I'm writing this review as a person who doesn't have unordinary affection for vampires and who didn't read the manga before watching the series.
I decided to watch the show after reading all these good reviews about it. I, however, had hard time enjoying it. There were times when I couldn't stomach all the pointless action and my attention was fleeting away. Between a plot that doesn't get you involved, lazy storytelling, generic characters, mediocre OST, bad animation and even worse CGI, I found Hellsing lacking on all fronts.
The animation bugged me from the get go and it was definitely one of the biggest drawbacks for the series. The artistic style they implemented would have been decent for this dark and Gothic anime, but it is plain to the eye they tried to put too much detail into the work. Perhaps as a result of this the quality is very stuttering, and sometimes the proportions of the faces are off and different perspectives are handled very poorly. To make things worse, CGI is used all the time, and it _sucks_. I found it hard to believe this show was made in 2006, given the quality of its 3d-animation.
The plot, which centers around a war mongering SS officer and his immortal legion of vampiric nazi soldiers, does nothing to get you interested. You pretty much know what is going to happen throughout the series, and the additional plot twist at the end feels like it was glued on top in the last minute.
As if the plot wasn't mind-numbing enough, what's even worse is that most of it is carried out by long monologues. "Show, don't tell" is a good rule of thumb that this show would have made benefit of.
There are some positives too, though. While some action scenes get dragged out too long or don't have any thrill because of the looming feel of omnipotence, there are occasionally some fights that make you excited.
The main characters are also quite likable (Alucard, Hellsing, Walter, Seras), although even their appeal becomes a victim of the series' over- the-top, megalomaniac nature. Despite this, Seras in special was one of the biggest reasons I kept on watching this show. She is actually the only character that develops during the series. There are also some funny scenes involving Seras thrown in here and here, which strongly contrast the otherwise dark and serious atmosphere of the anime. In my opinion those scenes were always a welcome change in the mood, and for me they underlined the importance of her character for the series.
In the end, though, Hellsing OVA is a poorly written anime with a mediocre to bad production. I can suggest this only to the most hard- core vampire fanatics.
I decided to watch the show after reading all these good reviews about it. I, however, had hard time enjoying it. There were times when I couldn't stomach all the pointless action and my attention was fleeting away. Between a plot that doesn't get you involved, lazy storytelling, generic characters, mediocre OST, bad animation and even worse CGI, I found Hellsing lacking on all fronts.
The animation bugged me from the get go and it was definitely one of the biggest drawbacks for the series. The artistic style they implemented would have been decent for this dark and Gothic anime, but it is plain to the eye they tried to put too much detail into the work. Perhaps as a result of this the quality is very stuttering, and sometimes the proportions of the faces are off and different perspectives are handled very poorly. To make things worse, CGI is used all the time, and it _sucks_. I found it hard to believe this show was made in 2006, given the quality of its 3d-animation.
The plot, which centers around a war mongering SS officer and his immortal legion of vampiric nazi soldiers, does nothing to get you interested. You pretty much know what is going to happen throughout the series, and the additional plot twist at the end feels like it was glued on top in the last minute.
As if the plot wasn't mind-numbing enough, what's even worse is that most of it is carried out by long monologues. "Show, don't tell" is a good rule of thumb that this show would have made benefit of.
There are some positives too, though. While some action scenes get dragged out too long or don't have any thrill because of the looming feel of omnipotence, there are occasionally some fights that make you excited.
The main characters are also quite likable (Alucard, Hellsing, Walter, Seras), although even their appeal becomes a victim of the series' over- the-top, megalomaniac nature. Despite this, Seras in special was one of the biggest reasons I kept on watching this show. She is actually the only character that develops during the series. There are also some funny scenes involving Seras thrown in here and here, which strongly contrast the otherwise dark and serious atmosphere of the anime. In my opinion those scenes were always a welcome change in the mood, and for me they underlined the importance of her character for the series.
In the end, though, Hellsing OVA is a poorly written anime with a mediocre to bad production. I can suggest this only to the most hard- core vampire fanatics.