Hellsing - The Collection (Box Set) (DVD)

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Here, Hellsing (aka van Helsing) has indeed tracked Dracula back to his castle and lands. There, he indeed kills Dracula's servants and various minions, including Mina. He informs Dracula of this as he plunges a stake through his heart as Dracula gasps in disbelief, "I lost?" Humbled by his own powerful being losing to such a foe, he swears fealty to the Hellsing family, and rather than having his head cut off to finish ...
...vampire of all? And so, Hellsing founds the Hellsing Organisation, a civilian outfit which in reality is a Protestant Order of Holy Knights shrouded in the utmost of secrecy and answering pretty much only to royalty. Fiercely devoted to their sworn duty of serving the royal house and all of Britain by destroying vampires, they are an almost anachronistic organisation in the 21st century.

Modern weaponry aplenty abounds, but duty, ... more

Every culture around the world has its own version of the vampire legend. The legends and myths reach back to the darkest reaches of human myth, evolving over time from demons to be feared to creatures that are celebrated in modern fiction. Perhaps the most famous of all is the incarnation of the vampire found in Bram Stoker's Dracula, which seized the public's imagination world-wide and even today is a clear forebear of most modern vampire popular literature. Countless undead haunt our books and screens, where we can mostly recognise the conventions of the Stoker universe: weapons consisting of crosses, holy water, wooden stakes, an vampiric aversion to sunlight and garlic, and of course, a thirst for blood and a raging sexual appetite.

Over the course of the last few decades though, we humans seem to have decided that as undead as the vampire may be, he also is a tormented soul. Indeed, Rice's own vampires may have been the heroes of her tales, sharing their thoughts, desires and woes, and Twilight's Edward may have been courtly and gentle, but they are merely reflections shown to us by stoker yet again. For while Dracula was told from Harker and his companions' own Victorian point of view, we heard very little from Dracula himself, though knowing the legend of how he became vampire in itself let's us glimpse the truth that lie between the pages: Dracula loved truly, and it was this that drove the darkness in his soul at the loss of that love. Now imagine for a moment that that we have stepped inside the pages and that it is reality. And reality is often very different from the fiction that is written about it, so here, we find the truth while wandering this world.

Here, Hellsing (aka van Helsing) has indeed tracked Dracula back to his castle and lands. There, he indeed kills Dracula's servants and various minions, including Mina. He informs Dracula of this as he plunges a stake through his heart as Dracula gasps in disbelief, "I lost?" Humbled by his own powerful being losing to such a foe, he swears fealty to the Hellsing family, and rather than having his head cut off to finish the killing job, Hellsing takes him back to England where he has based himself. Why? Because this is Victorian England, where the queen is reverenced and duty to country is expected, old chap. And what better way for a vampire hunter to kill vampires than hunting them with the most powerful vampire of all? And so, Hellsing founds the Hellsing Organisation, a civilian outfit which in reality is a Protestant Order of Holy Knights shrouded in the utmost of secrecy and answering pretty much only to royalty. Fiercely devoted to their sworn duty of serving the royal house and all of Britain by destroying vampires, they are an almost anachronistic organisation in the 21st century.

Modern weaponry aplenty abounds, but duty, honour, and a fierce sense of God and country drive them. Probably just as well, given that they need silver bullets, fire, holy water and the like to kill the evil undead that continue to appear and stalk the unknowing populace. Even more so when you realise a new breed of vampire is on the loose, this time made with modern technology. And our "friend" Dracula? He is still the same insane, lonely being he was back in Victoria's reign, but this time he is getting his kicks from fighting other vampires and their ghouls. Just as well really, as the Hellsings had experimented upon him to create the ultimate vampire to serve as their trump card. He is definitely dangerous, so much so that the current head of the Hellsing Organisation's father locked him away for 50 years and kept him a secret. A secret so deep that he even renamed the Count, calling him Alucard, and only revealing his existence to his only child upon his death bed, as familial greed for position and power meant his child was in danger from her own only living relative. Only a Hellsing can control him, as the bond is between the house of Hellsing and Alucard; Alucard has no other loyalties. So he who rules the house, rules Alucard, making it imperative that only a virtuous person remain at the helm.

The series is indeed a reimagining of the original Dracula universe, with storylines running in our modern times. Vampires might be roaming about, but knights the Hellsing truly are, beginning each battle with a call to duty from their Queen, and an uttering of their Order's prayer, "In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation. Amen," followed by a benediction that "God and the Queen go with you." With that though, tanks are loaded, helicopters ascend to the skies, and soldiers with all sorts of nifty guns gear up. This onscreen adaption of Hirano Kouta's manga of the same name is definitely full of action and provides plenty of gore for fans of horror. This is Dracula alright, but on steroids.

Two hundred years and being manipulated by the Hellsing have definitely not improved his disposition, which has developed a definite sado-masochistic bent. Indeed, he glories in slaughter but takes his time until bored, purposefully inticing his opponents to hurt him while uttering vile ephitphets and sarcastic observations. He completes his missions, but on his own terms, as evidenced in the opening episode where he makes the young female police officer Seras Victoria a vampire. Not that he is without his own sense of honour, which we see glimmers of when we least expect it.

The vampires, as always, serve as mirrors in which we see our distorted selves, each appearing as an archetype of the sort of persons we find in everyday society. Nor are the supposed righteous seen without flaw. Like a microscope, their inherent personal flaws are exposed one by one, as petty greed, cowardice, self importance, and an intense desire for political gain unmask each and everyone as the deeply flawed beings they truly are. Even the reverenced queen is not excused from this unflinching scrutiny, and it adds an element of realism to the story as a whole.

The art of the anime strongly resembles the art of the manga with the animators doing a good job copying the mangaka's unique style. This is definitely not a lovely romance, and the artwork reflects that of the genre it belongs to. Alucard and the other vampires are not idealised beauties of the night, rather they look like average citizenry. Alucard himself, when glimpsed without his trademark glasses, appropriately enough, rather favours the actual portrait of the man who inspired the original Stoker creation. The colours reflect the dark themes of the storyline, with a lots of muted colurs playing about, with Alucard's trademark scarlet garb approriately heralding the splashes of bright blood about to flow across the scenes. Admittedly, it is not as crisp as the art of the later OVAs, which are much richer in clarity and detail, though both adaptions flow fluidly across the screen. Movement is sinuously smooth and the eye tracks the rapid movments with ease, falling deeper into the scenes that unfold.

Adding depth to the imagery onscreen, the soundtrack offered up here is defintely one of the most original I have come across. Yasushi Ishii defintely lived up to his reputation when he penned this score. We get a score as frenzied as Alucard at full fever pitch, with roaring garage band sound alternating between jazzy numbers and synth beats as appropriate. It is one of the few anime soundtracks I have heard that manages to stand on its own against the creations of the likes of Yoko Kanno (Cowboy BeBop, Ghost in the Shell). Each of the 20 songs present perfectly evokes the mood of the scene it is presented within, and it drives the piece forward in perfect complement for a cohesive whole.

That is not to say that it is a piece without its flaws. Foremost, I must warn purists that the storyline here diverges from the manga six episodes in. Well plotted diversions that flow well within the storyline they may be, but not true to their original source at all. If you want purity, look over to the second screen adaption, easily told apart from this as they are a series of 6 labelled as Hellsing OVA (Original Video Adaption) and branded as Hellsing Ultimate.

The second flaw lies in presentation. Call me picky, but I really do not like the voices on the English soundtrack. For once, we do indeed have British characters with British accents, but what we get is a mixed bag of American and British stage and screen actors doing voice over work. As a result some of the accents are cringeworthy to say the least, and the quality of the voicework ranges from tolerable to "bedtime story voices". This is a flaw I find in general however with Western voiceover work. While certain intonations and "making voices" is acceptable and expected if you are doing the likes of Toy Story, it seriously falls down when you are supposed to be actually acting a serious role. The lack of voice training for this type of dramatic art is palpable here, and so it is once again that the Japanese professional voice artists, or seiyuu, seriously outshine their Western counterparts. No aping at being Alucard or Integra Hellsing in order to provide sound to moving images, instead, the Japanese seiyuu ARE their characters, with the animated artwork providing visual confirmation of the reality our ears have delivered. Luckily, the DVD offering has the choice of being viewed with either soundtrack, and English subtitles can be turned on for the hearing impaired or the non Japanese speaker.

The subtitles themselves are not without fault, however, with the occasional awkward bit of phrasing being apparent. By far the most amusing glitch though has to be Alucard's name. The Japanese have no "L" and most make a sort of "R" sound when attempting a word with an "L" in it. So it is that Alucard is rendered Arucard in the spoken Japanese. Not a problem in itself, but what a mistake for the subtitlers to make when they used ARUCARD as the typed subtitle. Obviously someone in the proof reading department completely missed the entire point of the name being an anagram of Dracula's actual name, eh?

Sadly though, we also lose some quality thanks to it being a single DVD packed with all 335 minutes of the series. The compression rate means that sound and picture quality are not as good as one could hope, which given the musical soundtrack quality and the excellent artwork is genuinely a shame. Still, it is very viewable and without a doubt one of the very best anime series I have watched in quite sometime.

 

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