Hellsing OVA #1
Feb. 16th, 2006 02:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lissa_quonWoo, anyone who has spent abit of time with me or on this journal probably has heard about my obsession with the manga series Hellsing. So if you are sick of the topic and my ramblings about it, feel free to skip on ahead. Cause I ain't changing my tune anytime soon.
That briefing aside. OMG THE NEW HELLSING OVA IS SOOO DAMN PRETTY. *AHEM* alright, now that that has passed onward to more critques. I'm going to try to present this in a bit more orgainized light than I normally do. My normal way of discussing any series I like is to bounce up and down and squee and happily gibber like one who has just consumed the sugar content of the entire Wonka candy factory. So we're going to try to take this slowly and analytically. Why? who knows why
Alright, first impression - damn pretty, kinda sad about lack of an actual opening theme and such. But this is the first episode so they might have one later.
Story - For better or for worse this is practically verbatim from the manga. I had no subtitles ( but could follow along pretty good with the manga in my hand. For reference my knowledge of japanese consists of 'idiot' 'what?' 'who?' 'mom, dad' and 'redirect fate.'
Though the opening is abit odd, using part of chapter 2 - Master of Monster as an opening and then jumping back to events of chapter 1 and then after main events from that, cutting back to chapter 2 again. Seeing as Master of Monster is a flashback to events in the Hellsing family 10 years ago I found this abit strange and jarring.
Perhaps when I have actual translations and see the stuff in better context I'll get over it. But first impression is a bit 'wait...WHAT?
Art - ok two sections to this cause I'm an art/animation dork
Animation - Alright, frame rates and such are always a battle of quality vs. budget/time for most animation, anime is hardly an exception. In this case, nothing really stood out, nothing outstandingly smooth or jerky. The meshing of cg elements to cell style figures went pretty well. There are a few exceptions with these highly detailed backgrounds and building clashing with the characters. But I nit pick.
Character Design - The previous anime series produced for Hellsing had many issues with keeping things on model. Alucard's hat was my main source of agrivation when watching it, I swear it must have been the inspiration for the police hat gag in Scary Movie 3. The brim kept changing sizes, to be small, large and holy shit, is that a sattelite dish?!
This might have something to do with the manga art rapidly improving from clunky and almost awkward and fugly to awe inspiring level it is now. Characters hardly resemble their earlier selves anymore. Hell, one of the main female characters has gained and lost cup sizes from book to book, a fact that has even been mentioned in the commentary at the end of one of the books.
In this instance however case, Ganeon has suceeded. Alucard looks more like his current borderline sexy self and less like his fugly predecesor. His hat stayed the same throughout the 50 minute episode. And his hair was long and swishy and short and such at the appropriate ocasions so all is well. Ceres's boobs are abit on the large and ballon side, but enh, that's usual. The rest of the Hellsing Organization was spot on. However Anderson has case of oranguatan arms, at least it seems like it to me. But Anderson has always been abit weird so I'm going to hold off judgement until another time.
Voice Acting - The voice casting seems fairly decent. The actors seem alright in their roles, some small bit parts lacked conviction. The laughing priest/vampire in the beginning, weakest. laugh. ever. But the main characters sound great so far, Integra is badass as per usual, Ceres sounds lost and confused, which she is.
And the voice actor for Alucard as per usual, sounds like he is enjoying himself too much. I'm fairly sure he is the same VA of the Count from Gankutsuou, which makes sense since they are the same sort of character.
Anderson, the Paladin from Iscariot however was abit jarring to me. This was not due to his performance at all but rather due to the fact that he was given a rather large amount of English bible verses to say which came out oddly garbled to my english speaking ears. It was like 'buzz buzz thoseu buzz buzz JESUS CHRISTu buzzz buzz AAMEAN. I really wish I could transcribe it better, words can't express how annunciated his Amens were, they were like Platonic forms of Amen. Such a round bold sound, a solid Amen, you hear that and KNOW that you are going to burn in hell for crossing this guy.
Sound - Ok, I admit, I am in fricking LUST with the sound crew for this series. When they walk on floor boards they sound like they're actually walking on floor boards, with creaks and hollow spots and such. The stabbing sounds and splatters and such are also equally well done. Sound is one of those things you rarely notice unless it's done badly or amazingly well. This is one of those happy amazingly well occasions.
Music - Blah. I'm not loving the music so far. Rather netural, non descript. The ending theme is a beautiful symphony with a choir and such. Sadly the rest of the music is nowhere near that. This is one case where the old series actually beats the new one. I loathe the job the old series did but I loved the music. It was dark when it needed to be and had this jazzy bit for the more badass fights and just great atmoshere all around. In fact I have the old theme song stuck in my head right now, and I LIKE IT.
Overall - I can not wait for the next episode to come out and I swear THIS TIME I'll wait for the subtitles. Speaking of which, those interested can pick up the torrent file of the fansubs Here
That briefing aside. OMG THE NEW HELLSING OVA IS SOOO DAMN PRETTY. *AHEM* alright, now that that has passed onward to more critques. I'm going to try to present this in a bit more orgainized light than I normally do. My normal way of discussing any series I like is to bounce up and down and squee and happily gibber like one who has just consumed the sugar content of the entire Wonka candy factory. So we're going to try to take this slowly and analytically. Why? who knows why
Alright, first impression - damn pretty, kinda sad about lack of an actual opening theme and such. But this is the first episode so they might have one later.
Story - For better or for worse this is practically verbatim from the manga. I had no subtitles ( but could follow along pretty good with the manga in my hand. For reference my knowledge of japanese consists of 'idiot' 'what?' 'who?' 'mom, dad' and 'redirect fate.'
Though the opening is abit odd, using part of chapter 2 - Master of Monster as an opening and then jumping back to events of chapter 1 and then after main events from that, cutting back to chapter 2 again. Seeing as Master of Monster is a flashback to events in the Hellsing family 10 years ago I found this abit strange and jarring.
Perhaps when I have actual translations and see the stuff in better context I'll get over it. But first impression is a bit 'wait...WHAT?
Art - ok two sections to this cause I'm an art/animation dork
Animation - Alright, frame rates and such are always a battle of quality vs. budget/time for most animation, anime is hardly an exception. In this case, nothing really stood out, nothing outstandingly smooth or jerky. The meshing of cg elements to cell style figures went pretty well. There are a few exceptions with these highly detailed backgrounds and building clashing with the characters. But I nit pick.
Character Design - The previous anime series produced for Hellsing had many issues with keeping things on model. Alucard's hat was my main source of agrivation when watching it, I swear it must have been the inspiration for the police hat gag in Scary Movie 3. The brim kept changing sizes, to be small, large and holy shit, is that a sattelite dish?!
This might have something to do with the manga art rapidly improving from clunky and almost awkward and fugly to awe inspiring level it is now. Characters hardly resemble their earlier selves anymore. Hell, one of the main female characters has gained and lost cup sizes from book to book, a fact that has even been mentioned in the commentary at the end of one of the books.
In this instance however case, Ganeon has suceeded. Alucard looks more like his current borderline sexy self and less like his fugly predecesor. His hat stayed the same throughout the 50 minute episode. And his hair was long and swishy and short and such at the appropriate ocasions so all is well. Ceres's boobs are abit on the large and ballon side, but enh, that's usual. The rest of the Hellsing Organization was spot on. However Anderson has case of oranguatan arms, at least it seems like it to me. But Anderson has always been abit weird so I'm going to hold off judgement until another time.
Voice Acting - The voice casting seems fairly decent. The actors seem alright in their roles, some small bit parts lacked conviction. The laughing priest/vampire in the beginning, weakest. laugh. ever. But the main characters sound great so far, Integra is badass as per usual, Ceres sounds lost and confused, which she is.
And the voice actor for Alucard as per usual, sounds like he is enjoying himself too much. I'm fairly sure he is the same VA of the Count from Gankutsuou, which makes sense since they are the same sort of character.
Anderson, the Paladin from Iscariot however was abit jarring to me. This was not due to his performance at all but rather due to the fact that he was given a rather large amount of English bible verses to say which came out oddly garbled to my english speaking ears. It was like 'buzz buzz thoseu buzz buzz JESUS CHRISTu buzzz buzz AAMEAN. I really wish I could transcribe it better, words can't express how annunciated his Amens were, they were like Platonic forms of Amen. Such a round bold sound, a solid Amen, you hear that and KNOW that you are going to burn in hell for crossing this guy.
Sound - Ok, I admit, I am in fricking LUST with the sound crew for this series. When they walk on floor boards they sound like they're actually walking on floor boards, with creaks and hollow spots and such. The stabbing sounds and splatters and such are also equally well done. Sound is one of those things you rarely notice unless it's done badly or amazingly well. This is one of those happy amazingly well occasions.
Music - Blah. I'm not loving the music so far. Rather netural, non descript. The ending theme is a beautiful symphony with a choir and such. Sadly the rest of the music is nowhere near that. This is one case where the old series actually beats the new one. I loathe the job the old series did but I loved the music. It was dark when it needed to be and had this jazzy bit for the more badass fights and just great atmoshere all around. In fact I have the old theme song stuck in my head right now, and I LIKE IT.
Overall - I can not wait for the next episode to come out and I swear THIS TIME I'll wait for the subtitles. Speaking of which, those interested can pick up the torrent file of the fansubs Here
May I link to your entry on the Hellsing OVA?
Date: 2006-07-22 09:40 pm (UTC)May I have your permission to make a link to this entry? I certainly won't, if you don't want me to.
Let me know!
Sincerely,
dianafuse
Re: May I link to your entry on the Hellsing OVA?
Date: 2006-07-23 02:04 am (UTC)I'm glad to hear someone found my fan ramble useful.
Re: May I link to your entry on the Hellsing OVA?
Date: 2006-07-23 01:13 pm (UTC)Cheers!
dianafuse
Re: May I link to your entry on the Hellsing OVA?
Date: 2006-08-01 09:26 pm (UTC)http://mysite.verizon.net/respsqwo/crossroad/id21.html
Please feel free to browse the rest of the site.
Thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 04:08 pm (UTC)On a story arc note... I know that most harcore Hellsing manga fans cringe at anime storyline, but damn it, I cringed when I saw all that Nazi arc come into play in manga... Granted, the manga is totally smashing, rocking, whatever, but it does it all to a dead horse :)
That "south american nazi lab" plot was rotten decades before Hellsing even started...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 07:17 pm (UTC)I hear you on the Nazi front, I'm a bit of a Hellboy fan too so all the nazi stuff gets boring after awhile. You can't swing a dead/live cat boy in a comic shop without hitting yet another nazi story.
The concept of nazis in South America or nazis with crazy paranormal powers may be abit overused. But it's because there is precedence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_mysticism) on both accounts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODESSA).
And one would be hard pressed to come up with a greater villian for this century than the nazis. So regardless of whether or not anyone should beat that horse again it's there and quite within reach of human imagination to do so.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 08:08 pm (UTC)I just meant that for the time the manga was done, to quote you, "THIS century", the subject is way overdone... Or maybe it's just that part of me that always scoffs at how every single book/game/movie fails to properly mix in the modern age technology and wishes Hirano instead took the same "techno" route that was taken in TV series, too, but made it better?.. That "incognito" arc with all of the "Dark Continent", "Seth" (OK, Egypt is in Africa, but it is not from "dark" part of Africa) and cybernetics (like lazer beams) piled together wasn't the best story, either... But that piece of music when he summons Seth (starting with repetitive "Yeh yeh yeh" vocal) is nice enough ;) Doesn't beat the opening theme, but still.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-03 11:30 pm (UTC)But yea, nazis are so overdone any more, I don't care too badly as long as they're overdone well.
Technology wise I do wish they had played more with the idea of the 'chip' vampires and the like. They talk about them abit more in the series but don't go anywhere, in the manga I don't even recall them discussing it too much. Hirano was in a hurry to get the party started with the nazis I assume. But yea, Hirano was so wrapped up in his research of the nazis of the past he didn't take into too much account the tech of the present. I mean, seriously...zepplins? How the hell do you hide that?
The Incognito story made no sense sadly. the character design I think was the worst part; a nuetered albino african with a head shaped like...something, a jamacain cadence (dub) and a fondness for Egyption malice deities. With major reworking he could have worked, but we're talking major working here.
Oh yea, that song is pretty awesome, than again it's hard to find one that stinks in that whole series. The OVA soundtrack is elevator music in comparison.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-04 01:26 am (UTC)The only thing a Zeppelin does better than a cargo plane is just hover "up there" indefinitely. Kinda "a cruise liner in the sky" thing -- which they were actually built like, accomodating casinos, concert halls and the like :)
Some parts of Incognito make sense. Neutered -- well, they are shapeshifters, after all, you can see Alucard as a *girl* in the manga. And technology (and the way they reproduce the vampires via it) focuses on asexual means like cloning. OTOH, his body modification didn't work well... They should have made him have functional implants instead of body jewelry... Implants actually enhancing his powers even more. Then again, maybe they had a hard time coming up with how would Alucard defeat him in such a case :)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-04 03:43 am (UTC)I repect that Incognito is a shapeshifter, but when he threatens to rape someone while still showing quite plainly he's not equipped just makes him look silly. Not saying I wanted to see his equipment but yea...empty rape threats made him even sillier.
Yea the zeps worked in Hellsing only in the 'bwahahaha no one can find my fortress in the sky' sort of way, and even then it wasn't that spectacular. The zeppelins are where my suspension of belief takes a nose dive. One zeppelin? Could be possible, but a whole fleet of them is where I draw the line. No place to land them without anyone noticing let alone radar these days.
Plus I'm not sure what they're filling these zeps up with, but say someone smoked and got a wee bit careless...fire and explosions kills even artificial vamps.