The wait for season 2 of the Netflix original animated series Castlevania is over. With twice as many episodes as season 1, fans are getting even more binge-able episodes. This post is spoiler-laden, so read with caution.
What’s New?
The story backtracks a little to give us some more info about what happened to Lisa before she was burned at the stake. After that, we pick up with our party continuing its pursuit of finding Dracula. Vlad has summoned his war generals, most of whom are vampires as well.
His two most trusted generals in his war to eradicate humanity are humans. Hector is an alchemist who enjoys his work of reviving dead animals. Isaac is a skilled warrior who also wields power over the dead. Both men are called forge masters because they help create Dracula’s army of undead demons from the corpses of the slain. Both are loyal to Dracula because of their hatred of humanity, but also have their own views about what this war should bring about.
Among the vampire generals is one named Carmilla. She sees Dracula as a mad old man who should no longer have control, so she begins to plant the seeds of a coup. When Dracula moves his castle (something he does with a special device) she talks him into putting it in a place of her choosing so she can weaken Dracula’s forces and try to take control.
Main Cast
Meanwhile, Alucard, Sypha, and Trevor have gone to the Belmont home in order to look for information that might help them. The Belmont stronghold is attacked by demons created by Hector while Alucard and Sypha work to use magic to bring Dracula’s castle to them. The spell is successful, and the final battle begins.
Alucard faces off with his father in an epic fight throughout the castle, with Sypha and Trevor offering aid. Things aren’t looking good for Alucard until they wind up in his childhood room. Dracula has a sudden realization of what he’s doing, giving Alucard, Sypha, and Trevor the chance to finish him off. Once the battle is won, everyone goes their separate ways, but the season ends with several loose ends, so the story is (hopefully) not over yet.
More Of The Same
I was on pins and needles as to whether or not this season would keep the series on the good path it was on, and safe to say that it delivered. The writing is honestly the best part of the whole show. The plot is interesting, taking some nice twists and turns, and the characters kept me intrigued.
The artwork and character designs remain beautiful and dark, but the animation still suffers from being a little rough. It just doesn’t have the fluidity that makes the action scenes really compelling. Although, I will say the final fight between Dracula and Alucard was visually stunning and well paced. I also wish the character’s eyes had more life in them than they do. Their faces always look flat, which is kind of frustrating.
The voice acting suffers from the same lack of emotion. Everyone speaks with this low-level, blasé tone. I know this is a directing issue, because all of the characters have this same vocal quality. Don’t know if they were trying to lend more to the dark, dramatic aesthetic of the story, but it just wasn’t working for me. Even the one scene that was supposed to be somewhat lighter and funny fell flat. I’m not saying they need to go over the top with their voices, but hearing a little life in them would go a long way towards helping knock this series right out of the park.
Cast of Characters
Hector and Isaac were great. We get to see some of their backstories that tell a little more about why they’re with Dracula. They’re both complex and fascinating. Hector has this soft spot for animals because he sees them as pure creatures, which is why he likes to bring them back. He’s loyal to Dracula, but he doesn’t like the idea of fully eradicating all humans. He’d much rather “cull” them to bring down their numbers so they don’t cause so much harm.
Isaac, on the other hand, wants to see all of humanity eradicated so the world may be pure and free from hatred and betrayal. He is loyal to Dracula more so than any other, and the potential for what he’s about to do at the end of the season makes him a very compelling, and rather frightening, character.
Carmilla was a frustrating character for me. She’s a bit too much of a trope. She almost felt too cartoony for the series because her as a threat just doesn’t feel like much of a threat. She talks Hector into betraying Dracula, and now Hector has been captured by her as a tool for whatever her future plans are. Her character design is cool, but her role in the story isn’t doing much for me at this point.
Main Squad
I really liked what we got to see from Sypha and Alucard in this season. Sypha is a force to be reckoned with as a mage, and she’s strong and resilient as hell. We also got to see more of the conflict between Alucard’s human and vampire sides, and it was well executed.
Trevor just kind of felt like he was along for the ride in this season. Not a whole lot happened with him, other than some scary monster fights. It may just be that he’ll develop more as a character later in the series, and that’s fine. I just hope it’s without the romance they tried to shoehorn with Sypha at the end.
Conclusion
As I’ve said before, I’ve never played the Castlevania games, so I don’t know where the storyline is headed, or how much in common this series has with the games. Some of my criticisms may be harsh or nitpicky because I’ve been spoiled on lots of great Japanese anime series, but I think Castlevania is certainly one of the best Americanime series. Seasons 1 and 2 are out now on Netflix, and it’s worth giving the time to watch.
Recent Comments