Castlevania (Review)

Netflix Gets it Right with the New Castlevania Series.

I’ve never been blown away by any of the Netflix original anime, but Castlevania has quite literally given me hope for the streaming service. Despite being based on a video game, this short-lived anime series manages to knock it out of the park. Then again, when you have one of the best comic writers in the business (Warren Ellis) penning your script and a slew of A-list actors lending their voices to the characters, what did you expect. True, there was a long wait between “season one” and “season two” (it’s literally one story arch), but I have to say the wait was well worth it for this anime.

There haven’t been many horror anime that have really managed to make an impression on me, but Castlevania has everything I wanted and more. It’s a gore-filled series with plenty of monsters, and, of course, lots of vampires. The streets quite literally run red with blood in this series. Then again, that’s to be expected when you invoke the wrath of Dracula (Graham McTavish), who is the sympathetic villain of the series, or at least as sympathetic as you can get.

There’s definitely a clash of morality at the heart of Castlevania. While Dracula might be slaughtering a town en masse, he’s not without his reasons. The series depicts a love between Dracula and his human bride who admires him for his knowledge of ancient science and medicine. However, the church does what they did best back in the dark ages and screams witchcraft before burning her alive for her crimes against God. This is where things start to go south for the human race. Of course, there’s still a lone hero who remains the last hope for mankind, Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage). The only problem is that he’s a bit of a drunk and has almost as much love for the human race as Dracula does.

The voice acting is top notch and Tolkien fans will recognize the leads from The Hobbit films. They’re joined by the likes of James Callis, Alejandra Reynoso, and even Peter Stormare (who isn’t the best voice actor around, but there’s no mistaking his voice). This talent goes a long way in creating a sort of sympathy and emotional investment in all the characters that pop up through out the series. At least for the ones that Castlevania wants the audience to like because there are a lot of despicable characters in the series as well. Evil or not, this is one of the most impressive voice casts I’ve seen assembled for an anime series and it paid off beautifully. However, that’s not even close to the best part of Castlevania.

Watching Castlevania my jaw was hanging open in awe for most of the series. The animation is quite simply beautiful. The art is based on classic Castlevania concept art for the characters and is all 2D animation (a refreshing break from the trend of mixing 2D with 3D). Most importantly though the action sequences are quite simply spectacular. Those who played the game might remember that Trevor Belmont was best known for using a whip to defeat his enemies and that weapon makes one hell of a come back in this anime. The fluid animation allows for Trevor to effortlessly move through the settings utilizing his weapons in a way that makes him feel almost like a drunken master. Castlevania easily has some of the anime best action sequences I’ve seen in years and it’s one of the biggest selling points for the series. Best of all though, the series gives Belmont some incredible monsters for him to use his more than impressive skills on.

What makes this such a great series is that it isn’t a strict adaptation. Instead of trying to give fans everything they might want from the actual game franchise, it instead focuses on the characters and the world that was created in it. Because of this, it stands on its own two feet and never relies on a keen grasp of the source material. The characters are all as rich as the world they inhabit and it’s hard not to want more and more as the series goes on because 12 episodes are nowhere near enough. Luckily, it looks as though Netflix is going to be giving us a third season. That being said, these first two seasons more than stand on their own as a single story. Of course, I’ll be more than eager to see what happens next, but until then I’m more than satisfied with what Netflix has given us so far. Fan of the original games or not, Castlevania is one anime I wholeheartedly recommend.