I binged the whole season!
I have to say, that I quite like it and would watch season 2, but I can't help comparing it to the original and it doesn't live up to Castlevania.
Visuals (Animation and Choreography): The animation is quite good, better then an average animated show but comparing it to the original it is worse.
As I was watching I kept noticing all the cut corners, like when they just warp something instead of drawing it again or when they use CGI and it looks out of place, it doesn't look bad but just not as good as the original.
It does reach almost the same highs as the original but even at its best it doesn't quite do it.
(I even noticed a couple of animation errors while casually watching, and I wasn't even looking for them!)
The same sentiment applies for the action, it is less exciting, the choreography is way less interesting, and they use a lot of cuts and implied action. It is still good, but I feel that it could have been way better.
Writing: The ideas behind story are interesting, but the execution of them is sadly kind of weak... For example a couple of times characters showing up when needed even if there was no build up for that to happen.
Or character strength just flip flops depending on what the writers want to happen next.
And lots of little things that I feel should have been removed or improved upon on revision, it kind of feels that the writers were planning to come back and flesh out the moment but just never did.
Magic and Monsters: The magic system is worse, even tho it is a soft magic system so it should be hard to do so, additionally the use of it lacks creativity.
Using the main characters for the examples: 1) The MC looses his magic for no good reason and then gains it back at a key moment for no good reason as well. When he finally does use that magic it is only 2 elements and it isn't even done in creative ways, for fire he does a fire whip and flame-thrower and for ice he does an ice shield and ice gauntlets.
2) The Speaker Mom also does ice and fire, except for the ice gauntlets she does ice spikes.
3) The Speaker Daughter has a unique ability to summon minions to fight for her, and it seems that she can do that without any limits, but she just do that in most fights for some reason...
4) The Free Slave, she does metal and earth, but she barely does any magic and mainly uses her metal powers to make swords to fight with (she does control them to come back after she throws them, so there is that). She can also can access the spirit realm, to talk to her teacher and maybe eventually her ancestors.
As for the monsters changed the vampires and the night creatures, not sure why as it wasn't anything that would impact the story... 1) Now the vampires don't fade to dust after death.
2) The Night creatures are now not 100% loyal to their master and in one situation the soul of the deceased person stayed with the body which was kind of random, and what annoys me about this problem is that they could have solved this whole complaint by just mentioning that the machine made a different type of night creature or something.
I have to say, that I quite like it and would watch season 2, but I can't help comparing it to the original and it doesn't live up to Castlevania.
Visuals (Animation and Choreography): The animation is quite good, better then an average animated show but comparing it to the original it is worse.
As I was watching I kept noticing all the cut corners, like when they just warp something instead of drawing it again or when they use CGI and it looks out of place, it doesn't look bad but just not as good as the original.
It does reach almost the same highs as the original but even at its best it doesn't quite do it.
(I even noticed a couple of animation errors while casually watching, and I wasn't even looking for them!)
The same sentiment applies for the action, it is less exciting, the choreography is way less interesting, and they use a lot of cuts and implied action. It is still good, but I feel that it could have been way better.
Writing: The ideas behind story are interesting, but the execution of them is sadly kind of weak... For example a couple of times characters showing up when needed even if there was no build up for that to happen.
Or character strength just flip flops depending on what the writers want to happen next.
And lots of little things that I feel should have been removed or improved upon on revision, it kind of feels that the writers were planning to come back and flesh out the moment but just never did.
Magic and Monsters: The magic system is worse, even tho it is a soft magic system so it should be hard to do so, additionally the use of it lacks creativity.
Using the main characters for the examples: 1) The MC looses his magic for no good reason and then gains it back at a key moment for no good reason as well. When he finally does use that magic it is only 2 elements and it isn't even done in creative ways, for fire he does a fire whip and flame-thrower and for ice he does an ice shield and ice gauntlets.
2) The Speaker Mom also does ice and fire, except for the ice gauntlets she does ice spikes.
3) The Speaker Daughter has a unique ability to summon minions to fight for her, and it seems that she can do that without any limits, but she just do that in most fights for some reason...
4) The Free Slave, she does metal and earth, but she barely does any magic and mainly uses her metal powers to make swords to fight with (she does control them to come back after she throws them, so there is that). She can also can access the spirit realm, to talk to her teacher and maybe eventually her ancestors.
As for the monsters changed the vampires and the night creatures, not sure why as it wasn't anything that would impact the story... 1) Now the vampires don't fade to dust after death.
2) The Night creatures are now not 100% loyal to their master and in one situation the soul of the deceased person stayed with the body which was kind of random, and what annoys me about this problem is that they could have solved this whole complaint by just mentioning that the machine made a different type of night creature or something.