Castlevania was created by Warren Ellis based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, and released on Netflix in 2017. A Bishop ordered the burning of Dracula’s wife for witchcraft, prompting the Count to swear revenge on the whole region of Wallachia.
Hello, there! I’m dos Santos, and this is Ulven Reviews, with Movies and series from all over the world and all eras. Today’s review is of the Seasons 1 & 2 of Netflix’s Castlevania.
Leave a comment with suggestions and opinions about the video and the two seasons of the series we’re discussing here. Thanks a lot.
Review of Season 3 HERE
Season 1
Lisa (voiced by Emily Swallow) wants to be a scientist, a doctor, and in her quest, she meets Vlad Dracula Tepes (voiced by Graham McTavish), of whom she becomes the wife. Years later, while Dracula is traveling by foot, like a human, Lisa is burned at the stake, accused of witchcraft.
With the death of his beloved wife, Dracula swears to punish everyone in the region of Wallachia, giving the people one year to get their shit together and leave. In the meantime, he summons his army from hell.
After one year, it seems the people ignored the warnings and kept living their lives as if nothing ever happened. So Dracula unleashes his demonic army onto the land, causing havoc.
Near the lands where the attacks are happening, Trevor Belmont (voiced by Richard Armitage) avoids getting involved in the mess, until he meets a group of speakers. The church plans to murder the speakers to serve as a scapegoat for the demonic attacks. That’s when Trevor’s moral compass forces him to get involved.
After helping the speakers, Trevor meets Sypha Belnades (voiced by Alejandra Reynoso), a determined Speaker Magician. Together, they go after a legendary sleeping hero who might help them defeat Dracula.
Season 2
Adrian Tepes, known as Alucard (voiced by James Callis), joins Trevor and Sypha in their efforts to defeat Dracula and his war against humanity. They head to Trevor’s childhood home, where his family kept centuries of accumulated knowledge. In this vast underground library, the trio search for a way to find and ground Dracula’s moving castle so they can attack.
Meanwhile, inside the castle, Dracula discusses with his Vampire generals how to proceed with the genocide against humankind. However, his trust lies with two human forge masters who hate humanity.
The forge masters are Hector (voiced by Theo James) and Isaac (voiced by Adetokumboh M’Cormack). Their job is to use magic to turn corpses into creature-soldiers to serve Dracula’s night hordes.
Late to the party, Carmilla (voiced by Jaime Murray) arrives at the castle. She’s an ambitious vampire who plots behind the scenes to betray Dracula and take power to herself.
My history with video games is limited. I played Pokémon Yellow on Gameboy Color when I was a kid, then all the other Pokémon games until some years ago. I also played San Andreas and FIFA since the 2002 installment, I guess. There are more games I played, but these are the main ones.
What I mean is, I never played any Castlevania and didn’t have any previous knowledge about the story or lore. This series was absolutely my first contact with this universe, and it’s a very positive one at that.
The premise of the story is simple yet very compelling from beginning to end. Basically, Dracula got mad with the death of his wife and directed the rage towards all of humanity. So, the ones who can fight to defeat him.
The very brief first season introduces the world, conflict, the characters, and sets up the relationship between them. So in the second, we can have things going more fluidly, developing what was established in that previous season.
With a mature audience as the target, the series has a lot of fast-paced action, gore, and deals with very complex emotions. However, there’s a lot of well-done humor that I particularly loved.
Some of the themes approached in the series are very thought-provoking, for example, religion and spirituality, and the responsibility of the masses. I don’t think the show proposes an answer to these questions, just the reflection.
Most of the characters pleased me, except Hector, who was not very bright or compelling. As for Carmilla, I’m still hesitant, I’ll wait for season three to make a better judgment.
I really like the trio of protagonists, especially Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. Alucard is my least favorite of the three, but that doesn’t make him a bad character, I just liked Trevor and Sypha too much. They’re both skilled and funny, and their interactions are the brightest spot in the show.
Dracula is an outstanding antagonist. An erudite vampire, powerful beyond imagination who was changed by a woman, but got everything taken away from him by human ignorance. Even during his genocidal burst, he’s still likable.
The best interactions Dracula has is with Isaac, the other forge master in his castle. Differently than Hector, I really like Isaac. He’s loyal to Dracula, but not blindly, he has a logic behind his loyalty. He’s also very skilled fighting, and I’m excited to see what the third season has reserved for him.
As an honorable mention, I would like to point the Viking Vampire Godbrand (voiced by Peter Stormare). Mostly just a comic relief, he gives some of the fun.niest moments in the second season.
The voice actors are all excellent, but instead of rambling, I’ll mention only three. While watching the series, I rarely remembered Trevor was voiced by Richard Armitage. It was Trevor’s voice and I think there are lots of merits to the actor in it. The other two probably seduced me with the accent, but anyway, I liked them.
Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha and Adetokumboh M’Cormack as Isaac are amazing in general, but the accent got me. Both don’t have the accent they use in Castlevania, yet, they’re very consistent with it, and it gave a new dimension to their characters.
The art of these two seasons is satisfactory, but the quality improved a lot from the first to the second. Initially, the same weapons even had different sizes depending on the shot. I’m not criticizing, it’s a valid style, I’m just saying it’s more consistent in the second season.
The lights, shadows, and colors are really great, and it provides some amazing shots and helps set the feeling of the series. As for smaller elements, I liked the landscape and details of the background in the second season, and one of my favorite things is the faces of despair.
The action scenes are well-done and captivating for the intricate movements, what we would call choreography in a non-animated movie. Also, for the competent use of the gore, which really makes the fights reach perfection.
The score is decent, but it didn’t captivate me enough. It’s as good as most movies and series, and maybe that’s the problem, it’s not generic, but it didn’t stand out as much as I would like to put me more in the mood.
The ending of the second season is very emotional. There’s hope, joy, frustration, nostalgia, and when it finally ends, it’s in a melancholic yet beautiful tone. I loved it, really worth watching it.
These two seasons are fantastic, full of little things to fall in love with. Sadly it’s two very short seasons, especially the first one. I’m very excited to watch the third season and review it here, but for now, I’ll give Seasons 1 and 2 of Castlevania 9 Moons.
That’s it for now. Don’t forget that being against science is stupid.
Bye!
Crítica dos Ratos 