Hellsing Review

Hellsing is my favorite manga of all time. It combines a fun story, memorable characters, quirky humor, stylish art, and unrelenting gore and brutality all into one little paper back graphic novel.
So naturally, you'd think that the manga would make an awesome anime. Well, Chiaki J. Konaka and Umanosuke Iida thought so too and took it upon themselves to make an anime based off the popular series. In many ways, they succeeded. But they also failed...

The anime was released in 2001, long before the manga series would be complete. So they were forced to come up with their own story, completely unrelated to the manga (save for a few key plot points). This potentially is a pretty cool idea and allows room for originality, but the story in the anime is very hit and miss. There were times I was really enjoying the series and other times that I was flat out bored. I felt that the story just dragged and was often times pointless.
The story also lacks a key element that makes Hellsing so great, and that's the humor. This anime takes itself very seriously, but it loses heart doing so.
I've heard many times from fellow fans that the anime is just poor a fanfiction, and I can't say I disagree.

The animation is just plain ugly, even by TV anime standards. The characters are all poorly drawn, the colors are bland and ugly, and animation is smooth but suffers from choppiness. Visually, this is a lifeless anime. And that's all I can really say about it.

The soundtrack and voice acting is the anime's highlight. The soundtrack is nothing short of wonderful. The jazz tracks really set you in the mood for the series and I'd go as far as saying that the actual album is worth they buy. The voice acting was also very good. Crispin Freeman, K. T. Gray, Victoria Harwood, Steven Brand, Ralph Lister, and the rest of the cast did such an excellent job voicing their characters.

All the characters themselves were great, but the one character that truly stands out in the series is Seras. Her character is really fleshed out and you got to know her alot more then you did in the manga. Alucard was great, but he really becomes more of a prop in the background then anything else. The shows villain 'Incognito' was just... blah. He was kinda cool, but can't hold a candle to the manga's villain 'The Major'.

Overall, this is just simply an okay anime. Nothing rememberable or even exciting. It's not bad really, but it isn't great either. And to be perfectly blunt, this fails to live up to Kouta Hirano's vision. In recent years, they've rebooted the series with 'Hellsing Ultimate', an OVA series that is almost panel by panel like the manga's. I highly recommend you go see the OVA's, those did everything that the TV series couldn't.
If you consider yourself a Hellsing fan, then by all means go see this series. But if you're just entering the Hellsing universe, then I recommend you stay clear of this and go straight onto 'Hellsing Ultimate'.

Hellsing Ultimate Review

There are just so many vampire themed animes nowadays. Blood+, Trinity Blood, Vampire Knight, the list goes on and on. Then, once in a long awaited while, you find a gem in the ocean of piss and whale excrement. Oh, this review is going to have alot of vulgarity because I feel that gives off the right vibe for this review. As I was saying, the gem that you find will be Hellsing Ultimate. No, not Hellsing the TV series, that series gave my dog AIDS. In two words I can sum this anime up; Fucking Awesome.

Story

You already know the story. Its about a badass vampire named Alucard (thats Dracula backwards) who is a slave of the Hellsing Organization. Hellsing is a organization that hunts and kills unwanted vampires with the help of Alucard. Blah blah blah things are dandy until some fat Neo Nazi major decides to start an army of ghouls/vampires and destroy London and the Hellsing organization. Then, bitches go crazy and shit starts blowing up. If you want a deep story with drama and romance you can fuck off and go watch Clannad while wanking off to your Haruhi Suzumiya poster. You will not find deep meaning or morals from this anime. Think with a simple state of mind. Nazi zombie thingies are invading and a badass vampire (Alucard), his chain-smoking boss (Sir Integra Hellsing) and his big breasted assistant (Seras Victoria) are gonna kill every last one of them. I gotta love the storyline for its simplicity. It reminds me of a videogame. Its so easy to understand and it doesnt fuck with your head. It gets a 10/10.

Characters

I am going to give a big explaination about each character because you should know already I love talking about this anime. Alucard is a vampire, Integra is his master/boss, Seras Victoria is Alucards assistant, and the Neo Nazi major is some fuck up with alot of Nazi bitches. Theres really no character development, although a little bit of Alucards past is revealed and you see how sadistic and twisted he is. Alucard is by far the most evil "hero" I have seen. He enjoys torturing his enemies and rarely kills them before completely stripping them of their dignity. In short, he's more of a villain than a hero due to his lack of morals. Do not expect a compassionate, honorable character. He fucks shit up and he enjoys doing it. Integra is just so hard to read and very little is revealed about her. She is the head of Hellsing and likes to smoke cigars is all you need to know. Seras Victoria is probably the most likeable character. She has double D's and has a very happy go lucky attitude. Although she becomes a bloodthirsty vampire, she retains her sweet personality. Almost nothing is revealed about the Major but he is the character that intrigued me the most. On the surface, he is a polite, but loud man who likes to take command. But on the inside he is a homicidal war maniac with a hard-on for blood and violence. He has many memorable quotes about war. I really hate this guy but I can't help being curious.

Animation and Art

Hellsing Ultimate is an OVA series so expect top grade art and animation quality. The actions and facial movements are executed flawlessly. The fight scenes were very smooth and the blood and gore was portrayed very well. From the explosions to exploding heads, there is not much that can be said. Just great.

Action

In no way, shape, or form is Hellsing Ultimate an anime for children. Every fight scene is amazingly brutal and lots of people end up dying in a myriad of ways. From the first episode I could tell that this anime was over the top. I fucking love it for that. No other anime features crazy ass priests with hundreds of swords killing Nazi zombies. I mean, each fight scene is just so gory and explicit I can't help but get a boner. If you like guns, swords, and mutilated bodies, this anime will not dissapoint. From being impaled by a 8 foot rifle to being decapitated with a karate chop, this amine has every hellish way of dying. Even if you hate everything else, you will definitely love the action.

Overall enjoyment
All these elements are combined into a bloody, well wrapped packaged. Hellsing Ultimate may sound like a half assed, over the top anime, but it follows the rule of cool. The rule of cool is when an anime is just so fucking brutal and awesome that it seems like a masterpiece even with all of its flaws. Do yourself a favor. Stop watching Naruto and making Death Note fan fiction and watch this anime. Grow some balls and watch it already. It will not dissapoint.