Hellsing
Japanese Title: Hellsing
English Title: Hellsing
Length:
AniDB Listing: Original - Ultimate OAV
AnimeNewsNetwork: Original - Ultimate OAV
Production Studio: Madhouse
MEYDAY Rating: Original - Good once. OAVs - God-Level
Sexual Rating: T for they don't show anything you want to see
Violence Rating: M for Vampires vs Nazis apocalypse
Genre(s): Horror, action
Setting(s): Real life (hahaha)
Theme(s): Supernatural
Target Audience: Seinen
Production Vintage: 2002 (original) On-going (OAV)
First Viewed Vintage: 2002 (original)
Number of Rewatches: 2? (original)
Review:
As with all things rebooted, this bears two reviews.
Hellsing Original:
The original Hellsing was one of the very first series I saw, and very likely the first series I ever legitimately purchased. *cough* Always a fan of vampire movies, I was delighted to find such a fun vampire-centric series upon first stumbling into anime, and since I hadn't seen much anime (and had read no manga), I thought Hellsing was amazing.
It's ... lost some of its shine since then. Watching more series and seeing what the manga has to offer had a lot to do with that.
I think my big beef with Hellsing Original is that it lost a lot of the quirky fun that the manga (and the OAVs, which much more closely follow the manga) have. It took itself seriously which, for the uninitiated, wasn't at all a problem. The animation's kind of crappy, the music's not the best (well, the in-series music - if memory serves, the opening and closing are pretty good), and it's never good to finish off a series with one of the most badass women in the history of anime doing something ridiculous like, oh, forgetting that she doesn't actually have a sister, only after allowing the woman who claims to be her sister climb into her lap and French kiss her, much to the audience's delight.
I still haven't quite figured that one out. I mean yeah, it was hot, but ...
Long story short (too late for that): the OAVs are better. Even though they're still coming out.
Which brings me to the second bit of the review:
Hellsing Ultimate OAVs:
I'm breaking my own rule of not-reviewing-stuff-until-it's-completed-and-I've-watched-it here, mostly because it's my own rule and therefore not too tragic for me to break it, but also partly because hey, it's Hellsing. It can't take a dive in the last few OAVs, right?
RIGHT?
Currently, there are 7 of the 10 OAVs available for watching. The 8th OAV is slated to come out later this month (June 2011). I would be lying if I said I'm not pissing my pants in anticipation and planning to binge-watch the previous 7, one a day, for the week preceding the release of 8. It's that good.
The characters are quirky and fun, the action is amazing, I really, really dislike the weird pseudo-rape of Rip Van Winkle at the end of episode 4, but other than that it's just a good, fast-paced vampires vs. the Church vs. Nazis vs. England horror story. Yeah it's got some mystery to it (and plenty of fan-theory to go along with it), but it's one of those series that is good on its on AND good if you're into the whole fandom thing.
It's a series I'd use as an introduction of anime, I think. Got enough quirk to get the uninitiated interested in seeing more, but it's got enough action and splatter (without too much you-need-to-know-a-lot-about-Japanese-culture, which makes sense because it's set in England) to keep even the most ADD audience tuned in. Also, it's a strange series (for me) because I like the sub and the dub equally. Usually, dubs make my ears bleed. This series, though ...
Suffice it to say, someone put a lot of love and work into this adaptation of a kick-ass manga, and it really, really shows.
List of all series I've watched can be found here.