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REVIEW: Castlevania Season 4




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anime-prime



Joined: 17 Mar 2020
Posts: 67
PostPosted: Thu May 13, 2021 12:37 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, season 3 sort of messed up the overall pacing and tone of the series, but this season, wow, it was a blast. The fight scenes specifically are some of the best looking animated spectacles that I have witnessed. They were a pure sakuga fest and almost every episode had an amazing sequence. The season had some issues, but really I think every major issue I had with this season was due to the last season causing it to be a problem for this season.
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Drowsy_drowzee



Joined: 10 Dec 2018
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Thu May 13, 2021 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Five episodes in so far, and so far it does seem better than last season. Weird audio thing with Saint Germain; at least in episode 4, his voice sounds muffled or "fuzzy" compared to the rest of the cast (possibly due to being recorded in COVID19 lockdown). Its a small detail, but wow that was distracting.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15493
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat May 15, 2021 8:31 am Reply with quote
In terms of fights I had to rewind several scenes to watch again because they were so cool; Trevor, Sypha and Alucard were cooler than ever to see fight. Was Alucard using a shield this season new, because it worked so well to mix up his fights. But you even had Isaac being pretty badass, where his personality had kind of started the series as kind low in terms of his kill everyone mentality before becoming proactive and kind of positive. Even Striga, despite being villainous in just fighting desperate farmers, was cool, with it juxtaposed with her conversations with Morana, that even these evil vampires could see that Carmila was self-destructive and pointless suffering.

I do have to wonder about the thematic relevance of Carmila, who practically had it in her main themes of being a girl power character, who was apparently wronged by men and wanted to get what she thought she deserved, would be killed by a man. But I guess it might fit somewhere in how Isaac was a man who had faced oppression and had made decisions to look for a future of doing less harm, while Carmila had kind of become what she hated as an old stupid (wo)man that was chasing ridiculous goals like world domination. Isaac even talked to demonic creatures that were slaves to the instincts thrust upon them and asked if there could be more.

Still kicking myself after not seeing the plot twist of as who the villain was, even knowing that the alchemist was super sketchy.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14779
PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2021 9:13 am Reply with quote
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tintor2



Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1854
PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2021 1:26 pm Reply with quote
I really liked the final season. Found the fights epic and acting good. However, the final episode is a mess. Netflix's Castlevania has balanced well the light and dark elements but here it seem they want the former to be more explored based on all the random resolutions brought out of nowhere.
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2338
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2021 9:38 pm Reply with quote
Seriously, not being a prude but does this show really need that much cursing? Wasn't all the blood and viscera enough to tell this was for mature audiences. I'm fine with a well-placed f-bomb every so often, but hearing spoiler[the Spirit of Death] nonchalantly talk about eating and shitting out your soul kinda takes you out of it. Am I wrong?

Same with DOTA, did we really need to hear Yuri Lowenthal muttering the f-word every two seconds? For an adaptation of a game that's mostly geared toward teens? Mostly, I'm aware of the online community.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15493
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2021 11:42 pm Reply with quote
prime_pm wrote:
Seriously, not being a prude but does this show really need that much cursing? Wasn't all the blood and viscera enough to tell this was for mature audiences. I'm fine with a well-placed f-bomb every so often, but hearing spoiler[the Spirit of Death] nonchalantly talk about eating and shitting out your soul kinda takes you out of it. Am I wrong?


I will say that some of the fun from even the start of the season was Sypha saying her version of bad language, how she sees herself as having been corrupted by Trevor a bit. Just like how Alucard called himself out for turning into (Trevor) Belmont in his cynical heroism and becoming a bit of a mess.

By himself, Varney being a lone petty of a creature that would swear like a sailor kind of worked in making him look small and a try hard. And while an interesting call back to have Death do a little bit of the same, it did kind of ruin his mystique, and make him less serious rather than trying a bit hard. Perhaps if it was more clear that Death put on an act as Varney, and actually being far more eloquent and take on different faces.
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Mon May 17, 2021 4:33 am Reply with quote
prime_pm wrote:
Seriously, not being a prude but does this show really need that much cursing? Wasn't all the blood and viscera enough to tell this was for mature audiences. I'm fine with a well-placed f-bomb every so often, but hearing spoiler[the Spirit of Death] nonchalantly talk about eating and shitting out your soul kinda takes you out of it. Am I wrong?


Well granted I find it works for spoiler[Death] because it’s a pretty funny subversion of how spoiler[ancient beings] always have to talk in incredibly eloquent ways without any form of curse words. Plus it does fit his character of just being completely done with everything.

I just found it pretty hilarious and charming.
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3672
PostPosted: Thu May 20, 2021 3:14 am Reply with quote
Great final season. The action was really enjoyable and over the top.
Only nit-pick I'd say was that it was odd that Sypha's spell casting basically became bending in the end. Not a big deal, since it looks good, but it just makes her abilities less focused.

Perhaps I missed something, but I found it odd that when spoiler[Saint Germain] was going to do exactly what Death wanted, it then revealed itself, it's plans that would then dissuade spoiler[Saint Germain] from proceeding, and then threaten him to continue. Why reveal yourself then and not wait till later?
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