11 responses so far ↓

• Richter Belmont // Mar 13, 2007 at 1:19 am

  Hahaha…

  The question is….are the producers and the developmente team interested in what fans have to say?

• Ramses // Mar 13, 2007 at 3:26 am

  Hmm, That sounds like a good idea. How would one sign up for this possision? i’d love to do it, being Dracula’s Curse was one of my top faivotrite games on the NES.

• Otaku-Man // Mar 13, 2007 at 11:09 am

  It would take a bit more than just being a fan of the NES game, it would require a solid devotion to the entire franchise as a whole.

  Likewise, the ultimate source of advising would be Koji Igarashi, IGA himself, but providing that he may not be available right away…

  …it couldn’t hurt to have a dedicated fan or two come up and be able to advise on Castlevania accuracy.

  This would require a deep understanding of the weapons, the characters, and everything Castlevania both in Japanese AND English.

  That’s my take on it.

  Although I’m honored that the idea is being considered by the staff. I’m flattered beyond words.

  If given the opportunity, I would love to work with the staff.

  ~Otaku-Man

• Danial // Mar 13, 2007 at 4:35 pm

  I can’t imagine any fan who wouldn’t want to help advise. I know I would.

  It could also create a situation where there are too many cooks in the kitchen though. There’s a lot of different ideas as to what Castlevania should be like.

  Choosing would have to be done carefully. But it would be awesome to be a part of this project.

• Philomenus // Mar 14, 2007 at 1:15 pm

  More than probably very likely the success and reception of this movie depends heavily on the amount of detail, reference, *reverence*, and devotion to the Castlevania canon and mythos. The ideal and most promising possibility — if it was or could be possible — would be to bring in Konami officials or the involvement on the part of the “Trinity”: series producer Koji Igarashi, character and costume designer Ayami Kojima, and soundtrack scorer Michiru Yamane. Though certainly to acquire the license to make a Castlevania animated movie there must have been some agreement made with the company, the involvement of the above three are somehow seemingly unlikely…

  So the alternate and best other options are indeed the fans, however much that it’s true to my knowledge from what I’ve seen Castlevania fans are some of the most bitchy and argumentative of any fanbase for anything I’ve ever seen — but any enormous fan of anything could probably say that from their perspective. While there is no “right” or “wrong” fan, overzealous individuals could disillusion the purpose of seeking out their counsil by being too outspoken about their opinions on certain topics (the games that were removed from and were never meant to be a part of the official story and timeline, et al.) and both too many and too few on the advisors’ team may be a mistake, but I believe that there is great merit in this idea.

  I’m a very quiet member of the Castlevania fan world here on the Internet, but I felt it appropriate to speak here today on this matter. And if there is a decision made for applications for inquiring suggestions, recommendations, and opinions on this project, I would be happy to offer my humble but respectable views.

• Franco // Mar 15, 2007 at 5:50 am

  What about old Kurt Kalata? I mean, who better? I haven’t looked too hard, but I haven’t seen him around here. If nobody knows who I’m talking about (I’d be surprised), he’s the webmaster of The Castlevania Dungeon (http://castlevania.classicgaming.gamespy.com/dungeon.html).

• Otaku-Man // Mar 15, 2007 at 7:29 am

  Some of you guys are putting this in better words than I did, especially you Philomenus.

  In essence:

  1) You are right that the Trinity og IGA, Ayami Kojima, and Michiru Yamane would be excellent additions on the advisory commity. While the music from the game ought to suffice for the whole feature, having Michiru orchestrate it and compose the orchestral versions would be TOPS! Ayami would not have as big a part, however, since we already have James Jean being in charge of the art. This works well since James’ art is VERY nice, and will give a unique take on the monster and character design.

  IGA, on the other hand, would be the man with the plan, being able to properly define how Dracula’s Curse fits into the timeline of the entire Castlevania series.

  2) If IGA can not fill in a piece of particular bit of information (or can, but isn’t available), this is where a fan advisor would come in handy. Just like medical advisors are there for medical dramas, a Castlevania advisor would be well versed and have an expansive knowledge of the series.

  However, to be a fitting advisor, a fan can not go by personal speculations and theories. The fan has to PROVE that what they are addressing is right.

  To do this right, this requires having access to research materials such as production notes, old instruction manuals, art, and the like. It also calls for a working knowledge of Japanese, and the ability to properly translate Japanese to English.

  THIS, to me, is the most important fuction of the fan advisor: being able to properly translate Japanese to English to get the proper name of something. Many monsters have been MIS-translated over the years in Castlevania. The names were either spelled incorrectly, or were scrapped entirely in favor of a different name.

  Such examples include Skull Millione in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. This is a mistranslation of “Scarmiglione”, one of the “Malebolge” devils in Dante’s Inferno. However, the translator at the time may not have made that connection when looking at “Scarmiglione” in Japanese characters.

  Another example goes with “Legion”. In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, he was called “Granfalloon”. “Granfalloon” was a word used by Kurt Vonnegut in one of his books to describe a mass of people plagued with groupthink. This name, while clever and fitting of the physical appearance of Legion, does not match the original Japanese, and is therefore a gross mistranslation.

  To properly identify the monsters in the game requires knowledge that goes beyond the games. It includes the occult, literature, film, mythology, religion, and then some. This is necessary to do the proper translation of the monsters, items, and weapons from Japanese to English.

  As I mentioned before with the “Whip-Toting Skeleton”, it also calls for a bit of recognition and decision making as well. In case you didn’t catch it, the “Whip-Toting Skeleton”s in Castlevania have always been called “Shimon” in Japanese. When written in the Chinese character set (Kanji), it translated to “Gates of Death”. However, in the character set used to name foreign objects (Katakana), Shimon becomes the Japanese pronunciation of “Simon”, thus making a whip-wielding skeleton a parody of “Simon Belmont”. While a cute in-joke in Japanese, the meaning is completely lost in translation. Especially since Simon Belmont wasn’t even born during Trevor’s adventures (not for nearly two centuries).

  3) Too many fan advisors WILL spoil the broth. The more advisors that are hired on, even voluntarily, the more likely disagreements between them are to happen. This will most likely happen concerning the timeline. Since the only “canon” Castlevania game to take place before Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse was “Castlevania: Lament of Innocence”, this leaves a VERY large gap in between games.

  Questions such as:
  “Is Mathias Cronqvist really Dracula?”
  “What were the Belmonts doing before being called to fight?”
  “Why were they in exile by the people of Wallachia (or Varakiya)?”
  “When was Alucard born?”
  “When was his mother, Lisa, burned as a witch?”
  “Was Dracula this evil before he met Lisa, or was her death a trigger that caused him to flip and starting attacking the villages?”
  “What would Dracula’s physical appearance be at this point? An old man, or a middle-ages man?”
  “Why was Alucard sealed away in the coffin under the castle when Trevor finds him? Did he do it himself, or was he sealed there by his father?”
  “What is Grant DaNasty’s relationship to the House of Dracula?”
  “How did Sypha Belnades get turned to stone?”
  “What about Hector and Isaac from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness? They were on the Count’s payroll during the events of Dracula’s Curse. Will they be featured?”
  “And what about Castlevania Legends? Sure it implies that Trevor is Alucard’s son, but I think IGA dismissed it for no good reason! It should have an impact on the story! It IS canon, I say!”

  These are all things to consider when writing the script. Some artistic licenses can be taken since the NES game did not exactly make things entirely clear as far as story goes and character development. However, taking artistic licenses in a way that REALLY deviates from the franchise’s established storyline, gothic atmosphere, and history will piss off fans and result in a bad movie.

  Likewise, if IGA can’t answer some of those questions, that leaves the fan advisors to work out the details, and also if some or any of these details are truly important to Warren’s script. Trying to decide on these things can lead to disagreements, and chaos if there are too many advisors.

  However, if there is only ONE advisor, that would also be bad since then it makes it easy for them to put THEIR personal view of what happened in Castlevania without having any other fans to keep their views and opinions in check.

  For whatever can’t be determined by fact (like in monster translations), it has to be agreed upon by the fan advisors and production staff. UNLESS… IGA has a place in all this, and then he would make the final decision.

  So there you have it. My view on what a fan advisor’s responsibilities and the importance of having a few.

  That’s my take on it.

  ~Otaku-Man

• Trevor Belmont // Mar 18, 2007 at 12:02 pm

  I support the idea to contact Kurt Kalata, of course. Not only he’s one of the best experts on Castlevania, he also knows where to look for and who ask if he doesn’t know something. His advice would be a gret asset to production!

  ~Carlo S.

• Peter // Mar 19, 2007 at 5:00 am

  Too many cooks in the kitchen? Maybe, but I’m glad people are getting enthusiastic.

• Frank // Mar 27, 2007 at 11:18 am

  I’d say IGA is the best source for the present canon of all things Castlevania.

  Truly, if you wanna look at source material for CV3, I’d prefer the Japanese manual over the English one. Figures like the “Poltergeist King” were ones only placed in by the American translators, and they never existed in the Japanese version. Actuallly, there is a good chunk of history given in the Japanese manual that the English manual overlooked. Everything from Grant leading the Wallachia freedom movement, to Sypha crossdressing so she could become a monk and learn the ways of priesthood(which was something pretty Yentl-ish, girls being forbidden to learn such holy artes). Then again, I’m sure IGA knows much of this by heart. He’s stated in countless interviews that CV3 is his favorite(with Rondo of Blood and CV1 rounding off the “Top 3″).

• B-Dza // May 7, 2007 at 1:30 pm

  Please for the love of Castlevania don’t let fanboys/girls (including me) be advisors. No open polls or sugestion blog for us please, please, please. Fans will suggest what we WANT, but that’s not what will make this trilogy great. What fans WANT doesn’t always mean whats GOOD. From a writing perspective this will be a nightmare because you will have so much fan service to try and stuff into the films that you’ll have no room for the plot, character development, or action sequences. Even having just one fan onboard as an advisor could ruin or even delay what is sounding like a solid D2DVD production at this point.

  What you have going on now with this blog is enough. Here we fans can beg till we’re blue in the face, but that doesn’t mean you have to listen to us. At least here you can see our ideas and comments without actually hearing us complaining or screaming for joy.

  I’m putting my trust in this astounding production team to finally break the cycle of bad videogame to movie projects. Make the fans proud, but don’t let us tell you what to do.

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