Just a few days ago, Castlevania: Nocturne launched on Netflix. The press is raving about the series and gives it a perfect rating. In contrast, the user rating stands at a below-average 54 percent. A glance at the ratings shows why users have taken aim at the Netflix series.
How do the low ratings come about? Many users give the series on Rotten Tomatoes a maximum of one or even just half a star as a rating. Some of the ratings consist only of a sentence in which, for instance, the story, the voice acting, or the pacing of the series are described as trash.
The first trailer looked like there would be plenty of action and excitement in the series.
As further research reveals, there is a completely different message behind the ratings. We have translated some for you into German so you can see why users rate the series so poorly (via rottentomatoes.com):
- Daniel A.: ‘I feel that this series is primarily about pushing a race and LGBTQ agenda. All that is good is colored and all that is evil is white.’
- x x: ‘Cheap version of the story. I could say it’s pure propaganda. What to expect from Netflix.’
- Louielouie51: ‘It was a tedious task to watch the whiny Belmont and too much of the racially swapped Annette… You miss nothing if you skip the series… it’s definitely Netflix woke…’
- Comensal E.: ‘A missed opportunity to adapt Castlevania Rondo of Blood or Symphony of the Night. This Woke-Vania makes no sense from the start. I quit after episode 2.’
In the comments, it becomes clear that many of the low ratings are dissatisfied with the cast of the Netflix series. They complain that Annette, Olrox, and Drolta have dark skin and that there are homosexual characters in the series.
The trailer for Castlevania: Nocturne, however, does not look like the story will be left short:
Review Bombing for Castlevania: Nocturne
Is the rating of 54% justified? There are also some criticisms from the trade press. While the series is good, it cannot compete with the original Netflix series (via rottentomatoes.com).
Nevertheless, Castlevania: Nocturne currently boasts an astonishing 100% from 12 reviews. This means that all previous reviews are positive. The shift into the France setting is said to benefit the series, and the voice actors are said to do an excellent job.
Furthermore, the animations and fights are said to be top-notch. Michael S. even praises Annette, who is much more interesting in the series than in the video game. However, he finds that the pacing is not always optimal.
What other cases have there been? Castlevania: Nocturne is not alone with this problem. There was already a review bombing for The Last of Us Part II because homosexuality and LGBTQ played a role. Metacritic has changed its guidelines to prevent such a mass of unjustified negative ratings.
Through the review bombing, users want to punish the series and films. There has also been such a review bombing against Overwatch 2 because players disagreed with the developers’ approach.
We also had to experience such a case in the Epic Games Store. Many games that were exclusively or time-exclusively available on the platform were rated poorly on other sites and stores. The Epic Games Store does not offer any functionality to rate games itself.
It probably won’t be the last Netflix series to undergo such review bombing. If you still don’t know which Netflix series to watch next, the following list on MeinMMO may help you: 4 series and movies on Netflix for fans of One Piece
