Hellsing Ultimate

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.

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.

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.

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 a title I remember looking so forward to years ago when I first heard about it, and just about as fast as it piqued my interest upon initial viewing, it sent my expectations crashing down into a ball of flames. In truth, this is one anime I had dropped over a year ago and didn't regret too much doing it. I decided to come back into it very recently through a fresh take and finally finish it. For the most part I wish that my time was better invested somewhere else. Hellsing Ultimate indeed has plenty of tools to become one ... of the best action anime in a very long time, as well as being the very best vampire anime to ever be done. Unfortunately, it falls way too short resulting in an experience that will be remembered by me for all the wrong reasons.

The plot follows the Hellsing Organization which is lead by Integra Wingates Hellsing. The group's purpose is to encounter and destroy supernatural threats such as vampires and ghouls, while at the same time work under a tight blanket of security keeping these threats under wraps. Her weapon is a very powerful vampire under her complete control named Alucard. They conduct seek and destroy missions against the creatures. Later on, another outfit whom appears to be creating the creatures declares war on Hellsing, in which this drags Europe into the fray.

Hellsing Ultimate sure as hell knows how to wrap in the action oriented fan from go. It's a series that revels in its over the top graphic violence. The viewer is treated to one blood bath after the other. There are no punches pulled when it comes down to the violence. The action is provided through fierce battles resulting in exploding heads and bodily destruction. The battles mainly consist of shoot outs and chomp fest. Alucard also engages in brutal battles with other powerful types with blood crawling results. The violence only escalates as the series moves on with the best of chaos taking place between episodes 5-8 and especially 2; I mean good lord, this anime indeed knows how to shock with the mayhem.

I can't commend this series enough on its violent presentation. This world is hell, war is hell, and the characters are a reflection of this hell. At the very least one will get to understand the motivations of key characters such as the main antagonist whom calls himself The Major, along with the fanatical Father Anderson. Several characters do receive some focus and there are plenty of interactions that could have been better but along with the anime's atmosphere, they are outright wrecked by one glaring flaw, the misplaced comedy, I'll get on this in a bit.

The production values for this anime is quite impressive and it remained at a very high quality through out its complete duration. Visually, I will say it's on point as it blends CG animation with 3D and 2D effortlessly; there weren't many corners cut in regards to the backgrounds. They have a certain darkness to them with a nice amount of lighting and vibrant colors. The camera work is done exceptionally well capturing the quick paced movements, which is very necessary since some of the characters attempt to move in a blur in order to get to their enemies. The animation flows naturally like water without the slightest bit of jumpiness. The artwork is another highlight; Alucard is awesome especially in his supernatural form among others. There are also smaller details that can go unnoticed like writing on weapons and variety in zombie hordes.

The character designs look great with a heavy manga style to them with a dark outline. The sound effects need to be mentioned as well; gun fire sounds quite authentic, and simple effects such as squishing steps in pools of blood and bones being broken stand out. The English voice acting is superb with plenty of fine performances.

Now it's time to address Hellsing Ultimate's kryptonite because this indeed weakens the series as a complete whole, resulting in it becoming quite frustrating to sit through. Those out there whom have hit on the misplaced comedy really aren't exaggerating on how annoying it is.

The series heavily forces in highly exaggerated comedy with its dark content, and it clashes terribly like no other anime I have ever seen. I'm for real here, the comedic shifts are hauled into this anime kicking and screaming. Hellsing Ultimate had potential to be among the darkest anime series out there. The content is indeed disturbing so there's no need for this animated graffiti. There's a scene where a vampire has a dead infant in its mouth appearing to bite the baby in two, and this is during an all out mauling of the populace. I'm sure this sounds disturbing to most. Now take a look at how the very grim atmosphere is ruined; try to imagine witnessing comedic moments that could easily fit into Sponge Bob cartoons, such as highly deformed characters with big smiley faces and puffs of angry smoke shooting out their noses, with overly angry squinty eyes to try and make you laugh. This is totally unacceptable for an anime of this type, where you will witness a dead chick getting raped by a guy with a fork in his eye, and there are plenty of moments such as these. The comedy damages everything: character's images, atmosphere, tense interactions, and even its setting.

This series is also heavily hampered by some bad pacing and over-acting. There can be far too much dialog delivered at one time slowing things down to a crawl, to include some fights are too drawn out for the sake of time munching and this also grows annoying. I gave credit to the voice acting, but around mid way some individuals were straight hamming it up, and the tension was outright killed by straight up ego masturbating.

Hellsing Ultimate really could have been one of the greatest action anime titles ever, but it was hurt by a writing team that wanted to appeal to a fan base whom was better off ignored. I personally believe that the comedy is a make or break for viewers. If you're one of those types whom outright despise tonal whiplash then definitely skip this series. If you can ignore that then go ahead and give it a shot because you'll more than likely love this. It's not that I violently hate comedy in action or serious anime, but there are certain styles and settings where this type of puerile comedy is far more harmful, and Hellsing Ultimate is one of these types.

Highs: Production values, loads of barbaric violence, cool main character

Lows: Tonal whiplash is quite devastating, pacing problems

Beautiful production value, abysmal storytelling. Hellsing Ultimate mistakes verbosity for charisma, exposition for characterization, violence for depth, and its audience for children.

This show has two formulas for crafting scenes. The first uses long, drawn out dialogue. The second uses actions scenes with gratuitous violence. Regarding the first, the writer has clearly never heard the storytelling axiom "show, don't tell". Every plot twist, every personal motivation of every character, they're all shoved down your throat with as many words as possible. Nothing is left to the imagination, and that's just when the dialogue is serving a purpose. More often, it's pseudo-philosophical filler to remind us ... how edgy the characters are.

Even without their monologues, the characters alone are a huge barrier to enjoying the show. Everyone in the show is larger than life, and the world they inhabit is insane. Naturally, so are they (a fact demonstrated by the same joker smile almost every character wears). As such, the audience can't relate to any of them by default. Actually, there is one character with potential: Seras Victoria, a girl bitten by Alucard and made into his servant in the first episode. Here is a normal human thrown into an underworld of insanity, given a bloodthirst and powers beyond her comprehension. The show could have easily made her the voice of reason. It could have shown her struggle to come to terms with her new reality, and have her act as audience's mouthpiece. Instead, they turn her into her the butt end of a few jokes while she obsesses over the men in her life.

Not only are the characters unrelatable, but it's hard to even root for them. The Hellsing group are handed more power-ups than the heroes of a bad mecha anime, and their enemies never stand a chance in battle. With such weak characterization, the plot twists just don't matter because a) you don't care about the characters and b) you already know they will have an answer for whatever is thrown at them.

The show does pose some interesting questions. How did the antagonists develop their vampire tech? How was Alacard bound by the Hellsing family? What is the relationship between human identity and mortality? What is the value of religion in a world with monsters, or the nature of the soul as a consumable resource?

The first question is explained away in the final scenes using a deus ex machina. The latter are never actually explored, only affirmed as questions posed. In the hands of a more capable writer, this show might have had a lot of potential. As it stands however, it's all beauty and no brains.

I value a good story and I hate wastefulness of precious things... 'Hellsing Ultimate' has an awfully boring story and a waste of talents and recourse, therefore, I absolutely despise it and disgusted by its pure existences.

I dropped this anime after the 9th episode so I did not technically finished it but I believe if it is bad for the first 90% there is no saving it for just 1 last episode, so I valued my time and sanity so I drop it.

Key words: Greet visual and sound tracks; weak writing/directing with action piece here and there together; badly inserted comical reliefs; zero character developments ... for all characters + melodramas to all characters; cringe to the teeth...

Visual & Sound tracks (9 out of 10):
Everyone was attracted to this anime by seen a screenshot or watched an action scene online, and the anime doesn't disappoint. The outstanding arts and smooth choreograph/Sakuga + camera work for fight scenes companies with the over head song tracks is god tier, it creates a stylish dark gothic atmosphere perfectly. I can tell there is an insane budget went into the animation. All episodes has a 45 to 50 min OVA style runtime which is rare in this days, also non of the episodes has opening and all episodes has a gorgeous and unique ending with unique sound tracks to pair with (I'm guilty to skip it after a point into the show cuz I'm too bored and really want to be done with this anime).

Writing/directing (3 out of 10)
The writing/directing for this OVA is just down right bad. The stuffs working on the anime seems ok have a few named work under their belt probably the high anticipation and high production cost might limited their creative freedom but there is no excuse can save this trainwreck disaster they putted together to call a story. First of all, I'm not a manga reader and this OVA is the only 'Hellsing' content I have consumed so I have no other sources to backup the story this anime tried to tell. The story is stupid and the characters are stupid which is not the killer since the action is the one matter here but it still manage to screw it up and shut your brain a 100% off is not enough to enjoy this anime. Unlike the other successful all action no brain cell anime with the structure of 'plot-action-action-action-plot' rinse and repeat, Hellsing OVA on the other voice goes hard on explaining the plots in a 'filler-plot-action-explaining plot-filler' structure. I guess they don't have the screen time to put the actual stories in, and they are not talented enough to trim the plots to fit in the story so they decided to explaining it which made the already lackluster plots even more stupid and they kept explaining more on be half of their stupidity. To me they start building the story on first episode, expanding it to the end of the third episode, and it started to fallen apart in the fourth episode, after the end of the fifth episode I just couldn't give a shit anymore.
Hellsing is an edgy show and means to be an edgy/serious show but the production of the OVA is too afraid to embrace the edginess which leaves only the cringe and awkward behinds. From my understanding the production team wants the show market as ''an anime for adults'' so every time when tension starts to build up and viewer immersed into a shonan energy waiting the fight to happen then "sike!! comical relief!" a comical relief (in completely different children crayon drawing art style) is being forcefully inserted in the middle or beginning of the fight which breaks every tension they have build and 'making fun of its own 'seriousness/edginess'', so how can viewer take the rest of story or fight seriously (hours of siting through stupid explanation and villain speeches for nothing) if the production cannot even takes their work seriously... "lol, edgy is cringe right? haha". Edgy is not cringe but 'Hellsing OVA' is very cringe indeed.

Characters (4 out of 10):
-Ok main (Alucard): the only reason why he is ok it is because he is a super vampire with a mysteries pass, unpredictable/mysteries characteristic, and over the top yet mysteries super power. Yes he means to be mysteries so lack of additional info other than who he is right now does not really impact his character building. But why he is just an ok character? because there are brief character backgrounds show up during the 8th and 9th episode, bad development is worst than absence of development but at least it is good that they are brief...
-Mediocre secondary main (Seras): I believe Seras is the only character in this anime has her own character developments during the story while the rest of the casts start as who they were and ended as who they were with only their passes shaped who they were. As a only normal person and the new member to a secret society she is only character doesn't need a explanation of her pass but the writer did it anyway and it is bad but really short that I just remembered it existed until now when I'm writing it. I still wish she is the protagonist instead because as one of the few developed 'character' she is served as a plot device as all the others a lot of questionable behaviors and out of place decisions got inserted to her which made her character fallen apart...
-Bad main supports (Integra, Alexander): Most of dramas started and involved around Integra; Alexander who contributed the best fight scenes and the only one equally as powerful (not) as the main protagonist. Other than that they are just as ignorable and boring as the rest of support...
-Awful main villain (Major): give him ALL the villain traits without any depth and character developments; what makes a villain even 'bad-er' by make him a NAZI; just in case the viewers still don't get it he is the villain give him a 5 mins villain speech for EVERY time he shows up...
-Meaningless supports (the rest of cast with their own melodramas): what are they doing? why are they here? and who even are they?

Overall enjoyment (4 of of 10): The gorgeous arts and choregraphs cannot save the show from the incompetent writing.

I hope someone can make a super cut version that deletes all villain speeches, plot explaining, and even some of the plots, and comical reliefs(to be fair there is one comical relief in the museum scene was used really good that I can still remember); makes the episode 10~20 min shorter and episode 4 to 5 episode lesser, basically remove all the screwed up part by the talentless writing making it an real OVA, only in this way the show can achieve the potential it deserved.

Generally Hellsing Ultimate is considered the superior version of the Hellsing animes since it sticks closer to the manga. Personally, I find both series to be on a similar level and was not impressed by either.

In terms of the story, the both series share a similar beginning. However, Ultimate quickly branches off into it's own territory. This time the plot focusses on Millenium vs the Vatican vs the Hellsing Organisation. Sadly, there isn't much plot development after the first few episodes. Instead, Hellsing Ultimate becomes a battle royale full of gore and violence. Now, there is nothing wrong with gore or violence, however Ultimate does ... not make it feel at any point that a main character's life was in danger, removing any tension from the battles. Things just move predictably.

What Hellsing Ultimate does do fairly well is it's sound and art. There's a real gothic feel to everything from the very first scene. This is a decent improvement from the original Hellsing series. But there isn't much else worth noting. The character designs are the same as before and the action scenes are carried out in a similar manner. As expected, they did emphasise the violence and gore though.

The characters themselves aren't given any depth in Ultimate. While there are some backstories for a few of the main characters, nothing is fleshed out enough to provide multiple aspects to a character. The characters aren't consistent either. They will flip-flop between completely contrasting emotions for no reason. This makes it incredibly difficult to decribe any character. For example, Integra would one moment be incredibly frightened, then the next she'd be confident that she's going to win the fight even though nothing in the situation changed and no memory or thought prompted her. It reminded me of the basic shonen (I CAN WIN, no I can't, YES I CAN, no I can't etc). Then there's Alucard, the main draw for the show. Seeing as he's invincible and there's no real rules restricting his powers, it turns his character from being something interesting to being a dull overpowered antihero. The main enemy, the leader of Millenium, is almost laughable in how ridiculous he is. It's hard to take him seriously at all. Seras and Alexander Anderson have potential to be great characters, but they're pushed into the background after the first few episodes.


The level of storytelling in Hellsing Ultimate seems like something that would be aimed at kids. But with the R rating, they're clearly trying to aim this at adults. So with that in mind, it's very hard to recommend this anime to anyone unless you only want to see mindless violence. But even then, the violence isn't special. It's a shame because the premise for Hellsing Ultimate is great but it falls short of it's potential.

Hellsing is a manga that ran from the late 90s to the late 00s. It was the brain child of Hirano Kouta, the same guy behind Drifters. The original anime ran in the early 00s. The re-telling, which we're looking at today, aired from the mid 00s to early 10s. And it was worked on by Satelight, Madhouse & Graphinica. Let's take a look and see what happens.

Story:

We open with the young heiress to the Hellsing family retreating from her uncle and his thugs. She makes her way to the basement where her father hid a secret weapon. That's the vampire, Alucard. Totally not related to ... the world's most famous vampire. Just don't write the name out and look at it in a mirror. In any case, we cut to Totally not Dracula being sent to a small village where a vampire's in the process of turning everyone into ghouls. Vampires in this series can't be bothered with a masquerade or subtlety in general. If you wanted vampires who moved cautiously and intelligently you'd be watching Shiki. Alucard slaughters everything and turns the last survivor, Seras Victoria, into a vampire. Things progress from there as various threats move against Hellsing and them. 

The biggest issue with this series is that it's largely made up of mindless, over the top action sequences. Here are some evil vampires, action. Here are some Nazis, action. Here are some Catholic Zealots, action. It never takes time to let us really get to know our major characters or have some down time. Instead we go from more mild action segments to more extreme ones. What little e get for non-action scenes is either set up for the next series of action sequences or poor attempts at humour where the characters weapons talk to them as celebrity figures or some such nonsense.
Ultimately, that doesn't give any real incentive to give a shit about the characters or what they're doing because the focus is squarely on the spectacle. 

There are some more minor issues. The series is set mostly in London or other parts of the UK but the cars aren't designed with the driver's seat on the proper side for that area and all the cops are seen with guns. Now, if you're American or Hirano this might surprise you, but police in the UK largely don't carry guns. At all. It's like he watched a bunch of American media and decided that the cultural stuff was probably close enough to the UK that he didn't need to actually learn anything about the UK. This is also a series that loves to throw in references to sexual assault but clearly has no intention of doing anything with them. Almost like Hirano wants to be a bit edgy but doesn't have the writing skills to handle that type of content in any type of reasonable fashion. 

With all that being said, the series isn't badly written. It's a bit like an inferior version of Karas where we've seen the whole plot before and better executed but the big spectacle bits can still be amusing. Because it is always cathartic to see Nazis get destroyed. 

Characters:

This is part of the issue with the series. The characters aren't that interesting. We have our over-powered protagonist. Our action girl sidekick. The leader and a bunch of other very stock characters. The only reason we really have to root for them is that they're fighting Nazis and Zealots. Which is a clever choice on Hirano's part, actually. Make the villains part of groups where you don't need to do any real work to give them motivations because you can just make them antagonists and no one will care because they're just natural villains. And that is kind of a necessity with this series because our protagonist is a literal monster. 

Art:

I'll give these three studios credit, the visual aesthetic looks pretty much the same throughout with the only real changes being the comedic scenes where they toss in artwork that looks like trash just to make it painfully obvious that it's a joke. Actually, Drifters did the same thing. Last week I gave Kakurenbo credit for not being one of those series that throws buckets of blood at you and just comes across as over the top and kind of stupid. This week we have the counter-example. Hellsing loves its excessive blood. Every time we see someone fatally wounded it just gushes out like they've got a pressurised hose in their bodies that just got pierced. 

I honestly don't get that. Why do so many action-oriented things just toss in massive amounts of blood to the point where it loses any potential impact it might have had? Are there people who think the blood fountain thing looks cool? Is it that the violence is so excessive they think that they have to go over the top and unrealistic enough with it to avoid grossing people out? Is it just one of those tropes that got started with something popular and has been mindlessly parroted since? I haven't the foggiest. 

Sound:

They got some strong actors for this. Our completely ordinary vampire citizen "hero" is voiced by Nakata Jouji. So, not the first time I've reviewed an anime where he was a Count. Our other main characters are voiced by Orikasa Fumiko & Mizuhashi Kaori. Both of whom have a long list of strong performances. And, while this may not be among their best, they still do a fine job. Especially given how little they have to work with. Matsuo Hayato's score is pretty good.

Ho-yay:

There's a scene of Integra feeding Seras that's a bit homo-erotic. And Not Dracula calls another man beautiful at one point. So, there's a small amount. 

Final Thoughts:

In the end, this isn't a series for me. The emphasis on mindless, overblown violence isn't something that appeals to me and, as a result, all the dumb bits are just grating. Maybe this will be one for you if you just want to see lots of blood and violence and you don't particularly care whether or not your protagonist is ever legitimately challenged. For myself, I have to give it a 4/10. While I didn't think it was bad per se, I did find it weak.

It's easy to see why Hellsing Ultimate is popular. Psychotically grinning vampire antihero? Check. Target rich environment? Check. More mirrored shades than an Elton John impersonator convention? Check.

Note that popularity and quality are not necessarily synonymous. The story – so far as I could stand it – lacks anything beyond a rudimentary testicle-driven plot, things seem to happen "because blood," details conveyed via atrociously expository monologuing prove immediately inconsistent, and Catholicism is portrayed as basically being about psychopaths running around expressing their Kefka-like hatred through over-the-top sadistic violence. Which might actually be accurate, I suppose, if the ... stories about the nuns who teach Catholic school are true.

Imagine a Magikarp vs Magikarp match. This is the gripping drama of a grand battle between two unkillable adversaries. "Arucard, use Blood-Splash Attack!" "Alexander, use Blood-Splash Attack!" Headshots lose dramatic impact when death isn't just cheap, but also subject to extreme couponing.

One episode, and I already really don't feel like continuing with this. Aaaaaaaamen.

As a person who does not enjoy senseless action, I genuinely found this anime a pain to watch and I only finished it to get it off my list. My displeasure is my fault as I did not look into what type of anime it was before watching it but I will give my review regardless. I don't typically write reviews but I despised it enough to decide I would, for this one.

I can recognize that this must be an amazing anime if I was the target audience. The animation and composition is superb, with its' mastery of the gothic blood bath aesthetic that ... is going for and the well-planned composition shots, the anime does manage to capture the feel of a gritty, sweaty, battleground; and at times, I truly could not help but admire it.

However, I feel like that is the only saving grace of this anime for me. The characters are so ridiculously melodramatic and one-sided that their motives feel so weak in comparison to their personalities; especially the Big Evil Man who goes out into long monologues that can be summarized into a couple words like "I just want war because I'm bored", "I'm going to kill Alucard, the epitome of power, to establish dominance", etc... The only remotely enjoyable character is Seras, whom was the least psychopathic character in the series. It is a shame because the characters are amazingly designed, that could express the characters well—but any of what the character design says are only guesses as all of the backstories are so monotonous and only explored in the anime to tell you why this scene is sad or shocking. Everyone's backstory feels the same and the characters fall flat because of it.

I would barely call this a story. It feels like a glorified stickman fighting video; but painfully long@<10h. Overall, I would say you cannot watch this anime unless you turn off your brain and rely purely on your monkey "ohh, cool action" brain. I would not recommend it to anyone; if they truly wanted some gorey action, I'd say just watching fight scene clips on YT is more than enough.

Excessive violence can be useful in many ways. In Hellsing’s case, the violence shows us the worst side of Humanity by inverting the roles of the supposed “Good Guys” with the “Monsters”. In other words, it insists heavily on fanaticism to prove a point: to show us that humans can be worse than real monsters. Now the question is: Does it succeed?

It tries to, but in a pretty ridicule and pathetic way that it becomes more of a mockery than a message or a lesson.

The story is tedious and looks like any Vampires Vs Church or Zombies mashup movie. It is filled with ... made up historical facts but it doesn't matter since the writer cleverly uses distractions such as introducing a new character every episode as well as prolonging the action scenes more than they deserve.

The characters are blunt and can only be described as pretentious. They are all badasses who wear shiny white glasses to cover their eyes so things can get easier to animate. They look the same, behave the same and speak the same garbage nonsense for up to 7 whole minutes to waste our time. However, we do have one exception: Alcurad a.k.a Dracula a.k.a The Almighty Invincible Vampire of All Times who can’t be killed even if you tore him to pieces or cut off his head. Consequently, the action becomes very predicable so you’ll be left out rooting for the enemy instead, hoping for Alcurad to STAY dead this time. But nope. He can’t feel pain, can’t get hurt, and is impossible to kill. And it’s not because he’s a vampire (Even vampires can be injured or killed in the show, but not him). It’s because the writer said so. He’s a necessary plot device who obeys any order or request Integra (a.k.a the writer) gives him with a simple nod of “Yes, MY MASTER” (i.e “Yes, MY WRITER”) without even questioning it.

There is a scene where he becomes a brainless namby-pamby who can’t act on his own since he prefers sitting in the basement doing absolutely nothing and waiting for the intruders to massacre everyone in his mansion. He’s so strong yet doesn’t feel like helping his people. Instead, he sits on his chair, smirks while waiting a good 10 minutes for a strong opponent to finally show up. Then he acts as if he’s completely powerless and gets chopped off, only to turn into a nightmarish creature and kill whoever was in front of him.

What makes the show pathetic is the fact that he could have prevented the death of thousands of people simply by transforming into this deadly monster in the first place. This way he could have defended the mansion in a matter of seconds before coming back to defeat the opponent who conveniently showed up at the last minute. But we had to see him act irrationally for the sake of forcing the violence. Otherwise we won’t witness the unnecessary gore upstairs, right? Otherwise, the show won’t look good.

I’m not joking about this. This literally happens every single episode! Smiling Alcurad stays immobile and intentionally waits to get shot multiple times for hours until he finally decides to strike back. So if you have a problem with a flamboyant and over powered main character, now’s your chance to drop the show.

And what makes it even more frustrating is the scene where Alcurad slaughters thousands of innocent police officers who were just doing their job instead of simply escaping the building. He can’t die, right? So where’s the harm in trying to make a run for it?

I won’t waste any more time spoiling with more examples. This is what Hellsing is about. Violence for the sake of violence. Nothing more, nothing less.

Regarding the female lead Seras Victoriais, she’s a half-written supporting character who plays zero role in the story. I’m not exaggerating. Alcurad doesn’t even need her help since he can single-handedly wipe out thousands of enemies in a blink of an eye. Even her messed up back story was rushed and resolved very quickly for some unknown reason.

The villains are also boring and consist of a fanatic priest, ghouls, and a Hitler-wannabe who kills people simply because he “Loves war”.

The serious tone of the show is ruined by the excessive use of “funny scenes” to lessen the tension. There’s even a scene when Alcurad meets his archival again and things are about to get serious but suddenly Seras steps in to break the mood, leading a bunch of old people into what seemed to me like a concrete wall. Play that scene again if you don’t believe me.

Even though it takes itself too seriously, Hellsing prefers using random sketchy and goofy animations to make us laugh and forget about the dark side of it. This seems absurd since it goes to such great lengths to look dark and mature. And I’m not just talking about the excessive gore. I’m also talking about how the show proudly uses themes of rape and necrophilia, but how can we take it seriously if it constantly tries its best to make us forget about it, as if those elements are nothing serious to begin with?

Sadly, Hellsing stays monochromatic and fails to deliver its message. There is no contrast between good and evil. They are all portrayed as evil. You just have to pick a side, most likely the one that looks better than the other.

At the end of the day, Hellsing is a horror shonen-ish anime that does what it does best: impress us. The action can get pretty long but still keep you entertained. However, the characters are worth forgetting since they don’t even try to engage in the story. Their only concern is to show off so they can look good no matter what, but in reality they can all be reduced to a single character. That’s how homogenous they are. And the worst part is that they constantly use empty talk to stall for time so they can gain some sort of an advantage over the enemy which is ridiculous. So once again, if this isn’t your thing, stay away from this show.

Nonetheless, Hellsing still deserves a shout out for the amazing art and animation it has. It looks good, too good that you won’t even notice what’s wrong with it. So giving it an overall score of 4/10 seems like the least I can do.


Me: “So next time, what do you do when you’re in a Life or Death situation?”

Integra: “It’s easy. Play it cool. Smoke a cigarette and stall for time while waiting for your backup to arrive.”

I wish I wouldn't have believed the public opinion about this anime.
i’m sorry but this anime is honestly bad, None of the characters are interesting.

The Major just constantly says war is beautiful and how much he loves war, he doesn’t have a single memorable line.

Seras is absolutely useless, if we remove her from story nothing happens, she is just there to suck Integra’s finger in the show!
the plot is boring and so is the fights, the first couple of fights including alcuard is good but other fights are just boring.
we also have a cat girl in this anime, boy i am so excited abou… NO ... i’m fucking not!

Seras is basically Ken Kaneki, remember how in Tokyo Ghoul Kaneki struggled with drinking blood, yeah copy and paste it here as well, the animation also becomes stupid and childish when she is there

we also have Anderson! such a annoying villain, i’m not sure why anime characters become so cringy when speaking english and say AMEN! at the end

look if you are looking for something good or meaningful with good character development then don’t waste your time with this garbage try Fate/Zero instead

so to sum up = AMEN, Vampire, Nazi, Cat girls, Zombie, Balloon, beethoven, KKK, Drakola!!

also that 'plot twist' at the end was really dumb

Could only stand to watch a couple of episodes. Schoolboy humour and imagination coupled with equally naive animation. Very poor and a real disappointment. If you want to see a good vampire anime film watch Blood the last vampire or the spin off TV series Blood+.

Hellsing Ultimate plays out like most vampire / gore themed shows, except there is also Nazis and Christians, fighting with guns that seem to have unlimited ammo to produce a similar amount of blood. This may sound promising but the storytelling elements that make an anime enjoyable to watch are close to non-existent.

*MINOR SPOILERS*

Story: 4/10
Put simply, the story is an excuse for mindless killing most of the time, with the overarching plot being the killing of more important characters but that's it for depth. The plot is shallow, but not the main appeal for this anime anyways. You just want to see Alucard killing ... everyone, or if you don't, you would wish you wanted to.

Art: 7/10
The general artstyle was fine and fitted the genre well, with the blood being excessive since that's the way it's to be done when gore is involved. Didn't contribute or take away. I'm also generously excluding the art style for the "comedy" parts, which goes against everything good about the art style for the genre.

Sound: 8/10
The music is generally great throughout, although was terribly inappropriate for what was happening sometimes, but when this wasn't the case it was great. As for the sound effects and voice acting, I found it just fine and not the problem with this anime, as high of a compliment that is.

Character: 3/10
In my opinion this is by far the most important category for Hellsing Ultimate, where the characterisation succeeded or failed, so did my personal enjoyment.
Main characters such as Alucard and Anderson were intriguing upon first introduction, as their existence posed more questions than it answered. How does Anderson get his powers? Why is Alucard serving Hellsing, a vampire hunting organisation? Sadly, these characters were never explored in this way but let's see what we got given instead.
Alucard is a monster who kills things when Integra tells him to.
Seras is a woman who kills things.
Benadotte is Seras's love interest, after sexually harassing her.
Integra and Bernadotte smoke.
It's fine to have characters who are one-dimensional, but the effort made to explore the genuinely interesting characters was awful. Seras's backstory was that she became a cop because her mom was killed then raped, but then exists almost solely to become the target for sexual harassment by the male stock characters and she is perfectly okay with it. We eventually learn that Alucard was raped as a boy too. Both of these flashbacks weren't relevant for the plot, didn't add any characterisation and were included solely for the shock factor.

Enjoyment: 3/10
When I was actively engaged in what was happening in the moment it was one of three things:
- Fighting, either the massacre of stock characters or some minor characters trying their best against a much stronger foe.
- Talking, usually a monologue about going to fight somebody
- "Comedy", the worst of the three but also the most infrequent, the art style changes and the jokes made were forced and fell flat every single time, I cannot recall laughing once at the jokes made, if you can call it a joke. It would have been massively better for everyone if Hellsing Ultimate had some self-respect and took itself seriously by cutting these completely.

Ironically, the setting is grounds for humour when it does take itself seriously because of the sheer absurdity of the situation. Again, vampires, Nazis and devout Christians fighting with modern military equipment and supernatural powers leads can lead to some insanity.

Overall: 4/10
Mindless slaughter with weak character development and an average story, in an otherwise bizarre setting with great potential. It lacks in the quintessential elements of good storytelling but does have some absolutely absurd scenes which are entertaining, unlike the forced "comedy".

The show may be about the supernatural, but it is only superficial. It reeks of 90's OVAs that were ultra violent for the sake of being ultra violent, and not in a fun way. Gore and disgust are used to hide a nonsensical plot filled with characters that have equally nonsensical motivations. It really feels like the writer is clueless about the subjects used but tries to sound cool anyways. Whether its firearms, tough guys, or war, it all ends up sounding like a child's idea of what those things should be. The MC is overpowered and the show falls into the mistake of the ... only way to counter him is to take screen time away. So the brainless villains get to do whatever they want to the even more useless cast of non main characters, just waiting until the MC eventually shows up.

Hellsing Ultimate almost falls into the camp of the "so bad its good" anime, but ultimately fails in that endeavor, cause of its huge pacing issues. The plot obviously makes absolutely no sense, everything is ridiculous, and the character writing is a joke, but those things actually work in favor of Hellsing Ultimate, cause you just want to see where things go next. The problem is, for every enjoyable and exciting scene there are 3 incredibly slow, drawn out, boring scenes. Almost every episode could easily be cut down to 20 minutes. Visuals, voice acting, soundtrack, all of those things are great (which is ... why I can't bring myself to give a lower score than 4), but ultimately, I was very bored for most of the watch time, which is outrageous, considering its a show about freaking Nazi Vampires.

What did I watch, this is not a top notch anime, how did so many give it such a high rating?
This is just boring, there are so many endless monologues that if you took them out the series would only be 1/4 as long, there were so many times when I just said shut up! Really the characters would explain and explain for what seemed like hours, it was like those ridiculously long names for moves in old martial arts movies only worse and not funny.
There are a few action scenes that are actually good, but most of them are just lame and repetitive. ... It was like watching the same show over and over, but from a slightly different angle.
I was not sure if this was supposed to be a parody of itself, a comedy or was it serious? It seemed to change tones frequently, and it had especially annoying cartoony interruptions which served no purpose. I watched it all the way through this time, I only got through the 3rd episode the first time because I couldn't handle the cartoony interruptions, they get less frequent as the series progresses, but they pop up just when you least expect them.

The plot is simple, but the story is convoluted and gets a bit ridiculous at times. I didn't always know why some things were happening.

Hellsing is one of those shows I heard long time ago but never had to chance to start it. What I was imagining Hellsing was as an over the top and cool action anime. Since Ultimate has always been told as the actual manga adaptation, I thought this is the one I should watch first.

It is safe to say that the anime keeps its promises. As I was expecting, it's a flashy action anime packed with full of brutal and vicious sequences. Blood is spilled and limbs are flying all over the place in every single episode. Animation and the color scheme are ... wonderful and fit the overall atmosphere like a glove. Character designs are also pretty exceptional, they feel like they're out of some wacky gothic fiction which this anime is all about. Simply, for people who crave for endless destruction with a stylish fashion, this is the perfect place for you.

However, it does not offer much except some of those aspects above. In the show, there is no character development whatsoever, plot is bland and meaningless. There are too many things that should have been fleshed out but haven't unfortunately. I never expected an original storytelling and a scenario in this anime. I was sure and wouldn't take it seriously but there is a wasted potential here for real.

The protagonist, vampire killer Alucard is a well designed character on surface. He's wielding massive dual pistols and wearing a sick red jacket. He shows you his amazing set of skills every episode. When I watch the first episode I thought he'd be a solid anti-hero, a bit standoffish yet charismatic and charming. I thought he could even crack a couple of subtle jokes. I imagined him as a bit more grounded version of Dante from Devil May Cry. Unfortunately, as the show goes on, what you see in this character is nothing but an unhinged psychopath who just desires to slaughter and consume his enemies. He considers himself as a monster who's destined to kill forever. It is impossible for the audience to somewhat sympathize with the character.
Later in the show, his origin is kind of discovered and Alucard is a little bit regretful but it's not really convincing because he keeps to act this way after that.

What I'm also having a hard time to understand is his relationship with the Hellsing organization. Somehow, a deranged psycho like Alucard is exceptionally loyal to the organization and his master, Integra Hellsing to the end. Why does he think himself as a mere tool of Integra rather than just ripping her head off and feasting with her blood? It is never explained properly. Is it just because of those seals that restricts his powers? However, he had the chance to unleash his full powers despite those seals. I guess we'll never know.

When it comes to the villains, unfortunatelly, they are no different than Alucard. All of them are rotten to the core and their motives are unclear at best. Their pretentious and cryptic monologues were a chore to endure. This is the case especially for the main villain, head of Nazis, the Major. The only thing I understand from this guy is that he is in love with waging war. That is all you can get from him. And his generic but somewhat amusing German accent. I can't deny that I like to see Nazis as villains, it's easy to place them as pure evil in any plot. (Disclaimer: I do not think Germany as an evil nation. And I feel like Nazis as a whole were not pure sadistic evil as it has been told us. Because history is written by the victors. The term evil is all subjective).
Anyway, I think only so-called memorable scene about the Major is his infamous war speech to his comrades. The speech just oozes madness and it kinda appeals to my inner sadistic side. So, it's not that meaningful, just amusing.


Speaking of wasting potential such case as Alucard, another one is Seras Victoria. She's a young police officer and brand new member of the Hellsing organization. Also, Alucard made her a vampire in order to save her life. What you can see is from start is, unlike other characters, she's just an ordinary person who's thrown into all of this mess. I expected it'd take some time for her to adjust. She wouldn't accept herself as a vampire, as a monster and might have an existential crisis or an emotional breakdown at best. Then Alucard and Integra would help her to develop and teach her to embrace her new identity. She could be the only redeeming quality among all these shallow characters. On the other hand, what actually happens is really underwhelming. She is instantly willing to accept and embrace her nature and becomes the puppet of the organization. She literally becomes a mass murder machine just like Alucard.


This will be a little bit irrelevant but I really want to talk about it. While I was watching this anime, I realized that I could love Hellsing as a videogame much more than as an anime. Imagine Hellsing as a hack & slash action game! It has the perfect setting for the genre. Totally overpowered protagonist, completely rotten evil characters, dark and violent atmosphere brimming with concepts like militarism and religion. Instead of just watching Alucard slicing and dicing his enemies, you get to kill them with style since he has multiple forms and great set of skills. Then in some chapters, you get to play with Seras. She could use her massive rifle and miniguns. I think it would be at the same level with the titles like God of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta etc. You hear that Platinum Games? Get the licences of this show right now and do something good with it.



Anyway, in short, turn you brain off and enjoy the endless carnage to come. Because there is nothing else memorable or worth the praise. It's wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle.

It is beyond comprehension how this anime got a 8+ score on MAL. Usually MAL rating turns out pretty accurate, but this is by far the most disparaging rating I have seen to date.
I want to start this off by saying I love vampires, mindless action, and gore, which SHOULD make this anime a hands down masterpiece on premise alone for me. But this was just such a boring rendition of it all. The first episode vibes with me, but after that and the cool character design/animation style wares off, You are left with a hollow disgrace of a story.
Personally I prefer to ... watch anime dubbed when available (if you are a snob and this bothers you feel free to shove it) but this anime dub is unwatchable. It comes off as a fan dub, because it was so poorly executed. This might just be a product of the time as back in the day dubbing was not as popular, but the way I see it the dubbed version of this anime is a 1/10. I know most people on MAL don't care about dubs, so I am keeping this aspect of the anime out of consideration for it's final score, and judging it on the sub, which I quickly switched over to because the dub was just that bad.
As for the story, Nothing ever happens. It is just a generic "nazis are bad, we must kill them before they kill us" plot, and you never feel that there is ever any real danger. The MP is a overpowered lapdog that, while he looks cool, is the most hollow of all the characters. They throw around "holy weapons" allot as if they are a threat to him, but they never are, and act the same as any other weapon would. The nazi motivation is LITERALLY "war is fun, I enjoy war, lets have a war" this is never a good motivation, in any anime. Being evil for the sake of being evil is fucking stupid. Everyone is the hero of their own story, and very rarely does a mindlessly evil character turn out memorable (there are a few exceptions, such as the Joker from batman who is good DESPITE THIS, not because of it)
There isn't really much more to say about this dumpster fire, It has a extremely appealing premises to me but falls so flat, and is surely less then the sum of it's parts. This is the first 8+ anime I have ever seen and thought deserved anything less then a 7, and I can not fathom how the majority of people watching this are not even in the same ballpark as me on what this anime deserves.