Animation Review: Castlevania Nocturne Season 2

DISCLAIMER: This review contains unmarked, major spoilers for season 1 of Castlevania: Nocturne. It contains hidden, major spoilers for season 2. You can view these spoilers by highlighting blacked-out text.

Growing up, I always thought that vampires were overrated. If you were to ask teenage Jessie to rank the four big camps of fantasy creatures, I would instantly tell you fairies are best, followed by werewolves, then vampires, and zombies in last. My middling feelings toward vampires were due to the Twilight saga, as it was at peak popularity in my early teen years. 12 year-old me read the whole series and thought it was just okay. And because it was just okay, I didn’t feel compelled to read any more vampire-centric books or look for any vampire-centric shows for many years.

It wasn’t until 2018 that my opinion on vampires really started to change. For one of my college English classes, I had to read Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It’s a bleak story involving abuse, childhood friendships, and neglect, and it quite impressed me. It showed me that, damn, vampire stories can be tragic! Then sometime after that, I read Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. It showed me that damn, vampire stories can be tragic and romantic! Later on I watched Netflix's Castlevania and it showed me that damn, vampire stories can be tragic, romantic, and badass! By that point I fully realized that I had been missing out for years and had not been giving vampires the credit they deserved.

After finishing the original Castlevania in late 2023, I immediately dove into Castlevania: Nocturne. While its first season was enjoyable, I did think it was a step down in quality. Season 1 of the original series basically served to assemble the gang of Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard while the main "We have to kill Dracula" plot was left to season 2. It was a slow first season, but it really gave viewers time to get to know the main cast as well as see the extent to which Dracula’s genocidal campaign had already ravaged Wallachia.

On the other hand, season 1 of Nocturne quickly scrounged together its even larger gang (Richter, Maria, Tera, Annette, and Edouard) in two episodes and then immediately threw them into the "We have to stop Erszebet" plot. It was juggling five characters, plus the eventual Juste, all while trying to devote sufficient screentime to each of their back stories. And that’s not even counting the antagonistic or morally dubious likes of the Abbot, Mizrak, Olrox, Drolta, and Erszebet. It felt incredibly rushed and sorely in need of an establishing season like the original series had. Not to mention that the writers also chose to delay basically all of Annette’s and Edouard’s backstories until they had already made some major moves in the context of the plot. For the period of time that I saw these two on-screen prior to their backstories, it made it quite a bit harder to feel invested in them.

Despite the rough start though, season 1 of Nocturne left viewers on quite a cliffhanger: Annette’s efforts to pull the Abbot’s forgemastery machine back into hell fail. Maria tries to reason with the Abbot but the pleas from his daughter fall on deaf ears. He instead binds her to prepare to kill her as a show of begrudging loyalty to Erszebet. Richter and Tera show up and free Maria, only for Erszebet to appear and effortlessly defeat them. She then reveals she doesn’t want Maria killed, rather, she wants to turn her. Everyone is horrified, Tera offers herself in Maria’s place, and Erszebet puts the Abbot through a painful, gut-wrenching interrogation to make sure that whoever she turns is someone he truly loves and cares about. Tera is turned, the others escape, Drolta pursues them, and just before she is about to deliver a killing blow she is staked from behind by Alucard. Between Tera’s turning, Alucard’s appearance, and the gang’s utter defeat, Nocturne left a lot of opportunities for its second season to either fix season 1’s mistakes or continue down its somewhat rocky path.

Season 2 picks up right where season 1 ended. The gang is fresh off their complete loss and morale is low. Annette is the only member really pushing the group to pursue Erszebet, but Alucard warns her that even after exhausting her power to create an eclipse, Erszebet is still extremely dangerous. He tells everyone that although she is acting as an avatar of Sekhmet, she doesn't have all of her powers. She has already drunk Sekhmet's blood, granting her part of the goddess's soul called the ba. This is a feat in and of itself, as Sekhmet's essence is so powerful that hundreds of vampires who previously tried to drink her blood immediately burst into flames and burned to ashes.

However, another part of the soul called the ka is found in the physical heart. Sekhmet's mummy has been missing for centuries and Alucard is certain that Drolta is searching for it so that Erszebet can eat her heart. If she does this, absorbing the second half of Sekhmet's soul will make her borderline unstoppable. He believes that the mummy may be at a historical exhibit in Paris.

The gang ultimately split into two groups: Richter, Annette, and Alucard depart for Paris in hopes of finding Sekhmet’s mummy and keeping Erszebet from getting her hands on it. Meanwhile, Maria, grieving her mother, remains in Machecoul with Juste to keep an eye on her. Mizrak, now defected from the Abbot, also stays behind. Eduoard is still imprisoned with the rest of the night creatures while Tera is taken to Erszebet’s chateau.

For the rest of this review, I will be focusing on one or two characters at a time and their development and role within season 2’s plot. While season 1 of Nocturne was extremely plot-driven as the gang attempted to prepare for the arrival of the vampire messiah, season 2 feels much more character-driven. It is still ultimately propelled by Erszebet’s threat against humanity and the French Revolution, however, a few of the character arcs are significantly introspective.

Now I hate to say this, but Alucard was probably my least favorite character this season. At best, he feels like a celebrity cameo. And at worst, he feels like a plot device. His only major contribution to the plot is telling the gang about the parts of the spirit and encouraging them to travel to Paris and find Sekhmet's mummy and heart. This revelation happens very early on, and after that he's just along for the ride with Richter and Annette. He is a lot more somber and mature than in the original series, which is understandable considering he was around nineteen in the original and is now three-hundred-something.

I don't mind this, as Alucard does make a nice foil for Richter's boisterous and cocky personality. But for as silky smooth as his voice is, and as charismatic as his personality is, he is just not interesting here. It really feels like he was written in at the end of season 1 for a big "wow" and then the writers scrambled to give him a role in season 2. He fills in some dialogue between Richter and Annette on their journey, drops a few scraps of lore regarding his post-Castlevania life, and that's pretty much it. I understand that the original series was his story and that in Nocturne he is only a supporting character, but still, I was quite disappointed. 

Beyond his role in the story though, Alucard also feels bizarrely weak. He was already incredibly powerful in the original series; he fought Dracula twice. And while Dracula did not intend to kill him in their first fight and Alucard had Trevor and Sypha's help in the second, that is still no small feat. So after centuries of exploring and killing tens of thousands of vampires, he should be nigh untouchable by the time of Nocturne. I understand why the writers had to pull back so hard with him, as there would be no plot if he could just steamroll Drolta and Erszebet on his own. But it nonetheless feels like Superman showing up to a fight between Batman and a bank robber and then proceeding to get his ass kicked by the bank robber.

Although I had mixed feelings about Annette's introduction in season 1, I thoroughly enjoyed her in season 2. When she, Richter, and Alucard travel to Paris, this grouping feels like a fairly deliberate callback to the original Castlevania's season 2 gang of Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard. I don't mean this negatively though or as if the writers just tried to copy the original's dynamic. Annette may the primary magic user of the group, but that's where the similarities to Sypha mostly end. While Sypha was confident and hot-headed, Annette spends season 2 somewhat unsure and scared. She is fresh off her failure to pull the forgemastery machine back into Hell and is now being haunted by visions of spirits.  

This helps develop her chemistry with Richter in a much different way than the original developed Sypha's and Trevor's. Sypha and Trevor's relationship developed in a jovially antagonistic way. Meanwhile, Richter constantly tries to comfort Annette as her visions become more frequent and the impact on her mental clarity becomes more apparent. When fighting vampires or talking with Alucard, Richter is still very much a brash and arrogant teenager. But his moments with Annette allow him to show this softer side that is an excellent foil to his typical behavior. 

As I have alluded to, this season leans very heavily on Annette's spirit magic, especially toward the latter half. Viewers get to see Annette travel to the spirit world and interact with gods and her ancestors. The art direction here is stunning: the colors are gorgeous and environments waver from forests to oceans. It also helps to tie her story to Erszebet's, as Egyptian mythology similarly places a massive emphasis on the spirit world. 

The gang's confrontation with Erszebet brings together the Richter's elemental magic and Annette's spirit magic in a very satisfying way that further develops their chemistry. Annette allows Sekhmet's true soul, her akh, to use her body as a vessel in the material world so that she can take her ba and ka back from Erszebet. However, Annette is nowhere near strong enough to properly handle her essence. Just like the hundreds of vampires who Drolta encouraged to drink Sekhmet's blood were burned alive, Annette's body also begins to literally burn from the goddess's power. Richter has to alternate between fighting Erszebet and cooling Annette's body off with ice magic, continuously coating his body in ice and embracing her. The heat is so intense that even Richter starts to get burns.

This dynamic helps to balance the two's efficacy in the fight while also cementing their relationship status: At this point, Erszebet is unstoppable by normal means. Even the all-out pummeling she gets from Richter, Juste, Maria, and Alucard cannot truly defeat her. Only Sekhmet can pull her ba and ka out of her. However, Richter's ice magic is the only thing capable of keeping Annette's body stable enough to house Sekhmet. Without one of them, the fight would be a lost cause.

Similarly, their personalities and bonds strengthen each other and make them more than the sum of their parts. Richter's constant embracing of Annette is also incredibly intimate and is what I believe to be the point at which they officially become a couple. After Drolta steals Sekhmet's power from Erszebet and Sekhmet then tries to reabsorb her ka and ba from Drolta, Annette's body is on the brink of death. Convinced that continuing the process will kill Annette, Richter begs Sekhmet to stop despite knowing what the consequences would be.

While Edouard does not play a huge role in season 2 of Nocturne, I feel like the role he did play was very enjoyable. In season 1, viewers saw him killed and turned into a night creature only for him to retain his sense of self, something that was unheard of in the original series but is somewhat common in Nocturne. I believe the popular theory that this has something to do with the Abbot's methods; throwing heaps of corpses into a magic machine is far less personal and spiritual than stabbing a body with an enchanted knife or carefully laboring over a carcass with a cursed hammer like a weaponsmith would labor over a sword. Theories aside though, Edouard ultimately realizes that he still values his life as a night creature and so rejects Annette's offer to mercy-kill him.

In season 2, he fully embraces this mindset for himself as well as the other night creatures who have maintained their sense of self. His self-acceptance is remarkable; there is nary a hint of denial. While many characters in Eduoard's kind of situation view their life in terms of pre- and post-monster, he seems to discard this concept entirely. The things that most defined him as a human (his personality, his desire for abolition, and his beautiful voice), still persist after he is turned. While this type of character arc is nothing new or novel, Eduoard's resolve is a step above most. A majority of characters like him may conclude things such as "I might be a demon, but I can still do good" or "I may be a monster, but I'm still me and I have the power to do the right thing". Eduard, however, sees no difference between himself as a human versus him as a night creature. He's just Edouard, abolitionist and opera singer. And there's something so poetic and beautiful about that.

Also, his singing is featured fairly prominently in this season. It's all superb and is used at some really important moments. Actually, it's used to elevate the absolute best moment of the season.

Years prior to the events of Nocturne, Juste's wife and friend are murdered by vampires. He loses his will to fight and ability to perform magic, and so he decides to leave his vampire hunting days behind and estrange himself from his family. During a chance encounter with Richter, the two are ambushed by vampires and Richter saves his life. This turn of events inspires Juste and he rejects his previous resignation to his fate.

In season 2, Juste serves as a moral anchor for Maria. He is initially ineffective at this, which is not surprising given that Maria barely knows him. Yet, his attempts are still a massive step up from his years' of absence from his family and friends' lives. I still think though his dynamic with Maria is somewhat boring and forced because, like I said, Maria just met him.

What's far more interesting are his interactions with Tera as the two do have a long-established history. He shows instant hostility towards her just as Mizrak does but then has an enormous turning point: after instigating a fight with Tera, Juste ends up on the losing end. Now consumed with bloodlust, Tera is seconds from killing him. Viewers see the scene from his perspective: Tera is leaning over him, fangs out, eyes glowing red. But just inches from his neck, she regains mental clarity and pulls back. Juste, having killed thousands of vampires, understands how this type of behavior is basically unheard of. Despite the death, destruction, and agony he has seen vampires cause, he cannot deny how strongly this restraint speaks to her true nature. And so, he decides to form an uneasy alliance with her. I am thankful the writers took this route, as going in the other direction would feel a bit like an idiot plot and an abuse of miscommunication.

Olrox continues to be a very interesting character in season 2. From his very introduction in season 1, viewers were given the distinct impression that he isn't particularly evil. Yes, he kills Julia, but he does this out of revenge for a lover. And, unlike some Castlevania villains, he goes after the sole person responsible rather than an entire race. His people being conquered by Spanish explorers also gives him a particular distaste for Erszebet's desire for world domination. This dislike is very evident in season 1 and it is developed further in season 2 to a satisfying conclusion. From the moment Drolta meets Olrox in season 1, she seems to recognize that he is not truly loyal to Erszebet nor will he ever be. However, she basically ignores this. The moment at which she is finally forced to acknowledge his lack of allegiance is exhilarating.

While they are brief, I also loved his scenes with Tera. He delivers perhaps my favorite line of the season: "You have a mind which can think and a heart which can love". His dislike of Erszebet puts him in a unique position as far as how he interacts with Tera: all the other vampires are loyal to Erszebet and have no regard for Tera outside of her ability to further their agenda, and her human family and friends now fear her. Olrox has about as neutral of a view of her as you can get and is granted this position in which he can speak to her basically as a peer.

I've heard a lot of viewers mention that they wish Olrox could have had more substantial of a relationship with her, like a mentor-mentee role. I agree with this to some extend, as I think it would have been interesting to watch him introduce her to her new life as a vampire. Yet, the writers seemed to want to take Tera down a different, and in my opinion, even more intriguing, route in which it would not have been possible for this closer relationship to exist.

If I'm talking about Olrox though, I of course have to mention Mizrak. Season 2 sets up a unique comparison between him and the Abbot. The Abbot's whole shtick is being the insufferable "holy man" who spends his time making night creatures for Erszebet. His character is a very on-the-nose critique of hypocrisy in the church. Meanwhile, Mizrak is the holy man in love with a vampire. Him defecting from the Abbot at the end of season 1 helps morally distinguish him, however, it doesn't do it completely. When Mizrak encounters Tera after she is turned, he instantly attacks her. Despite Maria's pleas for him to step down, he ignores her and simply states that "She's a vampire". All the while, as previously stated, he is in love with Olrox.

It's an almost nauseatingly common trope in media to present a religious body as the main antagonistic group with a high ranking official (such as the Abbot) as its representative. With these kinds of depictions, it tends to go one of two ways: either the entire church is corrupt and any notions of charity and good will are completely false, or the church elders are corrupt while the lower ranking members are unaware of this and are genuinely acting in the interest of the laity. In the second category, lower ranking members tend to turn on the elders the instant they realize their true motives.

Mizrak, on the other hand, spends season 1 knowing what the Abbot is doing but choosing to stay. The fact that he eventually leaves shows that he is clearly a good person. However, his conflicting reactions to Orlox and Tera show that his adherence to his faith's principles is shaky. And with that, I think that Mizrak's depiction is a much more effective and insightful critique of religion. He is a good person, but not a good monk. It is very easy to say how terrible a religious person is when they do blatantly horrific things that violate their faith's most core tenets. It's much harder to say that virtually all faiths have such convoluted sets of principles that no practitioner, no matter how unarguably good of a person they are, will ever follow all of them.

There are unfortunately a lot of Abbots in the real world, but there are ten-thousand-fold more Mizraks. And if these Mizraks are, by all gut feelings and hearts of hearts, genuinely good people, yet they still somehow break some of the values set forth by their faith, then what good are those values doing? The Abbot's depiction claims that organized religion is bad because people will commit atrocities in its name, but Mizrak's depiction claims that organized religion is unnecessary because the principles that compels those of faith to do good are inherent to the idea of basic human decency.

It's going to be very interesting to see how he deals with being a vampire in season 3. His relationship with Olrox has been tumultuous and despite his love for him as an individual, he still clearly hates vampires. While Olrox turns him to keep him from dying of his wounds, I have a feeling that Mizrak will be angry and wish he was allowed to die instead.

I will be addressing Erszebet and Drolta together because their characters very much work in tandem. Season 2 of Nocturne explores Drolta's backstory and grants most viewers a small amount of sympathy for her. She's no Dracula though- in my opinion she not a tragic villain. We also get to see some more of the relationship between her and Erszebet, which was not what I would have expected based on the first season. I mean, at the end of season 1 everyone thought she was dead. She definitely becomes far more fleshed out than I expected and the events of season 2 really help bridge her story as a human to her story as a six-hundred-year-old vampire/night creature hybrid.

Regarding Drolta's night creature design, it's pretty great. It pulls from her previous color scheme and really amps up the monster-like qualities. However, I still think her second form is the best designed. Her hair and tail being pink fire were peak character design, and the lack of fire in her night creature design is a serious loss.

On the other hand, Erszebet's character feels rather underdeveloped and somewhat disappointing. The most interesting information that viewers learn about her is that even though she is sadistic, ruthless, and has no regard for the life or wellbeing of others, she actually cares about Drolta. Unfortunately, this concept is not explored particularly deeply. Ultimately, all of her best moments all remain in season 1. Her transformation to Sekhmet's avatar and boarding her carriage as "Mistress of Dread" plays, as well as her interrogation of the Abbot before turning Tera, are definitely her most impactful scenes. No part of her portrayal in season 2 approaches the gravity of those moments.

Thankfully, Maria did not disappoint me. I absolutely loved her this season. The ending of season 1 destroys her family: She learns the Abbot is her father and that he is working with Erszebet and then watches her mother get turned. The understanding and concept of a family that she built over sixteen years is shattered, and Richter, the only person who may be even remotely capable of comforting her, is gone with Annette and Alucard.

And Maria handles this about as well as any sixteen year-old would. She is distraught. She is vengeful. And unlike Tera, who gave and gave despite having so much taken from her, Maria has no qualms with letting rage and hate utterly consume her.  She is old enough to fully comprehend that her life as she knows it is over but too young to fully consider the consequences of her reaction. Being previously cautious about what types of creatures she summons, she now starts pulling nightmares and abominations out of the abyss. She forces the Abbot to beg for his life, completely ignores Juste's pleas to spare him, and then kills him. This moment is beyond cathartic. I was cheering for her. I've seen some fans view this as a parallel to the scene in the original series with Blue Fangs and the Bishop of Gresit. I couldn't agree more. I think the writers could have even taken things one step further and have Maria borrow one of Blue Fangs' lines. Perhaps it would be a smidge bit too on the nose. But it would have made the scene just that more incredible if Maria asked the Abbot "Lies? In your house of God?"

Maria undoing her ponytail is a perfect representation her character this season, as it is now flowing just as wildly and freely as her emotions. Her facial expressions are also spot-on. In a particularly important scene, she has no sclera, pupils, or highlights; her eyes are simply scribbled in. And what better way is there to demonstrate an attitude of reckless abandon that by coloring with reckless abandon?

I'm happy and relieved that the writers took Maria's character in this direction. It would have been disappointing to see her try to restrain herself in such overwhelming circumstances. Considering that she is rather abrasive and aggressive to begin with, it would be out of character for her to take her situation sitting down. And it's not as if her actions go unpunished- she hits rock bottom afterwards. On one hand it's understandable given her mental state at the time, but it's also very unexpected given her past. While the majority of her crash out is in character, her rock bottom is absolutely not, and that speaks to the extent of her desperation. Watching her tug her collar down and beg Tera to turn her was heart breaking and downright painful. She has spent her whole life fighting and killing vampires, she has both heard of and seen the atrocities they commit, her heart is filled with a burning hatred for them. But she feels so abandoned- Richter is away, she just killed her irredeemable father, and her mother is turned- that she is willing to become the thing she despises to be with her mother again.

Last but certainly not least is Tera. I actually saved her for last because she is easily my favorite character of season 2. In season 1, she is introduced to us as an incredibly warm, resilient, and optimistic figure. She has faced so much hardship and adversity throughout her life, from mercy-killing her sister in Russia after Erszebet turns said sister to watching her lover create night creatures and ally himself with the vampire messiah. Tera has every right to be miserable, self-pitying, and cynical yet chooses to be a beacon of hope for Maria and Richter (not to mention that, when Julia is killed, she chooses to become Richter's second mother). The world has taken so much from her yet she still gives back at every opportunity, and her final act as a human is one of self-sacrifice.

However, her depiction as a vampire does a complete flip. Every scene with her is so eerie and uncomfortable. She isn't feral; she clearly retains her sense of self. But she is in agony; she has an immense inner turmoil that is eating her alive. Tera is the first newly turned vampire that the series focuses on in any detail, and the writers are depicting vampirism as a poison that slowly corrupts one over time. And try as she might (as she demonstrates some truly phenomenal acts of willpower throughout season 2) Tera seems to be fighting a losing battle. By the end of the season, she is very clearly not herself, smiling gleefully as she watches the beheading of Loius XVI and others. And with Erszebet and Drolta both dead, the writers seem to be setting her up to continue this spiral and be the main villain of season 3.

And of course, all of her (former) friends and family are immediately distrustful and frightened of her. She already feels ostracized just by existing, and now her former comrades at worst want to see her dead and at best want to never see her again. Maria is an exception, but Tera chooses to make yet another self-sacrifice for her daughter's sake.

Beyond her writing, I also wanted to praise Tera's excellent art direction in season 2. Her color scheme is now dominated by blue tints as opposed to the reds from season one (see first picture for season 2 and the above picture for season 1). She no longer has dimples- a subtle yet very effective nod toward her immortality/ agelessness. Lastly, her eyes no longer have highlights. This is not a vampiric trait, as characters like Erszebet have eye highlights. In the original series, plenty of vampires like Lenore, Carmilla, and even Dracula "I want to die but I want everyone to go down with me" Tepes have highlights as well. This was a design choice made specifically for Tera to demonstrate not her loss of humanity, but her loss of belonging. She belongs nowhere. Not with humans, not with other vampires, not with night creatures, not with anyone, and she is very aware of this.

I feel like my writing has made it very evident, but, I loved season 2 of Castlevania: Nocturne. It is a substantial improvement on season 1 and fixes its most glaring flaws while also kickstarting some amazing character arcs. It has not yet been renewed for a season 3 and so I am waiting with anxiety hoping to hear such an announcement soon. While season 1 of Castlevania: Nocturne got off to a rough start in the eyes of many viewers, season 2 proves that it can rise from the grave just as furiously as the most blood-thirsty of vampires.

9.5/10

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Castlevania and Castlevania: Nocturne are available to stream on Netflix. They carry ratings of TV-MA for gore, language, nudity, sex, and violence.