Castlevania is an American adult animated web television series based on the 1989 Japanese video game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse by Konami. The series follows Trevor Belmont, who defends the nation of Wallachia from Dracula and his minions.
The series was originally planned as a film, developed by producer Kevin Kolde and his company Project 51, and subsequently by Frederator Studios when Kolde joined the same company in 2005. Kolde had a contract for a script with writer Warren Ellis in 2007; the project entered development hell until about 2015, where it finally found a global home on Netflix. Animation studio Powerhouse Animation Studios joined the team and production commenced. Its art style is heavily influenced by that of Japanese anime and Ayami Kojima's artwork in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with the production team including staff members who worked in the Japanese anime industry. The series premiered on the Netflix streaming service on July 7, 2017, and was renewed for an expanded second season of eight episodes on the same day; the second season premiered on October 26, 2018.
According to lead voice actor Richard Armitage, a third season has been greenlit by Netflix.
Premise:
When his wife is burned at the stake after being falsely accused of witchcraft, the vampire Count Vlad Dracula Țepeș declares all the people of Wallachia will pay with their lives. He summons an army of monsters and demons which overruns the country, causing the people to live lives of fear and distrust. To combat this, the outcast monster hunter Trevor Belmont takes up arms against Dracula's forces, aided by the magician Sypha Belnades and Dracula's dhampir son Alucard.
Voice Cast:
Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, the last living member of the Belmont clan, an excommunicated family of monster hunters.
James Callis as Adrian Țepeș/Alucard, the dhampir son of Dracula and Lisa Țepeș, who seeks to protect humanity from his father.
Graham McTavish as Vlad Dracula Țepeș, a vampire who swears vengeance on humanity for the death of his wife Lisa, summoning an army of monsters to destroy all the people of Wallachia.
Alejandra Reynoso as Sypha Belnades, a Speaker and the Elder's granddaughter who wields powerful magic.
Tony Amendola as The Elder, the leader of a group of Speakers aiding the people of Gresit whom Trevor befriends. (season 1)
Matt Frewer as The Bishop, a clergyman who orders the burning of Lisa Țepeș for witchcraft, later being named the bishop of Gresit before being killed by Dracula's demons and later reanimated by Hector to serve a role in Carmilla's agenda. (season 1 - 2)
Emily Swallow as Lisa Țepeș, Dracula's beloved wife who is burned at the stake after being falsely accused of witchcraft.
Theo James as Hector, a Devil Forgemaster called upon to serve Dracula in his war against humanity who with Isaac have turned against their own kind and are called upon to lead Dracula’s army against Wallachia. (season 2 - present)
Adetokumboh M'Cormack as Isaac, the other Devil Forgemaster and partner of Hector, who helps to lead Dracula’s army. (season 2 - present)
Jaime Murray as Carmilla, a scheming vampire mistress who joins Dracula in his war against humans, although her political machinations reveal questionable loyalties and cynicism towards his plans. (season 2 - present)
Peter Stormare as Godbrand, a barbarian vampire warlord called upon to serve Dracula in the battle against Wallachia. (season 2)
Episode Summaries:
Season 1 (2017)
1 "Witchbottle"
In Wallachia in 1455, a young woman named Lisa who wishes to be a doctor seeks out Vlad Dracula Țepeș, a vampire with advanced scientific knowledge. Intrigued by her courage and ambition, Dracula agrees to teach her, while she in turn offers to help him reconnect with humanity. The two eventually fall in love and marry. Twenty years later (1475), in the town of Târgoviște, Lisa is burned at the stake after a Bishop discovers scientific equipment in her home and accuses her of witchcraft. Dracula is devastated and furious upon learning of his wife's death and declares the people have one year to make their peace, after which every human in Wallachia will die by his hand. His son Alucard tells him to instead go after the man responsible instead of all of humanity, but Dracula refuses to listen and attacks him. One year later, the Archbishop hosts a celebration in defiance of Dracula. As promised, Dracula kills the Archbishop, destroys the church and orders his demon army to kill every person left in Wallachia. As the army spreads across the land, the people place the blame on the kingdom's noble families, including the Belmonts.2 "Necropolis"
Following an altercation at a pub, Trevor Belmont seeks food and respite in the city of Gresit, which has been besieged by Dracula's forces every night. As he passes through town, he learns that the townspeople blame a group of magic users known as the Speakers for Dracula's assault. He saves their Elder from a pair of corrupt priests, who brings him back to his home to meet his fellow Speakers. Trevor insists they leave the city for their own safety, but the Elder refuses, as his grandchild has gone missing after venturing into the catacombs below the city in search of the "sleeping soldier", a legendary hero who they believe can defeat Dracula. Begrudgingly, Trevor agrees to retrieve the missing grandchild.3 "Labyrinth"
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| Any long-time Castlevania fan can tell you that Sypha's magical arts are the stuff of legends within Castlevania lore. Her spellcasting is more than a match for what both Trevor and Alucard bring to the table in combat. |
4 "Monument"
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| One of the best sequences of the entire first season. |
Season 2 (2018)
1 "War Council" October 26, 2018
In a flashback to January 1475 in the Wallachian village of Lupu, Dracula’s wife Lisa (Emily Swallow) is tending to an old woman, Mrs. Djuvara, and gives her medicine. Lisa's home is invaded by the Bishop (Matt Frewer) and his priests who accuse her of witchcraft after finding an advanced medical device in her laboratory. They plan to subject her to an inquisition and burn her home, ignoring her warnings that her husband will kill them all. Back to the present day, Dracula (Graham McTavish) assembles his war council of generals which includes six vampire overlords from different parts of the world including the viking Godbrand (Peter Stormare), and two human necromancers, Hector (Theo James) and Isaac (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), to whom he declares his war against humanity. Dracula then talks with the necromancers privately, which irritates Godbrand who believes Dracula should rely on his fellow vampires, not humans. Hector and Isaac thank Dracula for trusting them and Dracula assures them their status as humans is more advantageous to his council than the bloodthirsty generals. Elsewhere in Gresit, Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) with Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage) bids farewell to her grandfather and fellow Speakers in order to join Dracula’s son, Alucard, to save humanity from total extinction. Meanwhile, Alucard (James Callis) is seen at the Speakers’ former home reminiscing about his parents and his decision to forget his former identity as Adrian Tepes and embrace his new identity as Alucard and honor his mother by killing his father. At the castle, Godbrand talks to Hector in his necromancer forging room and airs his opinion that the war is being fought with no strategy apart from wanton destruction. He believes a war should have some order to it while Hector merely implies that Dracula simply wants all humans dead no matter the methods used. This still does not sit well with Godbrand. Dracula begins relocating the castle to a different location.2 "Old Homes"
Trevor and Sypha reunite with Alucard and ask how to locate Dracula's castle when it can move from place to place. Trevor recommends revisiting his old family estate since the Belmont Hold underneath the ruins has a store of magical artefacts and information about monsters the Belmonts collected over generations. They leave Gresit immediately. At Dracula’s castle, the war hall is in shambles as the vampires question why they must follow orders from Hector and Isaac. The vampire mistress Carmilla (Jaime Murray) enters and takes her place among the council where she proceeds to criticise his approach to the war and even asks why Dracula never made Lisa a vampire, angering him greatly. The two talk in private where Carmilla explains she tried to give Dracula a chance to explain his decisions to his generals, though she appears to have ulterior motives. Alucard tells Trevor and Sypha the story of his parents and how his mother hoped to use Dracula's knowledge to help humanity, but with her death all his scientific knowledge is now lost and humans may soon cease to exist. Dracula’s creatures suddenly attack and are all slain except one flying demon which was only injured and escaped. At the castle, Isaac is seen whipping himself with a spiked belt while flashbacks show of his past being abused by his master until eventually he killed his master by piercing his eyes with his bare hands. Godbrand then arrives with the injured demon, now dead, in order to have Isaac extract information from the creature with his necromancy. At another assembly the generals argue whether to continue their attack on Arges or move the siege towards Braila at Carmilla's suggestion. Isaac informs everyone of his findings and concludes Alucard may have killed the demon and it is likely that a Belmont is with him. This urges Carmilla to tell Dracula to watch over the ancestral home of the Belmonts, since there could be secrets found their that could lead to their own elimination.3 "Shadow Battles"
In a flashback, a young Hector resurrects a dog. In the present day, he continues to create night creatures. Carmilla tries to convince him to create creatures to send to the Belmont house and to encourage Dracula to next attack Braila. In another flashback scene, Hector reveals that Dracula found him in the east of Rhodes and he agreed to raise an army for him, though he asked for a humane cull of humans rather than a cruel genocide. Trevor, Sypha and Alucard travel to the ruined Belmont house and Trevor reveals details of his childhood and family history. They find the entrance to the extensive underground library and Sypha magically opens the door. Sypha is very impressed by the collection and Trevor is happy to have rediscovered ‘The Morning Star’ weapon, but Alucard is clearly unhappy about the ‘museum dedicated to the extermination of [his] people’. Back at Dracula’s castle, Godbrand expresses his dissatisfaction with the plan to exterminate the human race and Dracula responds with anger. Carmilla tells Godbrand that Dracula must take the castle to Braila and reveals how she killed the vampire who turned her after he became mad and cruel, saying that Dracula too has become mad and old.4 "Broken Mast"
In a dream, Godbrand kills a number of fleeing soldiers, and he awakes wanting blood. When he is brought a live pig instead of human blood he comes to agree with Carmilla that Dracula is mad and something must be done to change his plans. At the Belmont library, Trevor discovers a magical mirror which allows them to see things far away. Trevor and Alucard continue to irritate each other. Carmilla continues to try to recruit Hector, criticizing Dracula for not turning Lisa into a vampire and casting aspersions on his sanity. She reveals to him that it is her intention to unseat Dracula if the castle is moved to Braila. In a flashback, Isaac recalls how Dracula saved his life and Dracula recruits him to create an army to end the human race. Back at the castle, Godbrand and the other vampire generals are fed up of living without human blood and set out on demonic horses to a nearby village. Dracula speaks to Isaac about the war hall turning against him and confesses he lied to Hector about his intent to exterminate all humans. The vampire generals terrorize and slaughter the population of the nearby village. At the Belmont library, Sypha and Trevor talk about Alucard and loneliness. As Isaac is whipping himself with a spiked belt, Godbrand appears and suggests that they should pursue the war without Dracula. Proving his loyalty, Isaac kills Godbrand by strangling him with his belt and stabbing him in the heart.5 "Last Spell"
Isaac releases Godbrand’s ashes from the castle rooftop. Carmilla commands her troops to assemble at Braila. At the Belmont library, Alucard discusses his concerns about Trevor with Sypha and she points out that both of them are immature. Hector and Isaac go for a walk and Hector convinces Isaac to agree to attack Braila next. Hector feeds this back to Carmilla and informs her that the night creatures he made for her are nearly at the Belmont residence. Isaac talks to Dracula about Hector’s request for the move on Braila but asserts that there is no betrayal to be concerned about. Dracula reminisces about a time he enjoyed killing 40 merchants in Kronstadt who disrespected him, and notes that he is tired and no longer takes pleasure in the details of death. Carmilla and Hector go to Dracula and get him to agree to move the castle to Braila. Afterwards, Carmilla turns on Hector and reveals her real disdain for him and everyone else in the castle, but tells him that he is too implicated in her betrayal of Dracula to turn back on her plan now. At the Belmont library, Sypha discovers most of a locking spell that could be used to trap the castle in one place and says that she can complete it herself. The room starts to shake as Hector’s night creatures have arrived and try to break in.6 "The River"
With great effort, Hector’s night creatures destroy the stone door to the underground library. Trevor fights off the demons whilst Alucard uses the distance mirror to search for Dracula’s castle and Sypha attempts to complete the spell. Alucard finds the castle in time to watch as Dracula moves it to Braila. In Braila, most of the vampire generals lead troops across the bridge to attack the town. Meanwhile, Carmilla and Hector leave the castle by another door and go down to the river with the Bishop, who Hector has reanimated, to make the Bishop bless the river. As Dracula’s army reaches the other side of the bridge, Carmilla’s troops reveal themselves and bring down the bridge, dropping many of Dracula’s soldiers into the now-holy water and destroying them. The remnants of Dracula’s army retreat to the castle whilst Carmilla’s soldiers cross the river on makeshift bridges. Hector is hesitant to go with Carmilla but she reminds him that he has betrayed Dracula and the two of them cross away from Dracula’s castle. Back at the library, Sypha finishes the spell just as Trevor is battling the final demon. Whilst Alucard focuses on the castle in the mirror, she starts to cast the spell to bring the castle to them. At the castle, battle between Carmilla’s and Dracula’s forces rages in the main hall. In the library, Trevor kills the last night creature just as Sypha starts to move the castle. In her struggle to move it, the castle jumps around Braila and lands in the river, sending holy water rushing into the hall and around the town, killing most of the soldiers, with Carmilla and Hector narrowly avoiding damage. Finally, she succeeds, and the castle moves to land above the Belmont underground library.7 "For Love"
In the castle, fighting still rages. Sypha creates a large platform of ice to lift herself, Trevor, and Alucard out of the library to ground level now that the staircase has been destroyed by the night creatures. The three enter the castle and Dracula’s and Carmilla’s remaining forces turn to focus on them instead. Together, Trevor, Alucard, and Sypha defeat everyone in the hall and the remaining night creatures. Dracula retreats to his study with Isaac. Isaac professes that he will defend Dracula to the death to preserve his wisdom but Dracula, saying that Isaac is the best of his kind, refuses to let Isaac die for him and sends him through a magic mirror back to the desert he came from. Alucard, Trevor and Sypha arrive at the study and Alucard tells Dracula that the war must end. Each of them attacks Dracula but is initially overpowered by him. Angered by the use of the Morning Star whip, Dracula creates a large fireball, which Sypha, Trevor and Alucard fight to push back towards him. Together they manage to send him backwards through the wall into the next room, where Alucard and Dracula engage in hand-to-hand combat. The two are closely matched, rapidly moving around the castle, and Alucard asserts that Dracula wants him to win because Dracula has been wanting death since Lisa died. Eventually the two end in Alucard’s childhood room, and Dracula realizes that he has been trying to kill his son, saying that he must already be dead if he is trying to destroy Lisa’s greatest gift to him. No longer angry, he allows Alucard to stake him through the heart. Trevor arrives to cut off his head and Sypha burns the remains, leaving only his wedding ring undestroyed. Alucard is upset about having killed his father, but Trevor and Sypha reassure him it was the right thing to do, and the three walk out of the castle into the sunshine.8 "End Times"
Alucard, Sypha and Trevor walk around the ruins of Dracula's castle. Alucard expresses the intention to make the castle his grave, but Trevor gives him the Belmont hold and encourages him to protect them and make something out of them. In the desert, Isaac is accosted by a group of strangers who talk about kidnapping him, selling him or eating him. He attacks and kills them, turning them into night creatures. Sypha talks to Trevor about continuing to fight and explore with him, saying that the war seems to have been good for him. Hector and Carmilla are still in Braila. Once the sun goes down, Carmilla says she will return to Styria, and then chains up and beats Hector with her few remaining soldiers. She tells him she will keep him as a pet so he can forge her an army as after Dracula's death there is a power vacuum in the vampire world that she wants to take advantage of. Trevor and Sypha bid farewell to Alucard and set off to find the Speakers. Alone in the castle, Alucard reflects on the family he no longer has, and sheds tears in his grief.The Verdict:
I watched Season One back when it first release. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed it, that short length of a mere four episodes didn't justify me doing a review on it at that time. Now that the whole "trilogy" of sorts has come full circle with Season Two on this pseudo-adaptation of the events from Castlevania III, I felt the need to do a write-up of this. I'm no expert on the whole Castlevania timeline and lore in terms of what's canon or not canon anymore following Hideo Kojima's reimagining of those events with his Lords of Shadow prequel trilogy, but I thought that what Adi Shankar and his team did here was excellent work and served as an amazing adaptation to the classic Castlevania mythos.
Animation/Action
There's great fluid action to be found here and nostalgic anime fans can easily see the influences from Vampire Hunter D while fans of Castlevania video games can see influences from the series' older artwork and concept art, notably from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night if you look at Alucard's general design.
There's so much attention to detail that this series shows in regard to the source material of Castlevania lore, even though Adi Shankar and his team took some personal liberties with this adaptation. The instance that definitely stuck out to me was seeing Gaibon and Slogra attack Alucard, Trevor, and Sypha in tandem like they did when Alucard faced them as a boss in Symphony of the Night. There's so many great moments like that across both seasons of this series that any Castlevania fan would just eat all of this up. You don't even have to be a fan of Castlevania or even be knowledgeable of the video game's history either to enjoy some kick-ass demon slaying.
In terms of action, just watch this fight...
If that's not good enough there's plenty more great action in this series from the start to the finish, including that marvelous, yet stylish duel between Alucard and Trevor at the end of Season One. They definitely didn't pull any punches in that regard, nor for majority of the action in this series.
Narrative & Characters
I thought Dracula was fleshed out wonderfully throughout the course of both seasons. They didn't even have to drag this out. His fellow vampires and lieutenants even had sensible motivations, even though Carmilla's motivations seemed to be a bit of a detour from her usual demeanor in Castlevania lore. I couldn't think for the life of me where did Hector and Isaac come from until I went back to refresh myself on the Castlevania: Curse of Darkness stuff, but I didn't mind their characters in the least. It makes perfect sense to have necromancers in service to him to create him an army of undead soldiers. It matters not that those necromancers were human as long as they possessed the talents to get the job done.
Out of Dracula's lieutenants, Godbrand comes off as the most bland, generic, and cliched of the bunch within his armies. I was a little biased towards Carmilla since I was fan of her character in the older Castlevania games and even more so with her revision in the Lords of Shadow trilogy.
I thought both seasons did a great job with what we were given here. The first season was a retelling of how the Belmont family fell from the good graces of the people and how Trevor came to terms with honoring the legacy that his family has for slaying vampires and other various vampires for generations. The second season chronicles Dracula's continued downward spiral as he sought out vengeance for the murder of his human wife while simultaneously painting him more as a tragic figure than a mere cliched monster trope.
Watch it or Don't Bother?
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