Vanillaware: "What if we made a Castlevania game?"

I'd be down. I usually first think of Platinum (Kamiya has stated his favorite action game is CV1) or From Software when it comes to someone handling Castlevania for Konami, but it could work if like you said they can focus on great visuals and simpler game style. I can't imagine some RPG mechanics wouldn't make it in, so perhaps something more Castlevania 2 instead of full on Igavania?

The question is, do they revive something or make something completely new. There isn't much room in the franchise for another standalone canon entry, and many fans would be upset if Konami/VW now took liberties to take over the storyline and tell for example the 1999 Demon War as they see fit. I would probably only be all right with that if IGA himself was behind it.

So, here are a few possible avenues there I could imagine them doing:
A) A re-re-revived Sonia Belmont in Castlevania Resurrection, non-canon, could become its own thing if successful, has a female lead which is a plus for VW, can more or less do whatever they want and not upset many people. Like I said, maybe more CV2-ish in keeping with now VW games usually are
B) Castlevania 3 remake. Modern re-interpretations of the 4 playable characters with more attack options, more variety and length of gameplay, different interesting game dynamics depending on partners used/playing Trevor alone. Pretty good balance of brand/game recognition, established good design/music for them to use as necessary and a female character for Kamitami to have (hopefully not too much) fun drawing lol.
C) They seem to do best with fantasy medieval settings and multiple characters/multiplayer, so perhaps something in the spirit of a game like Castlevania 3, but instead of a remake, more of a Dragon's Crown/D&D Shadow Over Mystara-ized CV3. 4 players can cooperate at once, including 1-2 new characters...a female "healer" acquaintance of Sypha's and something of a larger/bruiser type tank character, maybe an exaggeratedly large Kamitami axe armor, perhaps golem-ized with Sypha's magic.

Or something completely different, of course...as different as Order of Ecclesia was, maybe. I like the above 3 ideas pretty well, though.

Around the time the Kickstarter first appeared, Vanillaware was the first developer I thought of for IGA to team up with. I think they could pull off a great game.

I would love it, also the bad press was manufactured outrage for clicks... which is what most "game news outlets" are now.

this companies art style is stunning and beautiful to watch in motion, but i wouldn't want them doing character designs, just strictly the graphs and possibly the play style.