Let’s Talk: Netflix’s Castlevania

With the ample amount of time most people find themselves with this season, I recently binged all three seasons of Netflix's Castlevania. I, for one, am not a gamer who has played any of the Castlevania games. I am not particularly old enough to have a Castlevania game come out when I'm able to purchase it of my own free will and neither am I free enough to indulge myself in the classics when modern games continue to bombard me from every direction.

However, within the gaming scene, Castlevania holds a strong influence in both accomplishments as well as novelty. It, along with Metroid, have contributed a whole genre of video games known as the Metroidvania games (a portmanteau of the two titles). Case in point, the series is very important to at least know about.

So it definitely didn't surprise me that Netflix wanted to make a series out of it. Vampires, gothic themes, interesting lore and juicy history. There's so much to work with here. Being an anime, the series would also be able to adapt the series without much of an issue. Really, it's a good choice. The only issue was, could they live up to the expectations carried by the very name itself. Do badly and everyone will reel the next time they choose to adapt a video game but do it well and they may just yet land another big fish.

Long story short, as a freshman to the Castlevania franchise, I think they did relatively well. Once I was done with season 3, I looked up some info on the original source material and realised that they did, in fact, change quite a bit but not too much as to displease fans. Some characters' personalities were tweaked like Hector and Isaac while others were given more depth like Sypha and Lisa. But since this apparently exists in an entirely different timeline, I suppose none of that quite matters anymore.

The animation deserves praise but this was obvious from the get-go. A huge budget coming from a media distributing company gambling on a beloved video game franchise does not at all spell disaster. Things could have gone south yes but I'm glad that it does look faithful to what I would consider great American anime. This particular style lets their unique comic book art style pop from the pages and lends itself to the Japanese-developed series since it's primarily set in otherwise European Romania.

Environments are beautiful, the characters are pretty, fight scenes are satisfying to watch and the satanic depictions aren't as gross as they truly are (this is a positive to me). The emotions and mannerisms of characters as they interact with each other also benefit from this art style and work well to be distinct enough from Japanese animation that it doesn't come off as tropey or fake.

I should note that I watched it in Japanese voices because, while the English VAs are good, I preferred the way the Japanese voices sounded. The distinction of accents disappear giving everyone a neutral ground since they're all supposed to be European anyway, certain voices are deeper or lighter in tone to match the character's design and the crude use of expletives are removed almost entirely. I understand that this is 'ye oldey days' but I cannot believe that a so-called refined vampire such as Carmilla would cuss it out at every sentence she gets. It didn't quite fit her character and certainly didn't fit Lenore when she was introduced.

The story itself is pretty interesting for the most part. It's less about the narrative and plot but more about the characters so sometimes there really isn't an end-goal in mind whenever I'm going through any of the episodes but they did a good job nailing the characters so interactions become quite a joy to go through and it didn't matter where the destination was as long as I had these characters to follow along the way.

The characters are interesting because they build off the history and lore of the world. The story is set in the past where Christianity used to rule with an iron fist and science is looked down upon as witchcraft. People were very easily bullied into submission, killing is merely a routine that some have adopted and most people are contented to live in ignorance. This rubs off on all the characters as they reflect the intellectual evolution that us modern folks are more used to. You know, no killing and blind faith and all that.

Vampire Annette as I like to call her

Trevor struggles to see joy and purpose owing to his family history, Sypha seeks answers and freedom in a world that does not partake to those tastes, Alucard suffers from guilt and loneliness that conflicts with his morality and the other characters all have something going for them too. So if you think you're going to get a whole lot of action, I should say that you will probably still get it. Just...expect a lot more talking.

Season 1 wasn't as appealing to me as it was to others because it simply served as a set-up for season 2. I didn't quite prefer it but I can see why they needed to do it this way. It probably would have worked if season 1 was stretched longer to encompass season 2 but that wouldn't really be smart marketing. Season 2 was fantastic as it culminated in one of the best fights in the series and season 3 followed the aftermath and further built upon the franchise as a whole. I adored the craziness of it all and I am very much looking forward to the recently confirmed 4th season.