Let me start by saying that I love vampires. I think that they have to be the coolest monsters of all time. So you can see why I was quite happy when I heard about Hellsing. Did it do justice to vampiric lore? Well, lets take a look.

Hellsing takes place in London, in a world where vampires are real, and groups have been formed in each country in order to fight them (though this information is kept from the public). England has the Hellsing Organization that is led by Integra Hellsing, the great-granddaughter of the famous Hellsing who fought Dracula. It's also a fairly religious group, with prayers said before each kill. In addition to the dangers of their work, they are always clashing with the Italian vampire hunters, the Iscariot, who are Catholic while Hellsing is Protestant.

The first episode introduces us to Alucard, Hellsing's secret weapon. Alucard is a vampire that for some reason has joined Hellsing to fight vampires. He is sent to a small village where everyone has been killed, apparently by a vampire. By this point, the police had already sent in two teams to try and take care of the problem. I'm sure you can figure out what happened to them. The last survivor is a girl by the name of Seras Victoria. Though she is a full member of the unit, it seems as though she was treated almost like a mascot. As she's being attacked by her teammates, who are now slaves of the vampire, Seras finds herself in a church. The priest inside turns out to be the vampire who is responsible for the current mess. Alucard shows up, forcing the vampire to take Seras hostage. Without spoiling too much, Seras ends up a vampire. The first episode was mainly all introductions.

The second episode mostly deals with Seras getting used to being a vampire. While I like this, it's kind of weird seeing just how ignorant Seras is. I mean, how is she surprised when she can lift heavy things, has heightened senses, or has to sleep in a coffin type bed? They don't have horror movies or books in Hellsing's world, I guess. The main antagonists in this episode are two teenage vampires who are on a killing spree. Alucard has some interesting comments to say to them when they meet.

The third episode is the best one in my opinion. Paladin Alexander Anderson from the Iscariot arrives in London. Both Alucard and he end up going after the same vampire, and - needless to say - some violence erupts. Anderson is a great character who makes a nice foil to Alucard. As the show progresses, you will see many similarities between the two.

The animation in the show is excellent. It's a very dark show, but this doesn't detract from it a bit. The only thing that people tend to comment on is Seras herself. While I personally have no problems with her, she does look quite different than everyone else. I think it was a symbolic choice by the animators, but who knows? The extras on the DVD are minimal: There's a trailer for the show, and clean opening and endings (the normal stuff). I also must mention the dub, which is by far the best I've ever heard. All the characters are given English accents, since the show does take place in England. Crispin Freeman does an amazing job as Alucard. I'm mostly a sub-only guy, but I actually prefer the English track to the Japanese in this show.

Hellsing is definitely a style over substance show. That isn't to say that the characters and story are uninteresting - just that the main draw of the show so far is the great fights, and how Alucard disposes of the current enemy. This could of course change in future volumes. Also, there's really nothing wrong with this kind of show. Not everything needs to tax the brain like Evangelion or Boogiepop. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and simply enjoy the show.

Distributor: Geneon
Creator: GONZO Digimation
Released: 2002

Video Quality: A+
Audio Quality: A
Presentation: A
Content: B
Overall: B+