The original Hellsing anime series and its parent manga took Dracula and made him into an entirely new monster.
The original video animation series takes it even farther. As the ninth and tenth volumes of the Hellsing Ultimate OVA series are being released in English on Oct. 28, just shy of Halloween, it makes sense that this series gets some time in the spotlight again.
The series itself is based heavily upon Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel, with the title character being Dracula himself, though in this series his name in this incarnation is Alucard. Alucard is the secret weapon belonging to the Hellsing Organization, whose main job is eliminating supernatural creatures. Rather than using his fangs, he prefers a big pair of guns that get the job done just as easily. Needless to say, the amount of blood and gore in the OVA series makes it one that is not meant for the faint of heart – or weak stomach for that matter.
The sheer intensity of the violence in this series actually makes it a difficult watch. As Alucard tears his enemies apart, blood flies across the screen and even for someone who can stand the sight of blood and violent content, it can actually be too much to bear. This gets especially prominent in the later OVA episodes as the plot shifts from telling story to constant action.
Another issue comes up in the characters themselves. While they are all certainly memorable for their action sequences, they fall flat as dimensional characters. Alucard at least is given backstory because of his vampiric origins, but others such as Seras Victoria (a girl turned into a vampire by Alucard) and his master Integra Hellsing aren’t given much of a backstory or anything to make them particularly stand out.
That isn’t to say that the series is entirely bad. The animation is very smooth and the use of dark colors and low light gives a predatory menace to the vampires and other creatures that make appearances. The majority of the plot also follows the manga it is adapted from quite well, with several scenes being taken straight from the manga’s pages.
Therefore, this is a great anime series for those who enjoy vampires and can stand the excess of violence as well as those who want something with action and gore to tide them over until Halloween approaches.
Grade: C
