18/365: Hellsing Ultimate

Sometimes I forget which version of Hellsing anime I've seen most recently. Then I watch some of Hellsing Ultimate and I'm reminded immediately that it is a much better product - better animation, better adaptation of the manga, just better overall - and the original anime series just pales by comparison. Getting them confused with each other is just stupid and wrong.

Hellsing is dark and bloody and graphic and intense. People - a lot of people - die all over the place. The colors are vivid and in your face and used in some cases to obviously make you uncomfortable. There is some humor sprinkled here and there but really this is a serious show meant for mature audiences. There are no middle school kids with magic powers and constantly visible panties here.

I kind of love Hellsing. It's brutal and vicious at times, absolutely ridiculous at times, and the head vampire is wonderfully scary while saving the day. He isn't some emo vamp with too much glitter and time on his hands to fall for weepy teenage girls. He shoots to kill. He is made of shadows and demons and blood lust. He fights fellow vampires not just because he is bound to do so by the Hellsing organization, but because his fellow vampires are so much beneath him they don't deserve to continue on with their un-lives.

I wish there were more vampires like Alucard and less like the weak perpetual teenagers that pop up so often in television and movies and animation. Alucard creeps me the heck out and that is awesome.