Castlevania: Season 1/ Episode 1 “Witchbottle” [Series Premiere] – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Castlevania begins with a whimper but ends in a roar. One with scattered body parts and a being scorned looking for revenge.

The Introduction

In 1455 Wallachia, a woman named Lisa decides to enter the home of Vlad Dracula Tepes. Someone who is a bit of recluse, not much for people, yet he takes to this woman. Something about her selflessness appeals to him. However, being that the times are when faith was more important than science, her pursuit of being a doctor was taken as witchcraft. Thus leading to her being burned at the stake.

An action which leads Vlad Dracula to rise up an army from hell to commit genocide on the citizens of Wallachia, and perhaps the world.

Highlights

It’s Very Graphic

Being that American censorship laws aren’t like Japan, there aren’t black strips or anything. We see the blood, guts, and gore of Vlad Dracula’s revenge.

On The Fence

Can’t Really Say Much About The Story

A vampire falls for a human and she is killed. She is killed by a bishop who we see die the same episode he is introduced. So, are we just waiting for a hero to kill the man who brought hell on Earth?

Now, the reason I’m sort of on the fence about this is because this season is 4 episodes [note]Which I’m starting to think should be watched in a similar way to the Digimon Adventure Tri series vs. in an episodic way[/note]. So with that, I’m cool with an episode just dedicated to the birth of a villain. But, while I can understand his pain, his revenge makes me roll my eyes. If only because, as Alucard [note]Who we aren’t necessarily told who or what he is. [/note] said, it makes such little sense for him to wipe out a country over one human. Especially since he plans to do so indiscriminately.

For the thought is, with doing so he wipes out any woman, or person, which could be like her. He is murdering the children that could grow up into a Lisa. But, the heart wants what it wants and his thirst for vengeance. After all, in his mind, those silent in the face of injustice have chosen the side of the oppressor [note]A terrible paraphrase of a very strong quote, I know.[/note].

Overall: Mixed (Stick Around)

My initial impression is mixed. Things just feel a bit rushed in terms of setting up Dracula as a villain. And while I get he was smitten and eventually married Lisa, it would have helped seeing how she humanized him. Much less, considering she had the man travel like a man, surely he saw kindness and other things in his ventures. So for him to damn a whole country to a violent death just didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Hence the mixed label for while it gets points for being a graphic animated production, story wise I feel like it could have done better.