Forum - View topicREVIEW: Castlevania: Nocturne Season 2 Anime Streaming Review
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Daidan12
Posts: 82 |
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I think this was a stepdown compared to S1. While you had the benefit of established characters, they decided to not use them or just keep them frozen development-wise some ended up wasted or with minimal screentime because they decided to put a lot of focus on a repeat of one of the worst storylines with the Spirit World, same awful stuff I remember seeing in Korra S2.
Richter's love story and wish to prove himself in front of Alucard was perfectly fine, I liked it. Annete's love story and closure for his family was fine, but I hated the spoiler[Spirit "allucinations" + Sekmet possesion ] taking half of the show. Alucard doesn't have a story, sadly, only hints of one. Maybe they are saving them up for a Symphony of the Night adaptation. He's an action hero and "grumpy" leader. Maria gets the best story and the one storyline that is a direct upgrade to S1's Maria, no complaints here, wished she started some rapport with Alucard but I will take Juste's becoming her guide as a consolation prize. Juste was heavily improved this season, I think he became one of my top 3 characters of this spin-off alongside Richter and Maria, remindes me a lot of Trevor. Wish they didn't skip his story (game) even if it meant getting to Richter a couple years later. Olrox, the Monk and Tear were wasted and static the whole season. They only get something interesting to do as sequel bait. The villains were awful Bathory was an empty threat and spoiler[bringing Drolte back was a disservice to everyone, worst storyline alongside the Spirit World], almost made me wish we were stuck on Vampire Politics again. |
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MyMasterMatthew
Posts: 191 |
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I've seen a lot of people give this season a 10/10, but I'd be more inclined to give it an 8.5/10. It was a great season, and I enjoyed myself, but there were some issues (beyond the pacing, which I fault Netflix for... I think they needed 1 or 2 more episodes).
One of my issues with this season was the night creature storyline. I'm of the opinion that the night creature storyline fell short of its potential and just kinda existed. Another issue I had was with how Erzsebet seemingly forgot all about Tera, despite all the emphasis placed on having someone to use as a captive to keep the forgemaster in line. Neither of these things were mentioned in the review, so I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. |
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AiddonValentine
 Posts: 2382 |
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Episode 7 alone makes the whole series worth it. It's Frieza vs Goku levels of legendary. It's also interesting how much they delve into African and Egyptian mythology, unintentionally making the best version of The Mummy we've had since the Brendan Fraser movies. There's just so much to delve into it was one of those rare season where as soon as it was done I rewatched it to dissect it. They definitely leave off with hints toward more and there's so much more they can do with this series, so I look forward to hearing about more seasons.
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Marimer Est
Posts: 39 |
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Mark this post. If Nocturne does end up fully adapting Rondo and Symphony by the end of its run, the Sorrow series will be up next. There is absolutely no way they won't. You wanna start a shitstorm between Castlevania fans, you simply ask which game is better: Symphony or Aria? |
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Traptrix Lover
Posts: 116 |
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They really should just drop the Castlevania name at this point because it has nothing to do with the games anymore and is delving into it's own OCs and storylines. At least the Trevor series was somewhat loosely based on Curse.
I found it really funny how so many insignificant and dead pagan religions have active Gods who are good but Christianity is dead as a doornail in the show. The Belmonts don't pray, Maria mocks god, The abbot and the monks who actually are pious never get saved by god and are cursed and destroyed. The Netflix show was always intentionally spiteful against Christianity ever since the Warren Ellis days but Nocturne really amped it up by making it so insignificant compared to other religions which never had any presence in the games. |
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Daidan12
Posts: 82 |
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This is like asking which is better Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion? The correct answer to both is the games that made the Metroidvania monicker, it wasn't the newest ones. |
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i got the shivers!
 Posts: 124 Location: Brazil |
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Symphony of the Night routinely makes it on plenty of Best Games Ever lists. Aria of Sorrow does not. Aria is good but there's really no argument to had here at all. Although by the looks of it the show has no interest in adapting the games anymore and instead is doing it's own thing. That's probably for the best for both fans of the show who don't care about the games and fans of the games who don't like the show. If they tried to adapt Rondo of Blood or Symphony of the Night it would just incur a lot of ire given how beloved and iconic those games are so all the changes they would make would upset a lot of people. And I'm not sure how respectful they would be to Japanese culture if they reach the Soma Cruz era so it's probably best they don't touch those games. |
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AiddonValentine
Posts: 2382 |
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Gonna stop you right there, because while Yoruba may not be significant over in the States, it is still very much alive in Africa, with around a fifth of the Yoruba people (so literally millions) still practicing it today. And that's before you bring in its connections to other religions like, y'know, Voodoo. Plus Castlevania has long been known to yank in stuff from other cultures, just look at the bestiary. Egyptian culture in particular is a horror tradition going back to not just Boris Karloff, but even Bram Stoker.
Tough call, I'd have to say Symphony because of its aesthetics. My favorite however is Ecclesia |
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Zased
 Posts: 20 |
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I felt this show had the same problem Voltron: Legendary Defender had in that it didn't feel so much like a show based on the IP it was named after but a knock off of Avatar the Last Airbender. Giving their version of Annette "Earthbending" style powers didn't exactly help the comparisons. I didn't get a whole lot of Castlevania vibes from this series. I also don't really remember topics like the slave trade or French revolution being in any of the games and there wasn't any Dracula but a bunch of new original characters and villains. I didn't really recognize anything from the games outside of Richter being in it so I wasn't much of a fan of it myself.
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Essedess
Posts: 126 |
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My man, Olrox, beingspoiler[ MVP] this season again, spoiler[coming in clutch TWICE!]
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Avec ou Nous
Posts: 162 |
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I'm guessing no actual French people worked on this series given the amount of glazing they gave Robespierre.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 673 |
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To be fair, Annette didn't have much of anything going on in Rondo of Blood either. She was just a damsel in distress (and in some versions of the game, if you don't rescue her in time she becomes a Lesser Vampire). Here, at least, they're able to do something with her and give her unique abilities tied to her new background. If we wanted proper accuracy to the Castlevania games, Nocturne would have a scene where Dracula laughs Maria out of his throne room because she's effectively the game's dedicated "easy mode". I dunno, I don't care much for these Castlevania cartoons, but in the name of that scene of Richter and Annette cuddling together while they're asleep? Yeah, I think the changes are worth it. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4659 Location: New York |
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I think I ultimately stand by what I said about this show last week. There's a lot here that could have made a great adaptation of Castlevania Bloodlines given the setting of that was World War I and it easily lent itself to a much more dynamic plot, or an original cartoon, although given Frederator and Powerhouse's mixed record with those (Blood of Zeus was successful, but Seis Manos was canceled after one season and Star Child never got past the pilot stage) they wouldn't have done the latter.
But these characters and this setting simply aren't what people are looking for when they see "Castlevania." So I have to separate the show into two categories, how it does as an original vampire story and how it does as a Castlevania story. It arguably works for the former the same way Blood of Zeus remixed the Greek myths into a story with modern sensibilities, but fails at the latter because they had no interest in being one. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2611 |
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I forgot how much James liked most of the CV Netflix adaptations!
I've always been kind of lukewarm on them, although I have a little bit of trouble putting my finger on why. I've tried a few times to do so, and roughly came up with: character arcs frequently seem kind of disconnected; in the pre-Nocturne times, dialogue felt to me like it had time-traveled from an edgy 2000's middle school into our characters' heads; and, I often was puzzled by what seemed to be shoehorned in no matter how poorly it fit the atmosphere (e.g., anything the viking vampire did; or, Carmilla's impromptu rant about sexism in vampire politics). On the other hand, I always found the show visually attractive, particularly in its animation / fight choreography, and I'm a sucker for pretty much anything fantasy, so I wanted to like it. Nocturne's been a significant step up in most respects for me. Maybe it's got something to do with Ellis departing, but I don't inwardly cringe whenever a character speaks; profanity seems more purposeful and less the default template for every person. I also think the show looks even better; the animation's about equally good, and I find eye-candy in a lot of the still shots (though, mostly due to the change in color palettes; the azure blues whenever RIchter's doing flame stuff, contrasted with a ton of complementary colors in the environment, pretty much always catch my attention). And the role of the revolution and slavery in Nocturne's plot seem woven into the story more deeply and carefully than the Carmilla speech. Mm, though I think I'm maybe a little bit less impressed by the chemistry between Richter and Annette than I was the development of Trevor and Sypha's relationship. It's still firmly in the popcorn entertainment category for me, more something to fill time or give me a little distraction while doing something tedious than it is a show I focus intently on (my reaction to shows like, say, Dan da Dan or Frieren), but I had fun with it. (Side note: giggled a bit when I saw someone point out the blatant power rangers homage in the Nocturne cast's outfits.) |
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Davy Sprocket
 Posts: 38 |
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I stopped watching the Netflix series after the first season of the Trevor one but I have to ask: Does Richter use Hydro Storm?
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