I have no familiarity with the Castlevania video games, so it was only word of mouth that convinced me to give this a watch. That, and the very appealing short length (4 episodes, each about 25 minutes) make for a good recipe to try it out. I was pretty impressed, this is a gruesome, dramatic and surprisingly funny series.
It's the voice cast that really sell it. A who's-who of the sci-fi and fantasy world give us the likes of James Callis, Richard Armitage and Graham McTavish providing three of the male lead roles, with the wonderful Tomy Amendola providing a supporting part. All the voice acting is stellar and fit the characters they were playing extremely well. Armitage in particular gets in some wonderful sarcastic humour as Trevor and it makes him far more likeable than if he were just a brooding outcast type. Meanwhile, Alejandra Reynoso gives him a run for his money as Sypher and I found her to be the most interesting character in the show due to her hopeful attitude, ability with magic and one of the funnier lines in the season (peeing in a bucket).
I appreciated that this wasn't a constant orgy of violence and action. Character building is done well, and time is taken for scenes to play out through just talking; there's a really funny bar scene in which two drunks discuss their woes which involve bestiality and apparant incest (full of disgusting dialogue, this is not a show for kids). Fighting is present, of course, and it's delightfully over the top in terms of blood and gore. as well as creative.
The animation and visual style are where I struggled to connect. It's modelled on anime which I find pretty much unwatchable, but that's just a personal preference. While the backgrounds are vibrant, the characters are bland and the movement is choppy. If this hadn't had the soul and charm brought by the voice cast and enjoyable script, I doubt I would have made it past the first episode.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2017-07-15T11:23:57Z
I have no familiarity with the Castlevania video games, so it was only word of mouth that convinced me to give this a watch. That, and the very appealing short length (4 episodes, each about 25 minutes) make for a good recipe to try it out. I was pretty impressed, this is a gruesome, dramatic and surprisingly funny series.
It's the voice cast that really sell it. A who's-who of the sci-fi and fantasy world give us the likes of James Callis, Richard Armitage and Graham McTavish providing three of the male lead roles, with the wonderful Tomy Amendola providing a supporting part. All the voice acting is stellar and fit the characters they were playing extremely well. Armitage in particular gets in some wonderful sarcastic humour as Trevor and it makes him far more likeable than if he were just a brooding outcast type. Meanwhile, Alejandra Reynoso gives him a run for his money as Sypher and I found her to be the most interesting character in the show due to her hopeful attitude, ability with magic and one of the funnier lines in the season (peeing in a bucket).
I appreciated that this wasn't a constant orgy of violence and action. Character building is done well, and time is taken for scenes to play out through just talking; there's a really funny bar scene in which two drunks discuss their woes which involve bestiality and apparant incest (full of disgusting dialogue, this is not a show for kids). Fighting is present, of course, and it's delightfully over the top in terms of blood and gore. as well as creative.
The animation and visual style are where I struggled to connect. It's modelled on anime which I find pretty much unwatchable, but that's just a personal preference. While the backgrounds are vibrant, the characters are bland and the movement is choppy. If this hadn't had the soul and charm brought by the voice cast and enjoyable script, I doubt I would have made it past the first episode.