(SPOILER WARNING!!)
Well, with the promos for Season 5 recently getting to YouTube, now's as good a time as any to talk about the show's 2nd season.... that's all the intro I got, so let's get started.
This season starts off immediately where the 1st left off; Garnet's revealed to be a fusion, the Crystal Gems have just barely escaped Homeworld forces, Peridot is off somewhere on Earth and Lapis had been forced by a major antagonist, Jasper, to fuse with her into a monster called Malachite. The first episode primarily focuses on the aftermath of the battle and Steven is starting to realise that the scope of the situation is much larger than he initially thought, as he tries to distance himself from Connie as a means of protecting her. However, that doesn't last long, as he has become much closer to Connie over the relatively short time that they have known each other, so can't bring himself to lie to her and keep her out of it.
That's some pretty heavy stuff right off the bat, but this does add to Steven's overall arc in this show; him growing up. That does seem to be something of a consistent theme for the show, the idea of growing up and becoming more mature. And as I stated in my review of the 1st season, it's not in the sense of "be dark for the sake of it", but rather as a way of showing Steven making mistakes and learning from them, ensuring to make up for anything he does wrong, even if some of those things may not actually be his fault.
A brilliant example of this shows storytelling is with the "Sardonyx" Stevenbomb (another name for a 4-6 episode arc). This story starts off with the Gems trying to find Peridot and stop her from whatever she's doing. This first involves Pearl and Garnet fusing into Sardonyx to prevent Peridot from contacting Homeworld. However, Pearl starts to get carried away as she constantly fixes the communication hub and blaming it on Peridot, just so she could fuse with Garnet and feel stronger, as Pearls are commonly seen as weaker than an average Gem. Needless to say, Garnet is pissed when she finds out, namely due to how not only has Pearl been distracting them from the main mission, but Fusion being a very personal thing for her. Heck, it's the core reason she even exists.
This results in Garnet losing a lot of trust for Pearl, going as far as to split apart into Ruby and Sapphire as they have something of a lovers quarrel. Ruby, as expected, is furious with how Pearl has treated the concept of Fusion as a toy, whilst Sapphire seems to be dismissive of the whole thing and claiming that Ruby should just get over it. Of course, what they don't realise is the kind of effect that this is having on Steven. At home, he has to sit and watch as Garnet just ignore Pearl and is not allowing her to make up what she's done, but in this episode, "Keystone Motel", the two arguing is upsetting Steven as he hates to see his friends argue with each other over something that could be resolved with a simple conversation. And when Steven finally explodes at them and starts to think that it's his fault, the two finally see the harm that's being caused by their own personal extremes and finally make up, Ruby adorably flirting with Sapphire in the process.
Also, for anyone still saying "they're just friends, nothing more", watch this damn clip:
Still, even with these two arguing, it's actually pretty easy to see where they are coming from. Ruby is passionate and hot-headed, her 1st instinct is to explode in anger and try to assert her viewpoint. Sapphire, by contrast, is cold and logical, her Future Vision giving her an insight into how things will play out thus feels no need to argue with Ruby. Neither are stupid and neither are wrong; there's simply a difference in perspective. In fact, I can kind of relate them somewhat to the characters of Shotaro and Philip from Kamen Rider W, with how even though they have grown throughout the series, the basis for how they act remains the same; Philip relying on a logical perspective and Shotaro reacting through emotion and sheer force of will. I really like it when stories pull this kind of conflict, one that is actually born through personality differences as opposed to forcing the characters into a conflict that has no real resolution.
Incidentally, fuck Crazy Steve vs. Bearded Idiot!
And eventually, Garnet does start to trust Pearl again after she realises the real reason Pearl went to the extremes she did; her status as a Pearl makes her seem less capable than other Gems, be it Homeworld or rebellion, so fusing with a stronger Gem is the only way for her to feel any form of validation for her existence. Because otherwise, she would just be a slave doing what others tell her to do, which is horrible for anyone to go through. Garnet, however, tells her that she IS strong in that she is her own Gem, one who decides her own destiny and purpose, no one else. And thus, with this finally sinking in, the two can trust each other again and stand together as one.
Because, damn it, everything is gay about this! (thank you Des Shinta for that joke)
Still, Steven, Garnet and Pearl aren't the only ones who get a huge sum of character development; there's also Peridot. As stated before, she escaped to Earth after the Homeworld ship was destroyed during Garnet and Jasper's brawl. Upon doing so, she tried everything in her power to either contact Homeworld and continuing work on "the Cluster", which we'll get to in a bit. Regardless, her plans keep failing and she is eventually poofed and bubbled to the Temple. However, Steven is curious why she's doing all of this, and tries to co-operate with her.
It doesn't go well at first:
Eventually, she does calm down, and decides to help the Crystal Gems (who she regularly calls "Clods") and tell them about the Cluster; it's an amalgamation of millions of Gem shards that have been forcefully fused together and is incubating in the planet's core, meaning that once it forms, it will destroy the planet. Of course, Peridot is initially doing this for the sake of survival, but as she starts to work with the Gems and bond with each of them (resulting in the fan-ship of Amedot), she starts to she the value of life and death and love and birth and peace and war on the planet Earth (had to work that in), to the point of when she finally contacts one of Homeworld's hierarchs, Yellow Diamond, she tries to have the Cluster terminated. Unfortunately, she also sees just how ruthless her leader can be, as all Yellow Diamond wants is for the Cluster to emerge and the planet to die. And thus, in defiance, Peridot refuses to follow the orders given to her and outright insults her leader, resulting in one of the show's most popular memes:
I love this show so damn much!
I honestly don't have much more to say about this season that I haven't in the last one, expect that it's really good. The animation has made a mark improvement, the songs are still awesome and most of the side stories do get a chuckle out of me. I'd say go watch it, but most people have already, especially with Peridot joining the main cast and becoming one of the shows most popular characters.
Overall rating: 9/10 (Awesome)!
Until next time, I'm Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.
Saturday 29 July 2017
Thursday 20 July 2017
Kamen Rider Ghost (2015-2016)
(SPOILER WARNING!!)
So, you heard my thoughts on my favourite Rider series, Kamen Rider W. Now you get to hear my thoughts on what I think is the absolute worst; Kamen Rider Ghost.
Keep in mind that the previews to this series was awesome. An undead Kamen Rider that uses powers based on historical figures? That's the kind of insanity that should make a great series, almost as crazy as doctors and gamers using video game cartridges to fight a computer virus taken form... Yes, I'll review Ex-Aid when it's done. And yet, despite all the build-up, it obviously didn't match up with expectations.
The story, as you will constantly be reminded in each episode, is that of Takeru Tenkujii, a boy who recently turned 18 a decade after his father was mysteriously killed. On his birthday, he receives the toyline gimmick of the year, an Eyecon, just a few minutes before he is killed by these spectral beings know as the Ganma. As he is killed, however, he meets an old man later revealed to be named Edith (and by that I mean in the late 30's), who offers him the chance to return to life by collecting the 15 Legendary Eyecons so that he can wish himself back to life. Oh, and he only has about 99 days to do it. "Helping" him along the way is scientist and long time friend Akari, crazy monk/comedy sidekick Onari and eventually Kamen Riders Spectre, a.k.a Makoto and Necrom, a.k.a Ganma Prince Aran... or Alain... or Alan? The show can't make up it's mind on his name (or at least in the subs that I watched).
Really, from that set-up, we should have a decent Rider series. There's a new theme for the powers that are wholly unique to this series, a sense of urgency to save the day as well as themselves and enough time to get some decent character interaction and development. But for whatever reason (namely, the head writer Takuro Fakuda was too lazy to write most of the show himself), the show seems to want to avoid that and do everything it's power to somehow waste time and not spend enough of it.
The pacing in this show is awful, with most of the main story events either not being focused on at the right time or being rushed by so quickly you barely even notice it. Most of the show is just spent with Takeru wasting his time just lazing around and not doing anything until some random Ganma attack happens, and even then that attack is not the focus. Most of the focus for this show is on superfluous, unneeded characters who hardly amount to anything outside of fuelling filler. And even when you get to the main story events, such as Takeru getting another 100 days by somehow connecting with the spirit of his father, they don't bother to explain the important details. For instance, they explain that the 15 Legendary Eyecons, containing the souls of historical figures, are connected to the Great Eye, which is the ultimate power where anyone can get their wish granted... they never explain how. It's just the end goal of the show and they don't bother to explain how it works. Then again, that's if the show will even remember half of the stuff it introduce.
An example of this is in the first 15 or so episodes where a minor antagonist, Saionji, is trying to collect the Eyecons for whatever goal he wants (as they don't explain it) and after trying to do so, he just disappears and is never seen again! They literally just made the character poof into thin air and hardly bother to mention him again! What was even the point of introducing him if they weren't bothering to expand upon him? And yes, I know, he does come back, but's that only in flashbacks where we learn he sided with the Ganma World and betrayed Takeru's father. But they still don't explain why he did it and it never matters to the main story itself. There is literally no reason for the guy to exist except just to fill in time. What an utter waste!
And speaking of wastes, let's talk about the side characters. There are so many support characters that ultimately do not matter to the story itself, that they may as well have their own fucking series! People like Onari's assistants add nothing to the show and get no development whatsoever; there are couple of Ganma that defect from the main forces and don't do anything that matters outside of a couple of comedy antics; but the biggest offence has to be Makoto's sister Kanon and Alain's sister Alia. Kanon is Makoto's main goal for the series as he wants to collect the 15 Eyecons to save her life, but Takeru uses his wish to do that for him after the first 10 episodes and after she's back, Makoto has virtually nothing to do. His purpose has been fulfilled and they don't anything else with him outside of having him in the fight scenes. Still, he's at least better off than Alia, who does nothing but sit around and stare at stuff. I can't even call Alia a character because she doesn't even have a personality! Why should I care for someone who doesn't even do enough to qualify as a supporting role?
Heck, Makoto isn't even that better off, as he just spends time doing nothing but joining the action scenes every once in a while. He has no character, no motivation and no sense of duty to protect this world. He is just a generic, bland character with no interesting qualities. And as for Alain, he doesn't get much either. He starts off as a mysterious bad guy, but through a contrived story where he becomes friends with this (later on dead) old lady that sells Takoyaki, he's suddenly a good guy fighting against his brother.
Oh yeah, there's a main villain apparently; Alain's older brother, Adel. This has to be one of the worst villains in all of Kamen Rider. Adel starts off as this whiny, petulant jackass who wants more power due to his birthright as a Prince and decides to stage a whole coup where he kills his father, Adonis, to take other and try to make everyone on Earth him. It's basically the Master's plan from Doctor Who's "The End of Time" two part end to David Tennant's time as the main character, except everything is done wrong. Adel does not actually change in the entire show and when they do try to change him, it's during the not-final battle between him and Takeru where they just add in this stupid "he just needed love" bullshit that somehow justifies the horrible actions he had committed. Remember, he tried to cause mass genocide, killed his father, sold out his family, is revealed to have killed Takeru's father and is manipulating his sister to be a mindless zombie... AND TAKERU FORGIVES HIM FOR NO FUCKING REASON! They try to say that he just wasn't himself, but they never showed us what he was like before taking over! He was always a spiteful, petty brat with delusions of grandeur! You can't just suddenly give him a redemption arc when he so obviously doesn't deserve it!
That's not even getting to how cheap the show could be. There were reports of the budget being cut in half, but a popular rumour (that hasn't been proven) is that Shinichiro Shurakura, an executive producer at Toei known for fucking over Kamen Rider Hibiki, stole half of the show's budget and put it towards funding Kamen Rider Amazons, which he was in charge of and was running at the same time. I'd certainly believe it, especially with the bullshit he pulled off in the past, but either way, the show really suffers because of it. They have to constantly reuse old Ganma suits for newer characters and Ghost's final form, Mugen, was not ready for shooting, so they had to CG in a bright gold version of the suit without having to show it. That's just complete and utter laziness on a grand scale and shows how much the execs at Toei this time just did not give a shit!
This show is the Toei equivalent of Power Rangers SuperMegaforce; it's lazy, it's stupid, there's no character development and most of the elements introduced in the show either are never explained or never matter in the grand scheme of things. The obsession with just shoving in new toy after new toy with no explanation really got on my nerves quickly and brought the show down to a whole new low. I don't even want to check out the material that ties in to the show after it was done; I don't revisit the show. This was downright horrible to sit through and is not worth anyone's time. Avoid at all costs!
Overall rating: 2/10 (Terrible)
Til next time, this Callum Lewis, the Media Man... I'm just done.
So, you heard my thoughts on my favourite Rider series, Kamen Rider W. Now you get to hear my thoughts on what I think is the absolute worst; Kamen Rider Ghost.
Keep in mind that the previews to this series was awesome. An undead Kamen Rider that uses powers based on historical figures? That's the kind of insanity that should make a great series, almost as crazy as doctors and gamers using video game cartridges to fight a computer virus taken form... Yes, I'll review Ex-Aid when it's done. And yet, despite all the build-up, it obviously didn't match up with expectations.
The story, as you will constantly be reminded in each episode, is that of Takeru Tenkujii, a boy who recently turned 18 a decade after his father was mysteriously killed. On his birthday, he receives the toyline gimmick of the year, an Eyecon, just a few minutes before he is killed by these spectral beings know as the Ganma. As he is killed, however, he meets an old man later revealed to be named Edith (and by that I mean in the late 30's), who offers him the chance to return to life by collecting the 15 Legendary Eyecons so that he can wish himself back to life. Oh, and he only has about 99 days to do it. "Helping" him along the way is scientist and long time friend Akari, crazy monk/comedy sidekick Onari and eventually Kamen Riders Spectre, a.k.a Makoto and Necrom, a.k.a Ganma Prince Aran... or Alain... or Alan? The show can't make up it's mind on his name (or at least in the subs that I watched).
Really, from that set-up, we should have a decent Rider series. There's a new theme for the powers that are wholly unique to this series, a sense of urgency to save the day as well as themselves and enough time to get some decent character interaction and development. But for whatever reason (namely, the head writer Takuro Fakuda was too lazy to write most of the show himself), the show seems to want to avoid that and do everything it's power to somehow waste time and not spend enough of it.
The pacing in this show is awful, with most of the main story events either not being focused on at the right time or being rushed by so quickly you barely even notice it. Most of the show is just spent with Takeru wasting his time just lazing around and not doing anything until some random Ganma attack happens, and even then that attack is not the focus. Most of the focus for this show is on superfluous, unneeded characters who hardly amount to anything outside of fuelling filler. And even when you get to the main story events, such as Takeru getting another 100 days by somehow connecting with the spirit of his father, they don't bother to explain the important details. For instance, they explain that the 15 Legendary Eyecons, containing the souls of historical figures, are connected to the Great Eye, which is the ultimate power where anyone can get their wish granted... they never explain how. It's just the end goal of the show and they don't bother to explain how it works. Then again, that's if the show will even remember half of the stuff it introduce.
An example of this is in the first 15 or so episodes where a minor antagonist, Saionji, is trying to collect the Eyecons for whatever goal he wants (as they don't explain it) and after trying to do so, he just disappears and is never seen again! They literally just made the character poof into thin air and hardly bother to mention him again! What was even the point of introducing him if they weren't bothering to expand upon him? And yes, I know, he does come back, but's that only in flashbacks where we learn he sided with the Ganma World and betrayed Takeru's father. But they still don't explain why he did it and it never matters to the main story itself. There is literally no reason for the guy to exist except just to fill in time. What an utter waste!
And speaking of wastes, let's talk about the side characters. There are so many support characters that ultimately do not matter to the story itself, that they may as well have their own fucking series! People like Onari's assistants add nothing to the show and get no development whatsoever; there are couple of Ganma that defect from the main forces and don't do anything that matters outside of a couple of comedy antics; but the biggest offence has to be Makoto's sister Kanon and Alain's sister Alia. Kanon is Makoto's main goal for the series as he wants to collect the 15 Eyecons to save her life, but Takeru uses his wish to do that for him after the first 10 episodes and after she's back, Makoto has virtually nothing to do. His purpose has been fulfilled and they don't anything else with him outside of having him in the fight scenes. Still, he's at least better off than Alia, who does nothing but sit around and stare at stuff. I can't even call Alia a character because she doesn't even have a personality! Why should I care for someone who doesn't even do enough to qualify as a supporting role?
Heck, Makoto isn't even that better off, as he just spends time doing nothing but joining the action scenes every once in a while. He has no character, no motivation and no sense of duty to protect this world. He is just a generic, bland character with no interesting qualities. And as for Alain, he doesn't get much either. He starts off as a mysterious bad guy, but through a contrived story where he becomes friends with this (later on dead) old lady that sells Takoyaki, he's suddenly a good guy fighting against his brother.
Oh yeah, there's a main villain apparently; Alain's older brother, Adel. This has to be one of the worst villains in all of Kamen Rider. Adel starts off as this whiny, petulant jackass who wants more power due to his birthright as a Prince and decides to stage a whole coup where he kills his father, Adonis, to take other and try to make everyone on Earth him. It's basically the Master's plan from Doctor Who's "The End of Time" two part end to David Tennant's time as the main character, except everything is done wrong. Adel does not actually change in the entire show and when they do try to change him, it's during the not-final battle between him and Takeru where they just add in this stupid "he just needed love" bullshit that somehow justifies the horrible actions he had committed. Remember, he tried to cause mass genocide, killed his father, sold out his family, is revealed to have killed Takeru's father and is manipulating his sister to be a mindless zombie... AND TAKERU FORGIVES HIM FOR NO FUCKING REASON! They try to say that he just wasn't himself, but they never showed us what he was like before taking over! He was always a spiteful, petty brat with delusions of grandeur! You can't just suddenly give him a redemption arc when he so obviously doesn't deserve it!
That's not even getting to how cheap the show could be. There were reports of the budget being cut in half, but a popular rumour (that hasn't been proven) is that Shinichiro Shurakura, an executive producer at Toei known for fucking over Kamen Rider Hibiki, stole half of the show's budget and put it towards funding Kamen Rider Amazons, which he was in charge of and was running at the same time. I'd certainly believe it, especially with the bullshit he pulled off in the past, but either way, the show really suffers because of it. They have to constantly reuse old Ganma suits for newer characters and Ghost's final form, Mugen, was not ready for shooting, so they had to CG in a bright gold version of the suit without having to show it. That's just complete and utter laziness on a grand scale and shows how much the execs at Toei this time just did not give a shit!
This show is the Toei equivalent of Power Rangers SuperMegaforce; it's lazy, it's stupid, there's no character development and most of the elements introduced in the show either are never explained or never matter in the grand scheme of things. The obsession with just shoving in new toy after new toy with no explanation really got on my nerves quickly and brought the show down to a whole new low. I don't even want to check out the material that ties in to the show after it was done; I don't revisit the show. This was downright horrible to sit through and is not worth anyone's time. Avoid at all costs!
Overall rating: 2/10 (Terrible)
Til next time, this Callum Lewis, the Media Man... I'm just done.
Tuesday 11 July 2017
Netflix Castlevania (2017)
(SPOILER WARNING!!)
So here I was, getting ready to write my review of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and what should happen when I check my Netflix account and see a new animated series for Castlevania? Well, looks like my reviews for Spider-Man and FNaF: The Silver Eyes will have to wait.
I was somewhat worried about how this may turn out, as we have quite the history of taking video games and butchering them in other media. Need any examples? Super Mario Bros, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Assassin's Creed, anything directed by master of shit Ewe Boll; all of them were terrible and did poorly at the box office. We have yet to see a video game adaptation that we can be proud of. It really says something bad about us when the Ratchet & Clank movie is the best we can get.
Still, I was willing to give this one a chance, as I'm at least familiar with the Castlevania series in spite of never playing the games. And of course, it being animated by the same people behind Legend of Korra and the Voltron reboot helps it in it's favour.
But enough rambling; on to the story.
Set in the late 15th Century, the story begins with Vlad Dracula Tepes, who wishes to see humanity destroyed after the church burns his human wife, Lisa, at the stake for being accused of Witchcraft, when it was simply a form of medical science. A year passes after this threat and, as the citizens of Wallachia treat his threat as empty and petty, Dracula sends an army of goblins and demons from Hell to bring upon mass genocide, much to the dismay of his son, Adrian (a.k.a Alucard).
It's here we met the last son of the Belmont family, Trevor, a travelling drunk who is constantly shunned as the church has excommunicated his family for supposedly having ties to demons, even though the Belmont's are famous demon and vampire hunters. This changes when he arrives at one of the last remaining towns, Gresit, which is constantly hounded at night by the demons under Dracula's control, not helped that the Bishop who had Dracula's wife killed is also the Bishop of this town and manipulates the townsfolk to put all of the blame onto the Speakers, a group of people previously associated with the Belmonts.
As one may gather, one of the core themes of this 4 episode season (yes, really) is the corruption of faith and religion. Keep in mind, this is coming form someone who is openly an atheist and does not believe that there is an invisible man in the sky passing judgement upon us. So take what I say with a grain of salt. But it's kind of obvious in these four episodes that the problems aren't caused by tampering with forces beyond ones control, but rather because of the hypocritical and condescending nature of the Bishop and those that he manipulates. In this story, we are meant to sympathise with Dracula as he's doing this out of grief and vengeance for the only person he can say he has ever loved in his live, while the true villains are overzealous assholes who simply point the finger at anyone who doesn't follow their faith. Ironically, despite centuries passing and the advancement of technology and ingenuity, this is still the case in our current society, just not as overt as, instead of shitty religious figures with obviously evil goals, we have shitty politicians with obviously evil goals.
One of the stand out elements of this story is the characterisation of Trevor Belmont. Viewers unfamiliar with the series will automatically think that he's just the stereotypical dashing hero, always saving the day with his trusty sword and whip. Imagine their surprise when they watch this show. Trevor, as stated before, is a complete and utter wreck, as his family has been shamed, he's barely scrapping for food and drink, and he constantly has to deal with the bullshit of fanatics who can't see what the obvious problem is; their own hypocrisy and lack of will. However, in spite of his attitude to others, he is an intelligent, crafty fighter who does decide to stand up for people because so many are incapable of standing up for themselves, especially in such trying times.
As mentioned earlier, this show was animated by the same team behind Korra and Voltron, so of course the show looks incredible. The animation is filled to the brim with rich detail of so many levels, like the designs of the characters, the layout of the towns, the backgrounds and, of course, the extensive amount of blood and gore. Along with the swearing, this show deserves it's 15 rating, as it can get pretty gruesome at times. There's a scene where Trevor, accidentally, uses his whip to cut off a guys finger then proceeds to whip out another guys eye. They don't shy away here; this show can be violent as hell, and it is glorious to look it in this stunning animation.
Overall, I can't really think of much that I didn't like about this show, it just seems to work on practically every level. Those who like the original Castlevania series will probably get a kick out of it, as it's one of the few video game adaptations that doesn't suck. And it's already confirmed that the show is getting renewed for more episodes/seasons, so it must be doing something right.
Overall rating 8/10 (Great).
Until next time, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.
So here I was, getting ready to write my review of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and what should happen when I check my Netflix account and see a new animated series for Castlevania? Well, looks like my reviews for Spider-Man and FNaF: The Silver Eyes will have to wait.
I was somewhat worried about how this may turn out, as we have quite the history of taking video games and butchering them in other media. Need any examples? Super Mario Bros, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Assassin's Creed, anything directed by master of shit Ewe Boll; all of them were terrible and did poorly at the box office. We have yet to see a video game adaptation that we can be proud of. It really says something bad about us when the Ratchet & Clank movie is the best we can get.
Still, I was willing to give this one a chance, as I'm at least familiar with the Castlevania series in spite of never playing the games. And of course, it being animated by the same people behind Legend of Korra and the Voltron reboot helps it in it's favour.
But enough rambling; on to the story.
Set in the late 15th Century, the story begins with Vlad Dracula Tepes, who wishes to see humanity destroyed after the church burns his human wife, Lisa, at the stake for being accused of Witchcraft, when it was simply a form of medical science. A year passes after this threat and, as the citizens of Wallachia treat his threat as empty and petty, Dracula sends an army of goblins and demons from Hell to bring upon mass genocide, much to the dismay of his son, Adrian (a.k.a Alucard).
It's here we met the last son of the Belmont family, Trevor, a travelling drunk who is constantly shunned as the church has excommunicated his family for supposedly having ties to demons, even though the Belmont's are famous demon and vampire hunters. This changes when he arrives at one of the last remaining towns, Gresit, which is constantly hounded at night by the demons under Dracula's control, not helped that the Bishop who had Dracula's wife killed is also the Bishop of this town and manipulates the townsfolk to put all of the blame onto the Speakers, a group of people previously associated with the Belmonts.
As one may gather, one of the core themes of this 4 episode season (yes, really) is the corruption of faith and religion. Keep in mind, this is coming form someone who is openly an atheist and does not believe that there is an invisible man in the sky passing judgement upon us. So take what I say with a grain of salt. But it's kind of obvious in these four episodes that the problems aren't caused by tampering with forces beyond ones control, but rather because of the hypocritical and condescending nature of the Bishop and those that he manipulates. In this story, we are meant to sympathise with Dracula as he's doing this out of grief and vengeance for the only person he can say he has ever loved in his live, while the true villains are overzealous assholes who simply point the finger at anyone who doesn't follow their faith. Ironically, despite centuries passing and the advancement of technology and ingenuity, this is still the case in our current society, just not as overt as, instead of shitty religious figures with obviously evil goals, we have shitty politicians with obviously evil goals.
One of the stand out elements of this story is the characterisation of Trevor Belmont. Viewers unfamiliar with the series will automatically think that he's just the stereotypical dashing hero, always saving the day with his trusty sword and whip. Imagine their surprise when they watch this show. Trevor, as stated before, is a complete and utter wreck, as his family has been shamed, he's barely scrapping for food and drink, and he constantly has to deal with the bullshit of fanatics who can't see what the obvious problem is; their own hypocrisy and lack of will. However, in spite of his attitude to others, he is an intelligent, crafty fighter who does decide to stand up for people because so many are incapable of standing up for themselves, especially in such trying times.
As mentioned earlier, this show was animated by the same team behind Korra and Voltron, so of course the show looks incredible. The animation is filled to the brim with rich detail of so many levels, like the designs of the characters, the layout of the towns, the backgrounds and, of course, the extensive amount of blood and gore. Along with the swearing, this show deserves it's 15 rating, as it can get pretty gruesome at times. There's a scene where Trevor, accidentally, uses his whip to cut off a guys finger then proceeds to whip out another guys eye. They don't shy away here; this show can be violent as hell, and it is glorious to look it in this stunning animation.
Overall, I can't really think of much that I didn't like about this show, it just seems to work on practically every level. Those who like the original Castlevania series will probably get a kick out of it, as it's one of the few video game adaptations that doesn't suck. And it's already confirmed that the show is getting renewed for more episodes/seasons, so it must be doing something right.
Overall rating 8/10 (Great).
Until next time, this is Callum Lewis, the Media Man, signing off.
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