Hellsing Ultimate

There are just so many vampire themed animes nowadays. Blood+, Trinity Blood, Vampire Knight, the list goes on and on. Then, once in a long awaited while, you find a gem in the ocean of piss and whale excrement. Oh, this review is going to have alot of vulgarity because I feel that gives off the right vibe for this review. As I was saying, the gem that you find will be Hellsing Ultimate. No, not Hellsing the TV series, that series gave my dog AIDS. In two words I can sum this anime up; Fucking Awesome.

Story

You already know the story. Its about a ... badass vampire named Alucard (thats Dracula backwards) who is a slave of the Hellsing Organization. Hellsing is a organization that hunts and kills unwanted vampires with the help of Alucard. Blah blah blah things are dandy until some fat Neo Nazi major decides to start an army of ghouls/vampires and destroy London and the Hellsing organization. Then, bitches go crazy and shit starts blowing up. If you want a deep story with drama and romance you can fuck off and go watch Clannad while wanking off to your Haruhi Suzumiya poster. You will not find deep meaning or morals from this anime. Think with a simple state of mind. Nazi zombie thingies are invading and a badass vampire (Alucard), his chain-smoking boss (Sir Integra Hellsing) and his big breasted assistant (Seras Victoria) are gonna kill every last one of them. I gotta love the storyline for its simplicity. It reminds me of a videogame. Its so easy to understand and it doesnt fuck with your head. It gets a 10/10.

Characters

I am going to give a big explaination about each character because you should know already I love talking about this anime. Alucard is a vampire, Integra is his master/boss, Seras Victoria is Alucards assistant, and the Neo Nazi major is some fuck up with alot of Nazi bitches. Theres really no character development, although a little bit of Alucards past is revealed and you see how sadistic and twisted he is. Alucard is by far the most evil "hero" I have seen. He enjoys torturing his enemies and rarely kills them before completely stripping them of their dignity. In short, he's more of a villain than a hero due to his lack of morals. Do not expect a compassionate, honorable character. He fucks shit up and he enjoys doing it. Integra is just so hard to read and very little is revealed about her. She is the head of Hellsing and likes to smoke cigars is all you need to know. Seras Victoria is probably the most likeable character. She has double D's and has a very happy go lucky attitude. Although she becomes a bloodthirsty vampire, she retains her sweet personality. Almost nothing is revealed about the Major but he is the character that intrigued me the most. On the surface, he is a polite, but loud man who likes to take command. But on the inside he is a homicidal war maniac with a hard-on for blood and violence. He has many memorable quotes about war. I really hate this guy but I can't help being curious.

Animation and Art

Hellsing Ultimate is an OVA series so expect top grade art and animation quality. The actions and facial movements are executed flawlessly. The fight scenes were very smooth and the blood and gore was portrayed very well. From the explosions to exploding heads, there is not much that can be said. Just great.

Action

In no way, shape, or form is Hellsing Ultimate an anime for children. Every fight scene is amazingly brutal and lots of people end up dying in a myriad of ways. From the first episode I could tell that this anime was over the top. I fucking love it for that. No other anime features crazy ass priests with hundreds of swords killing Nazi zombies. I mean, each fight scene is just so gory and explicit I can't help but get a boner. If you like guns, swords, and mutilated bodies, this anime will not dissapoint. From being impaled by a 8 foot rifle to being decapitated with a karate chop, this amine has every hellish way of dying. Even if you hate everything else, you will definitely love the action.

Overall enjoyment
All these elements are combined into a bloody, well wrapped packaged. Hellsing Ultimate may sound like a half assed, over the top anime, but it follows the rule of cool. The rule of cool is when an anime is just so fucking brutal and awesome that it seems like a masterpiece even with all of its flaws. Do yourself a favor. Stop watching Naruto and making Death Note fan fiction and watch this anime. Grow some balls and watch it already. It will not dissapoint.

Fantastic vampire action and violence; but dull characters, erratic pacing with too much melodrama and an overpowered main character.

★★☆☆

It has all the flash and gimmicks to trick you into thinking it’s good. It has vampires, action, blood, swearing, violence, gore, sexuality, darkness—everything that’s just “cooool” and “matuuure.”

Let’s not forget its “badass” hero Alucard—whose name is “Dracula” spelled backward, by the way. Goddamn that is so fucking cool I’m hurting. He’s so powerful no one can beat him. Except… that is the problem. Because none of his enemies can even touch him all his fights are boring filler. You’re actually left rooting for the villains.

The main ... characters are supposed to be the one putting up a struggle, not the other way around. The only time I was excited about a fight was when the villains felt like they could pose a challenge. But then Alucard whips out a power up, and I’m left saying “Oh.”

For a show with gorgeous animation and fantastic action it’s dull and forgettable. It’s like an attractive person without a personality. There are pacing issues where it slows down to be melodramatic and rambles about nonsense philosophy. I get that you need to let us know character motivations, but giving 10 minute speeches isn’t exactly keeping me awake. It also tries to be funny with some lighthearted, cutely animated moments, but it only ruins the mood.

I still actually recommend watching this but only if you’re slightly interested. It’s helpful to watch good and bad shows. It’ll give you an instinct on why something is good or bad. I enjoyed this my first time, but I certainly wouldn’t watch it again.

My friends,

It has often been said that I like Hellsing Ultimate. My friends, I like Hellsing Ultimate…NO. Friends, I LOVE!! HELLSING ULTIMATE! I love the dark animation, I love the gore, I love the action, I love the charismatic characters, the accents, I love the bombastic plot and dialogue! I love any like-minded quality anime that can exist upon this Earth!

I love watching ghouls, vampires and mercenaries clashing in an all-out VAR within the Victorian hallways of the Hellsing estate. My heart leaps with joy whenever a soldier’s limps are blown off followed by screams of agonizing pain. And there is nothing like ... a British vampire chick dual wielding artillery canons to rain hell upon the mightiest engines of war, UND the feeling that comes when a vampire runs away screaming from Alucard only to be slaughtered in the most gruesome way imaginable... is such... an exquisite feeling. Like when ranks of mercenaries sign up to hunt vampires and ghouls using silver bullets. It moves me deep within my heart to see an entire squadron of innocent SWAT forces butchered mercilessly by none other than the MC in their final moments of shock and despair. The sight of haters being made fun of on the forums for their ridicule subjective criticism is an irresistible pleasure. And there is nothing more arousing then the major’s awe-inspiring war-speech which is still resonating with grandeur in your heads at this very moment. When a band of pitiful resistance fighters make their final stand with nothing but small arms only to have their city destroyed and their guts disemboweled by a thousand paratrooper vampire Nazis, I’m in ecstasy. I love it when my favorite factions are ravaged by enemy Nazi bastards. It’s so sad to see characters I had held onto dearly meet their tragic fates, their friends and comrades ripped in half gasping for their last breaths. I love to be squashed under the heel of the Nazi and Vatican war dogs, the humiliation as my men crawl around like vermin, hiding and taking cheap shots from walled corners.

Gentlemen, all I ask for is more Hellsing Ultimate. An anime so grand as to make hell itself tremble. Gentlemen…I ask you as fellow brothers in arms what is it that you really want? Do you wish for further anime like this as I do? Do you wish for a merciless bloody anime? Anime whose fury is built with iron and lightning and fire? DO YOU ASK FOR ANIME TO SWEEP IN LIKE A TEMPEST, LEAVING NOT EVEN CRITICS TO SCAVENGE FROM THIS EARTH!!!

I just finished watching the third installment of the long awaited Hellsing Ultimate OVA series. In a nutshell, Hellsing is about vampires. And if you're thinking, "Oh, this is going to be like Blood+, Vampire Hunter, Black Blood Brothers, etcetera"... you're very, very wrong.

This is exactly the kind of anime that can keep you panting for the next episode. A very well knit product it encompasses intrigue, betrayal, conspiracy, gore, sarcastic humor and plenty of ass-kicking action, John Woo vampire style.

If you enjoyed the mediocre 13 episode TV series, you're in for a glamorous treat with the OVAs. The OVA stays ... very true to the manga, almost panel for panel, much like 'Monster' in that respect. Each installment covers the incidents of one volume of work (by the way, I highly recommend the manga as well) and is a visual spectacle. The voice acting (done by the same people who did the TV series) is quite good and even the English dub is fairly commendable. The characters are much more polished and darkly drawn than the TV series too. The music is as good as what we were treated to in the TV series with a mix of eerie gothic/baroque and electronica.

All in all, one of the best animated series I've seen. Highly recommended.

Warning: If you're quesy about blood and violence, I suggest you steer clear, because this series is a cornucopia of gore.

Overview:

I'm just going to come out and say it! Hellsing Ultimate is awesome! Count Dracula teams up with the granddaughter of Van Helsing in order to defend London from an army of Nazi vampires. Sound silly? Of course it is, and that's part of its charm! Hellsing is balls to the wall action that never takes itself too seriously and is extremely enjoyable to watch.

Spoilers!!!

Plot 4/10

To say the plot of Hellsing Ultimate is stupid, would be an understatement. This plot absolutely revels in its own absurdity. A fat, over the top Nazi known only as Zee Major builds an army of Nazi vampires in South ... America and invades London with a group of giant Zeppelins. The only thing that can stop them...Count Dracula of course. You have to love Zee major though. He is such a silly, cartoonish caricature of Nazism, although he still falls short of Ann Coulter, who would call Zee Major a liberal pansy. This is not an artsy, experimental anime like Mushishi. It's not a thinking man's existentialist anime like Tatami Galaxy. With Hellsing, you have to just give your brain a rest and enjoy the EPIC battles and bizarre humor that permeates this series.

Characters 9/10


Hellsing has awesome characters like the absolutely insane Catholic priest Father Anderson, who is like Eren Jaeger from Attack on Titan fused with the Boondock Saints. It has a Cockney vampire chick that talks with that adorably silly accent and fights with a massive anti-tank rifle. It has an SS werewolf who is literally a werewolf and must therefore tear off his shirt before every fight. Lastly we have Alucard, the badass sociopath himself voiced by the legendary Crispin Freeman in the English Dub. (God I love that man!) Don't expect characters to be deep or 3 dimensional, but instead enjoy the sheer madness, like most other aspects of this series.

Soundtrack 10/10

It has an AMAZING soundtrack featuring Die Frieschutz by the early Romantic composer Karl Maria Von Weber. I am a huge classical music fan and hadn't even heard of Von Weber before Hellsing. Now I have most of his best known works on my itunes and listen to it all the time! The other parts of the soundtrack are rather nice as well, with good original tracks and cheesy remixes of old German wartime classics like Das England Lied.

Art 8/10

The art isn't perfect, but is a massive improvement from the first Hellsing series. The character designs are well done and although the blood looks like ketchup and lacks any bone fragments, organs, or anything else you would expect from people literally exploding all the time, it is still massively satisfying to see.

Enjoyment 10/10

Hellsing Ultimate is bloody fun from beginning to end. The first Hellsing series was ok, but at times took itself too seriously, which clashed with the carefree style of Kouta Hirano. Hirano is primarily a hentai artist and porn director who occasionally draws manga on the side, despite the fact that his art is actually pretty abysmal. He doesn't take himself seriously and clearly was laughing his ass off as he drew every panel. His humor and enjoyment is absolutely contagious, and he has utterly mastered the art of "so bad its good" storytelling.

Overall 9/10

Leave your brain at the door and get on the roller coaster of awesome silliness that is Hellsing Ultimate. This series may turn some people off with its incredible amount of gore and shockingly tasteless Nazi stupidity, but if you enjoyed Inglorius Basterds a lot, I highly recommend Hellsing Ultimate. Apparently a few German viewers on youtube found the portrayal of Germans offensive in this series, but honestly you are taking it WAY too seriously if you are offended by something as ridiculous as Hellsing Ultimate. I come from an ethnic German family myself and I found it fucking hilarious, so lighten up guys!

Hellsing Ultimate is genuinely one of the dumbest Anime one would get the displeasure of watching. It boggles the mind how people think this Anime is good or even great by extension, and seeing the amount of praise it gets boggles the mind, as this one suffers from many major problems which cannot be overlooked. So, what are the problems that Hellsing Ultimate suffers from?

To start off with the characters, our hero Alucard feels like the epitome of what it means to be a mary sue. Does he have character traits which define him? Of course not, since he is nothing but an underdeveloped, ... unbeatable, one dimensional mary sue who does what he wants and what he pleases because the plot said so. Is he able to be beaten? Yes, but only when the plot needs him to stray away for a while, then after that he comes back because he is supposed to be an immortal vampire who never dies because of plot, even when the other characters beat him fair and square through a smart strategy they had developed early on. Speaking of the other characters, they exist just for the sole purpose of moving the plot forward all the while being one dimensional archetypes themselves. You’ve got the central villain, Major, whose only character trait is to be evil and speak in a funny German accent just to get some cheap laughs from the viewers. You’ve got a woman who owns Alucard and is supposed to be his master, and her character is never developed other than her being his master, and to drink wine and speak in a posh accent I guess. She was so forgettable, to the point where I forgot her name. The other characters are the same, they either exist for the sole purpose of telling an unfunny joke, or to progress the plot forward without gaining any real characterization in the process. Reading some of the reviews here, they rave about the greatness of the characters, yet they never go into specifics as to why said characters are so great. I wonder why…

As for the unfunny jokes, this Anime is filled to the very brim with them. Were you hoping for a serious and grim Anime about vampires and soldiers fighting each other to the death? Jokes on you, we’ll give you the silliest, most addlebrained “comedy” Anime that ever tried to take itself seriously. Even when it should be funny and invoke laughter out of the audience, it doesn’t do anything of significance nor does it succeed in getting said laughs. Moreover, the juxtaposition between comedy and seriousness completely breaks the audience’s immersion in the plot, as one cannot be invested in a serious scene because the Anime breaks the viewer’s immersion and the serious tone that it was going for with unfunny jokes that come out of nowhere. Seriously, the comedy displayed here is worse than that of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and that is genuinely saying something. To put it in simpler words, the Anime does not know what it wants to be, because if it’s goal was to be a hysterical parody of vampires, then it has certainly failed in it’s goal, since it neither is funny nor does it not break that rule by trying to take itself seriously half of the time.

Moving on to one more problem that this unfunny sack of underwhelming doodoo suffers from, it is that the episode length is long. There is a reason one watches Anime, and that is because while it not being the best medium out there, it at least makes up for it by not torturing the viewer for more than twenty minutes at a time. What does Hellsing Ultimate do? It lengthens it’s twenty minute run per episode into forty slow and lengthy minutes, which boggles the mind since ten minutes of this catastrophe were unwatchable, much less forty. Even when sped up, it doesn’t help either since you are constantly seeing characters you dislike being shoved right into your face all the time. You can’t escape this terrible catastrophe no matter how hard you tried, as it is inherently bad by itself.

Overall, there isn’t much else to say about Hellsing Ultimate. It is boring, trite, unfunny and at the end of the day it is meandering. Why is it meandering you ask? Because the main character is an unbeatable mary sue who barely shows any emotions and the outcomes therefore become predictable.

I get sick of shows that are supposedly brutal bloodbaths *very* easily. Why is that? Well I go into it thinking I'm gonna experience just that and instead all I get is a whole lot of bad pacing and tiny little splashes of blood that are heavily censored for no good reason whatsoever with a protagonist that can't shut the fuck up with his bitching. Of course, it's not surprising this is the case since I was spoiled ROTTEN by Hellsing Ultimate. Hellsing Ultimate is the epitome of senseless violence and sheer brutality. Fuck your Mirai Nikki, Deadman Wonderland, and Tokyo Ghoul! THIS is a ... real bloodbath and Alucard is the (un)living definition of a true badass.

Hellsing Ultimate is a reboot of the Hellsing franchise. Previously, there was an adaptation of the Hellsing manga produced by Gonzo in 2001 but it forked off from the source material because there were very few chapters to adapt at the time. Obviously, Gonzo didn't do THAT good of a job with the adaptation so in 2006, Satelight got on-board to do another adaptation. How did Satelight decide to handle the new Hellsing adaptation? Simple: make it a direct-to-video release so that way, loathsome censorship wouldn't be an issue and Kouta Hirano would have all the time he needed to finish the manga. It took 6 years to adapt with Madhouse and another studio stepping in to do the other episodes and it took even longer to finish dubbing, but the wait was definitely worth it.

For those of you coming into Hellsing Ultimate expecting the likes of Paradise Lost in terms of story, I've got BAAAAAD news for you. At the risk of pissing off the fanboys, Hellsing never has and never will be about the story. In fact, the story gets progressively worse as time goes on. There's a distinct lack of world-building, where the focus is always on the here and now with events in the past being mentioned but never properly explained save for select bits here and there. If you want a bloodbath that actually has a good story behind it, watch Berserk instead. While its lacklustre narrative might seem like a hindrance, it's not because Hellsing Ultimate is all about the rule of cool.

I mean... it's a show that has an immortal blood knight vampire fighting the remnants of a Nazi battalion 50 years after World War II that's led by a demented Major who starts a war with Britain JUST for the sake of starting a war that will "sweep in like a tempest, LEAVING NOT EVEN RAVENS TO SCAVENGE FROM THIS EARTH!!!" with a secret division of the Vatican led by a bloodthirsty priest who can pull blessed swords out of nowhere, absurd weaponry, and a whole lot of maniacal grins thrown into the mix as well. If you can't suspend your disbelief in the slightest, you'll hate this show just as much if not even more than you'll probably hate Gurren Lagann.

Regardless, the actual narrative isn't all THAT bad. It's more like a foundation that never really gets built upon but at the same time, at least manages to tell us exactly what it is and what it wants to be. It never sets itself up to be something grander than it actually is, and that to me is Hellsing Ultimate's greatest strength. Hellsing Ultimate knows that it lacks a compelling narrative, so instead it opts to be as entertaining to watch as possible which is where it manages to receive high marks most of the time. Key word: MOST of the time. All good things have to come to an end eventually, you know.

You know how Gurren Lagann slowed down to a crawl as it tried to take itself seriously? Well toward the last 3 episodes (8-10), it becomes painfully obvious as to how weak the story actually is as it starts taking itself seriously throughout the entire run of each OVA. The problem is that Hellsing Ultimate up until that particular point was about having fun with mind-numbing amounts of profanity, blood, and gore to boot.

There were moments where it took itself seriously in the previous 7 OVAs, but that's all they were: moments, and it works beautifully well as brief instances where we could take a break from all that shit, catch our breath, and resume the bloodbath. The final 3 OVAs are still entertaining, don't get me wrong. It's just that in comparison to what we had prior, there is a MAJOR difference in how fun those episodes are to watch. But I digress, for it's now time to talk about the characters.

You'd think that the characters in Hellsing Ultimate would be just as lacklustre as the story, but actually... that's not the case whatsoever. In fact, they're fairly well-written... well, about as well-written as you can get for a show that has 90% of its cast wearing a maniacal grin half the time. The two best-written characters in Hellsing Ultimate are by far Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing (yes, you have to say it like that) and Seras Victoria while the two characters that excel most in terms of just how fun they are to watch are none other than Alucard and Alexander Anderson (aka Judas Priest) along with Montana Max aka The Major as runner-up (he's more fun to listen to than to watch).

I should tell you this right now: if you absolutely despise overpowered characters, you're going to HATE Alucard and Judas Priest. Anderson is the living definition of a badass while Alucard is the un-living definition of a badass. They're both absurdly powerful individuals who absolutely dominate everything else in combat and throughout the show's run, you keep banking on that final fight to show up between the two to settle once and for all who the true badass is. When that final fight DOES rear its head, you can't help but squeal like a pig throughout the entire run. It genuinely is THAT entertaining to watch... provided that you can handle how absurd Hellsing Ultimate gets at times.

If on the other hand, you desire some more "human" characters that are less likely to throw blessed bayonets and exploding silver bullets at your face, Integra and Seras are more than enough to fit the bill and then some. Integra is by far one of the best authority figures I've seen in anime and manga thus far. She just has this air of authority about her like Motoko Kusanagi and even when she's put into situations that might make her seem like a damsel-in-distress, that's never the case. She just scoffs at you while smoking a cigar and grinning like a maniac. Her only downfall would be the fact that as the show gets crazier and crazier, all she really seems to be able to do is just stand back and watch. Of course, that's what happens when you let a MASSIVE power creep into your show like that.

As far as Seras goes, she's... how do I put it? She's adorable, quirky, and is quite the action girl when the situation calls for it. At the same time, the writing doesn't really focus TOO much on her transition from human to vampire. That's not a totally bad thing, mind you and she does improve as a character as the show goes on. At the same time, I would've expected her to have more of a problem with being an undead creature of the night for the rest of her life. Well... then again, I DID say that Hellsing Ultimate is all about the rule of cool and questioning your own humanity ISN'T cool at all (in comparison to everything else that goes on). Regardless, she's a great character and by far the most human (in comparison to everything else she has to deal with).

While storytelling and characters aren't Hellsing Ultimate's strong suit, there is one area where Hellsing Ultimate succeeds constantly and that is with the production values. This show was just spoiled in ways that the original just couldn't be and that's no surprise given that this is a 10-episode OVA series that took six years to complete. I could spend hours gushing about the production values, but it wouldn't do me any favours now will it? All I can say is that EVERYTHING looks awesome: from the super-creepy horror imagery surrounding Alucard, the battles which are so deliciously overflowing with carnage, and all else that lies in-between. You think Tokyo Ghoul has good visuals? Psh, Hellsing Ultimate makes Tokyo Ghoul look like Naruto filler in terms of visuals.

OST-wise, Hellsing Ultimate delivers in full-force. There are plenty of bombastic orchestral tracks and such which further emphasize just how awesome this show actually is and there's no shortage of songs and character tracks that I've grown quite fond of. BUT... if there's one minor complaint I have, it's the fact that it lacks style in comparison to its predecessor. Now hear me out: the 2001 Hellsing show is flawed to high heaven but one thing that it has that Hellsing Ultimate lacks is music. The 2001 show had no shortage of jazz/blues tracks, guitar themes, and whatnot which gave the show its own sense of style. Hellsing Ultimate has quite a bit in the way of stylised visuals, but when it comes down to music... it could've been handled a little better.

Dub-wise... I have absolutely no complaints other than just how long it took to actually get the entire thing out. Well, then again I guess that's on Geneon for ceasing all operations outside of Japan before they finished dubbing Hellsing Ultimate (they only did the first four episodes). Due to licensing issues, the dub itself was delayed even more than the production of the OVAs. Thankfully, Funimation stepped up to the plate, re-hired all the voice actors that worked on the episodes that Geneon dubbed and I swear to GOD, Funimation just knocked the ball out of the park with this one (perhaps even more). Crispin Freeman does an amazing job as Alucard (then again, he's Crispin fucking Freeman, of course he did a damn great job) but that's actually NOT my favourite thing about this dub which is surprising since I'm a huge fan of Freeman's work.

One of Hellsing's calling cards is taking place in Great Britain, so obviously it would help if the voice actors had British accents, right? Well instead of doing Cockney accents like the Black Butler dub had, Funimation actually hired 2 BRITISH voice actors to do the roles of Anderson and Integra (Steven Brand and Victoria Harwood respectively) while the rest of the cast barring Alucard did some rather convincing accent work to set the mood. There's always going to be sub-supremacists touting how the English dub pales in comparison to the Japanese one but at least we've got Steven Brand's thick, Scottish accent while you sub-touters just have Norio Wakamoto's Engrish. If you want accents, go with dub. If you don't, stick with the sub.

So, final thoughts? Hellsing Ultimate is far from a masterpiece but as far as entertainment value goes, you'll be hard-pressed to find a show that can easily keep up. As far as bloodbaths go, there's only a handful of anime that can match Hellsing Ultimate's brutality (i.e. the Berserk movies, Gantz). This is popcorn material through and through and makes no attempt at hiding that fact. Considering the fact that all 10 episodes of Hellsing Ultimate are now available for legal streaming on Funimation's website AND have been released on DVD/Blu-ray, there's no reason why you SHOULDN'T give this show a chance.

Don't waste your time with this anime.

I gave this anime a shot because of the rating it received, a staggering 8.6. I started with the expectation that this had to be good because of the rating but I was sadly mistaken, this anime was an utter disappointment. I can't see how anyone can justify this anime as being anywhere near good or great.

Character development doesn't exist in this show, people appear and people disappear like nothing. The main character has no struggles or weaknesses, he's literally unkillable and he kills his foes with 1 swing. How does this seem anywhere near interesting if the ... main character is this overpowered? Every episode starts with a enemy who thinks they are hot shit and talk about jack shit and all they do is slaughter regular people. Then comes Alucard who just's waltzes in laughing in his face off and just drops them in 1 shot.

There is no story, it's just about killing Nazi zombies and stopping a wannabe Hitler. This is literally just a random mash up between zombies and vampires.

If you read this far just do yourself a favor and skip this anime.

*MINOR SPOILERS*

I say minor because: whether or not it's a spoiler is dependant on whether or not you've taken a moment to read the character bio's. Never the less i will try and keep the spoilers to a minimum.


If you want a basic idea of what hellsing ultimate (which i will refer to as HU from now onward) is all about then it's essentially Shakespeare meets Dracula meets Mien Kampf.


story:

I consider myself something of a fan of the more Gothic horror stories and HU certainly doesn't skimp out on the Gothic pizazz; the grim and gritty melodrama is certainly there but alas I never thought ... I'd see such an abundant overuse of melodrama, and that's where the problems with HU's story begin. The anime is trying so hard to be miserable, dark, dramatic and at the same time poetic that it forgets to ever hit the brakes and seems to go out of control in it's own narrative, to the point where at times characters will be doing something such as fighting or trying to reach a certain location and will forget to explicitly tell the audience why this is happening and on the rare occasions where they do explain they mince words and give explanations that make no sense or portray the characters as psychopathic sycophants thus preventing the audience from caring about the "good guys".

You could say that the characters are supposed to question the validity of good and evil but alas this is where the second problem comes in, and that is believability and limitation. In film, television. anime and other media there is usually an unspecified but well recognised line that usually should never be crossed. Now this line isn't to do with taboo subjects (although, there's plenty of that in HU) but rather limits of believability and audience tolerance for that lack of believability. Now, there are those in other industries that choose to turn a blind eye to this line or ignore it all together,
*cough*Michael Bay*cough*
but never the less the line is there for a reason because that line keeps your story under control and makes sure that nothing too ridiculous gets added to the media which ends up hurting your film/anime/tv show.

HU crosses that line with fine strides and then some, and this is primarily due to the decision of the director, producers and writers to challenge the concept of good and evil by using a character like Alucard, who, for all intents and purposes, is immortal, practically invulnerable, posses power enough that he has to be sealed away and is practically a walking WMD. Now, faced with a protagonist like that, the enemy he must ultimately defeat by the end of the series would understandably need to be able to match his own power.

Enter crazy Nazi fat-ass hell-bent on creating a vampire Nazi army, and in response:
enter crazy army of priests dressed like the Ku Klux Klan.
, it's like a joke you should never mention at a fairness and equality summit. And is probably just as poorly received

Thus we have plenty of enemy pie for Alucard to busy himself with, and if you didn't spot the moment where this got ridiculous you need your eyes and your mind checked. I honestly never thought I'd encounter something that was more ridiculous than Michael Bay's magnum opus 2012 in my entire lifetime, even 'surf Nazi's must die!' wasn't as ridiculous, and that was ridiculous. suffice it to say, the anime kinda goes off the rails after a few episodes and becomes so unbelievable that it's hard to take the show seriously although if characters could stop spouting poetic nonsense that has nothing to do with anything and stop glorifying every action they do by talking about it while their fighting it might have some semblance of tolerability.


Art

Criticisms aside, the art in HU is fantastic, and really gives off that Gothic feeling. The spectacle is truly impressive but alas so was the spectacle in 2012. The art manages to save this show to some extent and is somewhat reminiscent of black lagoon which I also felt had great art, and it makes it somewhat watchable. The battles are given an added sense of spectacle by the art and despite the ridiculous proportions of the characters particularly Integra and Alucard.


Sound

The sound has some pretty good Gregorian and choral tracks that fit the Gothic mood of the series but it suffers from a basic problem many Japanese anime that are meant to be serious tend to suffer from. I'm not sure if it's a difference in music tastes but a lot of serious anime tend to have one or two tracks that off-put the balance of the shows mood by playing during scenes they shouldn't. It's strangely hard to explain but when you watch the anime and pay attention to the backing music you'll be able to spot it.

The other sound thing I had major issues with was the voice acting, which sounded like a high school stage play. The vocal work is overdone and lacks any clear emotion, or any emotion that is meant to be conveyed sounds so stiff that it's like listening to a child learning to read as they pronounce each sentence in turn. Honestly the vocal work was disappointing, but I don't blame the voice cast as much as the writers as they're the ones who came up with the ridiculous script for this show.

character

This is a show that heavily relies on its characters appearing to be bad-asses, unfortunately in the process they turn into self-obsessed psychopaths. This effectively numbs you to their suffering, which is meant to be traumatic but ultimately seems dull and forced on the audience who are expected to sympathise with a bunch of characters whose actions, dialogue and personalities are so ridiculously over the top that they become like parodies of themselves by half way through the show. The worst ones are Alucard and Integra, who both feel the need to explain every situation and revelation by mincing words and talking in general to the thin air (since most of the time no-one is listening) about figuring out what a persons reasons or intention for doing something is, however we never fully understand how she or he come to these revelations since they seem to come to them like a vision from Christ.The worst part is whenever Integra gives Alucard an order; she tends to give the order then give it again with different words then shout and repeat the order despite Alucard kneeling right in front of her; this ultimately makes her seem even more manly (not that I didn't wonder which gender she was through the first part of the series, since sometimes male characters are voiced by female seiyuu) and makes her seem like an idiot whose trying to look cool and sound cool, not that every character in the series isn't trying to do the same thing, but ultimately just sounds melodramatic, ridiculous and unnecessary.

bleach manages to make their characters look like bad asses without sacrificing their believability or integrity as a character so perhaps they should take a leaf out of their book.


Enjoyment

Usually for something like this I'd say it's a switch-off anime but for this anime the level of insanity and over the top ridiculousness will require you to switch off even more than usual, like go into a vegetative state switch off. Only then can you enjoy this anime truly. now saying that you can just watch the violence and spectacular fight scenes and just ignore the dialogue, if it isn't gnawing at your earlobes like a spider that's crept onto your pillow, then you might be able to get through all 8 episodes that are currently out. It would be easier if each episode was only 30 mins long because after about that long you start to wonder when it's going to end and you keep checking the play bar to see how much longer you have left. This series is tolerable at best.

Short and Sweet Review:

Hellsing Ultimate is an breathtaking OVA that deserves a 10/10. There are no needless emotional parts, or extensive plot lead-ups, etc. It is all badass action! In each of the episodes there is a “Boss” battle and that’s all we Hellsing fans need, right?
Alucard taking millions of bullets, and scaring the shit out anybody who dares approach him. 10/10 – better than the TV series.


If you did in fact find this review helpful, I do take value in my “Helpful” rating, so please take a moment of your time to tell me how you liked this review.

The Hellsing Ultimate OVA is the second anime adaptation of Kouta Hirano's manga, Hellsing. The first was done by Gonzo Studios and was widely panned by the fans, due in large part to huge deviations in story. The folks behind Hellsing Ultimate were likely critics of the older Hellsing series, as one of their main goals has been to stay as close to the source material's story as possible. However, it seems they forgot to have a look at what the Gonzo anime (and of course, the manga) did right - or perhaps, they did indeed look and see a wonderful cast ... of characters and a variety of interesting themes and decided that those things weren't quite as important as sex and violence.

Hellsing Ultimate's story does indeed follow the Hellsing manga's story very closely, even including frequent references to The Dawn, a Hellsing prequel that is presently incomplete. The problem is that Hellsing's story is definitely not its selling point. The story exists to prop up the themes in the series, and those themes have thus far been downplayed in favour of flashy gunfights and ridiculous amounts of extremely shiny blood. There are a few problems with the manga that translate to problems with the anime, and it's a pity that the Hellsing Ultimate staff decided not to take it upon themselves to close any of the gaping plot holes or remove the more insipid plot arcs.

The art is shiny, it is polished, it is in high colour and of high quality. So why only a 6? The first problem is that they seem to have a very difficult time drawing women. Integra looks decidedly mannish, with shoulders far broader than even the most hardcore 80s shoulderpads could ever hope to accomplish. Seras' shoulders, too, are often far too broad for her body, and her breasts only occasionally resemble breasts rather than alien growths in the chest region. The occasional use of CG is intrusive, poorly blended, and immediately obvious. Consistency errors across the board only worsen these problems, but all of that is nitpicking in comparison to the animation's worst flaw: static movement. The animation is often lacking in any actual animation. Characters rarely move while they speak, backgrounds zoom in and characters zoom out to create the illusion of motion, and the result is scenes that are often frustratingly still. Fight scenes are the obvious exception to the rule, and fight scenes getting the most attention is definitely a reoccuring theme in Hellsing Ultimate.

The sound is decent. The soundtrack pales in comparison to the Gonzo anime, and the OVA has taken it in a different direction. I don't think any of the tracks ever rise above the level of background music, which is fine, seeing as how that's their purpose. All the voice actors from the anime were brought back to reprise their roles in the OVA - on the bright side, that means quality performances from Alucard, Integra, Jan, and Walter. However, it also means having to suffer through Seras' terribly fake English accent.

The characters are rarely focused on in Hellsing Ultimate, which is a shame because they are extremely good characters when given the integrity and attention they deserve. Hellsing Ultimate gives them neither, reducing most to their simplest form: Seras is a timid sexpot, Alucard is "cool" and violent, and Integra is the mannish boss. Integra and Seras definitely bear the brunt of poor characterization, though I'm personally more inclined to attribute their degradation to good old fashioned sexism. Many of Integra's important lines that showcase her strength, determination and competence have been either handed off to unimportant male side-characters or omitted completely. Shots of Seras's breasts (excluding all else) are surprisingly frequent, and there is at least one occasion where, when beset by enemies, she apparently forgets that she is a killer vampire with a gigantic gun until after a horde of zombies have groped her and pried her legs apart. Mixing sex and violence is one thing Hellsing Ultimate has proved adept at, at least where the women in the series are involved. The sexual undertones present in the manga version of a particular female character's death have been amplified almost one hundred fold, and the result is a very disturbing, very deliberate, and of course very drawn-out eroticization of her death.

Character interaction has largely been cut, which is a shame as it is often exceptionally charming as well as necessary to make Hellsing something more than just a bloodbath. Scenes in which the characters do interact are taken almost directly from the manga. Hellsing Ultimate doesn't bother to embellish or elaborate where characters are concerned, again preferring to pump time, energy and money into making each fight scene gorier than the last.

The overall result is, unfortunately, another disappointing Hellsing title. It's fine - perhaps a great deal more than fine - if what attracts you to a series is blood and guts and breasts, but if that's the case then you're probably barely post-pubescent. Otherwise, it's a pretty sorry adaptation of the manga, which, though flawed, has something to offer other than wanton violence. The OVA isn't over yet, but I'm certainly not holding out any hope.

Hellsing Ultimate is not Hellsing TV. Better/worse is for the reader to decide, but the two series have completely different feels.

Story:
Hellsing Ultimate follows the interplay between the Vampire hunting Hellsing organization and the monsters that it pursues. Hellsing's primary tool of destruction is the vampire Alucard (Dracula backwards) and his servant the Draculina Seras Victoria. The story progresses throughout the 40 minute episodes at breakneck pace, moving right from one conflict to setting up the next. If you're the type who digs that kind of non-stop bad-ass action, you'll love the OVAs. That said, because it all moves so fast, ... delving into the really intriguing characters of the Hellsing universe had to be put to the wayside. Furthermore, the concepts in the story aren't entirely novel, and the plot doesn't build the way that a really well-told anime's does. Yet, in the end there's nothing to really complain about. The story is the sequence of fights tied together. The plot is coherent, just not fully explored.

Art:
The animation in this series is wonderfully executed, especially when compared to its precursor Hellsing TV. The jerky, darkly animated fights, twisted expressions, and horrific manifestations of evil make the non-stop action that much more exciting. The art really captures the feel of the Hellsing universe wonderfully.

Sound:
Sound effects in Hellsing Ultimate is executed superbly, the bass of the gunfire is first class, voice acting and other sound effects meet the same standard of excellence set by the TV series (voice actors are the same). That said, I think that the soundtrack leaves something to be desired, possibly because there wasn't much room for lengthy overtures in a series without any pauses.

Character:
The lack of development of the great characters in the Hellsing universe is my biggest disappointment in Hellsing Ultimate. Though Alucard gets his role in the spotlight as the incredibly powerful vampire that he is, the consistency and attractiveness of Integra and especially Seras is lost in the series, which is a huge shame, especially since Seras' understanding of what it means to be a vampire is my favourite thing about Hellsing. However, if you judge characters' quality by how much butt they kick, then Alucard will not disappoint.

Enjoyment:
I liked Hellsing Ultimate a lot, but I think I would have really disliked it had I not already seen Hellsing TV previously. The TV series acquaints you with the universe and characters more eloquently than the OVA does. The OVA, on the other hand, provides the story continuity that you long for when watching the TV series. I think that for full enjoyment, Hellsing Ultimate should follow Hellsing TV, with a bit of distance in between the two so it doesn't feel like you're rewatching a trimmed version of the TV series in the first two episodes of the OVA, because they are anything but that.

Overall:
Hellsing Ultimate is an action anime about a vampire hunting other vampires. The universe that it explores is rich and rewarding to experience, inhabited by a swath of remarkable characters. In order to appreciate those characters fully, however, I recommend first watching Hellsing TV and then: dissatisfied with the story presented there, come to Hellsing Ultimate for the real thing. Hellsing TV is about what it means to discover and possess power; Hellsing Ultimate is the telling of the story of that power.

I'll keep it sorta brief: this series was pretty shitty. When I started watching it years ago, I thought it was one of the coolest things I ever saw. That gradually shifted to "What's going on in this story?" and later "Why am I even watching this?"

- - - Story - - -
They made it seem like there's a story at first, but it's pretty much a lie. They start running out of ideas, so they throw in some necrophelia and boy rape. Really... just why? The ending is about as anti-climactic as possible, especially Alucard's final role. Did they really have to use such ... a shallow and disposable character to drag him off the stage so easily?

- - - Art - - -
It's distinct and well animated. The earlier fight scenes are especially cool, but they feel kinda dull later on. Occasional "humourous" scenes look like complete shit.

- - - Sound - - -
Some of the songs are cool, some aren't.

- - - Characters - - -
There's very little character development. Some of the characters stand around looking cool before they inevitably get killed off like the garbage they are. I felt no attachment to any of the characters.

- - - Enjoyment - - -
After years of waiting, I feel pretty cheated. This used to feel more exciting to watch, but by the end it all just feels pointless. The later episodes just feel nonsensical and boring, really. I used to recommend this to people, but I'll never do that again.

Hellsing Ultimate is the definition of badass. From the over-the-top characters to the insane plot to the violent, blood-spewing fights, it is the disregard of all that is holy and possibly the most intense, balls-to-the-wall anime ever made. It’s also the epitome of style over substance, featuring some of the best animation of any series to date, superb voice acting, and a fine soundtrack, but little in terms of plot or character development. It’s Michael Bay doing an anime about Nazi vampires. It’s Japan’s answer to Hellboy. In short, it’s an exquisitely done pure action/horror, but not much else.

The story starts out with a lot ... of potential. The premise is great, and for the first 4 or 5 episodes there’s a perfect mix of character intros, action-packed fights, and plot revelations to keep you glued to the screen. Alucard quickly reveals himself to be an unstoppable maniac constrained only by his loyalty to Hellsing, Seras struggles with the loss of her humanity and acquisition of her new power, and Hellsing tries to uncover the mystery behind the rise in vampire attacks, Iscariot’s aggression, and the Millennium organization.

Unfortunately once these mysteries are unraveled, the plot becomes little more than a series of battles and an endless supply of blood and gore. Although there’s a last ditch effort to infuse it with some substance — a minor twist without much subtext, the revelation of Alucard’s past, and some half-hearted philosophy about monsters and humans — I couldn’t help but look back and think, “That was fun, but what was the point?” Like the Millennium organization, the essence of Hellsing Ultimate is war for the sake of war, and not much else.

Despite lacking much of a plot, there’s no denying the show is a lot of fun. Much of this is due to the fantastic cast, which features some big personalities. The stylish Alucard breaches the divide between human and monster and revels in destroying his enemies. The cool and collected Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing is every bit as elegant as her name suggests and makes the call to unleash Alucard on Britain’s enemies. And the mad scientist Major is the embodiment of evil, a man whose purpose is the total absence of purpose. This only scratches the surface, with other standouts including Father Anderson, Walter, Seras, and the Major’s various minions. If nothing else, Kota Hirano deserves credit for bringing such a diverse and extraordinary cast to life. The series also boasts some great lines that will leave you grinning from ear to ear, such as “I highly recommend pissing yourself, followed by a course of praying to your impotent God.” The Major in particular has some of the best dialogue from a villain in any series.

Hellsing Ultimate also has some of the best animation around — gorgeous and freely experimental, with a wonderful manipulation of lighting, color, 3D effects, and bold outlines of characters to make it feel like a rich comic book brought to life. The series does everything right on this front, but especially excels in its facial designs and copious but creative use of blood. My sole complaint has to be that, amidst all of this breathtaking art and maturity, we occasionally get tacky, humor-themed scenes that feel like they’re out of Fullmetal Alchemist. This style is usually only 20 or 30 seconds long, but in the last episode it goes on for some 5 minutes and really detracts from the atmosphere.

On audio, the soundtrack is pretty good and fits the show perfectly, a mix of tracks that feel like they’re straight out of a 70′s horror flick and some ornate religious themes. Compared to the original Hellsing soundtrack, this one is definitely more toned down and sounds more like the score of a movie than an anime OST. Some might say it lacks the same soul, others will love it, and in any event, it does a fine job. The voice cast is top notch, featuring most of the actors from the original series, with notable roles from Crispin Freeman as Alucard and Steven Brand as Anderson.

I enjoyed Hellsing Ultimate and consider it a keeper, but I also think it receives far more praise than it deserves. It certainly accomplishes what it sets out to do, but it helps that it doesn’t set out to do much. While the series should be commended for satiating the appetites of action lovers and demonstrating the full potential of animation, those who prefer a story with much depth or complexity will probably have trouble seeing what the big deal is.

If there's one word to sum up Hellsing Ultimate, it's 'Style'. The art is gorgeous. The animation is fluid. The fight scenes are well executed with with lots of gore and body parts (as you'd hope for in an adult series about vampires), trash talk, and cool poses, and the imagery is breathtaking.

What Hellsing doesn't have is much of is everything else that makes for a good anime, beginning with a plot that starts and ends in 5 words: 'Undead Nazis bent on world domination'.

While the character designs are super intriguing and make the viewers want to learn more about them, they are wasted ... as there is literally no time devoted to exploring the backstories or motivations of interesting supporting characters such as 'Walter, the Angel of Death', 'Schrodinger' and 'Van Winkle'. This is why when there is a plot twist in the latter half of the series, the impact is lost because you don't really understand why the guy was motivated to act one way or the other.

Even the main characters aren't spared from this lack of characterisation. You never find out what happened between Alucard and the original Hellsing which lead to their contract, you never find out anything about his seal restrictions, you don't know what drives Alucard to do what he does. You don't even find out why he's such a badass vampire with a million more abilities than other vampires. He's just an enigmatic badass with no weaknesses, which makes for a boring one-dimensional character.

Our other main character, Integra, suffers the same fate. As far as I can tell, after some childhood trauma, she becomes a badass with a loud bark but not much bite to back it up and has about as much personality as the cigars she chain-smokes.

From various parts of the story, you get the sense that there is some world-building going on behind the scenes, but it is, again, never fleshed out. What are these other special powers which are not Vampire/Ghoul related? I want to know about the Werewolves. I want to know more about how the Catholic Church trains its paladins and the centuries long rivalry between Alexander Anderson and Alucard. Who was Van Winkle and her magic gun? What about that card dude? Is there some special school of magic which is separate from the Church and the Undead?

Hellsing starts off promisingly but decides to crank the meter up to 10 on badassery, cool art and visuals and forget everything else like plot and characterisation. In its defense though, its cool visuals managed to carry me, a disengaged viewer, through all 10 episodes, so there's that at least.

Overall, I would not recommend Hellsing Ultimate UNLESS you love shounen battle-type anime like Naruto or you just want something with a simple plot and nice fights to unwind.

If you're looking for a full-fledged fast-paced non-stop adrenaline pumped action anime (comparable to action movies like Die Hard or Crank (not story wise or anything just pace-ish)). Then you can stop looking, this is it, the ultimate action anime. Badass protagonists, lots BIG guns, wannabe super-villains who get their asses kicked, zombies, vampires, nazis (possibly a Indiana Jones homage, lol?) and spice it up with a little humor between the action scenes (are there other kind of scenes in this anime?).

Great, if you're looking for an anime for entertainment and willing to overlook the fact that there is no character progression at all and ... that the story is horrible. Basicly they skipped the story and extracted (and greatly improved) only the action scenes from Hellsing TV, later on it starts to shoot off though, but the story is still tremendously bad. It completely lacked lacked the criterias for a "superb" or "masterpiece" anime, that is in my educated opinion; thought-provoking, plot- or character-driven anime. But it wasn't trying to be anything like that. This anime is none other than pure entertainment. So shut off your brain and enjoy.

Following my conflicted experience with Hellsing TV, I stumbled onto Studio Madhouse efforts into creating an anime that follows the source material of its manga to a much closer degree. Instead of a standard weekly airing schedule, Madhouse decided to go with releasing a total of ten OVAs over an agonizing long six years. In doing so, they have rectify most of the problems that marred the potential of Gonzo's effort.

While the first two OVAs are fairly straight-forward rehashed material from the original Hellsing, the remaining eight volumes goes off on a completely awesome and different tangent. Gone are the half-baked storylines ... and in their place, is the plot and every single subplot coming to a definitive conclusion by the time the final volume rolls around. Adding on to the main antagonist that is the Catholic Church, Nazis, of all people, have come back to wreck some occult vengeance with their own brand vampires, werewolves and abominations that soon engulfs the island nation of Britain into a state of war.

The thing I love most about the Hellsing Ultimate is that it takes itself so seriously with its notions of holy crusades, genocide, and grand ambitions of power and warfare. Yet, at the same time, it has some of the most over-the-top and ridiculous setups I have ever seen, having zeppelins, KKK outfits and Nazi vampires all mingling together in a climactic battle worthy of the Apocalypse itself. In the world of Hellsing, everything is black and white with no ambiguity in where characters stand. It is simply a matter of kill or be killed. The villains are no exception to that rule, that are none too subtle about their powers or motivation and offer some of the most unforgettable performances in the animated medium.

If you have watched the original show, the three main leads of Alucard, Intrga and Seras should be familiar to the audience but there are few key differences. With much more screen time to explore their relationship with each other and the stakes being so much higher, these three form deeper bonds than their previous versions. Also, power levels, in reference to Alucard and Seras, are exponentially increased to reflect this change in the amplified severity of their opposition. One change that I found to be hit or miss, was the addition of humorous elements placed in juxtaposition to some very serious and forbearing scenes, which could be jarring at times.

Under Studio Madhouse, which is well-known for high quality series like Black Lagoon and Redline, Hellsing Ultimate is noticeably different in its visual style and quality from the TV adaptation. The colors are much more highly contrasted and character designs have gotten angular, which is something I can live with but I do prefer the TV's style over Ultimate's direction. One thing is objectively better, and that is that the animation is top-notch and no expense were spared in handcrafting some truly titanic showdowns

For all the improvements that Ultimate has over Gonzo's effort, the OVA's music doesn't hold a candle to the quality and style of the TV adaptation. It ranges from orchestral pieces, that depicts the epic and dramatic moments, with mixed in electronic sounds. There were some moments where the music choice for some scenes that was downright bizarre and just didn't work out at all for me. If there is one thing that I wish I could change about the Ultimate version, it would be importing the music from Gonzo's production to cover up the awkward soundtrack. This area is, by far, largest aspect that is notably weaker in the transition to Studio Madhouse.

With a giant budget and a ridiculously long release schedule, Hellsing Ultimate, despite some minor gripes, is the definitive version to be watching Alucard, a real fucking vampire, go through one of the best supernatural shows that anime has to offer.

8.5/10

Hellsing Ultimate has everything you want and expect from a vampire series revolving around the greatest vampire of them all: Dracula. Only in this series we know him under the name of Alucard. This show is rated R for a reason, a bloody good reason. It contains blood, gore, big breasted female leads and even more blood.

The story is about a secret organization within the British Government, named Hellsing, who takes care of any supernatural beings that is not supposed to roam this earth. It is run by Integra Wingate, whom has a butler with the nickname "Angel of Death". This should tell the viewers ... enough about the rest of the story: A complete battlefield with multiple parties: The Hellsing organization, The Millennium organization run by the Nazi's who have a complete army of Ghouls and Section 13 of the Vatican, who also kills off any supernatural beings. Including 'pet' vampires that go by the name of Alucard. This three way war is waged in the streets of London, which is soon burnt to the ground.

There is not much character development in the series, but this series needs none. Alucard is the protagonist and by no means the 'hero' of the story. He has absolutely no morals and enjoys stripping even the smallest shard of dignity from his victims before he decimates them.
The one who is in charge of Alucard, the head of the Hellsing organization is Integra, whom we do not really get to know other then the cigar chain-smoker. You also have Seras Victoria, a girl who is transformed into a vampire at the start of the series. The antagonist is the Major, a war loving manic who seems quite the nice guy when you meet him first.

The art and sounds are just great. You have a lot of nice quotes about 'var' from the Major while you enjoy watching perfectly executed executions of people and beings that die in the most exquisite ways.

All of these things combine into what a vampire series should stand for: Blood, gore and even more blood. Like I said before, it is rated R for a reason. And you should watch it for that same bloody reason!

This anime has the perfect combination of awfull characters, terrible history and lots of unecessary exagerated graphic violence, but i guess this is more than okay to many people, because they just want to see some people gettin killed in horrible ways. hellsing isjust unpleasent to see. i know this gore caracterizes the anime because of it's premisse but it's just terrible and exagerated. the premisse is just awfull, both the nazi side is totally diferent from real nazi and the christian side is just moved by religious fanatism. the characters as well are tottaly awfull with rare excessions like victoria, sir penwood and ... bernadotte, the worst being alucard, they have no purpose at all and are just sadic pride moved monsters. i thought nothing could be worse than hellsing, but hellsing ultimate proven me wrong starting just by the fact that the whole anime could have been over just by alucard's existance. it's not even a battle anime, it's a massacre.
and that's it. if you don't like anime just for blood and horrible gore scenes don't watch hellsing ultimate, and if you do like those things you might have some problems friend. Sorry for my bad english (i'm brazilian) and thanks for reading.

Hellsing Ultimate is by far one of my favorite animes I've seen. It has so much to offer and keeps you on the edge of the seat. Hellsing Ultimate is the OVA based off the 13 episode tv series but you don't really need to see the tv series to understand this which is one thing I like about it.

The story is full of action with what seems like constant gun draws and fighting and I like that. Now if you have seen the tv series before this you will notice that this goes a bit faster than the tv series so ... that may or may not annoy you. For me it seemed more like a recap at the beginning of an episode but technically it's not. Also this time around they added some humor, mostly with Seras delivering the joke and I thought it was nice to have a little bit of humor after a bunch of shooting. The story is kind of hard to review since there is so much action but I promise you it's there.

The art style of this impressed me so much. I love the colors and the way things flow. I'm even more pleased with the way Seras was drawn in this since I thought she was poorly drawn in the tv series. The way the characters are drawn really show their personality and who they are. So yes I am very pleased with the art style.

Now as for sound, I watched the first 3 episodes in dub and the 4th one in sub so I'm going to comment more on the dub. I'm only pleased with 1 of the dubbed voices. Alucard's. Crispin Freeman does a fabulous job as Alucard and upon hearing his other work as Kyon in Haruhi and Itachi in Naruto, I was very amazed and suprised by how well he potrayed Alucard. All the other character's dubbed voices I didn't like so much. Especially, Anderson's. I wasn't expecting him to speak with an Irish accent after hearing his Japanese voice. XD Now as always, the Japanese voices were very good. And the music, well I can honestly say I don't remember what the music sounded like...but I'm sure it was good.

The characters were awesome. Alucard is my favorite and there are so many reasons as to why he is so cool. But overall, the characters each packed their own punch and I think, delivered it well.

Enjoyment. I indeed enjoyed this anime so much. I love how their was so much action and how it was also somewhat funny. The characters were all great, the art style was wonderful, so yeah, I'm pretty sure I enjoyed this anime. The one thing that I do have to complain about is the 8 month or so wait in between each episode. I mean come on! They can't leave me hanging for that long. At least when the next episode airs, I can sit and enjoy a full hours worth of Hellsing rather than 30 minutes. XD Hellsing Ultimate has so much to offer and more. And considering this to be my first vampire anime, I can walk away with a good impression of vampire animes. Hellsing Ultimate gets a 10.