I've always been a fan of horror movies, and so when I see horror and anime mixed than it's hard to keep me away. Now when I heard of the anime series Hellsing, I was intrigued, but after watching anime based around vampires (Vampire Hunter D for example) I wasn't much too impressed with the idea. It's not that Vampire Hunter D was a terrible movie, I just didn't think it was anything incredible when all was said and done. I've also never been a fan of vampire films (I did however love Nosferatu) and so it's only natural that I pass this one up. Well, I finally gave in. In my typical fashion, I ordered the box set without even having seen a single episode. Does this vampiric series achieve a high level of entertainment, or does it suck... blood?
Though anime isn't for everyone as a whole, there are certain levels of appreciation fanbases can experience for something more closely related to what they are acquainted with. For example, I'm sure that a big fan of comedies wouldn't have much trouble enjoying the Golden Boy series. In this sense, I'm sure that most horror fans would find themselves enjoying Hellsing, because Hellsing is similar to many horror movies. It deals with vampires, deaths, and quite a bit of gruesome violence. Though it's animated, I'm sure that your typical "gorehound" would find plenty to enjoy watching the animated blood spill. Hellsing is deeper than it may appear though, but you won't find this out until the later episodes in the series.
Besides fans of horror films, I think that fans of vampire based movies could also find a lot to enjoy about this release. Most vampire flicks seem to bring something new to the table, and even though Hellsing is a vampire series it is no different. One of the more interesting aspects to the series that I've noted is the fact that people can transform into blood sucking vampires through the use of a chip that is implanted into them. This makes for some interesting new vampiric elements, and this series seemed to really modernize the romantic notion of vampires. I really liked the idea of a Japanese artist picking up the idea of the Hellsing family from foreign cinema, and there are a lot of elements that seem to be taken from other horror films/stories from outside of Japan.
Keep in mind that Hellsing is a pretty short series, clocking in at the length of only 13 episodes. While this works against the series when it comes to anime fanatics, casual viewers seem to prefer something that won't span across 300+ episodes. I personally find the number of episodes to be lacking, considering the fact that there's plenty of room for more character development. Each of the 13 episodes seems to be pretty much self contained, with few cliffhanger episodes. This works pretty well for this series, as each episode seems to deal with a different assignment for the main character to go along with. One good aspect is that the episodes flow nicely, one after the other.
In Great Britain, the population of vampires has been on the rise lately. This is due partly because of a special chip on the market that can be used to change normal people into vampires. It is the duty of the Hellsing organization to kill these vampires, and the leader of this group, Sir Integra Hellsing (who is actually a woman, despite what I initially thought) will stop at nothing to kill these undead creatures. Hellsing's number one weapon is surprisingly enough, an incredibly strong and collected vampire named Alucard (guess what Alucard is backwards). The first episode introduces a police officer named Victoria as she has a run in with Alucard after she is taken hostage by Hellsing's target vampire. After making an agreement on the matter, Alucard shoots both Victoria and the vampire, but revives the "police girl" as a vampire after drinking her blood. Alucard is now the vampiric Victoria's master, and has the girl join the Hellsing corporation as the company's second hired vampire.
A lot of the story after this deals with Victoria adjusting to the vampire's life. She struggles with the first few missions given to her, while trying to adjust to being a blood sucking creature of the undead. One of her more human problems was the fact that at first she had a really difficult time drinking the medical blood given to her, because she still viewed it as disgusting showing her human weaknesses. As one of the undead, she now has much more strength, better shooting accuracy, and she can't die as easily as the other humans. Her eyes also change from bright blue to bright red after the undead transformation begins, which I found to be a nice feature and pretty easy on the eyes overall. Alucard and Victoria are definitely forces to be reconned with in the Hellsing organization as they fight off the artificially created vampires with destructive weapons.
Right away in the series I found myself cheering for Alucard. His character is one of the most interesting, and "coolest" vampire characters that I've ever seen, regardless of being animated or not. Visually the character has a really interesting appearance, with a large red overcoat and yellow tinted glasses. Despite having the appearance of evil, Alucard is an extremely likeable character which may have to do with the fact that he's a protagonist in the story. I also liked Victoria's character, because she adds a "human touch" to the vampire scene. She has fears, dreams, and she seems to really miss her family, whereas most of the other vampires seem to be purely evil and destructive. I also liked that the vampires had a modern element to their characters, in that some thought of vampirism as a sort of "high" that they can achieve.
Despite being about vampires, Hellsing isn't too gruesome of a series. One of the things you'll notice is that it isn't incredibly graphic, with a decapitation and the losing of body parts being the worst as far as gore goes. There is plenty of blood though, and I found the blood sucking scenes to be done particularly well. The most graphic part of this anime series is it's language. You'll hear some pretty graphic stuff shouted out in certain scenes, specifically one with a vampire shouting what he's going to do to Integra once he reaches her. Hellsing is nothing particularly disgusting and since it's animated, you probably won't find yourself getting grossed out by any of this series' antics. There is a lot of shooting in this series, and dissolving vampires but nothing too bad.
Now I rarely do this, but I'm going to recommend the English dub over the Japanese one. This is because the English dub is way above average as far as anime is concerned, with the transfer to English usually losing much in the transfer. This anime series takes place in Great Britain, and the Japanese dub feels a little out of place next to the English track, which features bitchin British accents. The English voice actors were also chosen wisely, and each of the voices seems to fit the characters well enough. Personally I prefer many of the voices of the English voice actors over the Japanese ones, especially Alucard and Victoria. Really you can't go wrong with either one of the languages, but the English dub seems a little more natural given where this anime series supposedly takes place, though the Japanese version is more anime authentic.
The visuals in this series are stunning. One of the best parts of this series is the use of colors. Victoria's eyes are illuminated in an intense red color to display her vampirism, while the evening sky is illuminated in an array of blues that gives off a beautiful, yet eerie feeling. I also liked the color of Victoria's hair on the backdrops, as the brightly colored hair really stands out at times, and gives off an eerie visual experience when contrasted between her bright red eyes. Some of the most eerily beautiful effects are used when Alucard uses his real powers, involving darkness and many eyes spread amongst it. The character models were also really nicely done in this series, and everything seems to be nice and rounded. This is definitely one of the top visual experiences that I've seen when it comes to anime.
Hellsing: The Complete Collection is definitely worth a visit for fans of vampire flicks, horror movies, and dark anime.
