The art of Castlevania: nocturne

Trevor Hogg sinks his fangs into Season 2 of the dark anime to discover how its creators conjured characters and creatures

- 

Breaking the enduring curse of video game adaptations is the Castlevania franchise, which has passed the Belmont family demonkilling business on to the next generation, with Richter Belmont regaining his magical abilities to accompany his trusted sacred whip by the end of Season 1 of Castlevania: Nocturne. And now the second season of the Netflix dark fantasy series set during the time of the French Revolution where vampires attempt to lead a revolt of their own - is again animated by Powerhouse Animation.

Also making a return are directorial siblings Adam and Sam Deats, as well as character design supervisor Katie Silva, who pushed the show's designs to reflect the emotional journey of Richter and the other cast members throughout the eight episodes.

"When we started working on Nocturne, we wanted to bring it a touch of elegance to tie it into some of the French backdrop, but at the same time refine certain things," states Sam.

"Occasionally in the original series, there were some struggles with how certain shape languages were working and certain shading styles that gave us some trouble. It takes hundreds of different animators working on the show to make it happen. Different people would translate that style in different ways and we found that we needed to make a few adjustments to try to refine our approach, as we went into the new series on top of trying to improve upon the aesthetic."