Nightwalker
Encyclopedia
is a late night anime
TV series created by Ayana Itsuki that is adapted from a PC
game titled .
Nightwalker incorporates elements of the horror
, detective story
and vampire
genres, and is critically noted as a vampire story "with a bit of a twist". The main character is Shido, a vampire
who protects humans from other supernatural creatures. A private investigator by day and a demon hunter by night, Shido solves murder
cases caused by monsters called nightbreeds.
Shido, the main character of the series, is a vampire
who decided to defend humans against his demonic brethren as atonement for the sins he committed early in his vampiric life. He knows little of his life prior to becoming a vampire, and even his name is a pseudonym
he took when he arrived in Japan. Upon settling down in Japan, Shido established a one-man (plus one-secretary) private investigator office, which he uses as a means to hunt breeds while keeping his true nature secret. Shido even keeps his identity secret from Riho, a teenage girl he decided to employ as a secretary after her parents were killed in a breed attack.
All is not business as usual at Shido's office, however, as Shido is soon forced to reveal to Riho that he is the same sort of creature that killed her parents. Furthermore, Shido's powerful and obsessive sire, Cain, has plans in motion to reclaim Shido, as well as to initiate the 'Golden Dawn', a secret with far-reaching implications for all creatures of the night.
The main character, Tatsuhiko Shido is a private detective. He is also a vampire with the ability to manipulate his own blood to form weapons. Shido has an outwardly mercurial personality, but beneath that, he is very serious and dedicated – so much so that he is likely to blame himself when something goes wrong. He is often employed by Yayoi Matsunaga.
An agent with the N.O.S. anti-nightbreed crime unit. Yayoi pays Shido with her blood in exchange for his expertise in investigating nightbreeds, and their relationship goes beyond being strictly professional.
A high-school aged girl whose family was murdered by nightbreeds. Riho idolizes Shido and works as his secretary, but is initially unaware of that he is a vampire. She learns Shido's secret while attempting to help him with an investigation, but decides to continue working for him despite this.
A small, fairy-like creature. Guni's relationship with Shido is like that of a familiar spirit
, but she only assists him if she feels like it. She often irritates the others, especially Riho, with biting remarks.
Cain transformed Shido into a vampire long before the main events of the series. He and Shido once lived together in Transylvania, where they fed on countless innocent people. Over time Cain's cruelty drove Shido to leave him, though Cain refuses to let him go.
, is noted for its jazz
themes and prominent use of saxophone
s. The soundtrack also features by BUCK-TICK
as the opening theme, and by La'cryma Christi
as the closing theme. Gessekai is unusual in that it was not a purpose-written tie-in
song, but was selected from BUCK-TICK's existing body of work. An official soundtrack was released in Japan on October 14, 1998 by Universal Music Japan.
released in 1993. Night Walker is an adventure game
, focused mostly on character interaction and problem solving. While the main characters of this game have the same names and similar appearances to their anime equivalents, their personalities are generally more easy-going and their backgrounds are less tragic (they all have living relatives). In comparison to the anime, the game is fairly lighthearted, with Shidō and Guni providing comic relief.
In 2001 the developer Arieroof remade this game for Windows 2000
under the title Night Walker. This version uses the same source drawings as the original game, except with 256-color displays, and plays similarly. The characters are recolored, and match the anime more closely. (Shidō's hair is purple, Guni's body is green. Inexplicably, Yayoi's hair is bubblegum pink.)
Late night anime
is a term used in Japan to denote anime television series broadcast late at night and/or in the early morning, usually between 23.00 and 4.00. Sometimes the scheduled times of such broadcasts are advertised in a format using an hour greater than 24 is a term used in Japan to denote anime...
TV series created by Ayana Itsuki that is adapted from a PC
IBM PC compatible
IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
game titled .
Nightwalker incorporates elements of the horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, detective story
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
and vampire
Vampire fiction
Vampire literature covers the spectrum of literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. The literary vampire first appeared in 18th century poetry, before becoming one of the stock figures of gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's The Vampyre , which was inspired by...
genres, and is critically noted as a vampire story "with a bit of a twist". The main character is Shido, a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
who protects humans from other supernatural creatures. A private investigator by day and a demon hunter by night, Shido solves murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
cases caused by monsters called nightbreeds.
Development
One oddity of the series is that the character designs for the first four episodes are different from the main character designs used for the rest of the series and both the opening and ending. This is due to the fact that these episodes were intended to be presented as an OAV, with the remaining episodes added after the fact to make up the entire series.Story
In the world of Nightwalker, attacks by the , minor demons that possess humans and feed on their souls, are relatively common. As a group, nightbreeds (often referred to by the abbreviation 'breed') are usually self-serving and of low intelligence, and they drive a human host to commit crimes. Because these breed-inspired crimes are often difficult to identify, a special agency known as the N.O.S. has been organized to investigate and solve breed-related cases.Shido, the main character of the series, is a vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
who decided to defend humans against his demonic brethren as atonement for the sins he committed early in his vampiric life. He knows little of his life prior to becoming a vampire, and even his name is a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
he took when he arrived in Japan. Upon settling down in Japan, Shido established a one-man (plus one-secretary) private investigator office, which he uses as a means to hunt breeds while keeping his true nature secret. Shido even keeps his identity secret from Riho, a teenage girl he decided to employ as a secretary after her parents were killed in a breed attack.
All is not business as usual at Shido's office, however, as Shido is soon forced to reveal to Riho that he is the same sort of creature that killed her parents. Furthermore, Shido's powerful and obsessive sire, Cain, has plans in motion to reclaim Shido, as well as to initiate the 'Golden Dawn', a secret with far-reaching implications for all creatures of the night.
Characters
- Tatsuhiko Shido
The main character, Tatsuhiko Shido is a private detective. He is also a vampire with the ability to manipulate his own blood to form weapons. Shido has an outwardly mercurial personality, but beneath that, he is very serious and dedicated – so much so that he is likely to blame himself when something goes wrong. He is often employed by Yayoi Matsunaga.
- Yayoi Matsunaga
An agent with the N.O.S. anti-nightbreed crime unit. Yayoi pays Shido with her blood in exchange for his expertise in investigating nightbreeds, and their relationship goes beyond being strictly professional.
- Riho Yamazaki
A high-school aged girl whose family was murdered by nightbreeds. Riho idolizes Shido and works as his secretary, but is initially unaware of that he is a vampire. She learns Shido's secret while attempting to help him with an investigation, but decides to continue working for him despite this.
- Guni .
A small, fairy-like creature. Guni's relationship with Shido is like that of a familiar spirit
Familiar spirit
In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...
, but she only assists him if she feels like it. She often irritates the others, especially Riho, with biting remarks.
- Cain
Cain transformed Shido into a vampire long before the main events of the series. He and Shido once lived together in Transylvania, where they fed on countless innocent people. Over time Cain's cruelty drove Shido to leave him, though Cain refuses to let him go.
Music
The soundtrack for the Nightwalker anime, composed by Akifumi TadaAkifumi Tada
is a Japanese anime music composer and video game composer. He has composed the music for various anime, theme song or entire soundtracks, and has done video games as well.-Anime:Composition*Captain Tsubasa Road to 2002*Fight Ippatsu! Jūden-chan!!...
, is noted for its jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
themes and prominent use of saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
s. The soundtrack also features by BUCK-TICK
Buck-Tick
Buck-Tick is a rock band formed in 1983 in Fujioka, Japan. The band has consisted of Atsushi Sakurai , Hisashi Imai , Hidehiko Hoshino , Yutaka Higuchi and Toll Yagami for the majority of its existence...
as the opening theme, and by La'cryma Christi
La'cryma Christi
La'cryma Christi was a Japanese visual kei rock band, which formed in 1993 and disbanded in January 2007. They reunited for a concert in 2009 at the "V-Rock Festival", and for their short reunion tour in 2010.- History :...
as the closing theme. Gessekai is unusual in that it was not a purpose-written tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
song, but was selected from BUCK-TICK's existing body of work. An official soundtrack was released in Japan on October 14, 1998 by Universal Music Japan.
Episodes
Nightwalker has 12 episodes, all of them divided as "nights":- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
- 12.
PC Game: Mayonaka no Tantei Night Walker
The source material for the anime came from , a 16-color PC erogeEroge
An or Ero-ga is a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork. Eroge originated from galge, but unlike galge, they feature erotic/pornographic content.-History:...
released in 1993. Night Walker is an adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
, focused mostly on character interaction and problem solving. While the main characters of this game have the same names and similar appearances to their anime equivalents, their personalities are generally more easy-going and their backgrounds are less tragic (they all have living relatives). In comparison to the anime, the game is fairly lighthearted, with Shidō and Guni providing comic relief.
In 2001 the developer Arieroof remade this game for Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
under the title Night Walker. This version uses the same source drawings as the original game, except with 256-color displays, and plays similarly. The characters are recolored, and match the anime more closely. (Shidō's hair is purple, Guni's body is green. Inexplicably, Yayoi's hair is bubblegum pink.)
Characters
- Tatsuhiko Shidō
- A quarter-vampire (one of his grandfathers was a full-blood vampire, and the rest of his family line is of Japanese descent), Shidō has inherited guardianship of the passage between the mortal world and the demon world, but otherwise he lives as a human. His 'day job' is private investigator, and he works closely with the Kanagawa police. Through this connection, he learns that a girl he was unable to save from nightbreeds was a student at St. Michael Girls Academy, and goes to the school to investigate. He is quite pleased about this because he is something of a pervert, and takes plenty of time out to ogle the teenage girls.
- Riho Yamazaki
- A high school student at St. Michael Academy, she shared a dorm room with Miyako, the girl murdered by nightbreeds. (In the finale of the anime, Riho and Shido are seen sharing a coffin together.) Normally cheerful and energetic, Riho is shocked and depressed by her friend's murder. When Shidō comes to her for help, she vows to avenge her friend and helps Shidō unravel the conspiracy based out of the school. Shidō drinks Riho's blood in the finalé of the game, and she becomes a vampire. Originally, Night Walker was planned to have Rihoko Ayukawa, a character from a previous TomBoy game called Bishōjo Audition, in the role of heroine. As the project evolved, Rihoko became Riho.
- Yayoi Matsunaga
- She is a detective with the Kanagawa Police (the N.O.S. does not exist in the game). Hot-headed and frustrated both with her career and her love-life, she tends to be short tempered. Yayoi comes from a police family, and her father, the chief of the Yokohama police, worked closely with Shidō's vampiric relatives. As much as Yayoi resents it, she seems to be destined for the same role. She and Shidō dated prior to the game, but the relationship fell apart. Now they spend most of their time together bickering, and Shidō loves to tease her. Yet, there's still a bit of a spark between them.
- Guni
- Shidō's familiarFamiliar spiritIn European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic...
, an earth-spirit who inhabits Shidō's ear. Though Guni appears female (and is referred to as a 'she',) she is actually sexless. Guni ignores Shidō's commands more often than not, but she does really care about him. She styles herself a know-it-all, but usually mispronounces whatever she's trying to explain.