I know I said I would wait to give Castlevania a final score once I ran through each season. But if I were grading these seasons individually, then Season 4 would be a well deserved 10/10. This was it, this is where everything came together in a perfect package that closed out everything. No lingering plot threads, every character arc wrapped up in a satisfying manner, the biggest, boldest and most epic action saved for last, this was Castlevania at its finest and at the height of its excellence. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect ending that made you go “WHAAAAAA?” before making you cry at one of the most beautiful endings to any series, Animated or otherwise. Let’s get into it.
Season Three’s conclusion left everyone at their lowest points. World views had been shattered, others had grown warped and some characters had lost their way and seemed destined for far darker fates. Season Four was about taking stock of those events and deciding whether or not to let the pain linger or get back out there and fight their way to a better tomorrow. Trevor and Sypha, exhausted from constant demon hunting, decided to stop playing defense and go on the offensive. Alucard, dealing with a heartbreaking betrayal, found new meaning defending a nearby town and its beautiful guardian who made for quite the love interest for our world weary Vampiric Warrior. Hector took full advantage of his new status quo to ready the ultimate payback against Carmilla. And Isaac finally found his answers as to what he wanted out of life past his plans to take Carmilla out once and for all. And these were just the biggest players we’d followed since Season One. Season Four provided natural continuations and end points for half a dozen other characters from the aforementioned Carmilla becoming the one thing she rebelled against to Lenore and her sister realizing just how destructive Carmilla’s ambitions had become to the return of Saint Germaine and how far he was willing to go to reunite with his love lost to the multiverse. Season Four found time for everyone and its rare a final season, nevermind a show, can balance and dictate time appropriately to accomplish this.
The characters and their interactions with one another were at their strongest this season. Trevor and Sypha were snippier and quippier than ever while also showing their love had grown considerably since when they first met. Alucard and Greta were a perfect pair and having her around showed Alucard how better his life is having someone around who isn’t trying to backstab him like Sumi and Taka. I could still listen to Isaac interact with the whole world and get lost in the philosophical journey he takes. Hector and Lenore continued to be cute even though Hector was eeking out his won plans to get back at her, but mostly Carmilla, for what had been done to him. Probably my favorite interactions came from characters I wish had more screentime in this series. Striga and Morana are such a beautiful pair and listening to them talk about life away from Carmilla’s crazed ambitions was music to my ears, not just because anything that doesn’t go Carmilla’s way makes me smile, but because even though we spent so little time with these two beauties, I wanted them to have a happy ending and a destiny all their own. I know I said Isaac needed his own extended spin off, but I’d gladly have Striga and Morana get their own story as well. And yes, Trevor, Sypha and Alucard do reunite at last and damn is it good to see the band back together again, kicking ass and poking fun at one another like the true family they are.
Jeez, can we talk about the action and the animation that brought it all to life? Each season of Castlevania has managed to one up the last in terms of how gorgeous everything looks. But frak, they saved the best for the very end: Striga’s solo battle against an army of villagers; Isaac’s assault on Styria; Alucard saving Greta and the people of Danesti; the big three’s reunion battle against Varney’s forces; and the final battle that I won’t spoil here. Each fight was visually amazing and totally bad ass with the carnage unfolding. Everyone was showing off new moves and new, inventive ways of taking down the monsters of the night and everyone was being pushed to their limit. I wont apologize for calling Carmilla boring (especially when she proclaimed Isaac was the least interesting character in Dracula’s Court when he’s by far THE most interesting character in the show) but I wont ignore how crazy proficient she was with a sword when Isaac finally attacked her home. Honestly, I would probably choose Striga’s battle as my personal favorite but Trevor’s last stand offered a perfect visual cap off to a series that has excelled in over the top, Video Game like sequences made possible through animation. This is an action series and it delivered and any attempt to continue this franchise going forward will have its work cut out for it.
There isn’t much more I can say without repeating myself five different ways like Carmilla (ok others do it too but I really don’t like her, sorry not sorry). Season Four of Castlevania is as close to a perfect final season as one can possibly get and a perfect cap off to one of the best Video Game adaptations ever commissioned. Guess that takes me into Final Thoughts…which is kind of what I just said. The writing is excellent, the cast is perfect from their designs to their A List Voice Talent, the action is bloody and chaotic just as the video game might be and each season is so well paced you’ll blink before you realize you’re ready for the next one. Castlevania offered plenty of scares and blood and kept upping the intensity even when you thought it wasn’t possible to get any better. It also did a great job of exploring deeper matters like the line that blurs man and monster and how it was easy to see both as one in the same depending on who was committing what terrible acts. Even the “monsters” many feared turned out to have the most emotional and fascinating stories in the entire show, just look to Isaac and Carmilla’s sisters for that. Even Dracula was the most interesting he’s been in a long time in any medium. Bearing designs straight from the video game franchise, most notable Symphony of the Night, and finding the perfect balance between smart storytelling, brilliant characters, nightmare inducing terror and sweet kick ass bloody action, Castlevania is a near perfect package of an animated series and one of the best I’ve watched in a while. This show is near Avatar: The Last Airbender levels of consistently good, right down to a perfect ending. If a couple of characters had been handled better, this would be a 10 for sure (definitely based on the latter half of the series alone). Still, it’s very, very close. Which is why I award Castlevania a 9.5/10. This is one action/horror saga worth revisiting no matter the time of year. What comes next, like I said, has a lot to live up to with this newly minted Dracula legend.
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