Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Castlevania: Season One Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 20, 2024

Film has not exactly been kind to the video game adaptation world. There's The Super Mario Bros. Movie as one of the more standout films, and there's...Resident Evil?...as a decent example, hardly a great film by any stretch of the imagination yet somehow still one of the better presentations of a game-turned film. Audiences thirsting for something more inherently faithful to the source are turning to the TV landscape where shows like Halo and The Last of Us and even the various Pokemon shows of yesteryear are doing (more) right for games than are the film adaptations. And here is Castlevania, an adult animated series from Netflix that explores the famous Konami franchise from the story of the 1990 NES side scrolling Action-Horror game Castlevania III that does not feature familiar protagonist Simon Belmont but rather an ancestor, Trevor Belmont, in the timeless battle against the villainous, bloodthirsty, and evil Dracula.

A human girl, Lisa Țepeș (voiced by Emily Swallow), approaches Dracula (voiced by Graham McTavish) with a mutually beneficial proposition -- she will help him reintegrate into the world if he instructs her in the sciences. The coupling eventually leads to marriage. But it also leads to Lisa being burned at the stake for religious heresy and the practice of witchcraft. Dracula promises to destroy those responsible, and he does. The world lay in ruins, and its only hope appears to be the nomadic warrior Trevor Belmont (voiced by Richard Armitage), also an outcast, but also the only man who may be able to stop the forces of darkness.

This is very much an adult animation. Language and violence are pervasive. It's based on a retro 8-bit video game that was limited in its opportunities to really capture the macabre feel of the world in which it was set, but that is not an issue here. Castlevania is dark, brooding, foreboding, and genuinely chilling. It's unafraid to explore mature themes and douse the screen in blood and gore. Characters are regularly skewered and blood flows freely throughout the brief four-episode first season (each episode runs around 23-25 minutes). It builds on the core narrative from Castlevania III, but the writers have done their homework and sourced various bits of lore from other franchise games as well. It knows its characters and its world, and longtime fans of the franchise, or those who are not gamers but still are drawn to macabre period pieces, vampires, and the eternal battle between good and evil (which can be a very fine, gray, and blurred line in this show), will find this to be of immense entertainment value.

The show is well produced, with solid Japanese-style animation and high concept production design at work. While it may not be radically novel in its look, it's very well detailed and thoughtfully constructed to be its own world yet still familiar to the period and faithful to the essentials of the original video game. It looks great and will leave fans wanting more. Further, the voice work is very good and suitable for matching not just the animation but the show's tenor, too. It's gruff and realistic; the voice actors certainly know the characters and their motivations. From a production standpoint, its hard to find fault with the show.

Castlevania: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Viz Media releases Castlevania's first season to Blu-ray with a capable 1080p transfer, albeit one that exhibits some problems. First, the negatives: the image displays some light, fleeting flickering but much more troublesome is some mild, at times; and moderate, at other times; and heavy, here and there; banding and compression issues appearing in the background. These can be bothersome and best and debilitating at worst, but for the most part it's only the heaviest banding, which is far less frequent than the mild and moderate banding, that causes the most significant eyesore problems.

The rest of the image looks quite food. The animation is crisp and efficient, presenting clean lines and stable detail and clarity throughout. The Blu-ray captures just about the highest level of detailing the source can offer at this resolution, and probably at any resolution. The show is not a tactile and textural powerhouse in its natural state, but complex stone walls, wooden appointments, and other static background content impresses for stability and clarity, but moving pieces -- characters and clothes, fire, and the like -- come to life with very impressive clarity and accuracy, showing the animation's simple, yet effective and collectively satisfying, core visual characteristics.

As far as colors are concerned, Castlevania is a dark show, visually brooding and oftentimes bathed in low light blues, blacks, browns, and grays, but offering some fine punch and vividness to bright fiery colors, for example, and red blood to be sure, and other odd splashes of more vivid color output. Colors are fine where they are at, as the production intended; just don't expect a barrage of rich and regularly occurring colors. Black levels are decent but do tend to push a little paler than is ideal. This is a solid animated transfer, but because of, primarily, the banding, it is also far from perfect.

Castlevania: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The primary audio track here is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack (English lossless 2.0 and Spanish 5.1 and 2.0 lossless are also included). The presentation is solid, impressing from the outset with a flurry of well detailed surround activity that immediately draws the listener into the gothic world. Throughout the four episodes there are ample opportunities for engaging and full surround elements, including wonderful support bass presented in fine balance. One of the highlight action scenes comes in the opening minutes of episode three when Simon battles the cyclops. The surround usage is never over cranked; instead it is nicely complementary to the action. Lighter world din is also in evidence and again in fine balance. Music is nicely detailed and presents with wide front and modest surround wrap. Dialogue is clear, well prioritized, and centered for the duration.

Castlevania: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Castlevania: Season One contains a few fleeting extras which largely have to do with the show's design and technical progression rather than anything about the story, voice work, or the franchise's gaming legacy. The main menu screen contains repeating animated clips from the show with overlaid music. Menu options include "Play," "Episodes," "Setup," and "Extras." No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does ship with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Animatics (1080p, 5:02): Several scenes in early animatic form, set to score and sound effects, followed by the final version.
• Storyboards (1080p): Storyboards for the show. These still images are advanceable only through manual advancement via remote. Included are Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, and Episode 4.
• Art Gallery (1080p): Again, original artwork stills which must be manually advanced. Included are Main Character Art, Character Art, and Environments.
• More from Viz Media (1080p/1080i): Additional studio properties.

Castlevania: Season One Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Castlevania: Season One delivers a suitably compelling watch and, even in four short episodes totaling no longer than around the average length of a feature film, crams in plenty of legend, legacy, action, and terror that sets the stage for what promises to be a potent TV show based off one of gaming's most storied franchises. It's dark, disturbing, bloody, and horrific, but fans of the games and adult animation, not to mention vampires, should find this to be a satisfying experience. Viz Media's Blu-ray features a lot of banding. It's not a constant eyesore, but it is frequent. Otherwise, the show looks good. The show sounds good on Blu-ray, too, and a few extras are included, even if they are very brief and focus squarely on the animation. Recommended.