But you probably won’t listen to me anyway, will you?
Well, I feel like I’ve put this off due to a veritable cluster of news articles. But I hate to leave things unfinished, strange as it may sound. So, I think I’ll take the momentary calm to finish up Castlevania.
Things pick up with that angry mob ready to take Trevor apart. Not helped by Stumpy the Priest leading them. Sypha saves him with a ring of fire, however. She makes a safe path for him, but he catches sight of Stumpy and decides to very publicly announce all the wonderful things the Church was doing. Like hassling an old man and convincing the townsfolk to murder the Speakers for no reason. You can probably guess what happens next.
Meanwhile the Bishop finds out that God really doesn’t like it when you decide your projects are actually His. Because several of Dracula’s demons find him in the cathedral and tell him so. Of course, they couldn’t be expected to leave without a light snack.
Back in the town square, Trevor organizes the people to repel the demons. The best part being that one of the priests can actually make Holy Water. Which might just be the second time one of the traditional sub weapons makes an appearance (Trevor’s gotten some mileage out of the knives he carries), though not in a traditional form. You could probably view the entire sequence as a bit of a take on Seven Samurai, if you really wanted. The fighting causes the ground to give way, dumping Trevor and Sypha into the catacombs.
Which long story short, brings them to the Sleeping Warrior. I was honestly hoping it would be Grant, since his entire thing was being mind controlled, but no, it’s Alucard. In retrospect, though, it makes more sense that it wasn’t Grant, since you get him in the Clocktower, but still, my small knowledge of Castlecvania III really wanted things in that order. I’m sure we’ll see him next season… maybe. Though, in keeping with the game, Trevor and Alucard fight, since there’s no way Trevor’s trusting a vampire. The animation for the fight is excellent. Notably, however, they’re playing off of Alucard’s appearance and skillset from Symphony of the Night (including giving him the teleport skill he had there). It ends with a draw, setting up the three for next season.
What I really wanted to talk about here were both praise and concerns. I feel that, overall, the series is probably one of, if not the best, video game adaptations ever. I realize that that’s kind of a short list and a low bar, but there you go. It’s reasonably true to the structure, if not the letter, of its source material, as well. Which is good, considering the sorts of things we’ve gotten before, at least outside of Japan.
The animation is great. It’s fluid, though every once in a while it dips in quality a bit. That is, however, as expected. You’d be hard pressed to find an animated production that didn’t pick and choose which shots got the love. Is it going to be a bunch of people standing around, or an action shot? Most of them choose the action shot, since that will get you accolades and wow your audience.
The one glaring flaw I can point out (and by this point, so has everyone else), is the music. It’s not bad in any stretch of the imagination. But the problem is that it’s not Castlevania music. No Bloody Tears, no Mad Forest, none of the sorts of tracks you think of when you hear the name of the series. If any of them are mixed in subtly, I certainly didn’t hear them. Even Castlevania Judgement had a rocking soundtrack, and that game wasn’t even good. On the flip side, they might be saving that for when they actually get to the castle.
Overall, Netflix’s Castlevania delivers on the sort of game adaptation you want. It’s not one to one (Dracula’s Curse is an NES game, guys), but it has enough going for it that I really want season 2 as soon as I can get it.
4/5
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