The series is made by Gonzo, who has since the making of this series is known for anime such as Full Metal Panic!, Samurai 7, and Afro Samurai. It was then a few years later released in the English dub by Geneon Entertainment and shown in America on Starz! in 2003. The opening theme used for the show is "Lokos Naki World" (A World With No Logic) by Yasushi Ishii. So, here is my review of Hellsing.
The story begins with a vampire named Alucard who is under the charge of a human belonging to the Hellsing family. This family has an army of soldiers and, with the help of vampires, goes around Great Britain and helps to rid the land of other vampires who may become a threat to the country and its people. During the pilot episode Alucard encounters a local police force who is trying to take down a group of ghouls, humans who have had their blood sucked out but not enough to become vampires. Instead they become ghouls, mindless zombies that obey the vampire that sucked their blood. After the action has settled down again and the vampire defeated, Alucard finds a wounded officer who helped him during the fight named Seras Victoria. Alucard gave her a choice, die, or become a vampire and join him in as a member of the Hellsing organization. She chooses to live on and become a vampire, so Alucard drinks her blood and she joins the ranks of Hellsing. At first it takes some getting used to for her, having to drink blood in order to stay alive, but she learns later that in order to keep her strength up for upcoming fights, she needs to drink it.
As the series progresses, we learn that there are vampires being created that are made artificially with the use of technology, Oh yeah I forgot to mention that this is in like semi-modern times, so guns are here as well as rocket launchers, helicopters and a plethora of other modern technology. Anyway, so they go around trying to find out who is making these fake vampires and eventually come up with a lead and then go and investigate, only to have their own base invaded by vampires and an army of ghouls. The story itself was good although I think that they could have taken it farther and could have gone more in depth in some things if they would have had more episodes to work with than the 13 that they used, simply because that is a fairly short run time for your average anime. While they did finish the story the best that they could, the last few episodes seemed almost rushed at times, like they were trying to get through too much plot in too short of time. If they would have given themselves more space, they could have done the series in a less cramped style.
The animation of the series was, well older. But I do have to remember that this series came out almost 10 years ago, so I shouldn't be expecting miracles on the quality. It was decent for the time, lets go with that, ok? If you go from watching anime that have come out in the past couple years, then you go back and watch this, you may be slightly disappointed simply because the animation was made a decade ago, so if you watch the series, just be wary on that point and don't let it come as a surprise to you. Alright, here is one thing that I did not like really at all. The character development in this show is pretty awful, save for one person, Integra Hellsing, the current leader of the Hellsing organization. There is about two episodes for her back story and it wasn't even put together very well, just a couple of flashbacks. The rest of the cast has almost no back story whatsoever and the only one who had development as a character was Victoria and it wasn't very much development at that. At one point the show just kinda drops her out all together and it focuses on other characters. This compiled with the fact that they never had any development or back story (save for the one flashback) of Alucard, the best character in the entire show. I wanted to learn more about him and what he is, because that in itself is never explained, besides the fact that he is a vampire, but he has a ton of other traits too.
When it came to how the series ran, the main plot was not really that exciting. The most exciting part was this rivalry that came up but never developed as well as it could have between Alucard and this catholic priest that keeps showing up that wants to destroy him named Alexander Anderson. Those fights were the best, mainly because they weren't happening every 10 min like the fight with the other vampires were. The fights with the vampires always tries to have some sort of mystery behind who they were and what they were after but they never developed, it just kinda was, there is a vampire that we don't know about, they find out, they fight it, they win, end of episode. Alexanders fights however, were drawn out and intense because he actually had weapons that could injure Alucard which made for more of a threat every time they fought, and in those fights the clear winner was never established especially since the fight never actually ended. If they would have focused on those more, the series would probably have been more interesting. Overall, I though the series was fairly entertaining, it was a short watch which didn't take too much time away. I think that the show had many different things to improve on and I will eventually be watching the OAV, Hellsing Ultimate at some point, and many people have told me that it is better than the anime itself so, I'll figure that one out when I get there. Anyway, I give this show a 7.4. The basic premise was good, and the fights were interesting especially when Alexander was involved. The animation was good for the time, but doesn't hold up to today's standards by any means. The character development was crappy and the plot was rushed. All in all, if you like this sort of thing, I say watch the show, if not then I would say try the OAV first and see how that is because it is supposedly better.
And that is my review of the TV series of Hellsing. I have a list of things to review so you will see more from me, Zero, in the near future. Have a nice Labor Day weekend!
Final Rating: 7.4
Premise: 9.0
Plot: 6.0
Animation: 6.5
Character Dev: 4.0
Total Episodes: 13
RWF: Japanese Dub
MRS: www.nwanime.com
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