Hellsing Ultimate

Hellsing the OVA Series is a brilliant piece of work.

It follows the manga much better than the original anime series, although the soundtrack to the original was brilliant, so is the OVA's.

Alucard is more deep in character than the last time and so is Anderson (even more so,) and many scenes that didn't make the anime appear in the OVA.

The graphics outdo the original series (and most other animes for that matter,) as they utilise cgi in important scenes. The same voice actors from the original show are here, along with a few new ones.

overall, i recommend this to any and all Hellsing fans.

Still bathing in the afterglow of the brilliant Hellsing I, we now move on to the second part. So whats on offer? As it turns out, there was something strange about the duel at the end of part I. You see, our heroes were assailed by ghouls, and yet the source vampire was already dead, meaning the ghouls should have been as well. The Hellsing organization has noticed this, and called a meeting of its head council, but a mysterious organization has sent out two deadly assassins and their army to raid and destroy the Hellsing headquarters and everyone in it...

Part II advances on the already great Part I immensely. It is more gruesome, more action packed, and more engaging, introducing more about the world of Hellsing. We get to see a little of Alucards past, as well as more about Integra and Seras, our female protagonists. We also see more of the organization that will become the main villains in future volumes.

The problem is, despite all this, Part II isn't as entertaining as it could be. Yes, the weird humor is a little more suited in this one, but the direction lacks the crazy wildness that made the first one so great. This one isn't quite as good as it could be.

Although the new series is an improvement over the original, it still could be better. But thats not to say it isn't already great. The action is only beginning, and there's a lot to come...

I'll re-add this as it was supposed to be in the first place.

Hellsing OVA follows pretty much the same plot as the TV series did. Alucard, a powerful vampire who is working for his master Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing and her organization, is killing vampires and their minions known as ghouls. Pretty much all Japanese voice actors are back in their roles. I have to say that I liked the original TV series. The OVA, I believe, follows much better the manga, though I've never read it. This anime is almost ridiculous few times. Now, at times, there isn't much that separates this one from many other flashy trying-to-be-a-lot-at-the-same-time animes.

CGI have been used a lot now and therefore it basically looks better, but the art isn't always looking that great. It's not as simple as it was back in the old Hellsing, and there's some new styles and techniques and such, but at times it could look a bit better. Actually sometimes it even lacks stability and dimensionality on characters. If you don't like computer effects in anime, you might not like this one since there's lots of them. One of those things that make this OVA kind of ridiculous is the huge amount that those computer effects are used. There's also some weird lines, and few things the characters do are somewhat ridiculous.

Alucard seems to talk more, but where in TV series he was cool and you saw that he was powerful, it's now usually stated by others that he is a powerful vampire. I guess that this time the new team tried to make him somewhat deeper, but if they succeeded is pretty much flickering. This time he isn't such a mystery and there's as soon as in the first episode much information revealed about him. Still he is pretty much the same Alucard, which is great.

It's not totally hopeless anime, I have to say. If you are going to watch this, I think you should watch all of the 13 episodes of Hellsing ("Herushingu" 2002) before that, so that you could see what is different and what kind of anime that was.

The soundtrack unfortunately isn't even near the original ones soundtrack. It's not that bad, but the old Hellsing had a great one. This new Hellsing seems to rush some scenes a bit, and in good and bad it's very fast going. However, OVA gets much more interesting when the series goes further and there's new stuff, something you couldn't see in Hellsing TV series. But whether you are a Hellsing fan or not, this is still a piece of work to check out.

"The bird of the Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame."

Hellsing Ultimate is a 10 part OVA anime based on the Hellsing manga that follows it very closely compared the earlier attempt which contained 13 episodes and had to stray off because of catching up the the story at the time. And unlike many, I did liked that early attempt and still do but this, however, COMPLETELY BLOWS IT AWAY!! Bigger budget, better animation, better action, better plot and way more GORE.

The story follows Hellsing organization which has only one goal, to rid the world from vampires/monsters. And they accomplish this mainly by their trump card, ALUCARD (DRACULA in reverse), an immortal and powerful vampire that does the bidding of his master, the leader of the organization, Integra Hellsing.

Since they followed the manga to the fullest, the story this time around was a lot better and actually went somewhere. Still, plot isn't the reason to watch this anime because its the action and gore and the awesomeness of Alucard that makes Hellsing a joy to watch. The anime is filled with gruesome bloody sequences with people and monsters being totally decimated in thrilling and amazing ways.

ALUCARD is probably the most badass and awesome Anti-hero I have ever seen in an anime. He taunts and humiliates his enemies before ripping them to shreds, takes extreme joy in the act and really defines the word MONSTER when doing all this. But at the same side you see that he has a softer side which he hardly ever shows and there is more to him then just being an all out monster. Also, I don't think I've ever seen the main character to be THE STRONGEST in the whole anime and the world it shows. Usually the hero/anti- hero/lead has to train hard, overcome obstacles, acquire knowledge and powers to become strong and defeat the enemy. But not here. Hellsing's like "Screw all that. Alucard is the most powerful. Enjoy.". And I loved this. Such a refreshing thing to see.

The anime isn't without its flaws however. One thing that REALLY bugged me is that when all the stuff is going down, carnage and destruction everywhere, the anime decides to take the time off and do some character development or deliver a monologue or a speech or something. But it wasn't never really good at this stuff so it turns into a drag and all you want is to see more action. The pacing wasn't that good at times. And then there were those typical anime comedy thrown in the mix, which popped up in the most atmosphere breaking moments and really annoyed me, only a few times it was actually funny and worked.

Animation quality was superb. Detailed characters and violence and stuff. The soundtrack was a mixed bag.

Overall, I really enjoyed the anime. It's a definite watch for anyone who wants vampire centric story without any lovey dovey/teenage/high school stupidity and just delivers the awesome gory action we want.

8.3/10

Not being familiar with the older 13 episode series, then I had no expectations for this series. I sat down to watch it with a clean slate, so to speak. Was told that it was a really great series by an acquaintance, so I decided to give it a go.

I will say that the art style is somewhat different from the Manga that I am used to watching, but it wasn't bad. I liked the style of art in "Hellsing Ultimate", it was dark, it had an edge and it was nicely rendered. Smooth animation and interesting characters really helped the series along.

"Hellsing Ultimate" has a lot of blood and violence in it, so it may not be suitable for all people. Just a word of warning. I, however, did enjoy it. The vampires here were brutal, devilish and beastly - read not having big hair and sparkling skin.

The characters in the series were nicely thought up and well put to the screen. However, I think that they could have made the episodes longer and given the characters a chance to show their personalities and nature more on the screen. Given them a chance to delve into character development, as some of the characters were a bit shallow and could have benefited from a more in-depth presentation.

There was a lot of jumping between the episodes, in the sense that there was an red thread in the storyline, but individually the episodes were a bit too skittering and 'flash bang'. By that I mean, it was all great, action-packed and full of blood, but once one episode was over, the next would skip entirely to something else.

One thing did puzzle me, well it is just me being petty, but why did everyone speak Japanese? It didn't make any sense that people from the Vatican or South America spoke Japanese, or that the Nazis spoke Japanese. But hey, it was a Manga animation, so it was easy enough to bear over with that.

Having seen this new series, it sort of sparked an interest to get a hold of the old series and check that out as well. The 2006 "Hellsing Ultimate" series was great entertainment and it well worth checking out, for both newcomers to the Manga scene and for avid fans alike.