So, the first episode of the OVA is out.
Positives:
-Sticking EXACTLY to the manga. Almost line for line as far as I could tell. Coupled with the trailers I've seen, this means we can expect to see, in fully animated action, everything. Seras' toting twin Harkonnens. The Brazilian Hotel fight. Das Millenium blimps over London. The 'GENTLEMEN! I LOVE WAR!" speech. Rip Van FUCKING Winkel. I've even seen hints, hints mind you, that they may have animated some of Dawn, though that could just be the WW2 flashbacks in the main manga itself, especially as they don't seem to have done CrossFire.
-Oh fuck me, but the animations lush. In places, it's cutting above film standard for five years ago. At points in the Ireland scenes it could almost be Blood: The Last Vampire.
-Beautiful effects and fight choreography. Andersons holy magic looks so much better than in the TV series it's almost unbelievable. The fight is brilliance.
Negatives:
-They changed the music. I think they might have used a remix of 'Fool Cross Over Nirvana' for the fight between Alucard and Anderson, but apart from that it was all cold, ambient stuff. Which I would normally like, but Yasushii Ishii's OSTs for Hellsing were so absolutely fucking brilliant that it's criminal not to have them married with this superior animation.
-They followed the manga exactly. So, 1 ova episode per volume, means that the pacing is, quite simply, ridiculous. I quite suspect that, based on just this OVA, someone who was not a fan of the series would hate it. The TV series did, for its faults, have wonderful pacing (I've always found the absolutely shit ending doubly surprising given the skill with which they invented material to spin out the initial episodes). Also, all the other manga elements are restored: Seras now kicks a LOT more ass, but is a less engaging character. Alucard is a complete inhuman psychopath, rather than the slightly softer-edged character from the series. I did like the series characterisation, but if it's the price for such insane action, I will pay it gladly.
-They still couldn't make the bit with the bats look half as cool as it does in the manga.
-To fit with Kohto Hirano's style, they've started making limited use of 'anime silliness'. Only where he does it, in the interludes, thank goodness. It's not that I don't like anime silliness, it's just that Hellsing's a lot better without it, or at least with it confined to Jan and Luke segments. If they keep with it exactly though, that should change in the same way it changed in the mangas.
For those going 'eh', what is Hellsing? Hellsing is a manga series, an animated tv series and now an OVA (sort of more up-market series with hour-long episodes) featuring.
-Nazi Vampires
-Really, really, really big guns
-International conspiracies
-Cigar-chomping, bespectacled female knights of the round table
-The most awesome butler ever. Ever.
-Monocles
-More nazi vampires
-Insane, unkillable Catholic priests.
-Even more nazi vampires. Bombing London. In giant Zeppelins.
-General fucking insanity.
It's also, technically, a sequel to Dracula. Each of its iterations is, in some way, flawed (except maybe the manga), but is made awesome by unbelievably stylish art, kick-ass music, eye-popping fight scenes, brilliant character design, etc. etc. etc.
It's maybe one of my favourite things ever.
Btw, if you wanna watch the ova, it's on youtube.
