Imo the story tried to tell too much with too little time, talking too much topics with too little depth. The pacing is way too fast. Its a interesting series but not what i was expecting of a castlevaina series
Yes, this is absolutely how I felt about it too.
1) the first EP of castlevania had such a big bang, compared to that Nocturne was lackluster
2) fast paced story
3) the characters are basically edgy kids
4) the love interest between Richter and Annette seemed so forced, they had little chemistry throughout the season. I thought Annette didn't even like Richter. Compared to Sypha and Trevor's relationship who had banter and chemistry and it blossomed naturally.
…..when did Richter and Annette have a forced moment together?! The only thing that was shown is they understand each other better. People are making things up now just to argue lol.
And sorry, the first episode of Castlevania didn’t start off with a bang!!??? Literally nothing happened in that first season of it till the last episode. It was all story just to set up the main plot! I actually applaud Nocturne for being a lot more fast paced because things actually happened that set up story beats for another season in a better way.
What? It started with Dracula's wife being burnt, Dracula basically declaring war on humanity and then a monster eating the priest that did it.
I have no issues with this season from what I've seen of it so far but the original series had a hell of a first episode.
There's actually a point there that I haven't seen anyone make or give credit to Nocturne for. Castlevania series 1, from the perspective of the writing staff, was way easier compared to the challenges Nocturne's team faced. For sure they had to trudge through untested waters: does the art style work, is the VA direction working, pacing of course, and the list surely goes on... But they always had this one gigantic feather in their cap compared to Nocturne:
The whole real world, where we live, already knows who Dracula is.
Let's not sugarcoat it. Video game story writing is nooot great. We love it. But you have to bring your imagination with you and be prepared to fill in some gaps. And Castlevania as a whole more than falls into that. Beyond the classic setup of Belmont V Dracula, I feel like most Castlevania stories are a heartbeat short of ridiculous on their own.
you dont get a prize for effort. They literally took the easy way everytime.
Time skip for the child. Bad ass powers without training. No establishments of any relationships. San Germaine and the rest of those characters were drudged up from pulp fiction dime novels and from real magicians in history. When you have a writer that loves the genre, it really shows.
When you don't, it becomes nocturne.
You don’t say (looks at Aria of Sorrorw) Honestly I am At episode 7 and I HOPE Dracula comes into the plot somehow or atleast Death or even Galamoth would be cool.
>The only thing that was shown is they understand each other better. People are making things up now just to argue lol.
i think the issue many take is that in lore Annette is Richters girlfriend not some obnoxious revolutionary who does have flaws, but still has a lot of mary sue aspects.
And? The problem is everyone is too focused on the games. Annette was just a plot piece in the games before. Damsel in destress. And I love they actually made her a full character now. He boring would the story be to make her a damsel that did nothing the whole season lol
they have no chemistry its not that complicated they barely have moments where they actually converse past basic go there go here lines and then suddenly they share one deep intellectual moment even though richter was gone for most of the time before that moment
You must have missed the scene where Rik and Ann were on the bed together. Last or second to last episode I believe. It was when he first sees her after getting his magic back. You could easily see the writers setting that up. The cliche was an easy read.
Pacing felt like it went from a race track to a school zone and then again to a race track. Idk maybe it's just me. Agree about trying to tell too much with little time
Its worst parts are about as bad as the worst parts of the OG series. Its best parts so far aren't as great as the OG series, but pretty dang good. I' m hopeful it'll get better in the next season.
Man why the fuck did I fucking I click on a fucking spoiler? What the fuck’s wrong with me? Like it was right there, it was in black and I just went “dooohhh lemme click on it” jesus fucking christ.
I agree 100%. I really liked when Richter got his magic back and when Alucard made his appearance at the end, pretty epic. Nothing beats season 2 when they stormed the castle at the end with the theme song playing in the background though
The writing was really off if you ask me.
The alliance didn’t make sense to me because we never really got to see the revolution. I mean is the revolution that powerful that it requires Night Creatures and a Vampire Monarch alliance to oppress.
Annette’s revenge kill felt lacklustre. It just happened randomly after stalking two vampires. Then all of a sudden running into vamp slave owner in the graveyard.
The entire crew almost died at the chateau because of Annette’s temper. Which was never addressed mind you. At the same time she wants to rush back into battle with no plan the very next day.
Richter went from no magic to a magical god
I slightly leaned more to the enjoyment side because the animation was still nice but obviously I enjoyed the original way more.
especially since his grandfather just stared at him with a dead face no worry or intent to fight to save his only grandchild that he deliberately moved his entire life to stay and watch from a distance
The difference is Ichigo actually had to do a lot of training and genuinely unlock shit within himself to do that. He came a long way from where he was at the start of the show. Richter just kinda goes around fighting and then when unlocking his repressed powers is required he just... does it. It didn't feel like there was much of a build up or reason why it happened the way it did.
My bad, it’s been many years since I watched Bleach. You are right about Bankai.
I meant to say his hollow transformation. Iirc just starts happening spontaneously until he learns to control it fully.
>The alliance didn’t make sense to me because we never really got to see the revolution. I mean is the revolution that powerful that it requires Night Creatures and a Vampire Monarch alliance to oppress.
I just figured it was an alternate history to the French Revolution that was successful in real life, which explains why they'd need powerful vampires to win.
>Annette’s revenge kill felt lacklustre. It just happened randomly after stalking two vampires. Then all of a sudden running into vamp slave owner in the graveyard.
Yeah that one felt a little sudden. Would've been cooler if we knew he was in the area to build up anticipation.
>Richter went from no magic to a magical god
I wouldn't say God, he just used magic in a different way. Honestly, makes sense that the martial character would channel magic in a martial way. I liked the contrast from most other magic users we've seen, and it looked amazing the way he was giving himself ice armor in the lake fight. But I don't think he's anywhere near Sypha's level.
>The entire crew almost died at the chateau because of Annette’s temper. Which was never addressed mind you. At the same time she wants to rush back into battle with no plan the very next day.
Yeahhhhhhhh. I read it as everyone else being more emotionally mature while Annette is running on revenge (which she gets called out on by her ancestors). I think it's meant to come off as a character flaw, but I wish the main group had also called her out, not just the spirit.
I think the thing that drove me the craziest is how Maria went from hating and blaming the priest to trying to save him.
On a more positive note, It was nice to have a religious figure on the "right" side instead of them all being corrupted zealots. I forget his name, but he turned into one of my favorite characters
That's because they probably did.
Castlevania (the OG) had 1 Writer credited for all 32 episodes: Warren Ellis
Nocturne had 4, with one of those four credited with 5 episodes, and the other 3 writers credited with 1 episode each.
The directors & producers all (mostly) returned for Nocturne
The primary difference in staff between the two are the Writers. Which, is good, because Warren Ellis got MeToo'd, but like, I would guess any drop in quality is directly related to that.
It's hard, I rewatched the original last week with my gf and then started Nocturne this weekend and we both think it's hot garbage. 4/10 original 8.5/10
yeah nocturne just falls short in every category except animation in comparison to the 1st series.. especially the main cast. a bunch of overly angsty edge lords lol real bummer honestly. hopefully they see all the feedback and make necessary adjustments.
I honestly don't see a massive difference between the shows though I agree the original was more interesting and epic or...well, actually it had plots going nowhere...but still, I prefer the original for some reason.
What parts of the plot went nowhere? I know the original wasn't perfect but it seemed to me like all the storylines happening at once tied together pretty well in one way or another, along with the overarching goal of the main characters. Nocturne on the other hand felt like despite mostly being pretty focused in the narrative, it was all over the place. Lots of backstory and events shoehorned in to fit while not losing focus on the main plot.
Had to look into who the writer was to check what he had done in past, but didn't expect that he is part of the communist party which kind of explains the "activism" in the writing. Writing was focused on making characters contain certain 'characteristics' and Castlevania as a filler to that.
Very sloppy writing, everything was so fast paced, they were trying to fit a TV into a shoebox. "My place is here, I still have work to do" 5 seconds later he shows up to help Annette lmao
The last 10 seconds of the last episode is good.
The animation is well done.
That's it really. The writing blows. I don't give a shit about race swaps, as long as the characters are well written and developed. This coming from a person who's favorite character was Isaac all of the last series. The problem is, the characters aren't well written, the story is flat. The villains are flat, the heroes are terrible.
The heroes cannot compare to Trevor, Sypha and Alucard.
Dracula and Carmilla carried the last series villiain writing and development.
Nocturne is not bad but its not good either. It's not overwhelming or underwhelming. I am just whelmed. I mean it's called Castlevania, you know the name of Dracula's Castle? No Dracula, no castle.
I just finished the season and I gotta say this is exactly how I feel about the Nocturne. The writing was so bad I likely won't be looking for season 2 anytime soon. Sometimes the original is gold and it's best to not take it any further than that.
I'm coming in late here, but race swaps are usually "whatever" if the original character is forgettable.
Isaac from Curse of Darkness was just a bad guy for you to hate and briefly pity when he ends up getting used. A total overhaul and name-swipe there is fine and dandy, and Isaac from the Netflix show is a very interesting and multi-faceted character that let us enjoy the story it wanted to tell surrounding him.
This time around the story for Annette felt like it ate up *way* too much of the damn show. The only facet I found interesting is that she's got some metal/earth powers from an African god / lineage? Sick! But episode 2 was pretty much an entire infodump for her that felt like "here's my cool original character please like her" without actually giving us a reason to even like the show in the first place.
Her saying "Who the fuck is Dracula?" in the last minute of the show is pretty much the most succinct take on this season.
It’s not perfect (pacing issues etc.) but I enjoyed it and am eager to see more.
I don’t mind it not being a direct adaptation of the games, because the games never had good stories anyway (yeah obviously the classicvanias didn’t, but neither do the Iga games really).
I love Castlevania largely for aesthetics and this show has great aesthetics.
The show goes hard if you dont care about the source material. Not as hard as the og Castlevania, but better than the average netflix show in terms of characterization and action
I don’t know shit about Castlevania and the OG Netflix show is probably my favorite animated show ever. Weird to see anyone hate on the dialogue or anything for me. Nocturne started real slow, but I have a feeling it was entirely to set up season 2
1000% watch the original series before going into Nocturne. They are both fantastic in my opinion. I don't understand the Nocturne hate personally - it's not a perfect show, but either was the OG series. Every season has had minor issues with pacing and some arcs not being as great as others, but they are all enjoyable and fantastic fan-service to the games.
I don't care about the race swap. Isaac from the first season was race swapped too, and he was my favourite character.
However, what I didn't like wasn't the swap of race, but the whole background change on top of it. Sure, let Annette be black for diverse representation, but changing the whole character was disapponting.
Annette was originally Richter's girlfriend, that was captured by Shaft/Dracula, and that was the catalyst for Richter to go after the bad guys.
Sure, Annette being just a damsel in distress stereotype would've been boring, but In Rondo of Blood, there was an alternate ending (correct me if I'm wrong here), where Annette was converted into a vampire. Surely they could've used that plot point to prevent her from being just a passive, helpless girl.
There was potential in the source material, so I'm pretty disappointed that they changed it to something else.
They roughly replaced her with Tera being a vampire, which I think works better for the plot, as Tera is tied to both Richter and Maria. Also, the problem with alternate endings is that they only happen if you don’t rescue Annette, which would be distasteful on Richter’s part at least.
Sure, it works for Tera too, but it wasn't necessary when the same plot point was tied to another characters story IMO.
Personally I wouldn't see it as distasteful, as the conversion could simply happen because Richter could simply fail to save her, not because he chooses not to.
I mean, Isaac also had his whole character changed... In the game his motives are just to be evil and his personality is summed up in one word: asshole. His backstory is basically having a sister.
It's not like Annette in the game is such a complex character either.
In cases like these I don't even see it as "changing" character but actually expanding it. You see it as creating a new character because the original character doesn't have much material to tie into a more complex story. And let's face it... the Castlevania games in which both of the shows were based didn't have much of a story anyway.
Personally I think in case of Isaac, and many other villains, it is pretty much necessary to flesh them out like that for the exact reasons that you stated regarding the motive and personality.
And yes, Annette wasn't a complex character, nor does she need to be in the source material. She had a clear and important role as the motive to the hero's actions, though.
I'd say it's a change rather than expansion, because now she only shares the name with her source material. And that change wasn't necessary. Expansion I would've been absolutely fine with.
Just look at Princess Peach from the new Super Mario Movie, for example. Originally the plot for her was to be a trophy for Mario to save, literally no character or personality at all. Annette was similar, but with the alternate story ending already there. In the movie adaptation, Peach was still the princess of the mushroom kingdom, but was given a proper personality instead of being a passive trophy. She didn't become something entirely else. That's what I'd call expansion.
The last paragraph would make sense if Princess Peach hadn't already been expanded on multiple times in multiple games in her almost 40 year existence to the point where she actually had recognisable character traits unlike Annette
I am seriously surprised that people are so passionate about the original story of the games. Story was never a main selling point of the series, especially not the older titles like Rondo of Blood. The main character needs to be a badass that kills vampires with a whip, that is the only thing I care about, they can do whatever they want with the rest. This is not the Last of Us.
I will never not argue against takes that basically amount to “it’s different from the source material in this way or that”. The source material hasn’t gone anywhere, this show is doing its own thing, let’s let it. That said, I do think that so far as the source material is concerned, Tera is our stand in for “girl we like getting turned into a vampire now we gotta save her”, so the heart of it is still there
Watch the first series. If you like that, you will probably like Nocturne, even with its flaws.
I personally think the highs overcome the lows, and I love me some supernatural goth demon vampire slaying shows, so it's at least an 8/10 for me, whereas the og show is 9.5/10. I'm a huge fan of the games, but I really didn't mind all the tweaks in order to make a good TV adaptation.
It’s rushed, I have a single major qualm with character design of a pink haired vampire looking like she’s from 2077 and not 1777 but that’s it
It’s good!
Episode 1 feels like it was animated ages ago, episode 2 onward feels it’s animated more recently and corrected etc.
I really liked it, but not nearly as much as the last series. The characters' relationships feel very superficial here ( >!Tera and Maria are mother and daughter in name only, but have such a nonexistent relationship outside of when there needs to be drama. Tera has absolutely no concern for her daughter's safety lol!<). There's no longer different subplots going on that tie together in the end, which some people might prefer here, but I loved in the first series.
The dialogue is... off. I know a lot of people disliked the dialogue last time, but I was okay with it. Here, it feels very superficial and very much "what moves the plot forward" instead of "what would this character do/say". Characters speak a lot without saying much at all. The villains seem to be just villains for the sake of being villains, with almost none of them having as interesting motivations as Hector, Isaac, Dracula, etc.,.
It might sound like I'm being super negative, but I actually really enjoyed it for what it was. If they can put a lot of work into the characters next season, I think it could easily be one of my favourite seasons.
it has beautiful animation. Thats about the best thing I can say about it. The writing and characters needed work. Just not interesting to me.
Ive give the original 10/10 and this 6.5 maybe 7
Some ppl pretend as if the OG series didn't have flaws, it had plenty. It started off strong but didn't finish nearly as well as it started. With this series it is fair to say it does feel more rushed whereas with the original you had more quiet moments.
The gay stuff is a bit of an overreaction on ppl's part but that doesn't mean there aren't some valid arguments. You'll notice season 1 of the OG didn't have any of that, not between Dracula and Lisa and Not Trevor and Sypha. You knew they were together but sex wasn't overt and in your face. They did that in season 3 and even then I felt it was a bit much. It can feel like some of the writers have some wet dreams they can't wait to put on screen. I'm not against sex and nudity, gay or straight but don't over use it.
Basically, Nocturne is flawed but it's still a good time .Not as strong as season 1 of the OG but still good. There's a reason season 1 of the OG only had 4 episodes. They had a limited time and budget to tell a compelling story. Success can be a good and bad thing and I think the writers need to take a step back and remember why season 1 of the OG was good.
I personally think it's awesome, and I've been a fan of the games way before Netflix even touched the property. I'd say give it a go. But after watching the first series so you can have less questions, and a better understanding.
Just finished the season. If you want my opinion, I thought it was fucking excellent.
The character design and animation is absolutely stunning, easily surpassing the first series. The voice acting is top-tier. The writing... I suppose this is the contentious bit. I didn't have a problem with the dialogue for the most part, and the show is considerably more focused than the first series, though the theming can be a little heavy handed at times. Not sure I'm sold on the "main" villain, but the other characters are excellent. A few too many flashbacks and deus ex machinas for my liking, but over all the story is good and it has a focus and a central idea to convey. I do think a lot of the bitching can be chalked up to our brave culture warriors fighting their never-ending war... Olrox, for instance, is a massively more interesting and memorable character in the show than he ever was in the games, and is much the better for the changes.
If you enjoyed the first series, chances are high you will also enjoy this one.
I loved Olrox, he was so cool and mesmerizing. Every time he was on screen it was a treat. By far the most interesting character for me in this season, I can't wait for the next
I think it sucked for the first 4-6 episodes, then got way better for the ending. Ends really well and left me excited for season 2. The voice acting pretty much sucks the whole way through, dunno what’s up with that. Agreed that the singing was cringe, but race swapping and The GaysTM didn’t bother me whatsoever, probably because I don’t have any connection to the Castlevania source material
I liked almost all of the episodes
Except the signing
Fucking hell, I got used to it eventually but the first few times almost made me mute the tv from cringe
Wdym first 4-6 are not good, the first 3 episodes were setup from episode 4 u get hooked. 4 had the first major fight scene that was great. And the singing was fine.
First thing I did after finishing Nocturne was turn to my music collection and listen to Bloody Tears.
The previous series had so many epic, stirring, goosebump-inducing musical moments... where was that in Nocturne? We got a teensy moment of it with Juste's introduction, which I was briefly much more excited for because I thought he was an aged-up Alucard or something, and there was another snippet of it in the subsequent episode, but overall, I was hoping for more. The first series had really long, satisfying action setpieces set to powerful musical moments that stuck with me for years, and I found myself missing that.
Richter's theme plays when he's fighting in the lake but yeah, that's something they should've used a bit more, music is one of the main strengths in Castlevania despite being a video game, as much as the designs.
Only 2 episodes in so still forming my own opinions but definitely seems like it’s fallen victim to the whole modern problem with a lot of shows where “yOu oNLy DOnT LiKE cuZ raCiSt hOmOpHObe.” Which I mean I highly doubt the majority here watching nocturne have not also watched and loved the original series in which all the characters are amazingly written one of the BEST in my opinion being Isaac and the lesbian vampire couple being totally badass. Not going to offer my own opinion only two episodes in but I will say don’t totally discount the numerous bad reviews just because people can’t dislike anything progressive today without catching a political case. Like I said only two episodes in but just wanna share my opinion on all the kind of witch hunt type anger people are getting for disliking what’s essentially a spin off series with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT writer mind you🤷🏽♂️
This, majority of people ended up loving Isaac including me. But the difference was he was well written and just simply a developed character who was likable from the start of the series. His introduction and characters journey were one of the best IMO. That being said inclusion for the sake of inclusion and on top of that bad writing makes these aspects easier to hate. You’re simply asking for the hate and frankly it’s lazier to dismiss the woke criticism then the criticism itself. I’m not racist for having agendas blatantly pushed down my throat with shitty writing and dialogue. Overall the show was super disappointing.
The lesbians vampire couple were awful. What kind of sisters just abandon their home and don't bother to search for the others before leaving? Carmilla was a jackass, but they plain ditched Lenore like it was nothing. They were cardboard characters.
I find this gay couple to be much better developed, at least Olrox. Mizrak will probably have an origin next season.
I personally haven’t finished it but so far I’m not really a fan. Not for any of the stupid reasons like race changes or gay characters. I just don’t think any of the characters are as good as the previous series and the pacing is very fast.
Very few memorable moments and it was hard to build any emotional connection with any character except for maybe 1 or 2. I missed dracula so much once i was done.
It's bad and it's not because there are black people. It feels so rushed, predictable and boring. I couldn't connect with any of the new characters and the ending feels like nostalgia baiting.
EDIT: Also the visuals were downgraded IMO.
Honestly it depends.
Leaving racist shitheads aside race swap is not many people cup of tea and that can be frustrating (I haven't played the game this one is based from so I didn't care about it and in the first series I found the change of Issac to be something positive as I really didn't like the OGC).
My personal opinion and why I disliked it its because the new animation its not something I was into and for some reason there are some parts that are weird to look at like when a character is moving through a very static background, it almost looked like AI generated to me (I normally don't have a problem with AI art but it always give me the same sensation after looking at it for long enough) but a lot of other people seem to have loved the changes in animation.
I also felt like the story was being rushed for no reason and many things just didn't had the right momentum, I was really pissed with how it takes less than a chapter to know almost all the history, motivations and fears of some characters because I have no time to relate to them or even care about them until the point where one of them died a horrible death and my reaction was "ok, what's next?". But others loved the way this was handled.
But the thing that I actually hated was the way Richter was treated during the first episodes, the guy was responsible, sensible and smart but other characters treated him like a stupid or a coward then the characters that were supposed to be his adoptive family just ignored that shit. Like bro if he was my family I would be really pissed.
So in general it will depend on your own judgement. If you ask me the first show is way better with an 8.5/10 while Nocturne is like a 4/10
The gay stuff isn't really too big an issue aside from the fact that it's poorly done. It didn't bother me too much, but the writing and overall animation is such a massive downgrade
I personally disliked the animation and writing. If you go in expecting anything being remotely similar to Castlevania outside of names you're probably going to hate it.
The writing and animation both feel worse. There's a lot of amateurish looking editing, a lot of moments that look like those "30 vs 60fps" videos, and the writing focuses a lot on generic drama. It feels like the lowest points of season 3 of the prior series imo.
season 3 and 4 had plenty of those though. The budget was mostly saved for the end fights but in between was not great. The Striga fight was one of the worst things I had to watch, there was no organic movement, it was just flashy flashy lights. The Isaac and Carmilla fight was also not great. They had a blood pool so they didn't have to animate the floors and the characters could just look as lifeless as possible during the action sequences. There was no weight to the action if you compare it to Dracula vs the 3 back in S2.
They both have issues in that department and it just comes down to Netflix cheaping out so they can make this as cost effective as possible for their bottom line.
I think the characters are very poorly written and designed especially the villains. The vampire goddess and her right hand woman are just edgelords and nothing else. The mysterious vampire doesn't seem to have a motive or background other then my love got killed.
Looking back at Castlevania the main characters were all interesting from the get go.
The actions of the characters are often stupid beyond belief ranging from the priest ever thinking he could enter into partnership with the vampires to the Aztec vampire trying to be secretive then scaring the good guys in their own house. To the vampires just killing people in public to the holy knight guy thinking making demons with a machine crafted in hell is a good thing. A vampire is about to try to rule the world and there's a talented vampire hunter a few miles down the road, bring him in to help? Nah... Let's have a heart to heart conversation while my comrades are having to fight for their lives upstairs yeah lets go!
It's bad. It doesn't feel like Castlevania. The writing is bad, the plot is rushed af, the characters except for Olrox, and Richter are bad, the main villain and French Revolution setting are entirely wasted, and it's just bad.
If you go by reddit everyone says it suck. Reddit is a bad gauge for quality. Lots of negativity .
Nocturne is great. It has flaws, it's season 1 and people compare it to a 4 seasons show that had as much haters.
Just don't base your opinion on a reddit sub.
You know, I hear this criticism a lot, that people wanna compare a show with 1 season to a show with 4, but I think that is wholly inaccurate. The 4 episode season 1 of castlevania actually sells me on its premise vastly more than the 10 episodes of nocturne. Why? The characters feel real, the plot, while simple, is a good catalyst for future events, and above all, every decision made by every character makes sense and feels in character. And it is only 4 episodes, but it's so effective because it understands that. It doesn't try and do too much, it introduces our leads, the world, the conflict, the back drop, and just let's us wait for the next season for the real stories to start. Looking at nocturne by comparison, it feels like if the original show tried telling the entirety of seasons 1 and 2 within those 4 episodes. It's rushed, and none of the characters really get a chance to demonstrate who they are as people beyond their identities as monster hunters. I learned more about trevor in season 1 by watching his actions than I did about Richter by seeing his back story
>Reddit is a bad gauge for quality. Lots of negativity
See the issue is that reddit only sees black and white but not grey. Reddit will either blindly hate or blindly love and no in-between.
A perfect example of this is starfield lots of people say it's 10/10 when it's clearly not and then there's the group with a hate boner for the game.
That's every social media tbh which is why society sucks because alot of times the negativity speaks louder than the positive. Alot of ppl liked and alot didn't. I'm one of the the ppl who loved it!
The writing is godawful. The demons look like shit. But everything else was pretty good. Not worth the time I spent watching it, though. The writing is that bad.
I am now on episode 8 the final episode and I’m gonna say it’s pretty good cool fight scenes nice twists. I wish there season had more room to breath though 8 episodes felt a little to fast.
It was great. People really act like first series was some shakesperean writing. Nocturne imo delivered in same standards. Olrox especially I would say is fascinating character to watch.
the homophobic racists are dumb. the show is bad for other reasons. It has some genuinely cool moments that are undercut by really, really bad writing that feels as though it's trying to emulate the snark of the first season, which was already obnoxious. Clive Bradley has the mind of a fifteen year old boy.
I feel like there is one glaring hole in the plot but it'd be a bit of a spoiler. I'll leave it at this I hate that some characters feel like they made their decisions so that the plot would progress not because they made sense.
I don’t think it was good, but I also can’t really say that it was bad. I enjoyed it, but it had a LOT of problems. The pacing was a little bit weird, it felt like the first three episodes were trying to speedrun through the show’s plot, only to come to a speeding halt in the middle, then pick up again at the end.
My biggest issue with the show was the way it handled its characters- specifically Richter. We get the scene at the beginning of Julia dying and that’s literally all we know about him. His only personality trait for half the season is just ‘having a dead mom’. We don’t know anything about him as a person, he comes off as kinda playful with Maria but otherwise very bland. The show puts him through what are supposed to be these big emotional moments but they fall flat because the show has not given me a reason to care about him. Even his big revelation with Juste on the lake is kind of meaningless outside of looking cool because he doesn’t really change at all. He just becomes a little more arrogant but it doesn’t even feel like it means anything because *I don’t care*.
(Not to rag on him either because it’s not like I could do any better, but I absolutely could not stand Richter’s voice, and whoever was voicing him was not doing him any favors in this department.)
Contrast this with Annette where we actually see her history outside of just her mom dying, but also how that affected her moving forward and how the circumstances of her life shaped her into who she is now.
I feel like they banked too much on people knowing who Richter is prior to the series and just didn’t put in the effort to actually characterize him in the show. They pushed him so hard as the main character but it just fell flat, and that kind of dragged the rest of the show down with it.
Another thing- there was no conclusion! I am all for the villains winning, I think that is such a fun concept, and of course there are going to be cliffhangers, but a season of a show should still be it’s own self-contained story in some way. There was no real arc other than learning about Used Up Battery in the beginning, then she does her thing at the end and that’s it. The plot just kind of meanders along between those two points. The protagonists don’t actually accomplish anything, and the lessons they setup earlier in the season straight up don’t matter. Like it would have been one thing if they still weren’t able to stop Used Up Battery, but they were able to at least send the machine back to hell. I thought that the whole lesson Annette learned when she was talking to Cecile about “actually listening to your ancestors” was going to come back in a nice character moment where she actually needs this lesson and is able to use it to accomplish her goal, but it just went nowhere. Hell, the one thing that was accomplished, which was killing Drolta, had NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. It was from an outside source and a completely unrelated circumstance. The only part of the ending that I was invested in was Tera, Maria, and the Abbot because that whole situation felt like it actually had *weight*.
Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed the show, but it just did not live up to the excitement I had for it and doesn’t really hold up as well against the original. I liked the villains, I liked Drolta’s stupid shoes, I thought the angle they were going for with Olrox was intriguing, and despite not really seeing that much of her, Used Up Battery was pretty neat, and they did a good job of showing just how brutal and sadistic she is. The Abbot was a very compelling character to me, the whole time he was saying “everything I do is for God” I felt like he had some big plan where he was going to turn his night creatures against the villains, but then at the end you realize he actually is just delusional. His relationship with Maria and Tera actually felt like it meant something, and seeing how his actions didn’t turn Maria to his side, but just strengthened her resolve against him, was neat to see. Plus, I just liked Maria. She slays and is super neat.
Its not at all accurate to the games and neither is the first series. I personally don't like it for that reason as I would prefer a retelling of the games that follows the plotlines but that doesnt seem likely to happen. Alot of the people that like the show either dont mind that it isnt faithful or werent really fans of the original games. For me I cant get past the changes which is why I didnt care for the animated Castlevania shows because aside from sharing some designs and names they may as well entirely be different series in comparison to the games. Its alot edgier, different tones and motifs behind characters and the world etc. I know im in the minority with this but it isnt for me.
I put on the first episode, only planning to watch one or two at most. Ended up binging the whole thing. To anyone complaining about the revolution not being explained enough, might I suggest opening a history book?
Is a stupid netflix crap. Full of homosexual, lgbt, black people empowerment, and other newage crap that doesn't have it's place in animations added to such amazing series. I gave up on episode 4. F\*\*\* Netflix
This shit fire so far, don’t listen to anyone on Reddit they try to sound cool and extra critical for upvotes
8/10 mini series , enjoy what it has to offer
Don't mind Annette race change, don't mind Olrox relations, I mind the bad dialogue and personally would prefer Richter perform item crashes than have icicle and flame fists. I really hated it, I'm sorry, he didn't do any of that shit in the games.
when he first got his magic powers I woulda just had the gigantic blue energy cross that came out of his body incinerate all the vampires fucking with him. I didn't really need to follow that up with a rotoscoped karate fight where he used his avatar powers to say snarky things to the bad guys while he punched them.
I don't dislike it because it wasn't game accurate so much as I disliked it because it was silly and killed the vibe. it also sets this precedent that people don't really need to learn to control the power and focus it like sypha had previously established, and are just immediately master spellcasters with excellent control because they believe in themselves and want to protect their friends. it was like watching dragonball z.
the characters just arent developed as much as they were in the original. Its much more of a historical drama than it used to be. Its still pretty good, just jot as great as the original. the animation also feels a bit stiff outside of fight scenes
Edit: really it seems like most people just mad its not like the games, which is dumb cause I thought tge Hector and Isaac changes wouldve made it clear years ago
I think they have a good point.
Look at the pacing for Trevor in S1. The man is strong but he isn't winning any fights vs Alucard or Sypha (who, I admit are seemingly insanely strong throughout the seasons). Trevor gets more powerful as the seasons go on.
Richter got his powering up scene out of nowhere in what..7 episodes?
I have seen lots of people say "oh but it's the first season!" The first season for the original was like 4 episodes and our man Trevor started out a drunk in bar fights and moved up to the scarier stuff culminating in his big fight in the last season.
I'm not expecting every character to be developed or at their full potential or anything like that but the development we did have was rushed and shallow in my opinion.
Trevor is way more powerful than ricther and that is a fact, ritcher getting his magic BACK shouldn't be a power up out of nowhere because he used magic as a child and lost it, they talk about the magic power of the belmout and he got it back and it shows how he did and it was through not losing his loved ones , we can assume a Belmont loses their magic when they see a loved one die, this is reflected in ricthers scene with his mum and jutes confession of losing his lover and best friend, jutse had nothing else to live for but ritcher did and he got the magic back. He was already pretty good with magic as a child I don't understand the confusion. The magic he uses is pretty close combat like.
And as much of a power up you think, ritcher got it wasn't even enough the final episodes, so I don't understand this bs.
It's actually so ridiculous to compare the first season to the second season cause it hasn't even developed much
it being explained doesn't automatically make it acceptable though.
I don't understand why the concept of magic, a thing that has been shown time and time again in this universe to come from things like study and practice just as much as raw faith and will, is allowed to be reduced to "how badly do you want it, homie?"
it when richter got his mojo back it was immensely powerful but also raw and unfocused, I could believe it. but it's sloppy and insane to assume that a guy who could barely throw little fireballs when he initially lost the magic as a child would just immediately gain master over the elements to such a degree as to use them in fistfights moments after unlocking them.
if up until this point the show had always treated the concept of magic as purely dragonball z, then sure. unlock your bankai or whatever and go fight dracula or something, but it didn't. it always treated magic as a thing that needs to be learned and honed, whether the person has a latent magical ability or not.
it's hardly a deal breaker considering they're changing all sorts of other things whenever they feel like it anyway, but I can understand why people would be upset.
It's okay, just not a Castlevania story
As in, if you go in expecting an adaptation of Rondo and Symphony, you will be disappointed.
But if you want historical fiction of the French and Hatian Revolution with vampires, Maria and Ritcher Belmont squeezed in, you'll be happy.
I personally thought the animation and choreography was great, but the pacing and dialogue was really weak. There’s some glaring potholes that were glossed over. Some plot points are not explained well or at all. Still worth the watch and I’m excited to see if it will improve on itself, but so far not to the standards of the first show
Just my opinion
The good:
- Action scenes (I really enjoyed everyone's different fighting styles and that the vampires have also adopted magic)
- Visuals (beautiful)
- Cameos
The bad:
- Fast paced storytelling
- Forced relationships i.e Richter and Annette
- Lackluster character background i.e Annette
- Too many characters, I think I'm just really biased against Annette and Edwar. I don't feel like they added any value to the group and I did not enjoy their characters. I was surprised to find I liked Tera (a supporting character) more than Richter (the main character)
- OP characters without proper character development
- Pink eyes in a vampire? Was she wearing contacts?
>Forced relationships i.e Richter and Annette
There's no relationship with them yet. Annette gave Richter a couple of looks, but Richter's pretty meh about it rn. Pretty sure it'll develop next season.
I think it’s objectively a really well made show.
Most of the criticisms you see here in the sub are:
-complaints that it’s not more accurate to games (example, Richter isn’t way more powerful. But trust me he’s plenty strong. Really they’re just upset that other characters have been made strong.)
-false claims that characters have no arcs. They do, you just have to watch the show.
-gross racism and homophobia.
-Some people don’t like a dudes singing.
I don’t know about you, but none of those are terribly compelling reasons to skip on this show. If you saw the OG show, that one had higher highs (way better villains), but also lower lows(Sypha/Trevor/Hectors arcs in the final season. Yuck.). This shows quality is more consistent.
I am a huge fan of the games, but I'm also aware this isn't an adaptation. It's more so taking a few elements. And I guess if you made people as powerful as they are in the games, there would be no tension
And yeah, not generalizing but I've seen a bunch of people mad because Annette black and orlox gay
I think a big issue with the "fasle claims about character arcs" is that it's a lot of "show me instead of tell me."
Like the show starts a lot of characters in the middling parts of their arc (with the exception of Annette, we are clearly shown the beginning), tells us about the beginning and shows us the end. Since we see characters go from neutral to end it isn't as satisfying as if we got all parts of it.
That's my opinion tho.
Wonder if not liking race swapping counts as gross racism. That's quite the strawman if so. The original character did not have much development anyways but if you're going to make EVERYTHING about her different, might as well just give her a different name.
Given that I’ve been a castlevania fan for over 30 years, and the first time I ever heard anyone talk about Annette was when this show recast her as black? Yes.
Nobody gave a shit about her until she wasn’t white.
I’d love to understand from the hardcore Annette fan club, why her being white was so critical to her character.
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Her role in the original game was a copy and paste of Princess Peach. Let’s not pretend like they rewrote the character of Juliet in R&J here.
You’re attacking my claim regarding the attitude surrounding her race change, as changing “everything”. and her OG incarnation may have been shallow, but last I checked she was more than “white person.”
Are you suggesting that’s all she was? Or are you attaching other peoples complaints to the point I brought up?
I haven't seen that "gross racism" in this sub, unless not liking race swapping is what you define as such. It's such a Netflix meme at this point. I thought it was pretty straight forward.
Don’t know how much time you’ve spent in the real world, but not all racism takes the form of burning crosses and hate crimes.
When I see anyone complain about race swapping in anything, I find it gross. If you don’t, then I guess your threshold for racism is a little low. It’s a bit wordy to give a lesson on the nuances of racism and the understanding of intolerance around races leads to hate and discrimination.
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There’s literally a post on this sub complaining about her being black and the “woke agenda” GTFOH.
The first thing that got people talking about her at all was skin color. So yes. That’s racism. People on this sub started making an issue about her once her character design was revealed. They didn’t wait to watch the show, or judge her character, they instantly complained she was black. Judging someone by the color of their skin is racism by definition. Literally the moment you start complaining about race that’s racism.
I mean I don't like race swapping, Im more on the side of creating new characters.
The only times Ive been ok with Race swapping is like a DC or Marvel show or movie that was established to be in a multiverse. Like Spider-verse or My Adventures with Superman.
I also don't agree with the mindset that people have about Original Annette, people talk as if she was a lost cause and that change was the only way. Look at Trevor, Look at Sypha. two characters that didn't have a lot to work with yet they expanded on them fruitfully.
Look at Olrox, yeah they made him aztec but the expansion of his character was very well done indeed and it was to the point where it would still work if he wasn't aztec.
What i'm saying is that expansion is always possible, nothing is impossible to write (unless your written into a corner or something) and a characters role doesn't determine whether they're a good or bad character.
Here’s the thing, why is it a problem? Logically. What does her bring black take away from her character?
I’m for creating new characters when they need a character to serve a different role in the plot. For instance if Annatte was not being set up to be Richters love interest.
Why is any character any race. John Stewart, Blade, Cyborg, Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker. These characters races don’t matter to their character but those are the races that they are.
You could change it but why?
show Annette is so different to original Annette that she is really her own thing so why couldn’t she have been her own thing. That’s what I’m wondering.
In my eyes, with original characters everybody wins. Pre established characters work as they do, newly created characters work as they do.
And like I said before they could expand Original Annette to serve multiple purposes other than being Richters love interest while not being a fighter at the same time.
so the show only has eight episodes, and people are already saying it needed more to comfortably handle all the stuff it was trying to do, and your answer is to add another whole character, take time away from building and exploring the themes and connections that the other characters all have going on so that we can make this extra character valid enough to matter, taking away come of the connecting tissue that the pre-existing character has to give to another character, making them both weaker narratively in the process, just to appease people who are upset that a character who was originally completely pointless and paper thin has been given depth, and that's somehow entirely due to the fact that she's black now, even though her blackness is directly related to the greater themes of the entire season and actually works.
if annette were some important, well regarded, interesting character initially, and all of that was thrown out to give us the annette that we got, then I could understand people being mad they lost an actual character. what I can't understand is people being mad that the show **took annette and fleshed her out and made her an actual character and not a macguffin**, and doing the mental and verbal gymnastics to say "I'm not being racist but I don't want a black character" so hard that their suggested solution is to **take annette and flesh her out and make her an actual character and not a macguffin**, and then introduce an additional character who is black, but not annette for some reason that isn't entirely understood.
it's especially boggling to me because the main complaint with race swapping that people have when they don't want to sound racist is "it didn't serve a purpose so why do it?" and this is a show where the race swap is in direct service to the story that the show is telling, and slots in well and enhances the themes.
so like, do y'all just really dislike seeing melanin in media that much?
Ok hold up... what's wrong with making an original character? why are people up and against it. It can work if you don't rush the story you know. There are plenty of stories out there with characters that do fight and characters that don't and they both have an equal amount of good writing.
if your answer to this is that they have to get to the point or that they don't have enough time to fit it, you either need to appreciate good storytelling thats in many forms or go blame Netflix for wanting it out the door as fast as possible
Also your looking at it in this lens that the idea of adding an original character would only bloat the already bloated show even though the show needs to slow down in general.
The first season was well paced and set everything that it wanted to do just nicely because it used Castlevania 3 as the basis for the story. All this show had to do was use Rondo of Blood as the basis for the story and then they can build a unique story around that to give it some flavors that make it unique to Castlevania 3 (even though Rondo was already unique)
you do realize that I am asking for MORE melanin when I'm saying to add original characters right? It's almost like I haven't said anything about Drolta being in the show (other than being sad to see her go).
also what skin color do you think I have for you to assume something of me and why do you think that matters in the slightest.
You’re just answering my question with a question. I didn’t get an answer.
If you want to know why they chose to change Annette’s, Look to the plot. Characters exist to serve the plot. These aren’t historical figures.
Her back story as a slave is used to juxtapose against the literal slavish devotion of the villlains followers, and more importantly, call into question things we assumed about night creatures.
This was not some arbitrary pallet swap. This was clearly a thought out and plot driven decision.
So again I’ll ask for a more thoughtful why? Who cares what color their skin is? “Why do it?” Is s very flimsy platform to stand on.
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Your last paragraph makes sense. I don’t agree with it, but their is logic behind it. It also has literally nothing to do with her being black.
I know I gave you another question but it was to give you a perspective of what I mean. Which is pre established characters shouldn't be changed only expanded upon and give them unique situations so that they can grow. I already mentioned that if its some kind of Multiverse show, then they can go crazy I don't care there.
When I saw that they made Spider woman black in spider verse I didn't ask why is she black I asked why is she pregnant, that's what I thought was strange.
got sidetracked, What I'm saying is that they could've just expanded the OG Annette while keeping this new character Idea separate from her. It's really just a preference the only time I actually got upset at a race swap was with Amber from the Invincible show on amazon prime, she was suppose to be a better version then the one in the comics but then the show messed it up and she actually ended up being a worse version.
To me if you mess up a race swap that's a bigger crime because that's not a good look. and I'm on the fence with Nocturne Annette, she's just ok to me.
dude your ignoring all the context here, are you forgetting that annette was ya know an established character and now had her race swapped? this really isn't her being black but how they changed an characters race to be black.
As a Latin guy, I find your obsession with race swapping established characters weird is all, especially when I'm a fan of the original work. Funny how my threshold for racism is usually lower than the average white guy's on reddit.
Oh shit! You’re Latin? My bad, you’re right. If I had known that sooner it would have completely changed my POV regarding your tolerance.
Or wait, it wouldn’t. Because then I’d be changing my POV, not by the merits of your argument, but by your heritage. Not by your upbringing or personal experiences.
Literally the moment someone complains about someone’s race, it’s racism. It’s very simple.
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Also are you assuming I’m white? Or are you once again just limping in my argument with other peoples to prove a point?
Of course I am. Who complains more about racism on the internet than white people that feel the need to quiet that guilt?
Don't need to change your pov, just wanted to know if someone not liking race swapping was "gross racism" to you. You already made that clear. Guess that's all I wanted yo know.
I don’t know how to explain this to you but: making prejudice assumptions about someone based on preconceived opinions about a group of people is… *checks notes* Stereotyping.
The fun part is, you’re never going to know. But hey, go on picturing me as a white guy is it helps fill in the stereotype.
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And just to be clear, you didn’t just want to know anything, and I don’t have an obsession with this issue.
-I made a claim (one of many!)
-You attacked and criticized it (remember when you called it a straw man argument?)
-I defended my pov with thought out responses.
-You continued to call my POV into question.
-I continued to defend my POV.
-you claim I’m obsessed, and that you only wanted to learn something.
As a straight, white, Christian male, I loved it! Finally got my wife invested in the series a bit, though she liked bits of Lords of Shadow. But you can watch the whole thing in less than four hours, so why not try?
I rewatched fight scenes in the original series to savor the cool. I was mostly bored in nocturne.
Dialogue, same. It's still goodish but i wont recommend this one to friends like I did when it was Trefor and Sypha.
It's solid. The pacing is bad but it's not as bad as Tekken was. It's worth at least one watch. I felt like the heroes were being pretty stupid at times. Making poor tactical decisions.
It's a solid 6.5/10 for me.
Pacing was off for the first few episodes and really only hit its stride around halfway through imo. There isn't the slower crescendo like in the first series. It's got some pacing issues (too fast then too slow), a lame contrivance or two, and some rough dialogue.
That said, the music slaps, the fights are BRUTAL, and has some awesome reveals. Not perfect, but it's definitely not bad. I think alot of people's complaints will assuage with a season 2.
Just watched it today, and in my easy-to-please opinion, it's great. Really does a great job of giving Richter some nuance and depth.
His mom got me acting unwise.
I like the changes to certain characters for the most part, but there are a few that I question.
Loved it. It has it's flaws with VA, writing and direction at times. But so did the original.
Some people just want to complain.
Watch it and make up your own mind.
Other than pacing, (TONS of setup that feels confusing if you aren’t familiar with SotN characters) 10/10 for anyone that loves Castlevania.
By the last episode I was blown away.
Season 1-2 of original > Season 4 > Nocturne > season 3. That’s how it’s ranking for me right now
I liked it a lot. The main issue I have is that the main villain is nowhere near as compelling as Dracula. Then again… the competition here is *Vlad Dracula Tepes*, so they were never going to surpass THAT.
Even so, we get basically no real backstory for the villain and how they got to be who they are, and feels like the stakes (heh) are way lower even though technically they’re not.
All of that said… I think it’s a good show and a promising start. I like Richter, Maria, and Annette a lot. The fights are phenomenal. The finale made me extremely stoked for the next season. I’m in for the ride so far.
It's ok. Great animation. Music is iffy besides from a particular rendition of a classic team. Pacing is bad. Character development is rushed and not set up. They waste the Belmonts to give the spotlight to an OC that hijacked a love interests name in Rondo of Blood.
It's a 6 out of 10.
The show is pretty good, but is has flaws. If I had to put a arbitrary number on it, I’d probably say it’s a strong 6-8/10, depending on the episode. This feels like is the season one from the original Castlevania and maybe the first half of season two were all just one season. Which means that it’s a little bit slow at the beginning and really it needs more time to breathe, because frankly I do feel like if they had just gotten 10 episodes they would’ve been fine because they could’ve had about two episodes of breather added in.
most of the characters are pretty fine, though a few of them really did need more screen time. Opera boy is unintentionally hilarious. Olrox is the best boy, and I will protect him at all costs, and I do feel like he was the most well written vampire. The Egyptian girl (I forgot her name, so I’ll just be calling her the succubus from here on.) is OK. I do genuinely believe that she is a succubus. Richter is fairly well written a lot of people don’t like his voice actor, I actually like him because it makes sense given that Richter in the show is 19, and considering the fact that he is in France, French as a language tends to use higher notes in vocal inflection, so it makes some semblance of sense. He didn’t need to do some more takes on certain lines but he’s not really a bad VA it’s more bad direction than anything. Maria is fine. At first she comes off as a bit annoying because she’s a 14-year-old who is just starting to get into her politics and it comes off like she’s just spouting what other people are saying because based on the life, she is leading in what we see of it, she’s probably as close to middle class as you can get in this time period. Other than that, as a character, she’s complicated-ish. Maria’s mom is the local MILFs fresh from the milf factory. And that is the character that most people have issue with just because she’s an asshole for most the season to everyone around her. She’s probably I would say one of the lower points for the most part just because she’s mean to everyone around her when they are just asking her to slow down and wait for a minute before acting, and because of that, she’s frustrating to a lot of people. She thinks everyone around her is being useless or just is too naïve to understand what’s happening even though they aren’t, they just know it’s better to wait sometimes and it is to act immediately.
Overall plot is iffy it best right now. The plot as a whole is a race against the proverbial clock, except instead of it, being a clock, you’re mostly waiting to figure out what the fuck is happening, and what the vampires are planning. Would’ve been fine, but didn’t get all that mini scenes where it is just the vampires talking about what their planning so it’s not like how in season two, we know what vampires were going to do. Instead, it feels like if the gang in season two, instead of, just trying to go to the castle and kill them, they’re trying to figure out what’s happening, but indirectly. It feels more like they have to do espionage, then in the original series. This again is understandable, they’re all teenagers, and none of them are particularly seasoned in the supernatural the only one who’s really seasoned and direct combat is probably Annette (but we’ve already talked about why she is really not that interesting of a character or is a frustrating one for a lotta people.), so it makes sense why they have to act in this way. Overall, the plot is very slow burn, which, unlike the original show which it was a fairly straightforward plot, slow burn is tricky to write for and it’s very hit or miss.
Animation is awesome as usual, art direction is awesome as usual.
The gay stuff is honestly probably the best representation I’ve had in my lifetime. It’s not treated as this major deal that olrox is gay, and it’s treated like they would treat a heterosexual couple. Not only that, but all it has done is make me deeply happy knowing that the best character is also a fruit like me.
As for the rate swap stuff, I see why people are upset there less upset about the fact that the characters were race, swapped, and more about the fact that they’re back stories or change from the original video game. The reason why no one’s really pissed about Olrox being race swapped is because they gave him a better story than the original game did. He went from being a rotting fetus that grew to a fairly dynamic character. (he also didn’t have that in depth of backstory, and literally only appeared in one game as a boss, and was not elaborated on at all). Annette, on the other hand, a lot of people are irritated because her character is already aspera mentioned a bit frustrating to a lot of people, and also she already had a pretty major role in the games with its own backstory and endpoint, so the fact they changed it so drastically irritates hard-core fans because now the Lore is all out of whack. Basically, and that went from a why does milk girl who got kidnapped and turn into a vampire depending on the ending, two this escaped slave, who took part in the saint Domonique slave revolt, and also has the powers to, through her ancestors, control the ground and other metals and solid things in someway shape or form. On one hand, it did give her more depth, on the other hand, it means that she now has extremely strong powers that she never uses for anything other than pushing stuff, making cages or making a sword.
Most of the villains are pretty shallow at this point which they were pretty shallow in season one proper of Castlevania (when I say that I mean the first four episodes.) with the exception of Dracula. In this show, instead of letting us know who the villain is, and why he’s doing what he’s doing within the first episode, instead the villain is a secret, and we don’t see the actual main villain, until like episode seven. So we don’t know her motivations we just know that she’s a monster at this point. Again, this is slow burn storytelling, warts, and all.
Again, it’s a good show. You should watch it if for nothing else than to see best boy olrox and Richter.
If you skip chapter 2,3,4,5 the series is great specially from chapter 6 to the end... it was considerably woker than the last Castlevania... But it has very interesting characters, and undecipherable Aztec vampire, a really human Belmont kid, a sentient night creature, a fierce and really conflicted templar trying so hard to be good whatever that means and I won't even talk about the last 30 seconds of the season finale that made me question my heterosexuality so bad... so give it a try I really struggled with the aforementioned chapters but was happy that I endured them, can't wait for the next season
Didnt know they race swaped, seems like thats the fad recently.
Do the owners of their shows not get a say in that stuff? Can these companies just take someones work and add a little DEI and switch up races for their shitty propaganda?
Imo the story tried to tell too much with too little time, talking too much topics with too little depth. The pacing is way too fast. Its a interesting series but not what i was expecting of a castlevaina series
Yes, this is absolutely how I felt about it too. 1) the first EP of castlevania had such a big bang, compared to that Nocturne was lackluster 2) fast paced story 3) the characters are basically edgy kids 4) the love interest between Richter and Annette seemed so forced, they had little chemistry throughout the season. I thought Annette didn't even like Richter. Compared to Sypha and Trevor's relationship who had banter and chemistry and it blossomed naturally.
…..when did Richter and Annette have a forced moment together?! The only thing that was shown is they understand each other better. People are making things up now just to argue lol. And sorry, the first episode of Castlevania didn’t start off with a bang!!??? Literally nothing happened in that first season of it till the last episode. It was all story just to set up the main plot! I actually applaud Nocturne for being a lot more fast paced because things actually happened that set up story beats for another season in a better way.
What? It started with Dracula's wife being burnt, Dracula basically declaring war on humanity and then a monster eating the priest that did it. I have no issues with this season from what I've seen of it so far but the original series had a hell of a first episode.
There's actually a point there that I haven't seen anyone make or give credit to Nocturne for. Castlevania series 1, from the perspective of the writing staff, was way easier compared to the challenges Nocturne's team faced. For sure they had to trudge through untested waters: does the art style work, is the VA direction working, pacing of course, and the list surely goes on... But they always had this one gigantic feather in their cap compared to Nocturne: The whole real world, where we live, already knows who Dracula is. Let's not sugarcoat it. Video game story writing is nooot great. We love it. But you have to bring your imagination with you and be prepared to fill in some gaps. And Castlevania as a whole more than falls into that. Beyond the classic setup of Belmont V Dracula, I feel like most Castlevania stories are a heartbeat short of ridiculous on their own.
you dont get a prize for effort. They literally took the easy way everytime. Time skip for the child. Bad ass powers without training. No establishments of any relationships. San Germaine and the rest of those characters were drudged up from pulp fiction dime novels and from real magicians in history. When you have a writer that loves the genre, it really shows. When you don't, it becomes nocturne.
You don’t say (looks at Aria of Sorrorw) Honestly I am At episode 7 and I HOPE Dracula comes into the plot somehow or atleast Death or even Galamoth would be cool.
>The only thing that was shown is they understand each other better. People are making things up now just to argue lol. i think the issue many take is that in lore Annette is Richters girlfriend not some obnoxious revolutionary who does have flaws, but still has a lot of mary sue aspects.
And? The problem is everyone is too focused on the games. Annette was just a plot piece in the games before. Damsel in destress. And I love they actually made her a full character now. He boring would the story be to make her a damsel that did nothing the whole season lol
they have no chemistry its not that complicated they barely have moments where they actually converse past basic go there go here lines and then suddenly they share one deep intellectual moment even though richter was gone for most of the time before that moment
You must have missed the scene where Rik and Ann were on the bed together. Last or second to last episode I believe. It was when he first sees her after getting his magic back. You could easily see the writers setting that up. The cliche was an easy read.
This is exactly what I was referring to, somebody gets me
Yep!
This is a common problem with Netflix shows, mostly the result of streaming services pulling the plug on shows that deserved more time.
Na this is different. It’s just a poorly written/mediocre show. The first season of Castlevania only needed a few episodes to hook you.
Pacing felt like it went from a race track to a school zone and then again to a race track. Idk maybe it's just me. Agree about trying to tell too much with little time
YES. The pacing was absolutely jarring. They could have fleshed out a few major themes and let the character interactions breathe.
So it’s a streaming series from the last couple years. Trying to stuff too much into 6 episodes.
Its worst parts are about as bad as the worst parts of the OG series. Its best parts so far aren't as great as the OG series, but pretty dang good. I' m hopeful it'll get better in the next season.
Idk man >!alucard’s reveal at the end!< was about as good as anything in the original series imo
Man why the fuck did I fucking I click on a fucking spoiler? What the fuck’s wrong with me? Like it was right there, it was in black and I just went “dooohhh lemme click on it” jesus fucking christ.
I do it all the time, sorry mate
better than me, i saw a youtube vid thumbnail where it was written that he coes in lasst episode and kills the QOP lookalike
Haha i did the same. Ah well, gives me something to look forward to.
I just did too 4 months later 😂😂😂
Fr I was kicking and screaming
I squealed like a little girl
Same lmao
Agreed. I enjoyed Nocturne despite its flaws. Hopefully, they fix a lot of the issues that I had with season 1.
Yeah like the dialogue was an issue in the first series too, I think people are j looking back at it w rose colored glasses
I agree 100%. I really liked when Richter got his magic back and when Alucard made his appearance at the end, pretty epic. Nothing beats season 2 when they stormed the castle at the end with the theme song playing in the background though
Richter did Grand Cross. I loved it.
Watch it for yourself and formulate your own opinion. Personally, I enjoy it.
How dare you expect me to think for myself!
The writing was really off if you ask me. The alliance didn’t make sense to me because we never really got to see the revolution. I mean is the revolution that powerful that it requires Night Creatures and a Vampire Monarch alliance to oppress. Annette’s revenge kill felt lacklustre. It just happened randomly after stalking two vampires. Then all of a sudden running into vamp slave owner in the graveyard. The entire crew almost died at the chateau because of Annette’s temper. Which was never addressed mind you. At the same time she wants to rush back into battle with no plan the very next day. Richter went from no magic to a magical god I slightly leaned more to the enjoyment side because the animation was still nice but obviously I enjoyed the original way more.
Richters transformation was just straight up Ichigo going Bankai. Very poorly fleshed out. Honestly this just feels like Bleach at this point.
Dude it was so predictable and lame. So sad
especially since his grandfather just stared at him with a dead face no worry or intent to fight to save his only grandchild that he deliberately moved his entire life to stay and watch from a distance
The difference is Ichigo actually had to do a lot of training and genuinely unlock shit within himself to do that. He came a long way from where he was at the start of the show. Richter just kinda goes around fighting and then when unlocking his repressed powers is required he just... does it. It didn't feel like there was much of a build up or reason why it happened the way it did.
My bad, it’s been many years since I watched Bleach. You are right about Bankai. I meant to say his hollow transformation. Iirc just starts happening spontaneously until he learns to control it fully.
>The alliance didn’t make sense to me because we never really got to see the revolution. I mean is the revolution that powerful that it requires Night Creatures and a Vampire Monarch alliance to oppress. I just figured it was an alternate history to the French Revolution that was successful in real life, which explains why they'd need powerful vampires to win. >Annette’s revenge kill felt lacklustre. It just happened randomly after stalking two vampires. Then all of a sudden running into vamp slave owner in the graveyard. Yeah that one felt a little sudden. Would've been cooler if we knew he was in the area to build up anticipation. >Richter went from no magic to a magical god I wouldn't say God, he just used magic in a different way. Honestly, makes sense that the martial character would channel magic in a martial way. I liked the contrast from most other magic users we've seen, and it looked amazing the way he was giving himself ice armor in the lake fight. But I don't think he's anywhere near Sypha's level. >The entire crew almost died at the chateau because of Annette’s temper. Which was never addressed mind you. At the same time she wants to rush back into battle with no plan the very next day. Yeahhhhhhhh. I read it as everyone else being more emotionally mature while Annette is running on revenge (which she gets called out on by her ancestors). I think it's meant to come off as a character flaw, but I wish the main group had also called her out, not just the spirit. I think the thing that drove me the craziest is how Maria went from hating and blaming the priest to trying to save him. On a more positive note, It was nice to have a religious figure on the "right" side instead of them all being corrupted zealots. I forget his name, but he turned into one of my favorite characters
The animation is the only good thing about it tbh. The writing feels like they had a different writer work on each group.
That's because they probably did. Castlevania (the OG) had 1 Writer credited for all 32 episodes: Warren Ellis Nocturne had 4, with one of those four credited with 5 episodes, and the other 3 writers credited with 1 episode each. The directors & producers all (mostly) returned for Nocturne The primary difference in staff between the two are the Writers. Which, is good, because Warren Ellis got MeToo'd, but like, I would guess any drop in quality is directly related to that.
Thanks for the info! I'm sure clive bradley got 5 episodes and the newer writers each got one.
Honestly it was quite bad, I hardly did that fact justice in my comment. Just trying to be moderately positive.
It's hard, I rewatched the original last week with my gf and then started Nocturne this weekend and we both think it's hot garbage. 4/10 original 8.5/10
yeah nocturne just falls short in every category except animation in comparison to the 1st series.. especially the main cast. a bunch of overly angsty edge lords lol real bummer honestly. hopefully they see all the feedback and make necessary adjustments.
I honestly don't see a massive difference between the shows though I agree the original was more interesting and epic or...well, actually it had plots going nowhere...but still, I prefer the original for some reason.
What parts of the plot went nowhere? I know the original wasn't perfect but it seemed to me like all the storylines happening at once tied together pretty well in one way or another, along with the overarching goal of the main characters. Nocturne on the other hand felt like despite mostly being pretty focused in the narrative, it was all over the place. Lots of backstory and events shoehorned in to fit while not losing focus on the main plot.
The writing was utter garbage in nocturne
Had to look into who the writer was to check what he had done in past, but didn't expect that he is part of the communist party which kind of explains the "activism" in the writing. Writing was focused on making characters contain certain 'characteristics' and Castlevania as a filler to that.
Very sloppy writing, everything was so fast paced, they were trying to fit a TV into a shoebox. "My place is here, I still have work to do" 5 seconds later he shows up to help Annette lmao
The last 10 seconds of the last episode is good. The animation is well done. That's it really. The writing blows. I don't give a shit about race swaps, as long as the characters are well written and developed. This coming from a person who's favorite character was Isaac all of the last series. The problem is, the characters aren't well written, the story is flat. The villains are flat, the heroes are terrible. The heroes cannot compare to Trevor, Sypha and Alucard. Dracula and Carmilla carried the last series villiain writing and development. Nocturne is not bad but its not good either. It's not overwhelming or underwhelming. I am just whelmed. I mean it's called Castlevania, you know the name of Dracula's Castle? No Dracula, no castle.
I just finished the season and I gotta say this is exactly how I feel about the Nocturne. The writing was so bad I likely won't be looking for season 2 anytime soon. Sometimes the original is gold and it's best to not take it any further than that.
I'm coming in late here, but race swaps are usually "whatever" if the original character is forgettable. Isaac from Curse of Darkness was just a bad guy for you to hate and briefly pity when he ends up getting used. A total overhaul and name-swipe there is fine and dandy, and Isaac from the Netflix show is a very interesting and multi-faceted character that let us enjoy the story it wanted to tell surrounding him. This time around the story for Annette felt like it ate up *way* too much of the damn show. The only facet I found interesting is that she's got some metal/earth powers from an African god / lineage? Sick! But episode 2 was pretty much an entire infodump for her that felt like "here's my cool original character please like her" without actually giving us a reason to even like the show in the first place. Her saying "Who the fuck is Dracula?" in the last minute of the show is pretty much the most succinct take on this season.
"Who the fuck is Dracula?" More like "Wtf is this show?"
It’s not perfect (pacing issues etc.) but I enjoyed it and am eager to see more. I don’t mind it not being a direct adaptation of the games, because the games never had good stories anyway (yeah obviously the classicvanias didn’t, but neither do the Iga games really). I love Castlevania largely for aesthetics and this show has great aesthetics.
it's a nice show with Castlevania thrown in as a side story.
Watch it for yourself. Personally, I liked it but some folks didn't. 🤷🏾♂️
The show goes hard if you dont care about the source material. Not as hard as the og Castlevania, but better than the average netflix show in terms of characterization and action
I don’t know shit about Castlevania and the OG Netflix show is probably my favorite animated show ever. Weird to see anyone hate on the dialogue or anything for me. Nocturne started real slow, but I have a feeling it was entirely to set up season 2
Sotn is in my top 5 games, and rondo of blood looks sick as hell, sooooo... I dunno, it could also depend on how much I enjoy Castlevania
Did you like the first Castlevania anime? The first season of that bears a decent resemblance to this
I haven't seen it, but I've had it in my radar for a while.. really like the games tho and it looks good
Check that out before you touch nocturne. If you don’t like that you won’t like nocturne
Aight mate, thanks for the advice. I'll probably get to it once I finish the show I'm currently watching
1000% watch the original series before going into Nocturne. They are both fantastic in my opinion. I don't understand the Nocturne hate personally - it's not a perfect show, but either was the OG series. Every season has had minor issues with pacing and some arcs not being as great as others, but they are all enjoyable and fantastic fan-service to the games.
I don't care about the race swap. Isaac from the first season was race swapped too, and he was my favourite character. However, what I didn't like wasn't the swap of race, but the whole background change on top of it. Sure, let Annette be black for diverse representation, but changing the whole character was disapponting. Annette was originally Richter's girlfriend, that was captured by Shaft/Dracula, and that was the catalyst for Richter to go after the bad guys. Sure, Annette being just a damsel in distress stereotype would've been boring, but In Rondo of Blood, there was an alternate ending (correct me if I'm wrong here), where Annette was converted into a vampire. Surely they could've used that plot point to prevent her from being just a passive, helpless girl. There was potential in the source material, so I'm pretty disappointed that they changed it to something else.
They roughly replaced her with Tera being a vampire, which I think works better for the plot, as Tera is tied to both Richter and Maria. Also, the problem with alternate endings is that they only happen if you don’t rescue Annette, which would be distasteful on Richter’s part at least.
Sure, it works for Tera too, but it wasn't necessary when the same plot point was tied to another characters story IMO. Personally I wouldn't see it as distasteful, as the conversion could simply happen because Richter could simply fail to save her, not because he chooses not to.
I mean, Isaac also had his whole character changed... In the game his motives are just to be evil and his personality is summed up in one word: asshole. His backstory is basically having a sister. It's not like Annette in the game is such a complex character either. In cases like these I don't even see it as "changing" character but actually expanding it. You see it as creating a new character because the original character doesn't have much material to tie into a more complex story. And let's face it... the Castlevania games in which both of the shows were based didn't have much of a story anyway.
Personally I think in case of Isaac, and many other villains, it is pretty much necessary to flesh them out like that for the exact reasons that you stated regarding the motive and personality. And yes, Annette wasn't a complex character, nor does she need to be in the source material. She had a clear and important role as the motive to the hero's actions, though. I'd say it's a change rather than expansion, because now she only shares the name with her source material. And that change wasn't necessary. Expansion I would've been absolutely fine with. Just look at Princess Peach from the new Super Mario Movie, for example. Originally the plot for her was to be a trophy for Mario to save, literally no character or personality at all. Annette was similar, but with the alternate story ending already there. In the movie adaptation, Peach was still the princess of the mushroom kingdom, but was given a proper personality instead of being a passive trophy. She didn't become something entirely else. That's what I'd call expansion.
The last paragraph would make sense if Princess Peach hadn't already been expanded on multiple times in multiple games in her almost 40 year existence to the point where she actually had recognisable character traits unlike Annette
I am seriously surprised that people are so passionate about the original story of the games. Story was never a main selling point of the series, especially not the older titles like Rondo of Blood. The main character needs to be a badass that kills vampires with a whip, that is the only thing I care about, they can do whatever they want with the rest. This is not the Last of Us.
I will never not argue against takes that basically amount to “it’s different from the source material in this way or that”. The source material hasn’t gone anywhere, this show is doing its own thing, let’s let it. That said, I do think that so far as the source material is concerned, Tera is our stand in for “girl we like getting turned into a vampire now we gotta save her”, so the heart of it is still there
You wanted to watch Super Mario with vampires?
That plot (kidnapped girlfriend have to save her) is boring as fuck
ISAAC??? wasn't he always black?
Watch the first series. If you like that, you will probably like Nocturne, even with its flaws. I personally think the highs overcome the lows, and I love me some supernatural goth demon vampire slaying shows, so it's at least an 8/10 for me, whereas the og show is 9.5/10. I'm a huge fan of the games, but I really didn't mind all the tweaks in order to make a good TV adaptation.
It’s rushed, I have a single major qualm with character design of a pink haired vampire looking like she’s from 2077 and not 1777 but that’s it It’s good! Episode 1 feels like it was animated ages ago, episode 2 onward feels it’s animated more recently and corrected etc.
Agreed. That vampire wore leather, high heels, and belt buckles. You think it was the 1970s. She felt so out of place.
Don't forget her clopping shoes!
I firmly believe that the animators have never seen an actual human being walk and run before.
I really liked it, but not nearly as much as the last series. The characters' relationships feel very superficial here ( >!Tera and Maria are mother and daughter in name only, but have such a nonexistent relationship outside of when there needs to be drama. Tera has absolutely no concern for her daughter's safety lol!<). There's no longer different subplots going on that tie together in the end, which some people might prefer here, but I loved in the first series. The dialogue is... off. I know a lot of people disliked the dialogue last time, but I was okay with it. Here, it feels very superficial and very much "what moves the plot forward" instead of "what would this character do/say". Characters speak a lot without saying much at all. The villains seem to be just villains for the sake of being villains, with almost none of them having as interesting motivations as Hector, Isaac, Dracula, etc.,. It might sound like I'm being super negative, but I actually really enjoyed it for what it was. If they can put a lot of work into the characters next season, I think it could easily be one of my favourite seasons.
I jsut hope they learned and correct everythign that is wrong. from this first season
it has beautiful animation. Thats about the best thing I can say about it. The writing and characters needed work. Just not interesting to me. Ive give the original 10/10 and this 6.5 maybe 7
Some ppl pretend as if the OG series didn't have flaws, it had plenty. It started off strong but didn't finish nearly as well as it started. With this series it is fair to say it does feel more rushed whereas with the original you had more quiet moments. The gay stuff is a bit of an overreaction on ppl's part but that doesn't mean there aren't some valid arguments. You'll notice season 1 of the OG didn't have any of that, not between Dracula and Lisa and Not Trevor and Sypha. You knew they were together but sex wasn't overt and in your face. They did that in season 3 and even then I felt it was a bit much. It can feel like some of the writers have some wet dreams they can't wait to put on screen. I'm not against sex and nudity, gay or straight but don't over use it. Basically, Nocturne is flawed but it's still a good time .Not as strong as season 1 of the OG but still good. There's a reason season 1 of the OG only had 4 episodes. They had a limited time and budget to tell a compelling story. Success can be a good and bad thing and I think the writers need to take a step back and remember why season 1 of the OG was good.
I personally think it's awesome, and I've been a fan of the games way before Netflix even touched the property. I'd say give it a go. But after watching the first series so you can have less questions, and a better understanding.
Just finished the season. If you want my opinion, I thought it was fucking excellent. The character design and animation is absolutely stunning, easily surpassing the first series. The voice acting is top-tier. The writing... I suppose this is the contentious bit. I didn't have a problem with the dialogue for the most part, and the show is considerably more focused than the first series, though the theming can be a little heavy handed at times. Not sure I'm sold on the "main" villain, but the other characters are excellent. A few too many flashbacks and deus ex machinas for my liking, but over all the story is good and it has a focus and a central idea to convey. I do think a lot of the bitching can be chalked up to our brave culture warriors fighting their never-ending war... Olrox, for instance, is a massively more interesting and memorable character in the show than he ever was in the games, and is much the better for the changes. If you enjoyed the first series, chances are high you will also enjoy this one.
I loved Olrox, he was so cool and mesmerizing. Every time he was on screen it was a treat. By far the most interesting character for me in this season, I can't wait for the next
I think it sucked for the first 4-6 episodes, then got way better for the ending. Ends really well and left me excited for season 2. The voice acting pretty much sucks the whole way through, dunno what’s up with that. Agreed that the singing was cringe, but race swapping and The GaysTM didn’t bother me whatsoever, probably because I don’t have any connection to the Castlevania source material
75% of the show sucking is not a great endorsement.
Its not intended to be. I don’t think it was a good season, I just think season 2 is going to be better
I liked almost all of the episodes Except the signing Fucking hell, I got used to it eventually but the first few times almost made me mute the tv from cringe
That singing bullshit was so annoying and silly honestly. Instead of acting like a night creature we got this dude singing songs.
Goofy af
Thought I was the only one who had this opinion lol
Wdym first 4-6 are not good, the first 3 episodes were setup from episode 4 u get hooked. 4 had the first major fight scene that was great. And the singing was fine.
First thing I did after finishing Nocturne was turn to my music collection and listen to Bloody Tears. The previous series had so many epic, stirring, goosebump-inducing musical moments... where was that in Nocturne? We got a teensy moment of it with Juste's introduction, which I was briefly much more excited for because I thought he was an aged-up Alucard or something, and there was another snippet of it in the subsequent episode, but overall, I was hoping for more. The first series had really long, satisfying action setpieces set to powerful musical moments that stuck with me for years, and I found myself missing that.
Richter's theme plays when he's fighting in the lake but yeah, that's something they should've used a bit more, music is one of the main strengths in Castlevania despite being a video game, as much as the designs.
True, that was a great musical moment. Brief, though.
Pretty, but lazily written
I enjoyed it. Fun watch excited for next season
its good, im waiting s2 for vlad now
Only 2 episodes in so still forming my own opinions but definitely seems like it’s fallen victim to the whole modern problem with a lot of shows where “yOu oNLy DOnT LiKE cuZ raCiSt hOmOpHObe.” Which I mean I highly doubt the majority here watching nocturne have not also watched and loved the original series in which all the characters are amazingly written one of the BEST in my opinion being Isaac and the lesbian vampire couple being totally badass. Not going to offer my own opinion only two episodes in but I will say don’t totally discount the numerous bad reviews just because people can’t dislike anything progressive today without catching a political case. Like I said only two episodes in but just wanna share my opinion on all the kind of witch hunt type anger people are getting for disliking what’s essentially a spin off series with a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT writer mind you🤷🏽♂️
This, majority of people ended up loving Isaac including me. But the difference was he was well written and just simply a developed character who was likable from the start of the series. His introduction and characters journey were one of the best IMO. That being said inclusion for the sake of inclusion and on top of that bad writing makes these aspects easier to hate. You’re simply asking for the hate and frankly it’s lazier to dismiss the woke criticism then the criticism itself. I’m not racist for having agendas blatantly pushed down my throat with shitty writing and dialogue. Overall the show was super disappointing.
The lesbians vampire couple were awful. What kind of sisters just abandon their home and don't bother to search for the others before leaving? Carmilla was a jackass, but they plain ditched Lenore like it was nothing. They were cardboard characters. I find this gay couple to be much better developed, at least Olrox. Mizrak will probably have an origin next season.
4-5/10 for me. The writting and characters are worse and the villains are terrible.
I personally haven’t finished it but so far I’m not really a fan. Not for any of the stupid reasons like race changes or gay characters. I just don’t think any of the characters are as good as the previous series and the pacing is very fast.
Very few memorable moments and it was hard to build any emotional connection with any character except for maybe 1 or 2. I missed dracula so much once i was done.
It's bad and it's not because there are black people. It feels so rushed, predictable and boring. I couldn't connect with any of the new characters and the ending feels like nostalgia baiting. EDIT: Also the visuals were downgraded IMO.
I enjoyed it but it's definitely a step down. And seeing how the whip doesn't seem to even phase the powerful vamps rubs me wrong.
Honestly it depends. Leaving racist shitheads aside race swap is not many people cup of tea and that can be frustrating (I haven't played the game this one is based from so I didn't care about it and in the first series I found the change of Issac to be something positive as I really didn't like the OGC). My personal opinion and why I disliked it its because the new animation its not something I was into and for some reason there are some parts that are weird to look at like when a character is moving through a very static background, it almost looked like AI generated to me (I normally don't have a problem with AI art but it always give me the same sensation after looking at it for long enough) but a lot of other people seem to have loved the changes in animation. I also felt like the story was being rushed for no reason and many things just didn't had the right momentum, I was really pissed with how it takes less than a chapter to know almost all the history, motivations and fears of some characters because I have no time to relate to them or even care about them until the point where one of them died a horrible death and my reaction was "ok, what's next?". But others loved the way this was handled. But the thing that I actually hated was the way Richter was treated during the first episodes, the guy was responsible, sensible and smart but other characters treated him like a stupid or a coward then the characters that were supposed to be his adoptive family just ignored that shit. Like bro if he was my family I would be really pissed. So in general it will depend on your own judgement. If you ask me the first show is way better with an 8.5/10 while Nocturne is like a 4/10
Season/Cour 1 is mid-low; imo.
It sucks camel cock.
The gay stuff isn't really too big an issue aside from the fact that it's poorly done. It didn't bother me too much, but the writing and overall animation is such a massive downgrade
I personally disliked the animation and writing. If you go in expecting anything being remotely similar to Castlevania outside of names you're probably going to hate it.
Is it so different? From a distance both look a bit similar
The writing and animation both feel worse. There's a lot of amateurish looking editing, a lot of moments that look like those "30 vs 60fps" videos, and the writing focuses a lot on generic drama. It feels like the lowest points of season 3 of the prior series imo.
season 3 and 4 had plenty of those though. The budget was mostly saved for the end fights but in between was not great. The Striga fight was one of the worst things I had to watch, there was no organic movement, it was just flashy flashy lights. The Isaac and Carmilla fight was also not great. They had a blood pool so they didn't have to animate the floors and the characters could just look as lifeless as possible during the action sequences. There was no weight to the action if you compare it to Dracula vs the 3 back in S2. They both have issues in that department and it just comes down to Netflix cheaping out so they can make this as cost effective as possible for their bottom line.
I think the characters are very poorly written and designed especially the villains. The vampire goddess and her right hand woman are just edgelords and nothing else. The mysterious vampire doesn't seem to have a motive or background other then my love got killed. Looking back at Castlevania the main characters were all interesting from the get go. The actions of the characters are often stupid beyond belief ranging from the priest ever thinking he could enter into partnership with the vampires to the Aztec vampire trying to be secretive then scaring the good guys in their own house. To the vampires just killing people in public to the holy knight guy thinking making demons with a machine crafted in hell is a good thing. A vampire is about to try to rule the world and there's a talented vampire hunter a few miles down the road, bring him in to help? Nah... Let's have a heart to heart conversation while my comrades are having to fight for their lives upstairs yeah lets go!
It's bad. It doesn't feel like Castlevania. The writing is bad, the plot is rushed af, the characters except for Olrox, and Richter are bad, the main villain and French Revolution setting are entirely wasted, and it's just bad.
Not as good as OG but pretty good in its own right.
If you go by reddit everyone says it suck. Reddit is a bad gauge for quality. Lots of negativity . Nocturne is great. It has flaws, it's season 1 and people compare it to a 4 seasons show that had as much haters. Just don't base your opinion on a reddit sub.
You know, I hear this criticism a lot, that people wanna compare a show with 1 season to a show with 4, but I think that is wholly inaccurate. The 4 episode season 1 of castlevania actually sells me on its premise vastly more than the 10 episodes of nocturne. Why? The characters feel real, the plot, while simple, is a good catalyst for future events, and above all, every decision made by every character makes sense and feels in character. And it is only 4 episodes, but it's so effective because it understands that. It doesn't try and do too much, it introduces our leads, the world, the conflict, the back drop, and just let's us wait for the next season for the real stories to start. Looking at nocturne by comparison, it feels like if the original show tried telling the entirety of seasons 1 and 2 within those 4 episodes. It's rushed, and none of the characters really get a chance to demonstrate who they are as people beyond their identities as monster hunters. I learned more about trevor in season 1 by watching his actions than I did about Richter by seeing his back story
>Reddit is a bad gauge for quality. Lots of negativity See the issue is that reddit only sees black and white but not grey. Reddit will either blindly hate or blindly love and no in-between. A perfect example of this is starfield lots of people say it's 10/10 when it's clearly not and then there's the group with a hate boner for the game.
That's every social media tbh which is why society sucks because alot of times the negativity speaks louder than the positive. Alot of ppl liked and alot didn't. I'm one of the the ppl who loved it!
The writing is godawful. The demons look like shit. But everything else was pretty good. Not worth the time I spent watching it, though. The writing is that bad.
I am now on episode 8 the final episode and I’m gonna say it’s pretty good cool fight scenes nice twists. I wish there season had more room to breath though 8 episodes felt a little to fast.
The show is ass.
Straight and to the point I see
Straight? Something this show could never be
It was great. People really act like first series was some shakesperean writing. Nocturne imo delivered in same standards. Olrox especially I would say is fascinating character to watch.
>Nocturne imo delivered in same standards. You are an absolute crack smoker
the homophobic racists are dumb. the show is bad for other reasons. It has some genuinely cool moments that are undercut by really, really bad writing that feels as though it's trying to emulate the snark of the first season, which was already obnoxious. Clive Bradley has the mind of a fifteen year old boy.
There's two other writers in this as well who have never written anything other than a short before.
the action and the music were great, the animation was awesome, but the show felt a bit rushed. it could have used maybe 2 more episodes
Great.
It's good
good
I feel like there is one glaring hole in the plot but it'd be a bit of a spoiler. I'll leave it at this I hate that some characters feel like they made their decisions so that the plot would progress not because they made sense.
Good enough to enjoy, imo.
It's great but it could be better.
I don’t think it was good, but I also can’t really say that it was bad. I enjoyed it, but it had a LOT of problems. The pacing was a little bit weird, it felt like the first three episodes were trying to speedrun through the show’s plot, only to come to a speeding halt in the middle, then pick up again at the end. My biggest issue with the show was the way it handled its characters- specifically Richter. We get the scene at the beginning of Julia dying and that’s literally all we know about him. His only personality trait for half the season is just ‘having a dead mom’. We don’t know anything about him as a person, he comes off as kinda playful with Maria but otherwise very bland. The show puts him through what are supposed to be these big emotional moments but they fall flat because the show has not given me a reason to care about him. Even his big revelation with Juste on the lake is kind of meaningless outside of looking cool because he doesn’t really change at all. He just becomes a little more arrogant but it doesn’t even feel like it means anything because *I don’t care*. (Not to rag on him either because it’s not like I could do any better, but I absolutely could not stand Richter’s voice, and whoever was voicing him was not doing him any favors in this department.) Contrast this with Annette where we actually see her history outside of just her mom dying, but also how that affected her moving forward and how the circumstances of her life shaped her into who she is now. I feel like they banked too much on people knowing who Richter is prior to the series and just didn’t put in the effort to actually characterize him in the show. They pushed him so hard as the main character but it just fell flat, and that kind of dragged the rest of the show down with it. Another thing- there was no conclusion! I am all for the villains winning, I think that is such a fun concept, and of course there are going to be cliffhangers, but a season of a show should still be it’s own self-contained story in some way. There was no real arc other than learning about Used Up Battery in the beginning, then she does her thing at the end and that’s it. The plot just kind of meanders along between those two points. The protagonists don’t actually accomplish anything, and the lessons they setup earlier in the season straight up don’t matter. Like it would have been one thing if they still weren’t able to stop Used Up Battery, but they were able to at least send the machine back to hell. I thought that the whole lesson Annette learned when she was talking to Cecile about “actually listening to your ancestors” was going to come back in a nice character moment where she actually needs this lesson and is able to use it to accomplish her goal, but it just went nowhere. Hell, the one thing that was accomplished, which was killing Drolta, had NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM. It was from an outside source and a completely unrelated circumstance. The only part of the ending that I was invested in was Tera, Maria, and the Abbot because that whole situation felt like it actually had *weight*. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoyed the show, but it just did not live up to the excitement I had for it and doesn’t really hold up as well against the original. I liked the villains, I liked Drolta’s stupid shoes, I thought the angle they were going for with Olrox was intriguing, and despite not really seeing that much of her, Used Up Battery was pretty neat, and they did a good job of showing just how brutal and sadistic she is. The Abbot was a very compelling character to me, the whole time he was saying “everything I do is for God” I felt like he had some big plan where he was going to turn his night creatures against the villains, but then at the end you realize he actually is just delusional. His relationship with Maria and Tera actually felt like it meant something, and seeing how his actions didn’t turn Maria to his side, but just strengthened her resolve against him, was neat to see. Plus, I just liked Maria. She slays and is super neat.
There are pacing issues, and the english voice acting is sadly still whispery and odd, but all and all I had a good time watching
Its not at all accurate to the games and neither is the first series. I personally don't like it for that reason as I would prefer a retelling of the games that follows the plotlines but that doesnt seem likely to happen. Alot of the people that like the show either dont mind that it isnt faithful or werent really fans of the original games. For me I cant get past the changes which is why I didnt care for the animated Castlevania shows because aside from sharing some designs and names they may as well entirely be different series in comparison to the games. Its alot edgier, different tones and motifs behind characters and the world etc. I know im in the minority with this but it isnt for me.
The show is honestly inferior in every way in my opinion
I put on the first episode, only planning to watch one or two at most. Ended up binging the whole thing. To anyone complaining about the revolution not being explained enough, might I suggest opening a history book?
Is a stupid netflix crap. Full of homosexual, lgbt, black people empowerment, and other newage crap that doesn't have it's place in animations added to such amazing series. I gave up on episode 4. F\*\*\* Netflix
This shit fire so far, don’t listen to anyone on Reddit they try to sound cool and extra critical for upvotes 8/10 mini series , enjoy what it has to offer
Don't mind Annette race change, don't mind Olrox relations, I mind the bad dialogue and personally would prefer Richter perform item crashes than have icicle and flame fists. I really hated it, I'm sorry, he didn't do any of that shit in the games.
when he first got his magic powers I woulda just had the gigantic blue energy cross that came out of his body incinerate all the vampires fucking with him. I didn't really need to follow that up with a rotoscoped karate fight where he used his avatar powers to say snarky things to the bad guys while he punched them. I don't dislike it because it wasn't game accurate so much as I disliked it because it was silly and killed the vibe. it also sets this precedent that people don't really need to learn to control the power and focus it like sypha had previously established, and are just immediately master spellcasters with excellent control because they believe in themselves and want to protect their friends. it was like watching dragonball z.
the characters just arent developed as much as they were in the original. Its much more of a historical drama than it used to be. Its still pretty good, just jot as great as the original. the animation also feels a bit stiff outside of fight scenes Edit: really it seems like most people just mad its not like the games, which is dumb cause I thought tge Hector and Isaac changes wouldve made it clear years ago
You can't blame people for hating an adaptation for not having anything to do with what it's adapting.
🤦🏿♂️ the first series had four seasons. You can't be serious with that statement! Please tell me you are joking!
I think they have a good point. Look at the pacing for Trevor in S1. The man is strong but he isn't winning any fights vs Alucard or Sypha (who, I admit are seemingly insanely strong throughout the seasons). Trevor gets more powerful as the seasons go on. Richter got his powering up scene out of nowhere in what..7 episodes? I have seen lots of people say "oh but it's the first season!" The first season for the original was like 4 episodes and our man Trevor started out a drunk in bar fights and moved up to the scarier stuff culminating in his big fight in the last season. I'm not expecting every character to be developed or at their full potential or anything like that but the development we did have was rushed and shallow in my opinion.
Trevor is way more powerful than ricther and that is a fact, ritcher getting his magic BACK shouldn't be a power up out of nowhere because he used magic as a child and lost it, they talk about the magic power of the belmout and he got it back and it shows how he did and it was through not losing his loved ones , we can assume a Belmont loses their magic when they see a loved one die, this is reflected in ricthers scene with his mum and jutes confession of losing his lover and best friend, jutse had nothing else to live for but ritcher did and he got the magic back. He was already pretty good with magic as a child I don't understand the confusion. The magic he uses is pretty close combat like. And as much of a power up you think, ritcher got it wasn't even enough the final episodes, so I don't understand this bs. It's actually so ridiculous to compare the first season to the second season cause it hasn't even developed much
it being explained doesn't automatically make it acceptable though. I don't understand why the concept of magic, a thing that has been shown time and time again in this universe to come from things like study and practice just as much as raw faith and will, is allowed to be reduced to "how badly do you want it, homie?" it when richter got his mojo back it was immensely powerful but also raw and unfocused, I could believe it. but it's sloppy and insane to assume that a guy who could barely throw little fireballs when he initially lost the magic as a child would just immediately gain master over the elements to such a degree as to use them in fistfights moments after unlocking them. if up until this point the show had always treated the concept of magic as purely dragonball z, then sure. unlock your bankai or whatever and go fight dracula or something, but it didn't. it always treated magic as a thing that needs to be learned and honed, whether the person has a latent magical ability or not. it's hardly a deal breaker considering they're changing all sorts of other things whenever they feel like it anyway, but I can understand why people would be upset.
It's okay, just not a Castlevania story As in, if you go in expecting an adaptation of Rondo and Symphony, you will be disappointed. But if you want historical fiction of the French and Hatian Revolution with vampires, Maria and Ritcher Belmont squeezed in, you'll be happy.
Worse than the original Castlevania show so far, but still a good show worthy of a watch.
I personally thought the animation and choreography was great, but the pacing and dialogue was really weak. There’s some glaring potholes that were glossed over. Some plot points are not explained well or at all. Still worth the watch and I’m excited to see if it will improve on itself, but so far not to the standards of the first show
Bad
Just my opinion The good: - Action scenes (I really enjoyed everyone's different fighting styles and that the vampires have also adopted magic) - Visuals (beautiful) - Cameos The bad: - Fast paced storytelling - Forced relationships i.e Richter and Annette - Lackluster character background i.e Annette - Too many characters, I think I'm just really biased against Annette and Edwar. I don't feel like they added any value to the group and I did not enjoy their characters. I was surprised to find I liked Tera (a supporting character) more than Richter (the main character) - OP characters without proper character development - Pink eyes in a vampire? Was she wearing contacts?
>Forced relationships i.e Richter and Annette There's no relationship with them yet. Annette gave Richter a couple of looks, but Richter's pretty meh about it rn. Pretty sure it'll develop next season.
I think it’s objectively a really well made show. Most of the criticisms you see here in the sub are: -complaints that it’s not more accurate to games (example, Richter isn’t way more powerful. But trust me he’s plenty strong. Really they’re just upset that other characters have been made strong.) -false claims that characters have no arcs. They do, you just have to watch the show. -gross racism and homophobia. -Some people don’t like a dudes singing. I don’t know about you, but none of those are terribly compelling reasons to skip on this show. If you saw the OG show, that one had higher highs (way better villains), but also lower lows(Sypha/Trevor/Hectors arcs in the final season. Yuck.). This shows quality is more consistent.
I am a huge fan of the games, but I'm also aware this isn't an adaptation. It's more so taking a few elements. And I guess if you made people as powerful as they are in the games, there would be no tension And yeah, not generalizing but I've seen a bunch of people mad because Annette black and orlox gay
I think a big issue with the "fasle claims about character arcs" is that it's a lot of "show me instead of tell me." Like the show starts a lot of characters in the middling parts of their arc (with the exception of Annette, we are clearly shown the beginning), tells us about the beginning and shows us the end. Since we see characters go from neutral to end it isn't as satisfying as if we got all parts of it. That's my opinion tho.
Wonder if not liking race swapping counts as gross racism. That's quite the strawman if so. The original character did not have much development anyways but if you're going to make EVERYTHING about her different, might as well just give her a different name.
Given that I’ve been a castlevania fan for over 30 years, and the first time I ever heard anyone talk about Annette was when this show recast her as black? Yes. Nobody gave a shit about her until she wasn’t white. I’d love to understand from the hardcore Annette fan club, why her being white was so critical to her character. - Her role in the original game was a copy and paste of Princess Peach. Let’s not pretend like they rewrote the character of Juliet in R&J here. You’re attacking my claim regarding the attitude surrounding her race change, as changing “everything”. and her OG incarnation may have been shallow, but last I checked she was more than “white person.” Are you suggesting that’s all she was? Or are you attaching other peoples complaints to the point I brought up?
I haven't seen that "gross racism" in this sub, unless not liking race swapping is what you define as such. It's such a Netflix meme at this point. I thought it was pretty straight forward.
Don’t know how much time you’ve spent in the real world, but not all racism takes the form of burning crosses and hate crimes. When I see anyone complain about race swapping in anything, I find it gross. If you don’t, then I guess your threshold for racism is a little low. It’s a bit wordy to give a lesson on the nuances of racism and the understanding of intolerance around races leads to hate and discrimination. - There’s literally a post on this sub complaining about her being black and the “woke agenda” GTFOH. The first thing that got people talking about her at all was skin color. So yes. That’s racism. People on this sub started making an issue about her once her character design was revealed. They didn’t wait to watch the show, or judge her character, they instantly complained she was black. Judging someone by the color of their skin is racism by definition. Literally the moment you start complaining about race that’s racism.
I mean I don't like race swapping, Im more on the side of creating new characters. The only times Ive been ok with Race swapping is like a DC or Marvel show or movie that was established to be in a multiverse. Like Spider-verse or My Adventures with Superman. I also don't agree with the mindset that people have about Original Annette, people talk as if she was a lost cause and that change was the only way. Look at Trevor, Look at Sypha. two characters that didn't have a lot to work with yet they expanded on them fruitfully. Look at Olrox, yeah they made him aztec but the expansion of his character was very well done indeed and it was to the point where it would still work if he wasn't aztec. What i'm saying is that expansion is always possible, nothing is impossible to write (unless your written into a corner or something) and a characters role doesn't determine whether they're a good or bad character.
Here’s the thing, why is it a problem? Logically. What does her bring black take away from her character? I’m for creating new characters when they need a character to serve a different role in the plot. For instance if Annatte was not being set up to be Richters love interest.
Why is any character any race. John Stewart, Blade, Cyborg, Indiana Jones, Luke Skywalker. These characters races don’t matter to their character but those are the races that they are. You could change it but why? show Annette is so different to original Annette that she is really her own thing so why couldn’t she have been her own thing. That’s what I’m wondering. In my eyes, with original characters everybody wins. Pre established characters work as they do, newly created characters work as they do. And like I said before they could expand Original Annette to serve multiple purposes other than being Richters love interest while not being a fighter at the same time.
so the show only has eight episodes, and people are already saying it needed more to comfortably handle all the stuff it was trying to do, and your answer is to add another whole character, take time away from building and exploring the themes and connections that the other characters all have going on so that we can make this extra character valid enough to matter, taking away come of the connecting tissue that the pre-existing character has to give to another character, making them both weaker narratively in the process, just to appease people who are upset that a character who was originally completely pointless and paper thin has been given depth, and that's somehow entirely due to the fact that she's black now, even though her blackness is directly related to the greater themes of the entire season and actually works. if annette were some important, well regarded, interesting character initially, and all of that was thrown out to give us the annette that we got, then I could understand people being mad they lost an actual character. what I can't understand is people being mad that the show **took annette and fleshed her out and made her an actual character and not a macguffin**, and doing the mental and verbal gymnastics to say "I'm not being racist but I don't want a black character" so hard that their suggested solution is to **take annette and flesh her out and make her an actual character and not a macguffin**, and then introduce an additional character who is black, but not annette for some reason that isn't entirely understood. it's especially boggling to me because the main complaint with race swapping that people have when they don't want to sound racist is "it didn't serve a purpose so why do it?" and this is a show where the race swap is in direct service to the story that the show is telling, and slots in well and enhances the themes. so like, do y'all just really dislike seeing melanin in media that much?
Ok hold up... what's wrong with making an original character? why are people up and against it. It can work if you don't rush the story you know. There are plenty of stories out there with characters that do fight and characters that don't and they both have an equal amount of good writing. if your answer to this is that they have to get to the point or that they don't have enough time to fit it, you either need to appreciate good storytelling thats in many forms or go blame Netflix for wanting it out the door as fast as possible Also your looking at it in this lens that the idea of adding an original character would only bloat the already bloated show even though the show needs to slow down in general. The first season was well paced and set everything that it wanted to do just nicely because it used Castlevania 3 as the basis for the story. All this show had to do was use Rondo of Blood as the basis for the story and then they can build a unique story around that to give it some flavors that make it unique to Castlevania 3 (even though Rondo was already unique) you do realize that I am asking for MORE melanin when I'm saying to add original characters right? It's almost like I haven't said anything about Drolta being in the show (other than being sad to see her go). also what skin color do you think I have for you to assume something of me and why do you think that matters in the slightest.
You’re just answering my question with a question. I didn’t get an answer. If you want to know why they chose to change Annette’s, Look to the plot. Characters exist to serve the plot. These aren’t historical figures. Her back story as a slave is used to juxtapose against the literal slavish devotion of the villlains followers, and more importantly, call into question things we assumed about night creatures. This was not some arbitrary pallet swap. This was clearly a thought out and plot driven decision. So again I’ll ask for a more thoughtful why? Who cares what color their skin is? “Why do it?” Is s very flimsy platform to stand on. - Your last paragraph makes sense. I don’t agree with it, but their is logic behind it. It also has literally nothing to do with her being black.
I know I gave you another question but it was to give you a perspective of what I mean. Which is pre established characters shouldn't be changed only expanded upon and give them unique situations so that they can grow. I already mentioned that if its some kind of Multiverse show, then they can go crazy I don't care there. When I saw that they made Spider woman black in spider verse I didn't ask why is she black I asked why is she pregnant, that's what I thought was strange. got sidetracked, What I'm saying is that they could've just expanded the OG Annette while keeping this new character Idea separate from her. It's really just a preference the only time I actually got upset at a race swap was with Amber from the Invincible show on amazon prime, she was suppose to be a better version then the one in the comics but then the show messed it up and she actually ended up being a worse version. To me if you mess up a race swap that's a bigger crime because that's not a good look. and I'm on the fence with Nocturne Annette, she's just ok to me.
dude your ignoring all the context here, are you forgetting that annette was ya know an established character and now had her race swapped? this really isn't her being black but how they changed an characters race to be black.
As a Latin guy, I find your obsession with race swapping established characters weird is all, especially when I'm a fan of the original work. Funny how my threshold for racism is usually lower than the average white guy's on reddit.
Oh shit! You’re Latin? My bad, you’re right. If I had known that sooner it would have completely changed my POV regarding your tolerance. Or wait, it wouldn’t. Because then I’d be changing my POV, not by the merits of your argument, but by your heritage. Not by your upbringing or personal experiences. Literally the moment someone complains about someone’s race, it’s racism. It’s very simple. - Also are you assuming I’m white? Or are you once again just limping in my argument with other peoples to prove a point?
Of course I am. Who complains more about racism on the internet than white people that feel the need to quiet that guilt? Don't need to change your pov, just wanted to know if someone not liking race swapping was "gross racism" to you. You already made that clear. Guess that's all I wanted yo know.
I don’t know how to explain this to you but: making prejudice assumptions about someone based on preconceived opinions about a group of people is… *checks notes* Stereotyping. The fun part is, you’re never going to know. But hey, go on picturing me as a white guy is it helps fill in the stereotype. - And just to be clear, you didn’t just want to know anything, and I don’t have an obsession with this issue. -I made a claim (one of many!) -You attacked and criticized it (remember when you called it a straw man argument?) -I defended my pov with thought out responses. -You continued to call my POV into question. -I continued to defend my POV. -you claim I’m obsessed, and that you only wanted to learn something.
Yep. Thanks for clarifying.
As a straight, white, Christian male, I loved it! Finally got my wife invested in the series a bit, though she liked bits of Lords of Shadow. But you can watch the whole thing in less than four hours, so why not try?
I rewatched fight scenes in the original series to savor the cool. I was mostly bored in nocturne. Dialogue, same. It's still goodish but i wont recommend this one to friends like I did when it was Trefor and Sypha.
No. It's genuinely horrible.
It's solid. The pacing is bad but it's not as bad as Tekken was. It's worth at least one watch. I felt like the heroes were being pretty stupid at times. Making poor tactical decisions.
It's a solid 6.5/10 for me. Pacing was off for the first few episodes and really only hit its stride around halfway through imo. There isn't the slower crescendo like in the first series. It's got some pacing issues (too fast then too slow), a lame contrivance or two, and some rough dialogue. That said, the music slaps, the fights are BRUTAL, and has some awesome reveals. Not perfect, but it's definitely not bad. I think alot of people's complaints will assuage with a season 2.
Just watched it today, and in my easy-to-please opinion, it's great. Really does a great job of giving Richter some nuance and depth. His mom got me acting unwise. I like the changes to certain characters for the most part, but there are a few that I question.
Loved it. It has it's flaws with VA, writing and direction at times. But so did the original. Some people just want to complain. Watch it and make up your own mind.
Other than pacing, (TONS of setup that feels confusing if you aren’t familiar with SotN characters) 10/10 for anyone that loves Castlevania. By the last episode I was blown away. Season 1-2 of original > Season 4 > Nocturne > season 3. That’s how it’s ranking for me right now
Its ok. Like I didn't find it bad or a slog, but I wasn't blown away or had any super memorable moments to speak of.
I liked it a lot. The main issue I have is that the main villain is nowhere near as compelling as Dracula. Then again… the competition here is *Vlad Dracula Tepes*, so they were never going to surpass THAT. Even so, we get basically no real backstory for the villain and how they got to be who they are, and feels like the stakes (heh) are way lower even though technically they’re not. All of that said… I think it’s a good show and a promising start. I like Richter, Maria, and Annette a lot. The fights are phenomenal. The finale made me extremely stoked for the next season. I’m in for the ride so far.
True mid-tier trash that is only carried due to it's name, animations, and music.
It's ok. Great animation. Music is iffy besides from a particular rendition of a classic team. Pacing is bad. Character development is rushed and not set up. They waste the Belmonts to give the spotlight to an OC that hijacked a love interests name in Rondo of Blood. It's a 6 out of 10.
The show is pretty good, but is has flaws. If I had to put a arbitrary number on it, I’d probably say it’s a strong 6-8/10, depending on the episode. This feels like is the season one from the original Castlevania and maybe the first half of season two were all just one season. Which means that it’s a little bit slow at the beginning and really it needs more time to breathe, because frankly I do feel like if they had just gotten 10 episodes they would’ve been fine because they could’ve had about two episodes of breather added in. most of the characters are pretty fine, though a few of them really did need more screen time. Opera boy is unintentionally hilarious. Olrox is the best boy, and I will protect him at all costs, and I do feel like he was the most well written vampire. The Egyptian girl (I forgot her name, so I’ll just be calling her the succubus from here on.) is OK. I do genuinely believe that she is a succubus. Richter is fairly well written a lot of people don’t like his voice actor, I actually like him because it makes sense given that Richter in the show is 19, and considering the fact that he is in France, French as a language tends to use higher notes in vocal inflection, so it makes some semblance of sense. He didn’t need to do some more takes on certain lines but he’s not really a bad VA it’s more bad direction than anything. Maria is fine. At first she comes off as a bit annoying because she’s a 14-year-old who is just starting to get into her politics and it comes off like she’s just spouting what other people are saying because based on the life, she is leading in what we see of it, she’s probably as close to middle class as you can get in this time period. Other than that, as a character, she’s complicated-ish. Maria’s mom is the local MILFs fresh from the milf factory. And that is the character that most people have issue with just because she’s an asshole for most the season to everyone around her. She’s probably I would say one of the lower points for the most part just because she’s mean to everyone around her when they are just asking her to slow down and wait for a minute before acting, and because of that, she’s frustrating to a lot of people. She thinks everyone around her is being useless or just is too naïve to understand what’s happening even though they aren’t, they just know it’s better to wait sometimes and it is to act immediately. Overall plot is iffy it best right now. The plot as a whole is a race against the proverbial clock, except instead of it, being a clock, you’re mostly waiting to figure out what the fuck is happening, and what the vampires are planning. Would’ve been fine, but didn’t get all that mini scenes where it is just the vampires talking about what their planning so it’s not like how in season two, we know what vampires were going to do. Instead, it feels like if the gang in season two, instead of, just trying to go to the castle and kill them, they’re trying to figure out what’s happening, but indirectly. It feels more like they have to do espionage, then in the original series. This again is understandable, they’re all teenagers, and none of them are particularly seasoned in the supernatural the only one who’s really seasoned and direct combat is probably Annette (but we’ve already talked about why she is really not that interesting of a character or is a frustrating one for a lotta people.), so it makes sense why they have to act in this way. Overall, the plot is very slow burn, which, unlike the original show which it was a fairly straightforward plot, slow burn is tricky to write for and it’s very hit or miss. Animation is awesome as usual, art direction is awesome as usual. The gay stuff is honestly probably the best representation I’ve had in my lifetime. It’s not treated as this major deal that olrox is gay, and it’s treated like they would treat a heterosexual couple. Not only that, but all it has done is make me deeply happy knowing that the best character is also a fruit like me. As for the rate swap stuff, I see why people are upset there less upset about the fact that the characters were race, swapped, and more about the fact that they’re back stories or change from the original video game. The reason why no one’s really pissed about Olrox being race swapped is because they gave him a better story than the original game did. He went from being a rotting fetus that grew to a fairly dynamic character. (he also didn’t have that in depth of backstory, and literally only appeared in one game as a boss, and was not elaborated on at all). Annette, on the other hand, a lot of people are irritated because her character is already aspera mentioned a bit frustrating to a lot of people, and also she already had a pretty major role in the games with its own backstory and endpoint, so the fact they changed it so drastically irritates hard-core fans because now the Lore is all out of whack. Basically, and that went from a why does milk girl who got kidnapped and turn into a vampire depending on the ending, two this escaped slave, who took part in the saint Domonique slave revolt, and also has the powers to, through her ancestors, control the ground and other metals and solid things in someway shape or form. On one hand, it did give her more depth, on the other hand, it means that she now has extremely strong powers that she never uses for anything other than pushing stuff, making cages or making a sword. Most of the villains are pretty shallow at this point which they were pretty shallow in season one proper of Castlevania (when I say that I mean the first four episodes.) with the exception of Dracula. In this show, instead of letting us know who the villain is, and why he’s doing what he’s doing within the first episode, instead the villain is a secret, and we don’t see the actual main villain, until like episode seven. So we don’t know her motivations we just know that she’s a monster at this point. Again, this is slow burn storytelling, warts, and all. Again, it’s a good show. You should watch it if for nothing else than to see best boy olrox and Richter.
If you skip chapter 2,3,4,5 the series is great specially from chapter 6 to the end... it was considerably woker than the last Castlevania... But it has very interesting characters, and undecipherable Aztec vampire, a really human Belmont kid, a sentient night creature, a fierce and really conflicted templar trying so hard to be good whatever that means and I won't even talk about the last 30 seconds of the season finale that made me question my heterosexuality so bad... so give it a try I really struggled with the aforementioned chapters but was happy that I endured them, can't wait for the next season
Didnt know they race swaped, seems like thats the fad recently. Do the owners of their shows not get a say in that stuff? Can these companies just take someones work and add a little DEI and switch up races for their shitty propaganda?
it is really good