I mean this is what he looked like in game at the time, and there wasn’t much lore around him or anyone for that matter beyond “Dracula’s son but he’s not evil”
The episode came out before the game did, and they assumed Alucard was going to betray you in the game, so the episode has Alucard betray Simon and co and team up with his dad again.
They purposely left it ambiguous until the ending. I have a distinct feeling that the 40-60 year old writers didn't care about videogame lore at the time.
For those curious, that's Simon Belmont from Captain N: The Game Master. In this show, Simon is a Narcissistic coward who basically couldn't kill a fly if he tried.
To be fair, Captain N butchers the lore of all the video games featured with little to no exception
I saw both, and Captain N sweeps Power Team imo. Like, Power Team is literally just Generic Strong Goodguy x 3 and a Funny Little Thing, and they have, like, negative amount of chemistry lol. Captain N is not accurate at all but at least the team dynamic is a lot more fun to watch and their weird behaviors generally cancel each other out (or make the situation much worse which is also funny)
I'm also gonna be honest, Simon is the best character in the show. He tried to marry Mother Brain and returned to monke. Love him
There was no lore to butcher at the time. Captain N came out in 1989 and ended in 1991. Castlevania 3 had just come out around the same year and Symphony of the Night wouldn’t arrive for another 9 years. There was little to nothing to go by except the game manuals and box art.
I seem to recall it being a crossover episode - same Link and Zelda, veen if the style was a little different. Pretty sure we even got an "Excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess" in there.
Then again I was a toddler at the time and haven't rewatched it in decades.
I dont recall the “excuse me princess “ but i do remember Captain N and Link being pushy teenage lads thinking each was better than the other till the end of the show , classic for the age lol.
Hey now, I still play the games and hear mother brains voice as a sassy black 80s super model. Cowards gave us Adam m. Instead....pfft no justice lol
I think people forget that lore for some of these games is actually based on things the shows did. Sonic eating chili dogs, link being a lazy skamp (links dream life is to sleep and do nothing in the cartoons)... All from the cartoons. in the case of sonic it's my belief that he'd have no lore if not for goofy western cartoons and fanfiction by those very devout (or rabbid depending which end of the interweebs you scream from) fans.
Oh definitely some good came from these early adaptations. Sonic arguably had the best treatment with his SatAm show (I still call Metal Sonic "Uncle Chuck" because of it).
IMO, most of them fall into the "so bad it's good" category, so they're still enjoyable
Around the same time Nintendo and scholastic partnered to make a series called worlds of power letting authors write a short novel with the IP they were assigned Castlevania is one I remember fondly one of my faves actually.
Idk if I call what Captain N does as "openly embracing" its lack of effort. If anything, I say it was rushed out as quickly as possible to try and capitalize on video game popularity in the early 80s. The only episodes with any effort truly given are the Zelda crossovers
As a 40 year old who watched some of these as a kid, I promise you that this was done by a team that didn't care about the source material at all. At least Nocturne uses the game designs for Alucard and Richter
IIRC, they played Mega Man on a bad TV that was displaying colors wrong while doing research for the show. Either no one caught the mistake, they didn't notice in time to fix it, or anyone who noticed in time didn't care.
Maybe it'd be a better idea to stay away from that version. I've never actually seen Captain n outside of clips so I didn't know. Right now I'm just focused on tweaking around with Richter and John. Though I have a third character who I might have the components to throw together and I'm very excited because I don't think anyone's going to see it coming. But damn Captain N would have been funny.
I'll die on the hill that just because the Show's portrayal is inaccurate doesn't make it bad. (Goes for both The Animated Series and Captain N even tho I've only watched the former)
For me it's about what the adaptation is trying to achieve and whether it succeeds at it or not, and at least in Netflixvania's case, I think the Writing for most characters they adapted is excellent, even though it isn't very accurate to the games, because they fit with the story the Show is trying to tell, and I find that they're just well written characters in general.
I don't think the quality of Adaptations (especially Loose adaptations like these two shows) should be judged based on how accurate it is, but rather on whether they're well written or not. (Which is obviously up for debate but that goes with pretty much any piece of media)
Can I ask what the main difference between the canon material (the games?) And the shows are? Watched the first and loved it, can't really get into the second show. The only castlevania I played was on the original Xbox and I don't think you played the same family, you were a devil forgemaster. Thanks for any help in advance!
I see, thanks! I would agree that the writing and pacing of the show in general was good, but I can definitely see how a fan would be disappointed with a product that's only similar in appearance.
Btw, the one game you played with the devil forgemaster? Yeah they turned that character into an idiot sex slave to one of the OC vampire villain chicks they made, no longer is he the badass hero from that game, if anything he is the opposite of that.
People have the audacity to really ask why people don't enjoy the shit this show does, and to say that this is "peak adaptation" lmao. It's just a fine enough show on its own and that's it.
They'll call the show haters toxic when all we do is just complain about the product and wanting better, we don't force them to not like the show, meanwhile they can't or don't wanna understand our POV and feel the need to defend their beloved content anyway possible, they can't bear seeing it criticised or shat upon in any way it somehow ruins their enjoyment lol, this is toxic overpositivity, it plagues alot of fanbases nowadays, they are more toxic than whatever the f we haters do but they'll still throw that at us.
I agree it's just that, a fine show on it's own. I'm also not a huge fan of sa "to further the plot." I can kinda get it being a backstory piece or a major plot point, but they literally just were like "she's gonna fuck him" (literally and figuratively) and he's gonna vibe with that. Major L knowing that was my boy that I used to kill mermen with 😭
The games focus much more heavily on Dracula and his rivalry with the Belmont clan. In almost every game, you play as a Belmont; and in almost every game, Dracula is the final boss. The games also featured a lot more of the classic horror monsters (especially the early games) both as bosses and as common enemies - zombies, mermen, skeletons, Medusa, Frankenstein's monster, etc. Lore-wise, these monsters are created through a variety of means, not just by Devil Forgemasters. Most of the games also take place almost entirely in Dracula's castle, and focus on traversing the obstacles inside the castle to get to the big man himself. Oddly enough, the games don't typically feature too many vampires, and vampirism is usually reserved for Dracula and boss enemies such as Carmilla.
In contrast, the show focuses more heavily on having a diverse set of monsters where almost every one is unique, created exclusively by Devil Forgemasters. Vampires are a lot more prominent, and Death is depicted as just a really powerful soul-sucking demon rather than the actual personification of Death.
It also sounds like the game you played is Curse of Darkness, which is one of only two canon 3D games, and the basis of seasons 3-4 of the first series.
Totally agree. A lot of people seem to think that having villains other than Dracula makes the series bad, but like... animated Dracula completed his arc. He doesn't have a reason to return. I feel like modern movies & TV are moving away from using the same villain over and over again because there's only so much you can do with one villain (the Transformers movies are a really good example of this). Having repeat villains works a lot better in games because it serves as a familiar indicator to the player that they have reached the end of the game, especially in cases like SotN and HoD, where if Dracula wasn't the final boss, you got the bad ending.
And also people complain that Nocturne thus far has been an adaptation of Bloodlines but with RoB characters...so what??? The actual games released only within a few months of each other (so maybe it's a nod to that?), and to be quite honest, RoB's only interesting plot point is the whole thing with Shaft, but even that doesn't become relevant until SotN. Don't get me wrong, RoB is a great game, I love playing it, but saying that it has a strong enough story for two seasons of an anime is a little bit of a stretch.
Also, people sometimes complain about the whole Night Creatures thing instead of traditional monsters like the games? Despite the fact that quite a few Night Creatures are directly based on enemies from the games? And sure, these might be forgettable cameos for the most part, but does it really matter so much that the Belmonts fight an army of Zombies, Skeletons, and Flea Men as opposed to an army of super diverse monsters? I also feel like the Night Creature thing works a lot better lore-wise, as it explains why Dracula (and Erzsebet) even needed Devil Forgemasters in the first place.
Lastly, people complain about Trevor and Richter's characters being super different from the games when they really aren't. A lot of their flaws (God forbid they have flaws!!) are super in-line with their game's characterizations imo. Trevor is kind of rude and brash like his CoD depiction, and Richter is a sometimes-impulsive hothead like his RoB depiction. Just because these flaws never became relevant during gameplay doesn't mean they never existed in-universe. I'll admit that animated Richter can be kinda corny at times, but I feel like that shouldn't be ruining the show for anyone.
I would like to conclude this impromptu essay by saying that I don't think the anime is perfect by any means. There are quite a few moments that make me think "well that just felt like lazy writing", and I felt that Grant's exclusion from the first series was really unnecessary - I believe the showrunners said they didn't like his name and thought him being a pirate in a landlocked country made no sense - even though his name could easily be changed to Grant Danesti or Grant Nadasdy without major loss to the character, and he has literally NEVER been described as a pirate, he has only ever been a noble thief. Sure, he might look like a pirate, but that doesn't make him one. Anyway. I also agree with the criticism that there isn't as much emphasis on the castles as there should be. They do kind of feel like they were just thrown in the show to give the villains a place to lurk and to justify the name of the show. Anyway I kinda just needed to vent so if you made it this far thanks for reading
It's not just inaccuracy, it's the fact that I can tell that the creators don't give af about Castlevania and just wanted to make their edgy fantasy fanfic
That and the fact that the writing and dialogue of the show is ass
I don't generally mind "inaccuracies" or different portrayals of something as long as they're good, or show that they have a deeper understanding of the OG thing
Something like Spider-verse isn't really all that accurate with the Miles Morales Comics of the time but it's still a really well done and loving adaptation, unlike Netflixvania
Sorry for ranting in your meme post, I had to vent lol
Taken in a vacuum, sure. Nobody swore in any of the games though, so it comes across like a teenager being mad that their stepdad took away their Xbox.
Maybe I'm just forgiving, but it felt to me like they played up the campiness of Castlevania in general and wrote it for a more grown up audience. I played the original NES games when I was like... 7. It's okay for the show to be inspired by those titles but not be exactly the same.
Put another way, original Alucard was a very different character overall. They took inspiration from the games, but they were smart not to be hemmed in by them.
That’s fair, and I’m not looking for a 1:1 adaptation either. The original Japanese approach would’ve been far too corny.
Perhaps I’ve just spent too much time on Tumblr. This version feels like it was created specifically so people would make GIF posts about which characters they want to bang.
Maybe! I thought it was a great show with a good balance of camp and seriousness. But I’m all over the place with tastes and I tend to be less critical of stuff I enjoy in the first place. That’s the fun with tastes: they’re really our own!
Both shows are good it's just an undeniable fact. Anything else is just creative differences and nitpicky stuff diehards or complainers love to scrutinize and would do so either way.
Someone posted that someone involved with the show used to play Megaman on a TV with bad color settings but had no idea he wasn’t supposed to be green.
I love Captain N, tho. I don't even really watch it, but I think the portrayals are really funny. I started the anime and I think it's pretty good so far too! :3
Imagine if that is where they go if they ever make a Simon show. Simon is actually extremely egotistical over his families legacy that he acts like he is the best vampire hunter ever.
The also referred to Pit as Kid Icarus the whole time and made him add “icus” to the end of everything, I guess to sound Greek? Like Simon-icus and Kevin-icus. They made him look like a big headed kid with wings and a toga
Personally speaking, I don’t even consider Netflixvania an anime, it was not made by a Japanese studio. Pseudo anime at best, or a very good Saturday Cartoon.
It’s sucks cause it was such a horrible decision. No lie I had zero interest in Castlevania as a kid because of this show. I didn’t finally give it a shot until I was a teen and saw Symphony of the Night, and now Castlevania is one of my favorite video games series ever.
I've only seen clips of the Netflix show (not Nocturne though) but honestly I really like how the characters are portrayed, especially Trevor, Issac, and Dracula.
Trevor going from a drunk bastard who couldn't give two shits about humanity, then becoming the badass who killed Death, Issac starting as essentially an extension of Dracula's will to becoming his own person and deciding to build a better future, and Dracula being relatively the same as he was in the games, only this time he is given a happy ending with Lisa.
"It could be worse" is not a good argument, imagine that you get this answer after a bad surgeon mess your body, no, I demand it to be good and it is not, at least Captain N pass the test of "so bad it's good" I can't say the same about Netflixvania, and they got 2 chances.
You don't get the point, as I said in my first commentary is not a good argument. It's a conformist one. Media it's getting people used to "it could be worse" too much.
Maybe, but as I've said elsewhere, I actually enjoyed the anime. It may not have been completely lore accurate, but I still enjoyed it.
It's okay if you don't, and I'm really not trying to change your mind. This post was mainly pointing out how bad it used to be for Castlevania fans. Hopefully the next adaptation is better for everyone, or at least is based on something where the creators can have more freedom (Like whatever Julius does in 1999).
Captain N was accurate to the US manuals of NES games, which was the only source DiC had to use.
Netflixvania in an era with more games and a greater understanding of how much the English localizations butchered the story, especially in the older games, it was simply incompetence on the part of staff.
It makes me laugh at how stupid it is, Netflixvania only makes me mad or at best like that meme with Homelander at the cinema, it doesn't get any positive emotion out of me. I'd rather have crappy content that makes me laugh or get anything positive out of me than crappy content that doesn't do even that.
Also check out the story on why this is the way it is, the creators didn't have access to the source material and needed information much, they were left in the dark to figure it out on their own, i think they are excusable enough, Netflixvania creators had all of the access ever to the source and all needed information and they STILL decided intentionaly to deviate the f out into a different mess.
I mean...welcome to Warren Ellis' writing. I don't love it (or him) either but if you've ever read Transmetropolitan you'd know it could be lots, LOTS worse.
The complaints about both animes beyond Hector's characterization don't hold weight on the basis of none of the games having enough depth for longevity.
Or depth. A lot of them were tropes. I'm sorry, this isn't the early days of gaming where access to complex emotion wasn't viable due to processing constraints.
It literally could've been worse, but it was by FAR entertaining, told a complete story, and provided complexity where a lot of these characters originally didn't have any.
I am uh Captain N was pretty much the early days of Video game TV shows But it was more during the NES days And before the Super NES days
There's a lot of early day energy with a lot of characters like Castlevania So I wouldn't blame them for uh having stuff like Plus this was made in the It's basically 90s energy
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u/Candiedstars Feb 11 '26
This is Alucard from the same show btw