PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
In this review I won't explore the specific plotlines of HELLSING ULTIMATE, because it's a faithful, well-executed adaptation of the 1997-2008 Kouta Hirano manga, which I've detailed here. I had the same reason not to discuss the plotline of the animated WOLVERINE ORIGIN. However, since that was a bad adaptation of a good original work. all I could discuss were the reasons that it was bad.
ULTIMATE, compared to the previous 2003 television adaptation, had the advantage of having been launched as a series of original animated videos which were begun near the conclusion of the Hirano manga. I don't have any information regarding the restrictions of the Japanese OAV market, but ULTIMATE appears far less compromised than the TV HELLSING with regard to showing the intense ultraviolence of the manga. If the viewer is primarily interested in seeing almost constant face-offs between absurdly powerful beings grimacing and shooting at one another, ULTIMATE reproduces that aspect flawlessly.
The writers of ULTIMATE are also meticulous to reproduce the mythic meaning-threads of the manga. Characters constantly extol the ferocious attractions of war, and even the relatively innocent character of Victoria, the young policewoman changed into a vampire by Alucard, is seen to be vulnerable to this frenzied passion. At the same time, there are still moments when basic humanity breaks through these defensive postures. One sequence that's as effective in the OAV as in the manga is the one in which Alexander Anderson, obsessed with defeating Alucard, uses a Holy Relic to transform himself into a monster. Alucard tries to persuade Anderson not to do so, not because he Alucard is afraid of the threat, but because Alucard, having long ago lost his humanity, is appalled to see another human being do the same thing for petty reasons.
The greatest criticism I can make of the OAV series is that because it's animated, it's a little easier to lose track of the Nietzschean philosophy in the midst of all the booming gunfire and inhuman beings grappling with one another. But this time the adaptation of the manga is still as mythic as the source material.
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