Had a dream that there was apparently a vampire dies ova back in 2012, but it honestly looked more like something that aired in the late 90s/early 2000's
You might be thinking, "Didn't the manga start in 2015?" and yes. it did. But judging by the style of the ova, it was most likely the first attempt to revive a beloved manga from the 90s for a 10s audience. So in this dream universe, the vampire dies we know is actually a reboot, and this ova preceded the 2015 manga (essentially serving as a test to see if it would work for audiences nowadays)
The opening sequence had all the characters dance in place all across the screen with the castle as a background. the vibe of the castle was completely different though, because they weren't using purples for the dark yet, it was all done with black which made everything look more horror-esque
Which was fitting, because the first 1/3 of the ova was actually a horror au short about Draluc coming home to the castle and his parents acting... off.
After the opening (before the short started) there was a wall of text from the original creator addressing long-time fans and apologising for any inconvenience caused by out of characterness, lmao. The short was like. legit horror. it was actually fairly scary because the castle looked more like underground catacombs, and it was dark as hell in there, no windows anywhere.
I don't remember what the other part of the ova was about sadly, but the reason it was so different was because it was adapted to be for anyone, regardless of their knowledge of vampire dies. So they chose accessibility over accuracy. It was also a bit more serious overall, I'm guessing they toned down the humour for a broader appeal, or the reboot was kind of like... a teen titans go equivalent to the original
Everyone's designs were pretty much the same, just a bit less saturated (though that could've just been the video quality). The only one who looked marginally different was Manner who had reallllyyy long hair. like reaching up to his ankles long. It alternated between blue and pink and went down in a spiral (like a hair drill) maybe there was a bit of yellow in there too? and he had one of those 90s fluffy scrunchies in around the middle as well (a very big one)
