The Vampire-Hunting Anime Fans Of Castlevania Should Watch Next
As long as there are vampires in our fictional worlds, there will also be vampire hunters. What's the fun of immortality if no one's trying to take it away from you? You don't prey on the blood of humanity for hundreds of years without making a few enemies along the way. Even the relatively mellow, adaptable vampires of FX's What We Do In The Shadows have to contend with the amateur hunting club, the Mosquito Collectors of the Tri-State Area, and the more potent skills of Nandor's (Kayvan Novak) familiar — and Van Helsing descendent – Guillermo (Harvey Guillén).
Now, imagine all the people who must be after Lord Dracula? Of course, if you've seen Netflix's animated Castlevania series, you don't have to imagine, because you know who these vampire hunters are. Loosely based on Konami's popular series of video games, the animated Castlevania features a trio of unlikely heroes out to finish Dracula (Graham McTavish) himself before he can fulfill his vengeance against the people of Wallachia.
But if you've already completed your speed run through all 22 episodes of that series and are craving more anime-style vampire battles, Netflix already has you covered, thanks to the 2018 series Sirius the Jaeger. Here's why Castlevania fans should give it a go.
What vampires are they hunting in Sirius the Jaeger?
Sirius the Jaeger tells the story of the 17-year-old Yuliy (voiced by Khoi Dao), a member of the vampire hunters known as the Jaegers, tracking a cadre of their foes as they flee from China to Japan in search of the powerful mystical artifact known as the Ark of Sirius (spoiler alert: it's an orb). Yuliy has a special connection to the ark since he is a Sirius werewolf –– hence, the show not being called Yuliy the Jaeger. Yuliy is potentially the last of his kind, after the vampires massacred his home village of Dogville, setting him on a quest to avenge his family and prevent the vampires from retrieving the Ark.
Both Sirius the Jaeger and Castlevania have a lot in common. Both shows feature a historical setting: the 15th century for Castlevania, and 1930 for Sirius the Jaeger. Each protagonist has a signature weapon: Trevor Belmont uses a whip, while Yuliy wields a three-section-staff, with blades that emerge from each end. Castlevania's Alucard (James Callis) faces the conflict between blood ties and his own morals as he fights alongside Trevor and Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) against his father, the big bad Vlad himself .... and similarly, on Sirius the Jaeger, the vampires Yuliy hunts include his brother Mikhail (Billy Kametz), who was bitten and turned while protecting Yuliy from the vampires who attacked Dogville, and so the pair must struggle to reconcile their family bond with their roles in the coming conflict.
What sets Sirius the Jaeger apart from Castlevania?
One of the biggest differences between the two shows is structural, in terms of the objectives of each of their heroes.
Castlevania has no shortage of sought-after artifacts and forgotten treasures for its heroes to search for, including Dracula's entire magical teleporting castle. But the main goal of its protagonists is to stop Dracula and his minions and successors, and all their item quests tend to work toward that end. Sirius the Jaeger, on the other hand, foregrounds its MacGuffin in a way more similar to the Indiana Jones flicks — you know, that other fictional work set in the 1930s, about a hero racing against evil forces in search of a powerful long-lost ark. The group of vampires which Yuliy and the Jaegers battle are far from the only ones on the planet. Only the Ark stands a chance at securing a lasting peace, or escalating the conflict into something far worse.
But there is another, rather unfortunate difference between the shows, at least for fans of Sirius the Jaeger. Unlike Castlevania, whose fans are eagerly awaiting news of its fourth season, Sirius the Jaeger's story might already be concluded. The series was released in 2018, and since then, there's been no word from either its production studio, P.A. Works, or its international distributor, Netflix, about a second season being underway, despite the current finale's setup.
For now, both Sirius the Jaeger and Castlevania are available to watch on Netflix.