Art and typesetting by 0tacat
Welcome back to The Anime Backlog, the column where I chronicle my journey through the backlog of over 100 anime titles. After slaying my shameful juggernaut, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I decided to dive into the quintessential dark and edgy series of badass games, Hellsing Ultimate.
© 平野耕太・少年画報社／ WILD GEESE
Hellsing Ultimate
Why is it important?
I watched Gonzo's Hellsing TV series when it was released on DVD in 2002-2003, meaning I was about 14-15 years old. I remember very little about the television series based on the Kouta Hirano manga other than some vague memories involving Nazi vampires. Regardless of the smaller details, such as the plot, Hellsing cannot escape its heyday and firmly establishes itself as a gory horror action spectacle. This is only amplified by Arucard's iconic character design; The t-shirts are the main highlight for his gun-filled face and all-seeing eyes.
However, Gonzo's adaptation suffers from a common problem: the manga is not finished yet and needs to have a proper conclusion. It wasn't until Hellsing Ultimate that the story got an animated version of its classic ending, and thanks to the direct-to-home video format, it was able to push the envelope even further.
However, Hellsing Ultimate is not without its own problems. The home video format allows for longer runtimes and more graphic content, but the OAV's release schedule is less consistent. The series first debuted in 2006 but did not end until 2012, leading to frequent criticism on anime community forums at the time. It also switched studios, starting at Satelight before moving to Madhouse and finally Graphinica. The North American release also suffered during its six-year run, as the industry bubble burst in the midst of the present. Geneon discontinued internal distribution after the release of the first three episodes in 2006, directly impacting the show's run on Starz Edge's Animidnight programming block.
Funimation took over, but North America stopped short of the first four volumes until November 2012. The hoopla upon its release and the disappointment that followed kept the series at the forefront of fans' minds. anime, although it is far from ideal.
More importantly, Hellsing itself contained a level of melodrama that refused to be forgotten. I'll go into more detail and how old they are (and aren't) below, but suffice it to say there's still nothing quite like Hellsing. It transcends all boundaries of “good taste,” unapologetically embracing its absurdity at every step.
Note: This column will frequently contain spoilers. Readers are advised to use their own discretion.
Does it live up to its reputation?
Since starting this column, one of the most enjoyable parts has been starting a series off my backlog and then gradually re-evaluating my expectations and framework. My memories of Hellsing are limited to “it's an anime about vampires” and “Integra is cool.” I think I recall some general sexual tension between Seras and Arucard and I remember her being carrying a giant gun. I have vague ideas about Anderson and Walter. And yes, I know there were Nazis. That's enough to draw a rough sketch, but it's far from the full picture.
As the credits for episode 10 rolled around, I had a lot of conflicting emotions about the whole experience. Hellsing Ultimate is truly a relic of mid-20th century edginess, and there are elements of it that would be scrutinized much more closely today than it might have done during its first run. . At the same time, it is best to consider the work for its obvious influences. Hellsing Ultimate drew heavily from grindhouse films and B-grade horror exploitation content. Audiences were eating this stuff up at the time; 2007 saw the release of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse, which featured a fake trailer for Werewolf Women of the SS, itself a reference to '70s exploitation films featuring Nazis . I would place Hellsing Ultimate in a similar thematic context. For all its style, the series is first and foremost a bloodbath.
© 平野耕太・少年画報社／ WILD GEESE
The carnage was orchestrated through a series of climactic conflicts between the Church of England's Hellsing Order, the Vatican's Iscariot Order, and the Millenium, remnants of the Third Empire now a group of bloodthirsty vampires led by Major at the top. The intergroup conflict between the three drives much of the extreme violence on display, with stilted jargon and bits of completely inappropriate comedy. There are a number of predictable character arcs based on heightened emotional appeal, but Hellsing Ultimate is most interested in new ways to decapitate, explode, or reduce its characters to piles of flesh.
Valuable in entertainment. Its audience will choke on popcorn when some guy's head is smashed through a window, but even for those who like their vampires extremely attractive, Hellsing Ultimate doesn't pull any punches. any. The series tells classic jokes about sexual assault from the beginning, and these jokes focus on Seras, who is barely a character. Like the rest of the series, Seras is a product of her times. The idea of “moe” is not yet firmly established; instead, anime girls are often 'cool' in fighting situations but absolutely not good at anything else. This means they can be “cool” when it matters but are not threatening outside of battle. Whenever Seras isn't sniping with impossibly large projectiles, the villains are threatening to rape her, and her teammates are joking about forcing themselves on her (don't worry, she understands that's just It's a joke!). Casual sexism makes people roll their eyes; The very images of necrophilia, infanticide and sexual assault of children later remain shocking.
© 平野耕太・少年画報社／ WILD GEESE
The Nazi villains are another major stumbling block when viewing in 2024. In this context At the time this was made, the Nazis were a smarmy group of villains who were easy to throw into context. semi-historic scene. I always mock and belittle Nazis in the media, and the more ridiculous they are, the better. I've already mentioned their appearances in exploitation films from the 70s, but they also have a horror history fueled by their own gruesome historical presence and many paranormal fixations. different. Movies like Dead Snow and 2004's Hellboy all deal with this. Hellsing Ultimate, in turn, fails to overcome the coding of its villains as “cool” despite the fact that they are armband-wearing Nazis. This leads to some uncomfortable moments during the broadcast, especially one of the ending sequences that tries to evoke some strange little trip around the world starring the guy Schrödinger's Nazi cat.
View it or delete it?
View it or delete it?
Hellsing Ultimate does not age gracefully. It remains a precursor to ultra-violent anime in the likes of Wicked City and Angel Cop with its own supernatural flare. Hirano's art style makes it stand out from its peers and current cartoons, although the OAV didn't really take off until Madhouse took over production duties. The first two episodes are especially bad, having confusing storyboards and suffering from sound mixing problems.
In 10-hour episodes, the series succeeds in maintaining appeal throughout. I never get bored and the villain reveal at the end of the game is one of my favorite parts. However, I wouldn't recommend it without a short list of caveats, and I could easily see it being too much for a modern audience. Should you remove it from your backlog? If any of the elements I mentioned above aren't your thing, you can skip it. Maybe try Tokyo Ghoul instead (talking about other things in my backlog…)
Final Verdict: Let's take a look at it.
