You ever heard Greeks are bad at tragedies? Yeah, me neither. From the studio that created Castlevania here comes the new Netflix animated series – Blood of Zeus.
Based on the Greek mythology, Blood of Zeus tells the tale of the turmoil in marriage between Zeus and Hera, which involves his bastard sons.
There are also demons and giants that are in reality just giant demons, but in reality the prior is much more story focused than the former.
We get into the lives of those characters, but mostly into their schemes and actions. Those directly impact humans and demon’s alike which is the theme that is prominent entire season.
Gods are very sinful and flawed and their impact on human lives is significant. This dinamic is what actually sets the gears in motion. The giants and demons are only means to an end.
The show is adult but doesn’t show nudity. There is blood and gore but not nearly as much as in Castlevania.
The visual presentation is top notch. There’s plenty of details, the shadows and lightning are very well utilized and the effects are great.
On the other hand, the lack of frames is evident, due to a budgetary constraints.
This one had even lower budget than Castlevania series. What is also missing is a better director and writers.
There are many scenes with awkward pauses that should’ve been edited through the whole season.
(Obligatory flashback scene: “Patience my friend.”) – Yep! You will need alot of patience.
Almost entire season is filled with flashback and exposition which honestly killed it for me. It is bloated, constantly on the nose and tiring.
There is an obvious inability to handle such elements in smarter and subtle way. The writing is simply lacking which shows from episode to episode. There is constant jumping from vision to dream, to flashback to exposition, and so when something happens you wonder is it real even. The structure of scenes and the story is simply messy and clumsy.
What is fun fact for some and facepalm for others, there are some story beats that mirror Star Wars beat by beat. (“I’m sorry. I had no choice, they arrived before you did.”, “That wasn’t the deal!”, “I’m changing the deal” etc.)
There are plenty of cool looking moments but unlike Castlevania, many of them do not make sense.
There are plenty of twists to keep you interested but the delivery left much to be desired.
The society on Olympus is known to be pretty patriarchal in nature. For a brief moment I thought they could twist that element but not really.
And while it does not act feminist it also isn’t mysogonist either. When Hera confront Zeus in front of everyone, they do nothing to diminish her, they even stand by her side actually. However, they also say nothing to Zeus either. And that’s the problem with the rest of the gods, they just stand there like paper cut outs. Only the few get to carry some character traits but overall, they’re completely bland.
Yes, the humans are pawns, yes the gods are powerful and they pull the strings but the cool thing is – still anybody can die. That’s one of the things that show does great.
Humans are mostly decent character quality but the main one, Heron is generic and disappointing. I cared more about that female Archon than what should be a main character.
As a complete opposite, the demons are mainly one dimensional, but the main one is actually one of the strongest characters in the series. He parallels Heron and is a very tragic figure. Only he and Zeus have the real character complexity.
The art style brings up best from the 80’s and is a real treat.
The “behind the scenes” style outro is great solution especially for the budget. It’s always more interesting than some pretentious animation that ends up being boring or just a black screen ultimately.
If you’re interested, I’d say this one is worth the watch.
Just, for the blood of Zeus, don’t expect too much.
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