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Hellsing 1: Impure Souls
by Karl Theodorson  
Hellsing 1: Impure Souls
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review information
synopsis
Episode 1: The Undead

Arucard is sent to dispatch a vampire priest in the town of Cheddar. There he meets Seras Victoria, the sole survivor of the combat squad D-11, who flees to a church for safety. They meet again when the vampire priest that Arucard was sent to destroy holds Victoria hostage. Arucard shoots through Victoria to kill the vampire, and then proceeds to "embrace" Victoria making her a vampire as well. She is inducted into the Hellsing organization.

Episode Two: Club M

Victoria is having difficulties dealing with her newly undead state and refuses to drink blood. She is tested by her commanding officer to see if she can handle the job. She is unsure at first, but when she is confronted with a vampire serial killer attempting to escape Arucard, she makes her choice and is able to take down the target.

Episode 3: Sword Dancer

Sent to stop a vampire on a rampage, Victoria's squad is attacked by Alexander Anderson, a warrior priest sent from the Vatican's Iscariot organization. Anderson is about to finish Victoria off when Arucard appears. Anderson and Arucard fight, which results in a draw when Integra arrives with emergency orders for Anderson from the Vatican. Anderson departs and Integra admonishes Arucard and Victoria.

review

Hellsing is a new series by studio Gonzo, based on the manga of the same name by Kouta Hirano. The series follows the activities of the Hellsing organization, a paramilitary group founded by Dr. Abraham van Hellsing (of Bram Stoker's Dracula fame) to battle the creatures of the night, or more specifically, vampires and ghouls. The highly unfeminine Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing (yes, despite appearances, she is a woman.) despite leads the organization, which consists mostly of the Royal Order of Religious Knights. With the cheery motto "In the name of God, we shall strike the damned undead with the eternal iron stake. Amen", the Knights do the grunt work during missions, leaving the close up work to the Hellsing organization's star player, Arucard.

Arucard ("Dracula" backwards if you take into account the Japanese tendency to switch L's and R's, and pronounced "Aakaado") is a vampire who serves Integra for reasons yet unknown, but two things are certain; one, he is very powerful as vampires go, and two, he really hates the so-called "instant vampires" that seem to be popping up everywhere when the series starts. During a mission in the town of Cheddar to destroy a vampire priest, Arucard runs into Seras Victoria, a girl who would be right at home in a Resident Evil game. She is the sole survivor of D-11, a squad of elite (and woefully unprepared) soldiers who (in theory) combat monsters. In classic horror survival fashion, when D-11 is actually attacked by (surprise, surprise) monsters, they are summarily trashed and turned into ghouls (read zombies).

At times, certain elements of Hellsing seem borrowed from somewhere else; from the aforementioned Seras Victoria / Resident Evil connection, to Arucard himself, whose taste in clothing can only be described as "Victorian Vash". Even more curious is the fact that the Hellsing and Trigun manga both run in the same manga anthology, Young King Ours. Indeed, with so much of Hellsing being cliche or seemingly copied, one wonders what sets it apart from other series. It can be summed up in one word: Style. Hellsing has an attitude that is decidedly western which makes for a fairly straightforward anime, both visually and story-wise.




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