Hellsing:

Reviewed: Episodes 1-13 (subbed)

Basic Plot:

An organization called Hellsing is in charge of taking out vampires and other such creatures who prey upon humans. The head of Hellsing is Integra, a tough woman who has the world’s most powerful vampire, Alucard at her beck and call. But things often go wrong for the organization, as other government groups, as well as vampires around the world, will stop at nothing to bring them down.

Review:

I’m going to go pros and cons with this one, since that would make for the most organized review. Pros: The animation is very attractive, with nice colors and fluid movement. I like the character designs too. The visual aspects really create a certain mood, like a well-done American horror film. I found myself remembering “John Carpenter’s Vampires” in that regard. The three main characters, Alucard, Integra, and Alucard’s newest… uh… minion, Victoria are all well-developed and likable. The music fits the series nicely. But my favorite aspect of the series was the relationship between Alucard and Integra. It’s very interesting and when it’s explained in the later part of the series, it’ll blow you away!

Cons: The plot was hard to follow, since it skipped around a bit. It seemed like a lot of the episodes were pointless or strictly filler (which seemed strange for such a short series that had so many possibilities). Aside from the three main characters, everyone seemed like cardboard cut-outs, easily mistaken for a number of other supporting anime characters who fade to the background. Even the villains are somewhat bland, rarely going beyond just plain strange. In other words, the villains were freaky, but they had no depth to them. Much of the time, I found myself bored while watching this series, and few of the episodes were very memorable.

Conclusion: I enjoyed this series while I watched it (somewhat), but I sincerely doubt that I’ll give it a repeat viewing, or recommend it to anyone. I actually wish that I hadn’t bought it before trying out a few episodes first. If you can rent this series, do so. It’s worth that at least, but I don’t recommend purchasing it.