Note: There are two series of Hellsing, a 13 episode TV series and an ongoing OVA series called Hellsing Ultimate. There are currently 8 OVA’s released.

Official plot summary: Vampires exist. It is the duty of Hellsing, a secret organization sponsored by the British government, to hide that frightening fact and protect the blissfully unaware populace. Along with its own personal army, Hellsing has secret weapons. Alucard, an incredibly powerful vampire, has been controlled by Hellsing for years. A group long thought dead has been plotting in secret since their apparent destruction over 50 years ago. Plotting to plunge England, and perhaps the entire world, into war.

What to expect: Blood, violence, guns, action, blood, death, decapitations, explosions, blood, swords, killing, murder, and blood.

What not to expect: A deep story, romance, much character development, understanding.

If there’s one thing I could say about Hellsing in general is that it’s unique. The crazy plotline, the odd characters, and the lengths of violence taken in this series are something that hasn’t been rivaled. Any fans of action won’t want to turn their heads to this series, because the action just doesn’t stop. These OVA’s range from anywhere to 45 minutes to an hour, so they’re pretty long, and difficult to watch back-to-back. Do note that this anime is very mature, and I would proceed with caution if you aren’t used to this type of thing.

The plot is, frankly, a weird mess that isn’t quite thoroughly or cleanly explained. It has something to do with Nazi’s, vampires, the Vatican, and zombies. From what I gather, some chubby guy has brought back an army of Nazi’s and they’re making fake zombie vampire things while trying to take over the world (because who doesn’t want to take over the world?). It’s up to the Hellsing organization, professionals in supernatural control, to stop them before it’s too late. Not the most unique plot in the long run (evil group trying to take over the world), but the details of it are just weird and, well, Japanese. I mean Nazi vampires, really? But not only does Hellsing have to deal with Nazi’s, but there is a secret section of the Vatican that’s trying to stop Alucard (more on him later) and Hellsing, but I don’t really know why. The good thing about the plot is that is leaves plenty of room for the over-the-top violence that we all love, but on the other hand, leaves surprisingly dull moments that make you want to fast forward to the shooting parts. After all the action, it’s hard to stop and listen to conversations about artificial vampires and evil doctors. They have to fill 45 minutes up with something, though.

So in the characters department, there’s Integra Wingates Hellsing, who became heir to the command of Hellsing after her father (or something like that) was assassinated by her evil uncle. There’s Alucard (which is Dracula backwards, in case you didn’t catch that), who had been in the service of the entire Hellsing bloodline, and serves Integra just as the people before her. During the series, I’m still not sure who the story is supposed to focus on. It seems that they try to make the story about a police girl named Seras Victoria, who, after a chain of events, becomes a vampire in Hellsing’s army. Maybe I’m just in denial because I think Seras is a horrible character, and don’t want the series to be about her. In my opinion, she is weak and annoying, definitely not Main Character material. Even after becoming a vampire by the most powerful vampire in existence, she refuses to drink blood (which would make her an independent vampire), and instead decides to cling to her “master” and wimp out everytime she is confronted with an issue. If you were a superhuman, powerful and insane vampire, would you be scared of a few zombies? I don’t think so. There are other main-ish characters such as Walter the buter, Alexander Anderson (the agent of the Vatican), and other various protagonists and antagosists, who each have their own backstory each episode. It feels as though they can’t decide who to focus on, so they just pick straws to see who the story is about. Honestly, Alucard is the only character I really like, as the others characters are just unlikable or forgettable at best.

Yes, Alucard is so badass he needs his own paragraph. Alucard is, hands down, my favorite character of anything. He is what vampires, I believe, should always be thought as: Emotionless, guiltless, destructive, blood-thirsty killing machines. He scoffs in the faces of the artificial vampires, right before blowing their faces off. He is invincible, incredibly evil, and clever. The only reason he stays in the service of anyone is because he wants to. Yes, he’s selfish, he’s unmerciful, but he’s the greatest anti-hero you’ll ever see. I would watch this anime just for the mind blowing action scenes involving him.

There are some differences between the 13 episode series (I’ll call it Hellsing 1) and the OVA’s (I’ll call it Hellsing U). I personally liked Hellsing 1, although some people don’t, I don’t see a reason not to. Obviously the OVA’s have a much higher budget and look nicer, but Hellsing 1 is a solid 13 episode series. What they did with Hellsing 1 is they started out following the manga, but ended up making their own storyline towards the end. With Hellsing U, they kept strictly to the manga story. Besides the story differences, there are some character differences and animation differences, but Hellsing 1 is worth checking out.

The animation of the OVA’s is something that isn’t seen in many anime. I don’t really know how to describe it, so you’d have to see it for yourself. It strongly resembles Dragon Ball Z Kai’s animation if you’ve ever seen that. It does a great job of handling the mind blowing action scenes stuffed into these OVA’s. There were some scenes where there was a gap in my mouth the whole time from the sheer brutalness and coolness of what’s happening. These are what the series is about, and they do a fantastic job in delivering awesome specific scenes which you won’t forget.

This anime will not appeal to everyone. With the messy story, mostly boring characters and dull moments, I can completely understand why someone wouldn’t want to watch 8, hour long OVA’s of pretty much the same thing in each episode. But what the series excels at is delivering insane action sequences and one of the coolest and most interesting characters in any series. I’d strongly suggest you at least check out one episode if you’re a fan of intense action, but if you’re not, this probably isn’t for you. It’s great that they tailored to a very specific audience in a great way, but for everyone else, there isn’t really anything worth continuing to watch. If I were rating this series based on a single character, or rating it based on a few scenes, this would be a 5 out of 5 no-brainer. Unfortunately, I’m not. I give 3 out of 5 stars for completely dominating in very specific ways, but totally missing the mark in most others.

3 out of 5 stars!

Download both series here!

REVIEWER'S SCORE:

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