I've noticed a peculiar discrepancy in my taste for vampiric fare. Though I constantly claim that I find the archetype of the vampire rather repulsive and boring, I'm nevertheless drawn to stories dealing with vampires. There is, however, one concrete ground rule: they must not be romanticized as completely misunderstood victims. Generally speaking, the nastier the depiction of vamps, the better. Which, I suppose, ultimately accounts for my reaction to "Hellsing".
Overall, I loved the series for many reasons: strong characterizations, a twisty (albeit mostly unresolved) plot, a refusal to sugarcoat the nastiness factor, and an awesome soundtrack that sounded like something that just bubbled out of the Louisiana bayous. But the thing that grabbed my attention the most was the method of vampiric infection used: a small microchip that induces the same results that the real thing can.
The one everybody remembers from this series is Alucard, a grinning, fanged spector of the night that, with his crimson riverboat gambler duds, John Lennon glasses, and Zorro hat, looks like he just stepped off the drawing board of comic artist Tim Truman. While he does have a few points of honor here and there (I doubt that he'd be one of the "good guys" otherwise), he's mostly a vicious engine of destruction who lives for nothing more than a good fight. The more carnage he can cause on a worthy opponent, the happier he is. His contempt for "trash vampires" is mainly based on the fact that he considers them not worth his time and trouble, to say nothing of the fact that they can't really command full vampiric abilities. One can't help but feel just a little uneasy about him. You thank God he's on your side, but you also wonder what would be the right circumstances for him to be playing for the opposing team.
His "daughter-in-darkness" (to borrow Ian Eddington's phrase for a converted vamp's relation to the one who turned them), Seras Victoria, is really the series' main protagonist when one thinks about it. Alucard is flashier and more violence-inclined, but "Police Girl", as he affectionately calls her, is the one who changes the most over the course of the story...and not just because she goes from life to undeath. In the beginning, she's D-11's "baby kitty", a girl in her twenties who hasn't really matured all that much. Ironically, it's not until after she's been turned that she starts to grow up. By the final episode, she's become a take-charge, take-no-prisoners fighter on the order of Sarah Connor. She may never quite come to terms with what she is, but she has truly become her own person.
*Spoiler Alert* One thing I found supremely frustrating about the series was the fact that the biggest mystery--who was behind the manufactured vamps?--is never answered directly. Oh, the hints are there from the first episode on, but the fact that the story never turns over its cards and says "This is who done it" is a minor annoyance that took away from the final, rock-em-sock-em finale. Maybe we can see this resolved in a sequel? One can only hope. That aside, this is primo stuff for the vampirically inclined.
Overall, I loved the series for many reasons: strong characterizations, a twisty (albeit mostly unresolved) plot, a refusal to sugarcoat the nastiness factor, and an awesome soundtrack that sounded like something that just bubbled out of the Louisiana bayous. But the thing that grabbed my attention the most was the method of vampiric infection used: a small microchip that induces the same results that the real thing can.
The one everybody remembers from this series is Alucard, a grinning, fanged spector of the night that, with his crimson riverboat gambler duds, John Lennon glasses, and Zorro hat, looks like he just stepped off the drawing board of comic artist Tim Truman. While he does have a few points of honor here and there (I doubt that he'd be one of the "good guys" otherwise), he's mostly a vicious engine of destruction who lives for nothing more than a good fight. The more carnage he can cause on a worthy opponent, the happier he is. His contempt for "trash vampires" is mainly based on the fact that he considers them not worth his time and trouble, to say nothing of the fact that they can't really command full vampiric abilities. One can't help but feel just a little uneasy about him. You thank God he's on your side, but you also wonder what would be the right circumstances for him to be playing for the opposing team.
His "daughter-in-darkness" (to borrow Ian Eddington's phrase for a converted vamp's relation to the one who turned them), Seras Victoria, is really the series' main protagonist when one thinks about it. Alucard is flashier and more violence-inclined, but "Police Girl", as he affectionately calls her, is the one who changes the most over the course of the story...and not just because she goes from life to undeath. In the beginning, she's D-11's "baby kitty", a girl in her twenties who hasn't really matured all that much. Ironically, it's not until after she's been turned that she starts to grow up. By the final episode, she's become a take-charge, take-no-prisoners fighter on the order of Sarah Connor. She may never quite come to terms with what she is, but she has truly become her own person.
*Spoiler Alert* One thing I found supremely frustrating about the series was the fact that the biggest mystery--who was behind the manufactured vamps?--is never answered directly. Oh, the hints are there from the first episode on, but the fact that the story never turns over its cards and says "This is who done it" is a minor annoyance that took away from the final, rock-em-sock-em finale. Maybe we can see this resolved in a sequel? One can only hope. That aside, this is primo stuff for the vampirically inclined.