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

P

Phased

Member
Firemind said:
Finished the first season and I have to agree with AVGN, it looks more like an adaption of CV3 in the style of SotN. It lacks some of the things that make it old school Castlevania if that makes sense. Sure, there's a whip and holy water, and it uses characters from CV3, but there's something off. For starters, they made Dracula sympathetic. The real villain is religion. When the demons killed the bishop I was like yessss lol. Maybe they should have kept it a secret as to why monsters are appearing, have the band together and revealed it at a later point. Now I'm like it's not even Dracula's fault lol.

Also, it was pretty odd that twenty years went by and Lisa hasn't seemed to age one bit lol.
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I mean I think the real villain is still Dracula. Him being somewhat sympathetic doesn't forgive what he's doing, it's just way more interesting knowing his motivations besides just "lol bad guy does evil things" and painting the alleged good guys in a not-so-great light makes it not so black and white which is great and completely intentional I think.
 
A

Auron_Kale

Member
Decided to hear a bit of ep 4 in Japanese and despite knowing Shinichiro Miki had voiced Alucard, it still hit me that I could still hear Roy Mustang talking lol.

Going to do a rewatch of S1 in Japanese probably sometime this week when free.
 
Putosaure

Putosaure

Member
Liked the short format of the episode, the action and the gore. The animation was sometimes not that great. I was disappointed by the lack of catchy Castlevania-style music too :(
Oh, and thanks to the OT, the Alucard end reveal fell flat as I knew he was supposed to be there.
Great series though !
 
M

massoluk

Banned
They coulda spent more time showing relationship between Dracula and his wife and how Alucard came to be the guy he is. Hopefully Season 2 get some flashback episodes to flesh out all the characters' background
 
P

Piers

Member
Altazor said:
I hope that, whenever Trevor/Sypha/Grant's final assault against Dracula happens, we get to see a version of this particular scene-landscape-iconic moment:

castlevania-symphonyofthenight-finalstage-bloodlines-e1414255474489.png
Click to expand...

Coincidentally, I love that particular chamber because it's so distinct from the rest of the castle. It (and the stairway) is on the top right here:
vstiMln.png
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Romars202129 said:
I'm butthurt this is so good. I want to stop supporting Konami.
Voice acting is amazing.
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The way I see it, the way in which a Castlevania series has been enjoyed by the huge Netflix masses only undermines Konami's argument to fold their core game development.

Maybe Konami will continue to do nothing but cash in on adaptations and merchandise of the license, but it really builds the case that CV games were a cultural institution worth continuing.

Like Marvel in the 90s, sometimes the powers-that-be holding certain properties have no clue what they are really worth in the public eye.
 
R

Razgriz-Specter

Member
BocoDragon said:
The way I see it, the way in which a Castlevania series has been enjoyed by the huge Netflix masses only undermines Konami's argument to fold their core game development.

Maybe Konami will continue to do nothing but cash in on adaptations and merchandise of the license, but it really builds the case that CV games were a cultural institution worth continuing.

Like Marvel in the 90s, sometimes the powers-that-be holding certain properties have no clue what they are really worth in the public eye.
Click to expand...

At the very least im happy Konami was open to this, its far more than we typically get even from companies that actually respect their games.

Maybe they will let someone license the games soon.
 
A

Aaronology

Member
The voiceacting in this is so phenomenal. Graham McTavish brings Dracula to life and is the primary reason I adore this series, and James Callis is as awesome as Alucard as he is at everything else he does.

9/10, can't wait for the second season.
 
R

Romars202129

Member
BocoDragon said:
The way I see it, the way in which a Castlevania series has been enjoyed by the huge Netflix masses only undermines Konami's argument to fold their core game development.

Maybe Konami will continue to do nothing but cash in on adaptations and merchandise of the license, but it really builds the case that CV games were a cultural institution worth continuing.

Like Marvel in the 90s, sometimes the powers-that-be holding certain properties have no clue what they are really worth in the public eye.
Click to expand...

I was in the boat of hoping they take such a hurting they straight up sell their IP. Theres a little tic in my mind that says that this being a successful project holds that dream off.
 
O

OnPoint

Member
Firemind said:
Finished the first season and I have to agree with AVGN, it looks more like an adaption of CV3 in the style of SotN. It lacks some of the things that make it old school Castlevania if that makes sense. Sure, there's a whip and holy water, and it uses characters from CV3, but there's something off. For starters, they made Dracula sympathetic. The real villain is religion. When the demons killed the bishop I was like yessss lol. Maybe they should have kept it a secret as to why monsters are appearing, have the band together and revealed it at a later point. Now I'm like it's not even Dracula's fault lol.

Also, it was pretty odd that twenty years went by and Lisa hasn't seemed to age one bit lol.
Click to expand...

I don't agree that Dracula isn't the villain. I agree his motivation is sympathetic. But at no point is genocide an acceptable response and it makes him a monster.

Lisa not aging can be handwaved away by Dracula's science and somehow slowing or halting the process.
 
Indelible

Indelible

Member
Really enjoyed this show, started with a bang and ended strong as well. Makes me wish that more videogames had such great animated adaptations, can't wait for season 2.
 
R

Red Arremer

Member
I wish I could enjoy the German dub, but the problem is that German TV has like 5 voice actors, so it's a bit grating to hear the same voice actors that before played completely different characters and associating them with those roles.

Plus German voice acting very rarely is actually acting and rather just reading off scripts while kind of trying and fitting with the lip syncs, so... yeah.
 
A

Auron_Kale

Member
Tizoc said:
So is this gonna have a JP dub?
Cuz Wakamoto needs to repraise Dracula once more.
Click to expand...

It has one already. Access you Netflix account and switch your language to Japanese. Start the show and in the subtitles (look for the speech bubble icon), match your settings like in this pic:

9R73Yhm.png
 
S

SomewhatGroovy

Banned
I didn't love it; didn't hate it. Trevor and his characterization felt so out of place to me that his persona completely took me out of the experience from the opening of ep2 and onward.

I love the world building and very good moments of subtle storytelling (Lisa dialogue as she was dying was one of them, as a new audience thinks she is speaking to Dracula). There is a lot of room for storytelling here.

The sound engineering or whatever was a mix bag. I swear I constantly had to keep turning up the volume as that head priest dude or whatever was talking.

Again, i love the world, i love the art and music. Trevor was just a big no for me.
 
C

Creamium

shut uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup
I don't know if this interview was linked here before.

Paste: Without getting into specifics, were the series to continue, what sort of stories and characters would you like to explore in future installments?

Ellis:I keep thinking of it as two seasons, but it's really just one, split into two unequal parts. I think we're allowed to say that? So I've written what I think of as Season Two already, which is where I move away from the source material somewhat, stretch my legs, and probably get a little eccentric in places. ”Season 1, Part 1" is telling the story we originally showed up to tell 10 years ago. ”Part 2" is where I take more advantage of being on Netflix, I think.
Click to expand...

I actually thought the material for s2 was written back in 07 as well, but it's new content from here on out. In the itv he also says he's not a gamer and hasn't played any of the CV's before
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Auron_Kale said:
It has one already. Access you Netflix account and switch your language to Japanese. Start the show and in the subtitles (look for the speech bubble icon), match your settings like in this pic:

9R73Yhm.png
Click to expand...

Oh cool, I hadn't resubbed to Netflix yet, will do in August since there are shows I am interested in.
Thanks for the info.
 
A

Auron_Kale

Member
Tizoc said:
Oh cool, I hadn't resubbed to Netflix yet, will do in August since there are shows I am interested in.
Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

No worries. After binging last night, I actually Google'd how to enable the Japanese dub (source ended up being reddit of course) so glad I could help!
 
A

All Possible Ways

Member
Creamium said:
I don't know if this interview was linked here before.



I actually thought the material for s2 was written back in 07 as well, but it's new content from here on out. In the itv he also says he's not a gamer and hasn't played any of the CV's before
Click to expand...

Away from the source material huh? Hopefully not that much. I feel IGA must have hammered in the more faithful elements,since Ellis didn't even check the game out.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
bob_arctor said:
2 episodes in and not really feeling it. Something seems stilted about it. Pacing? Can't quite place my finger on it.
Click to expand...

Ep. 2 for me was largely the lowest point with the first not far behind. Felt it improved a bit in 3/4 though. The opening of 3 should likely perk you up a bit, at least it did for me.
 
E

Eccocid

Member
Just finished first 2 chapters. Ugh can't stand to this mumbling voice job for Trevor. It feels like VA was forced to voice him in his sleep.

Also there are some issues with pacing and animation. Wish it had better budget.

By the way is animation inhouse? I wish it was outsourced to some good anime studio like production I.G etc... (i am asking for too much lol=
 
Y

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
I enjoyed the episodes but the facial animations really take you out of it a bit. They responded so poorly to the things happening around them.
 
Astral Dog

Astral Dog

Member
Khoryos said:
Is the Matthias Cronqvist stuff still canon? The fields of impaled turks suggest maybe not, but I'm never sure.
Click to expand...
I mean its still 'canon' on the IGAverse.here? idk and it doesn't matter anymore, most of the Matthias references in other games are at best fan winks.i doubt anyone will even mention it, that said Dracula hinself was redesigned a bit to be more modern esque instead of the short hair classic version.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
I just finished watching the first season. I enjoyed it. The pacing is slower than I would have liked, but I don't think it's too bad since they are trying to build up the characters a bit first.

Since Castlevania isn't exactly a story driven series, I can understand why people were a little put off by the talky scenes. I think it fleshes out the world better.

I think my biggest criticism of the animation is the lack of impact in the fight scenes. You don't really feel and think "Oh, that's gotta hurt!" The 2003 TMNT animated series does a great job with their fights. I hope they get a bigger budget for the next season to improve the fights and the animation during the fights.
 
A

afternoon delight

Member
Saw the first two episodes and absolutely loved what they did with the story! Art was a plus too. Really disappointed it's only four episodes though, total tease.

Will gladly purchase the inevitable BLU compilation with the Second Season down the road.
 
C

Choabac

Member
I've got nothing insightful to add, but as a newcomer to Castlevania, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Can't wait for more episodes.
 
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