Castlevania: Nocturne

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.

Compared to the first one this one disappoints due to the writing. The animation is beautiful, the characters are interesting, but the plot just feels... lacking. Things happen a little too conveniently. The story doesn't feel natural, but rather like some things were thrown in to 'solve' plot problems. Some of the themes and tropes are a little too much modern Hollywood for my taste. It's too much about trauma and empowerment and such. The atmosphere is still stellar though and the world is well built. Also, once it get's going towards the end, it really gets going.

The first one was 10/10. This one is still worth watching, but with lowered expectations.

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.

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.

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.