anime would be also awesome at making changes that aren't a complete diversion of the characters. like they could make dracula explicitly bite jonathan instead of implicitly, give him the ability to summon the dead as ghouls to hinder the heroes in his escape, they could give mina more than the psychic ability after her baptism, make renfield and john have a closer bond, make van helsing have backstory with dracula… but still keep the majority especially parts that get cut off, like the marriage, berserker, jonathan's corruption arc, all the character quirks like john's phonograph love and uncoolness around ladies…

EXACTLY! Keep the core parts of the book, and add stuff to round them! A lot of these sound really awesome, specifically giving Van Helsing a good backstory after the little bits that we read in the book in the format of flashbacks, and making Mina's transformation more ominous through her appearance. The scene sequences that could capture the dread and the terror of many moments in the book like Lucy's last entry, Mina's reunion with Jonathan, Mina and Jonathan working on the investigation, or Van Helsing's first appearance, so many moments that need the drama that animation could give.

Imagine poor Lucy alone in her room terrified and agitated, the wind at full force entering through her broken window giving her room a dark blue hue, her mother laying dead on her bed with a single hand outside of the sheet. Lucy locked the door yet something keeps knocking, and she keeps thinking she doesn't know what to do until her eyes catch her diary on the floor. One thought simply repeats in her mind... "Write", she throws herself to grab the diary, and her pencil while the knocking on the door gets more aggressive by the second. Lucy then hides behind her bed, and immediately starts to write her last letter to the world. She starts writing, writing, and writing while her hand trembles, we see Lucy struggle and cross out words yet even if her face is wet with tears her determination is unbreakable. There is no knocking anymore, but now someone is trying to force the door open, and Lucy just keeps writing. I imagine at the end of her letter when she writes her name she does the most dramatic hand action to write and sign her full name one last time, in bold jet black. Then the door finally clicks open... Lucy quickly rips the page off and hides it, she grabs her mother's hand and stars to pray and cry silently, and the angle of the scene goes slowly from her to the now open door to reveal a completely dark background save for two blood red eyes that look directly into the "camera".

It would be so good.

On the other hand... let's say that I'm not too fond on the idea that Renfield and Jack need a "closer bond" because I think that Jack was one of the core factors that pushed Renfield to wrongly give his service to Dracula. My humble opinion is that the best thing that Seward could have done for Renfield before his death was to finally let him go. Just let him leave the asylum since it was clear that Renfield got tired of suffering under Seward's "care".

Said treatment made Renfield seek another person who could give him a semblance of power over something, over anything really, and Dracula was right there to manipulate him and use him. Seward got so deep in his own ableist perspective of Renfield that he didn't notice all the signals around him. Renfield was so traumatized thanks to his time in the asylum that while he was in his death bed he begged Seward to take away the restraining jacket, not knowing that Dracula paralyzed him. The way Jack pushed Renfield to a breaking point again and again was horrible.

I think what a good adaptation would do is give Renfield a happy ending where he keeps on living, away from the asylum and Seward, with a new page to start his life again. If they want to portray his death to be accurate to the book, at least give Renfield a more humane and dignified death than leaving him alone to slowly die in pain.

... wow, que setimientos tan fuertes, mira esos párrafos.

It's 1:33 AM btw.