Castlevania: Nocturne is a revolutionary epic that does the franchise’s best games justice

theverge.com:

Netflix’s first Castlevania animated series excelled by balancing its quiet, beautifully performed moments of human drama with explosive and artful action set pieces dazzling enough to evoke the feeling of playing Konami’s classic side-scroller for the first time. Despite the first show’s strengths, its regular issues with pacing and effectively cultivating characters from season to season made the idea of Netflix keeping 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.

Nocturne both looks and feels a lot like its predecessor in terms of its focus on a tortured scion waging war against machiavellian, bloodsucking ghouls who fancy themselves undead gods who walk among mortal livestock. But while Nocturne could have easily settled and coasted on classic Castlevania vibes, the new show steps its game up considerably by using the franchise’s iconic lore to challenge your understanding of what it truly means to fight for freedom, equality, and fraternity.

Set in the late 18th century during the thick of the French Revolution, Castlevania: Nocturne picks up hundreds of years after the events of Netflix’s first Castlevania series as demon slayer Richter Belmont (Edward Bluemel) makes his way to France in search of vengeance and vampires. Like his distant holy whip-wielding ancestor Trevor, Richter’s innate talents for magic make him perfectly suited for getting into the family business, and being raised by his formidable warrior mother Julia (Sophie Skelton) instills in him a profound sense of pride in the work they do.

Together, Richter’s raw potential and Julia’s tutelage make him uniquely