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Hellsing - Complete Collection

Hellsing - Complete Collection

List Price: $124.98
Your Price: $99.98
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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Awesome style, but the plot suffers
Review: The good:

I'm usually no fan of vampire stories, because they often turn corny. This does not apply to Hellsing, though. When I watched the first episode my jaw simply dropped, because I had never (and still haven't) seen anything that could beat the style and the atmosphere it mustered.

The setting takes us to modern England where a secret institution "Hellsing" exists in order to protect the living from the undead (and keep them unaware about it). The institution is run by Integra Hellsing, who is pictured as a cold, distant and extremely strong-willed lady. Although the intstitution eliminates vampires, it doesn't prevent them from having one (later two) in their service. The vampire lord Alucard is in fact the most potent weapon the institution has at its disposal...

It's apparent that not only a lot of work, but also a lot of genius has been invested in creating the characters - especially Alucard whose personality seems to be a delicate blend of Japanese samurai, English gentleman and unpredictable madman. Usually when the moviemakers try to make a character ultracool, they usually only end up with something ultra-annoying - but not this time. Alucard is the very definition of cool, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. :-)

The style of this series is nothing shot of awesome. The drawings, the music, the characters, the timing - everything is set up perfectly to deliver a haunting atmosphere that just won't let you out of its grip...

The bad:

Unfortunately the series suffers from a few flaws, of which at least two of them are critical.

The first (and worst) flaw is that there is "too much story" crammed into a mere 13 episodes of 22-24 min. each. Were supposed to take part of the Alucard - Anderson duel, the FREAK-chip conspiracy, the rise and fall of the evil Incognito and then some, while at the same time getting to know the characters, and watch their development... The end result is that none of these things are done with anything that would even resemble the excellence of the other parts. In fact I would have to say that the story becomes severely incoherent about half-way through. The worst thing is probably that the "FREAK-chip plot" is suddenly just dropped in favour of the "Incognito plot". It is too bad that an otherwise extremely professional series would suffer from such an amateurish mistake.

The second critical flaw is Celes Victoria. Not because of what she is - she is in fact a great charachter, probably the most likeable in the entire Hellsing institute. The problem is that she is a character that's just begging for development that never happens, because the series ends so soon. Despite the fact that she gets lots and lots of screen time, she never really seems to accomplish anything important. You keep waiting and waiting for a breakthrough in her character, and then... the series ends. A true anticlimax that is incredibly annoying. In the end it feels like a waste of an extremely nice and promising character. :-(

Other flaws that also deserve brief mention is the fact that some parts seem to display a poor understanding of British culture. (The UK is a protestant nation in sharp opposition to anything catholic etc.) This brings us to the part that religion as a whole has been drawn down to the level of superstition. In order to go any deeper there would have to be a counterweight against fanatic priests, baptised knives and blessed silver bullets. Also as the story unfolds, the focus will move more and more towards action and gore, and although this isn't poorly done, the series as a whole simply can't deliver on the expectations that are created by the first episodes.

I still recommend that you at least watch the first episodes (you can get them separately). They're worth it for style alone.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Missing A Lot.
Review: What was there was good. The voice acting. The animation. The soundtrack. The dialouge. But it could have been so much more. I think a large part of that is that they stopped after so few episodes (although I heard there might be a sequel). Why is Alucard bound to the Hellsing family. Why does he seem to care so much for Hellsing (it seems like it's more than just her name). Does Victoria ever learn to deal with her Vamprie-ness. Like that Sett worshiping dude wanted to know: what *is* Alucard? It'd watch it again though; it didn't suck.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: fantabulistic!
Review: Hellsing is the third series by Studio Gonzo to be released in the States (the first two being Vandread and Gatekeepers), and given the unorthodox nature of its subject, it's surprisingly good.

First off, this is a dark, dark show. No goofy love triangles, no harems, no magical girls or weird special attacks with silly names. This is a series about vampires, and we're not talking about your Vampire: The Masquerade-angsty-goth-wannabe vampires either. Alucard (Dracula spelled backwards, don't let the "Arucard" mistranslation fool you) is a real, traditional, nosferatu right down to the core, even if he dresses more modern than his predecessors. He's vain, snide, but possessed of a dignity that is missing from more recent treatments of vampires. He's anti-hero through and through, but you just can't help rooting for him even when it's obvious he's not really a good guy at all.

Then there is Integra Hellsing, who defines the model of "Ice Queen". She's the direct descendant of people whose lives were dedicated to dealing with the darkest of evil things and it shows. Her butler/bodyguard, Walter is also very cool, with his polished English manners contrasted by the skill with which he cuts up ghouls with mono-filament wire.

Which leaves us with Celes Victoria (inexplicably renamed Seras in the US version), a member of London's D-11 corps (D-11 is Britain's S.W.A.T. team more or less) who is nearly killed in the first episode, but saved by Alucard by being made into a vampire herself. Possibly the most "normal" of the main characters, it's through her eyes that we see the other side of the coin, so to speak. As the newbie-vampire of Hellsing, her training and struggles with her new un-life give us a chance to see the human side of the Hellsing Institution.

As with all of Gonzo's work, great detail is paid to the various mecha (guns, helicopters, cars, and anything else that drives, shoots or explodes). Fans of guns and aircraft will enjoy this show almost as much as those who enjoy horror, since Alucard's favored ghoul annihilator is a custom ARM .454 pistol (read: Hand Cannon), and Celes is often seen toting around a gigantic anti-tank gun or sniper rifle (she doesn't even need a scope!). The locations in London are also well rendered. Studio Gonzo really did their homework on this one.

And not just on mecha. Their depiction of Alucard and his powers is right out of the old novels and pulps on vampires. The clannish notions of vampirism espoused in current fiction like Blade or Vampire: The Masquerade is for the most part tossed completely out the window. Alucard has it all: the speed, the strength, the regeneration, the ability to cast glamours, to summon hell hounds, change into bats and mist, and even pass through shadows. And he's NOT a card carrying member of some gothed-out clan (he's rather adamant about that in fact).

Hellsing has tons of great atmosphere, cool characters, and lots of guns-blazing action. However, if you just can't stomach the violence, profanity, and sexual content (pull yourself together, dude!) mark this one down a star. But you won't do that, because if you read the title you'd already know this isn't one for the kiddies.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: True Horror Anime Genre
Review: hellsing is a great anime, it has flawless action (such as the amazing walter: angel of death scene in episode 6) and a thick plot, hellsing is about a young female police officer who is sent to cheders england with the rest of her police squad to take down a deranged vampiric priest who has killed every one in the town and turned them into zombie like minnions known as ghouls, all her team members are turned into ghouls and she is forced to flee to a nearbye chruch where the vampire priest takes her captive, in the nick of time a tall man in a red jacket and a large red hat wearing yellow sunglasses appears at the doors announcing himself as arucard (alucard in english) alucard tells the vampire priest that he is nothing more than a piece of trash and that he will die by his gloved hand. the angered priest sends thousands of ghouls armed with machine guns at alucard, he is blown to pieces by the relentless fire. but with a maniacle laugh he is re animated. alucard draws an enormous handgun from his jacket and takes aim but he cannot take the shot without harming the police woman (her name is victoria celas). so he tells her that he muist shoot through her and offers to turn her into a vampire but only if she wants to, she accepts alucards offer and the priest dies in a pile of dust. throughout the series we meet integral hellsing, the leader of the hellsing organization she is a cold leader but a good one, walter, the ageless butler of the hellsing mansion also known as the angel of death for his super speed and amazing secret weapon. thread! (you will see what i mean in episodes 5 and 6), later in the series we learn that alucard is an ancient evil tamed by integrals father, besides the obvious namesake alucard was given he seems to enjoy toying with his enemies like the historical tyrant vlad the impaler who we later find out is alucards mortal form before he became a vampire, his form changes in the last couple episodes from the man in the hat to the evil spawn of shadows, vlad, dracul, nasfteratu, and so forth, i highly recomend this anime, it is short but very good, i hope hellsing will come back for more episodes , it is by far geared for adults but any horrer fan that can take a little blood and gore, (and some light nudity here and there). dont pass up on this show it is one of my favorites.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must Have for anmie fans!!!
Review: This series is awsome and I dont have any complaints! If you are a Cowboy Bebop Fan you will enjoy this series as well.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: vampire with the 454casull(and there is such a handgun)
Review: I just purchased the whole set and watched all of 'em and liked it,a new twist on vampire legend(being subordinate to humans)carrying VERY LARGE CALIBER handguns,ending of Hellsing just makes you want more(like how Arucard got caught by the Hellsing organization and does Integra drinks his blood?????,and what happened to Seras Victora?)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Alucard=Dracula (backwards) = Vampire Hunter D ripoff
Review: But it was somewhat entertaining nonetheless. Here's the basic premise of the movie: take Vampire Hunter D, a movie based on a supremely powerful character that has more power on reserve to tap into than the entire national power grid, build the plot to a climatic conclusion where this powerful character duels another supremely powerful character, ala Vampire Hunter D, and finally, when you think the good guy is over and done with, have him tap into his "lineage"...-- in the style of Vampire Hunter D. And to top it all off, you end on the same theme; the main character is related to the one and only original, except as in Vampire Hunter D, the main character IS the original; namely, Dracula himself. Infact, the movie ends on such a cheezy historical reference. You see the Incognito character IMPALED on a large pike. This is in reference to the Turkish prince, Vlad the Impaler, who is famous for inspiring the true to life legend of Dracula by impaling all his victims on large pikes. Hell, even Alucard is backward for Dracula.

I can't believe enough idiots have watched this, reviewed it, and didn't recognize this.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: should you buy
Review: well 1st off all i would say this anime is one of the best i have seen ActionWise...

art:***** this art is so clean its almost the best i have seen crazy crazy vampires with red alucard has too be my fav anime vampire if not person in anime his drawing is so well done but all the chars are very well done in this like all the new anime not the best art but its still great there is alot of eye candy such as crazy zombies and other stuff

story:** ill say that this has too be the worst thing about this anime i mean the story is not that deep you do get some back round srory A LITTLE NOT MUCH but the lack of story is not realy that bad but the only thing is there hardly is a story but if it was 25 episodes i guess it would have a better story such as trigun cowboy bebop but if you want a vampire anime with a story i would tell you to get vampire hunter D im not going too give the story away i hate it when people type reviews and spoil it so im not going too do that for you:

action:***** this has too be the breaking point of this anime if your a action junkie (who isnt) buy this right now all i need too say is it's full of action most action i have ever seen in a anime in a long time alot of blood alot of alucard great action better then VH D

:episodes:**** this is one of those anime's that start and you have no idea whats going on but when you get about episode 6-7 it picks up if you have seen Trigun you will know what i am talking about but all the episodes like i said there is alot of blood and killing :) so if your into that thats a plus

last words:

well should you buy this if your realy into anime go for it but if your one of those kids that just came upon this and you have no idea what it is yeah i would buy it too this is one of the best anime's i have ever seen fallowing .hack cowboy bebop and some others i would not get this if your all about story action thats all it is :) this is way better then vampire hunter D and belive me i have been told "No way its not vh D is the 1st of its kind" and it's not vampire's in anime date back belive me
anyhow thats all i gotta say

........ go buy it for stars do too the story

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Different, but in a good way,
Review: Hellsing offers a different approach to Anime. Although the animation of the characters is extremely different from one another, it hardly distracts from the flavor of the films. The plot is a predictable one but with a few twists and turns. The ending is a bit stupid, and is dissapointing. However, each episode leaves you wanting more in a strange way. I never really got caught up in Anime before, but this was strangely intriguing. It has its strong points and its weak points, if you can look past them, this might be a good series to rent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Spectacular Vampire Anime
Review: This is the greatest anime of all time. Even better than the Beserk Series, and Akira. I loved It. The plot is about a Immortal Vampire Named Alucard who serves his Master Intergra Hellsing who is the Leader of the Hellsing Organizeation. It is also about a Girl that was saved by Alucard and he Tranformed her into a Vampire. Her name is Seras Victoria. If you like blood,guts and Violence you will enjoy it I guarette. This is a must Have for all you anime fans out there and esspically you Vampire fans. I can't wait for season 2 to come out in 2004!

Reviewer; Kyle Hohensee of Cooperstown NY USA


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