It’s a brand new decade! Time to wipe the slate clean and start something new, like a show based on a video game from the 80s based on the century-old tales of Dracula.
That’s right, 2020 is officially the year of Castlevania, per the declarations of both myself and Powerhouse Animation. New year, new me, and a new season of my favorite goth anime series that’s also a weirdly inspiring tale of change!
After starting Castlevania last October (‘twas the season) I quickly became a diehard fan. And if you’ve had the dubious pleasure of meeting me IRL, you might assume that part of the obsession is because Sypha and I are hair twins. You’d be correct. But there’s so much more to this series than gravity-defying ‘dos.
Based on the Konami game franchise of the same name, Castlevania has plenty of lore to pull from, but the show isn’t banking on nostalgia to bring in viewers. Instead, this series layers in action and emotion with compelling characters that embody the well-phrased (yet somehow ignored) advice of another beloved geek franchise: “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you were meant to be.”
This is taken literally in Castlevania—basically every other scene features someone severing ties to the past with their weapon of choice. From the deadly events that turned Isaac and Hector against humanity, to Sypha’s comparatively tame departure from her clan to fight alongside Trevor Belmont (of the monster hunting Belmonts) and Alucard (son of Dracula,) this series is driven by characters who choose to move forward.
Controlling your own fate, especially in a way that results in hanging out in an amazing library, turned out to be particularly relevant for my life when I started this show.
This past year, I packed up my life in Houston to move to Kansas City for a year. I met the Dot and Line crew in person for the first time ever. For once in my life, I feel like I’m building towards something bigger instead of just bouncing from one shitty job to another. Although I still need to work on developing magical powers that sync perfectly to “Bloody Tears,” the past year has seen a lot of change, mostly for the better.
Maybe it seems like a stretch to say that this all ties in perfectly with a show that centers on the disaffected scion of a family of monster hunters teaming up with the son of Dracula to stop him from wiping out humanity in order to avenge his wife. But ultimately, this is a show about a group of people trying to do better, be better, and maybe, just maybe, save the world in the process. If that isn’t a metaphor for self-improvement and, uh, global warming, I don’t know what is.
So watch Castlevania, and let it inspire you to do what you were born for. Or, at the very least, enjoy a series that just says “fuck it” and makes its half-human bishōnen vampire character a goddamn werewolf as well.
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