Manga Ashes to ashes, dust to dust (spoilers)
Hellsing Ultimate. The Hellsing manga brought to its finest form yet. Famed for its Crazy Awesome, and as a fan of Crazy Awesome, I checked it out.
The fight scenes are jaw-dropping, blood-pumping, very creative, and magnificently gory. Excellent use of Chiaroscuro and lighting in general (Scary Shiny Glasses for everyone!), it's very visually striking and a treat to watch. The sound is great as well: a mighty soundtrack of Ominous Latin Chanting and some fine voicework (particularly the English V As, who in some points exceed their originals). in sight and sound: absolutely great.
The premise is preposterous, but in a good way (Ghostapo vs Church Militant). There are charismatic and deeply interesting characters, such as: Integra, Anderson, Pip, Walter.
Great things that the series wastes. Notice how I listed good characters, and how none are Alucard. God-Mode Sue, Black Hole Sue, Villain Sue, Jerk Sue, Sympathetic Sue, Alucard is all combined, taken Up to Eleven and Beyond the Impossible. With a vengeance. A) He's invincible. B) He's a sociopath. He sucks out all the fun, makes everything an anti-climax, is a Complete Monster and gets away with it.
Notice: Episodes 1-4 are good and fun, but just that, 5-7 are the show's most emotional, exciting and Holy Shit Quotient moments, 8 goes back to mediocrity, and 9-10 overstood their welcome and were low-quality, barring a few things. Notice 5-7, the show's height, is when Alucard is entirely absent.
A lesser problem is the writing. Walter's Face-Heel Turn is an Ass Pull and Character Derailment for the ages, and the battle with the Nazis goes on for way too long. Chapters 9 and 10 are so full of Padding you could block bullets with them.
However, whenever the show isn't about Alucard, it's a great series full of Rule of Cool, Ham-to-Ham Combat, Holy Shit Quotient and Cool Versus Awesome that I recommend. So for that, it earns a high opinion with me, even if Alucard's existance and questionable writing bring it down hard.
7/10.
PS: I hope the full dub is released.
Manga The OV As are ridiculous in the best way imaginable.
First off, Hellsing is in no way for the innocent at heart. It has vampire nazis eating babies in one bit, and thats... thats pretty normal for the level of over-the-top-ultra-violence that this series gets up to. However, do I recommend the OV As? ABSOLUTELY. The first one is essentially a retread of the first episodes of the TV series, but after that they go off and follow the manga. And it is ridiculous, glorious, hammy, violent, bloody, sexualized, and freaky as hell. I can't think of a favorite moment because there are too many good ones. The Japanese.... don't really understand Christianity, and this series will make you very happy that they don't, because their version of the church militant is freaking AWESOME. Also incredibly violent. I can recommend it for anyone who is willing to give awesomeness a go, turn off their brain, and enjoy the logical insanity that this show is.
Manga OV As: Pure awesomeness
What can i say? I definately recommend this to anyone who watches animes. Firstly,i would like to clarify that this show is about vampires(and more) on nuclear steroids,some examples include:
1)Our vampire protagonist,Alucard,who normally carries two insanely big guns and can transform into a mass of darkness,full of eyes (and sometimes mouths) that summons hell hounds .
2)And Alucard's apprentice vampire,Seras,who has ax crazy/vengeful tendecies which result in gruesome displays of gorn.
3)A vampire who shoots down military planes with a musket,while singing opera.
And a lot more examples.
Concerning the plot generally,apart from vampires it includes militant catholic priests who make olympic athletes jealous,vampire nazis attempting to attack London and of course lots of gorn.Another component that makes the OV As awesome is how Hellsing actually connects with Bram Stoker's Dracula,which is evident mostly on the latest OV As.Also,there are many crowning moments of awesome and crowning moments of funny.
As for the design and the animations,simply the best quality.Especially on the latest OV As you will probably notice that they are improved even more.
And all of these are served with awesome music.
PS:Hellsing offers the most beautiful slasher smiles, here's a sample of them
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Manga Great series, outstanding adaptation
Note that I have only watched the OVA series, Hellsing Ultimate, and not read the original manga; I feel I can get away with this because the OVA is so damn good.
Hellsing is among the more memorable series I've encountered. It pulls no punches in establishing that its main "protagonist" is a hero in name only, but later episodes reveal that he is quite tragic in backstory and beliefs. Alucard's incredibly overpowered, but still manages to make his fights enjoyable to watch.
The rest of the cast are almost all extremely memorable, from the slowly-growing Seras to the war-loving Major to the mysterious-but-badass Captain. All their actions and interactions are great to watch, and despite the extremely gray-black morality of the series, almost all of them have moments where you can root for them or go "wow, that was surprisingly cool of him" - yes, even ze Major, who remains among my favorite villains simply because of his unapologetically hammy, warmongering nature.
The OVA is an incredible adaptation, far more so than the Gecko Ending anime. From the fluid and detailed animation to the top-notch voice acting (in both dubs), you can tell it's had a lot of work put into it, and now that all 10 episodes are out we don't have to wait years on end between installments.
The one thing I wasn't a fan of (ending spoilers ahoy) was Alucard coming back after Schrodinger sent him into the void. His "death" scene was so beautifully written that it simply felt like a waste, and it only made him more powerful. I felt the series could've ended on a better note if the characters had remained "moved on" from him. But oh well, it's not a huge enough detractor for me to hate the series.
tl;dr quite an amazing series to read or watch, though I recommend the OVA as a starting point.