I recently had the opportunity to watch the Castlevania cartoon, or anime, or whatever you want to call it.
I was very surprised by how good it was.
Animation was fast and very cool, straight lines and correct anatomies and all that. Excellent Music and sound design, which I'll hope will get better the longer the show goes on. I'd like some character themes like in the games, is what I'm saying.
The voice acting is ok, though at times it does feel a little slow. In particular with one character's voice, that I didn't particularly care for. (It's the bishop in case you're wondering.)
Richard Armitage's voice acting is also rather an unconventional choice. All the better for it though, because there's an amount of humour on display that I wasn't expecting. What we get is a drunken Trevor Belmont spouting world-weary sarcasm and drawling disinterest. Not the voice you'd expect from your main hero. But stranger still is how much the voice fits with the depiction.
Trevor himself is excellent, slightly bumbling and kind of down-trodden but with a core of steely purpose at his heart that doesn't show up until the gloves come off.
And when they do; oh man.
The fights are excellently depicted, easy to follow and exhilirating in all their gory violence. This is violent horror, baby. And it's exactly what the Castlevania brand deserved.
Trevor's the main focus in season 1 but we'll see how that develops in season 2 because the episodes, of which there are by the way only 4 of maximum 25 minutes each, have managed to set up quite a bit of storyline and characters in a minimum of time. I'm quite interested to see how the longer storyline will progress.
I've dabbled in some of the earlier Castlevania games but I absolutely fell in love with Castlevania: the Lords of Shadow (1, where as 2 was a bit hit and miss). I know it's not a popular opinion but I still think it's an awesome game.
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| Lords of Shadow limited edition art |
I'm pretty sure it's already clear that the series won't depict that particular storyline but instead will rather adhere more to the originals. I'm not that knowledgable on those and I'm happy to be going into this blind. What we've been given so far has been alot of fun. I trust they won't muck it up.
And here are some 10 word (more or less) reviews for every episode. Reductive but hey, who cares?
Slight Spoilers.
1.1 Wronged Dracula ruins everyone's day with unholy rage and fire.
1.2 A drunk Belmont provides laughing opportunities for the sadistic viewer.
1.3 Exquisitely choreographed violence and murder mayhem is rather quite cool.
1.4 Floaty vampire sleeps, rudely awakened by bar-fighting oaf. Is pissed.
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| Gothic Action-Horror! |
So yeah, really quite good. Alot of fun and also really rather short as you can blaze through it in under 2 hours.
More is certain to come, so go check it out if you can. You won't be disappointed.
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