The series was originally planned as a direct-to-video movie back in 2007, but entered development hell until around 2015, when it was picked up by the streaming service Netflix. Over the years the script had morphed from a movie to a trilogy and a proposed live-action production. Netflix allowed the writers to keep the original 2007 script and the team worked closely with Konami, who helped to identify continuity issues. The show drew visual inspiration from Ayami Kojima's artwork, particularly Symphony of the Night, and used a production staff consisting of members with experience in the Japanese animation industry.
Opening Song: Main Theme (by Trevor Morris)
Credits Song: Let Me Kiss You (by Trevor Morris)
Spoiler Warning: I am going to give a synopsis of each episode and my opinions at the very end.
Episode 1: War Council
Dracula calls upon his vampire generals from all over the world to declare war on the humans. When Godbrand, a vampire viking, objects to letting the only two humans in Dracula's court - Hector and Isaac, devise their battle plans, Dracula reminds him that they remain loyal to him despite his goal to destroy their species. In private, Dracula expresses to Hector and Isaac how valuable they are to him as people who genuinely despise their own kind and understand how they think, unlike the vampires who can only focus on how best to butcher the dumb "livestock".
Godbrand stops by Hector's workshop to apologize for his outburst earlier and to convey his frustration at the wanton destruction they're causing without clear battle plans or strategies. Hector resumes his Forgemaster (necromantic) duties of raising the dead using the bodies retrieved from the city, and agrees with Godbrand that there is more suffering than he would like.
Meanwhile, Trevor accompanies Sypha to see her people off. Alucard awaits their return, passing the time by drawing pictures in the sand and reflecting on how his mother never liked the idea that he may define himself through comparison to his father, and now he has given up his name "Adrian" for "Alucard" (Dracula backwards) and stands in direct opposition to his father.
Episode 2: Old Homes
Carmilla - one of the vampire generals, arrives several days late to Dracula's castle and reveals she has been in contact with Godbrand. When questioned about her impertinence, Carmilla manages to assuage Dracula's anger by claiming she had matters at home that kept her, and the contact with Godbrand was just him trying to get in bed with her.
Around a campfire, Sypha shares tales of Dracula's castle moving, to which Alucard confirms it can teleport. Trevor suggests they visit his old home, though destroyed by the mobs, the vault underneath containing all his family's accumulated knowledge and magical items should be intact. Alucard then shares stories of how his parents met and explains that his half-human heritage is the reason why he does not burn in the daylight. The group is then ambushed by night beasts, including a Slogra and Gaibon duo. All but one creature are slain, with the surviving beast limping back to Dracula's castle.
"Oh, the world will still be here,
Belmont. The trees will still grow, the birds will still sing. But you
won't be here. None of you." -Alucard
Back at the castle, Isaac reminisces about his former master whipping him for stealing, when in actuality he was just trying to learn how to read in order to better serve his master. Godbrand arrives at that moment with the injured (now deceased) monster from before and insists Isaac get back to his Forgemaster duties. Godbrand then attends another war council to express his opinion that the forces in Arges are lost. Hector counsels for leaving Arges and attacking Braila instead, which Carmilla supports as it is a river town. Taking Braila would effectively seal off Wallachia. Isaac, however, supports continuing the attack on Arges because it is an old and respected town. He also reports that an unknown party on the road to Arges attacked the demon he resurrected. Alucard slept in Gresit and reports of a Belmont in the city lead Isaac to believe they have joined forces.
"You struggled so hard to come back home. So loyal. Perhaps this is all loyalty buys, in a world without love. Pain in the night and death on your master's floor. Perhaps that is all that awaits me too. But you didn't mind. You came home regardless." -Isaac
Carmilla listens to Hector recount how he met Dracula a little over a year ago while on his travels. After Dracula's wife was murdered he came to Hector seeking his aid in raising the dead. Hector agreed to help on the condition that at least some humans would be kept alive as livestock for the vampires. Knowing that creatures smithed by a Forgemaster are loyal to their creator, Carmilla asks Hector to send a horde to the old Belmont home, without Dracula's knowledge, in order to stop the Belmonts from reclaiming their lost knowledge. With the Belmonts no longer a threat, she believes Dracula will go for Braila.
"I wouldn't have them suffer. Like any animal, I think the world would be poorer with their extinction." -Hector (about humans)
Sypha, Alucard and Trevor reach the old Belmont home and enter through a magical door. Trevor explains to the group that his family was originally from France but moved a few hundreds years ago to where the work was. Leon Belmont, the first of his clan, laid the foundation for the home and everything underneath.
Amongst his family's treasures, Trevor discovers the Morning Star whip.
Increasingly erratic behavior from Dracula leads Godbrand to suspect he
is going insane from not having fed on blood, to which Carmilla isn't
surprised. She recounts how she was turned by a vampire master centuries
ago. He promised her the world, but in time grew old and mad and she
was bound to him. To free herself she killed him. Now she has come to
meet with the leader of their nation only to find another "insane old man" in charge.
"This isn't a war, it's a suicide. His wife's dead and he wants to join her. And he wants to take all of us with him." -Godbrand
Episode 4: Broken Mast
Carmilla manages to sway Hector to her side by breaking it to him that Dracula doesn't actually intend to spare a single human, not even as food. He lied, failed to save his beloved "pet" Lisa, and has gone mad. By helping her, Hector could spare some humans, including himself.
Fed-up with pig's blood, Godbrand rides out to the nearest village to feast with the other generals. And feeling the guests of his castle slowly turning against him, Dracula consults with Isaac. When Godbrand returns to the castle he openly admits to betraying Dracula, prompting Isaac to kill him by tearing out his throat.
Episode 5: Last Spell
Isaac informs Dracula that the generals are unhappy and their squabbling makes Hector unhappy. If they do as Carmilla requests and move the castle to Braila it will give her power but quiet everyone else down. Dracula agrees to the move because people will die no matter where they go.
Anime Isaac is so different from his half-naked psychopath counterpart that he could be considered an original character made for the show, although I like to think that anime Isaac represents what game Isaac may have been like before he was 'cursed'.
Episode 6: The River
The night creatures sent to the Belmont home initiate their assault on the vault. Alucard operates a distance mirror to locate Dracula's castle while Sypha finalizes a locking spell to hold the castle in place. A minotaur-like demon breaks through the vault door allowing the smaller ones, including a Malphas, through which Trevor keeps at bay.
In Braila, Carmilla uses the bishop killed by Blue Fangs (and reanimated by Hector) to turn the river into holy water. When the generals and their armies try to cross the bridge, Carmilla has hers destroy the supports, plunging the other vampires into the blessed river. At that exact moment, Sypha wages a battle against the gears and engines of Dracula's castle causing them to melt, but ultimately succeeds in bringing the castle to the Belmont home.
Episode 7: For Love
The trio begin their assault on Dracula's castle. Over a rendition of Bloody Tears (the Castlevania series theme), Trevor attacks the remaining generals using the Morning Star. Sypha uses her fire magic to contain the vampire's movement and her ice shards to attack. Alucard swaps in and out of his wolf form, attacking with both his fangs and magically controlled sword.
I love how creative they got with Sypha's limited spells.
Dracula uses his transmission mirror to transport Isaac (against his wishes) to a desert so that he won't have to die fighting to defend the castle. Trevor, Sypha and Alucard confront Dracula in a melee battle that transitions into a battle of will/might as they push a magically conjured lava ball back and forth. The fight between Alucard and Dracula spills out into the rest of the castle with Trevor and Sypha struggling to keep up. The fight ends in Alucard's childhood bedroom. Upon seeing the old pictures, toys, and a now fully grown Adrian barely able to stand from his father's beating, Dracula finally grasps the depths of his own madness. Alucard stakes his father using a post from the bed, causing Dracula to crumble to ash.
"My boy. I'm... I'm killing my boy. I'm killing our boy, Lisa. Your greatest gift to me. And I'm killing him." -Dracula
Episode 8: End Times
Alucard informs Trevor that he had planned to go back to sleep when this was all over, but can't leave the vast knowledge of his father's castle unattended. Trevor proposes that Alucard act as a guardian of both his father's knowledge above ground and the knowledge of the Belmonts that now sits below the castle, to which Alucard agrees. Sypha decides to continue traveling with Trevor and suggests they look for her people in Braila.
Carmilla gathers what is left of her forces to return to her home in Styria. She has Hector chained as her "pet Forgemaster" and beaten for his defiance. Elsewhere, Isaac decides to create a night horde army for himself after a run-in with slavers by a waterhole. And Alucard, now alone in an empty castle, laments his family's fate.
Final Thoughts
When combined with the first season this feels like a complete story, and the character driven nature of the narrative, with believable consequences and enough perspective for the viewer to understand why each character acts the way they do on a deep, emotional level, are what really makes this show so good. And when it hits its high points it really hits those highs: Isaac's savage take-down of Godbrand or Trevor's failed door reinforcement were delightful, and the final confrontation with Dracula was the icing on the cake. The main trio wiping out the generals only to just barely stagger Dracula himself, helped to highlight just how outrageously powerful he is and made seeing the 'Big Bad Evil Guy' so broken by rage and loss during his final moments with his son that much more impactful. It's not perfect by any means of course. There are random scenes, such as when Dracula throws a cape through a mirror (just to demonstrate how it works) and moments like the undead bishop blessing an entire river of flowing water that probably shouldn't be possible. The extra episodes this season also resulted in a hit to the art quality. Backgrounds are less vivid, simpler with a painterly appearance. The animation is static or rushed in places, most notably during action scenes where it sometimes looks as if there are a few frames missing. The pacing wasn't as tight as the first season either and the plot (roughly 2/3) was overly focused on vampire politics and conspiracies with no-name generals. Dracula was also much more reactive than proactive this season; spending most of his time in a chair looking sickly. Outside of his quiet but menacing scolding of Godbrand and the final confrontation, the 'threat of Dracula' just wasn't here like it was last season.
Videos exploring the themes of the Castlevania anime:
Have you seen Castlevania the anime or played the video games it is based on? What were your thoughts?
No comments:
Post a Comment