It suffered so badly from lack of substance in terms of plot. It had so much potential to be a 9 or even a 10, but due the lack of meaning/threat behind every battle, I ended up not feeling any suspense or desire to know what happened next. I loved the themes, and the characters, and the ideas, but I don't believe they were executed well in different scenarios.
STORY - 5
There was pretty much no interlinking story throughout all these episodes. Well, there was a shred of it that loosely put events together. But there were so many themes they introduced and didn't follow through on that could have made the story SO MUCH BETTER. They could have had a full out battle with the Vatican, they could have actually followed through on Seras' desire/resistance to become a Nosferatu and join Alucard, they could have gone into Alucard's creation and backstory (they hinted he was the original Dracula in the final episode, but nothing more was revealed). They could have done so much, but instead they decided to waste their time having average fights with enemies that got about 5 minutes of screen time.
I think my favourite episode was episode 10, where we get to see Integra's past. That one episode had more plot in it than the rest of the series put together.
ART - 6
It was okay. I mean, it was from 2001 and a low budget production, so I can forgive it. I mean, I enjoy pretty graphics and all, but unless it's SnK, I don't really think that art affects my enjoyment of an anime all that much. The art in Hellsing does have a particular gritty feel to it that works well with the overall theme of the anime.
SOUND - 10
Good God, now this is where the review starts to get positive.
The musical score is absolutely phenomenal. I've never really heard anything in that style, and I loved it. The mixture of rock and honkey-tonk piano was just so effective in creating an atmosphere of suspense that the art and story just weren't able to carry out. Usually I don't so much as notice the music in my anime, but here it was outstanding enough for me to go and download the OST right now.
CHARACTER - 9
The three lead characters were amazing, antiheroic badasses. I especially loved Sir Integra - it's not often that a woman gets portrayed in such an unflattering, stern way in anime. As I said before, hearing about how she came to be head of the Hellsing Organisation was the highlight of the show for me.
Seras had a very deep personal conflict to deal with, as well as progressive development throughout the show. Alucard is probably anime's slickest, grittiest, most violent smooth talking psycho and you really can't help but love him.
ENJOYMENT - 7
It was all because of these three characters. The bad guys had absolutely no development behind them and they were all very one dimensional, straight evil, and stupid. Most of all, stupid. There really wasn't any worthy adversary for Alucard. That's why the fights weren't that cool - because you never thought there was any chance Alucard could be defeated.
OVERALL - 7
I'd heard great things about Hellsing, but I think they were probably referring to Hellsing Ultimate. I figure this series is just about worth your time to watch. Just about. There are some very cool moments in it that will grasp your attention, but first you'll have to wade through the waves of squeaky voiced annoying bad guys who are just cringeworthy to watch.
