Forum - View topicThe Anime Backlog - Hellsing Ultimate
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5387 |
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Did you watch Hellsing: The Dawn? It doesn't really add anything, but's an interesting short nevertheless.
What's funny about Ultimate, is that it was made because Hellsing was popular in America, the first 4 OVAs got dubbed close, for the time, to the original release. But then Geneon Entertainment closed, so they were making this title for an overseas market that had stopped releasing it. By the time Funimation released episodes 5-8, the last episode was due out in Japan. At that point, interest had died down, which might be why it took them another two years before they released the final two episodes. And they came out when simulcasting had really started to pick up, and no one even seemed to notice. Last edited by MarshalBanana on Fri Jun 07, 2024 3:22 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2957 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I didn't watch The Dawn, but I might follow up with it if it's easy to locate.
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b-dragon
Posts: 472 |
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I think I watched this during college and enjoyed it. But unlike most shows that I enjoy, I never wanted to see it again. Rewatching it would have me actually think about it, rather than coast on all the on-screen "cool" factor (which there is a lot of,) and I was pretty sure the show would have a hard time under scrutiny.
Still made for a fun evening to turn my brain off and watch an action-horror romp though. |
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1196 |
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I keep meaning to go back and watch the Hellsing TV series. As I recall when I saw it years ago as it aired on Starz, I liked most of it but didn't care for the second half. But I wonder how I'd feel about it now.
Hellsing Ultimate is mostly pretty fun, but it really runs out of steam hard at the end. Maybe the unfortunate release schedule didn't help, but I got kinda tired of it. I guess this is part of why I wonder if I'll like the TV show more now, since there's no longer the feeling of "I bet if it stuck to the manga I haven't read it'd be better". I'm pretty sure TV's version of the opening chapter is superior to the OVA, at least. And perhaps I wouldn't have felt the same about any of this if I read the manga all the way through instead. I don't doubt it may be paced better. One thing is certain though: The Hellsing TV series soundtrack is fantastic. Still come back to it every so often. As I recall, it even gets reprised in Ultimate for the credits of an episode or two. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4466 |
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I didn't realize the animation studio changed after Madhouse, though I was probably distracted by the NA side of things having so much stop-and-start. Part 4 got out the door right before Geneon fell apart, and that meant knowing subsequent parts were getting made, but not knowing if anyone could or would pick up something partially done by somebody else. Funimation license rescued 1-4 and picked up 5-8, only for the last parts to be out in Japan for some time, only to hear Teliesin Jaffe tell Zac that Funimation hadn't approached New Generation yet about those parts. Considering Funimation released the blu-rays with a box that could only fit 1-8, and then later released 9-10 on its own, it sure seems like they didn't entirely plan around it.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18238 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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A lot of people didn't care as much for the last quarter or so of Hellsing TV, partly because as some point it went into anime-original content. Indeed, the TV show's last villain isn't the most exciting. But boy, it and FMA defined the epitome of anime cool in the early 2000s despite that.
Oh, without question. Opener "A World Without Logos" undeniably belongs on any list of all-time-great anime OPs. I remember Hellsing OVA (which I don't think I've ever rewatched) being quite the spectacle, but I always felt that, in every sense other than animation quality, the TV series was better for equivalent content. I especially wasn't fond of the humorous asides in the OVA, which are true to the manga but not present at all in the TV series outside of maybe the Next Episode bits. (That kind of thing doesn't work for me in The Ancient Magus' Bride, either, although curiously, The Apothecary Diaries does make it work.) I don't recall the TV series having all the sexual stuff Lynzee mentions, either - or at least nowhere near as much, anyway. The TV series might actually hold up better. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6019 |
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At the time it wasn’t since if I recall correctly the manga was a monthly release and it at one point there was a rather long/multiple hiatus which occurred during the Invasion segment. |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1059 Location: Texas |
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Now watch the Abridged series from Team Four Star, it makes it all amazing.
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tintor2
 Posts: 1883 |
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I am like "watch it for the gore" cos any attempt to make Seras's character tragic drops with her ridiculous backstory. Still, I never understood why Alucard kept changing look from Drácula to a guy in black and then a woman in suit. Were they references to the Drácula novel?
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Nyren
Posts: 705 |
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Nyren
Posts: 705 |
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Honestly I think the series holds up fantastically even in 2024 despite anyone's sensitivities. I don't really care for the TV series, but Ultimate is absolutely fantastic in every respect.
Also, a fun fact about the author. The prototype he created for Hellsing, The Legends of Vampire Hunter, is a hentai. A fairly edgy one at that. So if you're wondering why some parts of Hellsing are horny, that's why. |
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ZelosZoidberg
 Posts: 652 |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4616 |
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Oh my God yes. As much as I love DBZ Abridged, I think this was their true magnum opus. There are a few dozen lines that constantly live in my head rent-free.  And because the original was already so ridiculous and over-the-top, the end result doesn't even feel all that different!
As for said original, I had a ton of fun with it. Now do I think it was particularly high quality? I mean, probably not, but I'm a sucker for dumb ridiculous ultraviolence so long as it's presented the right way, and Alucard is absolutely dripping with style. Utterly fantastic dub, too. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 306 |
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I don't mind the Nazis seeming "cool" in an action setting as long as they're ultimately shown to be bad guys and they get what's coming to them. My only problems with them are ultimately the Major and, as you mentioned, Schrodinger. My problem with the Major stems from his satisfaction thinking he's won by defeating Alucard. While he's ultimately proven wrong, I just don't care for any villain who gets to triumph (for a bit) and die smug about it. That's just a personal preference though. Schrodinger on the other hand I've got two issues with. One is agreeing with Lynzee's problem of him seeming too cutesy and almost mascot-ish, which is not something I want to see in a Nazi, but the other is that he just doesn't fit with the whole show. I mean most of the non-humans in the show stick to classic monster archetypes: you've got vampires, artificial vampires, werewolves, a cyborg... and then there's a little kid who's also Schrodinger's Cat somehow? It just doesn't fit. I'm trying to think of an analogy but the best I can come up with at the moment is it'd be like in Fullmetal Alchemist in addition to the Homunculi as the villains, there was a random-ass vampire.
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1230 |
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I also think it holds up, while in turn acknowledging that not everything lands and that even in the mid-00s not everyone enjoyed over the top, edgy, sometimes reallllly bad writing and jokes, just to be cool. "Sensitivities" haven't changed, there's just a plethora of better things to choose from nowadays.
That he's drawn a bunch of bad, rapey hentai isn't really what I would call a "fun fact". An actual fun fact about the author is that he self-admittedly cannot draw hands for shit and that's why almost every single character is wearing gloves. |
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