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It feels a lot more refined in every way compared to the first Netflix Castlevania series; Though I never minded them, the gratuitous swearing and blood have both been toned down here, and the overall effect is that the scripts, the horror, and the emotional beats are all much stronger for it, which works great. I've had a few genuine gasps of shock so far, particularly in the second episode, because it just works so much better when those elements aren't so in-your-face all the time.
The story is kicking off quickly, and the atmosphere is great, and of course so is the voice-acting. The animation-quality has improved over the previous show, and the art-style seems a bit grittier/sketchier, which is a look that I enjoy in general, and it fits Castlevania very well - I love the visuals, here.
Anyone else watching and enjoying so far? Don't forget to stick any plot discussions in spoiler-tags, if so!
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How does this compare to the Street Fighter Movie or the Mortal Kombat Movie????..........
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The Castlevania series is LIGHT YEARS head of those films.
Oh, it's worlds apart! The first Netflix Castlevania series was excellent, and so far, so is this one. Instead of directly adapting any specific games or claiming to be part of the main series, these shows are their own separate continuity that blends various fitting elements together, and that works well. The previous one focussed mainly on Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard, and was loosely inspired by Castlevania III. This one is focussed on Richter Belmont and Maria Renard during the time of the French Revolution, and is drawing mainly from the games that Richter appeared in. (I'm hoping to see Alucard again, too, as he's my favourite Castlevania character, and in the games he and Maria were together at one point.)
I was also very pleased to hear a quick namedrop for the villain from Castlevania Bloodlines/Castlevania: The New Generation, which is one of my favourite games in the series, and the one that made me a fan (after you recommended it to me, actually
Have to say, Richter's voice actor takes some growing on you, wasn't a fan of it at the start but yeah it grows on you.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 29 September 2023 at 5:18 pm UTC
EDIT: Didn't get to playing yet - ended up hooked on the other episodes until reaching the end!
The...
Spoiler, click me
... was ABSOLUTELY EPIC!
And...
Spoiler, click me
I can't wait for what's next!
Last edited by Pengling on 30 September 2023 at 5:02 am UTC
*I wonder if they plan on selling any of it off? I have a few animation-cels and sketches from gaming-related productions, already (yes, including a Bomberman-related one
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Spoiler, click me
I was already very disappointed with S4 of the last show because how badly they handled Council of Sisters and whole Styria story. So I didn't expect much from the spin off either. But what I didn't like in particular is just how cringe and one dimensional villains are. Previous show had villains with complex motivations and personalities (not counting Death and some like Ratko in S4, they were also bad).
Erzsebet here with her "everyone will kneel before me" feels boring and bland. Her plan to plunge the world into darkness makes no sense either. Why would vampires benefit from new ice age? Everyone will be starving, even vampires in result. And even more interesting ones like Drolta feel simply too evil and don't even get any development besides being killed off (and not even in some epic battle but just in an inglorious sneak attack).
Basically, too much "humans - good, vampires - bad" there for me. Previous show (before S4 ruined it) was much better in showing that humans and vampires aren't better than one another and delivered that "who is the real monster" theme well.
Here, they literally have a complex and bloody historic period of French revolution, and it's not even used in an interesting way. Yeah, they show some execution and Abbot makes a passing point about revolution being an abomination, but it's very minor versus their general attempt to portray revolutionaries as "good guys". And that's especially for the region where revolutionaries massacred people to suppress a revolt in a bloody and cruel fashion.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_the_Vend%C3%A9e
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infernal_columns
I get that their world isn't really historic, but they picked a specific location and time period borrowing some historic details, so they at least could avoid this heavy handed "humans - good, vampires - bad" especially projected to "revolutionaries - good" in that context, and instead could show how any of them could be monsters, but not all of them are. I.e. like show some vampires who want more peaceful coexistence with humans, show how Jacobins can be murderous villains without any need for vampires and so on.
In short, S1-S3 of the previous show reminded me The Witcher in their story complexity and often moral ambiguity of characters and their choices. S4 in contrast was very disappointing and spin off reminds S4 in its problems and didn't bring back that feeling that S1-S3 of the previous show had.
Last edited by Shmerl on 2 November 2023 at 3:41 am UTC
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That describes my sentiment above very well. It's something that S4 unfortunately ruined (with shifting to that "humans - good, vampires - bad" issue I mentioned) and something that I found completely lacking in Nocturne too.
Last edited by Shmerl on 3 November 2023 at 6:54 am UTC
I think I've been able to have fun with all of it partly because I was there to experience the earliest video game to animation adaptations*, and most of them were absolutely bloody awful for quite a long time - sometimes to the point of seeming like they were written to be something else and then had a license slapped on them and got a hasty refit that let down both the original content and the games that they were supposed to be based on. Even at its weakest points, the Netflix Castlevania shows have never been anywhere near as bad as those!
*I can't say "video game adaptations" overall, because some of the earliest in general, like Cloak & Dagger, were imaginative and really good fun.
Last edited by Pengling on 3 November 2023 at 7:13 am UTC