With Hellsing I will start a new series of anime reviews, that fill the gap left by Guin Saga. The reviews will also include Afro Samurai OVA and another anime that I have yet to pick.

So I will start as usual, with a little history. Hellsing is the anime adaptation of the manga with the same name by Kouta Hirano. It appeared in the Young King ours magazine in 1997 and it ended in 2008 (a long wonderful run isn’t it?). It was later released in tankobon form, in 10 volumes published by Shonen Gahosha. The English adaptation is published in USA by Dark Horse. Hellsing is produced by Gonzo and directed by Umanosuke Iida, with a script by Chiaki Konaka. It was aired in Japan from 2001 to 2002 and an OVA (named Hellsing Ultimate) was released in 2006, with 6 episodes being produced until now.

The Holy Order of Protestant Knights its an organization that protects England from evil unnatural forces. Their main weapon is the creature known as Alucard, a very powerful vampire created by the organization,to  be used against all the supernatural threats. Dressed in a out fashioned way, in a long red coat and scarf, with a big grim smile and some round orange glasses, Alucard makes a goofy impression at first sight. At the beginning of this anime, he appears in a hotel room, killing a female vampire that was posing as a prostitute.The creators tried to be as original as they could regarding the way that vampires die, but you cannot impress too much when hundreds of movies already depleted everything original that is to invent about these supernatural creatures.

Then, the focus moves in a small English town, Cheddar, where priest turned vampire is devouring the entire village. The local police department sent a squad in the village, but  there were al killed in the process.

The head of Hellsing organization, Integra Hellsing, sends Alucard to take care of the problem.

The police team members are dead all right. Bitten by the vampire and turned into ghouls. A girl that is serving in the squad is the only alive member left. As we see her ex comrades trying to eat her, something very familiar in anime strikes. She is the typical undecided, troubled teen that we see all over anime. She runs, she screams, she begs for everything to stop and disappear, she hopes that nothing that she sees is real… hey, is she or not in an elite police force? Anyway, she acts like a cheerleader at first. Little Kitty, that’s her name. A good name (actually her name is Celes Victoria – I made some digging). This girl runs away from the vampires, but unfortunate, she stumbles in the very church in which the priest vampire resides.

Quite an unoriginal generic looking priest it is. He rapidly takes advantage of her fear and despair, and soon she falls under his hypnotizing sight. As he is ready to drink her blood, Alucard arrives. Punk! The priest laughs like mad, as the church is now full of the ex members of the police team force, freakish ghouls with machine guns. They gun down Alucard, who disintegrates under a rain of bullets. But bullets cannot stop him, as he reaches for the two silver pistols that he carries. A pretty static gunfight follows, with Alucard quickly killing the ghouls. I wanted more from this scene, a Matrix-like gunfight with spectacular moves. Then, Alucard calls the priest an instant vampire, which is funny, because I immediately thought at instant coffee.

Hellsing Arms Weapon Industrial CO. LTD. is the brand of huge Colt-like guns that Alucard wears. And he is making good use of it although I wish to see him in the future episodes using some melee weapons as well, or just his bare strength to fight enemies. The 13mm explosive bullets are made from a silver cross belonging tot he Great Lanchester Church. There is no chance for the rogue vampire to escape this fire power. That’s why he keeps the girl in front of him, hoping that Alucard wont fire, as he serves a human organization. Wrong. Alucard tells the girls to prepare for gunshot in her lung, as the bullet will go through her onto the vampires heart. And he fires, after the girl silently agrees. The vampire dies, but the girl is down, bleeding to death. Alucard bites her, giving her immortal life as a vampire. Weird, his face in these moments is a peaceful one, he looks almost a human if it weren’t for his vampire eyes. He smiles at the girl as he bites her. The scene is classic, gothic, noir and full of old. Alucard’s shadow projected on the wall, candle light dwindling, a red light invading the church and a slow piano music.

He carries Little Kitty in his arms back to the mobile camp of the Helllsing organization, and he insists that the girl would be recruited alongside him. She is a vampire by now, killed and saved from death by the same vampire. And it was her choice as well.

You may think that I am not impressed by this first episode, but I am. It was a solid building episode, with a minor vampire villain, which made his job (he died), and thus introducing us the power of Alucard. He heals almost instant and he regenerates his body from mere lumps of flesh. You know those comics issues in which Superman is fighting 10 guys shooting bullets at him? They know he wont die, you know that, HE knows that but he fights them anyway to prove and re enforce the idea of super power. This episode was the same. Introducing the powerful hero at the expense of a minor vampire villain and some ghouls. The fights were static, nothing spectacular or fancy.

I like the shadows that accompany Alucard everywhere he goes. The thick black shadows on his face, his coat and everything else. Pointing the fact that he is a dark unnatural creature. Even in the final scene, as Integra Hellsing and Little Kitty are engulfed in light from the cars around, he remains covered in shadows. Nice touches.

The general atmosphere in this anime reminded me of Chrono Crusade. Is the same feeling of horror mixed with a dark gothic atmosphere and modern elements, that combines great with the surroundings. I like the animation too, with clear simple lines, everything going well and smooth, with the characters looking very natural. Some jazz and piano music, discrete at times, accompany well the theme of this anime.

Not much is said in this episode about the origins of Alucard or the Hellsing organization but we have another 12 to go. And for the first time, I am allowing myself to rate the anime that I am reviewing. This site is called Animerated isn’t it? I still have to implement a rating plugin, but I made an image instead, which I will include in future reviews.

Rated: 3.5/5

Related Posts

1. Hellsing episode 3
2. Hellsing episode 2
3. Afro Samurai: Episode 1
4. Future anime/manga and comics/DVD reviews