Post by Mako Crab on Sept 6, 2019 10:00:36 GMT -5
Finished watching season 2 last night.
And immediately played through all of Castlevania 3 to wash the taste out.
This review is full of spoilers if anyone cares.
First the good:
- Character designs are solid. Even someone like Sypha, whose cloak is as basic as can be in the game art, looks good here. I had hoped we’d see Trevor don the iconic armor of the 1st four games but I’m not upset that he didn’t.
- The action. When they fought, it was great. Loved the fight in season 1 against the cyclops. Loved all the season 2 fights at the end of the season. Love how Trevor fights with the whip. Just some great fights on display, even if the animation was choppy at times. The only downside was the stark lack of action throughout most of the show.
- Vampire Killer. It was great hearing one of the most iconic tunes during the finale.
- Our three main heroes played off of each other well. Trevor & Sypha in particular.
Now the not so good:
- The excessive cussing. It took me out of the show more often than not, and if it was supposed to make it feel more adult, it didn’t. It screamed of trying too hard, like they felt the need to overdo it because it’s a cartoon.
- “Rated R as f%#k.”
Classic Castlevania games have never been terribly gory. There’s always some, sure, but the show goes out of its way to throw loads of gore in for shock value. Like demons eating babies.
- Grant Da’ Nasty
Not enough time to squeeze four characters into the ensemble cast? I didn’t buy it when Warren Ellis said that before & I don’t buy it after seeing the mass amounts of filler in season 2 & the inclusion of no less than four other characters (Isaac, Hector, Godbrand, Carmilla), each with backstories, arcs, resolutions & epilogues. Without him, this feels less like a true adaptation and more like Ellis couldn’t be bothered to work him into the story.
- The focus on the antagonists.
So much time was spent on Dracula’s court of fools, that it sometimes felt like Trevor and co. were guest stars in their own show. Which is a shame, because I liked having them onscreen and kept waiting to see what they were up to.
- The season 2 plot trips & faceplants right off the starting line.
To recap, Dracula spends a full year amassing his army of demons, attacks Gresit, and then has no idea what to do next. A whole year to plan & he didn’t think of where to strike & when. So instead of powering forward with the momentum that season one ended on, we get something like 5 or 6 episodes of idiots bickering about where to go next.
- Game of Thrones lite.
The plotting, backstabbing & testing of loyalties begins immediately in season 2, and maybe this worked in GOT, but it’s boring here. Especially when none of it seems to carry any weight. Isaac kills Godbrand, but it’s no big deal. Everyone writes him off & carries on without questioning who killed him.
- Characterization
The idea of Dracula as this suicidal, world weary immortal is interesting. But he lost all drive in the same day that he declared war & spends all of season 2 moping in his favorite chair by the fire.
This is just a personal gripe, but I never in my life pictured Trevor as a washed up drunk. Is this typical of Ellis’ work to have drunken protagonists?
Anyway, his path towards redemption is short but serviceable. I like that he & Alucard grew to respect each other, that he cleaned himself up, and that he stayed with Sypha at the end. But since so little time was spent on our heroes, their happy ending doesn’t feel entirely earned.
We saw that he & Sypha were growing closer, but they were barely at the holding hands stage, when she confesses that she wants to be with him “forever.”
It’s disappointing, because this show had moments where it shined & showed what a Castlevania show could be like. But the bulk of it was weighed down by bewildering creative decisions. In all total, there were 2 or 3 episodes that felt worthwhile to me. The rest was wasted potential.
And immediately played through all of Castlevania 3 to wash the taste out.
This review is full of spoilers if anyone cares.
First the good:
- Character designs are solid. Even someone like Sypha, whose cloak is as basic as can be in the game art, looks good here. I had hoped we’d see Trevor don the iconic armor of the 1st four games but I’m not upset that he didn’t.
- The action. When they fought, it was great. Loved the fight in season 1 against the cyclops. Loved all the season 2 fights at the end of the season. Love how Trevor fights with the whip. Just some great fights on display, even if the animation was choppy at times. The only downside was the stark lack of action throughout most of the show.
- Vampire Killer. It was great hearing one of the most iconic tunes during the finale.
- Our three main heroes played off of each other well. Trevor & Sypha in particular.
Now the not so good:
- The excessive cussing. It took me out of the show more often than not, and if it was supposed to make it feel more adult, it didn’t. It screamed of trying too hard, like they felt the need to overdo it because it’s a cartoon.
- “Rated R as f%#k.”
Classic Castlevania games have never been terribly gory. There’s always some, sure, but the show goes out of its way to throw loads of gore in for shock value. Like demons eating babies.
- Grant Da’ Nasty
Not enough time to squeeze four characters into the ensemble cast? I didn’t buy it when Warren Ellis said that before & I don’t buy it after seeing the mass amounts of filler in season 2 & the inclusion of no less than four other characters (Isaac, Hector, Godbrand, Carmilla), each with backstories, arcs, resolutions & epilogues. Without him, this feels less like a true adaptation and more like Ellis couldn’t be bothered to work him into the story.
- The focus on the antagonists.
So much time was spent on Dracula’s court of fools, that it sometimes felt like Trevor and co. were guest stars in their own show. Which is a shame, because I liked having them onscreen and kept waiting to see what they were up to.
- The season 2 plot trips & faceplants right off the starting line.
To recap, Dracula spends a full year amassing his army of demons, attacks Gresit, and then has no idea what to do next. A whole year to plan & he didn’t think of where to strike & when. So instead of powering forward with the momentum that season one ended on, we get something like 5 or 6 episodes of idiots bickering about where to go next.
- Game of Thrones lite.
The plotting, backstabbing & testing of loyalties begins immediately in season 2, and maybe this worked in GOT, but it’s boring here. Especially when none of it seems to carry any weight. Isaac kills Godbrand, but it’s no big deal. Everyone writes him off & carries on without questioning who killed him.
- Characterization
The idea of Dracula as this suicidal, world weary immortal is interesting. But he lost all drive in the same day that he declared war & spends all of season 2 moping in his favorite chair by the fire.
This is just a personal gripe, but I never in my life pictured Trevor as a washed up drunk. Is this typical of Ellis’ work to have drunken protagonists?
Anyway, his path towards redemption is short but serviceable. I like that he & Alucard grew to respect each other, that he cleaned himself up, and that he stayed with Sypha at the end. But since so little time was spent on our heroes, their happy ending doesn’t feel entirely earned.
We saw that he & Sypha were growing closer, but they were barely at the holding hands stage, when she confesses that she wants to be with him “forever.”
It’s disappointing, because this show had moments where it shined & showed what a Castlevania show could be like. But the bulk of it was weighed down by bewildering creative decisions. In all total, there were 2 or 3 episodes that felt worthwhile to me. The rest was wasted potential.