Board 8 > Reminder: Castlevania is out on Netflix RIGHT NOW

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've heard it's less than 2 hours, go watch it maybe?
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Yep. 4 episodes. Watching it tonight.
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the conversation at the end of episode 1
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Show beated

I feel like this could have been shortened to 3 episodes. The last big fight scene is good. There are some other scenes with animation goofiness though. No Grant, as expected, though I feel like one character was supposed to be a sort of nod to him.

They did announce today that season 2 will have eight episodes. I kinda wonder what they're gonna do with all those. Since this was all setup they were able to find enough stuff for the characters to do, introduce their circumstances and personalities, etc. but once they're at the castle I wonder what else they're going to have left.
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I'm going to watch it during the day today probably. maybe finish up later tonight. I doubt it'll take me more than a day to get through.
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now it's time for ice cream and castlevania time
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So, is it actually any good? And can it be watched without ever playing Castlevania? I have SotN in my backlog but haven't gotten around to it.
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I'd say if you have no CV experience you should wait until season 2 comes out. This was literally all setup, difficult to appreciate without already having some knowledge.
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We just got to episode 3 and Shadwife (who hasn't played CV) said "I still don't know what's going on" but she seems to be enjoying it enough.
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Is this actually worth watching? I've played all of the Metroidvanias except CotM and the original, but I doubt they matter.
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Anagram posted...

Is this actually worth watching? I've played all of the Metroidvanias except CotM and the original, but I doubt they matter.

Yes, especially if you've played III.
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I liked it a lot.
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Shaduln posted...

Anagram posted...

Is this actually worth watching? I've played all of the Metroidvanias except CotM and the original, but I doubt they matter.

Yes, especially if you've played III.

Did they base the plot on III? Why? Just because it has the most characters?
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some story elements that originated from SOTN actually do come into play, but you'll be able to understand them right away
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well Alucard is by far the most interesting character in the series so it's definitely smart to use a game that features him

but also CV3 is chronologically pretty early in the series so it's a decent starting point that they could eventually build on with later series based on other games
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Is SotN a fine place to enter into the series, or should I start elsewhere?
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

They did announce today that season 2 will have eight episodes. I kinda wonder what they're gonna do with all those. Since this was all setup they were able to find enough stuff for the characters to do, introduce their circumstances and personalities, etc. but once they're at the castle I wonder what else they're going to have left.

The characters are going to die in the clock tower level repeatedly and it'll take them seven episodes to beat it.
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I liked it a lot but it needed more. Felt like a weird point to just stop the first season.

Love the voice cast though. Didn't realize James Callis was in it until I saw his name.
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DpObliVion posted...

Is SotN a fine place to enter into the series, or should I start elsewhere?

Absolutely fine imo.

Murphiroth posted...

I liked it a lot but it needed more. Felt like a weird point to just stop the first season.

Love the voice cast though. Didn't realize James Callis was in it until I saw his name.

He was damn good.
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episode 1 should be great for everyone

but the rest of the other eps sold me on him

goat fucking was golden
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I think the only games truly necessary to enjoy the show are Castlevania III and to a lesser extent, Curse of Darkness. Far as I can remember, these are the only two games in the Trevor Belmont timeline.

SoTN can make a case for the argument since it is Alucard's story and he is a major character in the Trevor Timeline.
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Just watched it all.

I wonder if Grant will show up.
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Trevor ****ing Belmont
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So the only Castlevania games I played are the first one, SOTN, the 3 GBA games and the 3 DS games

I have no idea who the fuck Trevor Grant and any other characters are LOL
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honestly if you know alucard and you know the belmont clan at all you're set
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This show was based on a script from several years ago that had cut Grant out for the sake of time, seems likely he didn't make it back in, though with 8 episodes next season they might find a way.
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Just finished up Castlevania (2017). Overall I'd say it was good but not great. My expectations and hype levels were pretty high and it did deliver in the ways I expected it to, but I also felt like the series felt short in some other areas.

The strongest points are definitely the art direction and the directing in general. Animation is one of those things where the potential for visual design is near infinite. When you're creating something out of nothing the only limit is the skill and imagination of the person designing it. Series like this definitely make the most of that potential. There's just some really awesome looking shots and scenery throughout pretty much the entire series. The fight scenes were awesome. They did look a little bit choppy and clunky at times but I sort of feel like this worked in their favorite a bit. It gave the action a very comic book style feel to it. That probably just comes down to personal opinion and I could definitely see people listing this as a complaint rather than a boon.

The writing... was okay. Trevor fills the role of being cool and having a sort of growth arc but it doesn't feel all that complete to me. He basically starts off as 100% an uncaring asshole and then at some point just shifts gears into 100% I Want To Save Humanity mode. Granted this is the result of him getting an inspirational speech but the switch still feels very sudden and just, yeah. It's passable but nothing I'd really ever mark down as great writing. Basically just a cue that needed to be hit in order to move the story forward.

Some moments that stood out as particular flaws with the writing:
- The scene where Trevor confronts the Cleric during the riots. He basically just says his side of the story and the villagers IMMEDIATELY all turn on the Cleric and side with him. Huh, well... okay then. Weird. If it was this easy why didn't someone just say "uh, hey, this is what happened" before right now. Why didn't Trevor just say this BEFORE getting into a fight with all the rioters. Why didn't the speakers ever just say it? You might argue that the people wouldn't be convinced by the speakers but holy shit they seemed pretty easy to convince here!

- A Hunter and a Scholar were supposed to go awaken the sleeping warrior, and the lead Speaker knew this. It's why he tried to get Trevor to stay around, right? That makes sense. Here's a better question... why did he send just his grand daughter, a Scholar, into the Catacombs alone? Without a Hunter? In the first place? Whoops.

- The lazy trope of "literally every single person in the church is incompetent and evil." I'll get back to this later.

Actually, I'll just address it now. This seems like a good place to transition into my major complaint. The overall issue with the plot and story direction... They make a LOT of effort to set up Dracula as a villain with redeeming qualities, and a LOT of effort to present the church as an antagonistic group with their good intentions having been warped. When done correctly this can be a strength to the story. You end up with morally gray factions competing over ideals and there's not always a clear correct answer. Instead what we got is a CONFUSING situation where it seems like the Church are the bad guy and Dracula is a good guy. Except he also unleashes an army of hell on the world. It makes the tone of the series feel very dissonant.
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It seems like Trevor should be working to redeem Dracula rather than destroy him, and it seems like we're supposed to be rooting for the Church to be destroyed... so is the Church supposed to be the ultimate antagonist in this series? And if so, why? Dracula should be. It's Castlevania, not r/atheism. It's going to be even more confusing as the series progresses because we know that Dracula should ultimately be vanquished, not redeemed. So the Church was right about him being an ultimate evil that cannot be trusted. But the Church is presented as being antagonistic. It just gives me a headache thinking of how poorly this logic loop was done.

Episode 1: A fair set up plot. I'm surprised they dedicated so much effort to expanding Dracula's character, though.

Episode 2-3: These ones sort of blend together for me. I can't remember exactly which events happen in which episode. This is where Trevor gets his development and the supporting cast is introduced. The supporting cast is not developed.

Episode 4: Definitely the best part of the series. Exploring the catacombs is the coolest segment and the most visually impressive of probably all of the shots. The final confrontation with Alucard at the end gives us a really awesome battle (despite being very comic book-y in that the heroes need to fight each other to a draw the very first time they meet, a super tired trope) and at least a bit of backstory and a good introduction on Alucard's character. Because he is only just introduced he of course gets no development as well.

If you want to watch a cool cartoon with some awesome action, gore, and a cool main character then yeah this is a good series. I will continue watching it for sure to see what happens next. If you're expecting anything on the level of like some of the best produced eastern and western cartoons in terms of story and directing... sadly, this falls short of the mark. I still enjoyed it, but I can definitely see a lot of missed potential here.

7/10
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another major confusing plot hole regarding the riots

Trevor sends the Speakers into hiding, and they actually agree to go and hide in the catacombs, right. So the people from the Church come to where the Speakers originally were and what do they find...? Trevor FUCKING Belmont ready to confront them and kick their butts. Badass!

But wait... why?

It's not like he was there defending the Speakers. He already got them to go into hiding.

He could have also just left and gone somewhere else so he wouldn't get chased by rioters.

Whoops.
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MariaTaylor posted...

another major confusing plot hole regarding the riots

Trevor sends the Speakers into hiding, and they actually agree to go and hide in the catacombs, right. So the people from the Church come to where the Speakers originally were and what do they find...? Trevor FUCKING Belmont ready to confront them and kick their butts. Badass!

But wait... why?

It's not like he was there defending the Speakers. He already got them to go into hiding.

He could have also just left and gone somewhere else so he wouldn't get chased by rioters.

Whoops.

I think he wanted to get the townspeople all together and then tell them that the Church is responsible and how to fight the demons.
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is Big Man Richter Belmont in this
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greengravy294 posted...

is Big Man Richter Belmont in this

Nope.
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GuessMyUserName posted...

honestly if you know alucard and you know the belmont clan at all you're set

I'm still not set then
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yeah he probably didn't realize the only argument he needed to present was 'nu uh, the church did it' and everyone would be immediately swayed. I guess that does make the dramatic gesture more important in retrospect.
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Jeff Zero posted...

GuessMyUserName posted...

honestly if you know alucard and you know the belmont clan at all you're set

I'm still not set then

you don't need to know anything. they introduce and explain everything within the series. it's definitely designed so that any casual could watch it and understand the story.
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I'm two episodes in and holy crap, I did not expect this to be so ballsy. Disemboweled children, demons running off with newborn babies in their mouths. Fuckin A Konami.
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I just got done with the opening scene, and I'm already thrilled.
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Is the voice actor for Trevor the same guy who was Angelo from DQVIII? He's a got a deeper voice, but his suave, dickish attitude and tone seem so similar. I swear I heard Jessica's actress too, so I figure it's possible.
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Strife2 posted...

Is the voice actor for Trevor the same guy who was Angelo from DQVIII? He's a got a deeper voice, but his suave, dickish attitude and tone seem so similar. I swear I heard Jessica's actress too, so I figure it's possible.

Nah Trevor is Richard Armitage. The only other thing I've seen him in really was as Thorin in The Hobbit movies.

Drac is Graham McTavish, another actor from The Hobbit.
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All I know is I want more episodes...NOW! Why did they only make four? There is so much to love about this. It can be a little silly at times, but this felt like everything Castlevania should be. The last episode alone had fighting, gothic horror, crazy whip stunts, spelunking, and of course supernatural craziness.
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It was better than I was expecting. Granted, I kept my expectations low, but it was a decent, albeit short ride. Didn't feel dragged out at all so the length is ok even if the cliffhanger at the end felt odd.

At least now I don't have to think of Simon Belmont from Captain N before watching this
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*Goes to another board to get more feedback about the show*

10-15 post about the show, next 100...*

"WAHH! THIS ISN'T ANIME! THAT TOPIC DOESN'T BELONG HERE!"

Remind me to stay on this board from now on. What a bunch of babies. Anyway, Armitage wasn't who I was thinking of. I found it kind of cool that MacTavish was Dante from the Dante Inferno videogame (that was bugging me until I looked it up), and the Bishop was Matt Frewer (knew him from watching Gargoyles so many times). Can't say this show didn't bring some talented people on board. Goddamn.
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I wonder if I should watch this

CaptainOfCrush posted...

Disemboweled children, demons running off with newborn babies in their mouths.

I should not watch this
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it's not as graphic as that line makes it sound!
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It's... definitely a gory show though, I'll have to say.

That being said, oh my god. Trevor fucking Belmont. Yes. I love this guy. Whether he's piss drunk or "Okay I'm fighting a giant bastard who can turn me to stone with a glance. Why, God, why?" he's freaking hilarious. Especially when he talks to himself about cat-like reflexes.

The bit with the villagers instantly taking Trevor's side doesn't make sense unless this was something they already knew and were just in denial about. I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt and suggest that they got stuck here or didn't have time to hammer out a better segment.

Alucard testing Trevor and Sylpha's resolve by refusing to deny that he might be Dracula was interesting. Also this made me remember that I like pretty boys and Alucard being shirtless and fencing with a sword that really should be too big to fence with was definitely quite the fanservice.

I'm definitely looking forward to Season 2. This felt more like a prologue than the meat of the story and it accomplished what prologues are supposed to do - get you hooked on the story to come.
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I really enjoyed the first season. I wish Grant could have shown up though.
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alucard fencing with a claymore was pretty great, yeah
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GANON1025 posted...

I really enjoyed the first season. I wish Grant could have shown up though.

I read that it's based on a movie script that cut Grant for time purposes, but I don't know how true that is. It is obvious that Grant is the most cuttable of the four, though. I also hope he shows up.
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tag
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Yeah, Grant is not going to show up. He's the first one you get in the game. Also, he's literally optional.
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