Castlevania
A regular reader of this blog might be surprised to find me reviewing an anime, but not as surprised as I am to be doing it. As an older person, I grew up with hand drawn animation that looks a lot different than animation today. Years ago, when anime began to appear in the U.S., I gave it a try a few times, but the big difference in the artistry kept me from liking it, like at all. But it’s been a while since I’ve ventured out of my comfort zone to try something new, so I turned on the first episode, expecting to spend very little time with the show. Now I’m in the middle of binging the series
Strictly speaking, Castlevania isn’t actually anime, but anime-adjacent. To my sensibilities, it’s close enough and why type more than five letters, so I will continue to address it as such. The art does have the sharp edges and stiff movements of anime, but I was surprised to find myself also admiring the color blending and saturations and occasional artistically brilliant look. Backgrounds are nicely softened and colorful, and the music complements the emotion or actions very well.
The voice work is great, with all the sarcasm and horror and downright evil each character requires. There is a lot of horror, with gore and viciousness always lurking or in your face, beginning with the very first images of thousands of people horribly impaled on long spikes and rotting in a vast plain. This instantly told me that Dracula was lurking somewhere and he appeared very shortly after. I thought it was smart to begin with thousands of horribly impaled people, since the historical Vlad Dracula was a big fan of that particular, horrible torture. Though it’s debatable if that was the worst. Maybe a few viewers googled and inadvertently learned some history, so, educational.
The story is simple and as old as the hills Vlad lived in way back when. A brave woman goes up to the cool, vast castle surrounded by punctured humans and pounds on the door till she can speak to the vampire inhabitant and demand to be taught science so she can help people. She’s sarcastic, irreverent, smart, and before you know it, the two are madly in love, marry and have a baby. Then of course the church, with evil men in charge, burn her at the stake for being a witch because “science bad”. Dracula goes insane and vows to kill EVERYBODY.
Why does the woman have to die horribly so the story can be passed off to a bunch of men, evil or heroic? This is a super old trope, and it appears with other super old tropes, like the disenfranchised heir who fights evil and drinks heavily, or evil madness created from organic or event based origins. Regardless, the heir is one of my favorite characters because he’s sarcasm incarnate. After Dracula’s wife, Lisa, dies horribly and honorably, we are given exactly one woman character in season one, and another in season two. They’re both supporting roles, there to influence the men who are the main characters, the ones who move the story. The women do not speak to each other, as Armageddon might ensue if they met.
If you can overlook the worn to a nub storylines, there’s a lot to like. All the characters are easily recognizable representations we’ve seen countless times. But they’re so well done, especially with the actors’ voice work, that it doesn’t bother me much. Fight choreography is great, or maybe nearly two decades of superhero movies has inured me to the modern action sequence. There’s frenetic but understandable movement that is especially entertaining when the bad guys are being slaughtered.
The show takes the whole first season to set up the story with deep worldbuilding, even if it’s been done a bajillion times. There are so few truly original stories left to tell that a creator needs to be able to craft something entertaining that seems fresh even if it isn’t. This series manages to do it, and look pretty at the same time.
If you’re okay with seriously well worn storylines that looks like anime but is set in ancient Europe, then try this out. Unfortunately for me, I discovered I have a lot of catching up to do after sampling new animations and grinding my teeth on seeing how many new shows are now competing for my surprisingly little free time. Castlevania is gory and harsh, sometimes funny, gorgeously rendered physically if not with original storytelling. If you like this sort of thing even a little I recommend it.
LINKS:
CFR: In Addition
I love this show. When I first watched it, there was only one season. I was so bummed cause I wanted more. Then hooray! Out came season 2 and then the final season 3. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole show and liked some bits that pushed back on the genre and made it way more fun for me. I like that often the characters would say things that were not typical sexist nonsense. I loved the love between the characters. I love that in the end, the show was about love and family – oh and family can be chosen and large. 🙂
Yes it is gory. That doesn’t bother me as much as Cranky, but I do notice it. It doesn’t bother me as much I guess because it is anime and well, it guess it removes the ewwww factor.
I could watch this again. Hey! I just might go and do that. Plus there is a new chapter in the Castlevania universe, Castlevania: Nocturne. I really should go and watch that. 🙂
Enjoy!
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