Yes indeedy, Death Note and Blue Dragon Ral Grad artist Takeshi Obata is going to be doing the character designs for the newest Castlevania game, Castlevania: Judgment, according to Kotaku.

Unlike previous games in the franchise, Judgment is going to be a fighting game. Kotaku notes that the DS game Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia can unlock bonus content for the game. GoNintendo has more, including what that bonus content is, and a quote from game producer Kouji Igarashi, who promises that the genre-switch won’t harm the game’s quality.

Moving on from more Warcraft books and also Starcraft, TOKYOPOP has acquired the rights to Kou Sasakura’s 2005 two-volume manga Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (that’s Akumajou Dracula: Yami no Juin). Apparently Kogi Igarashi (aka IGA), the assistant director of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and producer of every game in the series since the GBA’s Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance oversaw the creation of the manga, so fans of the series can expect it to be pretty solidly in line with the games.

It is an interesting license though, since the series was discontinued after two volumes, which says to me that it wasn’t really finished. I could be wrong, maybe it does wrap up reasonably well, but it still seems like an odd licensing choice.