Hellsing Ultimate

Title: Hellsing Ultimate
Genre: Action, Horror, Supernatural
Episodes: 10
Aired: February 2006 - December 2012
Studio: Gonzo
Director: Umanosuke Iida
Writer: Chiaki J. Konaka
Music: Hayato Matsuo

Paradigmatic of the exquisite and highly original animation

Hellsing Ultimate is the epitome of style over substance: possibly the best animation of any series to date, a superb voice cast, a fine soundtrack, non-stop action, but virtually nothing to offer in terms of story depth or character development.  It's Michael Bay doing an anime about Dracula.  It's The Raid with Nazi vampires.  In short, it's an exquisitely done pure action/horror, but that's it.  While the show should certainly be commended for filling the action/horror anime void and demonstrating the full potential of animation, those who prefer a story with emotion and complexity may have trouble seeing what all the fuss is about.

Alucard, aka Dracula, king of vampires

The story starts out with a lot of potential: vampires, long a pest but never a threat to Britain's Hellsing organization and its vampire servant, Alucard, are turning up with increasing frequency and converting the populace into hordes of zombie ghouls.  During a response to one such emergency, Alucard offers to save a dying police officer, Seras Victoria, and makes her into his vampire servant.   Meanwhile Iscariot, Hellsing's Catholic counterpart and mortal enemy, has broken their treaty and seems poised to wage an all-out war on the "demons and heathens" occupying Britain.  They also appear to have a connection to the mysterious Millennium organization, a remnant of Germany's Third Reich and yet another group that wants Hellsing destroyed and Alucard dead.

Victoria Seras about to be eaten alive

For the first 4 or 5 episodes, Hellsing Ultimate is perfect, with a nice mix of meticulously detailed fights and plot revelations to keep your interest.  Alucard quickly reveals himself to be an unstoppable badass, Seras struggles with the loss of her humanity, and Hellsing tries to uncover the mystery behind the rise in vampire attacks, Iscariot's aggression, and the Millennium organization.  Unfortunately once these mysteries are unraveled, the show becomes little more than a series of battles and an endless supply of blood and gore.  Although there is a last ditch effort to infuse the plot with substance - a minor twist, the revelation of Alucard's past, and some half-hearted philosophy - I couldn't help but look back and think, "That was fun, but what was the point?"  Like the Millennium organization, the essence of Hellsing Ultimate is war for the sake of war, and nothing else.  This might be defensible if there were at least some meaningful character development, but apart from the minor growth seen in Seras and Walter, everyone is pretty static, enjoyable but existing as props for the story rather than for their own sakes.

Rip van Winkle,  First Lieutenant of Millennium

Despite lacking much of a plot, there's no denying that Hellsing Ultimate is one hell of a ride.  Much of this is due to the show featuring one of the best anime productions out there.  Other than maybe Fate/Zero, this is bar none the best animation I've ever seen: beautiful, novel, and at times experimental, with a masterful manipulation of lighting, color, 3D effects, and bold outlines of characters that makes it feel like a gorgeous comic book come to life.  My one complaint has to be that, amidst all of this maturity, we occasionally get tacky, humor-themed animation that feels more like scenes from Fullmetal Alchemist than an epic action/horror.  This style especially screws up the final episode, where we're forced to watch a full 5 minutes of crap before the animation returns to normal and the cliffhanger is resolved.  On audio, the soundtrack is pretty cool, featuring a mix of tracks that feel like they're straight out of a 70's horror flick (e.g., Thousand Fangs, Ten Thousand Eyes) and some ornate religious themes (e.g., Song of Demeter).  The voice cast is generally top notch, featuring most of the actors from the original series, notably Crispin Freeman as Alucard.

I like Hellsing Ultimate and consider it a keeper, but I also think it receives far more praise than it deserves in light of its banal story and static cast.  While it certainly accomplishes what it sets out to do, it helps that it doesn't set out to do much.  Apparently this model of not taking any risk on the story and focusing on a flashy production is a good one, as the show has received a slew of 10's and is one of the highest rated anime of all time - it just won't be getting a 10 from me.

Story: 7.0
Animation: 9.9
Audio: 7.0

Overall: 7.4 (Very Good)

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