It's an understatement to say that the second volume of "Hellsing Ultimate" is a gorefest. If an anime fan gets squeamish at the first sign of blood, then they really, really, really don't want to watch "Hellsing Ultimate."Volume two of "Hellsing Ultimate" is filled with soldier decapitations, hundreds of chopped limbs and buckets of blood. It's not pretty, and the plot is somewhat stale, but the action and drama will keep anime fans on the edge of their seat.
The volume starts at the Hellsing Organization building, where Integra discusses with some executives about the recent increase in ghouls around Romania. But then two tough ghoul brothers decide to invade Hellsing by turning the entire army into ghouls.
Fortunately, Integra's professional killers are ready to take them all down. Seras Victoria has her powerful sniper rifle and Walter C. Dornez (codenamed the "Angel of Death") has invisible strings that can slice through bodies. And Alucard is, well, the most indestructable vampire I've ever seen.
To make a long story short, the Hellsing vampires make mince meat out of the ghouls. The last ghoul revealed that they are controlled by microchips to follow orders from a group called Millenium. And Millenium is somehow related to Hitler and the Holocaust. Yeah. It's really implausable, but considering how many people died in this volume, I'm willing to believe anything.
So far, "Hellsing Ultimate" doesn't really have much of a plot, even though it involves some creative storylines involving conspiracy theories and German Nazis. For the most part, "Hellsing Ultimate" volume is a big bloodbath, with body parts flying everywhere. One scene in particular almost turns into a rape scene, until Seras breaks out in a bloodthirsty vampire rage. Oddly enough, only Integra is able to calm her down by embracing her and telling her that everything's alright.
But "Hellsing Ultimate" is also confronting the serious issue of chaotic violence, rape and fear. Certainly violence and sexual violation is something worth fighting against. This makes Seras a rare character that possesses the dual-personalities that Nausicaa had in "Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind." She is compassionate, but she has the potential to turn into a violent monster when she needs to.
And Alucard is a veteran vampire warrior, who wants to die with honor. Some might call him insane, because of his immense power. However, he also has the psychotic desire to die from a worthy opponent. He's an insane undead man, tired of living through numerous wounds, who just wants peace of mind.
"Hellsing Ultimate" is a fascinating character study of masculine and feminine personalities. While the series' plot is a little too simplistic, the characters are so amazingly complex. "Hellsing Ultimate" is a series about violent wars against ghouls, and the vampire warriors who are traumatized by the wars. "Hellsing Ultimate" may be one of the surprise series this year. My only complaint is that each volume is only about 45 minutes long.
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