Well my friends, this Halloween I have a treat for you. While I had originally tried to keep to my usual formula for this year I found it impossible due to the final review. This just came out on Netflix but I really wanted to review it for Halloween this year so I had to instead jumble up what I’d be reviewing rather than the usual classic sci fi, modern game, classic game, anime route. So let’s this Halloween night see if anything can top a bishop being called out on his bull***t by demons.

So first up, go see season one of Castlevania. (it’s only 4 episodes we can wait, do de um dum… hmm I’ll go get the treats ready for trick or treaters) Ok first let me get this out, Grant and Death are not in the series… I am rather annoyed by Death’s absence since he’s a major Castlevania character, maybe he will be in season 3 but I felt that about season 2.
Well right away it does feel like some of the complaints from the original series were heard (except for missing characters) as we see A LOT more of Dracula and his cast, in fact maybe we see a little too much of him as a lot of the scenes now take place without Trevor Alucard or Sypha. We see the machinations of different loyalties and goals going on amongst Dracula’s forces mainly created by the vampire Carmilla (who is from the games) and the clashing ethics of the two demon smiths Issac and Hector (they are from the ps2 game Curse of Darkness). Now I should address this, in the games, Issac was white. But frankly I have nothing against the race change here as they do good work with his new ethnicity and give him a new origin that ties into the historical setting.

Another complaint addressed was people feeling a lack of classic monsters, as right away we see Slogra and Gaibon who even do the combo attacks from Symphony of the Night. Minotaurs and other classic monsters do show up later (but not the ever present Medusa heads) so it clearly shows the people working on the show cared about the series (unlike the arse that did the Resident Evil movies and is about to butcher Monster Hunter). There is one other complaint that is addressed to our surprise in episode 7 and I kind of squeed when it happened.

Season 2 felt like a very different beast than season 1. There is on the whole a lot less action and the story is focused more on machinations of what’s happening in Dracula’s castle. Trevor and the gang only really have 1 fight scene until the fight’s leading into the castle and its rather a long time apart. Exposition is a lot heavier in the series now but it’s done organically so it doesn’t get too irritating, people aren’t discussing things that they normally wouldn’t just to fill us in on matters – they usually are explaining it to people who would know.

Like season 1 it’s a very grim series, when killing happens, it’s very blunt about the gore, it is for adults after all. Trevor and Alucard playing off one another actually makes for some of the more funny moments. While they only just met at the end of season 1 now we fully see our heroes interact and it helps alleviate the frustration of the slower pace of this season.

I do recall when they talked about making the series, one of their goals was to make a good video game adaption ( because unless your Mortal Kombats levels of fun they are all sh**e) and I genuinely think they have succeeded. I may be annoyed at the lack of Death (the character, trust me A LOT of people die) but I didn’t let that hold me back from enjoying the show. I wonder what they will do going into a third season? Will they adapt Curse of Darkness? and if they do, please bring Death into it. He shows up more than Dracula. (ok it does get to me).

Rating:     

See Also:

Sgathaich: Super Castlevania IV

Sgathaich: Castlevania the Animated Series.