"Castlevania" anime

[Sumez]

I just hope Juese Belmont makes an appearance.

At least it will have Alucard

[Marscaleb]

It's written/produced by Americans and it's based on Castlevania 3. Those are two good signs for me.

Didn't someone already do that though?

[reborn]

nice anime, I add to my MAL-to wach list

[Sumez]

It's out on Netflix, well the first four episodes are.
What do people think about it? I'm actually really positively surprised. It respects the games completely, more than I had expected, even lifting one particular scene directly from SotN.

[never-obsolete]

It was better than I expected. There were 2 (maybe 3) scenes where Trevor dropped a string of f-bombs that seemed kind of odd/forced.

[Myask]

^^^ Eh, it seemed about appropriate. The gore level screamed "unrated". I kinda like Trevor's German VA a bit more because he doesn't sound so English?

lifting one particular scene directly from SotN.

Which would that be?
I liked it quite a bit. I have a few concerns:
0. calling 4 episodes a "season"? really?
0a. (p.s. why are we calling it an anime? It's an OVA if we're using that terminology, both in ep count and release strategy…)
0b. apparently it's up for four more, huh.
1. Sypha's a bit too typed as damsel.
2. Season 1's over and we have Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard. Where's Grant? (…putting him on the haunted pirate ship might make more sense if he's a pirate, though…)

[Gilbert]

0a. (p.s. why are we calling it an anime? It's an OVA if we're using that terminology, both in ep count and release strategy…)

Why? Anime just mainly stands for Japanese(-ish) Animation (in fact they call every animated series Anime in Japan, even western ones; whereas western people intentionally use the term Anime to distinguish them from (Western) Animation). OVA just means the Anime is mainly directly to video, as opposed to TV series.

[Sumez]

It's completely American animation though I couldn't tell you if some animation work might be outsourced to cheap Asian workers, but by that logic every Saturday morning Disney show was anime.
I agree with the common consensus that some of the profanity and gore felt forced. I'm glad they aren't trying to censor stuff, but it needs to fit in, too. It was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and for a mere four 23-minute episodes basically making out a pilot, I think they did about as good a job as they could have, considering the material.

lifting one particular scene directly from SotN.

Which would that be?

Lisa Tepes being burned at the stake, her lines are almost identical to some of the things she says in the SotN flashback.

[Myask]

^^^ ah, haven't played SotN.

0a. (p.s. why are we calling it an anime? It's an OVA if we're using that terminology, both in ep count and release strategy…)

Why? Anime just mainly stands for Japanese(-ish) Animation (in fact they call every animated series Anime in Japan, even western ones; whereas western people intentionally use the term Anime to distinguish them from (Western) Animation). OVA just means the Anime is mainly directly to video, as opposed to TV series.

Episode counts on OVAs tend to be in the single digits, whereas anime tends to be 13 or 26. It's like the distinction between a TV series and a miniseries.

[FrankenGraphics]

Just watched the four episodes. Glad they're making another 8. Hope they'll be a little longer, too.

It seems they mixed the story of Dracula's Curse with the setting of Simon's Quest (it's not just the place, but also how it's painted - doomed cities of wallachia with despairing citizens and the recurrence of 'secret knowledge'). Both Koji Igarashi's hand at the script and the inspiration drewn from Ayami Kojima's SoTN artwork is very evident, on top of that.

Spoilers ahead:
I love the gore, it is somehow befitting the late-medieval tone, but at several points it has no significant narrative purpose which lessens its effect. The poled heads and the entrails as decoration in E2 would've had a stronger impact if gore came more selectively.

The characters felt a bit flat (like the cookie-cutter evil bishop and the other men of god), but then again, they were always very flat in what little dialogue there was in the games they're based on/inspired by. It is kind of fitting. Unfortunately, i think they missed the mark with dracula, if this is to be CV3. Rather than a devil-like warlock and an epitomy of evil, he comes off as a bit of a dork. I suspect this is Iga's vision of Dracula, rather than the Hammer Horror movies the first games were more closely inspired by, and i think it's for the worse. I liked the 'beauty and the beast' narrative, but the beast is a better beast than this version of dracula.

I love that it's a semihistoric fantasy narrative which dares to depict the social struggles of that world, so it's not all "dungeons and dragons". The peasants in the bar, the church, the minorities, and so on. It is also clear that the speakers are a way to be careful and avoid misrepresentation of Romani, but i'm not sure if it works as well as it could. I'd rather see them be Romani rather than a Romani-like fantasy minority, that'd make the marginalisation, distrust, persecution from the church, and threat of pogroms feel more authentic (then again, nothing else is historically accurate and that's not even the point - But you have people described as Romani in CV2 so that's a slight break from the castlevania mythos).

It's also apparent they mixed up the internal timeline of CV3 by some. I think it makes it feel fresh.

Did you know Grant Danasty probably have a historical counterpart, just as Dracula?

[Myask]

Did you know Grant Danasty probably have a historical counterpart, just as Dracula?

No, what?

[FrankenGraphics]

There's other houses renown/accused of cruelty and/or semi-vampiric activities similar to that of Vlad Tepes, from around that time and part of Europe (actually, people in power did horrifying things all over Europe from what i've read, but we're talking Castlevania here).

Báthory Erzsébet, of House Báthory, known as "the blood countess". Married to someone that might be more important as inspiration of the CV3 mythos:
Ferenc Nádasty, known as "the black knight of Hungary". He also picked up the practice of impaling enemies. After his death, Erzsébet had free reigns to terrorize her subjects (although some of the allegations are sure to be slander).

But it could also be a name borrowed from House Dănești, one of two lineages (the other being House Drăculești - yes, that house) of House Basarab.

Either, or both - They probably read up on the subject when producing Dracula's Curse.

[FrankenGraphics]

I also wonder if we'll see the poltergeist king hide family heirloom in candles in S02 (source: CV3 english manual)

[Gilbert]

Episode counts on OVAs tend to be in the single digits, whereas anime tends to be 13 or 26. It's like the distinction between a TV series and a miniseries.

No, as I mentioned OVAs are mainly direct to video stuff(sometimes they do get shown on TV though, maybe as TV specials), so the episode counts are usually low but there are exceptions.
On the other hand TV series tends to be having 13, 26 or 52 episodes per season(for obvious reasons, but there are exceptions too), not Anime, as both OVAs and TV series (and animated feature movies) are all considered Anime, unless there are some weird definition some western people use that I've never heard of.

[Revenant]

Episode counts on OVAs tend to be in the single digits, whereas anime tends to be 13 or 26. It's like the distinction between a TV series and a miniseries.

No, as I mentioned OVAs are mainly direct to video stuff(sometimes they do get shown on TV though, maybe as TV specials), so the episode counts are usually low but there are exceptions.

A good example: The original Legend of the Galactic Heroes OVA, which is 110 episodes long.