Reinventing a classic is risky business. It is one thing to create a sequel series or even a spin-off but it's something entirely different to go back to an anime and retell the story from the ground up. In the case of the moody vampire classic Hellsing the original series has been cast aside in favor of the much better regarded and finely tuned manga storyline.

If you are not familiar with the printed form of Hellsing then you should just be aware that it is arguably better in every way. Not that the anime was bad by any stretch of the imagination. On the contrary it has been one of my favorite shows since it first came out. It's just that the manga felt better somehow or maybe a little more fluid. Whatever the case, fans have longed for the experience that Hellsing Ultimate delivers; a faithful interpretation of the manga.

At its core the story is the same and the only real differences in Ultimate have to do with updating the show for today's otaku. That means the pacing has been quickened and some humor has been added. The slower moments and much of the dialogue of the first series have been changed or omitted all together. It's important to keep that in mind while watching. I personally kept pointing out the differences to myself as they appeared such as the development of Seras Victoria and past events involving Integra Wingates Hellsing.

If you happen to be new to Hellsing though then these little bits won't really mean anything to you. You'll just enjoy Ultimate for what it is; a fantastic horror anime with intriguing characters and a rocking plot.

The Hellsing Organization run by Integra controls England and uses their influence to exterminate the undead or any other kind of monster that roams its borders. While they have many weapons at their disposal the most prominent of them is an enigmatic vampire who goes by the name Arucard (Engrish version of Dracula backwards if you couldn't figure that out). This is a world where vampiric activity is kept underground and apart from a few select groups nobody knows of its existence.

There are strong religious tones as well because that accompanies the vampire genre hand in hand. For instance the first time we see a vampire in Ultimate is at a church where Seras Victoria (a young police officer) has been sent to. The priest there is accompanied by a horde of ghouls and he wants nothing more than to rape Seras and drink her blood. Luckily for her Arucard shows up in the nick of time and shoots a bullet through her lung in order to take down the vampire. Arucard then turns her into a Draculina and enlists her into the employ of Hellsing.

At that moment Seras experiences a slapstick kind of dream where she is being chased by ghouls. She bumps into Arucard who nibbles on her neck a bit and the next time we see her she's being ushered to their next mission. The pacing here is very brisk to say the least. In the original anime there was a bit of introduction to the two vampires that Hellsing targets but in Ultimate we basically cut right to Arucard tearing one of them apart. On the rooftop Seras begins to use her vampiric powers to zoom in with her sniper rifle and take out the other vampire. Her development into a vampire is much quicker in this version. She doesn't have the inner battle over losing her humanity and accepts her fate quite easily. That was one of the more interesting storylines from the original series that I missed but I can understand it getting cut in order to save on run time.

After that mission the anime introduces Father Anderson the Regenerator. The rest of this volume is taken up by the fight with Anderson and though it feels a tad longwinded compared to the rest of the episode it's still pretty good. There are a lot of similarities in this fight between the original and Ultimate though again, quite a few things have changed.

Overall I was very pleased with Hellsing Ultimate. Redoing the series to be more faithful to the manga has achieved something that few anime ever could. It's such a rare thing that a remake has the potential to be better than the original but that appears to be the case with this one. My only beef with this first volume is that it is only 50 minutes long and contains one episode. The presentation makes it more like an animated feature but I could definitely see a person waiting until the entire series has been released before bothering to check it out. What's here is solid though; of that there is no doubt.

Hellsing Ultimate is quite literally hot off the presses. The show was finished earlier this year and therefore the DVD's video quality is about as current as you can get. The quality is fantastic with an anamorphic presentation and virtually no flaw to complain about. Despite the dark nature of the show I didn't notice any grain which is quite a feat plus I didn't catch any aliasing either.

My only comment about the visuals in the show has to do with portions of the source material. There are times where it's blatant that a particular scene uses CGI effects because there is a slight stutter and alignment issue. For instance there is a scene where Seras is sitting on the roof and as the camera pans around her it just doesn't look natural. These flaws don't really impact the transfer of the DVD but they were definitely noticeable.

The audio for Hellsing Ultimate is presented with English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 mixes. Given the recent production date I was hoping that the Japanese language would have gotten the 5.1 treatment as well but sadly that's not the case here. Even so the quality of both dubs was great with decent voiceovers and the perfect blend of music to accompany the atmosphere. The English track offered the most speaker activity with the rear channels picking up most of the sound effects and music. In that regard Ultimate really came to life (or is it un-life?) while the Japanese stereo track only offered an acceptable range of audio. Optional English subtitles are included as well.

With a reinvention like this you would assume that the publisher would include a documentary discussing the differences between the series or even why the need for change. Unfortunately we get none of that here. The only thing available on this disc is a collection of previews. Apparently if you want to get any supplemental features at all you have to shell out for the Limited Edition version which is just lame.

Ok, let's get a couple of things straight; the runtime for this disc is only 50 minutes and there are no extra features. That makes picking up Hellsing Ultimate something that only diehard fans of the original will most likely partake in. However, despite those two major flaws the quality of this show is such that it should not be missed. This is one of the best revisions that I have ever seen and though we just have the first leg of Arucard's journey I dare say that it's better than the original.

Because of these warring feelings I had toward this first volume (the bad weighing against the great) I'm torn over how to recommend the title. I guess in the end whether or not you'll appreciate it really depends on your perspective. Is getting high quality anime worth a shorter run time and no features? Were you a fan of the original Hellsing? I personally want to Highly Recommend this title though feel that a mere recommendation is in order because of the lackluster disc. Maybe when a complete collection is available we'll have more to be excited about.

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