Agree completely with the verdict at Whai Whai: ‘Kickass.’ Satelight’s remake continues to please - it’s faithful to the manga without being tedious and is soothing away the horror that was GONZO’s TV series.
With information from Iscariot 13, Integra sends Alucard, Seras and Pip to South America to search for and destroy the Millennium group. It’s a trap but Alucard slaughters the policia, defeats and absorbs card-wielding Millennium vampire Tubalcain Alhambra.
While I enjoyed the action, what captivated me when I read the Hellsing manga were the relationships between the characters particularly Alucard, Seras and Integra. This was showcased perfectly with Seras’ reluctance to kill the policemen because they were humans, not ghouls; Alucard’s fury at her reluctance but then using it to get Integra to commit herself as responsible for the killings to follow. Seras has three wonderfully comic scenes - interrupting Alucard and Alexander, sealed in the coffin on the plane and communing with the spirit of her weapon.
And Alucard looks very dashing in his double-breasted suit. I think this outfit is so much cooler than his Wild Wild West or Straitjacket modes. Speaking of fashion, it seems that both Bryan Ferry and Paul Verhoeven (in Starship Troopers) have expressed positive views on the enduring appeal of Nazi style, even if we all condemn their politics and point out how Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Borman etc etc, all fell far short of their own Aryan propaganda images.
Nazis are really convenient enemies. Being unambiguously evil, much less issues in portraying them as baddies as opposed to the whole host of other baddies resorted to nowadays. They even makes the criminal gang that is our beloved Black Lagoon crew look extra good in the Nazi arc - even though Dutch and co also had the same Nazi employer as the neo-Nazi group.
Seeing this OVA episode also increased my desire to visit the Imperial War Museum though I think the above painting isn’t actually there - I seem to recall a note about the artists and title in the manga but I can’t remember and can’t check it as it’s back home. Don’t think this painting even actually exists. Now that would be something that I’d love to see at an anime convention artists’ auction.
The painting reminds me of Sparta.
THIS!! IS!!! HELLSING!!!!!
I am actually of the opinion that the fashion sense of the Nazis was snazzy, but the pitfall of admitting this in public is that people tend to jump the gun and start thinking you are a Nazi-sympathiser and sign you up for “re-education”.
Society at large is still too uptight about understanding the differences between liking a clothing style, and liking a political stance.
Sigh.