Castlevania
“Vampires. You like to play with your food” – Hector
Vampires are always an interesting idea in any media form, starting from books and comics, to films and (anime) series. A bit of fear, a bit of creepiness, a bit of horror, lots of blood and there’s fun… for lovers of such genre, of course.
However, what’s better for small and big screens on vampire topic, that has nothing to do with some teenage romance that makes you want to throw an iron (unless you’re romantic high school girl)?
Well when you add lots of action! Then everything gets more fun and dynamic dimension. Then it’s less important whether vampires and other monsters are protagonists or antagonists, just give them swords, guns, kung fu skills or magics, open popcorn and lounge in armchair!
We had films like “Blade,” “From Dusk til Dawn,” “Underworld,” series like “Buffy” and “Angel,” as well as excellent anime titles like “Hellsing Ultimate” and “Vampire Hunter D.”
And can video games offer something on this topic?
It turned out they can.
That’s why there’s “Castlevania”!
If you have someone older in family who loved video games (like dad/uncle/grandpa) and you mention “Castlevania” to them, they’ll probably get a smile on their face. This video game series (and media franchise itself) on Dracula theme appeared way back in 1986 and since then has spawned about 30 video games.
To summarize in few sentences, the game’s point is you’re (most often) in role of some member from Belmont family and your goal is to finish off various monsters in Dracula’s castle and in the end have showdown with castle’s lord himself and impale him… on stake.
Anime series “Castlevania” (based on 1989 game, “Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse”) tells us how in late 15th century, a very bold and sharp-witted girl named Lisa came to vampire’s castle named Vlad Tepes (i.e., Dracula), with desire to learn long-forgotten knowledge and become doctor, not some (quasi)seer/witch.
As story goes, the two of them fell in love and had a son. Lisa started dealing with medical profession in one small town near city of Targovishte in feudal state of Wallachia, and Dracula, at his wife’s suggestion, started traveling land on foot, to (again) better know human race.
If you didn’t know, worst thing that could happen to you in Middle Ages was enemy army, plague, influencer, someone dumping feces on your head or Church knocking on your door. One ambitious bishop estimated Lisa Tepes deals with witchcraft (paganism) and is in league with Satan, and by short procedure burned her at stake in middle of Targovishte.
Vlad Tepes (too late) learns this news, abandons “human” approach to transportation, and in cloud of fire and flame teleports to Targovishte and gives them “one year to find their peace” because then he’ll send worst hell on human race.
A year later, Church and people of Targovishte celebrate “beautiful day,” witch pogrom and proof that “Satan” only talks empty talk. Of course, human race is (always) full of itself and a bit stupid, so often doesn’t pay attention even to court warnings, let alone threats from some “Satan” there. However, Dracula is punctual as Swiss watch and at 12:00pm sky darkens and turns blood red, and from sky came crashing “night creatures,” various colorful monsters who started terrorizing, butchering and eating people.
Dracula, embittered by death of only woman he loved, decided to, with his vampire war council and monster army, kill entire human race. And it’s quite obvious no one can prevent him in his revenge (better said, genocide) from love.
However… it turns out fate will cross swords with unusual trio, who’ll unite with intention to defeat Dracula and his army and bring peace:
- Trevor Belmont – last from line of legendary centuries-old family of monster hunters
- Sypha Belnades – member of nomadic people Speakers who preserve and transmit oral knowledge from past, and one of rare who wields magic
- Adrian “Alucard” Tepes – half-human/half-vampire (dhampir), son of Lisa and Vlad Tepes, whose goal is to prevent human genocide
Now, whether this (in every respect) unusual trio will manage to defeat Dracula, you’ll find out if you watch series “Castlevania.”
I wouldn’t want to reveal too many plot details, for simple reason that series is divided (small spoiler!) into period of Dracula’s invasion and post-Dracula’s invasion. I’ll just reveal one detail to you. It’s not only humans who aren’t thrilled with idea of being exterminated… but also many in Dracula’s vampire council aren’t exactly thrilled with way Dracula conducts war.
Watching series, plot will often unfold on several fronts, following events from perspective of other participants too, not just main trio. And this especially applies to Hector and Isaac, only two mortals in Dracula’s war council. These two, besides hating humanity because of what it did to them as children, are also only two specific sorcerers (forgemasters) who can summon souls from Hell and place them in human corpses, thereby creating earlier-mentioned night creatures.
Visually, “Castlevania” is real treat. Though it’s Western production, it’s more than obvious they “drew” inspiration from Japanese animation, as well as work of artist Ayami Kojima. This contributed to us getting very interesting, gothic series style. Animation itself is top-notch, which is especially seen in action moments, as well as use of magics. Likewise, series is very dark and bloody, so you can definitely expect lots of blood, severed body parts and guts spilling and all sorts of horrifying things (after all it’s also horror series).
Likewise, series is accompanied by excellent dark, medieval music, starting with opening number.
As for actors who lent voices in this series, it was seen attention was devoted to choice here too. This especially applies to excellent Richard Armitage (“The Hobbit” trilogy, “Hannibal” series) as voice of Trevor Belmont, James Callis (“Battlestar Galactica”) as Alucard, Graham McTavish (“Rambo,” “House of the Dragon,” “The Witcher”) as Dracula, Bill Nighy (“Living,” “Valkyrie,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”) as Count St. Germain, Theo James (“Divergent”) as Hector, Adetokumboh M’Cormack as Isaac, as well as Alejandra Reynoso (lent voices in various series and video games) as Sypha Belnades.
One of series’ aces are precisely its aforementioned (anti)heroes you’ll love because of their unique characters:
We meet Trevor Belmont as loser who spends time drinking alcohol of questionable quality, pissing wherever he can and sleeping under open sky. In principle he doesn’t like to meddle in people’s and Church’s affairs (for reasons you’ll discover in series). Favorite hobbies are sarcasm, cynicism and collecting rare weapons. When drunk, he can (mostly) manage in tavern brawl. When sober, he’s capable of dealing with most powerful vampires and monsters. Unlike Alucard (who’s half-vampire) and Sypha (who’s sorceress), Trevor has no superpowers, but compensates all that with his agility, experience, cunning, as well as sword and whip (and its later upgraded version). It’s truly interesting to see his journey from loner embittered at world to person who becomes true hero (which culminates in his cool transformation at series’ very end).
Alucard is someone who has trust issues, especially in people. He’s quite eccentric (took after parents, both psychologically and genetically), full of sarcasm and a bit tired of world he lives in. Favorite hobby is to “call out” Trevor for all possible things. In battle he’s definitely powerful and borrows best from vampires and humans (daylight doesn’t bother him, for example). He’s supernaturally fast and strong, wields long sword (which he can also control from distance), and when needed can also transform into wolf. We’ll see his development from somewhat immature man-child to person who can let others into his life and be protector of weak.
Sypha Belnades spent her whole life in nomadic life with her traveling Speakers group (historians/helpers) and, by meeting Trevor and Alucard, was given chance to be both adventurer and help others not only with her knowledge, but also magic. Sypha seems like voice of reason of this group, though she occasionally goes crazy too. But then she’ll charge at monsters like Kievan Rus (kill me, now I don’t know if it’s politically correct to use this old expression), throwing magics based on fire, ice and lightning at them. And her transformation will be interesting too, when she realizes life of adventurer and monster hunter isn’t some cheerful adventure, but dark, cruel and very sad path.
And Dracula himself… well, he’s story unto himself. He’s not even presented as classic villain, but rather as broken person who because of suffering for (taken from him) love, consumed by darkness, decided whole world should suffer with him.
It’s interesting that idea of reviving “Castlevania” started back in 2007, but soon fell into development hell that lasted oh my… from idea to make live-action film to direct-to-video title. Some people didn’t even want to work on initial versions, then returned later when things normalized.
Pieces fell into place for series the moment “Netflix” got involved (and they did something smart) and animation studio “Powerhouse Animation,” then eccentric Adi Shankar rejoined as executive producer. Writer and screenwriter was experienced Warren Ellis.
All in all, “Castlevania” ended up being very successful (and excellent) project that won audience sympathies, and with four seasons managed to nicely round out whole, and potentially open doors for “Castlevania” franchise for various spin-off titles set in different time periods (with Belmont family ancestors and descendants you could film for at least next 10 years). And this also gives space for some brave people to try and bring live version in some near future. Don’t let it confuse you it’s animation, series heroes are adults, there are no kids here nor cliché themes, just imagine all this transferred to live version and you have material for top-notch live-action film/series.
Watch series and see what I’m talking about. 🙂
Dear reader, did you hear about “Castlevania” franchise before this series? 🙂
Trailer | Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic
Premiere: 2017 | Format: Series | Number of seasons: 4 (32 episodes) | Average episode duration: 23 minutes
