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Hellsing - Impure Souls (Vol. 1)

Hellsing - Impure Souls (Vol. 1)

List Price: $29.98
Your Price: $26.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: My review ...
Review: This is an awesome DVD set, a must-have. Which also makes it a hard-to-find item...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: It's just plain silly and too obviously TV orientated
Review: Sorry folks, It's just not very engaging. Too many still frames (budgetary I guess) and the violence that other reviewers are going on about is pretty mild at best. There's no blood unless you consider black shadows blood. The bottom line though is it's just not clever enough in storytelling or more importantly character development to be worth more than a casual rental at best. Visually it's not bad but I did see what some reviewers mentioned as a "coldness" to the digital animation that's prevalant. I'm thankful I have a great local video store (Scarecrow Video) that has maybe the best collection of Anime I've ever seen so I could rent this thing before having to just take a guess and buy it. At the same time I had rented Sin the movie, Berserk, Ruruoni Kenshin "trust" and Rurouni Kenshin "betrayal" (also known as Samurai X, Trust and Betrayal) and these titles were far more impressive in character and story. Oh Yeah and they all had actual blood in the usual red shade. Your lying out there if you say you don't care about good graphic violence in these anime's as we all love it, but when you get good story and characters that interest you, well that's when Anime maybe the best visual entertainment there is these days.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Death of a true genius
Review: I personally love this DVD, this series, this whole new style of the anime style that has been emerging lately, but if your an old time anime lover like me you might not want to start out with this series, its cruder, more violent, better written and deff better drawn than all of the older style animes, but if your looking for action packed, balls to the wall, fight scenes and morose speculations of a dark time then this is your DVD my friend

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Hellsing an Anime worth sipping not sinking your teeth into!
Review: Hellsing Volume 1 titled Impure Souls starts you off with 3 episodes. I in particular love the first two episodes of the this wonderful Anime that's been released by Pioneer. Let's start off with some good points on this Vampire Hunter D like story line. Throw in an organization called Hellsing, toss in the main hero of the series who's name is Arucard who surprisingly if spelled backwards given the Japanese doesn't exactly have the letter "l" spells Dracula, is way too arrogant and powerful. Arucard is also voiced by none other than Crispin Freeman (Which I think is a plus to this anime) who lent his voice to another favorite character of mine from the Slayers Universe as Zelgadis. In the first two episodes already it is well established that Arucard can hold his own in all situations, after all he's only been sent to kill not only to one place with a countless ghouls and vampire alike but dozens of places on his own to take out the menance and call it a day so why do we need an organization if at all? Honest to say this Anime wouldn't have been so eye catching and as interesting if it weren't for the side kick to Arucard, her name is Seras Victoria, affectionately known as Police Girl. She makes up a lot of the content and story even though she is a secondary character in this story that feels much too alike of other Vampire animes. Without Seras Victoria I can honestly say Hellsing the anime has a lot of plot holes and a lot of things that aren't correct that are related to Vampires... see if you can spot them yourself... and enjoy Seras Victoria!! ^^ For those who wish to know more of JUST Seras Victoria... and see for yourself how amazing her character is and vitality to the anime Hellsing. As for the bad points of Hellsing, there's honestly a lot of things that I found in the anime that just quite didn't add up... ghetto priest Catholic Anderson is a bit too extreme in his ways of getting his deed done. The whole thing with Arucard turning into a six eyed dog really annoyed the hell out of me... and Sir Intergra Wingate Hellsing who surprisingly is a female who inherits the Hellsing Organization doesn't seem all that feminine... check it out for what it is... and see for yourself if the anime lives up to it's name.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Devilishly Stunning
Review: Gonzo has been well known for their excellent CG in Blue Sub #6 and Vandread, but Hellsing is probably one of their best titles yet. They don't go overboard with the CG and the story bones well for vampire fans. For many anime fans, this will be one of the coolest series ever.

Order 01: Alucard must track down a vampire disguised as a priest in Chedder, where he also meets Victoria Seras.
Order 02: Victoria becomes more aware of the Hellsing organization when on a mission to obliterate two teenage vampires.
Order 03: Victoria is assigned to take out a crazed vampire medical patient where she also meets Alucard's new enemy.

The story in this series is VERY violent. Enough to make you wince atleast once. Alucard will immedietly become a favorite with many anime fans since he is purely a psychotic killing vampire. Take Vampire Hunter D's clothing mixed with Trigun's Vash's attitude and you should have a pretty good idea of what Alucard is like. It's rare that a moment goes by where Alucard isn't smiling. Victoria acts as kind of the viewers reaction to all this fighting and provides some good comic relief and female influence to the show. Other characters include Sir Integra Hellsing (leader of the Hellsing organization), Sir Walter (faithful servent of Integra), Peter Ferguson (main captain of Hellsing) and Paladin (a Catholic who exterminates vampires).

The English dub has been made to fit the location of England. All the English cast members (with an exception of Alucard) have English accents. It doesn't bog down the story too much, but what bothered me about the English script was the blatant use of the F word. It's only used a couple of times in Episode 2, but it will become a habit of Pioneer in later episodes. But then again, I guess thats what would lure more people into the series.

The extras are pretty good for the first release. We get a creditless opening, music video (in Japanese), 50 concept art images and a gallery on the Alucard action figure (sans the hat).

Overall, Hellsing is a great series I recommend that everyone atleast give a try. If you like pure insane violence mixed with vampires and cursing and a good rocking soundtrack, you should have no problem warming up to this show.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: I was REALLY looking forward to this...
Review: I honestly was, but then I bought it and my balloon burst. How can this fail? A vampire and his buxum newbie vampire assitant go around blowing away "bad" vampires. I had nothing but high hopes when I popped it in my DVD player. Now to be fair the story is pretty much what you'd expect so no real complaint there, my above statement sums up the plot very concisely. Where this series fails is the "animation". The astute readers out there may have noticed my use of quotation marks on the word animation, this is no mistake. Perhaps I have become spoiled by all the other anime films I have seen in the past, I don't know. What I do know is that I was SORELY disappointed in the quality of animation in this series. Have any of you seen the cartoon series "Mucha Lucha" on Saturday mornings on the KidsWB(check local listings for time and channel)? Yeah, the little luchadore wrestling kids cartoon that is done in flash animation. That is pretty much what you get in this series, flash animation. Now I like to think that I am a pretty forgiving person. If the content is of quality I am more than willing to forgive it for lacking in other areas. But there just is not enough here to forgive [poor] animation. Sure I know it was made for TV, but if you are going to skimp on dialog and atmosphere, at least TRY to wow me with visuals. As much as I would like to recommend this, I can't. I think your money would be better spent buying the Berserk series, or pretty much any other disk out there.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great series, too bad there was NO ENDING!
Review: i had heard through word of mouth about this series a few months ago. after hearing about it again and again, i decided i'd download the fansubs. i must say i'm very impressed. the animation was fluid, and the characters (although not entirely original) were beginning to develop nicely. i've always loved vampire anime. alucard (sharing the name of the star of the playstation castlevania classic, which is dracula backwards)is one hell of a cool hero. later into the series, the storyline began to melt away and strayed into an obscure cloud of basically unexplained battles and flashbacks. a new enemy appeared from no where. (from the continents? that's the lamest origin i've ever heard...) and just as things look as though they will be cleared up, and the storyline may straighten out and allow further character development, the series was over. you heard me. there is, for all intents and purposes, no ending. well there is one, but it is very abrupt and explains nothing. i don't mean it leaves the series open for viewer interpretation, i mean, it's just over. and it completely disregards the existence of several characters. what about victoria? and alexander (he was a very very cool rival for our vampire hunting vampire)? there are rumours of a second season, and i hope there is, because this would certainly be a dissappointing way for this series to end.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cool, classic vampire
Review: Buffy fans may not like this vampire take as it is more "classic" Dracula vampire-noble, viscious, dark/tragic but unapologetic. Like some swashbuckling heroes, Alucard possesses power & skill he rarely fully unleashes(in the name of making things interesting?) & an honor few of the modern-day humans around him seem capable of understanding.
Victoria, with her refusal to "feed" thru the first dvd, was annoying, but it fits--given a choice of death or joining Alucard at a moment's notice, she was not fully aware of what she was getting herself into, but we see the classic loyal tie between vampire master & those bitten. As in real life, it seems Victoria's finding it harder to carry out what she must do(drink blood) to the abstract thinking she can do it when agreeing to becoming a vampire.
Integra is very British, the most annoying character in my book, but even her personality is portrayed very well. She will destroy vampires at whatever cost, even if she must use one of the most infamous vamps of all time to do it(strange bedfellows)
I cannot wait to see the whole series. Too bad appears we only get 4 dvd's/13 or so episodes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great, but...
Review: The first episode was amazing, it kind of reminded me of Resident Evil because of all the ghouls running around. The music was something new and left me wanting to hear more. The animation was the only problem. In the first episode, the animation was flawless, it almost looked like movie quality animation, but in the 2nd episode the character animations got sloppy. Their faces and hands werent drawn as nice and it looked choppy at times. Ive noticed this is other anime shows in the past too, and I wish they hadnt done that here.

The dubbed version of the show was pretty good except for Arucards voice, it just didnt sound as creepy as the original. And I dont know why they thought it was necessary to redub the sounds that the ghouls made. If you decide to get this, watch the subtitled first.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Extremely Overrated
Review: The high reviews made me expect to see something more than I received. First of all, this series comes nowhere close in comparison to the graphic quality or storylines of either Cowboy Bebop or Vampire Hunder D; Bloodlust. The characters are boring and unoriginal. The female main character is nauseatingly soft and cliched, even after she becomes a vampire. I don't respect a vampire with an over-inflated conscience. The main vampire character is the typical mysterious tough guy, nothing really creative. The dialogue made me feel like I had bugs crawling on my skin. I appreciate violence and gore in any good animation flick, but in the series, it's is all so blatently gratuitous and forced I still found myself getting bored. The only redeeming quality in the storyline was how it introduced the concept of the descendent of the original vampire hunter, Van Helsing and her unclear relationship with the main vampire character Alucard. However, anyone who's seen a couple vampire flicks already knows that name is just Dracula in reverse. If your easily impressed with just gorey gimmicks, go nuts and buy it.


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