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Castlevania |OT| A miserable little pile of episodes - Netflix 7/7

A

Ahasverus

Member
gun_haver said:
Just watched this. I'm not an anime fan or a Castlevania fan but I've got a passing interest in both. This is my first Castlevania anything. I liked it! Got some questions and comments.

- Are the games similar in tone, atmosphere and/or story then? Cos this is my kind of thing, I always assumed Castlevania was way more goofy and arcadey in presentation.

- I like all of the characters so far, and I like the grim atmosphere and suggestion of a wider world than what we've seen. Feels like there could be a lot of stories in this world, although I suppose they are following the games apparently?
Click to expand...
- Some of them, yeah, especially the classic ones (pre SOTN) and the Lords of Shadow sub series. The period known as the IGAvania which followed SOTN has a more barroque, elegant, less brutal style.

- The Castlevania series was always light on world building and storytelling until the Lords of Shadow sub series. The "classic series" hinted to a very interesting world, but as I said, they're minimalistic at best in the story department. This series actually feels very influenced by those little touches in the game, successfully amplifying them.
 
S

Sheroking

Member
gun_haver said:
Just watched this. I'm not an anime fan or a Castlevania fan but I've got a passing interest in both. This is my first Castlevania anything. I liked it! Got some questions and comments.

- Are the games similar in tone, atmosphere and/or story then? Cos this is my kind of thing, I always assumed Castlevania was way more goofy and arcadey in presentation.

- I like all of the characters so far, and I like the grim atmosphere and suggestion of a wider world than what we've seen. Feels like there could be a lot of stories in this world, although I suppose they are following the games apparently?
Click to expand...

Castlevania is more gothic and atmospheric than "goofy and arcadey". This definitely takes itself a bit more seriously, but Castlevania is not a parody or comedic in tone. Anyone who likes this should at least look into Symphony of the Night and Super Castlevania 4.

This anime is fleshing out the story of Castlevania 3, which was a prequel to almost everything else in the franchise.
 
M

MagnaderAlpha

Member
Ahasverus said:
- Some of them, yeah, especially the classic ones (pre SOTN) and the Lords of Shadow sub series. The period known as the IGAvania which followed SOTN has a more barroque, elegant, less brutal style.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't say it was "less brutal"

es06.gif
 
T

Trago

Member
Just some quick thoughts:

- Art direction is boss tier. Backgrounds are just damn damn good.

- Having Trevor being the sarcastic wisecrack kinda worked. The show is clearly dark as fuck. Nice to lighten things up a bit.

- The gore and brutality took me by surprise, but it didn't really bother me. Some of those kills are just crazy.

- I like how they got the whip to feel extra lethal.

- This should have been longer! More episodes please!
 
Y

Yappadappadu

Member
Just finished the first episode.
Damn annoying that there is no normal 2nd english sub track. My english is good enough, but sometimes I miss a few words. What I don't need is a sub for hearing impaired ppl.
Think I will continue with the japanese dub anyways.
 
M

MagnaderAlpha

Member
Ahasverus said:
"I love you.. let me kiss you" *shivers*

Symphony was directed by Toru Higahara, not Koji Igarashi. His games were not as bloody. They did have some great dark imagery, but iirc all their games were rated T, not M.

That gif is very tame compared to the classic or LoS series.
Click to expand...

But the classic ones weren't rated M either. They were minimalist as far as "brutal, dark imagery" was concerned. The most you could get away with on 8-bit or 16-bit. And nothing in the "classic" CVs can compare to that gif, though I'll give you LoS, but it HAD to be brutal and dark because there's no way it would be able to compete in the modern gaming market any other way.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Just finished the first episode. Bravo to everyone involved. That was far better than I was expecting on all fronts. Hell the stupid story at the end from the drunkard at the bar and how it played out was really well done even if its just some random one off character and unimportant story. Really like how they're doing so much with the set up and not just starting right with Belmont's storming Dracula's castle. On to the next episode.

Edit: was also impressed at how dark and gory it got.
 
C

compo

Banned
Man, the music in this was fucking horrible. It was so low effort that I would have preferred there not being music at all. And in at least the bar fight scene, the music was completely wrong and made no sense. It was like a single guitar playing a lullaby as people were beating the shit out of each other. I have no idea what the musician was thinking there when he/she scored that scene.

Aside from the music, I give this a 7 or so. I wasn't blown away at all, but I'll probably watch the new seasons.
 
G

Gulz1992

Member
Just finished episode 4. Never played a single Castlevania game so I'm not sure how faithful this is to the source material. I enjoyed it though, a lot more than I expected to. The animation isn't the best I've seen, but it's decent enough and the directing is pretty good. It also has a really great dark and gothic atmosphere. The narrative feels a little fast paced with some of the character development of the main leads, but otherwise is off to a solid start. I'll definitely check out the next season.
 
E

Escape Goat

Member
I just watched Episode 1. Warren Ellis what the hell? You used to be good. If that bartender's name is Joe Exposition I would not be suprised.
 
V

Verano

Reads Ace as Lace. May God have mercy on their soul
The dialogue and VA work is fuckin horrible..who the hell wrote the script? Plus the shitty British accents doesn't help at all..wheres the japanese dub/eng sub version of this?
 
L

Loxley

Member
Cross-posting from the thread about the season 2 announcement on gaming side, but I just finished it and really enjoyed it. As a whole it definitely felt like a four-part pilot episode to gauge interest for a longer series, glad to see we're getting it.

This also makes me excited for the Assassin's Creed series we're getting, since it's from the same exec producer.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Just finished it. Aside from a few issues here or there that was strong as Hell and was basically a teaser movie for the story proper. They did a great job adapting it and taking a few liberties here or there but otherwise I thought did a bang up job of adapting the videogame. I expect season 2 at 8 episodes to be the real meat and potatoes of the story so speak and the clash with Dracula
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
gun_haver said:
Just watched this. I'm not an anime fan or a Castlevania fan but I've got a passing interest in both. This is my first Castlevania anything. I liked it! Got some questions and comments.

- Are the games similar in tone, atmosphere and/or story then? Cos this is my kind of thing, I always assumed Castlevania was way more goofy and arcadey in presentation.

- I like all of the characters so far, and I like the grim atmosphere and suggestion of a wider world than what we've seen. Feels like there could be a lot of stories in this world, although I suppose they are following the games apparently?

- Agreed that the music is kind of bland, although I wouldn't have thought about this if people hadn't pointed it out here. It is servicable but a good soundtrack would push this up another level so hopefully they either get a new composer for the next season or give this one a kick up the ass.
Click to expand...

1. Pretty similar though the games typically have kind of rock music so its a blend of horror and style, but not as crazy as something as something like DMC for example.
its a better balance.

2. Yes this was basically an adaptation of early Castlevania 3 stuff.

3. I don't think the music is bad necessarily just coming from a series so heavily based on music is very jarring
Dracula's typical boss fight music for example: Dance of Illusions
Belmont themes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dauRYb9il8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PVNNdCuXOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeogRDmJOBM

Dracula's Castle/Alucard's theme
Bloody Tears
Vampire Killer
Some of them being in nearly every game since the 80's(even the reboot incorporated hints when it could)
 
G

gun_haver

Member
Razgriz-Specter said:
1. Pretty similar though the games typically have kind of rock music so its a blend of horror and style, but not as crazy as something as something like DMC for example.
its a better balance.

2. Yes this was basically an adaptation of early Castlevania 3 stuff.

3. I don't think the music is bad necessarily just coming from a series so heavily based on music is very jarring
Dracula's typical boss fight music for example: Dance of Illusions
Belmont themes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dauRYb9il8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PVNNdCuXOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeogRDmJOBM

Dracula's Castle/Alucard's theme
Bloody Tears
Click to expand...

Ah, see I don't really like any of the tracks you've linked to, so if this is what people are complaining about being absent, my opinion on the music being a bit bland is for different reasons. Also yeah this kind of heavy metal sort of thing is more what I imagined Castlevania being, and part of the reason why I never really looked into it before, cos it takes a very specific mood for me to be interested in that.

At any rate, I'm gonna check out Symphony of The Night. Seems to be considered the best one.
 
X

Xe4

Banned
Verano said:
The dialogue and VA work is fuckin horrible..who the hell wrote the script? Plus the shitty British accents doesn't help at all..wheres the japanese dub/eng sub version of this?
Click to expand...

Why do you even care? The only reason you'd think it's any better would be because you couldn't tell any better*. It's not like the Japanese dub is the original version anyhow.

*Unless you're actually Japanese.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
I'd honestly forgotten about Dracula's backstory and any notion of him being sympathetic, so I enjoyed episode 1 a lot.
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
gun_haver said:
Ah, see I don't really like any of the tracks you've linked to, so if this is what people are complaining about being absent, my opinion on the music being a bit bland is for different reasons. Also yeah this kind of heavy metal sort of thing is more what I imagined Castlevania being, and part of the reason why I never really looked into it before, cos it takes a very specific mood for me to be interested in that.

At any rate, I'm gonna check out Symphony of The Night. Seems to be considered the best one.
Click to expand...

Given that isn't all the tracks or even a majority its a sense of when the series is being "cool"

My favorite track of the entire series is actually kinda slow and atmospheric from SOTN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlBcCSbOwek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krBPL-3PTwo
 
J

jett

D-Member
Finished watching.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't too shabby for being the studio's first attempt at doing something like this. Its greatest strength are the character designs, which are all very nice. And the animation is nice enough even if sometimes it seems lacking in frames. The worst part is the story, there's very little meat, not much happens.
Maybe next season will be better.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
A few lines aside and a couple random one off characters I didn't think the voice was bad at all. In fact I enjoyed most of it but I also thought the dialogue and writing was generally pretty good all around with a few dud's but not near anything to make me say it was bad.
 
S

SoldierIce64

Member
I've been replaying Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night so this show arrived at the perfect time. Overall I thought it was really solid. The fight scenes were well animated and fun while the characters were interesting enough, especially Trevor. It's just nice to get some more Castlevania.
 
Astral Dog

Astral Dog

Member
jett said:
Finished watching.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't too shabby for being the studio's first attempt at doing something like this. Its greatest strength are the character designs, which are all very nice. And the animation is nice enough even if sometimes it seems lacking in frames. The worst part is the story, there's very little meat, not much happens.
Maybe next season will be better.
Click to expand...
I mean im sure they will get to the meat of the story next season in Dracula's Castle, im surprised they got this much from a NES game to be honest, Castlevania games (specially classic ones) are very liggt on plot
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Sub Boss said:
I mean im sure they will get to the meat of the story next season in Dracula's Castle, im surprised they got this much from a NES game to be honest, Castlevania games (specially classic ones) are very liggt on plot
Click to expand...

I actually liked all the call outs especially the fact that Trevor mentions the family bestiary while fighting the Stone Eye Cyclops. Speaking of , hat entire Stone Eye Cyclops encounter was exactly what I was hoping for when I heard Castlevania was being adapted.
 
H

Harpoon

Member
Verano said:
The dialogue and VA work is fuckin horrible..who the hell wrote the script? Plus the shitty British accents doesn't help at all..wheres the japanese dub/eng sub version of this?
Click to expand...

A bunch of the VAs are actually British, so this remark is a bit... hmm.
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
Loving episode 2, and Trevor's characterization. The town bits remind me a lot of Simon's Quest, Writer clearly knows the source material.
 
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