Operating in modern-day London, the Hellsing Organization is dedicated to ridding England of the scourge of vampires. However, the principle weapon of this organization just happens to be a vampire himself Alucard, who serves the organization’s young leader, the iron willed woman Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing, as well as Alucard’s new apprentice, a young vampire woman named Seras Victoria. Lately, a rash of artificially created vampires has taken the organization by surprise. As it turns out, a Neo Nazi society known as the “Millennium Order” is responsible for creating these vampires. Their sole purpose… to achieve what Nazi Germany couldn’t do over 60 years ago with human soldiers… the total conquest of the world!
Hellsing Ultimate OVA 4 starts off as Hellsing and the Vatican hold a meeting with Her Majesty the Queen of England, their conference is interrupted by a message from The Major and his associates citing their intentions to wage war on England. Meanwhile, a VTOL aircraft carrier called the Eagle gets hijacked by Millennium. Integra decides to send Alucard to deal with the perpetrators and their leader, Rip Van Winkle.
Story:
I have not truly enjoyed a Anime series as much as I have enjoyed the Hellsing Ultimate series, due to the fact that it sticks so closely to the Hellsing Manga written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. Hellsing Ultimate is unique in that it takes much of itself from late 19th century and early 20th century Western fiction that includes themes primarily from H. P. Lovecraft’s, Cthulhu works and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hellsing Ultimate also draws on inspiration from dozens of different anime/manga/movies/novels/. Some are coincidental, while others are actually cited as sources of inspiration. One thing no one has agreed upon is the exact details of the “Vampire Lore” of the Hellsing Ultimate universe which is a mixture of many different fictional portrayals including Stoker and Ricean vampires.
The Hellsing Ultimate universe also adds the “Thousand Year Reich” which Adolf Hitler had wanted to establish in World War II, and various other elements from Neo-Nazism into its plot to the point were it becomes frighteningly real and scary. And this is were Hellsing Ultimate rises above the rest is the fact that it is able to incorporate so many different vampire mythology’s with modern and past events in history, such as Hitlers Third Reich and World War 2 into something like a animated show. The way it all this comes together is just amazing and like I mentioned before it becomes frighteningly real and scary, at one point I was so freaked out watching OVA 4 that I was getting goosebumps.
There is little limit to the atrocities characters can commit in the story ranging from rape, mutilation, torture and cannibalism yet at the same time it delves heavily into strength of character, kindness and heroism. The story also presents several interesting and diverse philosophical themes and phrases riddled with possible alternate meanings. One of the most noted examples is the question, “Are you a dog, a man or a monster?” Alucard often raises this question as well as the concept of being ‘Human’.
Characters:
Where do I start, there are so many awesome characters in the show it would be impossible for me to cover them all in just one blog post. So instead I will be focusing on the main character of the show “Alucard”. Throughout the entire series you get the idea that Alucard is “bored” and gets his entertainment out of killing, war,chaos and fighting stronger opponents. (He is a monster after all, and he himself admits it more than once during the course of the show.) He is the embodiment of pure evil, the poster boy for insanity who finds a sadistic pleasure from violence and torturing his victims before killing them. But having said that during the course of the show we get to see glimpses of his “humanity”.
We get to see this first hand when he meets the Queen of England, he removes his glasses in respect and kneels in front of the Queen allowing her to touch his face, something you don’t see during the show as Alucard does not like being touched especially by humans. There seems to be a history between the Queen of England and Alucard that goes back 50 years, what type of relationship it was I am unsure of he also comments on her beauty telling her: “You are without a doubt more beautiful now that ever before my Queen.”
But near the the end of OVA 4 we are ripped back to the reality and reminded of the fact that Alucard is still a monster. We see his sadistic brutality first hand as Alucard toys with Rip van Winkle and tortures her slowly during the last 15 minutes of the show making for one of the most intensely disturbing scenes of any Anime show that I have watched so far.
Animation:
The animation is unique and highly detailed, it is almost always quite bloody, featuring gore and dismemberment in a manner which, while grotesque, is often amusing. There was no details or expense spared in creating the fighting and action sequences used. The level and quality of the CG used the Hellsing Ultimate OVA’S matches and even surpasses that of what is being done in full length movies like Vexile and Appleseed: Deus Ex Machina. I take my hat off to Satelight, GDH and Geneon Entertainment for there great work on the show, and I can now fully understand the reasons behind the delays releasing the show on DVD.
Sound/Music:
The sound and music is also of high quality, as the show is littered with classical composed pieces adding to the overall atmosphere of the show. Special mention must go to the classic pieces that get used at the end of each Hellsing Ultimate OVA. They range from: Gradus Vita, Merche Funebre, Letzte Bataillon composed by Hayato Matsuo and performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. And then there was the classic piece at the end of OVA 4 called “Das Engelandlied” composed by Hermann Lons, a well known German who is famous for his famous folksongs during the World War 2 era.
Enjoyment:
This was one of the most disturbing Hellsing Ultimate OVA’S yet, but the level of enjoyment was very high. I am most certainly going to re-watch this episode again as there was so much to take in that I missed some of the shows finer details. Hellsing Ultimate is shaping up to be one of the best Vampire themed Anime shows out there, and will one day sit next to the other great vampire story namely Vampire Hunter D. I can highly recommend this to anyone who loves there vampire lore and World War 2 history.
http://larcho.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/hellsing-ultimate-ova-4-review/
