Continuing celebrating Halloween with Castlevania the animated series, the new cartoon revelation of the last three years. The milestone of the visionary producer Adi Shankar and the comic book artist Warren Ellis is just the last masterpiece about vampire slayers.
A legacy of darkness
The animated series of Castlevania is an adaptation of the homonymous gothic horror videogame, which is one of the most critically acclaimed Konami franchises of all time. The Castlevania’s videogame series consist of thirty titles released from 1986 and still active. The worldwide fame of the franchise was able to expand the stories into other media, like comic books and, indeed, an animated series, which takes inspiration from the games Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness.
Every Castlevania title follows the adventures of a member of the House of Belmont, a vampire killer clan, who are trained in order to protect the human kind from the creature of the night. All the Belmont’s members are master in the use of the whip and various blades, from throwing knives to long swords. Very athletics and skilled hand-to-hand fighters, the Belmont family has deep knowledge of demon fighting and religion, collected across the centuries and passed from generation to generation.
The vampire killer series
The Castlevania’s TV series is a violent and strong language cartoon for adults. The religious environment is a very important component of the videogame and in the animated series it is very present too, deepen by an accurate adaptation of the European Late Middle Ages speech. The art style is also very precise and it is heavily influenced by the Japanese animation. The series is divided in three seasons with a fourth last in development. Here below the overview (attention spoilers).
Season 1: Dracula’s Curse
The first season of Castlevania introduces the story and the main characters of the series and consists of only four episodes of 20 minutes each. The whole story sets in Wallachia (Romania) in 1475, when the human Dracula’s wife Lisa Tepes was burned at the stake for witchcraft by the Bishop of Targoviste. Count Dracula declares revenge, summoning an army of demons which overruns Wallachia, and causing death and destruction all over the country. In order to fight the horde of demons, the outcast monster hunter Trevor Belmont, helped by the magician Sypha Belnades and Dracula’s dhampir (half vampire and half human) son Alucard.
Season 2: The Legendary Three Warriors
In the second season Trevor, Sypha and Alucard travel to the Belmont estate ruins, the only place on Earth that could contain hints to found Dracula’s castle. In the meanwhile, in the Dracula’s army there is a conspiracy risen up by Carmilla, the vampire queen of Styria. Carmilla manages to question Dracula’s genocide of the human race, confounding his allies and organising an assault in order to kill him once for all. The vampire queen will be preceded by Trevor, Alucard and Sypha, in fact this last one manages to literally teleport the entire Dracula’s castle close to the Belmont library, thanks to a distance mirror, a sort of magical tracker. The “Legendary Three Warriors” at the end managed to kill Dracula.
Season 3: Adventures
The third season of Castlevania will follow four main storylines in ten episodes. Trevor and Sypha continue fighting the force of evil in the small town of Lindenfeld. Alucard becomes the owner of Dracula’s castle and the Belmont library, defending the knowledge of both the ancient places. Hector, one of the two Dracula’s human generals and forgemasters, becomes a slave of Carmilla and her three sisters. And the forgemaster Isaac, saved by Dracula in the second season, he is trying to vengeance his friend Dracula, creating a demon army.
Legends
Castlevania the animated series is a success from all points of view. The fight scenes are not so many, but the animation of Trevor whip, Sypha witch powers and Alucard telekinetic fencing are simple a spectacle. All the characters are deeply developed and clearly different from each other. The comic book artist Warren Ellis did really a meticulous work with the style of the animation, hoping to enjoy his work in more cartoon from the bootleg multiverse, Adi Shakar’s project that want to assemble Castlevania series with future animated transposition of Devil May Cry, Assassin’s Creed and Hyper Light Drifter. For the fourth season of Castlevania we have to wait next year, but for this Halloween, three season are worth if you are looking something that keeps you company.
“Goodnight, tree.”
Trevor Belmont