Castlevania: A Surprisingly Good Video Game Adaptation

When discussing adapting video games into either movies or television, it is unavoidable to bring up the past and how most adaptations of these are either bad or downright awful. This is mainly a trend when it comes to films as there really haven't been many tv shows based on video games. Because of that, when I heard that Netflix was producing an animated Castlevania show, I can't say that I had overly high expectations. For anyone who has never played a Castlevania game (no judging), it is a games series that was at its highest in popularity from the late 80s to the mid 90s that follows a member of the Belmont family, renown for their vampire hunting, as they attempt to kill the Prince of Darkness himself, Dracula. It's a great idea for a fantasy movie or show that I had always hoped would be adapted at some point. Recently, however, it became clear that in this state of cinema, Castlevania wouldn't succeed. Last year saw the failure of four highly anticipated video game adaptations in Warcraft, Assassin's Creed, The Angry Birds Movie, and Ratchet & Clank. Honestly, it was starting to look like we would never see a quality video game adaptation on the big screen. 2016 was supposed to be the year that finally broke the video game curse, but instead just added fuel to the ever-growing fire. While Castlevania might not be the big screen smash hit to break this curse, it is a small screen wonder that gives a little hope for the future of these adaptations.
So what is it that makes this show so good? I could drone on and on about good editing and solid storytelling, but instead I'm going to focus on the the big strength of the show that I haven't seen from a single video game adaptation yet: solid, well-rounded characters. It is undeniable how great the writers and voice actors did at crafting these beloved characters, making them three dimensional and quite likable. Trevor Belmont, our main hero, is a character that can be done very wrong very fast by making him pompous, melodramatic, or moody. Thankfully, he is a strong central lead to the series that the audience wants to see succeed. The real scene stealer, however, is Dracula himself. Unlike Belmont, we already know that Dracula can be done well, and that is where his problem begins. Dracula has had many iconic performances in film, especially from the likes of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and Gary Oldman. How then can this Dracula stand out in an already crowded room? To make matters more complicated, he's animated, severely limiting any sort of body performance an actor could do. Additionally, we have also seen this character done horribly wrong. Look no further than Blade Trinity or Van Helsing to name a few. What makes this Dracula so good, though, is how sympathetic he is. His reasons for becoming the absolute evil he will become make sense given his predicaments. In fact, I would almost argue that I wanted to see him succeed to at least a certain point in his quest for revenge and justice. I've always had a soft spot for the character of Dracula, but I can't say I've ever actually seen his point of view and agreed with what he was trying to do. Hence, this show has actually given me a strength of Dracula I can't say I've ever seen before.
The heart and soul that was put into this show is quite obvious, which is great. Most adaptations feel like a shameless cash grab to capitalize off of an already existing audience. In fact, it isn't uncommon for a video game movie to have very little to do with the actual game that it is adapting. While these things may not be obvious to those watching with no experience playing the games, I do feel that the emptiness beneath the material is noticeable to anyone watching one of these adaptations. With this show, Castlevania was able to find two valuable traits in its producers and writers that are hard to come by: fandom and talent. It's easy to find fans that have no filmmaking talent or talented filmmakers who have no fandom, so that makes finding that perfect hybrid rare but extremely valuable. It is clear that Netflix has found this hybrid to put together this show that will hopefully begin to reverse the curse that has existed since the early 1990s.

Neo Yokio (god help me)

Hoo boy. Where to begin?

Well, first off, I would like to say I am not an active watcher of anime. In fact, one could say that I hate anime, and that most anime I have seen has been garbage. Now, that's not to say that I think all anime is garbage, such as Studio Ghibli, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion (I LOVE Evangelion), and Cowboy Bebop for example, and I don't have anything personal against "superfans" of anime (also called otakus). It's just most anime I've seen has been either very dark, graphically violent and so edgy Trent Reznor would blush, overtly perverted, borderline porn with an unlikable male protagonist that constantly switches between wanting to be and being ashamed of being a pervert, or cutesy kid show-esque stuff that doesn't offend me but I don't like either. That may be generalization, but that's just all the anime I've seen (I've not seen Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, so I have no formal opinion on that). However, when even the biggest of otakus have to laugh and mock an incredibly terrible anime, that's when you've got my attention.

Enter Neo Yokio.

My mind was in a sort spiral as I was watching, so I'll try and summarize the plot to the best of my memory. Neo Yokio is about (indiscriminately googles synopsis) Kaz Kaan, a wealthy, sophisticated "magistocrat" (who is played by Jaden Smith. Good for him, I guess) and resident of Neo Yokio (an industrial/futuristic rendition of New York. Yeah, this is what we're dealing with here) who wants to distance himself from his demon-slaying past and focus on his average life with friends, at the expense of his aunt Agatha (played by Susan Sarandon). The first episode (and only one I watched) is basically a day in his life, where he mourns the death of his relatonship with some girl, gets into a fight with an preppy douchebag, and he has to prep himself for the big field hockey game with his best friends that night. Oh, and he also has to exorcise a demon that possessed a girl through the clothes she was wearing.

No, really.

Now, aside from the show essentially being made out of mostly Cliff Notes, this show is....truely an experience. Not a good one, but I honestly can't say it's bad. I can't even say it's middle of the road. I can ALMOST say it's The Room of anime. Almost, because while The Room was so over-the-top in its incompetence, the show's outrageousness is balanced out by absolutely painful cliches (kid has to leave behind his mystical past to live a normal life, and older relative keeps pushing him back into that life, he gets into a fight with his rival, who is better than him and an asshole). But not only that, the voice acting is another thing to point out. Now, mostly everyone gives an "eh" performance. They're okay, but nothing to write home about (though the writing takes some of that "eh" out, but we'll get to that later). But Jaden Smith. God, Jaden Smith is just absolutely terrible. 3/4th of the time you can't really even tell what emotion he is supposed to be conveying in his voice. Kaz will be ecstatic and smiling from ear to ear, but Jaden will just be speaking in his "signature" monotone voice, and it's just so baffling to witness that it's hilarious. For the writing, when it's not boring and unoriginal, it's...baffling, to say the least. I can't even describe most of the stuff because it makes no sense outside of context (and barely sense WITHIN context), but I will just say that Kaz finds a way to defeat a demon after having a conversation with an old man at his wife's grave about perfume. I'm dead serious. As for the animation, it's like an alien creature's idea of anime, seeming to have a few of the basics about anime down, but being almost oblivious to the rest of the principles. The animation is like a mix between early Pokemon, that mid-2000's cartoon Kappa Mikey (anyone remember that?), and someone's DeviantArt. In layman's terms, it looks like shit. Bad lipsync, boring, unoriginal, and not even stylized characters and scenery (except the underwater Neo Yokio, that was actually kind of cool looking), and laughable character movement.


So, to summarize, Neo Yokio is a thing. That's all I can say. It's a thing. I honestly can't say anything much about it because it's just that much of a puzzle. Some parts of the show seem like they're taking potshots at "popular" (lotta air quotes today) animes, and even some people will say that this is a parody of modern anime. But there's just so much other stuff in this show that makes it seem like it's serious and not just a satire. So, while it was certainly a "so-bad-it's-enjoyable" kind of deal, it's certainly not strong enough of a "so-bad-it's-enjoyable" kind of deal to make me come back for more episodes to laugh at it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a cold shower.