Maintaining its status as a vast churning mill of content, Netflix has regularly made giant leaps in original content making. To keep new titles coming in, it has often turned to adapting existing novels and video games such as The Witcher. However, with animation, the streaming giant faced disappointments with cancellations of projects like Ember and Cattywumpus. Yet, its fortune has always given way to critical acclaim with the Castlevania series, including Castlevania: Nocturne.
The first season of the sequel to the animated adult drama premiered in September last year and forwarded the franchise toward a later stage in history. Famed for its visual flair and handling of the narrative to seamlessly blend the background setting with the dark, horror-fantasy trope, the showrunners always had a clear idea in mind of how to steer the ship. Additionally, right from its very inception, there lay one focus that not only became fully realized but also paid off.
Castlevania: Nocturne delivered on its planned setting
Set some 300 years after its 2017 predecessor, the horror fantasy had its storyline play out against the actual historical backdrop of the French Revolution that stretched from 1789 to 1799. Moreover, the show specifically focuses on the year 1792, and the showrunners have a good reason as to why.
Speaking to Bloody Disgusting in September 2023, Kevin Kolde expanded on how that time frame helped them explore themes of revolution, power, and class struggle while telling the story of vampire hunters and supernatural forces.
From a storytelling standpoint it just seemed like there were a lot of opportunities there to tell a story that’s authentic to the French Revolution and then combine all of that with vampires and other lore. We spent a lot of time really trying to get the balance right between the history and the fantasy.
Kolde’s comments also highlighted how they always planned on “drawing parallels” between the life of Richter Belmont, the primary protagonist of Castlevania: Nocturne, and the real world. Interestingly, that period in world history was also marked by arduous struggles such as famines and plagues, which allowed the lore of vampires to take over, thus helping the show merge its fiction with actual reality.
How Netflix made the animated sequel resonate with the audience
Apart from carefully planning the setting and immersing the viewers in a near historically accurate backdrop, Castlevania: Nocturne also bet big on its visual direction. In the same round of talks, Kolde also shared how they went through the artworks of Ayami Kojima, who had designed a distinctive style for the Castlevania video game series and tried to maintain that level of accuracy throughout.
The series featured high-quality animation with a gothic art style alongside a serious atmosphere. Furthermore, it featured thin, delicate line art that gave its characters room for emotional depth and helped them come across as expressive. Finally, the fluid animation quality and fast-paced action sequences complemented the dark color palette, honoring the show’s roots.
All of these factors worked out in Netflix’s favor, and Castlevania: Nocturne went on to attain a 96% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. The reception also had the streamer announce and tease a second season, which is now in production and aims for a late 2024 or early 2025 release.
Castlevania: Nocturne is available to stream on Netflix.
