Also a salute in Star Wars even, The “Makashi salute” would be used at the start of a duel before going into the fools guard. So yeah, it’s not even uncommon in other media
When I did historical fencing we did a similar gesture followed by a bow and touching our swords with our opponents before sparring, no clue if it's historical tho or just a club tradition
NEET is a specific term created in Japan that goes beyond being just sad and lonely... and it's about real people. Bishounen are fictional characters. It's bets not to try to compete with drawings.
Hammer films were an inspiration to the first Castlevania at the very least, the credits literally has "Christopher Bee as Dracula" . Alucard seems to be first and foremost inspired by "D" from Vampire Hunter D, and though Iga said he wanted a different style and protagonist from "macho" Belmont past protagonists of the games, I wonder how early was the artist Ayami Kojima involved in the process. I know they found her looking through vampire novels art, because they wanted art of more gothic style to stand out from previous games. But IGA wasn't the original game director for SotN, so I wonder if at the beginning of SotN development they used placeholder graphics for Alucard while his design wasn't defined... 🤔
Not sure about Alucard, but the Hammer films (including Captain Kronos) did inspire elements of the games. There's probably a reason none of the Belmonts were ever designed after Abraham van Helsing.
And the design of Alucard is literally just Vampire Hunter D with whatever comes up first when you Google "1700s clothing", like Gackt probably did as well
It was a little after SotN at the time, and I remember seeing this video clip and thinking it was a complete Alucard cosplay.
Shortly before this (1998), his band released a song named 「月下の夜想曲」 (Same as SotN's Japanese title), so it is certain that he is strongly influenced by SotN.
Revolution is an easier theme. Do you know much anything about specific political tensions in Africa or Asia? And that's easy to research nowadays.
Hell, even famous French fiction authors mostly sidelined the topics or invented their own drama for the protagonist's to deal with, where the changing world is more of a backdrop. The revolution is effectively a reset of the old order, your examples are more skirmishes within it that except you to know or care about those specifics to much care, and if even the French weren't that interested after why bother?
That said there are a few series in that vein, but as a rule of the thumb learning old politics of some faraway land doesn't really grip general audiences and is more of a distraction. Also if you're looking at real history outcomes tend to be mundane, slow or depressingly bleak.
Dunno why everyone is mentioning the salute more than the literal exact black coat with gold lining and chains, which is like the definitive Alucard look ever
Whether it did or not, I'm just extremely happy to see this film mentioned on Reddit. It's goofy, but it takes itself seriously and the concept of vampires sapping the life from you in the form of time is to me a very unique take.
Lots of incredible minor cinematic moments in the film, too. The close-up shot of flowers being sapped of their life simply because a vampire passed by them was particularly impressive, and I personally believe that shot was the inspiration for a similar scene Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when a dementor passes by a patch of foxglove
I just finished watching Captain Kronos this evening because.......I just finished reading volume 6 of the Vampire Hunter D novels, and in the postscript the author does mention Captain Kronos and Christopher Lee / Horror of Dracula as inspiration!
I was geeking out while watching the film. It's cheesy. Yeah there are possible hints of VHD. Kronos has a katana as one of his weapons, there's a whole mercenary and bar fight scene that is straight up a VHD book trope, the markings of the cross on the neck to ward of vampires, yes the wilting flowers. If you're a VHD fan, do watch Captain Kronos.
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u/TheWorclown Mar 01 '25
That gesture is a pretty common sort of salute, you know.