HELLSING

How much fun is this anime? I’ll tell you. Hellsing is a naughtily visceral vampire romp with many unique qualities. Way beyond just an action anime, you’ll find some very compelling characters and designs in this one. Every episode seems to have one really memorable image or scene, and the whole production is cut with an attitude totally foreign to popular anime’s virgin head space. Very tasty.

Leaping full stride out of the usual vampire canon’s visuals the head leech in charge, named Alucard, comes to the fight dressed in bright red. Also clashing with the normal modern vampire lore he isn’t a withdrawn, silent knight bent on self-loathing. Alucard is a 100% monster that walks, talks and wears really cool clothes. Not to mention his habit of turning cute ‘police girls’ into his pets. Proud of his noble status as an elder vampire and possessing a font scary powers lovecraftian in nature there is only one being that he will ever bend to.

Integra Wingates Hellsing has a mystically absolute hold over him. She is also one of my favorite anime ladies of all time. This hard as nails heiress to the secret british vampire hunting family/organization known only by her surname is driven by only one desire. In her own words… “Destroy all our obstacles immediately! Smash them! Crush them! Search and destroy! Search and destroy!” For me, it was love at first sight. Her quest to protect the queen and her subjects from the night freaks brings some real heavies down upon her blonde head. Not the least among these are the Vatican assassins and armies of gray zombies that we get to see tangling with her undead protector. To the last these fights are cool, brutal and imaginative. Moreover, it is really fun just to watch the Hellsing Organization’s enemies one by one come to the dread realization that they chose the wrong vampire to cross pistols with.

Other than those two there are more well thought out, funny and believable characters on both sides of the good guy bad guy split. One of the things that I really like about the series is that you end up disliking the human antagonists even more than the supernatural ones as the line between man and monster gets tested repeatedly. Also I want to mention that this is one of those, “you must watch the english DUB, no matter what” sort of shows for two very good reasons. One, the show is located in Britain. The Britons speak english most of the time and the team of voice actors used for Hellsing set the mood perfectly with their british accents. Two, Crispin frickin’ Freeman as Alucard the Vampire. OMG, this guy takes the part and steals it away without a doubt. 500% percent awesome job from Crispin. Honestly, one the best dub jobs I have ever heard.

Due to the quality of the product, Hellsing seems amazingly short. If the thirteen eps in the series feel like only the tip of the iceberg there are good reasons for it. A great deal of the plotlines that get started in the first 6-9 eps never get a proper conclusion. Add to that that the creator/artist of the original Hellsing manga(a work that is in some ways very superior to the anime) withdrew his involvement when he saw that the project was deviating from his original design. I’ve heard some say that the full-length production was actually cut short at 13 eps because of Kohta Hirano’s departure. Watching what was actually produced makes you regret the shortness of Hellsing even more. All that being said, it’s still a terrific anime. Something very interesting and very fun to watch. A creature well worth space on your rack of dvds.

My suggestion: Buy and watch the anime first. Then get the manga and read it. Then comment on this post telling me how happy you are that I told you about it. Go ahead. I’m waiting…

-maguro