It is rare when a video game traverses from gaming to either movies or television successfully. Even rarer when one aimed more at mature audiences lasts beyond one season. Konami’s Castlevania has managed to achieve levels of success with multiple audiences. Fans of the Netflix animated series got some good news recently.
Some history
Castlevania debuted at the start of what many could consider the beginnings of modern gaming in 1986. Originally on floppy disk in Japan it was then ported to cartridge for NES in North America.
Thirty-four years later the game has had nearly the same amount of incarnations released. Rebooted in 2010 as Castlevania: Lord of Shadow we saw Hideo Kojima bring it to the PS3/Xbox 360 era. In 2017 it found new life on Netflix. Fans of science fiction or fantasy films would likely recognize the many notable actors among the cast. Not to mention the series creator is famed British author Warren Ellis.
Categorized as a horror anime the series tells a somewhat unique version of the lord of vampires Dracula. In this version his war on humanity begins with a different take of a tragic love story. Immediately after the carnage begins many characters are introduced along with our pivotal vampire hunters. Dracula is not merely having to deal with humans trying to end his reign of terror either. The multitudes of vampire clans have their own bones to pick with the dark lord as well.
Awards
From storytelling to its cast it should be no surprise that it has gained accolades. In 2018 Graham McTavish received an award for best male vocal performance. It won IGN’s best TV animated series in 2018 as well. Nominations also include outstanding achievements in sound editing and best vocal ensemble.