Castlevania Wiki

Hate ads? Then create an account! Users with accounts will only see ads on the Main Page and have more options than anonymous users.

READ MORE

Castlevania Wiki
Castlevania Wiki
Wikivania: Encyclopedia of Darkness
7,209
pages
in: Cameo

Castlevania (series)/References

< Castlevania (series)
 Sign in to edit
Note: Fan references should be added at the Castlevania Fan Wiki.

Since the first title, released in 1986, the Castlevania series has been referenced in many forms of media, including video games, literature, music, TV and web series.

Games[]

Card games[]

Yu-Gi-Oh![]

Video games[]

Main article: Castlevania (series)/References/Video games

Literature[]

Magazines[]

GamePro[]

  • GamePro was a popular gaming magazine published from 1989 to 2011. Early in its lifespan, it included a mini-comic book among its pages called "The Adventures of GamePro", which was about a superhero named GamePro who was brought into a dimension where video games were real and had to save it from the Evil Darklings. On Issue #6 (January 1990), GamePro enters the world of Castlevania and defeats Dracula.

Comics and manga[]

Hellsing[]

Ravencroft[]

  • Issue 4 of Volume 1, from 2020, not only involves creatures resembling the monsters from Castlevania, but the series itself is directly mentioned by name in one of the pages.

Rosario + Vampire[]

  • In the Rosario + Vampire II manga series, the main character, Tsukune Aono, learns to control his vampire powers through the use of a magical whip that dispels demon power, called "Belmont". This is clearly a reference to the Vampire Killer whip and the Belmont Clan.

Stuff of Nightmares[]

Zatch Bell![]

  • The manga series Zatch Bell! (called Golden Gash!! in Japan) featured a character named Sherry Belmont (シェリー・ベルモンド Sherī Berumondo?). She assists her partner Brago (who has a slight resemblance to a vampire) and her main weapon is a flail.

Music[]

Army of the Pharaohs[]

  • This hip hop group has a track named "Bloody Tears" which samples the classic Castlevania theme.

Dignity[]

  • This European metal band covered the Dracula's Curse track "Beginning" in their debut album, Project Destiny. The track is called "Inner Demons" and features lyrics about the inner fight of a man.

DragonForce[]

  • The band's 2014 album, Maximum Overload, features a song titled "Symphony of the Night", which appears to be sung from Alucard's perspective.
  • Likewise, a song from their 2017 album, Reaching into Infinity, called "Curse of Darkness", appears to be sung from Hector's perspective.

Malice Mizer[]

  • This popular Japanese visual kei band has a song named "Gekka no Yasoukyoku", which is the Japanese name for Symphony of the Night.

Pryapisme[]

  • This band references Castlevania, among many other video games, in their music video for the song "Un Druide est Giboyeux Lorsqu'il se Prend Pour un Neutrino".

Starbomb[]

  • Gaming music band Starbomb, composed of American comedy duo Ninja Sex Party and Flash animator and internet personality Egoraptor, released a song called "Crasher-Vania" on their first and eponymous album from 2013. The song is reminiscent of Bobby Pickett's 1962 novelty hit, "Monster Mash", and talks about Simon Belmont crashing a party Dracula made for his friends. The chorus of this song gave birth to the now iconic phrase "Never fear, Simon Belmont is here!".

The Black Dahlia Murder[]

The Megas[]

  • In September 2016, the band released a three song EP under the name The Belmonts, featuring covers of "Bloody Tears", "Heart of Fire" and "Out of Time" from the Castlevania series.
  • On October 31, 2018, the band debuted a surprise Halloween-themed EP as a collaboration between The Megas and The Belmonts, titled Skulls, which among other songs includes covers of "Wicked Child" and "Vampire Killer" from Castlevania, the latter of which features guest vocals by Amanda Lepre of Andrew W.K.
  • On March 2, 2020, the band released a second Megas/Belmonts collaboration EP, titled Snakes, featuring a cover of "Stalker" from Castlevania, among other songs.

TV and web series[]

Blood of Zeus[]

  • The promotional poster for this Netflix original series (formerly known as "Gods & Heroes") bears a striking resemblance to the cover artwork of the original Castlevania and could probably be intended to attract the audience of the animated series toward it.

Captain N: The Game Master[]

  • Simon Belmont appears as one of the title characters and a member of the N Team in this American-Canadian animated series which ran from 1989 to 1991. Instead of the barbarian vampire hunter determined to stop Dracula at all costs, he's portrayed as an arrogant and vain individual who enjoys tending to his appearance more than fighting evil. Likewise, Dracula, known in the series as the Count, plays a major role as a recurring villain and outright antagonist, commanding a roster of minions comprised primarily on enemies from Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse.

DEATH BATTLE![]

  • Some characters from the Castlevania franchise have been featured in this popular and long running web series, originally hosted by ScrewAttack and later by Rooster Teeth, in which two pop culture icons that share certain similarities are pit against each other in a fight to the death, where the winner is determined based on extensive research of the characters.
    • Dracula was put against Ganondorf, the main antagonist from Nintendo's popular The Legend of Zelda series of action role-playing games, in the October 16, 2019 episode, with Dracula winning the encounter.
    • In the DBX (Death Battle Exhibition) spin-off series (animation exhibitions with no research involved), Alucard was put against Demitri the vampire, from Capcom's Darkstalkers series of fighting games fame, in the October 28, 2017 episode, with Alucard winning the encounter.
  • Some matchups were also discussed on "DEATH BATTLE! Cast":

Game of Thrones[]

  • One of the fictional languages created for the show by linguist David J. Peterson makes a reference to Castlevania, where the word for chain is "belmon" - "That's clearly a shout out to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.", he said.

Glitch Techs[]

  • The episode "Castle Crawl" has many references to the Castlevania games.

Melvins Macabre[]

  • Melvins Macabre (or Melvin's Macabre) is a web animated series by MeatCanyon. The episode "NOSTALGIA", released on December 17, 2023, features several vintage pop culture items including toys, figurines, posters, and video games. At one point, the title protagonist, Melvin, visits a GameSlop (a spoof of GameStop), where a Castlevania: Curse of Darkness game box can be seen in the background.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic[]

  • The Hasbro cartoon series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, pays homage to Castlevania by naming the third episode of the fourth season "Castle Mane-ia". This reference was confirmed by episode writer Josh Haber of Hasbro Studios via his X account.

Random Encounters[]

  • Random Encounters is a long-running YouTube channel that mainly creates parody music videos of popular video games. On October 7, 2022, they released a music video inspired by the Castlevania series titled Castlevania: The Musical. In it, Simon Belmont (Dave Bloom) once again breaks into Dracula's Castle, and Dracula (Casey Dwyer), already tired of him doing the same every week, complains him about it, resulting in Simon showing him his new (vampire) killer moves.

Robot Chicken[]

  • In the episode "Maurice Was Caught", there's a segment called "Is that a whip?" which pokes fun at the Castlevania series.
  • The sketch "Castlevania Aftermath" parodies the Netflix Castlevania animated series, where Alucard grieves the recent death of his father. Sypha Belnades bakes him a sugar free vegan cake to cheer him up, while Trevor Belmont accompanies him in his pain.

Sailor Moon[]

  • In various episodes of the first season of the original anime adaptation of the series, the girls can be seen playing the new Sailor V video game at the local arcade (and a home version in later episodes). The background of this game is remarkably similar to the first level of the original Castlevania, featuring a big white wall, large red curtains hanging over it and tall marble columns (another background is shown in other episodes which apparently is a generic rendition to levels from the Mega Man series).
  • In one of the later episodes of the second season, Sailor Moon R, Prince Demande is seen sitting on his throne and holding a glass of wine in a very similar pose to Dracula in Akumajō Dracula (X68000). However, it's also possible that this is just a common trope used for portraying evil rulers in anime.

Something About[]

  • Something About is a popular and long-going animated web series created by Jeremey Chinshue, whose main productions consist on parodies, memes, gags and running jokes about pop culture media. On November 9, 2018, the episode "Something About Castlevania" was released, which parodies Simon Belmont's adventures inside Dracula's Castle in the original NES Castlevania.

Vlad Love[]

  • In episode 6 of the 2021 anime Vlad Love, the cast makes a school play adapting the story of the classic video game "Castle of Vania" (悪魔の城ドラキュラ Akuma no Shiro Dorakyura?) (a pun probably to avoid trademark infringement). The students cosplay as characters from the game (mainly the bosses), including Simon Belmont (wearing a Richter like longcoat), the supposed wife of Dracula, Miss Dracula Mai, Medusa, a Mummy Woman, Franken, the Reaper, and miscellaneous skeletons.
  • This also involves a scene with Bambam (as Simon) collecting Hearts dropped from the top of the stage, and a giant Stopwatch announcing the play's halfway intermission.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX[]

  • In episode 31, the vampire Camula (a homonym of "Dracula") summons a castle with a card named Infernalvania. While the name could just be a reference to Transylvania, Konami is a co-producer of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and also manufactures various of its products among diverse media, and has referenced Castlevania (and other of their classic franchises) along this series in the past.
    • It's worth noting that most depictions of Infernalvania share a very similar style to how Dracula's Castle is portrayed in Castlevania products, such as the particular style of both the artwork and the building itself, to the point of even portraying it standing atop a distant cliff with only a rickety and narrow path leading to it.

Other[]

Belmont (beer)[]

See also[]

  • Cameo games - Games mainly published by Konami which feature guest characters or themes from the Castlevania series.
  • Konami mascot games - A series of crossover games of varied genres which feature characters representative of several popular Konami franchises, including Castlevania.
  • Related games - Third party games which are heavily inspired by the Castlevania series.

References[]

  1. ↑ Hoooooly at reddit (December 15, 2023).

External links[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms