HELLSING (2003)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

Five years before Kouta Hirano would finish his shonen manga HELLSING, Studio Gonzo took a fresh approach to adaptation. Possibly realizing that the main conflict of the manga was extremely complicated, depicting a "war of monsters" in an alternate version of Earth, the producers chose to introduce all of the characters important to the manga, but to have them contend with a menace of the studio's concoction. While this might have allowed for some interesting innovations, the only interesting parts of the 2003 HELLSING are those adapted from the manga.

The three main characters-- the vampire Alucard, his "master" Lady Integra, and young neo-vampire Victoria Seras-- are substantially the same as their manga counterparts, and they still work for the organization Hellsing, devoted to opposing outbreaks of supernatural forces. Hellsing, founded by Protestants, meets some opposition from Iscariot, a rival group founded by Catholics, but in theory both seek to quell the rise of a new breed of "artificially made vampires" by an unknown mastermind.

Gonzo adapted some action-sequences from the manga as well, particularly Alucard's morphing into an amorphous, many-eyed form. But the villains are not worthy of the Hellsing group, and so it's just okay monster-fighting, nothing more. Alucard gets a final duel with the hidden mastermind's main henchman, so it may be that the producers were hoping from another season. Happily, a studio named Geneon got the nod instead, and they released a series of original animation videos under the rubric HELLSING ULTIMATE, which were far more representative of Hirano's manga. In summary, while the 2003 HELLSING is watchable, I can't imagine anyone choosing it over the ULTIMATE pleasures.