The Themes of Castlevania

The Castlevania anime is a fantastic adaptation of the original game series. The story follows Trevor Belmont through a dark and dying Western styled fantasy world. Although far too short, remaining unresolved, and holding some minor hiccups. The story sets up an interesting dynamic between both faith and science while using demons and vampires as a backdrop. This post will focus less on the series and more of some of the underlying themes that I believe to be the intent of the creators. If you have not watched the series and do not wish to be spoiled, leave now. This is your spoiler warning.

The world of Castlevania is a superstitious and run seeming solely by the church. Much of what goes wrong was caused by the church. The entire plot of the show is kicked off by the Church burning the wife of Dracula for witchcraft. She was only a simple medicine woman who sought to aid those in need, but whose methods did not line up with the churches.

While this seems like an open and shut case for what Castlevania is trying to tell us it becomes more muddled. The Church may be this season’s primary antagonist Dracula remains the current villain of the series. Dracula has access to both magic (a seeming science in this world) and actual scientific marvels of his own. It can be argued that almost all that has gone wrong in this world has been a result of man lost to madness and his sciences.

The show does not take a side however, rather it seems to believe in a middle ground. That both should be accepted and neither is evil. While the Church is the antagonist, Trevor Belmont uses holy weapons, the aid of a priest to create holy water, and not at all subtly references The New Testament. Using salt to fight demons and saying to spread it around. Sypha Belnades and Alucard both use magic, and Alucard is surrounded by technology. Both characters remain on the side of Belmont.

The story will most likely not deny one or the other, but it certainly has much to say on fanaticism and the consolidation of power in a single entity. The Church in this story is corrupt and using people’s faith to control them. The bishops use holy words and ideals to push their will upon the world instead of Gods. Turning the entire world astray. This idea is most blatantly stated in the fourth episode when the bishop, who proclaims himself as the Church, is confronted by demons. They say, “Your god's not here, this is an empty box”, the bishop replies saying that all he has done he has done for the lord. This is shows that the bishops do not even recognize that his blind fanaticism has led him astray. The demons reply in many ways to reveal his folly, “Your life's work makes him puke”, “God's love is not unconditional, he does not love us, nor does he love you”, and “He knows we can not be here without you”.

Castlevania focuses on the dangers of fanaticism from any source. It also warns about putting too much power in one corruptible being. Much of what happened was caused by an unwillingness to expand horizons while they internally rot. This is a story and idea told time and time again, but always seems to need to be repeated.

So how did I do? Was there something I missed or did I get it all. Was I way off, hit it on the head or somewhere in between. Leave me your thoughts in the comments.