Castlevania: Noturno

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.

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..

The drawing style is pretty good though I feel the previous series was slightly better as it had better atmosphere.

The main issue is that the story moves too far from the original formula.

The new story is set in Revolutionary France but everything is "micro-adjusted" to fit a specific artificial narrative. Feels a like like the characters, story, dialogue all are forced into specific boxes.

The characters are more diverse cast now. Dracula no longer relevant instead is been replaced by another antagonist and she's not as scary to be honest. Belmont has been nerfed into a an insecure, young weakling. They tried to make it look strong by giving him raunchy lines but just looks bad.

The show keeps trying to associate revolution with emancipation and freedom and monarchy with vampires and evil at every corner.

Overall I'd say is not worth watching. The quality of their shows is getting worse and worse. The dialogue of the show is just terrible.

Animation 9/10 Characters 5/10 Story 2/10.

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.

I share some of the sentiments with regard to the other reviewers. The visuals are great but the story is lacking.

But seeing as I don't know the castlevania storyline from the game, I don't care if the show is true to the game storyline.

My biggest gripe with this show is just how weak the monsters are. Vampires and night creatures are star wars storm trooper levels of useless. They are just fodder for the heroes to kill, so they have no intimidation factor.

The second gripe is related to the writing, stuff like how when one of the characters goes on a spying mission how they immediately find what they are looking for and are within hearing distance of important conversations. All this while the Vampires which are supposed to have heightened senses cannot detect that someone is following them and listening in on their conversations. That's just hack writing.