User Reviews

Castlevania Nocturne suffers from getting too "Netflixed", an issue the original Castlevania didn't suffer from too much. You can tell that with the original series the creators were given free reign (for the most part) to do what they desired and tell the story they wanted as Netflix likely didn't notice them too much until season 3. This series obviously had Netlix execs looking over their shoulders the whole time.

The series was hard to get through. I had to put it on 1.25x speed and it still made me cringe at parts. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either.

The plot seems to lack any sort of focus and there are major flaws in character reasoning. We see the trope of "I killed your mother in front of you but I'm going to let you go even though I'm a 200+ year old vampire and should know better than to let a survivor go who will come back and kill me in 20 years" like 3 different times! If you're that old you should KNOW to kill the damn kid or they will hunt you down later. Hell, Olfrox essentially said he hunted down Richtors mom for the same reason.

Theres also the issue of having characters killed off and then revealing the character's backstory. Deaths lose meaning if we don't know who the character is or have any sort of emotional attachment to them as they've been on the screen all of 5 minutes and had 3 lines.

Too much personality and race swapping done to meet quotas. In the first series we see this done with Isaac, but it was MASTERFULLY done to the point that you didn't care. He had personality, motivations, and even though he was a villain, you rooted for him to at least not die. Here we see Annette being annoying and condescending and me hoping she goes away.

The characters themselves seem to be one dimensional and lack almost all depth. They are defined by the one or two bad things that happened to them in the past. That's it. That's their whole character. The villains all have a personality that can be summed up as "generic bad guy" (with one or two exceptions). In the first series we had goddamn dracula who for the first time in his life opened his heart only to have it crushed. He had to fight his son. We have the vampire sisters each having their own special views on the world and methods to see their view through. In nocturne we have random black vampire lady serving the "messiah" who kills guards because...she wants to do it? Or something? Her whole personality is "violent lackey".

If one piece live action taught us anything, its that Netflix letting people just do their jobs and make a good series without Netflix sticking their noses in it, the series that get released would be fantastic. The thing is, you can tell when Netflix shoved their noses in it. Its so tell tale.

Still a fun watch, but much less likely to keep you as engaged. Mainly because of the story; the world building takes way too long and leaves less time for the story to actual progress, and when the characters do get some development, it's far too predictable. To top it off, the ending is not an ending at all - it feels like there is at least 1 episode to provide some closure, not even taking the deus ex machina in account. The entire season, as it is, could be condensed to 5 or 6 episodes' time and make use of the rest for a proper ending.

On the upside, the animation is SUPERB, detailed but flowing. And there are various prestigious voices to be heard throughout the seasons. It's such a pity that the story is so underwhelming in comparison.

I'm went into this show with modest expectations. Despite the first series having a hell of a climax I didn't like a lot of the narratives and creative choices the showrunners made particularly in Season 3 and 4. The series had a lot of Game of Thrones envy like Witcher and seemed more interested in having a butt ton of characters (a lot of whom were original) talking about society and politics rather celebrating the monster slaying fun of the games.

Despite my bitterness I genuinely enjoyed this new series and liked the time shift into the Richer and Maria era and got invested in their arcs. I do hope they circle back around to Simon though, you can't ignore the poster boy Belmont.

Annette has a lot of controversy heat surrounding the changes done to her. I think in practice taking a minor damsel in distress and turning them into a real character who can kick ass is great, making her Magneto meets Black Panther meets Storm however is such a overhaul she might as well as be a different character and it's really not fair to say Grant who unlike Annette was a main character but thanks Mr Warren Cancelled Ellis gets thrown to wind. I loved it when adaptations can change something and make it work, when they waste the material or turn it into something lesser then I have problems.

Regardless I loved the animation, fights, voice acting (weird that Maria was British when her mom was Russian tho), loved seeing Juste (hope he comes back), the villains and the setting (even if they could've done more with it). And great to see Alucard as well. Excited to see what these guys will do with DMC.

Season 1 REVIEW: Ill try to keep things simple for this with as little spoilers as possible.

Writing/Plot: Overall, it was okay at best. There were moments where things seemed interesting enough, but the lackluster direction showed with questionable character decisions, constant surprise attacks, and conveniently running into "relevant" characters that served as a cripple to force the story along.

Characters: Most of the main protagonists were interesting, with goals and purpose that clearly guided their actions. Watching the characters interact was enjoyable, and one of the few actually great parts of the writing. However the show writers severely suffered when it came to the antagonists, who were bland and uninteresting at best. Their motives were relatively simple, which I feel like prevented me from actually properly getting to know and appreciate them. I didn't even know one of the main villains names until reading another review, as it felt so brushed over.

Dialogue: Unfortunately, I feel like there was a lot of "Marvel" type conversations. Things you wouldn't hear people really saying in real life, and a lot of unnecessary swearing for dramatic emphasis. Overall, it wasn't bad either than one or two awkward singing scenes and some cringy zingers/ one liners. I think character interaction redeemed the overall decent performances.

Animation: Absolutely stunning, there was not a scene of this show that wasn't beautiful. The character designs are fantastic, fight scenes are dynamic and impactful, and the movement is fluid and enjoyable. The art direction most certainly carried it.

Music/Audio: Loud at times, definitely dominated scenes at certain points, but overall the score was amazing and enjoyable throughout.

I've been waiting till they announced it and I must say castlevania nocturn is amazing, Richter Belmont's orign story fascinated me and the way the tied things together with the bloodline was cool. I wish I took my time watching it ,but I couldn't help myself. Character development made you care and understanding the story was satisfying. As a fan I loved watching castlevania and it took me back in time watching it reminding of the hours I put in beating the castlevania games. Definitely gonna re-watch it. At the end as they where running your thinking all is lost and Alucard saves the day. In my mind I was thinking damn is Alucard gonna make a introduction. Wow . This season didn't skip a beat. Bravo.

It is so ugly he's going in the anime Vibe I think but I don't like anime for real that is but the first show is better than animation he's going to like your action animation so fun to watch but this is not it's burning my eyes for real so ugly the eyes like demon Slayer I don't know why he do that but I don't like it at all. The character is so empty I don't feel in the character they don't understand why the girl is someone never about the mall where is come I don't like that magic for real it's no sense at all the show is ruined I don't like it it's so it's bad for real the animation is so bad so so bad it's very bad if he transform the animation Style like that old show is coming better I think.

I binged the whole season!

I have to say, that I quite like it and would watch season 2, but I can't help comparing it to the original and it doesn't live up to Castlevania.

Visuals (Animation and Choreography): The animation is quite good, better then an average animated show but comparing it to the original it is worse.

As I was watching I kept noticing all the cut corners, like when they just warp something instead of drawing it again or when they use CGI and it looks out of place, it doesn't look bad but just not as good as the original.

It does reach almost the same highs as the original but even at its best it doesn't quite do it.

(I even noticed a couple of animation errors while casually watching, and I wasn't even looking for them!)

The same sentiment applies for the action, it is less exciting, the choreography is way less interesting, and they use a lot of cuts and implied action. It is still good, but I feel that it could have been way better.

Writing: The ideas behind story are interesting, but the execution of them is sadly kind of weak... For example a couple of times characters showing up when needed even if there was no build up for that to happen.

Or character strength just flip flops depending on what the writers want to happen next.

And lots of little things that I feel should have been removed or improved upon on revision, it kind of feels that the writers were planning to come back and flesh out the moment but just never did.

Magic and Monsters: The magic system is worse, even tho it is a soft magic system so it should be hard to do so, additionally the use of it lacks creativity.

Using the main characters for the examples: 1) The MC looses his magic for no good reason and then gains it back at a key moment for no good reason as well. When he finally does use that magic it is only 2 elements and it isn't even done in creative ways, for fire he does a fire whip and flame-thrower and for ice he does an ice shield and ice gauntlets.

2) The Speaker Mom also does ice and fire, except for the ice gauntlets she does ice spikes.

3) The Speaker Daughter has a unique ability to summon minions to fight for her, and it seems that she can do that without any limits, but she just do that in most fights for some reason...

4) The Free Slave, she does metal and earth, but she barely does any magic and mainly uses her metal powers to make swords to fight with (she does control them to come back after she throws them, so there is that). She can also can access the spirit realm, to talk to her teacher and maybe eventually her ancestors.

As for the monsters changed the vampires and the night creatures, not sure why as it wasn't anything that would impact the story... 1) Now the vampires don't fade to dust after death.

2) The Night creatures are now not 100% loyal to their master and in one situation the soul of the deceased person stayed with the body which was kind of random, and what annoys me about this problem is that they could have solved this whole complaint by just mentioning that the machine made a different type of night creature or something.