DVD Review - Hellish rampage

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.

Image courtesy of bignanime.files.wordpress.com

DVD Classics: Get Your Boogiepop On

"Boogiepop Phantom" is easily one of the scariest anime series ever made, with violent ghosts, scientific drugs and exploding kitties (I kid you not).

The series starts off with a beam of light stretching through the sky. Without giving too much away, a hunter vanquishes a demon in an electric beam to save a city. But remnants of the demon still haunt the unknown city in Japan, where the story takes place.

Rumors are abuzz at Shinyo Academy about a man known as the Boogiepop Phantom, who kills students at night. Although it appears to be only a rumor, more and more schoolkids are either killed, killing each other, or killing themselves.

All these murders circle around a drug at a prefectural hospital administered to students, causing them to see and hear phantoms. And these ghosts are definitely not as friendly as Casper.

Although many of the mysteries remain unanswered in the series, the cinematography of "Boogiepop Phantom" is incredible. The entire series is shown through a grainy camera effect and the color is faded to a pale green. And this series is oh so dark. Viewers will undoubtedly jump at the screams, intense loud noises out of nowhere and the bloody deaths of students.

And while nobody may ever figure out the entire mystery of the Boogiepop Phantom, they will be fascinated with the scary transformations caused by pharmaceutical drugs, the secret organization fighting these phantoms and the shocking scares.

But everyone will be shocked in episode nine, "Until Ure In My Arms," where a boy appears to use his mind to maim and explode students' body parts. Or is someone else killing them?

Image courtesy of espvisuals.blogspot.com