Review: CASTLEVANIA Season 4 Bathes in Blood Before Its Final Rest
It’s here. It’s finished. And it’s pretty freaking amazing. We return to the dark and grim world full of vampires, night creatures, insane magic, and eye-bleeding (literal and metaphorical) animation. There are tons of monsters to kill, people to save, and revenge to be sought. While there is a bit less character development than previous seasons and some odd choices to push the plot, the fourth and final season of Castlevania takes the best parts of all previous seasons and makes an exciting ride of a winding plot with the best animation of the series.
We pick up a little while after the end of season three and see the projected progress of each of our main characters’ stories from the last season finale. Alucard is more cynical and lonely than ever. Trevor and Sypha are pushing through endless nights of battle, and the other characters are dealing with their varying levels of existential crises and unfortunate circumstances. In the first couple of episodes, it’s a little difficult to decipher exactly where things are headed. But as characters meet new enemies and allies, it becomes a little obvious where and how things will connect. It doesn’t take away from the phenomenal ending, but it doesn’t surprise, and isn’t as subtle as one would hope. Even though the main story was a bit easy to foresee, it was amazing to watch unfold and there were still plenty of surprises speckled throughout.
It is really fantastic to see each character dive deeper into their characteristics that make them unique this season. The actors make their characters more despicable, sympathetic, and everything in between. The animation of the characters is also a bit more exaggerated this season, but it adds layers of style and emotion that we would see from intense anime. As mentioned above, the style and flow of each scene are gorgeous. Netflix definitely poured in some extra money into the animation department and gave them all the time they needed to create loads of incredible fight scenes that move at breakneck speeds while still being fluid and smart enough to enjoy.
The only things holding the season from legitimate perfection are a few character motivations and some unexpected choices. There are two characters in particular that seemed to have a slight change of heart and then do mildly uncharacteristic things. In the last two seasons, we saw characters be betrayed and observe horrors or mercies that led them to change their world views. But the aforementioned characters seem to have changed their minds off-screen, and it feels a little jarring. While their motivations are lightly explained in the season, it felt more like a passing thought than a deeply felt change in thought process.
That being said, Season 4 is still one of the most fitting endings to a series I’ve seen. It does leave a bit of wiggle room for any spin-offs or extra content, but things are well enough tied up that fans will be well satisfied. The stunning animation, great character interactions, and strong endings for characters all add up to be some of the best content on Netflix. Yes, some characters felt like they were driven more by the plot than by personal motivations, and I wish there was a bit more screen time for certain people, but everything else was so good that it makes up for it with ease. Castlevania Season 4 ties up all the loose ends and stands as an easy recommendation for anyone.
