10 Reasons You Should Watch Castlevania Season 4
The series that changed the landscape of Western adult animation finally comes to a close.
It's been a wild ride, but the end of the legendary Castlevania animated Netflix series has finally come.
The series, which started with an unusual 4-episode pilot season, changed the landscape of Netflix's adult cartoons, and Western adult cartoons in general. With its success, it allowed more studios to move away from comedy sitcoms and bite into more action-heavy, serious, and darker fare that was usually only reserved for Japanese anime, which appeared to be the series's main inspiration.
The writing from Warren Ellis gave Castlevania something unique and charming without pulling back on what made it adult. It also never got too mired in grim-darkness, allowing its characters to feel like people instead of caricatures that bad things happened to. The animation team at Austin, Texas-based Powerhouse Animation has delivered one of the most iconic adult series in recent memory and the finale does not disappoint.
With both the writing and animation, as well as the fantastic cast of voice actors lending depth and weight to the acting, the series achieved the seemingly impossible feat of making an video game adaptation that's not only good, but truly top notch.
Rumours of a spinoff series have been going around, which makes this ending cut less deep, but with all the fantastic, terrifying, beloved and abhorred characters fans have to say goodbye to in this series, it's still a sendoff worth talking about.
Some minor spoilers ahead for the series finale, but no major plot points are mentioned in detail.
10. The Monster Designs
Even though most of them don't get dialogue, the monster designs in Castlevania remain top notch, visually stunning, horrific, and downright genius in the way they fight and move.
Previous seasons have seen monsters like Blue Fangs from season 1 or the winged angel-like creatures of Season 3, as well as the grotesque night creatures created by both Devil Forgemasters Hector and Isaac. In both Season 3 and season 4, Isaac in particular seems to have advanced his process, able to control the forms his night creatures take.
From the gigantic creature that helped him fight Legion to the new winged, horned demon (identified as Abel, a version of The End creature from the Castlevania: Curse Of Darkness video game) seen in this season that protects Isaac from harm and helps him go toe to toe with someone who, even with his prowess, was physically out of his league - Isaac's creatures are a treat to behold.
Another creature design that wowed people was that of an antagonist that appears near the end of this season. Terrifying, impressive, and memorable, this character doesn't show up for very long, but when they do, they make an impact.