Hellsing: Ultimate Fan Guide #1

Rating:
Summary: Decent Guide but Somewhat Lacking in Depth
Review: The first Hellsing: Ultimate Fan Guide covers the first six episodes of the bloody-good vampire anime Hellsing. The guide includes a fair amount of artwork--some promotional art and some scans lifted from the videos--and descriptions of each of the episodes, plus character bits and items on various aspects of the world in which the series is set.

The episode summaries are okay if a bit thin; I suggest simply watching the anime itself. Overall, fans of the series probably already know everything in the book, but it's still a neat accompanyment if only as a book filled with visuals and concept drawings from the series. Roleplayers may find the bit at the end for incorporating the characters and world into the BESM game system useful as well.

Rating:
Summary: Decent Guide but Somewhat Lacking in Depth
Review: The first Hellsing: Ultimate Fan Guide covers the first six episodes of the bloody-good vampire anime Hellsing. The guide includes a fair amount of artwork--some promotional art and some scans lifted from the videos--and descriptions of each of the episodes, plus character bits and items on various aspects of the world in which the series is set.

The episode summaries are okay if a bit thin; I suggest simply watching the anime itself. Overall, fans of the series probably already know everything in the book, but it's still a neat accompanyment if only as a book filled with visuals and concept drawings from the series. Roleplayers may find the bit at the end for incorporating the characters and world into the BESM game system useful as well.

Rating:
Summary: A solid core of information.
Review: The Hellsing Ultimate Fan Guide, #1, is not as ultimate as it could be. With summaries of the first six episodes, character bios, details on the setting, info on the locations, data on the organizations, and character sheets for using the Hellsing background within the anime RPG game _Big Eyes, Small Mouth_ plus all the extras in images and pictures you would think I would give it 5 out of 5. But the whole book is kind of weak. For example, the episode summaries only take three pages per episode, leaving out much of the cool dialogue and lots of the details. Some sections, like the page on Arucard's gloves, the pages on Hellsing's equipment and the page where they compare Vampire Myths and Vampires within the Hellsing Universe have little or no depth. But at 80 pages there isn't really a lot of room to hold much more.
As I have BESM and other books by Guardians Of Order, I plan to get Fan Guide #2. I hope it has more details.