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MarshalBanana
Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5423
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 2:19 pm
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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
Joined: 02 May 2011
Posts: 2974
Location: Email for assistance only
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 2:27 pm
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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
Joined: 21 Apr 2021
Posts: 477
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 2:49 pm
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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
Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1212
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 2:54 pm
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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
Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4498
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 3:32 pm
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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
Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18285
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 3:37 pm
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Kicksville wrote: | 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. |
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.
Quote: | One thing is certain though: The Hellsing TV series soundtrack is fantastic. Still come back to it every so often. |
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
Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 6087
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 3:46 pm
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Kicksville wrote: | 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. |
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
Joined: 17 Jan 2009
Posts: 1063
Location: Texas
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 4:14 pm
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Now watch the Abridged series from Team Four Star, it makes it all amazing.
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tintor2
Joined: 11 Aug 2010
Posts: 1928
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 5:23 pm
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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
Joined: 07 Oct 2014
Posts: 706
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 7:15 pm
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tintor2 wrote: | 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? |
To my knowledge, no. Alucard is basically a shapeshifter here. He can appear however he wants when he wants, apparently with the exception of his original Dracula form unless he just decided to do that on a whim. His female form is what he appeared as during World War II so that's he went back to it when fighting a vampirized Walter since they fought together during the war.
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Nyren
Joined: 07 Oct 2014
Posts: 706
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 7:22 pm
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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
Joined: 23 May 2018
Posts: 662
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 7:43 pm
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trilaan wrote: | Now watch the Abridged series from Team Four Star, it makes it all amazing. |
Second this. Taka is at his best as Alucard and I find it very hard to pick between that role and his Perfect Cell as his best role, but I think he has more fun doing Alucard because he wrote most of the scripts if I remember correctly.
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Top Gun
Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4655
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 7:58 pm
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trilaan wrote: | Now watch the Abridged series from Team Four Star, it makes it all amazing. |
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
Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 334
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 8:48 pm
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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
Joined: 10 Nov 2018
Posts: 1257
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 9:43 pm
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Nyren wrote: | Honestly I think the series holds up fantastically even in 2024 despite anyone's sensitivities. |
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.
Nyren wrote: | 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. |
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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