Hellsing: Ultimate OVA
Vampires, Ghouls, Protestants, Catholics, and Nazis oh my!
A synopsis of the OVA series adapted from the Japanese manga Hellsing, dealing with vampires, religion, and buckets of blood.
The Premise
Someone has been making “freaks”, artificial vampires. The Hellsing Organization is an English institution dedicated to hunting vampires and freaks that would harm Her Majesty (the Queen) and country. At the helm is Sir Integra Hellsing, a stern, brooding yet beautiful woman who took over as a child when her father passed. At her command is Walter, a trusted valet, and Alucard and Seras Victoria.
Alucard and Walter (who is almost seventy) have a long history. Alucard and Victoria are vampires. Alucard turned Seras into a vampire when she was faced with a life or death situation. She chose life after death.
Throw in a shadowy Vatican run establishment called The Iscariot Organization, crazy weaponry and fanatical Nazis and you have the basic premise for Hellsing the OVA series, based on a Japanese manga comic of the same name.
Alucard
He is the vampire of all vampires, the monster of all monsters. He is the ace in the hole, the ultimate weapon, and apparently all knowing and powerful. He is better in all ways than humans, and yet serves a human master. He fights with human weapons. There are no specific or logical explanations for this, other than an ancestor in the Hellsing lineage defeated him.
Alucard is arrogant, tired, and bored. He is also envious of the “beauty” of humans as they age, envious of the ability to grow old and find eternal piece. His restlessness fuels his blood lust, and his devotion to Integra is only overshadowed by his love of violence.
Alucard is the hero, anti hero, and everything in between. No matter what the plot of the episode, no matter who may be in the fore front, in the end the story is always Alucard’s.
Iscariot and Anderson
Of a like mind but a different yoke is the Iscariot Organization, Section XIII of the Vatican. Their mission, like Hellsing’s, is to eradicate the freaks from the earth. This however, includes vampires and Protestants that get in the way.
Their trump card is Paladin Anderson, a priest with a blood lust as thick as Alucard’s, who uses blessed bayonets and has a strange ability to regenerate himself even after taking a bullet to the head. Leading the way is Enrico Maxwell, an arrogant, boastful man who is determined to do everything he can to rise the Vatican back to it’s power of yester years.
Milleunium
A Nazi organization dedicated to the destruction of England and the group responsible for the creation of the fake vampires. The fanatical Major, who doesn’t seem to notice or care that the Nazis lost, leads them.
The Production
High production values are evident from the opening frames as this OVA is beautifully animated. It has a stellar Japanese voice cast and the same English language actors from the previous Hellsing animated series (2001), the Ultimate OVA is a fantastic piece of art. Rich colors, crazy characters, buckets of blood and all sorts of creatures of the night come together to make a solid entry in the anime genre. All of the characters are unique in weaponry, mood, and style (Rip Van Winkle in episode four is a perfect example). Look for the small touches of Japanese humor dispersed throughout. There are currently four episodes in distribution, and Alucard is one of the great characters of recent memory.
