Normally, the Hellsing headquarters is fairly secure, but then it’s never been tested by an army of ghouls led by two brothers with VERY different styles of business. Jan is a straight up thug, whose language could make a sailor blush, and his brother Luke is calm, cool, collected, and a bit more driven towards his goal. (Highly entertaining, these villains almost make you wish they weren’t going up against Alucard. I highly recommend picking up this disc, if for no other reason than to laugh riotously at Jan’s expletive filled outbursts.) Still, despite their highly memorable natures, neither of these two is known by the Hellsing organization, so why, exactly would they attack the installation? What is their ultimate goal, or better yet, who sent them and why?
Continuing with the excellent manga-to-OVA transfer, this installment looks as if the artists were literally propping up page after page while drawing the animation materials, and the buckets and buckets of blood bring to the screen what would have been a significant investment in red ink if it had been included in the manga. We also get a better look at other aspects of the characters, like Walter, Sir Integra’s butler, who used to be quite the vampire hunter in his day. Hooray for murderous backgrounds! A wonderful translation of the original story, and available in a swanky tin collector tin (complete with second disc full of extras), this DVD is a must-have for any fan of the manga, or vampires in general! Remember kids: Alucard = Bad Ass.
The voice acting in this series is still very well done in both Japanese and American, and while I wish the subtititle copywriters had been invited to the tapings, the idea is fairly easy to grasp, even if the spoken words don’t always agree with the written. Also, continuing to put the visual translation highest on the priority list, the musical score is so understated as to be nonexistent. Not that I’m complaining, really. I’d rather have time to focus on the action.
My only gripe? This film is too short! 58 minutes isn’t near enough to get my action, blood-soaked, grinning death fix.