Castlevania had a hefty task ahead in season 3: take the story in a new direction after the demise of its main antagonist, Dracula. While this new season is short on introspection, it’s still well paced with plenty of inventive design and gorgeous action. The series covers several perspectives, allowing for a more nuanced and complex narrative.
This time, Carmilla (Jaime Murray) and Isaac (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) take over antagonist duties, and while Carmilla (and her vampire sisters) are fun to watch, there is no ambiguity as to their evil nature. This is made up by the greater focus on our heroes, Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, as they travel and take on all kinds of monsters. We get to see softer sides of these characters, especially in case of Alucard, who’s so enveloped in loneliness that he readily takes on two students.
The story is mostly straightforward, and breezes through the season’s ten episode length. Trevor and Sypha investigate a suspicious group of priests in a town called Lindenveld, while Isaac makes his way from the desert to Europe, accompanied by a group of night creatures. Some of the new characters introduced this season, like Count Saint Germain (Bill Nighy) and Lenore (Jessica Brown Findlay) have tons of personality, and while the plot drags in the middle, the character interactions usually carry the momentum forward. For the first time in the series, the narrative takes a steadier approach that accounts for future developments. In a way, this is a transitional story that will eventually give way to grander events in later seasons.
While that might not seem exciting on paper, this choice gives writer Warren Ellis a lot more room to breathe and give characters time to develop. His trademark sarcastic humor works well with the grim way he paints the world of the 15th century. This is a dark place, where the defeat of Dracula only heralds the portent of more terrible things to come.
The fights are as visually arresting as ever, though less gory than before. There’s a sequence near the end where Isaac has to deal with a town under the thrall of a magician, and it’s executed in a way that seems both horrifying and pulse-pounding.
While the season takes its time getting there, the final two episodes culminate the separate storylines in spectacular fashion.
There’s a montage of intimacy and violence in episode nine that ends in betrayal and disappointment, and once the fight ends, Trevor and Sypha discover that there’s a lot more to the town of Lindenveld than they had initially realized.
Despite the stepping stone nature of this season, it is, perhaps, the best season yet.
Castlevania is clearly coming into its own, and if it continues to balance its character development and action as well as it has, then great things await for the animated series in the future.
As it stands, it feels like a Western take on the themes and tonality Fullmetal Alchemist was going for. Here’s to hoping it can continue to carve out its own path and join the pantheon of great animated series by the time it’s done.