Skip ahead to the third paragraph if you are only interested in the review.
Hellsing itself crossed my mind not to long ago. This show was one of the first that I really started my dive into Anime with. The shows like Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh were experiences I had from my very young years watching Saturday mornings on a few different TV networks. At that time I didn't know any better and I didn't really pay attention to the whole category really. I just knew I liked cartoons and Saturday morning had a lot of good ones.
In high school I started to find a lot more about Anime in general and in the summer of 2006 is when I decided to start to explore a little bit of the Anime world. I remember Hellsing was one of the ones I chose toward the end of my first major Anime binge. Fast forward almost 15 years with the OVA finally being completed, I wanted to go back to watch the original before starting the OVA and I gotta say, those 15 years, with a couple hundred other Anime TV shows and movies under my belt, have really changed my view on the show just looking at my old rating. The original Hellsing isn't bad by any means but I definitely think I gave it to high of a rating originally due to lack of experience in the Anime world. It has now been adjusted.
Review Start:
The show takes place in England. Hellsing, led by Integra is one of the organizations in England tasked with keeping order and the general population safe. Their main specialty, dealing with various alternative human lifeforms that seek to cause trouble. The shows main character Alucard is a vampire himself and is Integra's right hand man.
Through the show we see a small link to real world history and I definitely appreciate the tie in. I remember having to do a project on a piece of the history that was referenced. It has been many years since then. I think I would have enjoyed the show more if I remembered more of the history I learned back then.
Along the way we meet a few crazy characters. If there was a competition to see who would win the title of most psychotic I have NO clue who would win but my bet would be on Anderson. Victoria and Walter bring a lot to the show for me even though they are support characters. Victoria does a lot from light-hearted bits and pieces to the rough and tumble brawling. Walter for me falls into the category of "boss level geezer". Basically without any spoilers he's got that Zeno from Hunter x Hunter or Sarutobi from Naruto vibe. He might be old but hes certainly still not someone to mess with. He probably won't ever see the spotlight on any godlike geezer countdowns because of the universe he's put in but man I would have loved to see a different take on the show maybe 40 years earlier when Walter and Alucard were doing their thing the first time.
The show itself is not for the faint at heart. It is a very mature show with a lot of blood, guts and gruesome things. If you don't have the stomach for that sort of thing you definitely should skip it. If you can or you just like vampires, zombies, ghouls and the like, then you'll more enjoy the show.
P.S.
If you are wondering about this one compared to the original I can safely say that this version has a lot more content within it and is organized a little better. The first series is good in its own way but similar to what the 2011 Hunter x Hunter did to its predecessor, Hellsing Ultimate is the better overall version by far for me. Admittedly at the very end my enjoyment of the show lowered a little bit. I understand why things happened the way they did and certainly appreciate it all, I just think they could have laid it out a little differently and expanded on a few things, thus having the flow feel more satisfying.
