Before I watched Hellsing Ultimate, it had been recommended to me by multiple people, and with an IMDb rating of 8.5 I had great expectations for this series. Unfortunately it failed to impress me even the slightest bit. How more than 10000 people voted this up to 8.5 is beyond me. I had to force myself to watch until the end. This series is bad on so many levels. The story and plot are weak and predictable. There are no plot holes because the story doesn't even reach enough complexity for plot holes to even occur in the first place! Absurd plot twists come out of nowhere, no build up whatsoever.
The action is extremely repetitive. Every fight Alucard has is the same: Opponent shoots/kills Alucard, Alucard pretends to be dead, Alucard does that stupid laugh, Alucard resurrects and consumes opponent. The dialogue is equally dumb and repetitive. What little story there is to begin with has to be explained word for word by the characters in these long and boring info dumps.
Then there are the characters. Calling them cardboard characters would be a compliment. These characters are paper thin! Most of these characters have literally no backstory at all and serve no purpose in the story. The lucky few that do have some backstory, are composed of nothing but clichés. A police girl becomes an officer because her parents were killed by bad guys. Seriously? That's been done a million times before! Or how Alucard's secret is that he really is Dracula (you know, because Dracula spelled backwards is Alucard). Are the viewers of this series expected to be so unintelligent that they can't even figure out the simplest of anagrams?
But I hear you coming: what it lacks in substance it makes up for in "style"! Well no, not entirely. Sure you can love or hate the graphic style, that's personal taste. For me personally it is one of the few redeeming aspects of this series. The animation on the other hand is average at best. I understand the constrains that a limited production budget can put on the quality of the animation, but there are better and more creative ways of spending a limited budget instead of blowing it all on unnecessary 3D graphics. The character animation was poor: Ping pong loops, too many frame holds, characters that talk without opening their mouth, etc. Never mind any sense of choreography in the fights, it's all flashing lights and no actual fights. Last word of advice: if you're going to do a style over substance project, don't take yourself so seriously.
If you want gratuitous violence on repeat, go ahead, you'll love this, but if you are looking for anything deeper, avoid at all cost.
The action is extremely repetitive. Every fight Alucard has is the same: Opponent shoots/kills Alucard, Alucard pretends to be dead, Alucard does that stupid laugh, Alucard resurrects and consumes opponent. The dialogue is equally dumb and repetitive. What little story there is to begin with has to be explained word for word by the characters in these long and boring info dumps.
Then there are the characters. Calling them cardboard characters would be a compliment. These characters are paper thin! Most of these characters have literally no backstory at all and serve no purpose in the story. The lucky few that do have some backstory, are composed of nothing but clichés. A police girl becomes an officer because her parents were killed by bad guys. Seriously? That's been done a million times before! Or how Alucard's secret is that he really is Dracula (you know, because Dracula spelled backwards is Alucard). Are the viewers of this series expected to be so unintelligent that they can't even figure out the simplest of anagrams?
But I hear you coming: what it lacks in substance it makes up for in "style"! Well no, not entirely. Sure you can love or hate the graphic style, that's personal taste. For me personally it is one of the few redeeming aspects of this series. The animation on the other hand is average at best. I understand the constrains that a limited production budget can put on the quality of the animation, but there are better and more creative ways of spending a limited budget instead of blowing it all on unnecessary 3D graphics. The character animation was poor: Ping pong loops, too many frame holds, characters that talk without opening their mouth, etc. Never mind any sense of choreography in the fights, it's all flashing lights and no actual fights. Last word of advice: if you're going to do a style over substance project, don't take yourself so seriously.
If you want gratuitous violence on repeat, go ahead, you'll love this, but if you are looking for anything deeper, avoid at all cost.