Castlevania Nocturne: The New Blood

There are very few good TV shows based on Nintendo games, Netflix however managed to put together a great animated series with their original Castlevania show created mostly with American studios that did give it a serious anime style not unlike the early works of Yoshitaka Amano, plus it had the benefit of being conceived by Marvel Anime writer Warren Ellis. The series ran for four seasons with the first two providing a killer story arc about vampire hunters uniting to kill Dracula, but the last two seasons which were several episodes long seriously dragged the plot out too long which is a trait several Netflix have a habit of doing. Two years after the show’s conclusion, it was decided to start a generational sequel titled Castlevania Nocturne which adapted a 1993 game that wasn’t released in America until 2007, Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood. First premiering in 2023, Nocturne was two seasons long, each one composed of eight episodes, but this time largely created by Clive Bradley who up until then was a screenwriter for British television with no prior experience at handling an animated project, and most of the production being done by Powerhouse Entertainment who had also worked on the first Castlevania as well as Masters Of The Universe: Revelation, plus additional animation was provided by DR Movie.

Castlevania Nocturne received more accolades than the final two seasons of the previous series, although there was a great deal of classic Castlevania fans who thought the series shoved too many plots from various games into a single narrative. Although Nocturne managed to gain many LGBTQ viewers because of its diverse cast, plus despite having this story taking place during the French Revolution it managed to have black and indigenous Latin American characters back when slavery was still active in France at the time. Some accused the series of being too woke, although it’s best to keep in mind that this takes place during an alternate history with vampires and isn’t trying to be accurate.

The story is set in 1792 when village in France is striving to liberate itself from the local royal lord who has allied himself with a vampire clan, plus the church is making night creatures from the corpses of their enemies to add to the vampire ranks. The main leader of the revolutionaries is Maria who can summon spirit animals like her own personal Pokemon, and she is helped by her adopted brother Richter Belmont who is the latest inheritor of the monster hunter line who saw his mother killed by the vampire Orlox that has joined the vampire faction. Richter and Maria get aid from a former slave named Annette who has earth-bending powers, along with her partner Edouard who eventually changes into a night creature. The vampires are ruled by Elizabeth Bathory who was a Hungarian noble that was imprisoned in her own mansion for being one of the biggest serial killers in history. Elizabeth was turned into a vampire by Drolta, an Egyptian priestess of Sekhmet that uses Elizabeth as the reincarnation of her goddess. Things seem bleak until Dracula’s son Alucard finally shows up at the end of Season 1 to help the revolutionaries. Things get darker from then on with characters getting killed off just to advance the plot, while other gain insane power-ups as if they were in Dragonball. Ultimately, Richter, Annette, and Maria defeated the juiced-up vampire goddess and her acolytes with the possibility of a continuation with Richter still having a score to settle with Orlox and Edouard now adjusting to his new life as a night creature.

Castlevania Nocturne was well animated with shifts in styles for some flashbacks and battle scenes, so it lives up to being considered as a real anime. The soundtrack music was equally epic, but that pales in comparison to how rushed the story was and how they tried to stuff it with more forgettable secondary characters, side quests, limp deaths, and the cast constantly reflecting on their past instead of just doing some solid wholesome vampire hunting. The fight scenes are at the same level as the previous Castlevania series but doesn’t appear to be physically possible for most of the average humans who might be able to do magic, least of all going up against a final boss in total god mode.

There is some comfort that Castlevania Nocturne managed to keep the IP active new additions to the game franchise have gotten stuck in the mud over the last few decades. However, Netflix’s middle-managing and corporate mandates toward episode lengths seriously bring the show down from what it might have achieved. The story and dialogue are also weak as it was largely handled by someone with no experience doing an animated adaptation of a video game. It’s possible that this might help give further Nintendo properties a chance to gain notoriety as the only one Castlevania had before this was in the horrible Captain N cartoon, but it’s not likely that we’ll get a more serious take on any of the brand video games without Link rehashing outdated Steve Martin jokes.