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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: 4 stars
Summary: Hell's Gate Arrested
Review: In this new anime series, we are asked to envision a near future where vampires are an ever present threat, where humans can be implanted with chips that make them ghouls and blood drinkers ...and where the heirs of Van Helsing have founded an organization to fight this menace - The Royal Order of Religious Knights.

Aiding Sir (Lady) Integra Wingates Hellsing in her fight is Arucard (sometimes Alucard), a vampire of great power, who looks on the modern vampire as a shallow imitation. Arucard's (spell it backwards) exact relationship with the Hellsing family is never made completely clear, but his aesthetic revulsion for those who should be considered his equals is totally clear. He is a spectacular creature whose flash styling and considerable attitude make him a true centerpiece
for the story.

...P>'The Undead' pits Arucard against a renegade priest who is making ghouls in a small English town. In this episode we are introduced to Seras Victoria (possibly Victoria Seras) a policewoman who is killed when Arucard dusts the priest. He makes her a vampire at her request.

In 'Club M' Arucard must bring down a pair of vampire lovers who are literally strafing the countryside with their fangs. Victoria, is now a member of the Hellsing force, and is having tough a tough time dealing with her new reality.

Arucard is always at the center of this tale, but the real story arc of this series is not the master vampire, but Victoria, who is unprepared for her change to the dark side. Without some character development, she may very well not survive. She is not a particularly sympathetic, unable to defend herself as a human, and little better when changed. She is approaching a crisis that will play itself out in future episodes.

As a production, Hellsing is remarkable. Stylish characters play against a vibrant setting with a steady level of action. The music is varied and well done. And the dialog is simplistic, but not unacceptably so. Anime and vampire fans should find this a very interesting development. My biggest complaint comes from the somewhat inept Anglicization of the Japanese script. Almost every possible mistake of translation and transcription has been made, and this is extremely distracting. I do recommend that the viewer turn on the subtitles and avoid the overlaid dialog.

One final complaint. The DVD itself offers very slim pickings - the three episodes total slightly more than an hour and of extras there is nearly nil. This is intended to be a nine part series, and only greed has kept it from being fit onto two DVDs. This is a case where good artistic content is spoiled by an excessively mercenary attitude.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This Rules!
Review: When I first saw this anime series, I didn't quite know what hit me.
It is absolutely great. This is the only anime where I can whatch the "intro" scene everytime.
The music is awesome and really makes the scenes stand out. Alucard (or Arucard) is made as an incredibly cool, wicked character, and after each episode u just have to whatch the next one to see what kinda cool stuuf he will be doing. The story is not to easy, a bit strange in some places and really does leave an end that is complyable with a future expansion.
All in all the grafix and the sound make every episode worthwhile, the characters are well written and the action is awesome. If u like the darker kind of anime, u will enjoy this one! The only downside is that it only has 12 eps "at the moment".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This is one of the best series I've seen in a long time. Even thought it's only 13 episodes, it manages to pack in enough action and character development to satisfy without feeling rushed. Plus the ending is left open enough for a sequel series (I hope!) The art is great, the action is incredible. It has the best quasi-religious theme and conspiracy since Evangelion. A must-see.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EXCELLENT! Only two minor disappointments:
Review: Everything is crisp (audio, visuals) and beautifully rendered with lots of concept artwork and extras :-) Everything I remember from the Japanese voices, and the English voices are complete with British accents! :-)

(If you didn't know, the story takes place in London)

The debate is OVER: It's "ALUCARD" not "ARUCARD" or "AKKARD" (Even though it says "Arucard" on the box, the english voices clearly say "Alucard" :-) ).

2 things I didn't like:

#1: If you're used to the Japanese voices, it'll take a while to get used to the english ones, and sometimes they're a bit disappointing. I was expecting Alucard's voice to be deeper, and he (and Seras) sometimes lack feeling (but then again, I'm used to the over-exaggerated Japanese :-) ). After I watched through it a couple of times, the voices grew on me. :-)

#2: What are the lyrics to the opening song? The subtitles don't say the lyrics. Not a biggie (in fact, everyone who I talked to didn't care) but a small disappointment :-) I was blown away by the sound quality.

All in all, EXCELLENT :-)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Vash meets Vampire Hunter D
Review: Here is a series that...like Cowboy Bebop and TRIGUN...bleeds cool. Alucard is awesome and the music rivals that of Bebop.
Highly recommended!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: worth the five
Review: I think that nothing usually deserves five stars, that is until i sat and watched this new series. it is well deserving of the 5 stars, seeing as how it all works. i usually dont like to tell the story while reviewing it, so i wont. all i can tell you is this, if you like the style of cowboy bebop, enjoy vampires, or are an anime fan, buy this DVD. i dont think you will be disappointed. (just dont expect another bebop.) but who knows, some may like it more than bebop, some may not. but all i can say is that it is a worthwhile purchase.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An undead cowboy beebop
Review: From seeing the first instalment, i belive it's going to be a great collection for anyone that's into anime. It's like [vampire hunter D] but in a series with such more to offer, that the posabilities are endless. I would recomend this future series to anyone into sci-fi or just into vamps.
A+++++

P.S. go out and buy it right away!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very good anime
Review: If you liked Vampire Hunter D then you will like this. Arucard is one of the coolest protagonists I have ever seen. Definately a good one to get.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good mindless entertainment
Review: There are some times when you don't feel like watching an anime series that requires a 300 page book to explain all its subtle plot nuances. Sometimes you want to see guys with big guns fight guys with big swords. Hellsing is a series that's just nice to sit down and watch and not have to think very much.

If you want to hear the good stuff, read one of the many glowing reviews.

The only problem I had with the series was I seem to be the only one that noticed a lack of consistent character design. Several of the minor characters change their look between episodes. Their eyes get higher on their forehead or scars get longer. It seems like the animators were working with different designs or changing them on their own. Episode 9 has a very detailed Integra Hellsing throughout, with short bangs in front of her forehead (which she doesn't seem to have in any other episode), and then the first scene of 10 she walks out of a helicopter looking quickly drawn and quite like a character out of Gundam Wing. Victoria's nose is like Prince John's mole from "Men In Tights." Its size, shape, and even position seem to change by the scene, and even as she turns her head. This one flaw is annoying, but doesn't really take a lot away from this fine series.
And to answer a few people's questions there are only 3 episodes on the disc because there are only 13 episodes and they're streching it to 4 dvd's.

3 + 3 + 3 + 4 = 13

They COULD smush it all onto 2 dvd's, but keep in mind they're out to make money people.

ps - Why are Victoria's eyes red in her childhood pictures? They were blue in the first episode when she was a human...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A complete review from Japan (The whole series)
Review: When I bought the first three DVD's of Helsing, I was blown away by its amazing story and take on the classic theme of "vampires". Helsing provides a fresh look into a done to death genre and with fascinating characters and story developments, I was instantly hooked. In fact I would have easily given this series a "five star" rating if not for its weak ending. I think many people who have given this series a high rating probably have not had the opportunity to see the final few episodes which were quite disappointing. The series had moving along so well but then it ends rather abruptly leaving a whole host of unanswered questions to the viewers. Regardless of, I would still strongly recommend this series to most viewers and it is unforunate that this series suffered the same fate of most Japanese anime and comics, i.e. a weak ending.
Oh well...


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