"Castlevania" anime

Today, I watched the trailer for the upcoming "Castlevania" anime:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIMrFnl5NiA

I find it funny that the cartridge in the trailer is a PowerPak from RetroUSB.

The things on the TV screen in the beginning look pretty authentic. (For example, the number of letters from the texts actually match the NES' resolution.)
Looks like they actually created a ROM for this (hence the PowerPak), or what would you say?

Does anybody know where the cartridge label comes from? It looks like a remake of the original "Castlevania I" artwork, drawn in the style of today's "Castlevania" artworks.

There already is a thread about it: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12479

Dammit! I was hoping I was the first mentioning it. But since they even made a video demonstrating the cartridge themselves, the observation would have been moot anyway.

Since the other thread is more about that Netflix ROM, let's use this thread for the show itself:

What do you think about the "Castlevania" trailer?
And is there already any available information apart from the trailer itself?

It's written/produced by Americans and it's based on Castlevania 3. Those are two good signs for me.

In the trailer, he says: "I killed Dracula." But according to the CV3 storyline, this game is the first one when a Belmont encountered Dracula. So, I'm asking myself if the TV series plays after the events of the game instead of depicting the game's events themselves.

I don't think I disagree (it can really go both ways), but why is it specifically a good thing that it was written by Americans?
Historically we have seen way too many examples of Americans completely misunderstanding Japanese franchises. Fortunately it doesn't seem like this is one of them, though.


Isn't he saying "The man who will kill Dracula"? It's kinda hard to make out.

Oh, right. "The man who'll kill Dracula."

By listening to it closesly, there's no "ed" in "kill".

Japan has its own way of telling vampire stories. See for example JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or Symphony of the Night.

But Castlevania 1 and 3 were not based on Japanese vampires; they were based on Western ones. By having American writers the show is going to feel more like Bram Stoker's novel and less like Shonen Jump.

Castlevania games are Japanese-made though, and have always been more Bram Stoker-style and less Jojo Shounen Jump-style.


When CV3 was released it was the earliest account of a Belmont killing Dracula. But several Castlevania games that take place before it have been release since that, both canon (Lament of Innocence ) and non-canon (Castlevania Legend). Dracula is able to revive every 100 years.

I just hope Juese Belmont makes an appearance.

Doesn't mean that you could trust the anime guys to remain faithful to this vision, though. It's one thing for Japanese to do a Stoker-like NES game. It's another to make a TV show in this style.

(Besides, "Castlevania" is more Hammer Horror and not so much Bram Stoker's novel. The game even presents itself as a movie reel and Dracula's actor is Christopher Bee/Lee.)


That still holds true today. "Legends" is non-canon, as you said. And in "Lament of Innocence", the Belmont never fought Dracula. He first killed a vampire named Walter Bernhard and then the final boss was the Grim Reaper, with Dracula leaving the scene before that battle.

So, it's still canon: Dracula in CV3 has not been resurrected because he had never been killed by that point yet. Trevor Belmont was the first to kill him.

My text that you quoted is moot anyway: My assumption was based on a mishearing. I thought he said "who killed Dracula", but he actually said "who'll kill Dracula". So, yeah, the show will porbably depict the time frame of CV3 itself.

This one is better:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju0Z6NquldM&t=1m34s

You know who really needs to make an appearance...

You are right, I had forgotten what happened in the Lament of Innocence ending (I won't spoil anything).

At least it will have Alucard

Didn't someone already do that though?

nice anime, I add to my MAL-to wach list

It's out on Netflix, well the first four episodes are.
What do people think about it? I'm actually really positively surprised. It respects the games completely, more than I had expected, even lifting one particular scene directly from SotN.

It was better than I expected. There were 2 (maybe 3) scenes where Trevor dropped a string of f-bombs that seemed kind of odd/forced.

^^^ Eh, it seemed about appropriate. The gore level screamed "unrated". I kinda like Trevor's German VA a bit more because he doesn't sound so English?

Which would that be?
I liked it quite a bit. I have a few concerns:
0. calling 4 episodes a "season"? really?
0a. (p.s. why are we calling it an anime? It's an OVA if we're using that terminology, both in ep count and release strategy…)
0b. apparently it's up for four more, huh.
1. Sypha's a bit too typed as damsel.
2. Season 1's over and we have Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard. Where's Grant? (…putting him on the haunted pirate ship might make more sense if he's a pirate, though…)

Why? Anime just mainly stands for Japanese(-ish) Animation (in fact they call every animated series Anime in Japan, even western ones; whereas western people intentionally use the term Anime to distinguish them from (Western) Animation). OVA just means the Anime is mainly directly to video, as opposed to TV series.

It's completely American animation though I couldn't tell you if some animation work might be outsourced to cheap Asian workers, but by that logic every Saturday morning Disney show was anime.
I agree with the common consensus that some of the profanity and gore felt forced. I'm glad they aren't trying to censor stuff, but it needs to fit in, too. It was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and for a mere four 23-minute episodes basically making out a pilot, I think they did about as good a job as they could have, considering the material.


Lisa Tepes being burned at the stake, her lines are almost identical to some of the things she says in the SotN flashback.

^^^ ah, haven't played SotN.

Episode counts on OVAs tend to be in the single digits, whereas anime tends to be 13 or 26. It's like the distinction between a TV series and a miniseries.

Just watched the four episodes. Glad they're making another 8. Hope they'll be a little longer, too.

It seems they mixed the story of Dracula's Curse with the setting of Simon's Quest (it's not just the place, but also how it's painted - doomed cities of wallachia with despairing citizens and the recurrence of 'secret knowledge'). Both Koji Igarashi's hand at the script and the inspiration drewn from Ayami Kojima's SoTN artwork is very evident, on top of that.

Spoilers ahead:
I love the gore, it is somehow befitting the late-medieval tone, but at several points it has no significant narrative purpose which lessens its effect. The poled heads and the entrails as decoration in E2 would've had a stronger impact if gore came more selectively.

The characters felt a bit flat (like the cookie-cutter evil bishop and the other men of god), but then again, they were always very flat in what little dialogue there was in the games they're based on/inspired by. It is kind of fitting. Unfortunately, i think they missed the mark with dracula, if this is to be CV3. Rather than a devil-like warlock and an epitomy of evil, he comes off as a bit of a dork. I suspect this is Iga's vision of Dracula, rather than the Hammer Horror movies the first games were more closely inspired by, and i think it's for the worse. I liked the 'beauty and the beast' narrative, but the beast is a better beast than this version of dracula.

I love that it's a semihistoric fantasy narrative which dares to depict the social struggles of that world, so it's not all "dungeons and dragons". The peasants in the bar, the church, the minorities, and so on. It is also clear that the speakers are a way to be careful and avoid misrepresentation of Romani, but i'm not sure if it works as well as it could. I'd rather see them be Romani rather than a Romani-like fantasy minority, that'd make the marginalisation, distrust, persecution from the church, and threat of pogroms feel more authentic (then again, nothing else is historically accurate and that's not even the point - But you have people described as Romani in CV2 so that's a slight break from the castlevania mythos).

It's also apparent they mixed up the internal timeline of CV3 by some. I think it makes it feel fresh.

Did you know Grant Danasty probably have a historical counterpart, just as Dracula?

No, what?

There's other houses renown/accused of cruelty and/or semi-vampiric activities similar to that of Vlad Tepes, from around that time and part of Europe (actually, people in power did horrifying things all over Europe from what i've read, but we're talking Castlevania here).

Báthory Erzsébet, of House Báthory, known as "the blood countess". Married to someone that might be more important as inspiration of the CV3 mythos:
Ferenc Nádasty, known as "the black knight of Hungary". He also picked up the practice of impaling enemies. After his death, Erzsébet had free reigns to terrorize her subjects (although some of the allegations are sure to be slander).

But it could also be a name borrowed from House Dănești, one of two lineages (the other being House Drăculești - yes, that house) of House Basarab.

Either, or both - They probably read up on the subject when producing Dracula's Curse.

I also wonder if we'll see the poltergeist king hide family heirloom in candles in S02 (source: CV3 english manual)

No, as I mentioned OVAs are mainly direct to video stuff(sometimes they do get shown on TV though, maybe as TV specials), so the episode counts are usually low but there are exceptions.
On the other hand TV series tends to be having 13, 26 or 52 episodes per season(for obvious reasons, but there are exceptions too), not Anime, as both OVAs and TV series (and animated feature movies) are all considered Anime, unless there are some weird definition some western people use that I've never heard of.

A good example: The original Legend of the Galactic Heroes OVA, which is 110 episodes long.

Another detail, another spoiler:
Note how Trevor calls for a "real" priest (supposedly in contrast to the Bishop's gang). I'm probably reading too much into it, but this could be the writers doing a bit of research - The region saw power struggles between factions of christianity around this time. However, the consecration and use of holy water is more closely tied to catholicism, which the bishop and his men would represent in this case. Moreover, eastern orthodoxism was the major religion at this point, and curches should've reflected this with mural writings in old church-slavonic. It seems they inserted the spanish inquisition instead. I wonder if the Belmonts would be catholics or protestants. Judging from their family crest; not orthodox; which also follows the swapout of orthodoxism. Trevor wouldn't be Calvinist as this faction came along a bit later.

Given that they were excommunicated from the church (from the same church that the bishop belongs to, that is) they were definitely Catholic.
(Besides, the Protestant church didn't exist until after 1500. As far as I remember, the anime plays in 1400-something.)

Ah, that makes perfect sense. And yes you're right, historically protestantism came along a bit later, shortly followed by the subfaction calvinism. The struggle in wallachia at this point is largely between Orthodoxism (majority) and catholicism, with judaism as a recognized minority.

In addition, Wallachia was yet a moderately independent protectorate of the Ottoman Empire (the correct term is Suzerainty (effectively mening semisovereign)).

The Belmonts, however, have their family line continued into times of protestantism.

Independently from the actual historic situation, I don't think the anime is really aware of the existence of any other churches besides the Catholic one, as it's the case in so many movies.
So, the bishop and his gang are not intended to represent struggles between the various denominations. The other priest that was shown might not be part of the power hungry gang of priests, but they all still belong to the same church.

Yeah, that's probably right too, judging the clothes of the good priest. I think that'd be true for Hammer horror movies, too (even though they take place at a later point in time). At least they got it right which city in Wallachia was the capital at that time.

I find it interesting that Trevor is shown as pretty unreligious. He doesn't only have a grudge against the church, he also seems to be pretty indifferent towards God himself. Which is in total contrast to the games where the first thing you see of him is kneeling in front of a giant cross.

Being (halfhandedly) raised as a catholic, where the ritual of kneeling before the cross is not only very important and expected, but also one way to display that you're part of the congregation (non-catholics are very easily detected when they visit a catholic church because they don't know their way around "our" various micro-rituals, like what you're supposed to do with the holy water upon entering), i never read Trevor as kneeling in front of the cross, at least not "properly". He's faced the opposite/wrong direction, and is merely huddling near the ruined sanctuarium. Though, the theme song is called "Prayer", and i think it is clear that he's meditating or gathering mental fortitude for the task at hand.

Well, this is obviously just an oversight of the designers. I don't think that it has the in-universe meaning of "He isn't really a Catholic."

Back when "Castlevania III" came out, the Belmonts were probably intended as people who fight for the church.
(They were driven out of the land by the people out of fear, but the old games don't mention anything about excommunication, so it was just some stupidity from the superstitious common folk, not a papal decision like it is shown in the anime.)

Probably true. But i personally find it easier/more enjoyable taking it for what it is via what is expressed, rather than extrapolating what the intentions of the team were. (Like in ghosts n goblins and similar titles, when they treat "the devil" and "satan" as two separate entities, or stretching it, perhaps two forms of the same, i just take it as served and buy into that game's particular mythos). For me, then, Trevor could be anything between agnostic, superstitious, and devout/religious. Except for now b/c the anime, which i also thought was an interesting take. More plausible, too, than being exiled by "the good people of Europe".

Thinking about it, how often have ordinary people excommunicated a particular noblehouse without reprisal? In the best of cases like the prosecution of Elisabeth Bathory, it was a priest who sounded the alarm and a nobleman (and relative) who conducted the much delayed trial. Her less noble and female accomplices were tortured and burned (except a guy who simply got beheaded and a servant girl who got life sentence), while the ring leader herself simply got house arrest in her own castle (the king wanted her dead but was convinced of a lucrative compromise). To convince people that justice had been made, a symbolic red gallows was erected on the hillside.

Well, yes, in this case, what is expressed is simply: The guy kneels/prostrates/whatever before a cross, so he's depicted as a devout Catholic.
So, the expressed scene and the developers' intentions are identical here.

This:
is definitely not what is expressed.

But we can find a definite answer by having a look at the literal translation of the Japanese intro text of the game, which is quite different from the actual translation of the American version:

Source:
http://www.romhacking.net/translations/730

The anime took some liberties here.

Ralph/Trevor could be more or less religious, but the fight between good and evil and European Christian myth is a big theme of the series. The Belmonds use holy power to fight evil, and the bad guys usually resurrects Dracula at Easter once a hundred years when the power of Christ is at its weakest. Sure Trevor's praying could be ceremonial or meditational (although I believe prayer and meditation goes hand in hand so one thing does not exclude the other) but he is definitely catholic and I don't think he could be agnostic.

I don't think the Belmonds where driven away by a mob of peasants that were afraid of the "unknown" or anything like that in the games. It was most likely people in power that made up some excuse to exile the Belmonds because they understood that they were a potential political threat due to their powers. Leon Belmond's defection probably didn't help their cause either.

I had long forgotten that piece of folklore - the notion that the power of christ would wax and wane at different calendaric events.
And yeah, it's essentially an iteration of saint goran/göran/george and the dragon. Or beowulf. Have your pick.

<bad joke>
Maybe the frightening power of the belmonts is that they're the only ones in all of europe crazy enough to actually use ball and chain in battle. It ought to be a good way to get friends at arms pissed and self-inflict death. And is that holy water, or is it really aqua regia? That'd be a clear mark of a maniac.
</bad joke>

Heh interesting point about ball 'n chain flails not having long chains. Flails like nunchaku and sansetsukon (three-staffed nunchaku) do have equally long ends, but on the other hand they are not spiky, and both ends are used as both handle and striking area (and it's easy to hit yourself without proper training). Also I heard nunchaku was probably historically not that popular either since there is no traditional kata for that weapon.

I think the Belmonts' powers that are passed down the generations is a combination of divine power of God based on faith and knowledge, the Belmonts' own style of martial art discipline and an inherited talent for warfare in their blood (that may not show up in all members though). This is what scared people and made them chase off the Belmonts.

Yeah, in later games they took some time elaborating how there was mythical powers tied to the various bloodlines present in castlevania. Though to be honest, in the beginning they were just solving the problem of "wait, simon has already defeated dracula. how do we make a continuation?" to which the quickest answer is "let's say it's his grandfather". Then, they won't have to struggle with why a different character plays so identically (which grant, sypha, and alucard doesn't). They had to keep the core mechanics in for the game to feel familiar, so that ought to be the reason for trevor's existence.


Btw, here's the AVGN review of the season. All valid, i think.

Yeah well designing the story around gameplay is a common and good strategy in game development. Especially in those days when hardware was more limiting. When the series was more established and games needed to become bigger, there was more room and need for elaborating the story and world. IGA and his gang took over the series with Symphony, the style and atmosphere was bound to change at that time. I think the same thing happens with any series that gets new parents, including Zelda getting adopted by Aonuma.