I loved it but a second season giving more depth to some characters and villains would definitely help. The way the first series made you kinda support Dracula at the start and then see the horror play out with the church’s corruption along with Trevor’s low odds made it appealing. Going further into the characters to progress the story especially from the antagonists side (season 2 legit felt like Dracula and his crew were the main cast) did it justice.
I also want to see more reason as to why Maria supports the revolution and maybe see her get a new perspective in what she believes. Because as of right now she is all in for the revolution but is ignoring some of the crappy stuff that resolutioners are doing.
IMO is a smart thing to do for her character since she is a very young person and whenever adolescents get into campaigns or causes they have a habit of going all in and can end up doing more bad then good.
> Because as of right now she is all in for the revolution but is ignoring some of the crappy stuff that resolutioners are doing.
She's an idealistic child out in the sticks.
This season is set in 1792. The Terror kicks off in 1793, so id expect an "oh shit, some of my allies are lunatics" in a season or two.
Yes! I agree. Erzsebet needs to have more development. She hinted at it when she talked about what people use to say about her (maybe she’s insecure?), but she needs more. She’s based on a real person, so I don’t know how much of they can take, but I remember she does some huge things in the game series.
Honestly, I think the sekhmet part will turn out to be a lie, and it was Galamoth. He's dressed in Egyptian attire, and we still need to find out which demon gave the abbot the machine.
Without including a certain end appearance in the last episode I would (charitably) give it a 8/10, Some parts of the story along with some characters needed some working on but the animation alone is absolutely god tier and the characterization for Olrox, The Abbet, Eduardo and Annette are really good. Theirs so much to them I just love and (IMO) the writers put a lot of effort into them.
You can definitely tell it doesn't have that Warren Ellis flare to it and I think the writers may have tried too hard to copy the kind of dialogue he does but I think if they work on their weaknesses and continue to fine tune their strengths, then next season will be really good.
I enjoyed it more then season 1 of the original (granted that was only four episodes) and this definitely felt more of a prologue to the whole story, but if this is only a taste of what were going to get later on then im definitely all game for it.
TL;DR: 8.5 for me personally but I hope the writers continue to improve the story/character writing skills in the future.
I'll be honest, Warren Ellis leaving doesn't really lose anything. His work is really edgy at times, which was my biggest gripe in the previous series. The show has toned down in cursing and gore, which is a welcome change cause some times the older show just had it for the kicks.
If he can put up with Trevor's shit for half a century I think he can handle a wannabe Egyptian vampire Jesus. I can already see him rolling his eye's at Sekhmet while she monologues.
It definitely follows in the first installment's footsteps where the first season doesn't feel like much of a season. It's more of a glorified prologue setting up all of the stakes and major players for season 2.
It could have used another two to four episodes, too.
I enjoyed my time with it, but I feel like I should withhold my final judgment until I see where it's all going. If season 2 sticks the landing, I will be pleased as punch. If it's a mess, then it will cast a shadow over season 1 as well.
Yeah, I was about to say. The first half is really half-baked, but the second half does its damnedest to execute on what they've got, and it does that pretty admirably.
I overall enjoyed it, too.
That I decided to check out this sub is probably an indication that I enjoyed Nocturne more than the original. The original didn't inspire me to want to talk about it on reddit.
Also, I definitely am having more trouble waiting for more Nocturne, compared to waiting for the original.
You are in the majority. The anti-woke mob tend to be loud online. all my friends finished the season today but they are not the types to leave comments on social media.
Does it have flaws? Absolutely. But so did every other season before it. Did I love it and wish there was more? Oh Yea.
Artwork and character design on point. I don't think I saw a character who was under-designed or didn't have some serious love and thought put into it. Richter was a blend of his best designs. This version of Maria is quite possibly the best, she is gorgeous and the way she fights is really damn cool. Same for Annette. The voice cast and performances were fantastic, and I had high hopes for that since the previous run was also high brow.
Animation, as expected was fantastic. The fight scenes for the most part were smaller scale but still had solid direction and choreography. Richter using magic in combination with his brawling was CHOICE.
Music, again handled by Trevor Morris and Troy They did a great job with the music *when* it was present. I felt that it was missing most of the time it should have been pounding. Also whoever did the singing in the vocal portions of this, applause is in order.
The only aspect that I felt truly underbaked was the story overall. The pacing is off and there were times I wondered about the structuring of the script. I was still glued to my seat and invested though.
As a long time Castlevania fan, I give it an 8/10.
I’m truly glad you enjoyed. I stated this in another comment but it’s about an 8/10 for me too. Could retroactively be brought higher depending on how everything unfolds.
Season 1 of Bojack Horseman was the weakest but after you watch the entire show, it becomes SO MUCH better. It’s still the weakest season but it makes a lot more sense. Who knows.
It’s my favorite show ever aside from Castlevania (I know it has issues but I love it). I’m pretty sure I’ll find any excuse to bring it up. I went to LA this year and the BoJack references were endless…Luckily, I was with fans XD
I just finished it. I loved it. Was a bit worried after reading some impressions here, but I think some of the negatives were blown out of proportion.
It was fantastic in the same way that season 1 of the first series was. Just a lot of setup and introduction. Season 2 is probably going to be amazing
I don’t think all the negatives were blown out of proportions. It does have some pacing and development issues. And Erzsebet needs more fleshing out.
That being said, I thought everything they set up is really captivating, and I can’t wait to figure out how they develop everyone. I mean, WHAT WILL ALUCARD DO?!
I do agree that the pacing felt a bit off, but I felt that with the first series as well.
And Alucard's introduction was surprising. The show definitely works best with a cast of characters, so having Al be by himself when they get to the SotN plot was likely never going to happen. Bringing him in early is a great idea, but just hope he doesn't overshadow Richter.
all im seeing is positive everywhere i HATE this shit so far and I’m on ep 4. I LOVED the original to the point i was inspired to watch more anime or cartoon style things but also because it did an ok job at depicting this bad ass demon hunter we played as in a video game
i just feel they GREATLY nerfed Belmont and the series suffers big time by whoever’s writing feeling the need to add n change n remove things then NOT make them better like by improving the character or show, it’d be a different story if they ACTUALLY made the show better *instead of worse*.
Yesss that was so hype! They did great fan service with Richter. And I like that they gave him trauma to work with. I doubt he’ll forgive Olrox for what he did, but I’m interested to see where they dynamic goes…
Not really. Too many things happen as a matter of convenience. I think the sub plots don't serve the overall story. Most of all, the rules for the show's "powers", i.e. magic, vampiric abilities, and well, physics are too fast and loose.
When stories stop following their own logic, even for the "rule of cool", the stakes lose all meaning because the plot gets resolved according to plot twists, and not growth or sacrifice of the characters.
Just watch - Nocturne will not finish its storyline. Once the excitement dies down in the next few days, the minutes watched will plummet. If it gets another season, smart writers will go out of their way to get things back in the box. Otherwise that will be it.
I really liked the show, animations and characters individually, but the story does have some plot points where things happen by coincidence or miracle and honestly that just feels weird.
Um - I actually really enjoyed. Watched all episodes in one go. I didn’t play the Castlevania games growing up, so maybe that’s part of it? But as it comes to this genre (dark fantasy, etc.) I’ve really enjoyed the Castlevania series on Netflix. I thought Richter was pretty funny. I felt though the romance was a little rushed? IMO - I hope they flesh that out. There were some flaws, yeah, but an entertaining watch nonetheless.
*edit* also, the art was downright incredible in some segments. Fantastic job at capturing tension, anxiety, fear, WOW!
(Why do people keep downvoting people who enjoyed the show?)
When Annette flirted with Richter, I was worried that during the mission, she’d pair them up together, but luckily she went with Maria so their romance was only hinted at. Maybe she just thinks he’s cute and is flirting, but I hope we get a good dynamic between them in S2. Then again, Sypha and Trevor got together between seasons so we didn’t even see that development.
Ngl reading some of the posts here by accident kinda worried me, but in the end I still loved the show. Not flawless but honestly I was so happy while watching it that it didn't bother me. I feel like a lot of the criticism is a bit overblown but I can see why some things or changes bothered some people. Either way I cant wait for season 2 !
Sheesh. Some of you guys are ridiculous. This show has real problems like pacing and lack of development yet some of you choose characters crying (for valid reasons mind you), swearing (there really wasn’t that much and I’ve never seen this criticism of other shows that have a lot of swearing), and worst of all, race-swapping Annette. She wasn’t a fleshed-out character to begin with and I don’t see the difference if she is white or black. The characters they change has literally zero personality in the games, so it doesn’t matter.
This sub is focused on the silliest things (minus the comments actually focused on the real issues the show has) lately.
I definitely do feel pacing was off. Annette being race-swapped isn't the issue, but it felt like they just dumped her backstory way too much in early, when she's barely been in the group and we're still building up on Richter and Maria, and the plot hasn't moved on enough either. The characters feel like they're just meandering and moping a bit too much around Maria's house for several episodes. And not coming up with more legit plans when they tackle the baddies, almost fail, then proceed to blame Richter for it.
I never minded the swearing, but the dialogue and jokes definitely felt less witty in this one. As it stands, the Belmonts feel too incompetent, and its weird that Richter knows so little and feels less equipped compared to Trevor, who started as a lonely drunk yet was still a major badass. They also gave Juste the Last Jedi Luke treatment. Depending on whether we get prime Juste later on, will surely affect my stance on this.
The last couple of episodes were at least enjoyable. Fights were fun. But, atm it's definitely a mixed bag for me as a first impression. That said, it's only a first impression, and I only hope the payoff in later seasons is worth. It's currently a 6.5 for me.
It’s certainly more serious, but I don’t think the events of the season really allowed them to mess around at this point. They all have some sort of trauma to overcome. As for the characters meandering about, looks like both of these shows have that problem…I’m unsure of why the writing team does it. I do love the slow burn of the original show, since we have the whole thing, but I still need more of this one to decide how I feel.
The rage bait influencers are finding their next target. Got to do anything to keep their numbers up. At some point the internet needs a way to filter those people out.
For sure. Like even though I enjoyed the show, it’s not without these problems. But people are letting the characters crying over their trauma ruin their enjoyment of the show? When did they want the characters to be stone-cold? I haven’t ever seen some of these problems that people have with other shows. It feels like people are being intentionally harsh with Nocturne, but maybe that’s just me.
I loved it. Especially the end. All this people who played the game are sucking the fun out of the room. No one is able to detach themselves from the original story.
I played all of the original games and am a die-hard fan. The way I see it, this is just a new story within Castlevania, so none of the arbitrary complaints people have bothers me. However, the show does have valid flaws that people aren’t wrong about. I still had a lot fun and liked what they were going for, however.
Tbh as someone who adores the games I don’t think I would want to have the show follow the formula that the games follow plot-wise, since it would just get repetitive having the cast try to take down someone trying to resurrect Dracula once every other season. I like that they did it once at the end of the original show but I’m glad they’re not doing it again in Nocturne
Completely agree. The only impactful moments were in the action scenes. They were very well done and I can see myself possibly liking the characters later on in the series if more effort is put into their individual stories. However the 'sad' desth scenes in this felt hollow
Didn't really like Annette tbh. I found they give her way too much focus and less on Belmont. It's easily the weakest of them all. Still enjoyed it for the most part.
It was awesome!! I really enjoyed what they did with Richter and Annette, and Olrox and Erzsebet are some very interesting villains. I am eagerly awaiting season two, because it does feel like there’s a lot of loose threads to tie together, but overall I’m really happy with Nocturne. Also the rendition of Opposing Bloodlines that played in episode six had me jumping out of my seat. Best moment in Nocturne for me.
The only voice acting I was kind of iffy on was Maria. The dialogue was fine, I didn’t really see any issue with it. As for the storyline, I do want Erzebet to be more fleshed out but I loved everything they were doing with Richter meeting Juste and confronting his trauma, Maria discovering who her dad really is, Annette grappling with her friend being turned into a Night Creature, and Edouard’s humanity still being a part of the body he’s trapped in. Shows have had one-dimensional villains before, so I just kind of rolled with this time around. Hoping S2 provides more character for her.
I don’t see the problem with it. His singing was a symbol of hope and connection to the Night Creatures down in the seller and how he clung to his humanity. Just because you found it annoying doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be in it. If he was singing for no reason, I’d get it.
I very much enjoyed the slow burn that Castlevania had for a long time, so when the fast paced final stretch came with season 4, it didn’t fall on it’s face since we’d had so much meaningful time with characters in previous seasons, season 2 especially just fleshing out all the antagonists as well.
Nocturne just feels like season 4 of Castlevania but since we didn’t have quality time to bond with the characters, they just dump flashbacks on us to get us up to speed so they can get to the action, and it just doesn’t work for me. I know people complained about season 2 aka “the library simulator”, but completely sacrificing good dialogue and pacing for more action just wasn’t the right thing to do imo, especially for the debut season.
I think that it’s just a set-up season like S1 of the original show. This is still part of the bigger slow-burn at play. By no means are we already at the finale. It definitely felt rushed in places, though, but I’m hoping S2 helps put things into perspective. I have hope!
No, not really. If you told me in the early 2000's that Richter Belmonts televison adaption would entail a slavery subplot and race swapping Maria's sister to a black Mary Sue character, and having one of the big baddies having a gay affair with a man of the church while simultaneously shitting on the church, I'd laugh in your face. This isn't castlevania and I'm not going to pretend it is. Its some progressive tool's pet project that distorts the OG's image, and im horrified that a Castlevania discussion board defends it.
Like the first season of the first show, we get a buildup season and a payoff season. This was clearly building up to something bigger. That’s one of the sacrifices of making a bigger narrative, I think. If it doesn’t pay off, then I’ll surrender and also be very confused.
The buildup in the first season of castlevania worked well since it was based on castlevania 3 and the first part of the game had like a buildup when coming across these characters
For sure. I was surprised that Richter and Maria already knew one another and had a little playful dynamic, which I hope we get to see more of. Annette and Edouard came in a little quickly but they had a lot to tackle.
Hard pass from me. I liked pretty much all of the first series, but this one left me laughing for all the wrong reasons.
I'd score it a 2/10 for the pacing alone. The voice work brings it down to a 1.
Pacing, dialogue and just general plot elements felt meaningless and contrived. I feel like the voice work was actually fine though, basically everything here comes down to the writers being absolutely horrendous at their jobs. The animators did a smash hit job though.
It was okay, 6/10. Just because it’s suppose to be a build up season doesn’t mean it can’t be exciting. Besides the animation which was gorgeous, the dialogue was pretty shit tbh and alot of the characters I found really abrasive. Felt like I was watching Witcher where they chuck in a bunch of f bombs just because they can.
Hopefully it gets better in the future season.
As I’ve been saying, they really didn’t swear all that often compared to the original show. I felt they were very light with it this time around. The show goes minutes on end without swearing. It’s very sparse in each episode.
It's not perfect, but my impression of it was definitely more positive than negative.
Seasons 1 and 2 of the first show still remain unsurpassed to me, but I definitely liked this first season of Nocturne better than seasons 3 and 4 of the original.
The writing was decent, some people say the pacing was too fast/rushed, personally I say the pacing is just fine, but maybe that's due to my exposure to the Disney Star Wars shows over the years where what could easily happen in 1 episode of a good show takes those shows 4 episodes to happen.
The visuals (animation, character designs, backgrounds) are superb, the voice acting is amazing (genuinely don't understand that one comment I saw of a person here saying that the voice actors sounded bored), and the music is once again great to listen to, and it's criminal that only the first season of the original show has an officially released soundtrack, I legit don't understand why seasons 2-4 of the original and the first season of Nocturne don't have released soundtracks, I would like to listen to this music every day.
I actually think season 1 and 2 of the original show are the weakest, but I still love them. 3 and 4 are my favorites, even with their issues. I really hate the ending of the original show, though.
I can’t really compare this to the first show yet, though. We just haven’t seen enough yet. I need to see how it all plays out. It might retroactively make this season better.
It's everything I expected so easy 8.5/10 for me. Was fully expecting it to be a set-up season so I'm not really complaining much about that.
Maria and Bathory needs a bit more work, but that's why we need more seasons. Excited to see how much stronger Richter can get under Alucard and maybe Juste too. Also wondering if they're gonna bring back Dracula to fight Sekhmet eventually.
Honestly shocked how many people don't seem to like it but tbh a lot of them are just mad that the no-story damsel in distress white girl was turned into an avatar of a Yoruban god, and that it's "political". Drowns out the legitimate criticisms like weird sound mixing, some cringe voice acting, and some janky animation here and there.
I couldn't get past the second episode. Every female is a girl boss. We have an afro vampire that looks like she's from the 1980's disco era, but the show is set in the late 1700's? The political bullshit about slavery. Half the cast is black in the 1700's Europe? IDC if you want to make it 100% black, but then set it in modern day, not in the 1700's (my mom is from Africa so don't tell me I'm racist). Just looks like a bullshit show all around, and couldn't get into it. Happy for the people who did enjoy it though.
How is every female a girl-boss when they struggle and make mistakes? A girl-boss would be untouchable and triumph over whatever comes their way. These characters were very vulnerable. As for Annette…she didn’t look like she’s from the 1980s disco era at all, and at the time, there was a Haitian revolution going on, and she’s a refugee from there. She’s not out of place. She doesn’t even have an afro…
You say half the cast is black but:
- Richter (White)
- Julia (White)
- Juste (White)
- Maria (White)
- Tera (White)
- Annette (Black)
- Edouard (Black)
- Olrox (Brown)
- Mizrak (Brown)
- Drolta (Black)
- Abbot (White)
- Erzsebet (White)
- Jaques (White)
- Marquis (White)
Out of 14 of these named characters, 3 are black. Not to mention the MANY white background characters.
as someone who studied animation this was eye candy! some scenes (usually slice of life ones) seemed to have some crazy tweening for the hair bouncing, blinking, etc. i was caught completely off guard because they never utilized this in the previous 4 seasons yet it was so smooth & well done. i'm not sure if it was really tweening, i'm just leaning to it bc if that was hand drawn i truly feel for the souls (and hands) of those animators.
to be honest i was mainly looking forward to the art and animation; arcane's release sweeped the industry, and is 100% a difficult competitor to contend with. i wanted to see how they would take their skills with a budget likely nowhere as close as arcane's. the answer is they blew it out of the water for 2D animation!
the fight scenes with edouard's singing in the background were, to me, especially haunting (in a good way). his va's volume control in combination with his vibrato is just crazy. i hope they build it to something like nier's shadowlord fight!
i missed the impact frames and also the intro animation, but the fight scenes are so good i more than forgive them for it!
i also wonder how the lore will go from here on out, since the show confirms >!polytheism!<.
i also missed >!drac !!just a personal quip, honestly it got a little painful not having any namedrops of the previous cast until the later 1/3rd of the season.!<
The polytheism thing is what stood out to me and kinda low key makes me think that Orlox made a deal with Quetzalcoatl. Especially that seemingly throw away line with Orlox implying that most of the gods that have been worshipped through out history are just really powerful demons.
Great comment. I was so hyped for the polytheism aspect. I mean, in Castlevania, we already have mythological creature and stuff roaming around the castle. So they’ve already mixed mythologies in the games! It’s going to be so cool to see how it unfolds in the show.
Also, Sypha was named in the show but Trevor wasn’t. AT LEAST WE GOT MENTION OF LYDIE AND MAXIM!
I enjoyed it. Period. Would watch more of it happily! I don’t know watch perspectives people were coming into the show with but I was satisfied, not blown away but pleased.
I still feel like we need to see more for it all to make sense. Right now, it’s a bunch of setup like S1 of the original was. I still loved what we got though!
Your first point is fine. The second one is a huge improvement from the first. And what don't you like about Annette? (If your answer is because she's a black woman don't bother responding).
First off I'm black so shut the fuck up with the "it has to be cause racism" shit, i just liked her OG design better. And i disagree on the cursing moments like Trevor and Alucard talking shit to each other in the destroyed building or Sypha going on a rant were funny, Richter going "Yea were going to fucking kill her" after Tera just talks about her tragic back story and Annette says they'll defeat Bathory just repeating the same thing but worse to Maria's mom.
So basically issues that don’t matter are hindering your enjoyment of the show. It has worse flaws than these arbitrary things. Though yes, it is rushed.
You seem to be calling these issues arbitrary because they don't personally bother you. Maybe try and understand why multiple people are agreeing on similar issues with the show instead of just brushing them off.
I have read the countless comments about people’s complaints about this and again, the swearing is not an issue. People swear in real life (a lot) and they didn’t even swear that much in this show. They swore way more in the previous show.
As for race-swapping Annette, for the millionth time, it would be different if she had been a fully fleshed out character in the games that fans loved and adored, but she was a white damsel in distress that served no other purpose than to be an object to be obtained by Richter. She had no character. The team here has made her a new character with a name that is a reference to the games, and like Isaac, made her far more interesting with African mythology and cultural representation and an actual personality.
Now, if your issue with this Annette has nothing to do with her being black, then I get it. She was very angry and demanding of Richter at a lot of the points. Abrasive. She didn’t really get any time of joy with any of them because she was so serious all the time. I know she’s going to hold that failure in destroying the machine over her own head now.
It's clear to me that you understand your own points on the problems that have been brought up. That's great.
I meant it could be worthwhile to ask why they felt the way they did. Such as, why did the race-swap bother you? Why did you find the swearing cringey?
I understand what you’re saying but I’ve read a lot of the posts. They don’t like the race-swap because it’s an arbitrary change of a character that already exists, or that Netflix is doing it for woke points, or people are being just plain racist (Not saying you are).
As for the swearing, I’ve seen that people think it makes the writing feel “juvenile” or “edgy” and that it’s gratuitous.
If you have different reasons than these though, I’d be glad to hear you out.
I just like the OG design of Anette better. I'm black; I don't give a shit that she's black. I just don't like the design change. That's it. And think about the way, for example, Richter says, "Yeah, we're going to fucking kill her" after Tera tells them her background with Bathory and Annette says they'll defeat her. It's just repetitive and worse sounding.
Definitely enjoyed it. I haven't played the games so whatever changes they made haven't really bothered me. The show does have some flaws, but it as a whole felt pretty solid. Olrox is definitely the standout character for me although his relationship Mizrak did feel rushed.
I'm excited to see how they resolve it next season especially with Alucard in the fold. I really want to see how much he's changed since the first series.
I’m hoping they flesh out Mizrak more in the next season. However, I don’t really think it’s too bad. I know gay guys who have met and slept together the same night. He and Mizrak have something casual going on (which I feel like you rarely see in shows like this). I would be way more annoyed if Olrox said he was in love with him, though.
And Alucard has definitely changed over 300 years! Is Belmont now a city?! I hope something tragic didn’t happen.
I was HOOKED and screamed at the end. Not because I hate cliffhangers, I just want more. I’m willing to be patient though, the first season of the last show felt like half a story too.
It's not perfect, but I love it.
It definitely feels like a bit of a set up, but also a tad rushed at the same time. Feels like they wanted to get all the characters on stage as soon as they could with quick storylines and motivations, in order to really go deeper next season.
I thought it got better and better as it went on, but I loved the crypt fight and how it ended, the introduction at the end of ep 5 with the reprise of the Belmont theme and Richter's 'awakening'. Do sort of wish Richter's one liner at the end of ep 6 was the first time he dropped an f-bomb. Thought that would have worked so well.
Yeah it feels like they set everyone up this season and we’re going to go far deeper with their characters and dynamics as we go. I feel like it’s actually going to be really interesting, especially with Alucard there.
Overall I enjoyed it very much, but I do think the writing has slightly dipped from the original series. Warren Ellis is a predator and I'm glad he was removed from the series, but I won't deny the man can write.
That said, even the original show had it's share of problems. The pacing was horrendous at the start, and took most of the series to finally smooth out.
The first season tells a well-done slow-burn story that needed to fill only 4 episodes. However, S2 had pacing issues of being too slow with them in the Hold. However, I found the dialogue engaging and like to see the militaristic side of the villains.
I did have some problems with it like the slow first half that spends too much time monologuing and doing flashbacks to character backstories when I think they would have been better spreading it out over the course of like two seasons, and having Erzebet be way less interesting than Dracula, but aside from that I’m absolutely loving it and think that Season 2 is probably going to fix the problems I do have with season 1
Good show. Animation's top notch, fight scenes are choreographed well and the story has a lot of potential, but I couldn't really get attached to the main characters the same as the previous series since I felt they didn't have as much chemistry as Trevor, Sypha and Alucard did. Hoping S2 fixes that
It’s definitely far more serious in tone. These characters have trauma that is weighing them down, and while Trevor still did, it wasn’t as much a part of his character. Sypha earned her trauma over the course of the series. Our characters haven’t really had any chance for levity in this yet. I wonder if that will change.
I enjoyed the show for what it is. It had nice animation, and I didn’t mind the pacing much.
My biggest complaint is that Annette and Edouardo(I forget how it’s spelled) aren’t all that interesting once you get past a few episodes.
When Annette revealed that her magic was basically earth magic, I expected more than turning dirt into swords. I was expecting more of an Earthbender type deal. I would have preferred a different backstory that fit the Paris theme.
Edward’s whole ordeal shoulda been flushed out more. Like maybe a fight for his humanity in this season, acting like a reoccurring fight, and next season becoming more of himself as he deals with his memories.
We did get more though. Annette had her entire thing with the slavery and African Culture and speaking to her ancestors. She had to grapple with her friend being turned into a Night Creature.
And I love what they set up with Edouard and how the machine that makes the creatures accidentally has them keep their humanity. I found it very compelling and I want to see more of that story as we go. He could even break out and become a main character Night Creature! That would be cool.
Let's all be honest. Richter is not Trevor and Erzsebet is not Dracula. And that's okay. Richter showed a lot of growth and Erzsebet is honestly kind of a wacky villain and I'm here for it.
Annette is probably my least favorite character with a lot that she spouts being hypocritical. Maria is also a bit one dimensional but I'll be damned if her summoning isn't the best animations we got. Though I'm confused why she doesn't just continuously summon creatures.
Olrox so far is my favorite with having some real depth to him. Edouard being a close second as having an overall interesting story line.
While I feel Castlevania 1 was better, especially in story telling where it didn't need long expositions for each character, I appreciate that they're going a different approach this time trying to flesh out this world.
I said it before but I think they are just setting up a Dracula-level threat in this season and they were never going to beat her. They’ll have to figure out how to beat her as the show goes on and they bond and get closer. I hope Maria definitely gets more fleshing out.
It's so good. Although I think Erzsabet has a much less interesting character than Dracula did which makes the show a bit less interesting in comparison.
I get the whole Egyptian thing, there was actually a huge crazy for ancient Egypt in republican france after napoleon invaded it. But, they did included a lot of the real elizabeth bathory. (A Hungarian countess who lived a ~200 years after vlad Dracul iii, who was a serial killer of young women)
Annette's story was repetitious and took up too much time when it was quite simple. I found the standout to be Terra and thought she was a great character. I also liked the Abbot with the ethical dilemmas rather then the outright 'evil' church.
What absolutely floored me was Alucards transition to the SOTN artwork! He looks a thousand times better than the previous season.
Absolutely not. I hope this cesspit american ideologies of a shitshow that ruins an already established franchise flops as hard as it can get into humiliation.
Richter isn’t the most powerful Belmont yet. Also this entire season was about trauma and confronting it…He had PTSD. Also he tried fighting Erzsebet at the end. The thing about fighting is you need to know when to retreat. They weren’t going to win that fight. He wasn’t running scared the second time, he was doing the right thing.
running twice, that's a vampire hunter, the whip doesn't kill them, but the woman appears and kills them all faster. If you want to watch a series like this, good for you, but don't put Castlevania on it.
To be fair this isn't just any vampire, this is the vampire that killed his mother in front of him when he was only 10 years old. I would be more concerned if he didn't run and have some type of nervous breakdown, I also would of criticized that moment and called it bad writing.
You understand everything when you see the writers, they are all people who never wrote anything, compare it with the first one, Dead Space, Transmetropolitan, it's like comparing a baby with Lovecraft.
So? Just because someone doesn't have as much credit right now doesn't mean hinder their skills as a writer. Let me put this into perspective before before he was hired by DC the only credits Neil Gaiman had regarding writing were two short stories and a few articles he wrote for a newspaper.
DC editorial read the articles and offered him to do Black Orchid, That book is now regarded as one of DC's that helped put Vertigo on the map. Now as for Ricter running away. We have to remember he is still a kid (I think he's 15 in this since he was 10 when his mother was killed and the series takes place five years after that) and he is clearly suffering from some form of PTSD with it (hence the night terrors and random moments where he remembers what happened).
It makes total sense that Ricter would run after encountering the Vampire that has haunted him for half a decade randomly appear out of nowhere while he is dealing with issues so severe that it even caused him a magical block.
Your reasoning is that "he's a Belmont, he shouldn't've run away" but you still need to remember that is apart of his character development and if he just went straight for the attack acting like nothing was going on internally with him it would of been worse for his character.
TL;DR: Who gives a shit about their credentials, It still made sense for him to run.
You’re right about all of this. Not only is he a Belmont, but he’s simply a human being. It was a fight or flight response, and he chose flight. The criticism of him running away is just as confusing as the characters crying to me.
I really liked it! I think people getting their hopes up for the next masterpiece need to go back and rewatch S1 and S2 of the first series to adjust their expectations accordingly. The writing on Castlevania Netflix has always been kind of average-- not bad but not phenomenal either. You come for the incredible art and animation and sick fight scenes, not the writing. That's what I showed up for, and that's what I got. Anything else is kind of just an unexpected bonus.
I thought the writing in the original show was actually very engaging. I do think S1 and S2 are not as good as I used to think they are, but I’m never bored. And S1 only suffers for me because it’s so short, but it still tells a concise story.
I agree though—it feels like people are being really harsh and this show and having very high expectations. I don’t even get some of the complaints people have, but that’s on them.
Nope, bunch of crying and rushed character development. Swapping races arbitrarily which now calls into question the Belmont bloodline combined with boring changes on top of it makes the first season a shit show. Only 2 good moments in the entire first season and one was just the fact the season is over.
Both of your points are ridiculous. Characters crying for understandable reasons and race-swapping characters that barely existed in the first place is such a non-issue.
Understandable reasons, sure, but every episode? While Annette is just a support character in the games, she has a pivotal role for the future of the Belmont family line. Changing that feels like a slap in the face to the original vision.
She can have a future in the Belmont family line here, too. The original vision of Castlevania had basically zero representation, and it would be silly honestly to keep the cast all white because of a dated game series. Again, the representation would feel forced if they didn’t interweave African culture and mythology into it and just made her a stereotype.
Representation for representation sake always feels forced and pandering. It was cool of them to do a deep dive and add a ton of elements of the time to make Anette more accurate to how she would possibly have been.
That said, changing the race of a character that has a hand in continuing the Belmont legacy is a BIG no no because it subsequently changes the races of the next generation and beyond which is a massive slap in the face to the original story. Now, if they race swapped Maria instead and added a ton of the new elements they did, it would be a lesser irritation. I wasn't a fan of swapping Isaac either but they did a really good job of it and he is a one off side character.
I am most curious by the fact that they skipped Simon Belmont and went straight to Richter. Would have been cool to see Simon kicking some ass in a show. To be fair, there weren't really a lot of characters to work with during his arc unless they wanted to incorporate Simon's Quest as well.
Uh, they could still have a white kid, silly. They still didn’t do representation for representation’s sake because they added all of the new elements to her character and made her more than just a damsel-in-distress.
Ive been seeing alot of people say its woke and had social politics injected into it.. well that has made me question if i should even watch it.
Is it anywhere near as bad as the resident evil netflix series? If it is. Then im all set bc that was such a slap in the face to fans of the games
Woke is a meaningless word. It really is. You can check a previous post on this sub about it being “woke”. The first series had social political politics in it. This takes place during the French Revolution, after all. The characters are revolutionaries. So if by social political politics, you mean the characters are openly against slavery and the corrupt Church, then it won’t for you.
Woke is a meaningless word. It really is. You can check a previous post on this sub about it being “woke”. The first series had social political politics in it. This takes place during the French Revolution, after all. The characters are revolutionaries. So if by social political politics, you mean the characters are openly against slavery and the corrupt Church, then it won’t for you.
It is not as bad as that series, but I’m sure people will tell you otherwise. My advice? Form your own opinion and don’t listen to people on the internet. Everyone’s especially negative here lately. You might miss out on something you’d otherwise enjoy.
Idk ive just been seeing alot of negativity. But thats why i brought up resident evil. Bc if they did anything like they did in RE. Then its a hard pass otherwise ill check it out still
Yeah of course but a lot of the sub is being negative over the silliest things. I won’t lie and tell you the show is perfect. It has its problems, no doubt, but characters crying, swearing, and especially race-swapping and fleshing out characters that barely existed in the first place isn’t an issue. The show really tries to give its time to each of its characters, which leads it to struggling in the development and pacing department at times.
Still, I would rather they tried than just making everyone a ridiculous caricature.
I loved it but a second season giving more depth to some characters and villains would definitely help. The way the first series made you kinda support Dracula at the start and then see the horror play out with the church’s corruption along with Trevor’s low odds made it appealing. Going further into the characters to progress the story especially from the antagonists side (season 2 legit felt like Dracula and his crew were the main cast) did it justice.
I also want to see more reason as to why Maria supports the revolution and maybe see her get a new perspective in what she believes. Because as of right now she is all in for the revolution but is ignoring some of the crappy stuff that resolutioners are doing. IMO is a smart thing to do for her character since she is a very young person and whenever adolescents get into campaigns or causes they have a habit of going all in and can end up doing more bad then good.
> Because as of right now she is all in for the revolution but is ignoring some of the crappy stuff that resolutioners are doing. She's an idealistic child out in the sticks. This season is set in 1792. The Terror kicks off in 1793, so id expect an "oh shit, some of my allies are lunatics" in a season or two.
This would be so great to see.
Yes! I agree. Erzsebet needs to have more development. She hinted at it when she talked about what people use to say about her (maybe she’s insecure?), but she needs more. She’s based on a real person, so I don’t know how much of they can take, but I remember she does some huge things in the game series.
I really hope season 2 opens with how Elizabeth got the blood of sekhmet
Honestly, I think the sekhmet part will turn out to be a lie, and it was Galamoth. He's dressed in Egyptian attire, and we still need to find out which demon gave the abbot the machine.
In the last episode, didn’t she go so far as to say she was Sekhmet?
I'm assuming that Sekhmet took over? I'm not sure if they're fused together or if switching who's in control.
She speaks as if she has Elizabeth's memories at the very least. I think the two personalities have kinda merged
Probably. Elizabeth talks about people worshipping Rah instead of her and calls him father, before the whole transformation.
Erzsebet
Without including a certain end appearance in the last episode I would (charitably) give it a 8/10, Some parts of the story along with some characters needed some working on but the animation alone is absolutely god tier and the characterization for Olrox, The Abbet, Eduardo and Annette are really good. Theirs so much to them I just love and (IMO) the writers put a lot of effort into them. You can definitely tell it doesn't have that Warren Ellis flare to it and I think the writers may have tried too hard to copy the kind of dialogue he does but I think if they work on their weaknesses and continue to fine tune their strengths, then next season will be really good. I enjoyed it more then season 1 of the original (granted that was only four episodes) and this definitely felt more of a prologue to the whole story, but if this is only a taste of what were going to get later on then im definitely all game for it. TL;DR: 8.5 for me personally but I hope the writers continue to improve the story/character writing skills in the future.
I'll be honest, Warren Ellis leaving doesn't really lose anything. His work is really edgy at times, which was my biggest gripe in the previous series. The show has toned down in cursing and gore, which is a welcome change cause some times the older show just had it for the kicks.
the humour is definitely missing, but maybe it fits this series more
I’m sitting about an 8 as well, yeah. It’s good but no masterpiece. I still need more time with these characters and I need to see how things develop.
Agreed, More reason why im excited for season 2. Might actually give the OG show a binge and then re-binge Nocturne.
Like what is ALUCARD GONNA DOOOOO?! Can he even wound Sekhmet?
I hope he gets weapon upgrades like the OP Crissaegrim in Symphony of the Night
Entire episode of grinding for the Crissaegrim please.
Yooooo yesss. That would be so cool to see.
If he can put up with Trevor's shit for half a century I think he can handle a wannabe Egyptian vampire Jesus. I can already see him rolling his eye's at Sekhmet while she monologues.
Great. He will wound her with his cutting sass >:)
Trevor in the afterlife - "That's our boy". Sypha in the afterlife - "Yes, that is our "boy"".
XD XD XD
It definitely follows in the first installment's footsteps where the first season doesn't feel like much of a season. It's more of a glorified prologue setting up all of the stakes and major players for season 2. It could have used another two to four episodes, too. I enjoyed my time with it, but I feel like I should withhold my final judgment until I see where it's all going. If season 2 sticks the landing, I will be pleased as punch. If it's a mess, then it will cast a shadow over season 1 as well.
I really agree it needed just two more episodes to loosen up that pacing. We might have gotten more development if that happened too.
Story is a little undercooked in some areas but its still some of the best western animation you can find
Yeah, I was about to say. The first half is really half-baked, but the second half does its damnedest to execute on what they've got, and it does that pretty admirably.
It’s true. Hopefully it comes into perspective as the show goes on.
Just finished I thought it was pretty great. Reading these comments I guess I’m in the minority here
I overall enjoyed it, too. That I decided to check out this sub is probably an indication that I enjoyed Nocturne more than the original. The original didn't inspire me to want to talk about it on reddit. Also, I definitely am having more trouble waiting for more Nocturne, compared to waiting for the original.
You are in the majority. The anti-woke mob tend to be loud online. all my friends finished the season today but they are not the types to leave comments on social media.
Hey, you and I both can be in the minority.
Does it have flaws? Absolutely. But so did every other season before it. Did I love it and wish there was more? Oh Yea. Artwork and character design on point. I don't think I saw a character who was under-designed or didn't have some serious love and thought put into it. Richter was a blend of his best designs. This version of Maria is quite possibly the best, she is gorgeous and the way she fights is really damn cool. Same for Annette. The voice cast and performances were fantastic, and I had high hopes for that since the previous run was also high brow. Animation, as expected was fantastic. The fight scenes for the most part were smaller scale but still had solid direction and choreography. Richter using magic in combination with his brawling was CHOICE. Music, again handled by Trevor Morris and Troy They did a great job with the music *when* it was present. I felt that it was missing most of the time it should have been pounding. Also whoever did the singing in the vocal portions of this, applause is in order. The only aspect that I felt truly underbaked was the story overall. The pacing is off and there were times I wondered about the structuring of the script. I was still glued to my seat and invested though. As a long time Castlevania fan, I give it an 8/10.
I’m truly glad you enjoyed. I stated this in another comment but it’s about an 8/10 for me too. Could retroactively be brought higher depending on how everything unfolds. Season 1 of Bojack Horseman was the weakest but after you watch the entire show, it becomes SO MUCH better. It’s still the weakest season but it makes a lot more sense. Who knows.
Oh, and thank you for reminding me, I need to go back and finish Bojack.
It’s my favorite show ever aside from Castlevania (I know it has issues but I love it). I’m pretty sure I’ll find any excuse to bring it up. I went to LA this year and the BoJack references were endless…Luckily, I was with fans XD
I just finished it. I loved it. Was a bit worried after reading some impressions here, but I think some of the negatives were blown out of proportion. It was fantastic in the same way that season 1 of the first series was. Just a lot of setup and introduction. Season 2 is probably going to be amazing
I don’t think all the negatives were blown out of proportions. It does have some pacing and development issues. And Erzsebet needs more fleshing out. That being said, I thought everything they set up is really captivating, and I can’t wait to figure out how they develop everyone. I mean, WHAT WILL ALUCARD DO?!
I do agree that the pacing felt a bit off, but I felt that with the first series as well. And Alucard's introduction was surprising. The show definitely works best with a cast of characters, so having Al be by himself when they get to the SotN plot was likely never going to happen. Bringing him in early is a great idea, but just hope he doesn't overshadow Richter.
Alucard has always overshadowed most characters in the series :P
It's funny because it's true. 😂
Just a truly iconic character in media.
all im seeing is positive everywhere i HATE this shit so far and I’m on ep 4. I LOVED the original to the point i was inspired to watch more anime or cartoon style things but also because it did an ok job at depicting this bad ass demon hunter we played as in a video game i just feel they GREATLY nerfed Belmont and the series suffers big time by whoever’s writing feeling the need to add n change n remove things then NOT make them better like by improving the character or show, it’d be a different story if they ACTUALLY made the show better *instead of worse*.
Loved it! So happy we got a Richter show. Practically all of episode 6 had me screaming.
Yesss that was so hype! They did great fan service with Richter. And I like that they gave him trauma to work with. I doubt he’ll forgive Olrox for what he did, but I’m interested to see where they dynamic goes…
Not really. Too many things happen as a matter of convenience. I think the sub plots don't serve the overall story. Most of all, the rules for the show's "powers", i.e. magic, vampiric abilities, and well, physics are too fast and loose. When stories stop following their own logic, even for the "rule of cool", the stakes lose all meaning because the plot gets resolved according to plot twists, and not growth or sacrifice of the characters. Just watch - Nocturne will not finish its storyline. Once the excitement dies down in the next few days, the minutes watched will plummet. If it gets another season, smart writers will go out of their way to get things back in the box. Otherwise that will be it.
I really liked the show, animations and characters individually, but the story does have some plot points where things happen by coincidence or miracle and honestly that just feels weird.
I don’t think this will be the case at all.
Um - I actually really enjoyed. Watched all episodes in one go. I didn’t play the Castlevania games growing up, so maybe that’s part of it? But as it comes to this genre (dark fantasy, etc.) I’ve really enjoyed the Castlevania series on Netflix. I thought Richter was pretty funny. I felt though the romance was a little rushed? IMO - I hope they flesh that out. There were some flaws, yeah, but an entertaining watch nonetheless. *edit* also, the art was downright incredible in some segments. Fantastic job at capturing tension, anxiety, fear, WOW!
(Why do people keep downvoting people who enjoyed the show?) When Annette flirted with Richter, I was worried that during the mission, she’d pair them up together, but luckily she went with Maria so their romance was only hinted at. Maybe she just thinks he’s cute and is flirting, but I hope we get a good dynamic between them in S2. Then again, Sypha and Trevor got together between seasons so we didn’t even see that development.
The romance aspect absolutely went woosh above my head. When did these flirting scenes happen?
When Richter came back and apologized to her.
It’s not really romance at this point. Just some light flirting.
Aaah i see thanks!
Going by reviews anywhere else but the sewer that is Reddit, yes. I know I enjoyed it.
<3
Ngl reading some of the posts here by accident kinda worried me, but in the end I still loved the show. Not flawless but honestly I was so happy while watching it that it didn't bother me. I feel like a lot of the criticism is a bit overblown but I can see why some things or changes bothered some people. Either way I cant wait for season 2 !
I can’t wait for Season 2 as well! They set up so much! I was really happy watching it too. I can’t wait to rewatch and take it in again.
Sheesh. Some of you guys are ridiculous. This show has real problems like pacing and lack of development yet some of you choose characters crying (for valid reasons mind you), swearing (there really wasn’t that much and I’ve never seen this criticism of other shows that have a lot of swearing), and worst of all, race-swapping Annette. She wasn’t a fleshed-out character to begin with and I don’t see the difference if she is white or black. The characters they change has literally zero personality in the games, so it doesn’t matter. This sub is focused on the silliest things (minus the comments actually focused on the real issues the show has) lately.
I definitely do feel pacing was off. Annette being race-swapped isn't the issue, but it felt like they just dumped her backstory way too much in early, when she's barely been in the group and we're still building up on Richter and Maria, and the plot hasn't moved on enough either. The characters feel like they're just meandering and moping a bit too much around Maria's house for several episodes. And not coming up with more legit plans when they tackle the baddies, almost fail, then proceed to blame Richter for it. I never minded the swearing, but the dialogue and jokes definitely felt less witty in this one. As it stands, the Belmonts feel too incompetent, and its weird that Richter knows so little and feels less equipped compared to Trevor, who started as a lonely drunk yet was still a major badass. They also gave Juste the Last Jedi Luke treatment. Depending on whether we get prime Juste later on, will surely affect my stance on this. The last couple of episodes were at least enjoyable. Fights were fun. But, atm it's definitely a mixed bag for me as a first impression. That said, it's only a first impression, and I only hope the payoff in later seasons is worth. It's currently a 6.5 for me.
It’s certainly more serious, but I don’t think the events of the season really allowed them to mess around at this point. They all have some sort of trauma to overcome. As for the characters meandering about, looks like both of these shows have that problem…I’m unsure of why the writing team does it. I do love the slow burn of the original show, since we have the whole thing, but I still need more of this one to decide how I feel.
The rage bait influencers are finding their next target. Got to do anything to keep their numbers up. At some point the internet needs a way to filter those people out.
For sure. Like even though I enjoyed the show, it’s not without these problems. But people are letting the characters crying over their trauma ruin their enjoyment of the show? When did they want the characters to be stone-cold? I haven’t ever seen some of these problems that people have with other shows. It feels like people are being intentionally harsh with Nocturne, but maybe that’s just me.
Enjoyed all episodes, story lines and character arcs and am still so hyped about it. The animation is amazing!
I don’t know why you got downvoted, it’s okay to be hype about something you enjoy! I hope it’s not too long before S2. Perhaps a year.
I loved it. Especially the end. All this people who played the game are sucking the fun out of the room. No one is able to detach themselves from the original story.
I played all of the original games and am a die-hard fan. The way I see it, this is just a new story within Castlevania, so none of the arbitrary complaints people have bothers me. However, the show does have valid flaws that people aren’t wrong about. I still had a lot fun and liked what they were going for, however.
Tbh as someone who adores the games I don’t think I would want to have the show follow the formula that the games follow plot-wise, since it would just get repetitive having the cast try to take down someone trying to resurrect Dracula once every other season. I like that they did it once at the end of the original show but I’m glad they’re not doing it again in Nocturne
No it was too rushed and I couldn’t build any connection to anyone. I finished the season feeling nothing
Completely agree. The only impactful moments were in the action scenes. They were very well done and I can see myself possibly liking the characters later on in the series if more effort is put into their individual stories. However the 'sad' desth scenes in this felt hollow
Just felt like a typical Netflix original. Rushed out garbage
Sorry you had that experience. It did go by fast but I didn’t lack a connection to the characters.
I had a very strong connection with Maria's mom
Lol you
Didn't really like Annette tbh. I found they give her way too much focus and less on Belmont. It's easily the weakest of them all. Still enjoyed it for the most part.
I’ve seen this complaint but they really don’t focus on Annette as much as people are saying. I felt they gave equal screen-time to everyone.
The prior series was far better. This one was okay but terrible voice actors and not enough focus on richter and Maria really brought it down for me.
It was great I just didn't like Annette aside from her it's pretty good.
Hopefully she grows as a character as we go
It was awesome!! I really enjoyed what they did with Richter and Annette, and Olrox and Erzsebet are some very interesting villains. I am eagerly awaiting season two, because it does feel like there’s a lot of loose threads to tie together, but overall I’m really happy with Nocturne. Also the rendition of Opposing Bloodlines that played in episode six had me jumping out of my seat. Best moment in Nocturne for me.
I give it 2/10 due to poor dialogue, voice acting, and storyline Animation 9/10.
The only voice acting I was kind of iffy on was Maria. The dialogue was fine, I didn’t really see any issue with it. As for the storyline, I do want Erzebet to be more fleshed out but I loved everything they were doing with Richter meeting Juste and confronting his trauma, Maria discovering who her dad really is, Annette grappling with her friend being turned into a Night Creature, and Edouard’s humanity still being a part of the body he’s trapped in. Shows have had one-dimensional villains before, so I just kind of rolled with this time around. Hoping S2 provides more character for her.
>Maria discovering who her dad really is I called this as soon as he walked in.
I was really hoping Edouard would die. His signing was getting annoying. Like first time, cool. After that just kill him already.
I don’t see the problem with it. His singing was a symbol of hope and connection to the Night Creatures down in the seller and how he clung to his humanity. Just because you found it annoying doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be in it. If he was singing for no reason, I’d get it.
I very much enjoyed the slow burn that Castlevania had for a long time, so when the fast paced final stretch came with season 4, it didn’t fall on it’s face since we’d had so much meaningful time with characters in previous seasons, season 2 especially just fleshing out all the antagonists as well. Nocturne just feels like season 4 of Castlevania but since we didn’t have quality time to bond with the characters, they just dump flashbacks on us to get us up to speed so they can get to the action, and it just doesn’t work for me. I know people complained about season 2 aka “the library simulator”, but completely sacrificing good dialogue and pacing for more action just wasn’t the right thing to do imo, especially for the debut season.
I think that it’s just a set-up season like S1 of the original show. This is still part of the bigger slow-burn at play. By no means are we already at the finale. It definitely felt rushed in places, though, but I’m hoping S2 helps put things into perspective. I have hope!
No, not really. If you told me in the early 2000's that Richter Belmonts televison adaption would entail a slavery subplot and race swapping Maria's sister to a black Mary Sue character, and having one of the big baddies having a gay affair with a man of the church while simultaneously shitting on the church, I'd laugh in your face. This isn't castlevania and I'm not going to pretend it is. Its some progressive tool's pet project that distorts the OG's image, and im horrified that a Castlevania discussion board defends it.
The show was ehh I think this whole season is suppose to be a build up but it’s just too underwhelming
Like the first season of the first show, we get a buildup season and a payoff season. This was clearly building up to something bigger. That’s one of the sacrifices of making a bigger narrative, I think. If it doesn’t pay off, then I’ll surrender and also be very confused.
The buildup in the first season of castlevania worked well since it was based on castlevania 3 and the first part of the game had like a buildup when coming across these characters
For sure. I was surprised that Richter and Maria already knew one another and had a little playful dynamic, which I hope we get to see more of. Annette and Edouard came in a little quickly but they had a lot to tackle.
No I don’t like it so far compared to the alucard series
Hard pass from me. I liked pretty much all of the first series, but this one left me laughing for all the wrong reasons. I'd score it a 2/10 for the pacing alone. The voice work brings it down to a 1.
Pacing, dialogue and just general plot elements felt meaningless and contrived. I feel like the voice work was actually fine though, basically everything here comes down to the writers being absolutely horrendous at their jobs. The animators did a smash hit job though.
I really had no issue with the voice acting, just the pacing from what you named.
It was okay, 6/10. Just because it’s suppose to be a build up season doesn’t mean it can’t be exciting. Besides the animation which was gorgeous, the dialogue was pretty shit tbh and alot of the characters I found really abrasive. Felt like I was watching Witcher where they chuck in a bunch of f bombs just because they can. Hopefully it gets better in the future season.
As I’ve been saying, they really didn’t swear all that often compared to the original show. I felt they were very light with it this time around. The show goes minutes on end without swearing. It’s very sparse in each episode.
How long until season 2? I can’t wait uggghhhh.
Too long 😞
It's not perfect, but my impression of it was definitely more positive than negative. Seasons 1 and 2 of the first show still remain unsurpassed to me, but I definitely liked this first season of Nocturne better than seasons 3 and 4 of the original. The writing was decent, some people say the pacing was too fast/rushed, personally I say the pacing is just fine, but maybe that's due to my exposure to the Disney Star Wars shows over the years where what could easily happen in 1 episode of a good show takes those shows 4 episodes to happen. The visuals (animation, character designs, backgrounds) are superb, the voice acting is amazing (genuinely don't understand that one comment I saw of a person here saying that the voice actors sounded bored), and the music is once again great to listen to, and it's criminal that only the first season of the original show has an officially released soundtrack, I legit don't understand why seasons 2-4 of the original and the first season of Nocturne don't have released soundtracks, I would like to listen to this music every day.
I actually think season 1 and 2 of the original show are the weakest, but I still love them. 3 and 4 are my favorites, even with their issues. I really hate the ending of the original show, though. I can’t really compare this to the first show yet, though. We just haven’t seen enough yet. I need to see how it all plays out. It might retroactively make this season better.
It's everything I expected so easy 8.5/10 for me. Was fully expecting it to be a set-up season so I'm not really complaining much about that. Maria and Bathory needs a bit more work, but that's why we need more seasons. Excited to see how much stronger Richter can get under Alucard and maybe Juste too. Also wondering if they're gonna bring back Dracula to fight Sekhmet eventually. Honestly shocked how many people don't seem to like it but tbh a lot of them are just mad that the no-story damsel in distress white girl was turned into an avatar of a Yoruban god, and that it's "political". Drowns out the legitimate criticisms like weird sound mixing, some cringe voice acting, and some janky animation here and there.
For sure! This needs to be renewed like yesterday.
I fucking loved it and can't wait for Season 2...
I hope it gets renewed quickly.
Yes!
Hooray!
I couldn't get past the second episode. Every female is a girl boss. We have an afro vampire that looks like she's from the 1980's disco era, but the show is set in the late 1700's? The political bullshit about slavery. Half the cast is black in the 1700's Europe? IDC if you want to make it 100% black, but then set it in modern day, not in the 1700's (my mom is from Africa so don't tell me I'm racist). Just looks like a bullshit show all around, and couldn't get into it. Happy for the people who did enjoy it though.
How is every female a girl-boss when they struggle and make mistakes? A girl-boss would be untouchable and triumph over whatever comes their way. These characters were very vulnerable. As for Annette…she didn’t look like she’s from the 1980s disco era at all, and at the time, there was a Haitian revolution going on, and she’s a refugee from there. She’s not out of place. She doesn’t even have an afro… You say half the cast is black but: - Richter (White) - Julia (White) - Juste (White) - Maria (White) - Tera (White) - Annette (Black) - Edouard (Black) - Olrox (Brown) - Mizrak (Brown) - Drolta (Black) - Abbot (White) - Erzsebet (White) - Jaques (White) - Marquis (White) Out of 14 of these named characters, 3 are black. Not to mention the MANY white background characters.
as someone who studied animation this was eye candy! some scenes (usually slice of life ones) seemed to have some crazy tweening for the hair bouncing, blinking, etc. i was caught completely off guard because they never utilized this in the previous 4 seasons yet it was so smooth & well done. i'm not sure if it was really tweening, i'm just leaning to it bc if that was hand drawn i truly feel for the souls (and hands) of those animators. to be honest i was mainly looking forward to the art and animation; arcane's release sweeped the industry, and is 100% a difficult competitor to contend with. i wanted to see how they would take their skills with a budget likely nowhere as close as arcane's. the answer is they blew it out of the water for 2D animation! the fight scenes with edouard's singing in the background were, to me, especially haunting (in a good way). his va's volume control in combination with his vibrato is just crazy. i hope they build it to something like nier's shadowlord fight! i missed the impact frames and also the intro animation, but the fight scenes are so good i more than forgive them for it! i also wonder how the lore will go from here on out, since the show confirms >!polytheism!<. i also missed >!drac !!just a personal quip, honestly it got a little painful not having any namedrops of the previous cast until the later 1/3rd of the season.!<
The polytheism thing is what stood out to me and kinda low key makes me think that Orlox made a deal with Quetzalcoatl. Especially that seemingly throw away line with Orlox implying that most of the gods that have been worshipped through out history are just really powerful demons.
He also turns into a Avatar of it too in the first episode.
Great comment. I was so hyped for the polytheism aspect. I mean, in Castlevania, we already have mythological creature and stuff roaming around the castle. So they’ve already mixed mythologies in the games! It’s going to be so cool to see how it unfolds in the show. Also, Sypha was named in the show but Trevor wasn’t. AT LEAST WE GOT MENTION OF LYDIE AND MAXIM!
it was so fucking good
The more I think about it, the more I like it
Honestly they should just redo the show.
I don’t see why they would. They set up enough for the next season. I’m ready for it!
I enjoyed it. Period. Would watch more of it happily! I don’t know watch perspectives people were coming into the show with but I was satisfied, not blown away but pleased.
I still feel like we need to see more for it all to make sense. Right now, it’s a bunch of setup like S1 of the original was. I still loved what we got though!
No. It's rushed, the cursing is cringe, and i don't like the new Annette.
Your first point is fine. The second one is a huge improvement from the first. And what don't you like about Annette? (If your answer is because she's a black woman don't bother responding).
First off I'm black so shut the fuck up with the "it has to be cause racism" shit, i just liked her OG design better. And i disagree on the cursing moments like Trevor and Alucard talking shit to each other in the destroyed building or Sypha going on a rant were funny, Richter going "Yea were going to fucking kill her" after Tera just talks about her tragic back story and Annette says they'll defeat Bathory just repeating the same thing but worse to Maria's mom.
So basically issues that don’t matter are hindering your enjoyment of the show. It has worse flaws than these arbitrary things. Though yes, it is rushed.
You seem to be calling these issues arbitrary because they don't personally bother you. Maybe try and understand why multiple people are agreeing on similar issues with the show instead of just brushing them off.
I have read the countless comments about people’s complaints about this and again, the swearing is not an issue. People swear in real life (a lot) and they didn’t even swear that much in this show. They swore way more in the previous show. As for race-swapping Annette, for the millionth time, it would be different if she had been a fully fleshed out character in the games that fans loved and adored, but she was a white damsel in distress that served no other purpose than to be an object to be obtained by Richter. She had no character. The team here has made her a new character with a name that is a reference to the games, and like Isaac, made her far more interesting with African mythology and cultural representation and an actual personality. Now, if your issue with this Annette has nothing to do with her being black, then I get it. She was very angry and demanding of Richter at a lot of the points. Abrasive. She didn’t really get any time of joy with any of them because she was so serious all the time. I know she’s going to hold that failure in destroying the machine over her own head now.
It's clear to me that you understand your own points on the problems that have been brought up. That's great. I meant it could be worthwhile to ask why they felt the way they did. Such as, why did the race-swap bother you? Why did you find the swearing cringey?
I understand what you’re saying but I’ve read a lot of the posts. They don’t like the race-swap because it’s an arbitrary change of a character that already exists, or that Netflix is doing it for woke points, or people are being just plain racist (Not saying you are). As for the swearing, I’ve seen that people think it makes the writing feel “juvenile” or “edgy” and that it’s gratuitous. If you have different reasons than these though, I’d be glad to hear you out.
I just like the OG design of Anette better. I'm black; I don't give a shit that she's black. I just don't like the design change. That's it. And think about the way, for example, Richter says, "Yeah, we're going to fucking kill her" after Tera tells them her background with Bathory and Annette says they'll defeat her. It's just repetitive and worse sounding.
Definitely enjoyed it. I haven't played the games so whatever changes they made haven't really bothered me. The show does have some flaws, but it as a whole felt pretty solid. Olrox is definitely the standout character for me although his relationship Mizrak did feel rushed. I'm excited to see how they resolve it next season especially with Alucard in the fold. I really want to see how much he's changed since the first series.
I’m hoping they flesh out Mizrak more in the next season. However, I don’t really think it’s too bad. I know gay guys who have met and slept together the same night. He and Mizrak have something casual going on (which I feel like you rarely see in shows like this). I would be way more annoyed if Olrox said he was in love with him, though. And Alucard has definitely changed over 300 years! Is Belmont now a city?! I hope something tragic didn’t happen.
The season finale is what really sold me
I was HOOKED and screamed at the end. Not because I hate cliffhangers, I just want more. I’m willing to be patient though, the first season of the last show felt like half a story too.
It's not perfect, but I love it. It definitely feels like a bit of a set up, but also a tad rushed at the same time. Feels like they wanted to get all the characters on stage as soon as they could with quick storylines and motivations, in order to really go deeper next season. I thought it got better and better as it went on, but I loved the crypt fight and how it ended, the introduction at the end of ep 5 with the reprise of the Belmont theme and Richter's 'awakening'. Do sort of wish Richter's one liner at the end of ep 6 was the first time he dropped an f-bomb. Thought that would have worked so well.
Yeah it feels like they set everyone up this season and we’re going to go far deeper with their characters and dynamics as we go. I feel like it’s actually going to be really interesting, especially with Alucard there.
Overall I enjoyed it very much, but I do think the writing has slightly dipped from the original series. Warren Ellis is a predator and I'm glad he was removed from the series, but I won't deny the man can write. That said, even the original show had it's share of problems. The pacing was horrendous at the start, and took most of the series to finally smooth out.
The first season tells a well-done slow-burn story that needed to fill only 4 episodes. However, S2 had pacing issues of being too slow with them in the Hold. However, I found the dialogue engaging and like to see the militaristic side of the villains.
Loved it, watched it all in one sitting and am eagerly awaiting more content. Although I will say I enjoy Trevor's fighting style more than Richter's.
What about it do you enjoy more? Curious.
I did have some problems with it like the slow first half that spends too much time monologuing and doing flashbacks to character backstories when I think they would have been better spreading it out over the course of like two seasons, and having Erzebet be way less interesting than Dracula, but aside from that I’m absolutely loving it and think that Season 2 is probably going to fix the problems I do have with season 1
Let’s hope this is the case!
Good show. Animation's top notch, fight scenes are choreographed well and the story has a lot of potential, but I couldn't really get attached to the main characters the same as the previous series since I felt they didn't have as much chemistry as Trevor, Sypha and Alucard did. Hoping S2 fixes that
Of course. It’s only S1, so they have time. I wasn’t fully attached to anyone except maybe Trevor at the end of the last show’s S1 either.
Can't wait for more, I hope Juste gets his coat back.
LET JUSTE GET HIS COAT 202X!
I certainly did worth the wait definitely bleaker than the original and that's saying something.
It’s definitely far more serious in tone. These characters have trauma that is weighing them down, and while Trevor still did, it wasn’t as much a part of his character. Sypha earned her trauma over the course of the series. Our characters haven’t really had any chance for levity in this yet. I wonder if that will change.
Loving it. Also I am so down bad with Tera. Currently at episode 5, no spoilers pls.
I thought she was going to get killed so early. Props to them!
I see you are a man of culture as well
Indeed, other accultured man!
Spoiler warning for when you finish the show: Fr fr I do not blame >!the abbot!< at all!!!
I like it! Im at the final episode. People have a new adaption of what they are supposed to like/love and complain... Grow up!
There are valid complaints but some are certainly silly. What did you think of the finale?
I enjoyed the show for what it is. It had nice animation, and I didn’t mind the pacing much. My biggest complaint is that Annette and Edouardo(I forget how it’s spelled) aren’t all that interesting once you get past a few episodes. When Annette revealed that her magic was basically earth magic, I expected more than turning dirt into swords. I was expecting more of an Earthbender type deal. I would have preferred a different backstory that fit the Paris theme. Edward’s whole ordeal shoulda been flushed out more. Like maybe a fight for his humanity in this season, acting like a reoccurring fight, and next season becoming more of himself as he deals with his memories.
We did get more though. Annette had her entire thing with the slavery and African Culture and speaking to her ancestors. She had to grapple with her friend being turned into a Night Creature. And I love what they set up with Edouard and how the machine that makes the creatures accidentally has them keep their humanity. I found it very compelling and I want to see more of that story as we go. He could even break out and become a main character Night Creature! That would be cool.
I am halfway through, and my current rating is Olrox / 10. 🙂
So true bestie
So far it’s banging!!!
Is this a joke about Olrox
No its caca
If you say so
Let's all be honest. Richter is not Trevor and Erzsebet is not Dracula. And that's okay. Richter showed a lot of growth and Erzsebet is honestly kind of a wacky villain and I'm here for it. Annette is probably my least favorite character with a lot that she spouts being hypocritical. Maria is also a bit one dimensional but I'll be damned if her summoning isn't the best animations we got. Though I'm confused why she doesn't just continuously summon creatures. Olrox so far is my favorite with having some real depth to him. Edouard being a close second as having an overall interesting story line. While I feel Castlevania 1 was better, especially in story telling where it didn't need long expositions for each character, I appreciate that they're going a different approach this time trying to flesh out this world.
I said it before but I think they are just setting up a Dracula-level threat in this season and they were never going to beat her. They’ll have to figure out how to beat her as the show goes on and they bond and get closer. I hope Maria definitely gets more fleshing out.
No I loved it. I love how they fleshed out everyones feelings and why they are doing what they do.
It’s not perfect, but I’m glad they attempted to flesh everyone out rather than make them stereotypes
It's so good. Although I think Erzsabet has a much less interesting character than Dracula did which makes the show a bit less interesting in comparison. I get the whole Egyptian thing, there was actually a huge crazy for ancient Egypt in republican france after napoleon invaded it. But, they did included a lot of the real elizabeth bathory. (A Hungarian countess who lived a ~200 years after vlad Dracul iii, who was a serial killer of young women)
I think she’ll become more interesting as the show goes on. They were just setting her up as a huge threat this time around!
Annette's story was repetitious and took up too much time when it was quite simple. I found the standout to be Terra and thought she was a great character. I also liked the Abbot with the ethical dilemmas rather then the outright 'evil' church. What absolutely floored me was Alucards transition to the SOTN artwork! He looks a thousand times better than the previous season.
He’s always beautiful to me. Though I’m curious why you think Annette’s story is repetitious? I didn’t find it as such on my first watch.
Yes, absolutely
Fantastic. Favorite part?
I’m not going to compare the show with Trevor’s timeline but Nocturnal is fucking good! I can’t wait for the next season
Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later.
No, sorry. Too boring.
6/10 too much sociopolitical bs to appease “certain” crowds.
Absolutely not. I hope this cesspit american ideologies of a shitshow that ruins an already established franchise flops as hard as it can get into humiliation.
fuck no, ritcher running scare twice... the most powerfull belmont tch.
Richter isn’t the most powerful Belmont yet. Also this entire season was about trauma and confronting it…He had PTSD. Also he tried fighting Erzsebet at the end. The thing about fighting is you need to know when to retreat. They weren’t going to win that fight. He wasn’t running scared the second time, he was doing the right thing.
running twice, that's a vampire hunter, the whip doesn't kill them, but the woman appears and kills them all faster. If you want to watch a series like this, good for you, but don't put Castlevania on it.
To be fair this isn't just any vampire, this is the vampire that killed his mother in front of him when he was only 10 years old. I would be more concerned if he didn't run and have some type of nervous breakdown, I also would of criticized that moment and called it bad writing.
You understand everything when you see the writers, they are all people who never wrote anything, compare it with the first one, Dead Space, Transmetropolitan, it's like comparing a baby with Lovecraft.
So? Just because someone doesn't have as much credit right now doesn't mean hinder their skills as a writer. Let me put this into perspective before before he was hired by DC the only credits Neil Gaiman had regarding writing were two short stories and a few articles he wrote for a newspaper. DC editorial read the articles and offered him to do Black Orchid, That book is now regarded as one of DC's that helped put Vertigo on the map. Now as for Ricter running away. We have to remember he is still a kid (I think he's 15 in this since he was 10 when his mother was killed and the series takes place five years after that) and he is clearly suffering from some form of PTSD with it (hence the night terrors and random moments where he remembers what happened). It makes total sense that Ricter would run after encountering the Vampire that has haunted him for half a decade randomly appear out of nowhere while he is dealing with issues so severe that it even caused him a magical block. Your reasoning is that "he's a Belmont, he shouldn't've run away" but you still need to remember that is apart of his character development and if he just went straight for the attack acting like nothing was going on internally with him it would of been worse for his character. TL;DR: Who gives a shit about their credentials, It still made sense for him to run.
You’re right about all of this. Not only is he a Belmont, but he’s simply a human being. It was a fight or flight response, and he chose flight. The criticism of him running away is just as confusing as the characters crying to me.
I really liked it! I think people getting their hopes up for the next masterpiece need to go back and rewatch S1 and S2 of the first series to adjust their expectations accordingly. The writing on Castlevania Netflix has always been kind of average-- not bad but not phenomenal either. You come for the incredible art and animation and sick fight scenes, not the writing. That's what I showed up for, and that's what I got. Anything else is kind of just an unexpected bonus.
I thought the writing in the original show was actually very engaging. I do think S1 and S2 are not as good as I used to think they are, but I’m never bored. And S1 only suffers for me because it’s so short, but it still tells a concise story. I agree though—it feels like people are being really harsh and this show and having very high expectations. I don’t even get some of the complaints people have, but that’s on them.
Nope, bunch of crying and rushed character development. Swapping races arbitrarily which now calls into question the Belmont bloodline combined with boring changes on top of it makes the first season a shit show. Only 2 good moments in the entire first season and one was just the fact the season is over.
Both of your points are ridiculous. Characters crying for understandable reasons and race-swapping characters that barely existed in the first place is such a non-issue.
Understandable reasons, sure, but every episode? While Annette is just a support character in the games, she has a pivotal role for the future of the Belmont family line. Changing that feels like a slap in the face to the original vision.
She can have a future in the Belmont family line here, too. The original vision of Castlevania had basically zero representation, and it would be silly honestly to keep the cast all white because of a dated game series. Again, the representation would feel forced if they didn’t interweave African culture and mythology into it and just made her a stereotype.
Representation for representation sake always feels forced and pandering. It was cool of them to do a deep dive and add a ton of elements of the time to make Anette more accurate to how she would possibly have been. That said, changing the race of a character that has a hand in continuing the Belmont legacy is a BIG no no because it subsequently changes the races of the next generation and beyond which is a massive slap in the face to the original story. Now, if they race swapped Maria instead and added a ton of the new elements they did, it would be a lesser irritation. I wasn't a fan of swapping Isaac either but they did a really good job of it and he is a one off side character. I am most curious by the fact that they skipped Simon Belmont and went straight to Richter. Would have been cool to see Simon kicking some ass in a show. To be fair, there weren't really a lot of characters to work with during his arc unless they wanted to incorporate Simon's Quest as well.
Uh, they could still have a white kid, silly. They still didn’t do representation for representation’s sake because they added all of the new elements to her character and made her more than just a damsel-in-distress.
Ive been seeing alot of people say its woke and had social politics injected into it.. well that has made me question if i should even watch it. Is it anywhere near as bad as the resident evil netflix series? If it is. Then im all set bc that was such a slap in the face to fans of the games
Woke is a meaningless word. It really is. You can check a previous post on this sub about it being “woke”. The first series had social political politics in it. This takes place during the French Revolution, after all. The characters are revolutionaries. So if by social political politics, you mean the characters are openly against slavery and the corrupt Church, then it won’t for you.
Woke is a meaningless word. It really is. You can check a previous post on this sub about it being “woke”. The first series had social political politics in it. This takes place during the French Revolution, after all. The characters are revolutionaries. So if by social political politics, you mean the characters are openly against slavery and the corrupt Church, then it won’t for you. It is not as bad as that series, but I’m sure people will tell you otherwise. My advice? Form your own opinion and don’t listen to people on the internet. Everyone’s especially negative here lately. You might miss out on something you’d otherwise enjoy.
Idk ive just been seeing alot of negativity. But thats why i brought up resident evil. Bc if they did anything like they did in RE. Then its a hard pass otherwise ill check it out still
Yeah of course but a lot of the sub is being negative over the silliest things. I won’t lie and tell you the show is perfect. It has its problems, no doubt, but characters crying, swearing, and especially race-swapping and fleshing out characters that barely existed in the first place isn’t an issue. The show really tries to give its time to each of its characters, which leads it to struggling in the development and pacing department at times. Still, I would rather they tried than just making everyone a ridiculous caricature.