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.