#Review
Being just over an hour and a half long, this season felt almost like a prologue to what is to come. And if what's to come is equal in quality to this season, we could have a pretty impressive show on our hands. Castlevania Season 1 is an excellent starter for this series, introducing us to a world under siege and a set of truly investing characters, while also successfully setting up what is to come.
Firstly, the animation in this show is gorgeous. Almost every scene is bathed in this blood-red hue that instantly sets the dark, desolate tone of this series. Every setting is full of dark corners and shadowy alleyways populated with mysterious and unsavoury looking people, creating this sense of ever-present danger that I absolutely adored throughout. The character and creature designs are also incredibly on-point, bringing an almost majestic feel to the proceedings with the long flowing coats and the smooth armour, while the monsters look absolutely terrifying and the depiction of the atrocities they commit can be quite disturbing at times. This all helps to create a dark juxtaposition between the human race and the armies of Hell.
The story in this season is extremely simple yet intriguing, effectively painting a hopeless world of war and death. There a few mysteries set up along the way (very few of which are answered), but nothing major really seems to take place until the last few scenes of the finale as it builds to a seemingly more epic second season. However, I think the small-scale nature of this first season worked in the show's favour, as it allowed us to get very connected to Trevor Belmont, our main protagonist. He is an intriguing protagonist, as he seems to know exactly what's going on yet never really divulges it to us, creating an aura of mystery around his persona, increased by the fact that literally everyone seems to hate him because of something his family did. Richard Armitage voices him excellently, giving what is easily the best performance of the season.
There's not much else to say about the first season of Castlevania to be honest. Being as short as it is, I would highly recommend watching this first season just to get the feel of the show and see if you like it. It sets up some intriguing mysteries to come for later seasons and an epic showdown to come, while also introducing a complex protagonist and featuring some incredible world-building. This is one of the most successful first seasons I have seen in a very long time.
Best Episode: Witchbottle
Worst Episode: Labyrinth
Overall Rating: 78%
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.