Castlevania: The Animated Series

[The One Above God]

^Well, those people couldn't really help it though. A narrow minded era, a blindingly strong faith and obedience to the church, the church people taking advantage of that faith, plus the threat of Dracula's demons bearing down on their spirits and making them do reckless decisions, add all those and this is what happens.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by The One Above God

^Well, those people couldn't really help it though. A narrow minded era, a blindingly strong faith and obedience to the church, the church people taking advantage of that faith, plus the threat of Dracula's demons bearing down on their spirits and making them do reckless decisions, add all those and this is what happens.

Historical context for shitty human behavior isn't really important, the relevance to narrative context of the story is.

We're not watching a History Channel program, we're watching an ultra violent video game adaptation of Misadventures of Count Dracula and The Asshole Church.
You wouldn't bring PC-ness to episodes discussion of Ultimate Hellsing would you?

[The One Above God]

Originally Posted by aohige

Historical context for shitty human behavior isn't really important, the relevance to narrative context of the story is.

We're not watching a History Channel program, we're watching an ultra violent video game adaptation of Misadventures of Count Dracula and The Asshole Church.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. All I did was point out that the Wallachians are shitty people, not necessarily because they're shitty in nature, but mostly because of the circumstances that have been presented in the story itself.

Originally Posted by aohige

You wouldn't bring PC-ness to episodes discussion of Ultimate Hellsing would you?

Well, I don't really know anything about Hellsing aside from there being a vampire named Alucard so, no?

[aohige]

Originally Posted by The One Above God

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here. All I did was point out that the Wallachians are shitty people, not necessarily because they're shitty in nature, but mostly because of the circumstances that have been presented in the story itself.

I'm saying that they're not real people, they're a narrative existence.
They're shitty people because they're meant to be for the context of the story.

Edit: Still may not be explanatory enough, so let me add: Basically they're portrayed in a cartoonishly garbage caricature, there's no need to apologetically feel bad about them. Unlike, say, a more fleshed out "character" such as the Count himself.
We don't have to make excuses about not liking them.

[Mad Pierrot]

Just finished watching season 2. The first episodes were a bit boring because Trevor's group barely fought and the most important antagonists, Dracula and Isaac, had their past explored. The characterization and flashbacks were good but there was not too much action for a season that needed an entire one entire year. Then came episode 6 onwards which completely won me over.

All battles were incredibly detailed even though I never played a Castlevania game. The final fight between Alucard and Dracula might be cheese but when Dracula saw his son's original room and family picture, it got epic as Dracula seemed to regain all of his hummanity left. Still, I was confused with Dracula's final move. I can't tell if it was meant to be a hug or not because they had to decapitate him or Dracula was just playing his role of being the monster.

Then the final episode seem pretty much like an indication to season 3. Wonder what are they planning considering we still have more characters to explore.

[Wheeljack83]

The pacing for the first half of season 2 was definitely iffy and clunky.

Also Episode 8 was sorta pointless. They should've extended the climax more.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Wheeljack83

Also Episode 8 was sorta pointless. They should've extended the climax more.

Guess they just were trying to the biggest cliffhanger so that people would want for a season 3.

[Wheeljack83]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

Guess they just were trying to the biggest cliffhanger so that people would want for a season 3.

Wasn't that big of a cliffhanger though.

Spoiler:

Dracula's defeated. Sypha and Trevor go off on their own together. Alucard takes over Dracula's castle and the Belmont keep.

But Carmilla has now enslaved Hector, and Hector now wants to make his own undead army.

I simply think they could've extended the battle at Dracula's castle into Episode 8 instead of a whole episode to wrap up.

[Mad Pierrot]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...hankar/.138622

-So is Season 3 right around the corner?

-No timeline yet for season 3. We know what the story is, but beyond that, no announcements yet.

I wonder why. Still, the budget for this episodes must be huge considering the animation.

[sayde]

Spoiler for season 2:

The season definitely played out differently from what I anticipated. I pretty much thought that they'd spend this season journeying to Dracula's castle, meet up with Grant sometime towards the end of the season, and end the season with the 4 finally arriving at the castle.


But boy, did they flip my expectations upside down. No Grant and they managed to kill Dracula before the final episode. And while this may sound like I'm building up to all the reasons why I hated this season, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I like that the plot is playing out differently from what I expected and since it ended the way it did, it really makes me wonder what direction they could possibly go in for season 3.


I also like the fact that they're paying respects to the ps2 Castlevania games. I imagine that neither one of them really stood the test of time in terms of getting the attention of the casual fanbase over the years. So I didn't think they'd bother to include the likes of Hector and Isaac into the canon--much less give them roles far more important than just being relegated to mere cameos. They even saw fit to acknowledge Leon as the 1st Belmont. So there was some nice payoff here for fans who kept up with those games all those years ago.


Speaking of Hector and Isaac, I do find it strange that they kept Hector's character design relatively intact while completely re-designing Isaac. He's completely different from his ps2 incarnation--which is strange to me given how much they tried to pay respects to the original character designs (where appropriate). In fact, thanks to several clues sprinkled throughout this season, I've developed a crackpot theory that has this version of Isaac becoming two seperate beings--Grant and Issac from Curse of Darkness.


In closing, it's clear to me that an eventual season 3 will still deal with the Castlevania 3 era. (So no Simon, Christopher, or Richter just yet) What I'm looking forward to finding out is how exactly Dracula will return and whether the course of the season will amount to being an extended version of Castlevania 3's plot (that has Trevor, Sypha, and Grant take down Dracula once more) or if they're going to try to rework and merge the plot of Curse of Darkness into it all.


PS: Episode 7 made me cry Bloody Tears of happiness. FINALLY!!! WE GOT ONE!!!

I'd rate this season a 9/10.

[Wheeljack83]

A lot of whining from AniTubers about Goblin Slayer, not a single peep about Castlevania.

This is pretty horrific.

Spoiler:

And listen, all the power to Castlevania if it wants to use such imagery. There's clearly a point to it, but where's all THIS IS NOTHING BUT GRIMDARK EDGE SHOCK FACTOR!

[Wheeljack83]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...hankar/.138622

-So is Season 3 right around the corner?

-No timeline yet for season 3. We know what the story is, but beyond that, no announcements yet.

I wonder why. Still, the budget for this episodes must be huge considering the animation.

Probably because they just did Season 2 and want to see the reception before they move forward. Keep in mind Season 2 was eight episodes, so it had to be at least double the budget of the original.

[sayde]

Originally Posted by Wheeljack83

And listen, all the power to Castlevania if it wants to use such imagery. There's clearly a point to it, but where's all THIS IS NOTHING BUT GRIMDARK EDGE SHOCK FACTOR!

I imagine that if they provided more emphasis on that scene (ie. showing a baby (or babies) repeatedly getting munched on in all its full gory detail, then maybe it might attract more attention and ridicule.

For instance, I noticed in Goblin Slayer, the controversial scene in episode 1 was pretty fleshed out. Some could easily argue it dragged on and showed far more than necessary to drive home a point thats often made with fewer scenes and emphasis in other fictional and non fictional works.

Granted, there's still plenty of people who'll disagree with controversial scenes regardless of their duration and level of detail. But that's my guess on where at least some of the ridicule stems from.

[Wheeljack83]

Originally Posted by sayde

I imagine that if they provided more emphasis on that scene (ie. showing a baby (or babies) repeatedly getting munched on in all its full gory detail, then maybe it might attract more attention and ridicule.

For instance, I noticed in Goblin Slayer, the controversial scene in episode 1 was pretty fleshed out. Some could easily argue it dragged on and showed far more than necessary to drive home a point thats often made with fewer scenes and emphasis in other fictional and non fictional works.

Granted, there's still plenty of people who'll disagree with controversial scenes regardless of their duration and level of detail. But that's my guess on where at least some of the ridicule stems from.

Right after that poor infant in Castlevania, there's a sequence of horrific imagery of the destruction the Night Horde has wrought in Gresit. There's a clear image of a mother screaming and howling in pure terror over the sight of a BLOODY baby crib. That's all that is left of the baby that just got taken.

[sayde]

Originally Posted by Wheeljack83

Right after that poor infant in Castlevania, there's a sequence of horrific imagery of the destruction the Night Horde has wrought in Gresit. There's a clear image of a mother screaming and howling in pure terror over the sight of a BLOODY baby crib. That's all that is left of the baby that just got taken.

My point still stands though. They show the baby in the jaws of the monster, but they don't revisit that scene over and over and over again showing every gruesome detail of the monster devouring a baby.

As for all that other stuff, it's horrific, sure, but nothing that hasn't been seen before.

This is a trend that just seems to fall in line with the media culture of western society in general. For whatever reason, brutal violence and gore is more widely shown in media because it's far more accepted in what we're willing to tolerate and even let minors view. But when it comes to nudity (much less rape/sexual assault), that's a huge no-no. For whatever the reason may be, our society is just far more sensitive when it comes to the subject and when it comes to scenes like that.

So I've no doubt at least some of the controversy from ep1 of Goblin Slayer is at least partially due to this double standard.

Anyways, this is the last I'm gonna say on the issue. I don't want to derail this thread off topic any longer.

[rpgman1]

Season 3 is happening and hope it's from

Spoiler for this game:

Curse of Darkness with Hector as the main focus.

Although not sure how they're going to adapt that though since the story somewhat changed.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by rpgman1

Season 3 is happening and hope it's from

Spoiler for this game:

Curse of Darkness with Hector as the main focus.

Although not sure how they're going to adapt that though since the story somewhat changed.

According to the guys from ANN

Spoiler for season 3?:

The staff wants to use Soma Cruz

[Twi]

My goodness. The fight choreography is amazing.

Spoiler:

Ironically enough, I think I liked Hector the most as far as antagonists go.

A review said that it was like the show was going for one thing but it eventually ended up having to force the final battle with dracula when it would have been more fit for season three, like the staff was forced to rewrite the last few episodes to get to that point. Mind you, I never played Castlevania so I can't talk.

[Key Board]

Originally Posted by Wheeljack83

A lot of whining from AniTubers about Goblin Slayer, not a single peep about Castlevania.

This is pretty horrific.

Spoiler:

And listen, all the power to Castlevania if it wants to use such imagery. There's clearly a point to it, but where's all THIS IS NOTHING BUT GRIMDARK EDGE SHOCK FACTOR!

True, but rape as a shock value is a lot more appalling than gore as a shock value, for obvious reasons.
They could have made Godbrand into a rapist viking. It would "fit" this character. But they didn't. Why? because that's tacky and it would have been a shit storm.

[Twi]

That and considering he calls humans livestock while the other vampire women we see are his equals, it wouldn't make sense.