a5c7b9f00b A vampire hunter fights to save a besieged city from an army of otherworldly creatures controlled by Dracula. When Lisa Tepes, beloved wife of Vlad Tepes AKA Dracula is acused of witchcraft and burned at the stake by an overzealous bishop, Dracula declares war on the people of Wallachia and unleashes an army of murderous demonic creatures from hell. Luckily, Trevor Belmont, last survivor of the Belmont clan, a disgraced family known for hunting all kinds of monsters, is still in town and agrees to take the fight to the lord of vampires. Video game movies tend to get a bad rap don&#39;t they? It is not really unfounded or unfairmost of them either fail from a writing standpoint or film making side or just difficultly to make an interactive story well inactive. There are some that came close to understanding the source material or adapting said material like Silent Hill (Visually great shame about the rest) and…..<br/><br/>Anyway when Netflix announced that they were going to do an animated R rated series based on the popular game series Castlevania people were a little unsureto how it would turn out, most shrugged and expected another bad adaption considering what most video game adaptations were like and Konami&#39;s standing in the public eye. When people started to say it was not only good but a faithful and excellent series. Now it is time for my take on this supposed breaking of a glass ceiling in video game adaptations.<br/><br/>Castlevania is not what one would call the most cheerful of viewings; Count Dracula has released the armies of Hell on the people of Wallachia. People are getting slaughtered left and right, the church is blaming anything expect the actually reason for Dracula&#39;s attack. This leads to Trevor Belmont, one of the few remaining members of the monster slaying family to (extremely reluctantly) help the stop the invasion. This is the first anime I have watched fully (currently watching Death Note and Sword Art Onlinewell) and I would not say it is a bad way to enter the gene. The atmosphere is quite bleak with Church music flitteringa main choice of music in most scenes; the imagery is suitably Gothic with its defiled churches and looming hovels and focus on the colour red. It is also gory, gory to the point it dangers on meaningless disgust but it does exercise restraint at certain point, oddly making those scenes more disturbing than any visuals could. Overall could have done with a bit more restraint.<br/><br/>Writer Warren Ellis does a pretty good job with the writing, able to mix in jokes and wit to help the viewers not get too overwhelmed by the dark violent horror of everything the visuals throw at you. The jokes are not only well timed and delivered but are not jarring to the overall tone. It does not clash or seem at odds with the other tone, it all works well. The story does flow pretty nicely and is edited very well and the voice acting is top notch. But I will single Richard Armitage for his voice work and Warren Ellis writing, Richard Armitage captures a fed up, hung over/ Drunk who is bitter at the world for what happened to his family and yet, despite his best efforts to not get involved gets involved out what can either be takena subconscious desire to help people or from his own morals to keep people safe, it gets the viewer not only engaged but is able to somewhat subvert the grumpy anti-hero type, Richard Armitage not only sells me on the role but embraces it wholly. He is more interesting than most anti-heroes out there especially one from video game adaptations. He is also very likeable and does not come acrossan edgy 13 year olds idea of coolness. Hell he is even the butt of jokes andwellmaking jokes without making him seem unintentionally pathetic or completely psychotic.<br/><br/>Animation is what you expect from anime, at times a stilted Frame rate and animation (seems to be the norm for this gene) the fight scenes however are really well done (also seems to be a stable of the gene), it is surprisingly colourful considering the subject matter, it is no Suspiria but is still more colourful then most horror movies/TV series.<br/><br/>The biggest problem this series has is that the first season is that it is too short and very little in terms of plot actually gets done, hopefully when the second season comes out it will resolve more of the plot and not make the final episode inheritably anti-climatic. It should have either been a miniseries or had the episodes be longer.<br/><br/>Castlevania is good and I would highly recommend to people now but even more once the series is compete. Very faithful to the chars in design, the story, etc. Its basically an exposition to the backstory of Castlevania 3: Dracula&#39;s Curse. But it also is faithful to the backstory elements presented in Symphony of the Night. the character art is very loyal to the designs of Ayame Kojima. Trevor looks like Trevor from Curse of Darkness, Dracula looks like Dracula from SOTN and CODwell. <br/><br/>My only gripe, is the music. Its not in the same stylethe Michiru Yamane soundtracks, nor the games prior to her era. There is no call-backs to any of the classic music either. I would have expected to hear vampire Killer, Beginning, or Bloody Tears, but no. The music is ambient and largely empty.<br/><br/>As for the negative comments on it not being faithful,a Castlevania fan for nearly 30 years now, let me say it is very faithful. I think those negative comments are from Lords of Shadows fans, which, was a series reboot I did not enjoy nor find canon. As for the &quot;anti-Christian&quot; themes, it is not anti-anything. It is merely historical. You cannot cherry-pick the history of a religion and omit flaws. The church did and does have a history of not only burning people at the stake, and for being anti-science. I cant elaborate more without spoiling.<br/><br/>Enjoy the series, Castlevania fans!
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326 weeks ago