Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Vol. 1

Castlevania #1

by Kou Sasakura

Hector, a young man who has invoked the dark powers that allow him to conjure demons, is sought by his mysterious mentor while he finds shelter with a young orphan and a nun.

Genres: Manga, Vampires, Fantasy, Horror, Comics Manga, Fiction, Comics

192 pages

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[F.D. Gross · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast read into the depths of one of Castlevania’s darkest approaches to the franchise. Although the first of the two book prequel installment, it’s still strokes the Castlevania fandom inside, touching on elements of Hector and Isaac’s dark opposing struggles. Both serving Lord Dracula, one eventually opposes and now it’s a man hunt for the betrayer, Hector. Unlike the Netflix dynamic approach of Hector and Isaac, in this original version, Hector actually has some strong powers to unleash, and will give the opposing forces a run for their money... book one of two. I wish it was longer, much longer of a series...

4 out of 5 stars
Author F. D. Gross

[April eclecticbookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short and jumbled

[cey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first chapter was fine ya'll, but ngl it's a bit confusing to read. Or, well not confusing but too mixed up and boring.
Literally can't find Volume 2.

[chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

wow this is SO slow. literally nothing happened.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love the game, but this was so disappointing, to say the least.

[Joss loves Jace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book and good game.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not enough story here; I get the sense it's just fanservice for die-hard fans of the game, even though by the end of the first volume there's still not a Belmont to be seen. This one concentrates more on two of Dracula's high-ranking henchmen, rivals for power. It falls into the trap of many lower-tier comics and manga, though, where action scenes are unnecessarily drawn-out by having major characters talk and talk and TALK instead of getting on with things. How nice of the attacking monsters to sit back and wait while this or that major player goes on and on at length about how their power is cursed and nothing good comes of it and ha-ha are you sure you want my bad-luck help; or about how 'you must run and save yourself!' 'no!' 'but here's an essay about why you have to!' 'but here's a dissertation about why I can't!'. Then cue the flashback that tells a little (too little, really) about the henchmen's pasts, but seems mainly meant to highlight this scantily-clad busty woman, because I guess there haven't been enough exposed mammaries yet to meet quota *eye roll*. To top it off, the artwork is only okay, not enough of a draw on its own to pull me back for a second volume despite the writing shortcomings.
There are much better paranormal manga out there.

[Crazed8J8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read much manga, I love the artwork, but typically the series run too long for me to get into them fully. I'm currently watching the Netflix Castlevania, so when I realized these kind of tied in, i wanted to read them.
I've always (passively) been a fan of the games and the lore, so these volumes also held interest from that standpoint too.
That said, the artwork on this first volume is amazing, solid throughout! The story, though, was a little difficult to follow, who's who, are Isaac and Hector friends? Enemies? Have they even met? The timeline jumps, the characters, and the plot made this difficult to follow, but, the artwork was great.
Onto volume 2...

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is a little slow. Not a lot happens in the first chapter except we get a long drawn out introduction to Hector and Isaac. The second chapter is a decent intro to Isaac and the pace picks up (it is the better part in my opinion).

[Fuuma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give it 4 stars because I found it difficult to tell who was speaking at times, and I'm still not really sure what story we're being told going into volume 2.

[Kiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a start I guess? Haven't played the games so I'm probably missing some context. Great art and dark and spooky, but I feel like not much happened.

[annushka · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHERE IS ALUCARD???????????

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone who's not at all familiar with the video game and probably never will be, I thought this was a good start to the manga. We get introduced immediately to Isaac, one of the two generals that will be fighting over a little boy named Ted, as well as the driving force behind the demonic army, Count Dracula.

You do not get too much of a background on any of the characters, but I'm willing to get the next volume to see if the characters get fleshed out a bit more. However, we do get just enough of a story about Ted that you sympathize with him. His father is a mercenary and has left to fight against Dracular's army. He's promised to come back home, and Ted keeps vigil at their house, for he knows it's only him and his dad left. His mother has already passed away.

Aside from those three characters, we are also introduced to Rosalee, a nun, and the other general, Hector. I'm not sure of Rosalee's role as whole in the manga. She may just be in this one volume alone, but she does play a part in having Ted meet Hector. Hector was found wounded and lying beside the road by Rosalee who brings him back to her home. She takes care of him as he recovers. Her connection with Ted is that she takes care of him as well as she can while his father is away fighting.

I won't go into anymore detail, but I thought it was decent. I'd like to read more about Hector and definitely find out what role Ted plays in all of this. The art is dark but detailed and there is plenty of action and blood for those who like it. I'd say, give it a chance :)

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Isaac tracks Hector when Hector abandons Dracula's army, and the threat of Belmont family grows. The idea of making a manga of Castlevania is interesting since Castlevania has tried really hard since releasing its games to streamline them into a story continuity. The problem with this manga is the same problem with a lot of manga...It is hard to figure out what is going on. This would be aided if it was in color, but since it is black and white, all the major players look the same. This also is hindered by the fact that much of this story is flashbacks and it isn't always entirely clear that it is starting to "flashback". The plus of this manga is that it took a more difficult approach to the story. It would have been easy to take the story from the perspective of the Belmont family and just have them slaying vampires. The fact that the story (so far) is shown through the eyes of two of Dracula's henchmen is half-way interesting.

[Victor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not give this book many stars because it seemed like they could have done better. This manga is larger than the average comic book, yet they did not even get through the intro of the game. The drawings were confusing, and whenever someone had a fight a werewolf or something weird, I could barely understand what the heck was going on.

My main complaint is the length. When you start this book, you really get into it, but you also find yourself say, “OK, the book’s almost over, when the heck is Belmont finally going to show up?” Then it is over and Belmont is advertised as coming in the next book. What a disappointment!

I am used to reading graphic novels at this point, which usually have a full story. I am past the stage of reading comics, manga, or whatever that do not even have complete stories in one book. I lack the patience for that.

[Hazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A solid 2 out of 5.

Castlevania is a 13+ fantasy manga based on the videogame.

The artwork was ok, I do like bishounen characters like Hector. Sometimes I found it difficult to differentiate between Isaac and his group of men.

The story was ok, nothing special. It focuses on the rivalry between Hector and Isaac, the devil servants of Count Dracula. I found it interesting that humans, seeing that Dracula has so much power, go and offer to become his servants. I wondered if I could go along and volunteer to be a Succubus. Wear lingerie, get wings, bite sexy bishies all day. Sounds good.

"The deeper the darkness of one's soul...the more powerful the demon magic becomes."

I guess that means Hector could have an interesting back story, but I'll be dropping this series.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's not terrible but it's not that great, either. To be honest, this story isn't that memorable or anything so far.

The good points:
- The vampires don't sparkle, the werewolf is pretty cool, and Dracula and his entourage are full out evil.
- The artwork is decent enough.

The bad:
- The action is hard to follow at some points, making some parts difficult to read.
- Where's Belmont?? Somehow I got the impression this would be about him, not Hector and Isaac.
- This feels like a very lengthy intro to what could be a great story. Unfortunately, we never reach there in this volume.
- Not enough Dracula for my tastes.

I hope this review was helpful, I tried not to spoil too much.

[Reader17 Der · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting but violent book. This is about a young boy Ted who is waiting for his father a mercenary to return from the war against Count Dracula. While waiting a nice Nun is providing him with meals and also a stranger that happened to wander into town. We find out this stranger is a General and a fighter that is going up against the aother General. Ted seems to of landed in the middle of this fight.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you put in mind that this manga is based on a video game, I find it really good. Perhaps because I'm into history, demons and vampires. Perhaps also a bit because you don't find any "sparkly" vampires, you meet Dracula himself.

[Stéphanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hector ! ♥ Bon j'avoue ce manga est franchement orienté vers les fans de Castlevania. Mais faute d'un scénario digne de ce nom, les dessins eux sont beaux et fins. Peut-être que le tome 2 sera meilleur ?

[Joseph Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak. Even though I love Castlevania, this book is lacking in plot and substance. There is minor character development with much cliche. Feels like they could have crammed in all of this into 1/3 of a book.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was just bad

[Cassie]

Manga Challenge book 6

Not a lot to this one. I liked the beginning. It became a bit confusing toward the end, but it is very much an introduction to the series. Perhaps it gets better...

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give it 3 stars for great artwork. But the story was too rushed and confusing for my taste. Still, I appreciate random manga now and then, to get my feelers across different genres and styles...

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Difficult to get into as you have to read the book in a different manner than you're accustomed to, but once you get over that it is a fun book!