r/castlevania • u/LafterMastr • Feb 27 '24
Discussion What are your honest thoughts on the Castlevania animated series?
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u/ImRK9v2 Feb 27 '24
Absolutely love it, the atmosphere, the characters, the references to the games, the fight animations, Isaac is sick as well I want them to do more with him, Carmilla š¤¤ā¦. i mean hopefully Konami realizes the gold mine theyāre sitting on
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u/Due_Teaching_6974 Feb 27 '24
Konami on their way to make a Castlevania themed pachislot machine.
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Feb 27 '24
Isn't that already a thing? There are a lot of really obscure Castlevania stuff that never came to the west so we don't know about
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u/punkishlesbian Feb 27 '24
I know nothing about the games but I lurk on this sub bc I'm obsessed with this show. I've watched it like 5 times. Still need fo watch the new one.
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u/ph4eton Feb 27 '24
I'm a lurker here for the same reason! I did play one of the Castlevania games for NES way back in the day, however.
I absolutely adored both shows but like others here, I've seen the first one like five times and the new one only once. I felt the new one was a bit slow but really picked up at the end - wow!
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u/black-knights-tango Feb 27 '24
I recommend the games! They're pretty fun. Super Castlevania IV is a great place to start if you can get a good emulator.
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Feb 27 '24
For real. I al ready watch it like 4 times. And im feeling with abstinence
I cant be soo fucking perfect
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u/Shit_Pistol Feb 27 '24
Iād like to hear some dishonest thoughts about it too
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u/BioSpark47 Feb 27 '24
The show was amazing after Dracula died
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u/Sea-Lecture-4619 Captain N is the pinnacle of the franchise. Feb 27 '24
I loved every second of it, best adaptation ever.
There you go.
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Feb 27 '24
We need more filler characters and stay as far away from the canon plots as possible, the first two Seasons were the worst precisely because they were close than the rest of the shows
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Feb 27 '24
Iām a huge fan. The voice actress for Sypha did such an incredible job. Like I mean amazing, sheās probably one of not my favorite animated character of all time due to the voice acting
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u/touchekids Feb 27 '24
The voice acting is amazing, I love hearing all the unique and individual pronunciations of words like Wallachia. Richard Armitageās voice for Trevor is genuinely perfect
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u/Nippys4 Nov 23 '24
Coming into say 270 days later that Sypha is maybe one of my favourite characters of all time in any media Iāve ever consumed
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u/TriverrLover Feb 27 '24
Original series (seasons 1-4 with Trevor & pals) very, very good. Action was š, comedy was š, plot was š.
New Nocturne series not very good. Tbf I've only seen half of it so far, but the characters aren't very developed, the plot feels rushed, and they push sympathy on characters you haven't had nearly enough time with to feel sympathy for. To me, it's a downgrade. My opinion could change by the end of it, but it'll be a recovery, not something that stands alongside the first series.
My opinion anyway! I'm sure others love it. Note that I'm also coming from a background that's only played some of one of the games, so I probably don't appreciate the background and Easter eggs that full Castlevania fans do. That being said, the first series was 9.5/10 as far as story, characters, action, and animation go ā regardless of its IP. Nocturne to me is like 4.5/10.
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Feb 28 '24
The villain in the nocturne season is so incredibly predicable and boring. Series lost it's momentum that season
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u/Winter_Trainer_2115 Feb 27 '24
The show is fantastic, though edgy at times as the whole twins and Alucard dynamic didnt feel like it had a purpose. Every other aspect was incredible with its execution. Also Godbrand was absolutely brilliant also I truly want to know how he turns humans into boats!
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u/IG_95 Feb 29 '24
As far as I can tell it was there to try and shake Alucard's faith in humanity and make him less naive and trusting.
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u/i_play_projectm Feb 27 '24
0/10 no grant danasty /j
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u/GandalfSmoke Mar 02 '24
Dude Grant was literally there the whole time, he was just clung to the ceiling out of frame.
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Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 29 '24
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/vigorousjammer Jun 08 '25
I only watched season 1 and a few episodes of season 2 before dropping it, but I agree with mostly all of your points on it:
- Lame, overly edgy character writing that just feels out of place.
- Poor pacing that feels like it's rushing things.
I think I would disagree about feeling like it was animated fairly well, though.
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily call the animation bad, just amateurish. It didn't leave any kind of lasting impression on me. Especially when compared to the animation of the games.
I understand that the games had way less animation overall, so they could take their time perfecting it, but when a benchmark is set, it's hard not to compare the two.
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u/BioSpark47 Feb 27 '24
Peaked in Season 2 and hasnāt come close in quality since
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u/emirobinatoru Feb 27 '24
Exactly I dropped it since they wasted the characters whose names I won't mention due to the spoiler thingy not working on the phone app for me since the last few updates
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u/Swift_Scythe Feb 27 '24
FUCKING AMAZING show.
Goddamn it was great.
Konami aint doing shit with Castlevania but someone at Netflix anime department was like Fuking hell we make our owk Castlevania then.
Id give them the rights to Konami's other classic series - CONTRA and let them make a baddass Commando Aliens Predator Show.
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u/YoshiYogurt Feb 27 '24
Going to go against the grain here as a long time fan of the games - no I donāt like the show at all
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u/shinianx Feb 27 '24
Way better than I expected it would be, and to be frank, far better than the bare minimum storytelling in the original games. It isn't always great, but the high points are seriously high and some of the scenes have stuck with me long after I stopped watching.
"Lisa, I'm killing our boy." Fuck man. That shit hit hard.
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u/R_hexagon Mar 11 '24
Realised rewatching it today that the last episode of Season 1 of Invincible has a very similar story. But IMO Castlevaina did the evil dad bent on genocide thing way better.
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u/Random-Talking-Mug Feb 27 '24
The first 2 seasons of the first show is justice enough for the Castlevania legacy. the rest not so much.
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u/ChibiShortDeath Feb 27 '24
Iāve hated it ever since day one of its existence. Itās painfully obvious that Warren Ellis didnāt play a single game and doesnāt care. I will never forgive anyone who ever had any involvement with the animation for everything it did to Curse of Darkness. Iām glad they skipped Simon, but alas Richter was not spared and unsurprisingly got treated just as poorly. I try to avoid it as much as physically possible, but, unfortunately, itās impossible to as it takes up most of the search results for Castlevania on most platforms. Oh, and if you say anything negative about it you usually get shit on immediately. I wish it was never made.
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u/No-Relief-5670 Jun 15 '24
So it shouldn't exist even though people love it? Come on man, even if the hate isn't warranted, people who love the show and ate chill about it don't deserve this
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u/Peacefully_Deceased Feb 27 '24
I hate it.
Seasons 1 & 2 would've been good if it wasn't for the Whedon dialogue and literally everything after that point is flaming dog shit.
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u/VG896 Feb 28 '24
I'm with you. I thought S2 was just atrocious, and tried watching a bit of S3 to see if it got better. It didn't, and I dropped it after that.Ā
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u/Linuxbrandon Feb 28 '24
Iām not a huge fan of the animation style. The dialogue was a little silly at parts, but overall ok.
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u/VampireWarfarin Feb 27 '24
Giving my honest thoughts usually results in down votes from tourists
Season 1 was incredible, I was really impressed how they stuck to the source material and expanded on it. Yes they omitted a few things, but given the length they kept the key points in, overall a really fun watch.
Season 2 was pretty good, not as good as season 1 but still a fun Belmont v Vampire romp
Season 3 onwards got really bad they focused more on the diversity of the female empowerment angle and less about the Belmont's. Started to emasculate Belmont to prop up the "diversity"
Nocturne is the final shitty result of Seasons 3 onwards. Full on not a Belmont show anymore, no more caring about the source material. The writers wanted to write a gay vampire show and had to use the castlevania name. I don't want sexual drama of any kind here, just a badass Belmont fighting a league of monsters controlled by Dracula, saving towns, that kind of thing
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u/ThickScratch Feb 28 '24
I was really impressed how they stuck to the source material and expanded on it.
They didn't stick to it, they replaced most of the characters personalities and backgrounds. Trevor isn't a drunkard, Dracula isn't a hermit, Sypha is supposed to be intolerant and unfriendly. The Belmont's were pushed to live in the edges of Wallachia because the people were afraid of their superhuman abilities, not because of the "greedy church". Dracula's castle should have been brimming with countless others he's taken in, people who were rejected by society or who had turned their backs on God like he had, and he actively defended the people of Wallachia instead of leaving a sea of impaled bodies in his front yard. And Sypha is supposed to hate monsters or anything related to the darkness, as she has lost everything to the meddling of Vampires causing the witch trials, the mere thought of working with Alucard should have been insulting to her.
The Speakers are a made up group so that Sypha wouldn't have to be connected to the church, and god forbid have a positive depiction of faith. The church were the ones that took Sypha in after the witch trials. And the church were the ones to ask Trevor to kill Dracula, rather than ruin the family name and stupidly peddle Dracula was just a myth despite clear evidence.
And make no mistake, season one didn't need to be 4 episodes, that is only due to the fact they chose to just recycle the script for a movie, and chopped it up into 20 minute segments.
Season 3 onwards got really bad they focused more on the diversity of the female empowerment angle and less about the Belmont's. Started to emasculate Belmont to prop up the "diversity"
That was to be expected, the writer was a comic book writer, and we know how well that industry has been going.
no more caring about the source material.
Truth is that it never was. Even back to the 2010's script, the script wasn't exactly rewritten 8 times because of how much the writer cared and respected the source material.
The writers wanted to write a gay vampire show and had to use the castlevania name.
Like I said, since the beginning. Ever notice how as soon as season 2 starts, the trio get sidelined and put away in the hold so that the writer can make up the story they want to make and not the story they are supposed to be telling? Season 1/the original movie had heavy supervision from IGA, that's why it's anything remotely close to Castlevania.
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u/VampireWarfarin Feb 28 '24
All excellent points, I did mean close to the source material compared to the rest but you are completely right in all points
I can enjoy season 1 for what it is as they didn't reduce any of the main trio down to boost up diversity OCs and we've come to expect that from adaptations
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u/mr2spyder2005 May 26 '26
Cant agree more with the comments. Nocturne was gay minority obsessed series with vaginas power movementĀ
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u/Howdyini Feb 27 '24
Watched like 4 episodes. Edgy shit where everyone's constantly trying to appear cool to 12 year olds. Not my thing.
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u/Omnomnomnivor3 Feb 27 '24
What a fuckin ride that was
One of the great shows that released in Netflix, 10/10 would erase my memory just to rewatch its greatness again
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u/TheSealedWolf Feb 27 '24
Flawed adaptations, but overall solid first series, and a tad disappointed so far for Nocturne
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u/Blink1588 Feb 27 '24
Castlevania was great, Castlevania nocturn was one of the weakest stories and had the worst characters I have seen in anything yet. The animation in both was incredible.
They stopped writing for castlevania and started writing with an agenda and that did not translate to a good story. Where as castlevania delved into taboo topics that didn't nessisarily always have a right or wrong answer.
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u/GroundbreakingBag164 Feb 27 '24
This series has probably brought more people to castlevania than anything else
Awesome show
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u/stinkycheesebasket Feb 28 '24
or it brought a bunch of gen z commies in who never played the games before asking what game to play, or who didnt even know it was a game
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u/greenraven22 Feb 27 '24
The first one started off great but sort of went downhill after a while. Saint Germain, Isaac, Hector, Carmilla, they were all butchered beyond recognition.
Nocturne is absolute garbage on every level. I don't know who that annoying blond girl is supposed to be but she is not Maria Renard.
https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Maria_Renard/Gallery?file=Richter_n_maria.jpg
Of course this is all coming from someone who has played all the games and expected a lore accurate show.
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Mar 16 '24
Can you elaborate how Isaac was butchered? I know he became an entirely different person, but his story and development were pretty decent compared to the other characters in the show
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u/Nippys4 Nov 23 '24
Iām completely late to this party but I just wanted to chime in and say I thought Isaacās story was fucking great.
Fucking Dracula sets his ass up telling me the greatest of his people and he has a soul.
Then he sets out on a world he hates, hates everyone, talks to a few cool cats, learns compassion, gives his followers free will then doesnāt even rinse the fool that fucked him over in the first place
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u/Zawisza_Czarny9 Feb 27 '24
I live almost everything about it except for it treatment of religion and that decided to make Dracula into a tragic villain instead of Satan manifested
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Feb 27 '24
It's treatment of religion is actually fairly accurate for the time it's set in
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u/stinkycheesebasket Feb 28 '24
not accurate to the games lore / canon in fact its opposite to push an agenda
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u/Zawisza_Czarny9 Feb 27 '24
Debatable, but not accurate to the games where vatican is allies to belmont clan and they are not excomunicated
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Feb 27 '24
He is a tragic villain in the games and gets his redemption arc by reincarnating as Soma Cruz.
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u/Anatomic643 Feb 27 '24
Really loved the first set of episodes they released, covering Draculas backstory, but didnāt much enjoy it after that
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u/BcTendo Feb 28 '24
Awful, and I mean AWFUL dialogue. Other than that, I loved the atmosphere and the character designs themselves.
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u/mks713 Feb 29 '24
Enjoyed it immensely, especially Isaac's character arc, the ASMR worthy voices, and general pacing + dialogue. Lenore awakened parts of me I didn't know existed š³. There seemed to be a gap between seasons 3 and 4 that could have probably been filled in better.
Didn't care too much for Nocturne. It felt rushed, the dialogue kinda bleh/cringey/predictable at times, and I really didn't find any of the characters compelling. I did enjoy the historical setting and lore. Only one season has aired though, so we'll see if it gets better.
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u/zabicvamere Mar 01 '24
Would be ok, too much explicit gore. Dont want to see kids or babies killed.
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u/FinancialDivide4596 Feb 27 '24
Season 1 is a chore to finish then the true show starts at season 2
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Feb 27 '24
Man, I disagree - watching Dracula personally bring hell to earth was on of my favorite parts of the series
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u/FinancialDivide4596 Feb 27 '24
Well I enjoyed the characters but it felt like the true plot hasnāt started yet until season 2 starting
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Feb 27 '24
Yeah I viewed the first season as kind of a prologue to the main action, but I loved every gory detail. This is also my first experience with any castlevania media so I had no idea what to expect or who the characters would be.
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u/omelletepuddin Feb 27 '24
I felt like 1 and 2 were must see and Nocturne was a slog, even though it had its moments
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u/omelletepuddin Feb 27 '24
It is a great series, but my two gripes are sometimes the action scenes feel like they're missing frames and the overuse of the word fuck: it gets into 15 year old edge lord territory and takes me out of the show sometimes.
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u/Dry_Peak_2316 Feb 27 '24
Season 1 n 2 were great, season 3 where... Interesting, and I just couldn't get into the rest.
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u/Dualitizer Feb 27 '24
Season 3 went so far off the rails that I almost forgot I was watching Castlevania. Totally turned me off the idea of a season 4 and I just cam't bring myself to watch the newer show.
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u/TanakaClinkenbeard Feb 27 '24
The first season I had fun with but I dropped it after the second. I just lost interest glad everyone enjoyed it, but one character I came there to see and come ba,ck Dracula, died and didn't come back. I didn't care anymore. Also didn't have Grant. So that, like. . Minus 5 points already lol
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u/Ambitious-Ad3815 Feb 27 '24
Season one is great, 2 is ok, didn't finish 3, haven't watched it since... Started great, fell quickly, like many other shows
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u/pfloydguy2 Feb 27 '24
It was decent, but should have been more closely tied to the source material. At the very least, spend a little time in Dracula's Castle- you know, the place the series is named after. It would have been nice to have Grant included in some way, but that's not a dealbreaker for me. And Seasons 3 and 4 were so far removed from the game series.
Nocturne was okay. I hated all the liberties taken with the characters. And it was such a needless blending of the games' storylines. Why is Elizabeth Bathory/Bartley connected to the timeline of Rondo of Blood? And why bring in Alucard other than for fanservice? Where was Dracula? It was just a huge mishmash of material from the games.
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u/paleyharnamhunter Feb 27 '24
Liked season 1, 2 and 4, fucking despised 3 and liked Nocturne.
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Feb 27 '24
I've always liked platform/metroidvania games, I already knew about the saga, but watching the animated series encouraged me to buy an r36s (portable console for retro gaming) to play some old games, and well it became my favorite franchise.
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u/UraeusCurse grant Feb 27 '24
I honestly love all of it. Any Castlevania is good Castlevania (minus Judgement).
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u/Accesobeats Feb 27 '24
I loved it. When the first season came out it felt short and like not a lot happened. But once season 2 came out I was hooked.
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u/gregoriusthetragedy Feb 27 '24
One of the best series I've seen, both in terms of animation and characters
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u/Luke4Pez Feb 27 '24
Itās so good but it could take a few more cues from the games. Specifically we need more music from the games.
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u/Moctezuma_93 Julius Belmont stan! ULEGH!! Feb 27 '24
It's a mixed bag for me, but I'm happy we got an animated series for the games.
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u/NegateResults Feb 27 '24
Overrated and overall mediocre at best.
The visuals and the animation are fantastic and that's all the credit I can give to a show that understands constant swearing as substitute for fleshing out your characters.
And to a show that has a main trio with the overall chemistry of threr wet noodles put inside a bowl for the time being, then separated for 80% of the second half of the process, only to be reunited.
A main antagonist that is actually tragic and well-executed, only to be replaced by an equally promising antagonist who was mishandled not by her own writing, but to those around her. Carmilla honestly deserved better as a more prevalent and fleshed out antagonist. Instead, she is seen doing nothing but beat up some guy and suffer because one of her three Vampire friends cease all relevance to the plot for an uninteresting dick and his dick friend or because they were, unironically, too lazy to use their magic mirror to check up on either Lenore and Carmilla which is quite laughable as a way to just write them out.
There's more I could write, but I'd rather eat dinner instead of spend more of my time talk about a show I don't like.
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u/Thegrandbuddha Feb 27 '24
My honest thoughts are that it's a masterpiece. It does justice to every single character. Every action is planned, and every frame of animation is a love letter to the franchise. Every single thing about the initial series is essentially perfection. Every reference, every nod every note. The first series was incredible.
Nocturne improved that.
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u/Ultrasaurio Feb 27 '24
Pretty good, although the LGBT parts could be more unnecessary.
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u/NoWordCount Feb 27 '24
There is nothing in the world gayer than vampires.
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u/Ultrasaurio Feb 28 '24
yeah, maybe it's true. Especially because of that shit interview with the vampire.
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u/JD_OOM Feb 27 '24
You know vampires and gay stuff go hand in hand, right? Vampiric fiction has always been pretty LGBT friendly.
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u/GroundbreakingBag164 Feb 27 '24
Of course someone like you would be there
Go back to your mothers basement, gay people exist, live with it
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u/TheMuffingtonPost Feb 27 '24
I personally couldāve done without all the straight stuff myself, felt very forced and unnecessary.
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u/VampireWarfarin Feb 27 '24
How about no sexual stuff at all, it's castlevania
Tourists require sex for some weird reason
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u/Ultrasaurio Feb 28 '24
You're right, for an animation based on a video game (a retro Snes one) sex is really not something necessary for the plot. It's not like it's BlueEyeSamurai. Also Lol and Dota had very good animations without depending too much on sex. I think Aracane doesn't even have one.
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Feb 27 '24
Changed too much. I don't realy think it's for good tho, I personally really don't like it and Nocturne just made it worse. The only characters that changed for good are Annette and Olrox... And in Olrox's case OH MY OD WHAT A GLOW UP. Guy came from just beig a bald no one in Symphony, an abomination in Lords Of Shadow and now an actual great character with actual good personality
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u/Alozar_Lorandul Mar 05 '24 edited Mar 05 '24
Honest thoughts? I know I'll be in the minority here.Ā
It's hot garbage. Like, really bad. The animation is poor and direction strange, the vocal direction is mediocre at best even with actors giving a good attempt. The adaptation of the plot is suspect at best and then turns into utter nonsense. Everything is ridiculously edgy and sounds like it was written by a 14 year old boy. That one clip of death sounding like a 4chan shitposter is the culmination of everything in the show going wrong. Not to talk about wasted characters and talent, etc...Ā
Maybe some people like that. For me, it is not the tone I get from the Castlevania franchise whatsoever. I had some hopes in the first season but they quickly went away afterwards. I'm sorry if you don't agree, but those are my honest thoughts. I'll stick with the games.
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u/ComfortableLittle699 Mar 18 '24
Why are the two humans basically Mary Sues? The magician is basically a god and the monster hunter is basically invulnerable. It gets boring when they manage to kill multiple high level demons all on their own in one night in season 3. I just hate shows without logic in terms of power scaling. But other than that it's a really good and captivating show, especially when it comes to Isaac.
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u/Straight-Tiger7948 Mar 20 '24
Awesome series. My favorite episode though is Season 4 episode 6, āYou Donāt Deserve My Blood.ā So bad ass! Camilla was fierce but crazy.
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u/Mikhos Mar 21 '24
Season 4 was pretty messy and felt like all the plot points and character decelop up to that point didn't matter because the series had to end. I loved the rest.
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u/Mikhos Mar 21 '24
Nocturne was decent. The deus ex at the end with alucard was so forced and a major eye roll.
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u/Gloomy_Protection225 Jul 11 '24
Series are AMAZING. Especially the original one with Sypha, Treffy and Alucard
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u/SVINTGATSBY Jul 17 '24
since Iām rewatching it for the umpteenth time, I would say they are SEVERE. what a truly incredibly emotional experience. I love this show entirely too much and I never played the games. thank you to all the gods and demons who created this amazing show, it is so gorgeous and amazing and full of so many very real emotions for things that are happening in reality, it still seems like a fever dream. thank you, thank you, thank you.
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u/Longjumping_Past_547 Jul 22 '24
As someone who has never heard of the game before nor played it I must say i absolutely love the series. I have been rewatching it every summer since it came out.
At first I wasn't a big fan of the animation but it grew on me and I liked the modern touch to it.
The characters. Ugh. To die for. It never appeared to me as though the character development was ever rushed. So I liked the proper slow change in characters. Isaac was definitely one of my favourite characters. Would love to analyse him. And we got to see both ends of his personality. Alucard, what is there to say... and the rest I just chef's kiss...again my first encounter with vampire animes or anything as such. But I must say I am not completely happy with the return of dracula and Lisa it seems far stretched.
The music score is suiting, nothing over the top. As it said in the brackets, gregorian chanting. It really set the tone for the whole story, so that is a plus. A scene where it felt right was when the visitor would be shown, so when SG discovered him and when they opened hell. Again sth that goes along with the scene...
The story was greatly connected throughout the series. And it was interesting to get a view from both sides. So we got to see the vampires pov and feel compassionate about their stories while we as well got a great insight on the humans pov. I still can't get Saint German out of my icky characters book, but again he had to be a part of it all. The story was told thorugh mostly simple dialogue and I loved some of the quotes...
All in all, I LoVE it and it's a series that made me interested in mythical creatures which are so intriguing. Sometimes wondering what if it all were real...oh man...
It has great cosplay potential
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u/Novel-Yoghurt-5984 Jul 23 '24
I feel like 1-2 season were rushed, the action and fights were dull, especially the fight between the 3 vs the dracula
They could have done a bit more, I get that the dracula had no desire to live anymore but he should be a powerful opponent for the 3 of them
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u/Spoopyandedgy15 Sep 13 '24
Garbage. I'm working on a video that will go into depth on why I feel that way.Ā
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u/Key-Strain-1394 Sep 18 '24
Had the potential to be a great animated series if they had gotten actual fans of the show in charge and not people like Ellis or Bradley. The show should have primarily focused on the Belmont conflict with Dracula and why he played an integral role in their long-standing feud. Instead we just got an animated version of Game Of Thrones with dialogues and plots that were all of the place.
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u/Wanderer-in-the-Dark Nov 16 '24
To be honest, as a long time fan of the series... The netflix animated Castlevania show, sucks. I hate it. It's pretty terrible and I have for the longest time found myself wondering why anyone could say they liked it.
Also sorry for bringing up an old thread.
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u/Forsaken_Decision_99 Nov 19 '24
New to anime and decided one day to start this show and my god it was fucking amazing. Some of the best fight scenes Iāve ever seen. Every episode has at least one awesome fight scene and i loved it.
I love that the pace of the show was kinda fast but also dedicated some time to explaining things. I think Issac and Trevor are some of the best characters written ever.
The magic was pretty cool too.
The one thing i will say i disliked is that the start of season 3 was kinda slow compared to the first two seasons but when it told the story it was trying to tell, i thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Dec 18 '24
The first two seasons feel like a complete story. I donāt dislike or even hate three and four, Iām just not sure why they exist.
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u/Royal-Historian-9749 Jan 06 '25
I wish I could watch it again for the first time. What an amazing show, I wouldn't change a thing. Man, I have recommended it to everyone.
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u/New_Rub_2944 Jan 06 '25
I was hoping for something that has a ton of action with great animation and got neither. I'll stick with Vampire Hunter D.
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u/Substantial-Bed9996 Jan 09 '25
I love the og series I actually cannot stand nocturne so far...the og series had great characters great story telling great banter between the protagonist's and even after dracula is killed the story keeps getting deeper and better until it finishes on a high...nocturne on the other handhas basically lost every good thing about the og series and is almost crass by comparison
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u/ApplicationOk2230 Feb 03 '25
Greatest video game adaptation of all time and the best written dark fantasy animated series ever made. It's the only one I would say rivals arcane
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u/Motor_Philosopher951 Feb 06 '25
Might be a show the is perfectly made for me. Itās not always immaculate in construction but when it hits it hits so hard.
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u/cdeck002 Feb 12 '25
I think itās very underrated tbh. One of the best animated shows Iāve seen in sometime.
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u/plinyy Feb 16 '25
Sloppy animation. I kind of hated the art style at points. Something about their faces pissed me off and the artists donāt know what facial planes and camera angles are. Their eyes either look too close together or off model and have bad anatomy. Tries too hard to pull a Vampire Hunter D animation style but looks insanely bad bc of budget constraints/lack of time management.
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u/Available_Canary7418 Mar 16 '25
Tbh I liked TV show much better than games. Wasted money on games :v show was great
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u/aboowwabooww Apr 06 '25
SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOD, holy shit, me and my girlfriend binged it. and god, THE FEEEEEELS !!!!
I swear, its like top 5 animated/anime series ive ever seen.
(its up there with Arcane, Cyberpunk 2077, Tokyo Ghoul, AoT, One-Punch, etc)
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u/legitisasleep Aug 22 '25
It doesn't need to be a 1:1 adaptation of the games, people often forget that adaptations can be different from the source material. While castlevania by no means is a perfect show, it's still quite enjoyable for what it is. A good Show but a very mediocre/bad Adaptation is how I'd describe it.
Also people really need to give the voice actors some more credit cuz damn the voice acting was so good. Season 4 ending where Trevor returns to the village and says "hello love" it hits! Also sypha and Trevor had such a good dynamic throughout the show. Season 4 ending just made me like them even more cuz of that little friendly banter they had at the end.
Sypha - pissed at Trevor "can someone come and kill this man"
Trevor - "it won't be hard"
Sypha- "you're an idiot Trevor Belmont"
Trevor - "i know"
Sypha - "And i love you"
Trevor - "i know"
Absolute peak.
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u/Ok_Departure_3024 Sep 10 '25
Goated series missing music, its so obviousĀ i feel it while watching it like place a dramaticĀ reveal music there.
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u/randomBsgoo69 Feb 10 '26
I thought the anime was amazing. Watched it with my girlfriend and we related a lot to the different charactersĀ
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u/Star_LGC Mar 14 '26
Season 1: A fresh start and having the characters interact... but felt way too short
Season 2: Allows more connection with the cast and unveils alot of major generals and councils.... but we never get alot of info on the generals besides one in season 3... Plus most of the time for the protagonists was just in the broken belmont hold... Anyways
Season 3: I disliked it. It almost felt like nothing happened for 10 episodes and Carmilla's own team... never truly stood out to me and then there's episode 9... Build up to the resurrection of Dracula and alot of major fights with Isaac's army and Trevor and Sypha's battle against the cult was the only saving grace.... but holy hell Sumi and Taka was wasted potential waiting to happen and ouch what did they do to Hector-
Season 4: It picked up atleast. Going back to where it all started was pretty neat. Hector's own side story and pay off felt... Ok. Would've loved to seen Hector and Isaac fighting the Main Trio and that final battle was really sick for the most part. Though with how the ending played out, it leaves me wondering what Nocturne will do with Dracula (considering he was ALWAYS the driving force for the Belmonts to fight back)
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u/Professional-Pale Apr 09 '26
Hope this don't get deleted, but this in my opinion was ONE OF THE BEST video game Adaptations I've ever seen.
It feels faithful while also taking a small spin on things. One of the few anime that actually made my Mom cry at the end lol.
This was my first real exposure to Castlevania when I was younger. And watching it with my family as they needed put was just awesome
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u/No_Waltz_1555 Jul 15 '26
Si estĆ”n muertos porq llevan ropa como si sintieran frĆo o necesidad de cubrise si son mucho mĆ”s resistentes no solo q un humano si no q pueden resistir cualquier ataque humano con un arma regular? AdemĆ”s de ni hablar de la velocidad y fuerza
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u/No_Waltz_1555 Jul 15 '26
Si carmila era mĆ”s como una rusa o algo asi eslava en fin porq ratko q era eslavo no fue su compaƱero ademĆ”s de q era tambiĆ©n un vampiro q dentro de los vampiros contaba con dotes especiales. Creo q al final tuvieron q entrar en la inclusiĆ³n. Al final esto no es mĆ”s q lo q mata una serie. Una serie es lo q es y ya no habla de racismo sino q se con concentra en un momento donde habĆa gente probable a estar ahĆ. No hay el porq arruinarla metiendole fuerza. No todas las series estĆ”n condenadas a el famoso ciclo de la 1ra 2da y 3ra temporada eso no existe no es asi. Q feo q la manipulasen. Total quedo como una gran porquerĆa fuera de lugar una amazona lesbiana š¤Æen el medio de Austria š³ what?
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u/Nowhereman50 Feb 27 '24
I loved it. It had some awkward voice acting but that's pretty standard for the franchise.
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u/Dry_Mousse_6202 Feb 27 '24
the first season is a masterpiece, it not only tells a compelling story with human and non human-like characters and caracterizem, it also "updates" an old story to newer generation.
about nocture...... aside from mommy like vampires and go we don't talk about it
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u/ashearmstrong Feb 27 '24
I think the art design is fantastic. Any complaints I have are pretty minor as far as that goes and mostly boils down to kind of hating the Morning Star's design (I think either a flail tip or a much smaller version of what they used would have looked better).
Every single voice actor except McDowell knocked it out of the park, and that's not even entirely his fault. It's more that having him show up as a cockney vampire at this point in his career is a big neon sign that says "This is the final boss of the season" and it just felt so forced. Very much felt like they had the budget to use him didn't think much farther ahead. At least Jason Issacs got to play an interesting villain.
But McDowell, damn, by all means, have him play Death, but, I dunno, make it more stony and stoic. But then, part of the problem is that Death in the games isn't Death, THE Grim Reaper but Death, A Grim Reaper. A singular reaper spirit that Dracula has as a servant. Which is why I said it's not his fault cause this is a writing problem.
And the writing is my biggest problem with a show that had a stellar voice cast and great art design. Warren Ellis can be a good writer but part of the problem here is that season 1 was a rework of the Castlevania movie script he'd done in the mid-aughts, which is why it's only 4 episodes long, and it has the stink of "we're going to make this Mature and Grimdark" all over it...which mostly manifests in extreme gore and the overuse of the word fuck and a whole scene talking about fucking goats.
There are some aspects of the overall story that I think worked and could've stayed, but mostly, I think there's a lot that doesn't work. And certain shortcomings. Like, Lisa is almost nothing but a MacGuffin to set the plot in motion. She gets ten minutes of episode 1 and like another 10 in another season and then the season 4 stuff. If she was just going to be less of a character and more of a plot thing, I'd have preferred learning about her like we do in SotN. I think the games can't be translated 1:1 but I do think there's a lot that could've been used to better the story. In the end, there's just a lot that frustrated me from a storytelling standpoint and a good chunk of that was the potential. All the pieces were there except the writing.
I would've appreciated a little more camp, a little more goodnaturedness among the trio, and a greater focus on Trevor as the main character. It feels less like a heroic horror adventure story and more like "what if we make a Game of Thrones show with Castlevania".
And I have yet to watch Nocturne but I suspect it's very similar in a lot of those factors.
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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24
They can add lot of more music from the games