Login
Note: This will cover both seasons
Just like the first series was not an adaptation but instead based on different games, the Nocturne spin-off sequel is based on Symphony of the Night, but even more so, Rondo of Blood, while also featuring an older version of the protagonist of Harmony of Dissonance.
The setting changed completely to 19th century France, around the same time as the French revolution. If you played the games you will instantly notice one major change around Anette, who was not only raceswapped but also wrote in a totally different way, to deal with the theme of slavery and tie it with the theme of freedom of the setting and time period themselves.
I don’t exactly remember if it was the case with the games, but the whole cast was changed from the experienced fighters from the previous series, to reluctant and traumatized teenagers in this one. This change would normally translate to more explored and better characters, but the reality is that the cast here is not handled in a very interesting way.
And the cause of that is both that the amount of episodes is quite low compared with the first series, and the pacing is very weird, sometimes too slow and sometimes too fast. Thus half the first season the heroes don’t know jack about what’s going on, have to learn what to do from older generations and introspect about their pasts, while the plot is taking place somewhere else.
Yet at the same time, in just a few episodes, Ritchter the protagonist is capable of besting the big bad when he couldn’t do much just some episodes earlier, the final showdown really kinda comes out of nowhere and goes by quite fast. At least the fight and animation themselves were quite good, even though I was not as impressed with them as I was while watching the previous series. I will say though that the demons in the show look heavily inspired by Devilman, but done a lot better here.
Oh and there’s a bard in the main group for some reason, only there to provide some tracks to the background music and then be turned into a demon. Since I mentioned the music, I might as well talk about the audio department, and as usual I don’t have much to say about it. Good music, good sound effects, I only watched the show in Latin American Spanish this time, so I don’t know the original, but the dub is also good.
Unfortunately the second season is everything that was said about Arcane season 2 and more. The characters remain boring and don’t go through any major changes in this season, as everything that was there to explore about them was dealt with in the previous entry it seems, and let me tell you that the cast ended up being very blank because of that.
Ok there’s some emotional and psychological focus on Maria I guess, but it’s handled quite poorly. Her capabilities, the very nature of her powers, and her personality from edgy to pure again are all changed literally from one episode to another. The show tries to tie her arc with her mother and her conflicting hybrid nature, but she too can feel inconsistent and without a lot of focus to her to matter much nor help the writing of her daughter much.
Wanna talk about Annette? She’s just a literal plot device in this season, just a catalyst for an ancient entity whose powers are boring and add nothing to the battle choreography.
The bard is still there, now as a demon, but still only just to sing, only to somehow overpower a seemingly more powerful and older demon with relative ease and no explanation in the final episodes.
There’s betrayal on the villain side just like in the original series, but over here had very little build up, the character in this case wasn’t nearly as interesting and looked into as Carmilla, and his contribution to the final showdown was minimal.
There are issues with the theme exploration as well. The French Revolution seemed to be a big part of the themes in the first season, yet over here they ended up being just background decoration. And also, two side characters had a theme of racism and homosexuality going on, but they are either barely mentioned or don’t get enough focus as the previous series, or even the first season of this one.
The characters are still inconsistently capable. They keep messing up in juvenile ways, because they are inexperienced teenagers and not seasoned veterans like the previous cast, yet they also somehow overpower not one but two major villains in the final episodes.
Speaking of which, the finale of the previous season is undone for no reason. The major villain from the first season was killed at the end of it, yet revived in this one, had her backdrop story shown in a hurry, and revealed to become the major villain again in the most predictable and underwhelming plot twist ever. This also translates to not one but two disappointing final showdowns against two major villains, both taking place in a hurry in just the two final episodes. And although the animation was spectacular, I have to say that I wasn’t nearly as impressed with the battle choreography and the abilities of the characters, as I was with the original trio from the first series.
I don’t know if Nocturne is gonna get a third season, there was some stuff left a little bit unresolved to excuse it, but as it is now it’s a very inconsistently paced and underwhelming show that needed more episodes to flow more naturally and have better writing and theme exploration, which is a shame because superficially there are elements for a good story in it. I give the first season and the series as a whole a 5/10, but the second season deserves a 4/10.
5/10
