Thanks for watching and look for our giant Kenshin vid coming next week! Also grab your free Gamersupps sample and free shipping for the first 24 hours of the video's release here: gamersupps.gg/BPOP After 24 hours the code will still give you 10% off all orders!
I'm so excited for the Kenshin video! It's one of my favorite anime/manga. I rewatch the anime all the time with my dad. I know you will give it the justice it deserves.
Thanks for actually intelligently expressing your dislike instead of just throwing "woke" & only "woke" around as ya dismissal. I looked at the conversations going on in Castlevania FB groups, & was like, "I'm not even gonna touch this with a 10 foot pole. It makes American politics look bipartisan by comparison levels of unintelligible." If the second season has payoff for all the setup in season 1 I think it shall become better liked in hindsight, but if not "everyone" gonna be disappointed.
That was very well said, and I am glad I’m not the only one that feels the same way when it comes to how instead of giving it a critique on marriage, they give it a critique or say it’s bad, because there’s things in it, that they particularly may not like or want to see, which is pathetic and sad if he asked me it was a good show. It was a damn good show and I can look past those things that you’re not touching with a 10 foot pole and just because certain subjects are brought up doesn’t automatically make it woke to me that word is past run its course!!! I would actually give someone a little bit more respect if they came out and just said what they’re dancing around the fact that they don’t like things because it is same-sex or because they touched on other themes. Therefore it’s bad that’s really a sad way of looking at a piece of art.!!!
I wish I was more invested ( eh I guess ) in the original games and lore, but I’m just Not. I enjoy the original anime and this was OK. Not defending the obvious unnecessary race swap stuff because the actual fans know better but I thought the show was Decent. Decent in the eyes of a guy that’s not that into the original game stuff, definitely see the point of the old fans though it was for y’all and they FU%K that up🤷🏾♂️
I played all of Castlevania and I am not complaining about Nocturne. I am not a dork that would want to literally translate the game into an anime and complain about characters being black or white like a primitive racist LOL
I was bothered by the fact that everyone completely glosses over the fact that it's Annette's fault that the opera singer is killed because she lost control of her magic because of her past trauma rising up. Meanwhile, she gets upset with Richter for freezing up because of his past trauma and he ends up apologizing to her for it.
True, but this whole season was setting up the character flaws for the group. I thought they did this to parallel Annette and Richter because in the first episode. The main reason Richter's Mom lost was because Richter thought he could help but got in over his head. I also think Nocturne is trying to highlight how inexperienced the whole group is and how strength and passion alone are not enough to resolve grand scale issues- this fits in well with the French Revolution theme since it resulted in the temporary return to the status quo with Emperor Napoleon. Annette came into the series hot. She already won a revolution so she thinks she knows what she is doing but she is hot headed and her plans are too basic. She has amazing abilities but she can't muscle her way through stuff in this situation. Marie is passionate and is the embodiment of how people in the French revolution thought an acted. She wants to slash a burn the old establishment and doesn't put too much deep thought into how this could lead to more trouble. More than this, she is the youngest and the weakest of the cast and made a stupid decision trying to save the Abbot/her dad without going with back up or telling anyone where she was. Richter is strong but he has never had a any real challenges ( he mentioned only having to kill two or three vampires a month to now having to kill two or three a day). On top of this he has past trauma which made him unreliable (this guy SPRINTED from his adopted family and teammate and didn't show up again for three days) and because his Mom died and his Grandpa didn't want to be involved in his life and teach him the family history he has no idea what Nightcreature's are and thought of Alucard as a myth ( he may not even know who Dracula is either). I think in season two Alucard is going to take up the role as a teacher and leader which the group desperately needs and give them direction.
@@theafterburner6231if I remember right don't her own ancestors and teacher tell her she's being unfair...seems like the show accepts this is a character flaw in her that she needs to work on
One point I need to bring up is that erzabet drank sekmets blood to gain her powers and is being treated as her by her followers. She isn’t actually her.
Yeah, I understood that as well. I think that if you ever played Vampire the Masquerade you can see that she committed a Diablerie with a creature more powerful (somehow), and elevated her power. And aí like BP analysis, and many of the points he's correct (I think about the pacing and so on), but he clearly was a little biased when was watching, didn't pick many of the series point (that of Erzabet absorbing Sekhmets power, ie), that snowball into his dislike, and also some nitpicking that he inflated because of the expectations he had not being met by the show. I really think that the "you didn't like because you didn't understand it" phrase is a total cliché, and many times that's not what happened... and I even may say that's just not what happened here... but in some degree that was what affected his review... as he said, he just wanted to see vampires being being slayed and wanted more of that... As I see, the show tried to be more than that and the theme of freedom was perfectly chosen to be the focus of the series. Theres the revolution of the people and the oprresion of the lord's, the slavery being added to the mix with the changes of Anette, the church trying to keep it's power and people chained by their faith (with Erzabet being a figure that projects herself as a god and that should be above everyone else), even Richter was in some way chained by his trauma and he got freed from it, or Olrox who is kinda enslaved by his very nature... there's so much to see in the characters that... well, If you just wanted to see vampires getting slayed and did not got in the amount you saw fit... you'll be probably miss all that development... I really think there are problems in the show, is impossible to any show be perfect, but I really feel that, with the next season, more people will appreciate it more (and I saw it just as a first act of a bigger story, that will probably end with the SotN adaptation the fans really want).
@@TADMOORE THANK YOU! I feel this video just got Nitpickie Over the Slimmest of Details! The Show Will Never be a One-to-One adaptation of the Games! Hell even I. The Original 4 seasons. Everyone was really pissed off about Grant Danesty not being in the show! There was also the fact that they included additional characters and Changes that people either liked or hated! Same with the fact that Season 1 & 2 took their sweet time before they got deeper into the stories involved!
Honestly, I agree for the most part. I felt like the problem was there was so much going on, there wasn’t time for us to care about the characters. They just gave really intense backstories to people we just met.
I would like to add to that point that they didn’t introduce the backstory over time but just dumped it on us in one go, which makes it even harder to digest
In the first 2 episode we meet everyone they fight like 4 times and a guy we just met gets killed , In caslvania the first two episodes we got a backstory for why Dracula is in the war path and a good intro to Trevor as a character , We didn’t meet any other main characters till ep 3-4
The first series ensured we had solid characterizations for a small handful of characters before THEN sprinkling a few more interesting ones in with a lot of space to breathe. I for real dread Alucard's inclusion into a series being done by this writing team. It certainly doesn't feel like triumph.
The two things that gave away for me how I knew this was going to be completely different is how the original series ended with Dracula and when I saw that Warren Ellis wasn’t going to be writing for this show for… obvious reasons.
@@amazinglaughs I'm going off of hazy memory but the gist is he was outed as having engaged in serial sex pest behavior. Used his status as a writer to coerce women into relationships that he would hide from all of them, possibly other details that I genuinely can't recall. You can always google for yourself, of course.
The weird thing about Warren Ellis was that the women in question didn't want him fired they wanted to address him and people like him. It just felt like the studio wanted to save face rather than respect the victims wishes.
@@kap1618you're wrong on this, it was MULTIPLE woman, like a lot of them came out with similar stories. Then he assumed the problem, promised he would go through therapy or something and failed multiple times to actually do what was promised.
@@crybirb Yeah, I noted their were multiple women coming out against him, and they openly stated what they wanted from him and the studio. But the studio just seemed to ignore that and fire hik outright. I read articles that interviewed them, and that's where I'm getting my information from. I didn't hear anything about him going to therapy because he was already out by then. Where did you hear that part?
I read Edouard's return less as the power of opera and more as a reluctant/terrible forgemaster. Every time the issue came up the Abbot never seemed half as confident in his skills as Isaac or Hector.
This. A man with half-hearted convictions made a half-hearted deal with a demon in order to create night creatures he only made with half-hearted wants. Isaac or Hector never had insubordination due to them being fully realized in their convictions in making these creatures, meanwhile Mr. Half-baked ideals has multiple night creatures that retain some semblance of their humanity.
Also Edouard wasn't the first night creature to act like this; with Hector seemed like just talking to them would help then regain their personalities and remember their past life
The morally grey priest manufactures flawed night creatures? Shocking lol. Also, they are in a church.....maybe it isn't just Egyptian/Mesoamerican gods at play here.
I agree with this. In the last season of Castlevania Issac had a lot of deep conversations with one of his night creatures (the fly guy who was once a Greek philosopher) so it had already been established that some Night creatures maintain some of their memories. The Abbot is not a master like Issac or Hector either. He is using a machine so I feel like his Nightcreature's are more "artificial" and have less specificity in design and purpose like Hector and Issac had for their Nightcreature's.
I think each forgemaster is a little different Issac literally takes random souls from hell and puts them in dead bodies, Hector at least at first seemed to create zombies and Edouard seems transforms the souls of dead people into night creatures.
Mean have you read all even watched the anime in the 20 We're all over the place especially when a dot swim Trinity Story about a vampire that eats and hunts of the vampires. Blood plus ,blood plus c, There are so many there were so many vampires shows back then and manga I can name but I will be here all day.
Yeah with how they did Dracula in the last show I don't know if the resurrection plot for him and making him a super evil bad guy would really work. I liked a lot of what they did and can't wait for season 2.
Agree. Is kinda unnecessary to revive Dracula. His review feels a bit butthurt. And the series he proposed at the begining of the review sounds 50 times more boring than what we got.
Edgerunners is way better, like undoubtedly. It's better than the first Vania show too. CV started good, S1 and 2 were solid, but 3 and 4 were legitimately bad TV from a writing perspective. Edgerunners is one of the best written shows of the decade.
@@Ebh55. Season 3 is bogged down by subplots that range from boring to unnecessary (ie. Alucard/Lindenfield) while setting up things that Season 4 addressed in a shallow, rushed, and anticlimactic way (Styria/Infinite Corridor/Saint Germain and the conundrum of the Adventurer Lady). The fact that the main "protagonists" had little to do with the plot until the finale while the bulk of the runtime is focused on virtually everyone else. Not to mention that ending, unexplained and lore-breaking at best.
As a longtime fan of the games, I don't mind the changes they made to the plot, characters and world - I do mind how bluntly they treat their themes and how little time any one character and plotpoint has to breathe. There is so much going on, and everything piles on so quickly that there is little time to actually explore anything or properly expand on the characters.
I liked it but I do agree that it felt so rushed. I wished we lingered on certain subplots. This makes me question if, upon this season's production, the crew didn't have a solid confirmation to produce a second season.
yeah unlike in the 1st one they slowly introduce character first trevor then we meet sypha then finally alucard. we kinda just met everyone in the first episode
I dont understand the people who moan about "Is this adaptation still X franchise if it's so altered?" People didnt say "is it still Xmen if First Class changed Prof X's and Magneto's story?" "is it Still Civil War? If the MCU have already changed so much of the comics?" Wer all know why people dont like this adaptation specifically.
I feel this misses out on how the problems started with the changes made in the first series, especially with the happy ending given to Dracula. Any discussion of this franchise as a whole needs to address the changes made in the first series and the implications those have for future work.
Yes. The first series already barely followed the games it was adapting so I’m baffled by people being shocked and disappointed with Nocturne going completely off the rails.
Agreed! Dracula was a sympathetic tragic character who after beating alucard near to death saw his own errors in his ways. In hell he reunited with his wife and they both got out and lived secretly happily ever after. He's no longer going Mr evil bbeg. Hell he's practically "good" magneto now after the villain run where he leads the X-Men as a hero...
I loved what they did with the show. Resetting Dracula to the bad guy would completely undo all the character work in the first series. Erzebet isn't an African god, she's a European vampire that consumed an African god and their powers, almost as if the story wanted to weave its theme into the narrative, but some one missed that point because it wasn't explicitly stated I guess.
@@utkarshsingh-rp2dqbecause he isn't dead in the first place. He was brought back with lisa at the end of season 4. Secondly, in the first castlevania dracula's only reason to want to kill everything was because of his wife death, and really all that anger was just a plan to find someone to kill him. In the show dracula was only actually evil before he met Lisa
@@josecriollo6976 And that was his motivation when he died the first time in the games. When he was forced to be revived during Christopher's era (the first appearance of Castlevania (Dracula's Demonic Castle) and the beginning of the regeneration cycle), he was no longer himself, but a vessel of the will of Chaos, and given a job that he had to do but was allowed a small amount of agency in how he would go about it. And he's been a pawn of Chaos since the very beginning, hell Death was gonna kill Lisa himself if she hadn't gotten taken out by complete coincidence, since Mathias was actually happy with his life and had let go of his hatred that Death had used to push him closer and closer to being the perfect vessel for Chaos, he just needed him to willingly submit that last little bit and give himself over willingly (or be weakened enough that Death could force him to become the vessal (which he eventually ended up doing)) He's as much a victim as anyone else. With scant moments of lucidity. Even his speech with Richter is his growing frustration at a role he's being forced to play simply because of a bunch of idiots in the world empowering Chaos and forcing him to come back again and again. And a growing frustration at the Belmont's simply treating a symptom rather than going after the root cause (since due to their generational vendetta against him, they see him as the root cause rather than simply another victim who has been played). By the Morris era, he's almost relieved to be defeated each time it occurs because it's the only brief peace he gets. It wasn't till 1999 that they figure out what was going on and how to stop it. Though temporarily severing the soul bond merely allowed Dracula to be reincarnated, the bond remained intact but was merely suppressed. We see this with Soma if he failed to sever the bond on his soul completely, as he falls into the same cycle of becoming Chaos's puppet just like OG Dracula did.
@@ZanathKariashi didn't know the games lore that much so I appreciate the information, but regardless that plot is just not possible because in the show dracula is supposedly alive and lives a peaceful life with Lisa(or alone since Lisa is not inmortal) It is unknow what has happened to dracula since he was brought back and to seemingly everyone he is dead, but who knows, maybe we see him again but older and wiser and he challenges Ritcher to put and end to his long life and to prove his worth as a Belmont.
@@josecriollo6976yeah he was alive and happy hundreds of years ago with lots of Belmonts out there. I don’t have a problem with not having Dracula early on in this one but there’s so much trash storytelling in general here.
I think bringing back Dracula would've ruined his conclusion from the previous show. Also, I don't think Sekmet actually is Erzabeth, I remember a character in the show saying how Erzabeth has the blood of Sekmet? So Sekmet can channel herself through that. I might be mistaking it for something else, correct me if I'm wrong.
I would love to see Dracula back somehow, but it's a heavy lift, story wise - they left him pretty well wrapped up. Now, if Alucard was in mortal peril of some kind, I could see the Big D tearing through dimensions to save his boy...."that's my son you're messing with" *season two ends*
No You’re Right! Erzabeth is an AVATAR for Sekmet’s power! She’s not the actual goddess, but it’s clear that she’s abusing it to establish her own sense of control and perversion over Life and the Natural Order!
From what I remeber at the end of season 4 of the original Castlevania, dracula was alive and was able to escape hell thought the portal saint Germain use.
I do agree, Edouard's soul or sense of self or whatever sticking around did feel kinda silly, but as a follow up to the speaking night creature from the first series I found it interesting. The speaking night creature from the first series was a philosopher in life, and Edouard was an artist, a singer. Like being a philosopher and an artist are things that are innately human, so an artist and philosopher holding onto their humanity as demons felt pretty meaningful to me. def wasn't the intention tho lol
I like your take. It feels interesting but yea... why wasn't the philosopher resurected during antient greek times right after he died? Why did it take 2000 years for him to be resurected while Edouard was resurected immediately.
@@tomasbedoya2901 I mean it seems as the abbot machine only transorn the body, and the original soul while tainted stay. While Isaac uses souls directly from hell. Like you said at the moment there is no reason for Edouard or revolutionary soldier to be in Hell
I don't think it wasn't the intention. I think it perfectly fits with the theme of liberation going on. Night creatures are essentially slaves to their forge masters and we have reason to believe most of them do retain a "sense of self" since the philosopher wasn't the only talking nigh creature (blue fang demon could also talk and seemed to be grateful to be out of hell), but just don't or can't all communicate. I believe Édouard whole story arc will be set around liberating them/re-igniting their humanity back in some way.
@christophervelez1561 Yep found at times the animation could a little odd but that's fair to a level since every series has some odd moments especially in unimportant moments.
I think they're going to try to draw out Dracula and Shaft as slowly as possible, because of where they left Dracula at the end of the first animated series. Dracula was already resurrected and wanted nothing to do with ruling the world, so that leaves him as being the antagonist from the get go as a little strange.
While I disagree with some of your point, I have to agree that it did really feel like there was just too much going on at the same time. Also, as much as I genuinly liked Annette and Tera, I was lowkey annoyed how it felt like the show stopped everything to go and show their backstories. Like, i'm not a writer, but maybe there was a more organic way to introduce those
It might have been better to introduce the backstory of the slave master vampire fleeing when she killed him instead of dumping all of that in in one go
@@ungabunga9581 Hey, it's good that you like it so long as you know that slavery is bad. Slavery is bad ok? And Nobles, who made slavery happen, are all bad. Just remember that. And also that Slavery is bad. It's good that you liked this thing so long as you understand that slavery was bad. And that slaves are all worthy of aspiration because slavery is bad. Just remember that slavery is bad, ok? Ok.
@@tenou213 Wow that's crazy how the slaves are portrayed as the good guys considering one of the main characters, specifically the one the season focused on, was at one point a slave. Did you know the Belmonts are also good guys and even in the original show, the reason people didn't like them was because of misinformation. But of course it's clearly trying to force down your throat just how good the Belmonts are, that's why they're always talking about their lineage just to prove how good they are. I don't watch shows through a political lenses. I've spent my whole life thinking "slavery bad" and I'm bigoted against the opinions of those who would say otherwise so I really don't care if they wanna say that. If you actively look for some sort of subtext you can normally find it, even if it wasn't intended.
I liked it - definitely some ham-fisted messaging, but overall a fun first season. Similar to the first season of Castlevania, it ends with Alucard joining the crew (with a SotN glow-up) - if they can deliver on the Alucard action next season, I think we'll be in good shape. Also, the original series took some huge liberties man - if thats a problem here, it should have been an equally big problem there. I think you fell down the Reddit rabbit hole a bit on this one.
Huuuuuuge liberties! Very much agreed that Nocturne felt too packed in for 8 episodes , and I was a little annoyed with just HOW much they changed to within the story. I try not think about it too much considering it's the 1st season. I'm interested to see where the 2nd season goes
@@adoniscreed4031bruh shut the hell up He is huge fan of thr series and rondo This cartoon has nothing to do with rondo but the characters who are nothing like their game characters
Right. Its already been a completely different canon from the games since the original series. I was concerned with Richter and Maria's portrayal initially, but the show won me over by the end of its season. Im looking forward to seeing Alucard chat with this younger version of Maria as opposed to meeting her as woman in SOTN. Curious to see what the dynamic will be more than anything else considering she's a kid this time around. And how will Richter's corruption play out in future seasons...and the Morrisons wielding the whip when Richter decides he wont pass it down to his children 🤔
This is the weakest argument I've ever seen in defense of this mess. "The original took some huge liberties - so this adaptation that's supposed to adapt the source material can completely veer off course and introduce literal fanfiction characters and if you don't like it you're a redditor!" Like what? People just wanted a show based on the game. Ask anyone who actually played Rondo or SotN and ask them where the slavery subsplot was or who tf half these characters are who just happen to have the same name as the characters from the game. We're redditors because we wanted a show that actually properly adapted what was a VERY simple plotline from a video game?
I thought it was very disappointing. I loved some of it, but some aspects of it I didn't like at all. The animation felt really choppy at numerous times, the messages, while well-intended, were as subtle as a sledgehammer, and at times I had this weird feeling, that the show was almost embarrassed of being an adaptation of a videogame series. It was kinda the opposite of the Aquaman movie, that it had some extremely silly things in it, like the freaking octopus playing the drums, but they completely embraced the silliness in a very endearing, sincere way that made me like the movie a lot. Nocturne on the other hand, felt like they wanted to stay away from that as much as possible, like it was "too cool" for that. Richter acts like a pussy for most of the series, and then he finally gets his big moment with Bloodlines playing and it's actually hype as hell, but then he basically goes "I'm too cool for one liners now" like huh?? Where the fuck did that come from? I don't know why some shows are so scared of campiness that they always try to point out whenever something would be campy as if they were above it. I understand that they felt the need to do something different since Castlevania is not exactly the most plot-heavy franchise, at least for the games they have "adapted", but I felt that they didn't even try to find a middle ground. I found the characters fine for the most part, Annette was kinda unlikeable a lot of times, and her chemistry with Richter was like, non-existent, but it's not like she had a lot of personality in the game anyway. Juste was cool, Olrox was cool, Tera was cool, Richter was weird, Maria was weird, kind of a mixed bag for me really
Annette and Richter falling in love at the end was so weird. all their interactions to that point does not warrant those feelings. It shouldve started as a friendship then season 2 could start building their actual relationship. Also the dialogue in this show sounds like its written by an edgy teenager. its somehow worse than season 4s dialogue.
I have the best explanation for all of this…. Castlevania needs Warren Ellis as the main writer again, he’s the reason season 1-3 worked so well. I get it he got sexual misconduct allegations he’s a bit of a creep but he can write a really good show. Someone gotta pay under rug so he can write for the show again lol…
@@titanbro5871You guys act like the script and story from the games was written by Tolkien. Castlevania always had a simple script, the games have little to no dialogue you can fit the dialogue from the first 3 games in less than 10 pages bunch of liners lol… the dialogue was very silly, over the top and very poorly written. How you learn things in early Castlevania games is reading the description of items you find around the map and stuff that would happen visually maybe some exposition from main bosses. Rondo of blood/Dracula and SOTN has some of the cringiest most vague dialogue, the game is full of one liners and silly quotes. We loved Castlevania because of the gameplay, the challenges and music score it was never that deep until the ps2 games. Aria of sorrow and dawn sorrow are basically shonen anime, very generic, straight forward and juvenile and I love it. Castlevania circle of the moon and HOD have a very limited script and dialogue. Specially Juste’s game lol they give you nothing. In resume Castlevania fans need to chill with the demands, they games never had this much depth or level of storytelling. Nocturne was fine, as a black mixed person I couldn’t gaf about annete or her back story lol she got way too much screen time.
One thing I’ll say: After the Slave revolt in Annette’s backstory against her European tormentors,they’re free from oppression, no longer chained to a people or culture they had no hand or choice in being thrust into, and the Opera Singer decides that what the moment needed was more Opera. Just more European Singing. I found it both hilarious and a bit sad. He was really only there to do one thing: Be Opera-Man
because how dare he like to sing opera, right? People can like things that are not part of their own culture, ya know? Or are you one of those cultural appropriation freaks, while parroting "Europeans bad"
That vampire lady wasn’t Sekhmet, she drank the blood of sekhmet which gave her the goddess’ powers which is why she is worshipped as a goddess now. I can understand the confusion though.
So basically Netflix took something good and shit all over the original story and did their own thing. Might as well call the series Nocturne: Vampire Slayer because this is not Castlevania.
I can say that this show definitely has me stuck in a crossroads as far as how its being handled. I wanted to say this was the equivalent to the original 3 episodes for season one of original castlevania but bloated as they both end with the introduction of Alucard. I'm hoping season 2 really turns things around.
Been a Castlevania fan since the very first one, we can quibble back and forth about how it isnt exactly like Rondo, or we can realize that adaptations by their very nature are never exactly like the source material. It needs to be something that catches the imagination and holds it. I loved nearly every bit of nocturne. Also read the context clues my guy. Richter says he doesnt know why he got his magic back but the episode clearly shows him thinking of all the people he gives a fuck about and he nutted up and did his item crash lol.
Yeah I would hardly call it subtext! The fact that he missed that is astounding. He seems like he wasn't paying attention because it wasn't his boring screen by screen remake.
No context clues necessary, in the very next episode Richter explains how power-up twice. The explanation is in the text twice over specifically because the writers figured people wouldn't understand it, and at that point, it's on the people. I thought the explanations were unnecessary lmao, but considering people just.. I dunno, didn't hear them? Damn, lmao
@@utkarshsingh-rp2dq Where did you learn that bit of mindless rhetoric? Reddit? It's an adaptation. Adaptations are meant to stand on their own, not be perfect translations of the source material. The very fact that it's crossing over mediums means that a perfect remake is not possible. Also, it shares the fundamentals of Castlevania. BP said it himself, they got the whip, they jump, and their fighting monsters and vampires. The game is ridiculously simple and would be boring if not expanded upon. That's why it has more than just what was in the games. If you just wanted the game again then go play the game. It still exists. Go play it.
@@Peasham exactly, I only even bring it up because the content creator made a point to say he doesn't understand Richter's sudden ability to use magic again 🙄 it's quite literally spelled out with context clues and then Richter's mouth.
I have to totally agree with you. At one point, I fell asleep watching it sometime around episode 5, and when I woke up, it was episode 7 and nothing had changed excect Richtor had his powers back.
Except that you now missed some of the setup for the next season. This isn’t a full show, it’s the first arc of a show. All movies start with some exposition and this series follows that same path
True Bonsai Pop (1 gloss over many Of the character arc and out right lie about the show Doing too much Which is an outright lie like he Literally Just said trump was bad As a critique While also ignoring the Bishop who Shown to be A monster like we’re was The critique in the original series like Seriously Bonsai Pop Does not understand Castlevania if he did He will understand that Castlevania has always been different Both in the original Lord of shadows And especially in the animated timeline like that guy is really Ignore both richter and Annette character arc
The way you would cover the story just doesn't make sense as a sequel to the original Castlevania series. Dracula is this ever-present ultimate evil in the games, but in the series he's so different that it wouldn't be consistent with his character to play that role anymore.
I actually LOVED Castlevania Nocturne season 1. I was a huge fan of the first Castlevania series so was excited for this one and was not disappointed but I have never played any of the games so I only really know Castlevania through the animated show.
I'm thinking the Netflix adaptation has a pattern when it comes to Castlevania; 1st season was set up, 2nd season was awesome, 3rd season set up, 4th season was awesome. Nocturne seems to be reflecting that pattern and it's too soon to say if it holds up if it's not even completed yet.
lol. ya but the first season of netflixvania with trev n sypha and alucard was done better. a lot better. watching noctune kinda loses its hype midway especially when anette comes along... then seeing richter cry and run and not reflect his rondo counter part was a bummer. at least he got his magic awakened in this season. lmao. smh. hope season 2 holds up better. alucard hype and i hope juste comes back at some point as well rocking his HOD look.
Yeah. I feel like people are hating on an incomplete adaptation. Even if it's changing alot. It doesn't mean it's a bad story being told. Let them cook
I had given up personally on Netflixvania due to Seasons 3-4 (especially 4) kinda just avoiding wanting to tell a proper adaptation when there was material there to do so. This show caught my interest but as soon as it came out I saw the backlash and instantly noped (more like reserved it for later viewing). And yeah, recently gave it a try, there was some aspects it cooked with (I love the character designs, Doltra is amazing, while the few that remained accurate to their game looks were awesome. The action sequences were cool too), but then theres others where I just felt indeed this plot was boring (or tons of terrible dialogue and characterization for some characters). It's an interesting set up but it also just feels like they wanted to tell some original vampire hunter story and added castlevania as the IP name for value of interest. Ultimately maybe they wanted to do like the first seris where they set up something with the first 8 eps and then pay it off with the second season? Dunno. Great video. It's nice to see a neutral stance on why the show sucked.
some of these are the same initial issues I had with the first season of the last Castlevania, but then season 2 I thought was damn near perfect so im reserving judgement for now
I don't mean to be rude but i'm genrally curious what you though was bad about Castlevania season 1. Just to be clear, it's the 4 episode season where we first meet our heros in Gresit.
@@Turtledira I wouldn't call season 1 of either bad, but I see both as setup for season 2. Assemble the cast, explain power set and motivations, get everyone to where they need to be for the real show, but that's really it, they are chapter 1 and not much more. Which in the grand scheme of a multi-season series isnt a bad thing, and makes for wonderful binge watching, but as a stand-alone season for a year is kinda meh.
I too was expecting the story arc for Rondo, and while this was a bit of a diversion, I feel like it was necessary as they (showrunners) couldn't just repeat the Dracula story like the games did...in addition, Richters main arc is him being mentored by Alucard and being consumed by darkness...so I think they are working towards that.
Nah, they absolutely could always bring Dracula back like in the games. The people who grew up playing Castlevania aka the core fanbase would much rather have that then the garbage Netflix is pumping out.
Idk man, I think it was great. Annette and Edouard had really poignant stories that stuck out centering the whole revolution angle they were going for. Alucard is super left field though, season 2 is gonna spend a lot of time explaining how he even ended up there.
Honestly it sounds like you're just mad they didn't do the exact adaptation you wanted specifically of the game for their first season. I think they did a good job here, give them some time, they could come around to covering more from the game.
Castlevania DEI was great. 😏 You can tell the writers never played or cared about the games. They just wanted a means to deliver "The Message " 😏 Just as good as Season threesome with Bi-lucard. 😊
For what it was. It was still pretty entertaining but I do agree that it wasn’t the best idea to make the set up for the series like this. The only thing I can think of is that we probably won’t need to wait too long for the next 8-10 episodes. If they can get them in by March at the latest then maybe it’s worth it. But if we end up waiting until next September/October then they should have saved a good number of things for S2 instead of craming everything they changed into S1.
Not sure about Annete in the game but Annete in the show felt quite fleshed out to the point where i wouldnt say she was there just to check a box or smth. Not sure how i feel about the creatures of the night retaining their sense of self but i would mind them exploring it and tbf it was to an extend also in the first show.
I think Annete is just another damsel in distress in the game. One out of 3. 😆 It’s funny to see people complain about changes to the characters when most characters in the games aren’t really characters at all.
She wasn’t a check mark Bonzai is smiling crack on that comment. Annette was given agency and he seems to be offended by it I mean if we wanna talk Tokenism House of the Dragon is straight that
Really hated it. Been difficult to discuss since the fanbase has been relentlessly allergic to any and all criticisms. I grew up with and adore the games so I disliked it for spitting on the franchise so hard... but I can ignore those feelings. Even when I do, it was just bad writing all around, feeling like a bad fanfic at parts. They really loved to shame Richter for his trauma, and even when it wasn't brought up everyone seemed to hate him till it was convinient to remember he's an ally. If he's sposed to be our main protag why paint him in such a bad light? Why attract us w/his tragic backstory if he's also sposed to be rightfully (in the show's attitude) criticized for being traumatized? Annette was traumatized, and it's treated as this big dark backstory we're supposed to respect her for. Instead of her and Richter relating over having awful pasts she just hates him for it- then the show writes in plot points to make us, as the audience, also hate Richter for having trauma. But oh, an action scene is coming up, time to suddenly make Richter cool even though we're the writers who hate him. Then they suddenly have Annette show romantic interest in Richter for zero reason. All of their interactions at that point had been her (and Maria) dogging on Richter constantly. She hated on Richter, blaming him for her friend's death, when the entire plan was hers. Her rage brought upon the thing she's mad about... but again, the show also writes itself in a way to make us agree with her that it's all Richter to blame, and that he's a coward. The show treats her like a queen while Richters treated as the annoyance. Then... she suddenly wants to bone? I'm sorry, it's just bad writing from a team who had a bias toward one character over another (which we've seen in many shows when they go downhill). Writers need to keep in mind that how they frame this kinda "drama" makes a difference. Just comes off as, like I said, bias. If they had written in a scene calling out Annette, and having her acknowledge that, it wouldnt annoy me so much. But notice how none of my complaints had to do with the games. That's another whole can of worms that I won't dive into. It's a bad show no matter how you look at it. Oh yah, the animation also took a huge downward spiral.
So, they took a basic plot that can be summed up in “Hey Richter, go save these three ladies and go kill Dracula”, and basically bloated up into a point where there’s too much stuff going that it never fufilled the premised or ever got to stablishing it.
That could have been a good plot! Richter fighting alone after finishing his training with Juste, as he learns to fight with others as he unveils a cultic plot to bring back key vampires from the older seasons like Carmilla and Darcula. That's why women are being taken crom the countryside. It's THAT easy. These writers are trash
Please note that I'm saying this as someone who didn't much about the games watching the series, useing context from what happened in the last iteration, and a black man: I overall give castlevania nocturne a 9/10. As you stated mike, yeah that last episode alone bumped it up a whole point for me. That scene where Richter(screw subtitles I thought it was victor) got his powers back was insane. Mans went SSJ Blue. Lol Being as the first iteration mixed a bunch of games together, I thought that wouldn't really matter. Yeah nocturne introduces ALOT! However, as far as we know from the last iteration, dracula was just chillin' with his wife. Possibly still is. So they had to come up with a new threat. For me, the idea that we are currently in an eclipse can open up alot of doors for season 2. The whole group will be on their guard the whole time due to vampires roaming freely. It took a couple episodes, but I like the shows Enet. However yes, I do think this implied romance is sudden and out of place. Lets try saveing her friend first. Speaking of, what happened to him? He was the best character of the season because, unlike just about everyone else, that man had things figured out. I just hope he isn't actually dead now. So in saying all of this and watching your video, maybe I'd feel the same way if I was a fan of the castlevania games. I feel like though, the show is trying to write itself out of this dracula shaped hole they put themselves in while also trying to tell a new story. If the last episode didn't go the way it did, I think they might had failed and there'd be no season 2.
Did we forget that Dracula was a tragic antagonist in Castlevania? And was around for TWO SEASONS. Even when there’s another cult that wants to resurrect him, they don’t exactly get what they want. He does get resurrected with Lisa, and one can assume they actually get to live a life together, that Alucard finds out hopefully and gets to be with them again. Elizabeth Barthory DRANK from Sekhmet, but she is not her until she becomes that lioness form, because here’s the crazy part, that’s how she is depicted in the ancient Egyptian writings, as a lioness, which Drolta even describes her as. The mythology even works because Sekhmet can be considered one of the earliest vampires if you look up her mythos. Netflix gave them 8 episodes, so blame them and not the animators and writers. How you described Rondo of night was honestly sadly boring and I would’ve not enjoyed it, and it seems you just wanted action porn, not a story and it’s a bit cringe that you wanted Maria to be 12? They fleshed out Annette and actually made her interesting, and not just someone to be Richters love interest, and they didn’t show Sypha and Trevor flirting much either, until they basically said they were banging. This was a bad take man and Even you admit you didn’t like the talking from the first season of castlevania, yet you give nocturne shit for it?
God the Annette complaints are my favorite, her ass had zero characterization or even purpose to the story aside from having her be saved by Richter and these mfs think any serious production that wants to be watchable for adults would actually keep a character like that in, hilarious.
@@Peasham they actually made her into a full fledged character with her own motivations and flaws...heaven forbid. Also why the hell would I want Dracula to be the villain AGAIN when they spent so much time humanizing him in Castlevania, let the man rest
I personally really enjoyed Nocturne so much, the animation goes insane in some episodes and I felt this was more of a prequel of RoB, I really appreciated them building the world and the characters so next season they can go all out, so yeah I wasn't really expecting the same story from the game. Can't wait for season 2!
I think for Nocturne, they are trying to combine Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night together. Alucard isnt supposed to show up until after Richter has already defeated Dracula. But i also feel Nocturne is very enjoyable.
I feel like the core ideas of the show are better than you are making them out to be. They did kind of pace the first season poorly, but maybe nocturne will follow the same pattern as the OG show and get more episodes in the subsequent seasons. I believe you're right in that they should have included more references to specifically rondo of blood, but I definitely don't think they should copy the story from the games like you seem to be suggesting. To be frank, that story feels super generic. For a game that's perfectly fine, but for a show that feels almost like a cash grab. Regardless of how this show turns out in the end, I'd rather the showrunners try something new and flop than them just write the story in a way that is bound to not inoffensive and dull. Either way, the animation is sick and the fights are glorious. This doesn't mean the show is free from criticism of course, I just disagree with yours
@@raven-sf3di it has plenty to do with Castlevania. It's still using characters and themes that have been present within the series for a long while now. It's not like Castlevania has ever been a story heavy series until the PS2/DS games anyway. There's a ton of room for interpretation and expansion of the series, especially from the earlier games.
@@majestyzx9081 slapping in a name of a character or having lots of member berries in it doesn't make it a castlevania show. And not having much plot can make it more moody,haunting and interesting filled with tension and drama . It would then line up with the Japanese concept of Ma
@@raven-sf3di drama doesn't exist without plot. And there are no member berries in this show. The uchi-katana didn't pop up and spin around Richter, the Holy water burst rain didn't show up. I don't think you understand what member berries are and just use that term whenever there's something you claim to not like appear in a show. This show in tone, style, setting, and writing is purely Castlevania and you're being extremely dense if you choose not to see that. Castlevania has always been pretty cheesy in tone, so the dark edgy setting that people seem to want is so out of tone for Castlevania and it's ironic for them to act like it's not.
It seems i have a mostly similar opinion of Nocturne to you, but my experience with the show was more positive than yours I kinda expected for it to have little to do with the games since S3 and S4 were just their own thing and it ended with Dracula and Lisa living happily and Alucard chilling with the Belmonts instead of Dracula's endles cycle starting and Alucard locking himself up until Symphony
@@kadosho02 Yet that means there's no point in Nocturne. Hell they sure can't go into future anymore because Dracula got redeemed before 1999. So no Soma, No Bloodlines, No Portrait of Ruin, No Shanoa. They're all tied to Dracula coming back. Hell, Shanoa in her point in time controls Dracula's power beter than he does. *poof* gone.
When JoJo does better Vampires (you know something that was a thing just for two parts.) Than Castlevania WHICH IS LITERALLY ALL ABOUT VAMPIRES, we have a problem.
@@otakuthegreat So real vampires are products of an aztec mask that shoot laserbeams out of their eyes who flaunt their vampirism out in the open and not members of the elite who stay out of sight to hide their monstrous forms.
Gotta love how your interpretation of a Rondo of Blood adaption got the vibes of an 90s action anime. It seriously shows how the game is very much a product of its time when you make a 1:1 adaption like that. xD But yeah, Nocturne barely borrows anything from the game's story at all. It's really only Castlevania in the sense that it is a sequel to the pervious Castlevania anime. Otherwise it's really its own thing that only borrows some names and a few designs from the games. Being generally as much of its own universe as Lords of Shadows overall.
Ok, here's where I share an odd thing about me. I am a Santera with friends who practice Vodun. So, having the names of Orisha and Lwa unexpectedly crop up in my entertainment and not having the religion completely butchered and disrespected was a rare treat. I even heard some Yoruban (although very little). This made the show much more interesting to me than perhaps the average viewer. Was it accurate in depicting Vodun? Well, no. But I'll take the positive representation where I can find it. [Btw, I am a white person who through circumstance was introduced to and accepted into an historically black and Latino religious tradition. I have always strived to appreciate and honor the great gift the people in the religion have given me. My Padrino was Cuban and I had the privilege of going to Cuba to receive Ocha (initiation) in his Ile (spiritual house). An American getting to go to Cuba is no simple feat and I am grateful for the experience.]
I really like Nocturne. I had no idea what Castlevania was until the first Castlevania came out three years ago so I consider myself a casual fan. I give Nocrurne a 8/10. I agree that Nocturne had some pacing issues and I personally think that the chemistry was off with the main group ( most of the first season they spent their time separated from one another so I didn't feel the familial bonds with Richter and his adopted family and I think that Richter and Annette didnt spend enough time together for any form of romance to develop) but the writers only had 8 episodes and I think they wanted to get the exposition/backstory out of the way to get to the nitty gritty next season- I wish they had kept the slower pacing like the first Castelvania but Netflix is fickle and maybe the writers were scared the series would be cancelled or cut short. I was relieved when I discovered they are having a season 2 because animation has had some ups and downs lately. Aside from this, I enjoy this series for what it is just like I did with the first Castlevania. I didn't play the games and I have noticed the people who are most attached to the games have the most issues with this series. Even with the first Castlevania I remember everyone complaining about Issac being black or being upset that Alucard had a threesome or being upset that there were too many quiet moments or too much focus on Camilla's group and not the main group when all of these changes added nuance to the characters and their motivations and made the world feel bigger to me. I love this series and I cant see what season two will bring.
What you described is, to me, rampant in streaming lately. They are doing short "seasons" and they meander through fluff for 90% of it, then try to cram wrap ups and cliffhangers for the "next season" in the last episode. It always falls so short and leaves me having watched nothing of substance. I would expect the story to be tight and solid in 8 or 10 episodes, with no need for the fluff that was often all over traditional television seasons. As awful as it sounds, they don't have a good formula for streaming "seasons", so we keep getting this.... stuff.
This was interesting since you’re a fan. The only thing I had a problem with was the animation fight scenes. I felt the frame rate was lower than before. I assume cause of the budget but yeah, it was choppy. I’m an animation production person and those things are incredibly important to me. But your video was insightful and I learned a lot
They should have just made an Abraham Lincoln : vampire hunter anime if they wanted to do something with vampires and slavery. This is just an in name adaptation.
Man, let me first be clear, I loved this show, and I'm also a fan of the games, particularly Rondo of Blood and Dracula X (also Harmonny of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow). And while I didn't expect, no, I didn't want a direct adaptation of the game since that would also need the ending of the former series to be nullified. Some of the things that happened with the show really did not land well with me. Some are in agreement with Mike. About the changes, in general, I do like where the story is going, I like the setting, and most of the characters, particularly Annette (boy is she better than her game counterpart), Maria, and Richter. However, I do fully agree this series is doing too much in too little time, let's say, instead of the 8 episodes we had at least 12-15 episodes in this season, just to expand on the plot given in this season. We could have had a really good and profound beginning of the story, but, since we didn't, here we are. With incredibly bad pacing, some story points that are clearly there only to be used in the next season, and, for me, the worst part is the abuse of "lucky scenarios". Let me explain this last one since it's the one that annoyed me the most. There are so many "convenient" happenings, things like Annette killing the Vampire that enslaved her randomly in a Graveyard, Richter finding out Just out of nowhere in a random city in a random restaurant, or the Magic or Richter suddenly coming back. All of those things could have been done in other ways that, if given more time or, fewer things to do, could have been great. But in the end, it seems to me that either the creators wanted to do too much or, they planned something but then suddenly got their budget and episode run cut while they were already in production. So, in conclusion, Castlevania Nocturne is until now(to me, and again let me be clear, to me) a good enough show but, not spectacular and inferior to the original Castlevania series. However, I do believe that there are so many good things under the issues of the series that could still provide an amazing experience. So I will keep an eye out for the second season hoping things get sorted out and we can say Castlevania Nocturne is another success in the Castlevania animation department. Side note: Konami for the love of god do something else with the IP, we need more Castlevania, at least just keep re-releasing the older games, please... I'm begging you!!!
1. Annette's "Owner" was there due to becoming a follower of Elizabet Bathory post revolution, hence the brand on his forehead. As many other vampires from across the world are. 2. Juste had explained he was always keeping an eye on Richter and was close by, so it's not like Richter just came to this random town and Juste happened to be there. 3. Richter finally made the decision to live for others, paralleling the moment Juste described losing his magic. Whenever his best friend and Wife had died he had no one else to live for and had lost his magic/will to live. Richter finally decided to live for his friends and not allow another one to be hurt/killed thus bringing his magic back. These moments were clearly explained within the context of the story and weren't just "random" or "lucky".
They amped up the video game content but it doesn’t feel as witty and fun as the original run and I wish there was more music and monsters from Rondo. I’m still hyped for the inevitable Symphony of the Night season, I just hope they use A LOT of the music from that game.
Some music yes but alot of that music was strange. I love jazz but I would burst out laughing if they had scenes of Alucard murdering monsters to the caverns music from sotn.
I think you nailed it when you said " and duh stuff" it's like they pushed a message we all already know, just for the sake of having a message, and they did it at the expense of the main character and story
The story of the show is vampires wanting to enslave humanity by becoming the elites that rule over them, showing slavery and how it's bad is literally what the plot is about.
Gotta say, normally I find your work to be really thoughtful and well-researched, and this one felt slapshod. Lots of folks have already pointed out the various points that were simply incorrect about key concepts of the series, so I won't repeat here. It's totally cool not to like something, and it's cool for fans to disagree. I'm sorry it didn't meet your expectations of what a show could be, though again, we're clearly only halfway through the story, and only barely saw what a more badass Richter Belmont is even capable of. I'm eager to see how the latter half of this plays out, and how (or if) they plan on spinning this into Symphony of the Night. But when I listen to an analysis and there are clear errors in plot points being presented, it's hard not to discount it as being more an emotional reaction than a rational objection. Those are fine too, by the way, just not typically what I associate with the channel. Still love your content though, please keep it up. Not enough voices on this platform champion older anime for their quality and content, and I appreciate how much y'all do that. Cheers!
I was also very disappointed. When it was announced and I saw it was gonna be Richter I couldn't wait! Nocturne suffers the same way so many other series suffer anymore; "Hey look at us! We're inclusive so hopefully that will distract from our lazy writing, poor pacing, half-baked plot points and lack of real character development." There were some cool scenes, fun fights, good music and mostly good looking animation, but it wasn't enough to make it worth spending 4 hours watching an extended "teaser" essentially. Also, just gotta say, your pitch for the first season sounded muuuuuuch better than what we have received here. Cheers man!
Nice review. I really liked the show, but I’m not as familiar with the source material as you are, so I can see were you are coming from. Still I thought the animation and most of the character moments were great. Some parts were kinda forced (like Anette and Richter romance), and they spend a little too much time on the secondary characters. Some characters were really cool though, like Olrox, Richter and Tera and some scenes were really badass (Divine Bloodlines). After watching your video I agree that they could have been more faithfull to the source material. Looking forward to the second season though.
Heralded as the best videogame adaptation of all time? By whom? Arcane runs circles around Castlevania on every conceivable aspect, including dialogue writing, art direction and animation quality. The only parts of Castlevania I'd consider superior would be the demon conversation with the bishop in his church and Dracula's realization of killing his own son.
It really irks me how Annette managed to use iron crosses to trap that vampire, the crosses actually physically burning him as if they were holy, when Trevor himself explained in the universe of the animated series(not the games) the effects of the cross is purely psychological. The writers clearly didn't pay attention.
Magic in this universe works by exerting your will into reality, holy water is a thing that exists and it's not holy because it's infused by god juices, it's holy and burns vampires because the priests willed it to be holy. Annette willed the crosses to burn her formed slaver, and so they did.
Couldn't agree more. I came to Nocturnal with low expectations (Not a fan from The first adaptation's seasons 3 and 4, I have to add) and YET, I got completely disappointed. All I can see is the usual racist bullshit against Annette, everyone out there are too focused on a minor race swap and are forgetting the real meat of Rondo that is missing (perfectly point by you): No Dracula, no Shaft, no Death, no ritual, no village on fire, no Castlevania emerging in the top of a hill.
I definitely agree with some of your points, I really loved this series and I'm excited for what season 2 has in store but it definitely dragged at parts. And I agree, I think it needed to be a bit longer just to flesh everything out, they had to pack a lot into 8 episodes. Hopefully the issues get solved in seasons 3 with the inclusion of Alucard and hopefully Netflix doesn't cancel it after season 2 like it seems to do with every animated show that isn't Big Mouth.
Honestly. To me this Season of Castlevania didn’t Drag as much as what the 1st and 2nd Seasons did in The first series! Everyone is familiar with the World and the previous stories! So everything here just clicks!
I would describe Nocturne as extra and cheesy. I enjoyed it by the end though. It has the vibes I want, even if the writing is a bit choppy. Richter's 1 episode freak out felt weirdly forced to get to a power up moment. I like Olrox as a character, weird that they have a Spanish crusader literally butt fucking an Aztec god, but okay. I think the story changes are fine to pad out what was in the games. I like the idea of Sekmet making horcruxes out of people. I'm excited to see where it goes. Sad that Drolta got herself Alucard Ex Machina'd. That could have been a cool fight had it played out with Ricky boy.
I like your plot setup but I would actually change Annette a little. While Annette's purpose works for a video game and a product of it's time, her being kidnapped and left in a tower doing nothing for the entire season gives me series "Woman in a refrigerator vibes" so instead I would have Annette be the leader of the resistance movement in the tower. Like Dracula kidnaps a huge part of the countryside to do a farm thing in his tower and Annette decides to fight his forces from the inside. This could be one of the reasons why Richtor has some success fighting Dracula's forces from the outside and breaking into the tower, since they're distracted from a two front assault. And since the tower is complex and ever changing you don't have to worry about why the two groups aren't meeting up.
I started and finished watching castlevainia recently fell in love with and have watched it multiple time and am looking into the games but I couldn’t even bare to watch the trailer still gave the first episode a shot and gave up before his mother died and now I’m glad I stoped when I did
Also I really loved how, despite not being able to play any of the games, I didn't feel left out and had a great mix of learning some rich history and turning my brain off to enjoy the action. Can't wait for Season 2, a great prelude for what's to come
@@Peasham it's not rich if I can sum it up in a few words, especially it's like french revolution and they are talking about slaves and allat? those were well not minor things but we would have to understand more important stuff first about the french revolution before we move to that
yes , ill say its a tie between the first Castlevania season and Arcane atm , they are both tour de force masterpieces ; Arcane is basically 'every frame a painting' AND the story is great , i watch these amvs almost once a week ; th-cam.com/video/o-xFqjEm0-k/w-d-xo.html ; and i could watch this scene from CV over and over th-cam.com/video/a0LhJY3XRwg/w-d-xo.html , th-cam.com/video/xY7fF4fbnps/w-d-xo.html ; EDIT - AND Edgerunners how could i forget XD Studio Trigger did such an excellent job there
Thank you for putting this to words. I think i was very excited for this show, so when it wasn't panning out in a likeable way i kinda just pushed through and assumed i was in a weird mood. Nah tho, nocturne missed a few keys along the way. Excited to see more, and hopefully they actually see feedback like this and consider changing how they approach the characters. In the first show i didn't mind the bloated dialog because the characters saying them were believable and likeable. They bounced off each other naturally, and man i didn't realize how much I'd miss Trevors deep voice. What a man muffin.
To reach their own but I don’t really get how someone can like the first series but dislike the second when both are hitting the same beats- last series also used the source material as set dressing to tell their own story, flesh out characters and the works as a whole
I think my main issue was that castlevania 3 had a super barebones story, barely anything at all, whereas rondo and symphony have a much larger fleshed out narrative in the games. You can basically do whatever you want with 3. it’s much harder to kind of throw away what rondo set up and symphony finished without bumming people out
Just gotta say here, I've been watching TH-cam for a long time and been an anime/manga fan for an even longer time (I'm 30yo this year) but I'm really confused why I'm just now finding the Bonsai Pop channel even though it's been making videos for years. But anyway, I've been bingeing videos and really enjoying myself. Keep up the good work!
I have one question about this show where are the canon's and muskets. Its the 18th Century I thought i would see silver bullets why does it still look like its taking place in medieval times.
It was such a step down from the original The entire Anette storyline was ham fisted and preachy as fuck, and I hate when series sideline their MCs (the Witcher for example) The first bit starts out strong then it’s a slog, and then the last episode was actually ok. The most exciting part was seeing “that” character again
You don't hate when a series sidelines its mc, you hate when you have to look at a woman on the screen, despite her having infinitely less screentime than Richter.
@mites7 I agree with you. And Bonsai Pop summed up exactly what I was thinking. Over convoluted and so many changes to the story which leads to barely any audience relating to the characters, nothing happens for the first 6 episodes and the ending is just fanservice. It was several steps down from the original.
@@thejanusproject32 Projection is when a dude states a series sidelines its main character because a side character gets approximately 7 minutes of screentime and I point out their actual problem.
Dude bro, I’ve been watching you for years now and you are one of the few young guns that REALLY love and respect anime the way us OGs do and as I’m watching this I’m finally seeing your youth showing. I FULLY disagree with your opinion on how they handled this season and its scope you missed when it comes to the story. You forget they took so much liberty with Trevors story along with the fact that the first season was only like 3 episodes and didn’t get going until season 2. They omitted D’Nasty and Issac is black and one of the best characters in the series. The fact that you assumed they would follow any script is crazy and it was basically watching an animated Game of Thrones. The addition of the voodoo aspect built on the story and lore of this world. The only reason it’s a negative for you is that you assumed it would follow Roundo which were all knew they wouldn’t. I found it engaging and entertaining as hell and I can’t wait for the real Roundo story to start with the next season and will wait for the SOTN season which we know is how it’s going to go. Give it time but don’t think it’s lame cause character changes and story changes; be honest, your explanation of how it ‘should’ve’ happened sounds basic af…
Thanks for watching and look for our giant Kenshin vid coming next week! Also grab your free Gamersupps sample and free shipping for the first 24 hours of the video's release here: gamersupps.gg/BPOP After 24 hours the code will still give you 10% off all orders!
I'm so excited for the Kenshin video! It's one of my favorite anime/manga. I rewatch the anime all the time with my dad. I know you will give it the justice it deserves.
Thanks for actually intelligently expressing your dislike instead of just throwing "woke" & only "woke" around as ya dismissal. I looked at the conversations going on in Castlevania FB groups, & was like, "I'm not even gonna touch this with a 10 foot pole. It makes American politics look bipartisan by comparison levels of unintelligible."
If the second season has payoff for all the setup in season 1 I think it shall become better liked in hindsight, but if not "everyone" gonna be disappointed.
That was very well said, and I am glad I’m not the only one that feels the same way when it comes to how instead of giving it a critique on marriage, they give it a critique or say it’s bad, because there’s things in it, that they particularly may not like or want to see, which is pathetic and sad if he asked me it was a good show. It was a damn good show and I can look past those things that you’re not touching with a 10 foot pole and just because certain subjects are brought up doesn’t automatically make it woke to me that word is past run its course!!! I would actually give someone a little bit more respect if they came out and just said what they’re dancing around the fact that they don’t like things because it is same-sex or because they touched on other themes. Therefore it’s bad that’s really a sad way of looking at a piece of art.!!!
I wish I was more invested ( eh I guess ) in the original games and lore, but I’m just Not. I enjoy the original anime and this was OK. Not defending the obvious unnecessary race swap stuff because the actual fans know better but I thought the show was Decent. Decent in the eyes of a guy that’s not that into the original game stuff, definitely see the point of the old fans though it was for y’all and they FU%K that up🤷🏾♂️
I played all of Castlevania and I am not complaining about Nocturne. I am not a dork that would want to literally translate the game into an anime and complain about characters being black or white like a primitive racist LOL
I was bothered by the fact that everyone completely glosses over the fact that it's Annette's fault that the opera singer is killed because she lost control of her magic because of her past trauma rising up. Meanwhile, she gets upset with Richter for freezing up because of his past trauma and he ends up apologizing to her for it.
I infered that, since the abbot was already plotting with the vampires, he would've snitched on Ricther and co.
True, but this whole season was setting up the character flaws for the group. I thought they did this to parallel Annette and Richter because in the first episode. The main reason Richter's Mom lost was because Richter thought he could help but got in over his head. I also think Nocturne is trying to highlight how inexperienced the whole group is and how strength and passion alone are not enough to resolve grand scale issues- this fits in well with the French Revolution theme since it resulted in the temporary return to the status quo with Emperor Napoleon. Annette came into the series hot. She already won a revolution so she thinks she knows what she is doing but she is hot headed and her plans are too basic. She has amazing abilities but she can't muscle her way through stuff in this situation. Marie is passionate and is the embodiment of how people in the French revolution thought an acted. She wants to slash a burn the old establishment and doesn't put too much deep thought into how this could lead to more trouble. More than this, she is the youngest and the weakest of the cast and made a stupid decision trying to save the Abbot/her dad without going with back up or telling anyone where she was. Richter is strong but he has never had a any real challenges ( he mentioned only having to kill two or three vampires a month to now having to kill two or three a day). On top of this he has past trauma which made him unreliable (this guy SPRINTED from his adopted family and teammate and didn't show up again for three days) and because his Mom died and his Grandpa didn't want to be involved in his life and teach him the family history he has no idea what Nightcreature's are and thought of Alucard as a myth ( he may not even know who Dracula is either). I think in season two Alucard is going to take up the role as a teacher and leader which the group desperately needs and give them direction.
@@veronica-wolfmaiden5383Yeah but the show also makes it a constant barrage at Richter while Annette feels "I'm better than you"
@@theafterburner6231if I remember right don't her own ancestors and teacher tell her she's being unfair...seems like the show accepts this is a character flaw in her that she needs to work on
@@Sup-jz2owyeah, and its not even portrayed like shes on the right for shitting on him
One point I need to bring up is that erzabet drank sekmets blood to gain her powers and is being treated as her by her followers. She isn’t actually her.
Yeah, I understood that as well. I think that if you ever played Vampire the Masquerade you can see that she committed a Diablerie with a creature more powerful (somehow), and elevated her power.
And aí like BP analysis, and many of the points he's correct (I think about the pacing and so on), but he clearly was a little biased when was watching, didn't pick many of the series point (that of Erzabet absorbing Sekhmets power, ie), that snowball into his dislike, and also some nitpicking that he inflated because of the expectations he had not being met by the show.
I really think that the "you didn't like because you didn't understand it" phrase is a total cliché, and many times that's not what happened... and I even may say that's just not what happened here... but in some degree that was what affected his review... as he said, he just wanted to see vampires being being slayed and wanted more of that...
As I see, the show tried to be more than that and the theme of freedom was perfectly chosen to be the focus of the series. Theres the revolution of the people and the oprresion of the lord's, the slavery being added to the mix with the changes of Anette, the church trying to keep it's power and people chained by their faith (with Erzabet being a figure that projects herself as a god and that should be above everyone else), even Richter was in some way chained by his trauma and he got freed from it, or Olrox who is kinda enslaved by his very nature... there's so much to see in the characters that... well, If you just wanted to see vampires getting slayed and did not got in the amount you saw fit... you'll be probably miss all that development...
I really think there are problems in the show, is impossible to any show be perfect, but I really feel that, with the next season, more people will appreciate it more (and I saw it just as a first act of a bigger story, that will probably end with the SotN adaptation the fans really want).
Yeah, she’s basically an Avatar for the Goddess’ power to flow.
@@TADMOORE
THANK YOU! I feel this video just got Nitpickie Over the Slimmest of Details!
The Show Will Never be a One-to-One adaptation of the Games!
Hell even I. The Original 4 seasons. Everyone was really pissed off about Grant Danesty not being in the show!
There was also the fact that they included additional characters and Changes that people either liked or hated! Same with the fact that Season 1 & 2 took their sweet time before they got deeper into the stories involved!
Yeah it was pretty clearly called out that she drank the gods blood.
In the last episode she literally says she's Sekmet.
My understanding was that Bathory drank Sehkmet's blood, and that's what led to the Sehkmet transformation, not that she's actually Egyptian
Walk liiiiiike an egyyyptiaaaaan
Yeah they said that multiple times, thats her connection to Drolta. A good faith watch will take you a long way
Ya bathroy is white white and just assimilated sekmets blood.
And then there are scene when she complain about the sun god Ra like he's her dad(she even called him farther)
@@aokhoinguyenang3992 assimilation is weird, it's hard to tell where one entity ends and the other begins
Honestly, I agree for the most part. I felt like the problem was there was so much going on, there wasn’t time for us to care about the characters. They just gave really intense backstories to people we just met.
They changed too much and with shitty dialog.
I would like to add to that point that they didn’t introduce the backstory over time but just dumped it on us in one go, which makes it even harder to digest
In the first 2 episode we meet everyone they fight like 4 times and a guy we just met gets killed
,
In caslvania the first two episodes we got a backstory for why Dracula is in the war path and a good intro to Trevor as a character
,
We didn’t meet any other main characters till ep 3-4
The first series ensured we had solid characterizations for a small handful of characters before THEN sprinkling a few more interesting ones in with a lot of space to breathe.
I for real dread Alucard's inclusion into a series being done by this writing team. It certainly doesn't feel like triumph.
The two things that gave away for me how I knew this was going to be completely different is how the original series ended with Dracula and when I saw that Warren Ellis wasn’t going to be writing for this show for… obvious reasons.
Wait, why did he not write for this show?
@@amazinglaughs I'm going off of hazy memory but the gist is he was outed as having engaged in serial sex pest behavior. Used his status as a writer to coerce women into relationships that he would hide from all of them, possibly other details that I genuinely can't recall. You can always google for yourself, of course.
The weird thing about Warren Ellis was that the women in question didn't want him fired they wanted to address him and people like him. It just felt like the studio wanted to save face rather than respect the victims wishes.
@@kap1618you're wrong on this, it was MULTIPLE woman, like a lot of them came out with similar stories. Then he assumed the problem, promised he would go through therapy or something and failed multiple times to actually do what was promised.
@@crybirb Yeah, I noted their were multiple women coming out against him, and they openly stated what they wanted from him and the studio. But the studio just seemed to ignore that and fire hik outright. I read articles that interviewed them, and that's where I'm getting my information from.
I didn't hear anything about him going to therapy because he was already out by then. Where did you hear that part?
I read Edouard's return less as the power of opera and more as a reluctant/terrible forgemaster. Every time the issue came up the Abbot never seemed half as confident in his skills as Isaac or Hector.
This. A man with half-hearted convictions made a half-hearted deal with a demon in order to create night creatures he only made with half-hearted wants. Isaac or Hector never had insubordination due to them being fully realized in their convictions in making these creatures, meanwhile Mr. Half-baked ideals has multiple night creatures that retain some semblance of their humanity.
Also Edouard wasn't the first night creature to act like this; with Hector seemed like just talking to them would help then regain their personalities and remember their past life
The morally grey priest manufactures flawed night creatures? Shocking lol. Also, they are in a church.....maybe it isn't just Egyptian/Mesoamerican gods at play here.
I agree with this. In the last season of Castlevania Issac had a lot of deep conversations with one of his night creatures (the fly guy who was once a Greek philosopher) so it had already been established that some Night creatures maintain some of their memories. The Abbot is not a master like Issac or Hector either. He is using a machine so I feel like his Nightcreature's are more "artificial" and have less specificity in design and purpose like Hector and Issac had for their Nightcreature's.
I think each forgemaster is a little different Issac literally takes random souls from hell and puts them in dead bodies, Hector at least at first seemed to create zombies and Edouard seems transforms the souls of dead people into night creatures.
If someone made an original show about an uprising of enslaved people against their vampire master, I would watch the HELL out of that
Mean have you read all even watched the anime in the 20 We're all over the place especially when a dot swim Trinity Story about a vampire that eats and hunts of the vampires. Blood plus ,blood plus c, There are so many there were so many vampires shows back then and manga I can name but I will be here all day.
I mean season one of interview with the vampire is out…
Same, but it wound still be attacked by certain parts of the internet
Seraph of the end
Yah well we didn't so enjoy yuh slop boi
Yeah with how they did Dracula in the last show I don't know if the resurrection plot for him and making him a super evil bad guy would really work. I liked a lot of what they did and can't wait for season 2.
I'm glad they aren't forcing Dracula as the villain. It'd feel so wrong after the first series. Give some new characters the spotlight.
exactly, any plot with Dracula as the bad just wouldn't work anymore unless they are doing an alternate timeline
Agree. Is kinda unnecessary to revive Dracula. His review feels a bit butthurt. And the series he proposed at the begining of the review sounds 50 times more boring than what we got.
Well this does has me wondering how they are gonna pull off Soma being the Reincarnation of Dracula if ever they make an Aria of Sorrow Adaptation.
@@angelharris3727I thought he was alive at the end of season 4
As much as I love the Castlevania show, after shows like Arcane and Edgerunners I'm not sure if we can call it the best videogame adaptation.
Edgerunners is way better, like undoubtedly. It's better than the first Vania show too. CV started good, S1 and 2 were solid, but 3 and 4 were legitimately bad TV from a writing perspective. Edgerunners is one of the best written shows of the decade.
@@TheT3rr0rMask How were 3 and 4 bad from a writing perspective?
@@Ebh55. Season 3 is bogged down by subplots that range from boring to unnecessary (ie. Alucard/Lindenfield) while setting up things that Season 4 addressed in a shallow, rushed, and anticlimactic way (Styria/Infinite Corridor/Saint Germain and the conundrum of the Adventurer Lady). The fact that the main "protagonists" had little to do with the plot until the finale while the bulk of the runtime is focused on virtually everyone else. Not to mention that ending, unexplained and lore-breaking at best.
If we don't get the Iconic Line "Die Monster you Don't Belong in this world!" In season 2, I will be extremely dissapointed!!!
I too expected that entire dialogue to be in..and not the newer re voice version. It has to be the original cheesy one.
It has to be with Dracula. "What is a man..." the whole thing. It has to happen lol
@@jjspade81 Going to be Annette saying "What is a white man.... a miserable pile of secrets"
@@willn8664 I hope the hell not 😆
The problem with Shaft is that he's a complicated man and no one understands him but his woman.
Shaft! Awww yeahhh
I swear if they start playing that song.
As a longtime fan of the games, I don't mind the changes they made to the plot, characters and world - I do mind how bluntly they treat their themes and how little time any one character and plotpoint has to breathe. There is so much going on, and everything piles on so quickly that there is little time to actually explore anything or properly expand on the characters.
I liked it but I do agree that it felt so rushed. I wished we lingered on certain subplots. This makes me question if, upon this season's production, the crew didn't have a solid confirmation to produce a second season.
yeah unlike in the 1st one they slowly introduce character first trevor then we meet sypha then finally alucard.
we kinda just met everyone in the first episode
I agree with this, I don't agree with most of the main points being made in this video tho
Even though i'd like the show this is a fair critic to make
I dont understand the people who moan about "Is this adaptation still X franchise if it's so altered?" People didnt say "is it still Xmen if First Class changed Prof X's and Magneto's story?" "is it Still Civil War? If the MCU have already changed so much of the comics?" Wer all know why people dont like this adaptation specifically.
>Black vampires
>protagonist is a white guy with a whip
What did they mean by this
Vanquishing the Darkness
@@jerppursh7570 😂😂
Oh god....
Stop yawn
I'm kind of retarded so I don't know if you mean this as a joke LOL if you do if you don't you are reaching AF.
I feel this misses out on how the problems started with the changes made in the first series, especially with the happy ending given to Dracula. Any discussion of this franchise as a whole needs to address the changes made in the first series and the implications those have for future work.
Yes. The first series already barely followed the games it was adapting so I’m baffled by people being shocked and disappointed with Nocturne going completely off the rails.
Agreed! Dracula was a sympathetic tragic character who after beating alucard near to death saw his own errors in his ways. In hell he reunited with his wife and they both got out and lived secretly happily ever after. He's no longer going Mr evil bbeg. Hell he's practically "good" magneto now after the villain run where he leads the X-Men as a hero...
Exactly they can't resurrect Dracula if he's not dead and alucard lives in Dracula's castle They had to go a completely different route
I loved what they did with the show. Resetting Dracula to the bad guy would completely undo all the character work in the first series. Erzebet isn't an African god, she's a European vampire that consumed an African god and their powers, almost as if the story wanted to weave its theme into the narrative, but some one missed that point because it wasn't explicitly stated I guess.
Why would bring back the Dracula undo any of his character?
@@utkarshsingh-rp2dqbecause he isn't dead in the first place. He was brought back with lisa at the end of season 4. Secondly, in the first castlevania dracula's only reason to want to kill everything was because of his wife death, and really all that anger was just a plan to find someone to kill him. In the show dracula was only actually evil before he met Lisa
@@josecriollo6976 And that was his motivation when he died the first time in the games.
When he was forced to be revived during Christopher's era (the first appearance of Castlevania (Dracula's Demonic Castle) and the beginning of the regeneration cycle), he was no longer himself, but a vessel of the will of Chaos, and given a job that he had to do but was allowed a small amount of agency in how he would go about it.
And he's been a pawn of Chaos since the very beginning, hell Death was gonna kill Lisa himself if she hadn't gotten taken out by complete coincidence, since Mathias was actually happy with his life and had let go of his hatred that Death had used to push him closer and closer to being the perfect vessel for Chaos, he just needed him to willingly submit that last little bit and give himself over willingly (or be weakened enough that Death could force him to become the vessal (which he eventually ended up doing))
He's as much a victim as anyone else. With scant moments of lucidity.
Even his speech with Richter is his growing frustration at a role he's being forced to play simply because of a bunch of idiots in the world empowering Chaos and forcing him to come back again and again. And a growing frustration at the Belmont's simply treating a symptom rather than going after the root cause (since due to their generational vendetta against him, they see him as the root cause rather than simply another victim who has been played).
By the Morris era, he's almost relieved to be defeated each time it occurs because it's the only brief peace he gets.
It wasn't till 1999 that they figure out what was going on and how to stop it. Though temporarily severing the soul bond merely allowed Dracula to be reincarnated, the bond remained intact but was merely suppressed.
We see this with Soma if he failed to sever the bond on his soul completely, as he falls into the same cycle of becoming Chaos's puppet just like OG Dracula did.
@@ZanathKariashi didn't know the games lore that much so I appreciate the information, but regardless that plot is just not possible because in the show dracula is supposedly alive and lives a peaceful life with Lisa(or alone since Lisa is not inmortal)
It is unknow what has happened to dracula since he was brought back and to seemingly everyone he is dead, but who knows, maybe we see him again but older and wiser and he challenges Ritcher to put and end to his long life and to prove his worth as a Belmont.
@@josecriollo6976yeah he was alive and happy hundreds of years ago with lots of Belmonts out there. I don’t have a problem with not having Dracula early on in this one but there’s so much trash storytelling in general here.
I think bringing back Dracula would've ruined his conclusion from the previous show. Also, I don't think Sekmet actually is Erzabeth, I remember a character in the show saying how Erzabeth has the blood of Sekmet? So Sekmet can channel herself through that. I might be mistaking it for something else, correct me if I'm wrong.
That makes sense 🤔
in the show its stated that erzabeth drank sekmets blood thus giving her her powers
I would love to see Dracula back somehow, but it's a heavy lift, story wise - they left him pretty well wrapped up. Now, if Alucard was in mortal peril of some kind, I could see the Big D tearing through dimensions to save his boy...."that's my son you're messing with" *season two ends*
No You’re Right! Erzabeth is an AVATAR for Sekmet’s power! She’s not the actual goddess, but it’s clear that she’s abusing it to establish her own sense of control and perversion over Life and the Natural Order!
From what I remeber at the end of season 4 of the original Castlevania, dracula was alive and was able to escape hell thought the portal saint Germain use.
I do agree, Edouard's soul or sense of self or whatever sticking around did feel kinda silly, but as a follow up to the speaking night creature from the first series I found it interesting. The speaking night creature from the first series was a philosopher in life, and Edouard was an artist, a singer. Like being a philosopher and an artist are things that are innately human, so an artist and philosopher holding onto their humanity as demons felt pretty meaningful to me. def wasn't the intention tho lol
I like your take. It feels interesting but yea... why wasn't the philosopher resurected during antient greek times right after he died? Why did it take 2000 years for him to be resurected while Edouard was resurected immediately.
Right, its not like this theme wasn't explored in Castlevania season 4.
My problem is that there was no reason for Edward to be in Hell, where the souls for night creatures are taken from. Kind of a big deal
@@tomasbedoya2901 I mean it seems as the abbot machine only transorn the body, and the original soul while tainted stay.
While Isaac uses souls directly from hell. Like you said at the moment there is no reason for Edouard or revolutionary soldier to be in Hell
I don't think it wasn't the intention. I think it perfectly fits with the theme of liberation going on. Night creatures are essentially slaves to their forge masters and we have reason to believe most of them do retain a "sense of self" since the philosopher wasn't the only talking nigh creature (blue fang demon could also talk and seemed to be grateful to be out of hell), but just don't or can't all communicate. I believe Édouard whole story arc will be set around liberating them/re-igniting their humanity back in some way.
I’m so stoked that Castlevania Nocturne just got greenlit for a second season!
I didn’t care for the pacing but I did like it. I thought the animation was good.
@christophervelez1561 Yep found at times the animation could a little odd but that's fair to a level since every series has some odd moments especially in unimportant moments.
Oh thank god. I thought it was even better than the original four seasons.
Hopefully they’re building up to Dracula slowly.
@@theepicduck6922 I also found the animation to be a little odd. The animation was a combination of digital art, and CGI.
Not looking forward to it, I’m not looking forward to seeing more current day in properties I adore
I think they're going to try to draw out Dracula and Shaft as slowly as possible, because of where they left Dracula at the end of the first animated series. Dracula was already resurrected and wanted nothing to do with ruling the world, so that leaves him as being the antagonist from the get go as a little strange.
While I disagree with some of your point, I have to agree that it did really feel like there was just too much going on at the same time. Also, as much as I genuinly liked Annette and Tera, I was lowkey annoyed how it felt like the show stopped everything to go and show their backstories. Like, i'm not a writer, but maybe there was a more organic way to introduce those
It might have been better to introduce the backstory of the slave master vampire fleeing when she killed him instead of dumping all of that in in one go
As an outsider who hasnt played the games.
I love nocturne way more than i expected.
Im excited for season 2
I wouldn't say I LOVE it. But yeah I liked it, I think people are way overblowing this.
@@ungabunga9581 Hey, it's good that you like it so long as you know that slavery is bad. Slavery is bad ok? And Nobles, who made slavery happen, are all bad. Just remember that. And also that Slavery is bad. It's good that you liked this thing so long as you understand that slavery was bad. And that slaves are all worthy of aspiration because slavery is bad. Just remember that slavery is bad, ok? Ok.
@@tenou213 Wow that's crazy how the slaves are portrayed as the good guys considering one of the main characters, specifically the one the season focused on, was at one point a slave. Did you know the Belmonts are also good guys and even in the original show, the reason people didn't like them was because of misinformation. But of course it's clearly trying to force down your throat just how good the Belmonts are, that's why they're always talking about their lineage just to prove how good they are. I don't watch shows through a political lenses. I've spent my whole life thinking "slavery bad" and I'm bigoted against the opinions of those who would say otherwise so I really don't care if they wanna say that. If you actively look for some sort of subtext you can normally find it, even if it wasn't intended.
I liked it - definitely some ham-fisted messaging, but overall a fun first season. Similar to the first season of Castlevania, it ends with Alucard joining the crew (with a SotN glow-up) - if they can deliver on the Alucard action next season, I think we'll be in good shape.
Also, the original series took some huge liberties man - if thats a problem here, it should have been an equally big problem there. I think you fell down the Reddit rabbit hole a bit on this one.
Huuuuuuge liberties! Very much agreed that Nocturne felt too packed in for 8 episodes , and I was a little annoyed with just HOW much they changed to within the story. I try not think about it too much considering it's the 1st season. I'm interested to see where the 2nd season goes
Yeah this video screams angry fanboy which is really rare for this channel 😂 rare Bonsai Pop L
@@adoniscreed4031bruh shut the hell up
He is huge fan of thr series and rondo
This cartoon has nothing to do with rondo but the characters who are nothing like their game characters
Right. Its already been a completely different canon from the games since the original series. I was concerned with Richter and Maria's portrayal initially, but the show won me over by the end of its season. Im looking forward to seeing Alucard chat with this younger version of Maria as opposed to meeting her as woman in SOTN. Curious to see what the dynamic will be more than anything else considering she's a kid this time around. And how will Richter's corruption play out in future seasons...and the Morrisons wielding the whip when Richter decides he wont pass it down to his children 🤔
This is the weakest argument I've ever seen in defense of this mess. "The original took some huge liberties - so this adaptation that's supposed to adapt the source material can completely veer off course and introduce literal fanfiction characters and if you don't like it you're a redditor!" Like what? People just wanted a show based on the game. Ask anyone who actually played Rondo or SotN and ask them where the slavery subsplot was or who tf half these characters are who just happen to have the same name as the characters from the game. We're redditors because we wanted a show that actually properly adapted what was a VERY simple plotline from a video game?
I thought it was very disappointing. I loved some of it, but some aspects of it I didn't like at all. The animation felt really choppy at numerous times, the messages, while well-intended, were as subtle as a sledgehammer, and at times I had this weird feeling, that the show was almost embarrassed of being an adaptation of a videogame series. It was kinda the opposite of the Aquaman movie, that it had some extremely silly things in it, like the freaking octopus playing the drums, but they completely embraced the silliness in a very endearing, sincere way that made me like the movie a lot. Nocturne on the other hand, felt like they wanted to stay away from that as much as possible, like it was "too cool" for that. Richter acts like a pussy for most of the series, and then he finally gets his big moment with Bloodlines playing and it's actually hype as hell, but then he basically goes "I'm too cool for one liners now" like huh?? Where the fuck did that come from? I don't know why some shows are so scared of campiness that they always try to point out whenever something would be campy as if they were above it.
I understand that they felt the need to do something different since Castlevania is not exactly the most plot-heavy franchise, at least for the games they have "adapted", but I felt that they didn't even try to find a middle ground. I found the characters fine for the most part, Annette was kinda unlikeable a lot of times, and her chemistry with Richter was like, non-existent, but it's not like she had a lot of personality in the game anyway. Juste was cool, Olrox was cool, Tera was cool, Richter was weird, Maria was weird, kind of a mixed bag for me really
LMAO
Annette and Richter falling in love at the end was so weird. all their interactions to that point does not warrant those feelings. It shouldve started as a friendship then season 2 could start building their actual relationship.
Also the dialogue in this show sounds like its written by an edgy teenager. its somehow worse than season 4s dialogue.
I have the best explanation for all of this….
Castlevania needs Warren Ellis as the main writer again, he’s the reason season 1-3 worked so well. I get it he got sexual misconduct allegations he’s a bit of a creep but he can write a really good show. Someone gotta pay under rug so he can write for the show again lol…
@@titanbro5871You guys act like the script and story from the games was written by Tolkien. Castlevania always had a simple script, the games have little to no dialogue you can fit the dialogue from the first 3 games in less than 10 pages bunch of liners lol… the dialogue was very silly, over the top and very poorly written. How you learn things in early Castlevania games is reading the description of items you find around the map and stuff that would happen visually maybe some exposition from main bosses.
Rondo of blood/Dracula and SOTN has some of the cringiest most vague dialogue, the game is full of one liners and silly quotes. We loved Castlevania because of the gameplay, the challenges and music score it was never that deep until the ps2 games. Aria of sorrow and dawn sorrow are basically shonen anime, very generic, straight forward and juvenile and I love it. Castlevania circle of the moon and HOD have a very limited script and dialogue. Specially Juste’s game lol they give you nothing.
In resume Castlevania fans need to chill with the demands, they games never had this much depth or level of storytelling. Nocturne was fine, as a black mixed person I couldn’t gaf about annete or her back story lol she got way too much screen time.
Richter did not act like pussy for most of the series. People coming to this conclusion is hilariously ridiculous
One thing I’ll say: After the Slave revolt in Annette’s backstory against her European tormentors,they’re free from oppression, no longer chained to a people or culture they had no hand or choice in being thrust into, and the Opera Singer decides that what the moment needed was more Opera. Just more European Singing. I found it both hilarious and a bit sad. He was really only there to do one thing: Be Opera-Man
This is a legitimate point that I had not even considered.
because how dare he like to sing opera, right? People can like things that are not part of their own culture, ya know? Or are you one of those cultural appropriation freaks, while parroting "Europeans bad"
ngl that singing got annoying asf imo
That vampire lady wasn’t Sekhmet, she drank the blood of sekhmet which gave her the goddess’ powers which is why she is worshipped as a goddess now. I can understand the confusion though.
So basically Netflix took something good and shit all over the original story and did their own thing. Might as well call the series Nocturne: Vampire Slayer because this is not Castlevania.
Literally any story they came up with would've been better than the original lmfao
@@Peasham Why bother using the Castelvania IP then? Dracula is public domain.
I can say that this show definitely has me stuck in a crossroads as far as how its being handled. I wanted to say this was the equivalent to the original 3 episodes for season one of original castlevania but bloated as they both end with the introduction of Alucard. I'm hoping season 2 really turns things around.
Been a Castlevania fan since the very first one, we can quibble back and forth about how it isnt exactly like Rondo, or we can realize that adaptations by their very nature are never exactly like the source material.
It needs to be something that catches the imagination and holds it.
I loved nearly every bit of nocturne.
Also read the context clues my guy. Richter says he doesnt know why he got his magic back but the episode clearly shows him thinking of all the people he gives a fuck about and he nutted up and did his item crash lol.
Yeah I would hardly call it subtext! The fact that he missed that is astounding. He seems like he wasn't paying attention because it wasn't his boring screen by screen remake.
No context clues necessary, in the very next episode Richter explains how power-up twice. The explanation is in the text twice over specifically because the writers figured people wouldn't understand it, and at that point, it's on the people. I thought the explanations were unnecessary lmao, but considering people just.. I dunno, didn't hear them? Damn, lmao
If it is never going to be like the source material, then why called it castlevania in the first place?
@@utkarshsingh-rp2dq Where did you learn that bit of mindless rhetoric? Reddit? It's an adaptation. Adaptations are meant to stand on their own, not be perfect translations of the source material. The very fact that it's crossing over mediums means that a perfect remake is not possible.
Also, it shares the fundamentals of Castlevania. BP said it himself, they got the whip, they jump, and their fighting monsters and vampires. The game is ridiculously simple and would be boring if not expanded upon. That's why it has more than just what was in the games. If you just wanted the game again then go play the game. It still exists. Go play it.
@@Peasham exactly, I only even bring it up because the content creator made a point to say he doesn't understand Richter's sudden ability to use magic again 🙄 it's quite literally spelled out with context clues and then Richter's mouth.
I have to totally agree with you. At one point, I fell asleep watching it sometime around episode 5, and when I woke up, it was episode 7 and nothing had changed excect Richtor had his powers back.
Fix your sleep schedule.
Except that you now missed some of the setup for the next season. This isn’t a full show, it’s the first arc of a show. All movies start with some exposition and this series follows that same path
True Bonsai Pop (1 gloss over many Of the character arc and out right lie about the show Doing too much Which is an outright lie like he Literally Just said trump was bad As a critique While also ignoring the Bishop who Shown to be A monster like we’re was The critique in the original series like Seriously Bonsai Pop Does not understand Castlevania if he did He will understand that Castlevania has always been different Both in the original Lord of shadows And especially in the animated timeline like that guy is really Ignore both richter and Annette character arc
The way you would cover the story just doesn't make sense as a sequel to the original Castlevania series. Dracula is this ever-present ultimate evil in the games, but in the series he's so different that it wouldn't be consistent with his character to play that role anymore.
'It's Castlevania, you jump and you whip' shit that was a very good point
I actually LOVED Castlevania Nocturne season 1. I was a huge fan of the first Castlevania series so was excited for this one and was not disappointed but I have never played any of the games so I only really know Castlevania through the animated show.
I'm thinking the Netflix adaptation has a pattern when it comes to Castlevania; 1st season was set up, 2nd season was awesome, 3rd season set up, 4th season was awesome. Nocturne seems to be reflecting that pattern and it's too soon to say if it holds up if it's not even completed yet.
lol. ya but the first season of netflixvania with trev n sypha and alucard was done better. a lot better.
watching noctune kinda loses its hype midway especially when anette comes along...
then seeing richter cry and run and not reflect his rondo counter part was a bummer.
at least he got his magic awakened in this season. lmao. smh.
hope season 2 holds up better. alucard hype and i hope juste comes back at some point as well rocking his HOD look.
Yeah. I feel like people are hating on an incomplete adaptation.
Even if it's changing alot. It doesn't mean it's a bad story being told.
Let them cook
I had given up personally on Netflixvania due to Seasons 3-4 (especially 4) kinda just avoiding wanting to tell a proper adaptation when there was material there to do so. This show caught my interest but as soon as it came out I saw the backlash and instantly noped (more like reserved it for later viewing). And yeah, recently gave it a try, there was some aspects it cooked with (I love the character designs, Doltra is amazing, while the few that remained accurate to their game looks were awesome. The action sequences were cool too), but then theres others where I just felt indeed this plot was boring (or tons of terrible dialogue and characterization for some characters). It's an interesting set up but it also just feels like they wanted to tell some original vampire hunter story and added castlevania as the IP name for value of interest. Ultimately maybe they wanted to do like the first seris where they set up something with the first 8 eps and then pay it off with the second season? Dunno. Great video. It's nice to see a neutral stance on why the show sucked.
some of these are the same initial issues I had with the first season of the last Castlevania, but then season 2 I thought was damn near perfect so im reserving judgement for now
Yeah, exactly the same. Hope the pacing and narrative improves for S2 because there's a lot of good stuff there.
I don't mean to be rude but i'm genrally curious what you though was bad about Castlevania season 1. Just to be clear, it's the 4 episode season where we first meet our heros in Gresit.
@@Turtledira I wouldn't call season 1 of either bad, but I see both as setup for season 2. Assemble the cast, explain power set and motivations, get everyone to where they need to be for the real show, but that's really it, they are chapter 1 and not much more. Which in the grand scheme of a multi-season series isnt a bad thing, and makes for wonderful binge watching, but as a stand-alone season for a year is kinda meh.
I too was expecting the story arc for Rondo, and while this was a bit of a diversion, I feel like it was necessary as they (showrunners) couldn't just repeat the Dracula story like the games did...in addition, Richters main arc is him being mentored by Alucard and being consumed by darkness...so I think they are working towards that.
A very important thing to note is that the games weren’t the primary source for this season, the original show was.
Nah, they absolutely could always bring Dracula back like in the games. The people who grew up playing Castlevania aka the core fanbase would much rather have that then the garbage Netflix is pumping out.
right, they couldn't keep repeating Dracula. his story was wrapped and he is in the afterlife with his wife. lets let him rest for a while.
@@tatum635 he isn’t in the afterlife, he’s alive
@@tuurderom2017 i remember now. but he still was redeemed doesnt make sense to make him evil again.
Idk man, I think it was great. Annette and Edouard had really poignant stories that stuck out centering the whole revolution angle they were going for. Alucard is super left field though, season 2 is gonna spend a lot of time explaining how he even ended up there.
Honestly it sounds like you're just mad they didn't do the exact adaptation you wanted specifically of the game for their first season. I think they did a good job here, give them some time, they could come around to covering more from the game.
Bruh it not gonna happen 😭😭😭
Really he is pissy mad
It felt more like the first half of the first season. But as a descendent of slaves, I personally loved that history being included in the story.
well you did and your alone, nobody else did cuz wtf blacks in Europa? especially in 18 century? yeah right.
Castlevania DEI was great. 😏 You can tell the writers never played or cared about the games. They just wanted a means to deliver "The Message " 😏 Just as good as Season threesome with Bi-lucard. 😊
For what it was. It was still pretty entertaining but I do agree that it wasn’t the best idea to make the set up for the series like this.
The only thing I can think of is that we probably won’t need to wait too long for the next 8-10 episodes.
If they can get them in by March at the latest then maybe it’s worth it.
But if we end up waiting until next September/October then they should have saved a good number of things for S2 instead of craming everything they changed into S1.
Not sure about Annete in the game but Annete in the show felt quite fleshed out to the point where i wouldnt say she was there just to check a box or smth.
Not sure how i feel about the creatures of the night retaining their sense of self but i would mind them exploring it and tbf it was to an extend also in the first show.
I think Annete is just another damsel in distress in the game. One out of 3. 😆
It’s funny to see people complain about changes to the characters when most characters in the games aren’t really characters at all.
@@-Foxer-that's not true, she's also an irrelevant boss fight that I swear gets redone in SOTN but with a Succubus.
I just took it as the Abbot being not as good at Devil Forging as Hector and Issac.
She wasn’t a check mark Bonzai is smiling crack on that comment. Annette was given agency and he seems to be offended by it I mean if we wanna talk Tokenism House of the Dragon is straight that
The biggest issue with this new series has to do with it being rushed, and it shows in the writing. Good luck on whatever Season 2 is.
I also would argue they did a pretty good job having consistent themes in the characters and the story.
Really hated it. Been difficult to discuss since the fanbase has been relentlessly allergic to any and all criticisms. I grew up with and adore the games so I disliked it for spitting on the franchise so hard... but I can ignore those feelings. Even when I do, it was just bad writing all around, feeling like a bad fanfic at parts.
They really loved to shame Richter for his trauma, and even when it wasn't brought up everyone seemed to hate him till it was convinient to remember he's an ally. If he's sposed to be our main protag why paint him in such a bad light? Why attract us w/his tragic backstory if he's also sposed to be rightfully (in the show's attitude) criticized for being traumatized? Annette was traumatized, and it's treated as this big dark backstory we're supposed to respect her for. Instead of her and Richter relating over having awful pasts she just hates him for it- then the show writes in plot points to make us, as the audience, also hate Richter for having trauma. But oh, an action scene is coming up, time to suddenly make Richter cool even though we're the writers who hate him.
Then they suddenly have Annette show romantic interest in Richter for zero reason. All of their interactions at that point had been her (and Maria) dogging on Richter constantly. She hated on Richter, blaming him for her friend's death, when the entire plan was hers. Her rage brought upon the thing she's mad about... but again, the show also writes itself in a way to make us agree with her that it's all Richter to blame, and that he's a coward. The show treats her like a queen while Richters treated as the annoyance. Then... she suddenly wants to bone? I'm sorry, it's just bad writing from a team who had a bias toward one character over another (which we've seen in many shows when they go downhill). Writers need to keep in mind that how they frame this kinda "drama" makes a difference. Just comes off as, like I said, bias.
If they had written in a scene calling out Annette, and having her acknowledge that, it wouldnt annoy me so much. But notice how none of my complaints had to do with the games. That's another whole can of worms that I won't dive into. It's a bad show no matter how you look at it. Oh yah, the animation also took a huge downward spiral.
So, they took a basic plot that can be summed up in “Hey Richter, go save these three ladies and go kill Dracula”, and basically bloated up into a point where there’s too much stuff going that it never fufilled the premised or ever got to stablishing it.
That could have been a good plot! Richter fighting alone after finishing his training with Juste, as he learns to fight with others as he unveils a cultic plot to bring back key vampires from the older seasons like Carmilla and Darcula. That's why women are being taken crom the countryside. It's THAT easy. These writers are trash
Please note that I'm saying this as someone who didn't much about the games watching the series, useing context from what happened in the last iteration, and a black man:
I overall give castlevania nocturne a 9/10. As you stated mike, yeah that last episode alone bumped it up a whole point for me. That scene where Richter(screw subtitles I thought it was victor) got his powers back was insane. Mans went SSJ Blue. Lol Being as the first iteration mixed a bunch of games together, I thought that wouldn't really matter. Yeah nocturne introduces ALOT! However, as far as we know from the last iteration, dracula was just chillin' with his wife. Possibly still is. So they had to come up with a new threat. For me, the idea that we are currently in an eclipse can open up alot of doors for season 2. The whole group will be on their guard the whole time due to vampires roaming freely.
It took a couple episodes, but I like the shows Enet. However yes, I do think this implied romance is sudden and out of place. Lets try saveing her friend first. Speaking of, what happened to him? He was the best character of the season because, unlike just about everyone else, that man had things figured out. I just hope he isn't actually dead now.
So in saying all of this and watching your video, maybe I'd feel the same way if I was a fan of the castlevania games. I feel like though, the show is trying to write itself out of this dracula shaped hole they put themselves in while also trying to tell a new story. If the last episode didn't go the way it did, I think they might had failed and there'd be no season 2.
Did we forget that Dracula was a tragic antagonist in Castlevania? And was around for TWO SEASONS. Even when there’s another cult that wants to resurrect him, they don’t exactly get what they want. He does get resurrected with Lisa, and one can assume they actually get to live a life together, that Alucard finds out hopefully and gets to be with them again.
Elizabeth Barthory DRANK from Sekhmet, but she is not her until she becomes that lioness form, because here’s the crazy part, that’s how she is depicted in the ancient Egyptian writings, as a lioness, which Drolta even describes her as. The mythology even works because Sekhmet can be considered one of the earliest vampires if you look up her mythos.
Netflix gave them 8 episodes, so blame them and not the animators and writers. How you described Rondo of night was honestly sadly boring and I would’ve not enjoyed it, and it seems you just wanted action porn, not a story and it’s a bit cringe that you wanted Maria to be 12?
They fleshed out Annette and actually made her interesting, and not just someone to be Richters love interest, and they didn’t show Sypha and Trevor flirting much either, until they basically said they were banging.
This was a bad take man and
Even you admit you didn’t like the talking from the first season of castlevania, yet you give nocturne shit for it?
God the Annette complaints are my favorite, her ass had zero characterization or even purpose to the story aside from having her be saved by Richter and these mfs think any serious production that wants to be watchable for adults would actually keep a character like that in, hilarious.
@@Peasham they actually made her into a full fledged character with her own motivations and flaws...heaven forbid.
Also why the hell would I want Dracula to be the villain AGAIN when they spent so much time humanizing him in Castlevania, let the man rest
I personally really enjoyed Nocturne so much, the animation goes insane in some episodes and I felt this was more of a prequel of RoB, I really appreciated them building the world and the characters so next season they can go all out, so yeah I wasn't really expecting the same story from the game. Can't wait for season 2!
I liked it. I do wish they spent more time with developing Richter's character though.
Is this supposed to be a joke
I think for Nocturne, they are trying to combine Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night together. Alucard isnt supposed to show up until after Richter has already defeated Dracula. But i also feel Nocturne is very enjoyable.
I feel like the core ideas of the show are better than you are making them out to be. They did kind of pace the first season poorly, but maybe nocturne will follow the same pattern as the OG show and get more episodes in the subsequent seasons. I believe you're right in that they should have included more references to specifically rondo of blood, but I definitely don't think they should copy the story from the games like you seem to be suggesting. To be frank, that story feels super generic. For a game that's perfectly fine, but for a show that feels almost like a cash grab. Regardless of how this show turns out in the end, I'd rather the showrunners try something new and flop than them just write the story in a way that is bound to not inoffensive and dull. Either way, the animation is sick and the fights are glorious.
This doesn't mean the show is free from criticism of course, I just disagree with yours
But then why call it castlevania, could they not just make up their own monster slaying show , since this has nothing to do with castlevania anymore
@@raven-sf3di it has plenty to do with Castlevania. It's still using characters and themes that have been present within the series for a long while now.
It's not like Castlevania has ever been a story heavy series until the PS2/DS games anyway. There's a ton of room for interpretation and expansion of the series, especially from the earlier games.
@@raven-sf3diyou also got to remember this is the first season.
@@majestyzx9081 slapping in a name of a character or having lots of member berries in it doesn't make it a castlevania show.
And not having much plot can make it more moody,haunting and interesting filled with tension and drama .
It would then line up with the Japanese concept of Ma
@@raven-sf3di drama doesn't exist without plot. And there are no member berries in this show. The uchi-katana didn't pop up and spin around Richter, the Holy water burst rain didn't show up. I don't think you understand what member berries are and just use that term whenever there's something you claim to not like appear in a show.
This show in tone, style, setting, and writing is purely Castlevania and you're being extremely dense if you choose not to see that.
Castlevania has always been pretty cheesy in tone, so the dark edgy setting that people seem to want is so out of tone for Castlevania and it's ironic for them to act like it's not.
It seems i have a mostly similar opinion of Nocturne to you, but my experience with the show was more positive than yours
I kinda expected for it to have little to do with the games since S3 and S4 were just their own thing and it ended with Dracula and Lisa living happily and Alucard chilling with the Belmonts instead of Dracula's endles cycle starting and Alucard locking himself up until Symphony
Exactly. This is what Nocturne is going for. Something different from what the games have already done.
@@kadosho02yur
@@kadosho02 Yet that means there's no point in Nocturne. Hell they sure can't go into future anymore because Dracula got redeemed before 1999. So no Soma, No Bloodlines, No Portrait of Ruin, No Shanoa. They're all tied to Dracula coming back. Hell, Shanoa in her point in time controls Dracula's power beter than he does. *poof* gone.
When JoJo does better Vampires (you know something that was a thing just for two parts.) Than Castlevania WHICH IS LITERALLY ALL ABOUT VAMPIRES, we have a problem.
I don't think you know what vampires are
@@Peasham actually he does that is why he used jojo as a example
@@otakuthegreat So real vampires are products of an aztec mask that shoot laserbeams out of their eyes who flaunt their vampirism out in the open and not members of the elite who stay out of sight to hide their monstrous forms.
Gotta love how your interpretation of a Rondo of Blood adaption got the vibes of an 90s action anime. It seriously shows how the game is very much a product of its time when you make a 1:1 adaption like that. xD
But yeah, Nocturne barely borrows anything from the game's story at all. It's really only Castlevania in the sense that it is a sequel to the pervious Castlevania anime. Otherwise it's really its own thing that only borrows some names and a few designs from the games.
Being generally as much of its own universe as Lords of Shadows overall.
Ok, here's where I share an odd thing about me. I am a Santera with friends who practice Vodun. So, having the names of Orisha and Lwa unexpectedly crop up in my entertainment and not having the religion completely butchered and disrespected was a rare treat. I even heard some Yoruban (although very little). This made the show much more interesting to me than perhaps the average viewer. Was it accurate in depicting Vodun? Well, no. But I'll take the positive representation where I can find it.
[Btw, I am a white person who through circumstance was introduced to and accepted into an historically black and Latino religious tradition. I have always strived to appreciate and honor the great gift the people in the religion have given me. My Padrino was Cuban and I had the privilege of going to Cuba to receive Ocha (initiation) in his Ile (spiritual house). An American getting to go to Cuba is no simple feat and I am grateful for the experience.]
I liked this first season!
I really like Nocturne. I had no idea what Castlevania was until the first Castlevania came out three years ago so I consider myself a casual fan.
I give Nocrurne a 8/10. I agree that Nocturne had some pacing issues and I personally think that the chemistry was off with the main group ( most of the first season they spent their time separated from one another so I didn't feel the familial bonds with Richter and his adopted family and I think that Richter and Annette didnt spend enough time together for any form of romance to develop) but the writers only had 8 episodes and I think they wanted to get the exposition/backstory out of the way to get to the nitty gritty next season- I wish they had kept the slower pacing like the first Castelvania but Netflix is fickle and maybe the writers were scared the series would be cancelled or cut short. I was relieved when I discovered they are having a season 2 because animation has had some ups and downs lately.
Aside from this, I enjoy this series for what it is just like I did with the first Castlevania. I didn't play the games and I have noticed the people who are most attached to the games have the most issues with this series. Even with the first Castlevania I remember everyone complaining about Issac being black or being upset that Alucard had a threesome or being upset that there were too many quiet moments or too much focus on Camilla's group and not the main group when all of these changes added nuance to the characters and their motivations and made the world feel bigger to me.
I love this series and I cant see what season two will bring.
You had never heard of the games before ever?
@@statesmindsi have but never really got into them like most people.
Nocturnal is the Wish version of the OG show
The fact that this series is made "for the fans" yet is not faithful, but pure fanfiction, man, it hurts me deep.
I was so sad that this show ended up being painfully boring.
What you described is, to me, rampant in streaming lately. They are doing short "seasons" and they meander through fluff for 90% of it, then try to cram wrap ups and cliffhangers for the "next season" in the last episode. It always falls so short and leaves me having watched nothing of substance. I would expect the story to be tight and solid in 8 or 10 episodes, with no need for the fluff that was often all over traditional television seasons. As awful as it sounds, they don't have a good formula for streaming "seasons", so we keep getting this.... stuff.
This was interesting since you’re a fan. The only thing I had a problem with was the animation fight scenes. I felt the frame rate was lower than before. I assume cause of the budget but yeah, it was choppy. I’m an animation production person and those things are incredibly important to me. But your video was insightful and I learned a lot
I think this mostly popped up in those very busy scenes where everything seems to be happening at once
They should have just made an Abraham Lincoln : vampire hunter anime if they wanted to do something with vampires and slavery. This is just an in name adaptation.
Thanks for the free samples boyz!
Lmao.
Man, let me first be clear, I loved this show, and I'm also a fan of the games, particularly Rondo of Blood and Dracula X (also Harmonny of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow). And while I didn't expect, no, I didn't want a direct adaptation of the game since that would also need the ending of the former series to be nullified. Some of the things that happened with the show really did not land well with me. Some are in agreement with Mike.
About the changes, in general, I do like where the story is going, I like the setting, and most of the characters, particularly Annette (boy is she better than her game counterpart), Maria, and Richter. However, I do fully agree this series is doing too much in too little time, let's say, instead of the 8 episodes we had at least 12-15 episodes in this season, just to expand on the plot given in this season. We could have had a really good and profound beginning of the story, but, since we didn't, here we are. With incredibly bad pacing, some story points that are clearly there only to be used in the next season, and, for me, the worst part is the abuse of "lucky scenarios". Let me explain this last one since it's the one that annoyed me the most. There are so many "convenient" happenings, things like Annette killing the Vampire that enslaved her randomly in a Graveyard, Richter finding out Just out of nowhere in a random city in a random restaurant, or the Magic or Richter suddenly coming back. All of those things could have been done in other ways that, if given more time or, fewer things to do, could have been great. But in the end, it seems to me that either the creators wanted to do too much or, they planned something but then suddenly got their budget and episode run cut while they were already in production.
So, in conclusion, Castlevania Nocturne is until now(to me, and again let me be clear, to me) a good enough show but, not spectacular and inferior to the original Castlevania series. However, I do believe that there are so many good things under the issues of the series that could still provide an amazing experience. So I will keep an eye out for the second season hoping things get sorted out and we can say Castlevania Nocturne is another success in the Castlevania animation department.
Side note: Konami for the love of god do something else with the IP, we need more Castlevania, at least just keep re-releasing the older games, please... I'm begging you!!!
1. Annette's "Owner" was there due to becoming a follower of Elizabet Bathory post revolution, hence the brand on his forehead. As many other vampires from across the world are.
2. Juste had explained he was always keeping an eye on Richter and was close by, so it's not like Richter just came to this random town and Juste happened to be there.
3. Richter finally made the decision to live for others, paralleling the moment Juste described losing his magic. Whenever his best friend and Wife had died he had no one else to live for and had lost his magic/will to live. Richter finally decided to live for his friends and not allow another one to be hurt/killed thus bringing his magic back.
These moments were clearly explained within the context of the story and weren't just "random" or "lucky".
They amped up the video game content but it doesn’t feel as witty and fun as the original run and I wish there was more music and monsters from Rondo. I’m still hyped for the inevitable Symphony of the Night season, I just hope they use A LOT of the music from that game.
Some music yes but alot of that music was strange. I love jazz but I would burst out laughing if they had scenes of Alucard murdering monsters to the caverns music from sotn.
I think you nailed it when you said " and duh stuff" it's like they pushed a message we all already know, just for the sake of having a message, and they did it at the expense of the main character and story
The story of the show is vampires wanting to enslave humanity by becoming the elites that rule over them, showing slavery and how it's bad is literally what the plot is about.
Plot point is one thing a characters story is another.
@@mirokuaec I feel like they failed on both points
You mean they pushed *several* messages
Gotta say, normally I find your work to be really thoughtful and well-researched, and this one felt slapshod. Lots of folks have already pointed out the various points that were simply incorrect about key concepts of the series, so I won't repeat here. It's totally cool not to like something, and it's cool for fans to disagree. I'm sorry it didn't meet your expectations of what a show could be, though again, we're clearly only halfway through the story, and only barely saw what a more badass Richter Belmont is even capable of. I'm eager to see how the latter half of this plays out, and how (or if) they plan on spinning this into Symphony of the Night.
But when I listen to an analysis and there are clear errors in plot points being presented, it's hard not to discount it as being more an emotional reaction than a rational objection. Those are fine too, by the way, just not typically what I associate with the channel. Still love your content though, please keep it up. Not enough voices on this platform champion older anime for their quality and content, and I appreciate how much y'all do that. Cheers!
I had a TGx16 back in the day. Super underrated console that utilized the "hue" card for games. It was really a head of it's time.
I was also very disappointed. When it was announced and I saw it was gonna be Richter I couldn't wait!
Nocturne suffers the same way so many other series suffer anymore; "Hey look at us! We're inclusive so hopefully that will distract from our lazy writing, poor pacing, half-baked plot points and lack of real character development."
There were some cool scenes, fun fights, good music and mostly good looking animation, but it wasn't enough to make it worth spending 4 hours watching an extended "teaser" essentially.
Also, just gotta say, your pitch for the first season sounded muuuuuuch better than what we have received here.
Cheers man!
Nice review. I really liked the show, but I’m not as familiar with the source material as you are, so I can see were you are coming from. Still I thought the animation and most of the character moments were great. Some parts were kinda forced (like Anette and Richter romance), and they spend a little too much time on the secondary characters. Some characters were really cool though, like Olrox, Richter and Tera and some scenes were really badass (Divine Bloodlines). After watching your video I agree that they could have been more faithfull to the source material. Looking forward to the second season though.
Heralded as the best videogame adaptation of all time? By whom?
Arcane runs circles around Castlevania on every conceivable aspect, including dialogue writing, art direction and animation quality.
The only parts of Castlevania I'd consider superior would be the demon conversation with the bishop in his church and Dracula's realization of killing his own son.
FACTS
More of a held opinion prior to the Sonic Movie (actually surprisingly movie), Mario movie and Arcane were even a thing.
Arcane is the undisputed king of adaptations.
It really irks me how Annette managed to use iron crosses to trap that vampire, the crosses actually physically burning him as if they were holy, when Trevor himself explained in the universe of the animated series(not the games) the effects of the cross is purely psychological.
The writers clearly didn't pay attention.
Magic in this universe works by exerting your will into reality, holy water is a thing that exists and it's not holy because it's infused by god juices, it's holy and burns vampires because the priests willed it to be holy. Annette willed the crosses to burn her formed slaver, and so they did.
Couldn't agree more. I came to Nocturnal with low expectations (Not a fan from The first adaptation's seasons 3 and 4, I have to add) and YET, I got completely disappointed. All I can see is the usual racist bullshit against Annette, everyone out there are too focused on a minor race swap and are forgetting the real meat of Rondo that is missing (perfectly point by you): No Dracula, no Shaft, no Death, no ritual, no village on fire, no Castlevania emerging in the top of a hill.
I definitely agree with some of your points, I really loved this series and I'm excited for what season 2 has in store but it definitely dragged at parts. And I agree, I think it needed to be a bit longer just to flesh everything out, they had to pack a lot into 8 episodes. Hopefully the issues get solved in seasons 3 with the inclusion of Alucard and hopefully Netflix doesn't cancel it after season 2 like it seems to do with every animated show that isn't Big Mouth.
Honestly. To me this Season of Castlevania didn’t Drag as much as what the 1st and 2nd Seasons did in The first series!
Everyone is familiar with the World and the previous stories! So everything here just clicks!
I would describe Nocturne as extra and cheesy. I enjoyed it by the end though. It has the vibes I want, even if the writing is a bit choppy. Richter's 1 episode freak out felt weirdly forced to get to a power up moment. I like Olrox as a character, weird that they have a Spanish crusader literally butt fucking an Aztec god, but okay.
I think the story changes are fine to pad out what was in the games. I like the idea of Sekmet making horcruxes out of people. I'm excited to see where it goes. Sad that Drolta got herself Alucard Ex Machina'd. That could have been a cool fight had it played out with Ricky boy.
Mizrak is a Turkish name
I like your plot setup but I would actually change Annette a little. While Annette's purpose works for a video game and a product of it's time, her being kidnapped and left in a tower doing nothing for the entire season gives me series "Woman in a refrigerator vibes" so instead I would have Annette be the leader of the resistance movement in the tower. Like Dracula kidnaps a huge part of the countryside to do a farm thing in his tower and Annette decides to fight his forces from the inside. This could be one of the reasons why Richtor has some success fighting Dracula's forces from the outside and breaking into the tower, since they're distracted from a two front assault.
And since the tower is complex and ever changing you don't have to worry about why the two groups aren't meeting up.
I started and finished watching castlevainia recently fell in love with and have watched it multiple time and am looking into the games but I couldn’t even bare to watch the trailer still gave the first episode a shot and gave up before his mother died and now I’m glad I stoped when I did
The first Castlevania series was way better. Better writing. Better animation/ artistry. Better story.
Also I really loved how, despite not being able to play any of the games, I didn't feel left out and had a great mix of learning some rich history and turning my brain off to enjoy the action. Can't wait for Season 2, a great prelude for what's to come
Yea your not gonna get any rich history fromw this show. In terms of actual history no, and in terms of castlevania history hell no
@@daniellaradiaz5476Aside from the obvious supernatural elements, every part of Nocturne was entirety historically accurate.
@@Peasham ahem... "French had black slaves and also revolution ig, oh and opposed against church too in revolution" wow so much history bro, so rich
@@Console-l0gger I'd love to know what point you think you're making here.
@@Peasham it's not rich if I can sum it up in a few words, especially it's like french revolution and they are talking about slaves and allat? those were well not minor things but we would have to understand more important stuff first about the french revolution before we move to that
I consider Arcane a video game adaptation, and very few shows animated or otherwise compare to the first season. That is the best adaptation, period.
yes , ill say its a tie between the first Castlevania season and Arcane atm , they are both tour de force masterpieces ; Arcane is basically 'every frame a painting' AND the story is great , i watch these amvs almost once a week ; th-cam.com/video/o-xFqjEm0-k/w-d-xo.html ; and i could watch this scene from CV over and over th-cam.com/video/a0LhJY3XRwg/w-d-xo.html , th-cam.com/video/xY7fF4fbnps/w-d-xo.html ; EDIT - AND Edgerunners how could i forget XD Studio Trigger did such an excellent job there
Edgerunners?
I agree. There's absolutely no adequate comparison to Arcane, especially in the video game genre.
@@otherprisma7354No
@@otherprisma7354 Edgerunners is a neat show, but it actually doesn't jive well with the game nor tabletop universe when you think about it.
Thank you for putting this to words. I think i was very excited for this show, so when it wasn't panning out in a likeable way i kinda just pushed through and assumed i was in a weird mood. Nah tho, nocturne missed a few keys along the way. Excited to see more, and hopefully they actually see feedback like this and consider changing how they approach the characters. In the first show i didn't mind the bloated dialog because the characters saying them were believable and likeable. They bounced off each other naturally, and man i didn't realize how much I'd miss Trevors deep voice. What a man muffin.
Warren Ellis man.. he's a legendary writer... and did wonders for the first series..
Losing him was the mistake
She shouldn’t have been doing sexual misconduct with folks 🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️
@@krow5099 what ??? Really?
@@EMPER0RC0W yeah that’s why he’s not on there anymore sucks he was a good writer he just let that power go to his head
@@krow5099 that's really sad to hear. He's one of my favorite writers since transmetropolitan. And he really captured the essence of castlevania.. :(
@@EMPER0RC0W He did but it is the way of the world where power corrupts even those who are innocent
I binged it days ago and I found myself yawning throughout the run time. The first series had me glued to my seat trying not to blink. I'm sad.
Exaaaaaaaaaaaaaaactly
To reach their own but I don’t really get how someone can like the first series but dislike the second when both are hitting the same beats- last series also used the source material as set dressing to tell their own story, flesh out characters and the works as a whole
I think my main issue was that castlevania 3 had a super barebones story, barely anything at all, whereas rondo and symphony have a much larger fleshed out narrative in the games. You can basically do whatever you want with 3. it’s much harder to kind of throw away what rondo set up and symphony finished without bumming people out
Agreed 100000%... the writing and quality of the show for Nocturne compared to the first seasons was just abysmal.
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed this season. Was it perfect? No. But I’m definitely looking forward for season 2
Real
this
Just gotta say here, I've been watching TH-cam for a long time and been an anime/manga fan for an even longer time (I'm 30yo this year) but I'm really confused why I'm just now finding the Bonsai Pop channel even though it's been making videos for years. But anyway, I've been bingeing videos and really enjoying myself. Keep up the good work!
I have one question about this show where are the canon's and muskets. Its the 18th Century I thought i would see silver bullets why does it still look like its taking place in medieval times.
I’m not gonna lie.. I didn’t expect anything less considering the fact that they replaced Warren Ellis as the writer. I tried
this comment is underrated
In my opinion this was waaaayyy too critical, their first season was great, couldn’t stop watching
I enjoyed the series but I appreciate your review
Always nice seeing you posted
Spectacular analysis! Subscribed
It was such a step down from the original
The entire Anette storyline was ham fisted and preachy as fuck, and I hate when series sideline their MCs (the Witcher for example)
The first bit starts out strong then it’s a slog, and then the last episode was actually ok. The most exciting part was seeing “that” character again
You don't hate when a series sidelines its mc, you hate when you have to look at a woman on the screen, despite her having infinitely less screentime than Richter.
@@Peasham wrong
@@Peasham What a load of projected crap.
@mites7 I agree with you. And Bonsai Pop summed up exactly what I was thinking.
Over convoluted and so many changes to the story which leads to barely any audience relating to the characters, nothing happens for the first 6 episodes and the ending is just fanservice.
It was several steps down from the original.
@@thejanusproject32 Projection is when a dude states a series sidelines its main character because a side character gets approximately 7 minutes of screentime and I point out their actual problem.
Dude bro, I’ve been watching you for years now and you are one of the few young guns that REALLY love and respect anime the way us OGs do and as I’m watching this I’m finally seeing your youth showing. I FULLY disagree with your opinion on how they handled this season and its scope you missed when it comes to the story.
You forget they took so much liberty with Trevors story along with the fact that the first season was only like 3 episodes and didn’t get going until season 2. They omitted D’Nasty and Issac is black and one of the best characters in the series.
The fact that you assumed they would follow any script is crazy and it was basically watching an animated Game of Thrones. The addition of the voodoo aspect built on the story and lore of this world. The only reason it’s a negative for you is that you assumed it would follow Roundo which were all knew they wouldn’t.
I found it engaging and entertaining as hell and I can’t wait for the real Roundo story to start with the next season and will wait for the SOTN season which we know is how it’s going to go. Give it time but don’t think it’s lame cause character changes and story changes; be honest, your explanation of how it ‘should’ve’ happened sounds basic af…
All the good writers went on strike or quit and they had an intern write the characters, plot, and dialogue. No one will convince me otherwise.
0:05 By whome?