Once every few years we are blessed with a
new season of Castlevania, and after what felt like an eternity, Season 3 is now upon
us.
Season 2, in my opinion, was one of the best seasons for any show that I have ever seen.
It had everything I could wish for: awesome new characters, lots of action, interesting
lore, great jokes, and an amazing conclusion that left me satisfied yet wanting more.
But with the death of Dracula happening so early on in the series, can any follow up
seasons live up to the high standards season 2 set in place?
I am Hailey from Cartoon Universe, and I am here to answer that question with my review
of Castlevania season 3! Netflix was kind enough to let me review the season early just
as I did with the previous one, and I will not be spoiling anything major that happened,
although here is a small spoiler warning.
If you enjoy this review, please considering subscribing.
It means a lot!
Now without further ado, let’s get started.
As mentioned prior, season 2 ended with the death of Dracula, which was only managed with
the combined efforts of his son Alucard, the speaker magician Sypha, and the last of the
Belmonts, Tevor.
But now our three heroes have split, with Alucard guarding both his father’s castle
and the Belmont Hold, and Sypha and Trevor traveling out into the world for more adventure.
It is perhaps then fitting then other major players from Season 2 are also split up this
time around.
Last season Isaac was abruptly transported away by Dracula so he would not be harmed,
and Carmilla took Hector as a prisoner on her way back to her own castle in Styria.
But that’s not all!
Just like in season 2, we are treated to quite a few new characters, all of whom get scenes
dedicated to exploring their motivations and backstories.
The ones that stand out to me the most are of course Carmilla’s vampire sisters.
Just look at these beautifully designed vampire ladies!
I don’t know about you but getting to be part of a group of vampire women trying to
seize power sounds like a dream.
Additionally, I also ended up liking Count Saint Germain quite a bit, but I can’t say
much about him without spoiling things.
So almost immediately it's evident that the show has a ton to juggle this season.
And for the most part it does this quite well, with ten episodes the show is able to dedicate
time for new and old characters alike.
But like the last season, I felt that this season struggled with pacing issues, especially
when I watched season 3 the first time around.
Almost all the action tends to happen at the very end, specifically in the last two episodes.
I feel like this was even more of an issue this time, with the only character getting
real fight scenes not in the first or last two episodes being Isaac.
In general, though Isaac had an excellent season, where he was not only the one with
the most interesting development, but also was the only character we really got to see
journeying from one country to another in an attempt to get his revenge.
The same cannot be said for the other characters in the show.
Trevor and Sypha find themselves in Lindenfeld, which is a minster town.
And they end up staying there the entire season.
Some interesting things do happen because of them, but I wouldn’t say they had too
much to do.
But speaking of Trevor and Sypha, I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say
this (skip if you don’t want to know), but as it was in the video games, they are now
a couple.
And they can be pretty cute together!
Sypha knows how to get Trevor to do what she wants, and Trevor can never resist.
Yet I can’t help but feel that critical moments in their relationship were not shown.
Sure, it did seem like they were getting along really well at the end of season 2, but for
most other relationships it would be crazy if we just got a month time jump between seasons
and then two characters were suddenly together without showing when it really began! (at
least it’s not Young Justice lol) Perhaps since the games already established this relationship,
they didn’t feel the need to have this be more of a slow burn, but it was still a bit
of a surprise, nonetheless.
Alucard is also another character that really didn’t end up doing much this season.
For the most part we see him training Sumi and Taka, two young vampire hunters that want
to learn to protect their people.
Despite it only being a month since his friends left him, he has become very lonely man, and
to keep himself occupied, Alucard agrees to train them.
And Alucard is just so great.
Some of my favorite jokes and moments in the season happened because of him.
Though as we have seen before with this character, get ready for some angst.
I am not normally one to do this, but I do think that I should warn you that some very
traumatic things happen to a few characters.
Yes, this is Castlevania, so extreme gore is to be expected.
But this season takes it up a notch and terrible things happen that will no doubt leave characters
scarred for a long time.
And this means that no character is safe.
While the show is not afraid to have some characters be LGBT, they are not guaranteed
to have a happy ending or be safe from harm.
But along with the things that make this animated series not for children, the show gets downright
crazy.
I’m talking about weird space and time stuff that honestly felt like it came out of left
field.
But apparently this is not unheard of for the franchise, so I shall give it a pass.
If anything, maybe we got a glimpse at the Bootleg Multiverse Castlevania’s showrunner
has been talking about.
I could be totally wrong about this though, so don’t take my word for it!
Something I really wish I could comment more on is the references the season makes to the
games.
Sadly, though I am still nowhere near being an expert on Castlevania, although I have
played through a good portion of Symphony of the Night... which I am loving but I got
stuck and totally forgot what I was doing, so I might just end up restarting.
But I am sure there are going to be a ton of nods to the games for longtime fans.
At the very least I can say that Trevor’s dashing new outfit has him looking more like
how he did in Curse of Darkness.
Maybe by next season I'll have played more of the games, but don’t hold your breath
for that.
But one thing I have always loved about the Castlevania animated series is that it is
enjoyable by both old and new fans alike.
Things are never confusing to the point where you need to have some context from the video
games to understand what is happening, yet knowing the references makes things so much
more fun.
Every adaptation should be like that if you ask me.
At the same time, I also love how the show is never afraid to take plot lines and characters
in totally new directions from what happened with them in the games.
This might make theory crafting very tricky as people will have trouble guessing anything
that ends up happening, but to me if things happen exactly as they did in the games, there’s
not too much reason to make an animated show.
And from the looks of things, nothing is going down like how they did in the games.
In fact, a ton of important characters this season are brand new to the series, so honestly
anything can happen.
And that really excites me!
Speaking of the games, I have heard a critique of the series being that religion is generally
presented as a bad thing and members of the Church are pretty much all corrupt.
This is different than the games that focused on showing humanity’s corruption as a whole.
This kind of happens again this season with the Priory, but there are also many non-religious
humans that end up doing terrible things, so at least there is a bit more balance this
time around.
What is not balanced this season is the lack of vampire action.
I mean, come on, we just got introduced to 3 new vampire ladies, one of which is super
buff.
Yet they do a lot of talking.
Season 2 had so many amazing fight scenes with vampires in them, so I am of course missing
that!
With that being said, season 4 better happen!
Not just for the vampire ladies, but also because there is a lot left open this season,
which is in stark contrast to the feeling of conclusion I got at the end of season 2.
You may be noticing by now that I have been pointing out a lot of things I did not like
about the season.
And unfortunately, I would not say this season was as good as the previous one.
They do share a lot of the same problems, but Season 2 did not upset me in the way season
three did.
Plus, I felt like we learned a lot more about our main characters in season 2, and new lore
was just a lot harder to come by this time around.
However, none of this compares to what I would say is my biggest gripe of all.
And that would be the lack of an overarching plot.
As mentioned before, Season 2 ended with the death of Dracula, which was obviously a huge
deal.
And we did get a sense that each of our main three protagonists weren’t sure what to
do next.
Turns out that was basically the case, and while I have an idea of where things may go
from here, I do believe the season suffered from a lack of purpose.
But hey, maybe some of you will enjoy this crazy ride of a season more than I did.
On the bright side, the animation is as great as ever, and the few fight scenes we did get
were glorious.
So of course, I am still going to say that we need a season 4, and that season 3 is worth
checking out for anyone that has already seen the previous two.
There is now so much left unanswered that Netflix better renew the show if it hasn’t
already.
I just want to see all my favorite characters happy- I hope that is not too much to ask!
So, for those watching when the season has aired, what did you think of it?
Was it worth the wait?
And are you as excited for more as I am?
Let me know in the comments and tell me which character you’d like to see more of.
I’ve been a fan of Hector since we met him in the show, and I very anxious to see what
happens with him next.
If you enjoyed this review and would like to see other reviews I have made, check out
the playlist for my reviews!
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Thank you for watching and have an animated day!