Art team on Netflix’s Castlevania had to make one minor change at Konami’s request

Netflix’s Castlevania is an adaptation of Konami’s 1989 game, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, and while the animation team was able to develop its own style for the series, there were a few elements that Konami ensured were adhered to.

One of those factors was Alucard’s ambidextrous talents, or lack thereof. In the original animation for the show’s fourth and final episode of its first season, animation director Spencer Wan had drawn Alucard holding a sword in his left hand. It was only after revisiting notes from Konami that Wan remembered the video game publisher had reminded the art team at Powerhouse Animation that Alucard had to be drawn as right-handed.

“There was this point when I was beginning to animate on episode four, the fight between Alucard and Trevor, where Konami came back and was like, ‘Make sure you make Alucard right handed,’” Wan told Polygon. “And Alucard was holding his sword in the left hand in like half the boards. So I promptly forgot about that and animated several scenes with Alucard holding the sword in his left hand and had to go back in and redo all of them.”

Other characters in the show, however, including Castlevania’s protagonist, Trevor Belmont, were allowed to have more freedom. Director Sam Deats told Polygon that the team made an executive decision to give Belmont an additional skill, giving him an edge in his battle with Alucard.

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“We made an active decision that Trevor is ambidextrous and can just take a hold of whatever he wants to in whatever hand,” Deats said. “Alucard, not so much. We ran into a few problems and having to go in and tweak shots because he kept swapping hands.”

Wan said to help him remember throughout production, he put a post-it note on his desk to remind him that Alucard was right-handed.

Neither Wan or Deats explained why it was important to Konami for Alucard to be right-handed, but as a figure who usually wields one-handed swords, it makes sense that Konami would want that to be specified.

Netflix’s Castlevania is available to stream now.