Netflix’s first Castlevania animated series excelled by mixing quiet, wonderfully portrayed human drama with explosive and artistic action set pieces dazzling enough to recall the sensation of playing Konami’s iconic side-scrolling game for the first time. Despite the first show’s strengths, its consistent issues with pacing and effectively cultivating characters from season to season made Netflix’s decision to keep the vampiric daddy issues ball rolling with Castlevania: Nocturne — a new spinoff series from executive producer Clive Bradley and co-directors Sam Deats and Adam Deats — a dubious one.
In terms of its focus on a traumatized scion waging war against machiavellian, bloodsucking ghouls who fancy themselves undead gods who walk among mortal animals, Nocturne looks and feels a lot like its predecessor. While Nocturne could have easily settled for classic Castlevania vibes, the new show ups the ante significantly by using the franchise’s renowned backstory to test your grasp of what it truly means to fight for freedom, equality, and brotherhood.
Set in the late 18th century during the French Revolution, Castlevania: Nocturne follows up hundreds of years after the events of Netflix’s first Castlevania series, with demon slayer Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel) traveling to France in quest of revenge and vampires. Richter’s intrinsic talents for magic, like his distant holy whip-wielding ancestor Trevor, make him perfectly suited for going into the family profession, and being reared by his fierce warrior mother Julia (Sophie Skelton) instills in him a profound sense of pride in the work they accomplish. Additionally, you can also read about- The 6 Most Underrated Anime Series on Netflix That You Need to Watch
Richter’s raw potential combined with Julia’s tutelage make him uniquely powerful even at such a young age. Despite Julia’s skill with her family’s lethal heirloom, Castlevania: Nocturne’s world is teeming with vampires even centuries after Dracula appears to have been destroyed, and the series begins with Richter orphaned and unable to access his magic.
Though Nocturne is set in the same universe as the previous Castlevania series, it also incorporates major lore from Konami’s Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night games to tell a compelling story about the inherent hypocrisies baked into the historical record of colonial nations embracing democratic revolution.
In this context, the French Revolution is more than just a moment of social discontent between wealthy elites and impoverished peasants angry up with their oppression. It’s a battle between undead ghouls like Drolta Tzuentes (Elarica Johnson) who manipulate mortals from the shadows, selfish humans like a power-hungry Abbot (Richard Dormer), and agitators like summoner Maria (Pixie) who want to demolish the entire oppressive power structure that makes France a formidable global presence.
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Nocturne’s concentration on another brooding Belmont and its depiction of late-18th-century France as a country overrun by literally vampiric aristocracy inebriated on the prospect of a new messiah make the new series feel true to Castlevania’s spirit. What makes Nocturne’s deep dive into this alternate history worthwhile to watch is how it portrays France not only as a crumbling monarchy in the midst of a heroic social uprising, but also as a colonial nation whose pivot to democracy at home cannot be divorced from its history of committing unspeakable atrocities abroad.
Nocturne brilliantly reworks a number of Castlevania’s famous supporting characters, like Maria (who fights with redesigned versions of the Four Sacred Beasts) and empathic singer Edouard (Sydney James Harcourt). But, among all the show’s old but new faces, ferrokinetic Vodoun practitioner Annette (Thuso Mbedu) stands out because the show portrays her as a woman whose Haitian identity is what allows her to see the situation in France with an exacting level of precision.
Nocturne explores the borders of Castlevania’s mystical mythology, which is heavily touched on throughout the season’s eight episodes, through Annette and the show’s examination of Afro Caribbean syncretism. Small tributes to video games and gruesome beheadings abound, especially in the show’s larger hyperkinetic brawls between its protagonists and hordes of horrible creatures.
Despite the brutality, Nocturne has its characters (and, by implication, you) consider what it means to slaughter theoretically innocent people for a genuinely great purpose. That beat isn’t wholly original, and Nocturne is wary of relying too heavily on it when it begins to link Annette and Edouard’s story with Richter and Maria’s in France. Nonetheless, it creates a resonance between the show’s action and the themes it addresses, which helps the season as a whole function well.
There are times when the flowing dreaminess of Nocturne’s general art direction clashes with the show’s use of 3D animation to make key scenes stand out. When conventionally animated figures that were only popping in and out of view utilizing eye tricks suddenly turn to the camera with richer faces highlighted by flat shadows that weren’t there a second before, it can be startling.
As great and unique as the season begins, by the season’s final two episodes, Nocturne begins to feel like it’s reliving moments from the first show – if not in identical form, then in terms of how cleanly it wraps up its plotlines. None of this, though, is enough to keep the show from hitting all the right notes, and by the time you reach the end, there’s a good chance you’ll be wishing for more.
