Review of Castlevania Season Three

By Dave B.

The third season of Netflix’s Castlevania takes place about a month after Dracula’s defeat. Eastern Europe is in chaos with various vampire and human factions vying for power. Trevor and Sypha roam the countryside killing demons and doing their small part to make the world a safer place. Meanwhile, Alucard wallows in loneliness, searching for purpose after accomplishing his lifelong goal of slaying his father, Dracula. As the vampire king’s loyalists plot their revenge against his betrayers, Trevor and Sypha find themselves battling religious zealots whose sole goal is Dracula’s return.

I had mixed feelings about the second season of Castlevania. I have none about this one. It’s unambiguously brilliant. It has great animation, vibrant dialogue, and interesting plotlines, while maintaining an engaging pace. As usual, Castlevania’s fight scenes are ridiculously awesome. They’re bloody and violent, but don’t feel gratuitous. And unlike in Season Two, they are fairly frequent throughout the season. Increasing the episode count from eight to 10 enables Castlevania to reach a new height of quality by allowing rich, complex, and compelling character development in an organic way. By the time the season ends, even new characters feel as if you’ve been watching them for years. 

My only major complaint about season three of Castlevania is that the audio quality is garbage. The balance is way off, so when background music is playing during major fight scenes, all dialogue is effectively inaudible. It got so bad during the final two episodes that I had to turn on the closed captioning to finish out the series. If not for this inexplicable and inexcusable problem, I’d be giving this show a perfect 10.

Castlevania: Season Three is fantastic in nearly every way. It’s consistently engaging, with an intricate plot, enjoyable characters (both protagonists and antagonists), and some of the best fight scenes that I’ve scene in an animation in a very long time. For those who watched the first two seasons, this is likely to be your favorite one. For those who are new to the series, this season is excellent enough that you should watch the series from the beginning, so that you can fully enjoy and immerse yourself in a show that has become a masterpiece. Castlevania: Season Three is absolutely, undeniably, a triumph. 

Rating: 9/10