Castlevania: Noturno

I really loved the first series as far as adaptation goes, back when Nocturne got announced I was stoked to see how they could keep the plotlines fresh. In this case, Nocturne is a beatifully animated show, with a few hiccups which don't retract from the experience, the sound is good, however voice acting ranges from good to fine.

As for story, this is where I'm conflicted, on one hand the plot is good and Erzebeth Bathory is a good pick for a villain, but... what the actual hell is up with the writing? Dialogues seem stiff, leaving little depth, they get so bad at times that it just took me out of the experience. With that said, I like Nocturne despite these issues, I hope that they will improve when the second season comes out, there's still a chance for it going from good to great..

Having finished Season 2, I will say this, with no spoilers.

One: Every fight is won in anime style "The power of emotional friendship".

Childish, beginning to end.

Two: Whenever a big baddie must be powerful, something will always happen to rescue the "heroes".

Deus Ex Machina. Just watch it. You'll see.

Three: If you make it to the final episode (which I wonder, what kind of "person" gave it a 9) you will realize the streetfighter vibes.

I mean, just look at the IMDB picture. Trevor is basically Ryu... Also fights the same...seriously.

Other than those three points, the reactions of almost everyone make zero sense.

Just wait and see humans not reacting to the supernatural.

There are no consequences for idiocy and bad decisions.

Generally, they took the feeling of what made the first one great and shoved it in a superhero anime machine which serves nothing.

Not to mention the freaking forced messages that it tries to pass.

What is it with everyone these days... Sometimes the freaking bad guys are just the bad guys.

It's a game adaptation for crying out loud... Anyway, that is all.

This show LOOKS amazing, but the storytelling and dialogue fall short. It struggles to keep an interesting pace and the characters have little to no chemistry that doesn't feel extremely forced. When lines are delivered that are meant to be strong and impactful they instead fall flat and sound cliche. It doesn't help that sometimes this show seems to be preaching to its audience instead of letting them create their own opinions. The animation is still great in most places and the fight scenes are excellent, but the story drastically suffers from my before mentioned points. Some interesting concepts are sprinkled throughout, but they are too few and far between to keep some viewers interested.

The first seasons were masterfully crafted icons that convinced me to give a chance to all Netflix Animation originals. Upon discovery of a new season in a new setting, I was surprised it was in the works. Little did I know it did not..meet expectations.

There is nothing wrong with setting a sequel of any film or movie in a new setting. This is considered a completely natural move to explore new horizons in a fictional world.

Sadly it did not work for this series sequel, easily as it failed to meet the masterpiece of the first few seasons. The new cast of characters were literally just thrown in without any type of introductions to note. We were expected to be able to understand immediately what was the story and development. This didn't happen, I found myself questioning several parts as the episodes went on and on.

"Why did this happen, where did this happen, what is the point of this"

We all know asking too many basic questions in any film series is not a good sign.

Animation wise, Castlevania still has it down as its still one of the best points of this trilogy.

Maybe this sequel deviated too much from the original masterpiece or suffered from a lack of clarity that was needed for development.

The only reason why I am not giving a abysmally low rating is due to the possible redemption previewed at the last episode.

So let's continue to watch the next season or two of this sequel and make our judgements by then.

What I heavily enjoyed about the first Castlevania and its characters was regardless of ethnicities, it didn't detract from the identity of the series. The dungeon crawling grimdark fantasy vibes focusing on a band of adventurers coming together to cleanse the world of greater evils. It was bleak, it was fun, it was action packed, and it never detracted from staying on target. All the characters, even the villains, had their roles to play in this setup and it was executed perfectly. Each season had substantial plot progression and action, from the main cast getting acquainted to raiding Dracula's castle all by the end of the first season. It was an incredibly fun watch, that only continued to build up with the following 2 seasons.

Meanwhile Nocturne has turned the series into your typical political drama, pulled straight from the news networks of the modern day. No longer is every episode about venturing into some new bleak unknown territory of a grimdark fantastical world; instead, it's about corrupt political figures, slavery and the complacency of white people, the ethics of conquest etc. Every episode seems to have sacrificed the adventurous dungeon crawling aspects instead for monologue about the ethics of the listed talking points above. I didn't mind it at first, but when it dragged on the entire season I'd long since grown tired of it. Especially when you consider how much plot was covered in the first season by comparison, from meeting in a village plagued with demonic undead to storming Dracula's castle. Let's just say, the main cast barely accomplished anything by the end of this first season, one could argue they didn't actually accomplish anything at all.

Overall, the animation was beautiful, but the plot in itself dragged and didn't seem to accomplish anything substantial. It's obvious the creators have a new vision in mind when it comes to what they want this story to accomplish. Less adventure and action, more political talking points and debates about religions, race, conquest etc. 80% of this series is them monologuing about these topics while remained secluded in the same village throughout. What little action there is feels like meaningless filler that doesn't really progress the plot in any form outside of the last 1min of the season for spoiler reasons. However, the rest is meaningless. Definitely in no rush for a Season 2 and I "may" check it out, but overall, this series has pretty much killed my interest in following the plotline of Castlevania.