Forum - View topicREVIEW: Hellsing OAV DVD 1
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11440 Location: Frisco, TX |
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You sure about that? Everywhere else I look says: Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dobly Digital 5.1 English DTS 5.1 Not to complain about the dub, but I'm pretty sure the Japanese didn't mean to jip the fans of the original language in the sound department either. Unless it's just the LE that has these tracks. Last edited by Tony K. on Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Are you looking at the Limited Edition? Because the DVD I have lists only English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0. Limited edition might be different; I reviewed the standard edition. Notably, the DVD menu says "Standard Edition" on it. |
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Tony K.
Subscriber Moderator Posts: 11440 Location: Frisco, TX |
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Yeah, just thought about that and edited my post. Guess that's part of the big difference in the prices. And I'm glad I pre-ordered the LE, can't wait to hear it in DTS
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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That why you pay the big bucks for the special edition, I took a look at the regular edition earlier today but I didn't notice if there was 5.1 audio for both tracks. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I thought this was more a result of trying to cram an entire manga volume of material into a single episode. To me, it just felt like the first episode was poorly paced after the Cheddar portion. It wasn't a big deal, but it leaves me concerned about how later volumes will turn out.
This was the one other complaint I had with the OVA and the one area I thought the TV series was superior in. I know Hellsing is mainly about the extreme violence and all that, but the OVA simply lacked the haunting atomsphere of the TV series. The jumping around in the latter portion of the episode didn't help. |
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Royal Devil
 Posts: 194 |
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Yeah it will probably be mentioned many times but I too found the music underwhelming. Especially since the TV series had my third-favorite anime soundtrack. Who would have thought jazz and vampires could mix so well?
OVA's music...well...it's there. 
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Renaisance Otaku
 Posts: 469 Location: Modesto, CA |
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It's interesting to hear that Freeman deepened his voice for the role. While I know I'm in the minority here, I never liked him as Alucard. In fact, I hated him in the role. In the TV series, he basically took a character I already hated and made him sound even more arrogant and psychoctic. So it basically added to the one dimensionality of the character. The Japanese made him sound a bit more gentlemanly and mockingly somber. It added a bit of depth to an otherwise horribly shallow and boring characature.
So while I'll agree that Hellsing was, for the most part, a good dub, it was in no way exceedingly better than the original. The Japanese voice work was one of the only things I liked about that trainwreck of a TV series. Nor do I believe that just because it's in England do they require accented english. By that logic, the hundreds of shows that take place in Japan loose their autheticity by being in english. 
Personally, I aso never really cared much for the TV soundtrack either. I can't really say weither the new music is an improvement, so they're about the same to me. The new sounds a bit more like a real soundtack though. I just barely remember the TV score, so i can't really compare. It just seemed there and all part of the "style" the show was using to desperately hide how rotten it was undernieth. I do remember really liking the gothic sounding piece over the credits of the OAV. The TV opening grew on me. All in all, the OAV is a vast improvement of the TV. It just feels better developed and not so "style over substance" like the TV. The TV series is still one of the biggest pieces of crap I've ever seen; and it's nice to see this franchise redone so that I no longer have to get into arguments over how I could possibly hate Hellsing. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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The original TV series wasn't great, and I agree with a lot of what you say here, but I feel the need to point out that your avatar is from a much more horrifically mangled TV adaptation than Hellsing ever was. If you're complaining about the original Hellsing TV series, then I really have a hard time believing that you were a fan of the Tenjo Tenge anime, which was really, really terrible compared to the manga it's based on. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Well, the manga volume in itself was also severely disjointed. The first volume of Hellsing is more or less made up entirely of random vignettes and missions up until the introduction of Anderson, where it finally gets a grasp of plot. It's not so much an issue of time, as the next episode flows far more smoothly and is actually ten minutes shorter. It's simply that by the second volume the manga became less random happenings and more a coherent story, and it stays that way on through the rest of the series. Basically, the first episode of Hellsing Ultimate was more or less doomed to be choppy and seemingly random, purely by way of directly adapting a choppy and seemingly random source. But on that same token, we're through the worst of it, and only have far, far greater things to look forward to starting with the very next episode, given that it was with the very next volume that the manga similarly got its act together and got its own sense of storytelling ironed out. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15550 |
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Hitokiri:
I heard somewhere the OVA's gonna be a ten volume series to match the manga. If that's case, I'll just pick up the latter when it ends. Looks pretty good, though. Renaisance:
I'll take it over the Ninja Scroll series. Maybe it's just because I came in late into the series, but I had few problems with the Hellsing show. Like Berserk, I think it nicely summed up the main idea of the manga. At least it didn't resort to filler. Zac:
I'm not sure how more gratuitous porn is any better. 
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18428 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I've always thought the Hellsing TV dub was one of the better ones out there, so I'm happy to hear its quality has been maintained for the OVA (which I've only seen subbed at a 'con so far). I also definitely agree with Zac about the soundtrack, as I walked away from the 'con preview being mightily disappointed with its sound compared to the original.
That being said, I'm going to go against the apparent grain here and say that I liked the equivalent TV series episodes far more. As someone who hasn't read the manga, and thus isn't concerned about its faithfulness, I found the TV series episodes to be much more stylish, consistent, and better-paced. My overriding thought when watching them was "wow, what a cool vampire series," and I got a lot of people who aren't major anime fans to watch it and agree. The TV series also dropped the silly moments that are apparently a key part of the manga, which I found distracting. I also liked the artistry and character designs in the TV series more, so apparently I won't like the manga art if I ever get around to it. |
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Steventheeunuch
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Well it's not like you're not entitled to an opinion, but the fact of the matter is, after I dunno, the first episode, the hellsing TV series basically falls into a trap of having fairly awful animation, weird direction, and one of the worst bad guys to ever hit Anime in a long time. After I dunno, episode 7, they're just kind of throwing things in, and as far as 'artistry' goes, it's pretty awful if you can't actually account for production costs to make it look good 9except the final fight between incognito and alucard which was tacked on to a whole lot of stupid). Ah well. |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18428 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Note that I did say "equivalent TV episodes." I don't dispute that the TV series went downhill in its second half, especially at the point where Incognito came into the picture. The first half-dozen were very solid, though. I think it's also worth pointing out that the Hellsing TV series was popular enough amongst casual fans that it was a significant "gateway" title in the early 2000s, so I can't be the only person who regards it fondly. |
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godakame
 Posts: 112 Location: Disney World |
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I haven't touched the manga in quite a while, but from what I recall Ceres was constantly in goofy mode. Didn't like the fact that half the time Ceres was shown in a panel, she looked like an idiot. All the while I was thinking, for Hirano a guy who used to draw hentai, he can really draw some unattractive women. |
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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I was surpsied at the quickness of a review on this. I guess its rare theres an anime with this much hype. I do think its well deserved.
And I agree. The music wasn't what I was expecting when I heard it. As I look at the prices though i'm trying to debate- SE or Regular. For those of you who already have this: are staff intreviews for the Dub Cast/Staff or the Japanese? And what is the "Broken English" promo? |
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