective agency for the strange and paranormal. This serves more as a guise because Shido spends most of his time hunting and destroying demonic creatures known as Nightbreeds. Shido has three assistants which cover most Japanese stereotypes. Yayoi, the tough and more action driven lady of the group. The ditsy love interest Riho, and the loudmouth imp Guni.
The animation itself is wonderful, created back in the time where everything was still handrawn and backgrounds were beautifully made by watercolours. It has a mid 90's feel to it that I can never get enough of, for comparing you could say it looks like the artwork of sailor moon; except, much, much more violent.
The stories are well done and as weak as the US Manga corps group is, they really hit it with the voice acting. Vincent Hatcher is on the scene as Shido (he has done many works, most notably Himura Kenshin in the famed series Ruruoni Kenshin) The one place were the ball is dropped is marketing. I had never heard of the series before. It was buy chance that I saw the dvds in a store. At first I thought they were some form of hentai and was quite weary. However for only 14 dollars a DVD and 3 hours on each DVD. I couldn't resist. I fell fully in love with the series and I still consider it my favorite.
The dvds themselves are nice 6 episodes on each disk, and two disks. They have always been 14 dollars a DVD (thats half price normally, and at least 2 episodes more than an average DVD too) Just for value alone your getting a good anime deal.
Considering this is my favorite anime, I have to give this the best marking I can. 9.8/10 its truly a gold find.
