Castlevania Review: Go for Baroque.

Lemmie set the mood...

I am not an anime guy. I've liked a few well enough but that was mostly in my insomnia laden teens where I was watching toonami at 3 in the morning. Bebop was great, Champloo too, but that's tourist stuff. For a genre that can barely afford to make mouths move or eyebrows twitch I find the vast majority of them unwatchable. I'm aware that this particular project is Japanese in style only, being written by Warren Ellis and all. Part of me feels guilty about that, but then no other anime has made me laugh out loud as much as this.

Castlevania's got jokes. Whedon style quippy jokes which I understand aren't for everyone; but you will never see them coming and that's what makes it work. This show is Gothic with a capital G but it still lets nearly every one of its characters be human. Even if they're slightly undead. This is key because if you're reaching for your phone every time this cast starts walking and talking you won't make it to the end. Lotsa' prowling around in the betrayal garden in season 2. Know that.

3 quid for a pint?! Bollocks.

But lets talk about the cast and how much frikkin' fun they're having. Richard Armitage has a high spot on my "hey, its that guy" list but I couldn't place his voice until I looked it up. I remember him from the end of Hannibal doing Ralph Fiennes proud as Dolerhyde. He lights up here as a vagrant demon hunting drunk. The dude can just say things funny. The biggest laugh from me for the whole run is just the way he reads the line "I like stories." Do you want to see an English Indiana Jones? Because that's what he accomplishes here.

Then we have Graham Mctavish as Dracula by way of King Lear. A immortal broken hearted mad man who is too self absorbed to kill himself before wiping out all life on earth. He's fantastic. His mopey monologues that boil over into barking madness are almost better than the script deserves. Its such a good performance I'd bet the man has wanted to play the big bat for a really long time.

Hope those of you out there aren't too catholic. Blasphemous doesn't even begin to describe the gore.

Oh. The action scenes are pretty good too. I'm sorry, they are crazy good. They aren't written so much as choreographed. No mindless clanging of swords here. Every movement from each character is trying to go for the kill. Big budgeted this show is not but all the action still has the tension of a boxing match. You're never quite sure who's winning until its over.

Fans of the games (hi there!) will get a kick out of the references to the series reoccurring levels. The laboratory, the library, clock tower, etc. One of Drac's maguffins is the weird polygonal save point from symphony of the night. The second to last episode even has a wall chicken if you look hard enough. Not that anyone would be lost if you're not in on the gag. Their Easter egg game is strong.

I'm glad I waited until the second season to hop in because it reaches a solid conclusion the first 4 episodes (season 1 is barely 2 hours long) couldn't even set up. It won't end there but it could have and that's the nicest thing I can say about the writing. The structure of the story is alloy steel. There are twists, turns, betrayals, and sucker punches all decently foreshadowed. It won't win any prime time Emmys but that's not what its going for. This is a bloody good time and I hope ya'll give it a shot.