Castlevania: A Thread for the Dead

[Daikun]

Go watch it!

[Rynnec]

I've watched the first two episodes and I absolutely fucking love it. It's not without its problems, but it already blows nearly every action cartoon in the past seven years out of the water. This is what I want more of in western cartoons, and especially adult cartoons.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Didn't like it. Everyone was out of character from the games, animation was choppy, voice acting was all over the place, and the plot was not Castlevania's but some generic fantasy series.

Not my thing at all.

[gunswordfist]

Between this and Samurai Jack Season 5, it looks like a good start for adult action CARTOON series.

[Rynnec]

Can Trevor and Sypha really be out of character when they never received any kind of consistent characterization, or even characterization at all? :V

the plot was not Castlevania's but some generic fantasy series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Can Trevor and Sypha really be out of character when they never received any kind of consistent characterization, or even characterization at all? :V

The Belmonts are supposed to be a family of hot blooded warrior types sent by the Church to rid the world of Dracula's unprovoked evil. Not one of those things were what they were supposed to be.

the plot was not Castlevania's but some generic fantasy series.

Castlevania's plot is basically Vampire Hunter D's first movie. This was not even close to that.

As I said, it wasn't what I wanted.

[Rynnec]

Can Trevor and Sypha really be out of character when they never received any kind of consistent characterization, or even characterization at all? :V

The Belmonts are supposed to be a family of hot blooded warrior types sent by the Church to rid the world of Dracula's unprovoked evil. Not one of those things were what they were supposed to be.

Maybe if this was supposed to be someone like Richter I'd understand, but Trevor never really had any sort of characterization as I said before, and the Belmonts are disgraced and exiled as it was described in the Japanese manual, so it'd make since for Trevor to be more cynical. Dracula's evil was also never really "unprovoked", as the stuff with Lisa being executed leading to Vlad invading europe was in the original games as well, as explained in several games such as SotN.

the plot was not Castlevania's but some generic fantasy series.

Castlevania's plot is basically Vampire Hunter D's first movie. This was not even close to that.
[/quote]

A group of warriors band together to fight Dracula. Sounds pretty Castlevania to me. Hell, it took more from the games than I was expecting such as Vlad already being a Vampire in the 1455, his hatred of Religion, Lisa begging Alucard to not hate humans, the anachronistic magitek, etc.

I can understand the show not being the adaptation you wanted, but saying the plot isn't Castlevania feels disingenuous.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It appears you and I have very different ideas of what Castleviania "feels like", though. Nothing disingenuous about it. 

Glad you enjoyed it.

[gunswordfist]

I wonder if they'll time skip in season 2 and introduce Richter.

[Rynnec]

Finished it. Not without its flaws (most of which is likely due to the script being over a decade old) but enjoyable from start to finish. Here's hoping to see Grant and Death in part 2/season 2! Music from the games would be nice too.

I wonder if they'll time skip in season 2 and introduce Richter.

Depending on how Netflix labels future episodes, season 2 will either be the rest of Dracula's Curse, or Simon's story. Hopefully the show will do well enough to get to Juste and Richter.

[gunswordfist]

Oh right, I was hoping Death would show up. He has to be in Season 2. And this reminds me that I loved how I loved that they compared Vlad to the Devil. Dude's ridiculously powerful and has freaking Death for a henchman.

[Rynnec]

Drac's always been the equivalent to Satan in the original canon. Dude was even outright called "The entity opposite to God" in Dawn of Sorrow and in the Japanese scrip it even states his existence is what powers the Abyss, which is pretty much  Hell. Speaking of which I hope they make an allusion to Chaos in part 2.

[Dr. Insomniac]

+ I really liked what they did with Dracula. Gave him a purpose to be a cunt to the townsfolk, while also giving him definitive suave.
+ Fight scenes were good. Sure, some shots looked off-model, but it didn't distract much.

- Trevor feels a little too standard Ellis protagonist here. I know Ellis has a style, but for once I wish he could write a lead who isn't a drunken, sarcastic asshole with a hidden heart of gold for the unfortunate.
-/? - Aside from that one priest who made the holy water for Trevor, all the asshole Catholics who beat up innocent people for no reason felt too heavyhanded. I get it, Ellis. Religious people can be corrupt. But I kept expecting one of them to kick a puppy because the Bishop told him to.

[Rynnec]

+ I really liked what they did with Dracula. Gave him a purpose to be a cunt to the townsfolk, while also giving him definitive suave.

I loved how Dracula was portrayed here, especially his interactions with Lisa and embitterment towards humanity, really adds a lot of weight to his misanthropy shown in the games. On another note, while I'll always prefer Patrick Seitz in the role, Graham McTavish really nailed the character.

-/? - Aside from that one priest who made the holy water for Trevor, all the asshole Catholics who beat up innocent people for no reason felt too heavyhanded. I get it, Ellis. Religious people can be corrupt. But I kept expecting one of them to kick a puppy because the Bishop told him to.

While I can understand why the Church would be portrayed in that way given the time period, I can see why it'd be overbearing for some. At least the implication was that it was only the Bishop and the mercenaries-disguised-as-priests who were bad, and with them gone the Church should hopefully be portrayed in a more morally grey light come part 2.

[gunswordfist]

Yes, Patrick Seitz is THE Dracula (and glad to hear that he's Dio) but Graham McTavish did excellent too.