Rarely do two great things come together and form something even better. This factor is amplified by 10 when you consider the fact that Netflix has done the nearly impossible. Video game adaptations are almost always a massacre. They are often full of terrible acting, poor writing, and changes that stray too far from the source material. This cannot be said about Netflix's animated adaptation of Castlevania. Overall, the series moves quickly and leaves you thirsty for more.
Story
For those who haven't had the opportunity to sink your teeth into this one, you can relax.
(NO SPOILER ALERT) I am not here to spoil it for you. The story itself revolves around a struggle between Dracula and the people of Wallachia. Dracula has declared that mankind should be erased from the land and as a result summons an army to dispose of them. We can clearly see that Warren Ellis, the writer for the animated series, has given great thought to fleshing out the storyline and creating detailed characters. This is better shown in the series lore, in which some liberties were taken to better portray the world of Wallachia.
On the whole, the dialogue is very well written. Words and interactions feel carefully scripted. No sentence is wasted and used for fill time. This could be why the first season is only 4 episodes in length.
Netflix was using this starter series to spark interest. It is an experiment to determine if they should produce more content. The casting was also well placed as the characters felt dynamic and different overall. I must say that I was disappointed to not see a Japanese audio option, but the English version was still amazing.
On the other hand, the casting was also well placed. The decision of each character shows careful considerations as the characters felt dynamic and different overall. To be completely honest, due to the art style, I must say that I was disappointed to not see a Japanese audio option. This does not take away from the fact that the English version is still absolutely amazing.
Anime Influences
The topic of the language does acknowledge the elephant in the room. Castlevania is animated in an "anime" style. It is important to note that the animation does feel top notch, and very involved. There were no short cuts taken and the quality of the animation does not drop, even during intense action sequences. The overall influence of the anime style was more than likely a choice to stay close to its roots. Castlevania was after all based on a Japanese video game. In particular, the art style is reminiscent of the title "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" which was released back in 1997. Not to mention, several of the animation team were derived from the team that worked on the anime "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust".
This does directly influence the style of the animation chosen and the overarching tone of the atmosphere. The series is gory and features a dark color pallet. This leads a more "Cowboy Bebop" feel, and to be honest, I'm not complaining.
Final thoughts
Netflix's Castlevania features an intriguing story, dynamic characters, and a great art style. It is shorter than I would like, but on a whole was an enjoyable experience. If you are indeed a fan of either Video Games or anime, I think that this title is just what you're looking for, However, be warned, there is a lot of gore and strong religious tones featured in this series. It's not nearly enough to put me off of it. Just know it takes a lot to make me uncomfortable.
If I had to give it a Rotten Tomatoes style score, I would give it about a 78%-83%. This translates to about an 8/10 which is more than enough to recommend a binge watch. It is a good series so far, however, it is far from perfect. I do think that with the release of the second season, we could see this number rise. I feel that the biggest draw back from the series could possibly be the length. I think it does need more meat and hopefully, we get that from this series soon enough.
