The show wants to cover too much in just eight episodes, but it fails miserably. Too many characters, too many subplots, too many conflicts: Richter's fear, the love between Olrox and the knight, Maria and her father, the fight against the Messiah, Anette and her disconnection from her ancestors and her loss of Edouard. The viewer doesn't have time to focus on anything because they throw everything at the same time.

The only thing I cared about at least a little was Richter's plot and, although it was developed, it was not the best executed. The magic returns to Richter when he realizes that he has many people to protect. That trope is something we are tired of seeing, especially all those who come from consuming anime, consuming shounen to be more specific.

I was not interested in any character and I was even less interested in the antaognists. As usual, I remember that the first part of Castlevania did not shine for its construction of villains either. Who on the team thinks of making the vampires so one-dimensional and giving them so much focus? What is not attractive to the viewer is supposed to be kept on the sidelines.

It makes me laugh how they saved the worst for last: Alucard's appearance. It was not necessary to use the nostalgia card and even less so at a critical moment like that: right at the end when everyone is at their lowest moment and almost about to die. The way they executed those last scenes, Alucard feels like a Deus Ex Machina.

The action scenes were on point. Kudos to the group of animators and directors behind it. Castlevania has always had some of the best choreographed animated battles I've ever seen.

The first part of Castlevania was not something that was very worthwhile, but Castlevania: Nocturne disappoints even by those low standards.

You know what every Anime/Animated Action Show has? A group of young characters on a dangerous journey to fight evil. You know what every Anime/Animated like that never has? Someone's mother tagging along with the kids.

First of all, Castlevania: Nocturne really shows what the creators prioritize making it. Insane choreographed animated fight scenes, evil Vampire lady's (the creators fetish?) who all look like they were straight out of ripped from Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and generic Americanized dialogue with a ton of quips and swearing.

This show tries to do so much in just 8 episodes, which really is frustrating to the point that I started not caring at all. Every character has 2 Subplots, conflicts and backstory. I wished they would slow it down and take their time, but this show really gives off the feeling of "we don't know if there is a second season coming or not" vibes, "so let's put everything in it."

The biggest problem this show has is it's main characters, with all the subplots they have added, they still didn't give them any character at all. Which was present in the first Castlevania. In Nocturne, the maincharacter, Belmond, is dull.

Don't expect much outside of the flashy animated fight scenes. I'm not sure if there is a Soundtrack, nothing sticked in that category. The voice acting is terrible. It's one of those shows where they just casted Actors instead of Voice Actors. I hate that specific thing, because I know there are very good voice actors, but Netflix and higher budget films don't cast them just for marketing reasons.

"I was going to say something witty, but f*** it"

I liked the first Castlevania series. While it wasn't perfect, it did grow on me and had some amazing animations and memorable characters. This new series though, fails at all that, but works as a great sleeping pill.

First off, the obvious: the animations are a let down, except for maybe one fight. Gone is the gorgeous spell slinging from the first.

The writing is incredibly weak. You can tell that the writers are on strike and the story was written by chatgpt prefixed with "imagine that you are a teenager with Tourette...". The review title is an actual quote from the show, I kid you not.

The story is filled with cliches and there were so many deus ex machina and woman in the fridge tropes that I lost count. The French revolution should have made for an interesting background setting (and a much better story), except the show does very little with it. There's an amorphous "revolution" that apparently threatens vampires by listening to their teenage girl leader, and then running away when the fighting starts.

The only saving grace is the great, creepy music, but that's nowhere near enough to save this show from mediocrity.