Castlevania

I am not familiar with the video game series, however, I like the anime-influenced TV series quite a lot so far. The first season is really just a bit of an introduction to the plot and characters, and it is pretty well animated. It has the right kind of dark atmosphere too. At times it can be a bit brutal, and the characters deliver some pretty decent lines here and there, although there is only one Hellsing and we are still some way off from it's quality... Moreover, it is easy to relate to Dracula as he clearly perceives that the greatest evils in this world are human stupidity and religious bigotry, which have been a problem for every generation, and are portrayed really well... The major issue I have with this show is that the first season is incredibly short. Right on cue, just when it starts to get interesting and when it might get going, it is suddenly over... In conclusion, I have watched a pretty decent introduction to something that could be good and interesting, although at the end of the day it was still just a pretty short introduction and that is actually not enough. After the first season - 6/10. (07/03/2020)

I expected that the first season was building up to something epic, and then I found that the second season was really disappointing. I was expecting the thrilling adventures of the three main protagonists against a subtle and devious evil force and what I got - SPOILERS - was a narrative where more than half of the plot featured the main three protagonists holed up in a library! It was really quite exciting and suspenseful! No, I am kidding, it was shit... The good thing is that at least the evil force was epic! No, I am kidding again, it was not... Dracula just seemed bored with his supposed revenge plot most of the time, until he then simply lost all interest, and just dropped dead the moment his wife was executed. So, what was the point of all that? Well, at least the other characters around him could have acted like it was like Game of Thrones and put on an interesting little charade full of machinations, where I could have started to wonder what their motivations were, and some of which may still elude me now. The only thing that improves the impression you get from all that gossiping, studying of ancient books, and forming supposedly solid relationships is the seventh episode, in which it finally gets going. Then I was sobbing away like poor Alucard at the very end because I had been expecting this kind of action to happen throughout the season and not only in one episode. End of SPOILERS. I think the second season deserves only a maximum of 4/10. (07/03/2020)

The third season of Castlevania surprised me just by the fact of its mere existence. I thought, "What are they going to do with this show now?" and after the first episode, I was confused about where the narrative was heading. I was actually filled with dread that the animators would spend the next few episodes dwelling on poor Alucard's loneliness with the same intensity as they had explored the library in the second season, and then there was gonna be all these vampires and humans scheming, and shit... Well, in the end, that is exactly what it was, however, after saying that it was still an interesting show with an exaggerated conclusion, and the ninth episode, in particular, left me rolling my eyes. The combination of the insane fight scenes, erotic sex scenes where two different men are subjugated, while in two other places vicious and fatal battles are being waged - well, let us just say I have wanted something (intense) like this since the very beginning, or well - at least since the beginning of the second season! Again, the action was a long way off for my liking, as it was full of character development, with Isaac definitely being the most interesting this time around. However, in the end, I was a lot more entertained by the third season than I was with the previous season, so in the end the surprise "Yay, there is a third season of Castlevania..." is actually kind of nice. 6.5/10. (07/03/2020)

On the one hand, I think I am kind of happy it ended this way, it is so pleasantly satisfying. On the other hand, I wonder whether it is a little too "sunny" for a show about vampires. Of course, it was probably a well-deserved ending for some of the characters I have grown to like throughout the entire season (the three central characters), so I am thinking, why not? However, I am now thinking that some of the subplots could have been much more interesting. I guess I was expecting they would get a lot more out of Isaac, Hector, and Carmilla - and I just assumed it would all be messier after the previous two seasons being so complicated. Plus, up until that penultimate episode, I kept wondering whether it was going the way I wanted. However, in the final episode, the tension had really built-up, the final confrontation was suitably epic, even though it had crossed my mind again that it was quite over the top, albeit in that pleasantly amusing way, after all, Death is Death... I thought this season was probably the best-paced so far, everything was endearingly straightforward. There was always something going on all the time so it did not get boring, which was quite a surprise for me personally, because, in the second season, which some consider the best, I was really bored at times. I enjoyed this season even though I had different expectations, and I am more pleased than irritated with the ending itself, although there is still the question of whether the finale was too ordinary. On the whole, my feelings of satisfaction are more likely to prevail than those of disappointment, however, my mixed feelings do not cancel each other out, I feel both in certain respects. Also, the animation was good, but the soundtrack was nothing to write home about most of the time. I am awarding a divided 6.6/10 (15/05/2021)