Hey, I (Sofia) am currently in New York, having heaps of fun doing god knows what, and this is a scheduled post written by Joyce, otherwise known as crazy #1 that you read the bio of last week during my Sunday Post. Her review style is a bit different from my own, but I thought it would be nice to have a fresh voice on the blog, and all credit goes to her. Without further ado, this is a review of volume one of the manga Hellsing by Kohta Hirang.
Chapters: 92
Volumes: 10
Serialization: Young King Ours
Status: Finished
Publication Date: 1997 --- Sep 30, 2008
Synopsis: Hellsing, a secret organization of the British government, have
long been battling supernatural threats to keep the people safe from
creatures of the night. The current leader, Integra Wingates Hellsing
controls her own personal army to eliminate the undead beings, but even
her highly trained soldiers pale in comparison to her most trusted
vampire exterminator, a man by the name of Alucard, who is actually a
powerful vampire himself. Along with Integra's mysterious butler and
Alucard's new vampire minion, Seras Victoria, The Hellsing Organization
must face not only regular ghouls and vampires, but a rivaling secret
organization from the Vatican, and Millennium, an enigmatic group of
madmen spawned by a certain war over 50 years ago...
A bloody battle between monsters is about to begin, The dead are dancing, and all hell is singing...
A bloody battle between monsters is about to begin, The dead are dancing, and all hell is singing...
SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I'M BACK. And you thought that you've seen the last
of me *snickers* Well, I'm back to review a lovely manga by the name of
Hellsing. Does that ring a bell? No? Yes? Whatever. I would give this
manga a whopping 7 out of ten ink jars. I gave it a 7, because, firstly, I
COULD NOT HANDLE THE LEVEL OF GORE THE MANGA THREW AT ME. It was
unbelievable. The eye for detail was great, but did it have to be THAT
detailed?
I was gagging through the bloodshed (The scene where Alucard
shish-ke-bobbed those soldiers really made me cringe. Another scene was
also where Yumie sliced up some weapon dealer's eyeballs and...UGH). The
plot was great, with the 'I want to take over the world' sort of thing,
but seriously, the bloodshed was overkill. The manga was gory,
visceral, and explicit. I would not recommend this manga to fans of
girly shoujo mangas, because A) There is very little romance in this
series, and to be honest, it's kind of refreshing to flip through a few
pages without encountering any lip locking, and B) Most people who are
used to cute, fluffy romances would experience a rather rude awakening
to the darker (and gorier) sides to different types of manga. There
wasn't much character development in my opinion, other than Seras
overcoming her apparent distaste for drinking blood and
her progressively becoming more violent as the series went on (I don't
know if that's a good thing). Alucard was bad ass as usual, with a hint
of insanity...or a lot. I sorta get an anti-hero vibe from him, even
though he's on the good guy's side. Maybe it's his violence or the fact
that he'd rip apart anything in his path. You tell me. In some parts of
the manga, I was a little confused, but maybe it was just me not paying
attention to the details. The whole manga was centered on various
religious beliefs, and it might appear offending to most people, so
didn't say I didn't warn you. I loved the little side stories, though.
They provided some insight on the Vatican, which was awesome.
Not a huge fan of the artwork, because in the first
volume, I mistook Integra for a guy, and it didn't help that everyone
was addressing her as Sir Integra either. I thought the manga's artwork
was unique, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea either.
So there you have it. I was rushing a bit, so sorry if it isn't to your liking. All opinions are mine, blah blah blah.
Peace out,
Joyce
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