In the 1995 Western “Tombstone” when Kurt Russell
furiously declares, “YOU TELL EM IM COMING AND HELLS COMIN WITH ME!!!” you
believe him, even if he’s being metaphorical.
Well, if that same threat were made at Alucard…theyd get the term
literally thrown back in their face.
Cause that’s what the big bad red coat sporting bad ass did as he finally
returned to the picture after sitting out the last third of his own show…he
brought Hell back home to London…well more than was already there.
Ive yet to write a review where I truly gave the
animation it’s proper due on Hellsing Ultimate.
This show is chock full of nightmare fuel and images of a supremely
haunting nature. It’s hard to believe
the amount of blood and gore but also the images of bodies rising from oceans
of said blood by the thousands and charging against helpless baddies. Characters change shapes and forms almost at
a whim and everything just feels so busy and hectic…so it’s a surprise but not
really a surprise when you learn that not one but THREE animation studios had a
hand in this project: Studio Satelight for Episodes I–IV; Studio Madhouse for
Episodes V–VII; and Studio Graphinica for the final three episodes. While I don’t know much about the works of
the first and third studios, Madhouse is a perfect fit for Hellsing given it’s
synonymous with extreme action Anime like X and Ninja Scroll. They are animating the hell out of it (no pun
intended). We really couldn’t be any
further from the TV Anime. While the style
was suitable for Hellsing, the TV budget (and the fact that the manga wasn’t
even close to being done) couldn’t give us even a fully animated minute of all
this chaos. Graphinica isn’t a slouch
either given the intense duels in Episode 8.
So to all studios involved, well done.
Action was at the forefront of everything in this
penultimate chapter of Hellsing Ultimate.
From the desperate defense of Hellsing HQ to Alucards more than epic
return, it was time for the good guys to start getting in some payback, even if
they weren’t done taking their losses. The
shows penchant to dedicate so much time to the terror of seeing a city
slaughtered little by little makes me wonder if some of that time could have
been spent deepening the bonds between characters. Don’t get me wrong, I like pretty much all of
the Hellsing crew and I know enough about them to care whether or not they live
through this. And it sucks that Pip bit
the dust, though he still aided Seras in a way.
But there could have been more scenes with Seras and Pip interacting and
getting closer despite an initial attraction to one another. I get that action and terror are the first
order of business but that doesn’t mean we can get some more fun character
interactions…or we can just listen to the Major prattle on about his war fetish
for the millionth time.
Seras’ unearthed history was one of, if not the, toughest
scenes to sit through so far…and that’s coming after seeing Nazi Vampires and
the Vatican rain down death upon a helpless London. I wont even begin to try and describe it but
it definitely made Seras becoming the Vampire she was always meant to be all
the better. She overcame her trauma and
gave Zorin something to be scared of, something her mind powers couldn’t defeat
anymore. We’d lost London, the Wild
Geese were mostly slaughtered and Pip was dead…it was time for some freaking
payback and seeing Seras deliver was one of the truest F YEAH moments in the
series…plus her crimson red uniform update was sexy too. It’s a shame Pip wont be getting more to do
but the valiant Wild Geese Commander was a bad ass right til the end and even
managed to get a kiss in with the woman he was falling for minute by
minute. Much like Sir Penwood from last
week, Hellsing Ultimate knows how to do good, heroic ends for good characters.
But anyway, Alucard was back and wow…his return was worth
three episodes of waiting. Few
characters in Anime feel as unstoppable as the Vampire King Dracula (seriously,
you never figured that out?). And much
like the death of Rip Van Winkle by his hand, the death and destruction Alucard
unleashed was just what the Vatican forces and Millenium Army had coming…but
man it was still scary as all get out.
To balance that all out, we finally got the second (and I guess final)
showdown between Anderson and Alucard.
Even with an arm about to fall off, Alexander Freaking Anderson still
fought his long time rival and Alucard was happy to oblige with some awesome
gun play against the mad priests bayonettes.
What surprised me was when Anderson threatened to use a holy relic to up
his battle strength and Alucard wished for otherwise, not because he was scared
of getting killed by Anderson, but because it’s not how he wants Anderson to
kill him. It’s one of the few vulnerable
moments weve seen for Alucard, someone who sacrificed his humanity a long time
ago but sees the value in the human spirit through Integra, Seras and
Anderson. “A monster like me shouldn’t
be killed by a monster…but by a human.
Please Anderson…don’t become like me, a monster.” It was stunning to hear Alucard say those
words and I wonder if we’ll get more into that before the series ends.
I’ll wrap this up because this has gone on for a bit…but
wow a lot happened in these two episodes, especially Episode 8. I haven’t even mentioned the fall of the
psychotic Maxwell by Anderson’s hands. I
wonder how things would’ve gone if Maxwell was the lead villain of the series
instead of the Major. Both the same
tendency to yammer on about their ideas, fetishes and holier than thou
attitudes but…idk maybe Maxwell is the lesser of two literal evils? The Major has done nothing but smile and
monologue and I get the feeling that no matter what happens in the end, somehow
he wins and that doesn’t feel right to me.
Not even Alucard’s return was enough to put the fear of God into the
Major like it did Maxwell. The dude
needs to go, I just hope its done in a satisfactory manner.
Well with only two more episodes left, things were left
on a pretty big cliffhanger with Alucard and Anderson’s duel left unfinished
for the time being. Hellsing Ultimate
has been a bloody wild ride so far with horror for days and well done
action. Here’s hoping it’s saved the
best for last (cause right now Episode 8 is going to be pretty hard to
top). Check back this Thursday, HALLOWEEN,
for the no holds barred series finale of Hellsing Ultimate right here at the
Gundam Anime Corner.
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