Review : Hellsing.

This is one of those few and peculiar stories where the main character is in fact an anti-hero. Alucard is the Hellsing organizations pet vampire. An organization whos sole mission is to deal with other vampires, monsters and 'freaks'. Think they are kind of hypocritical for having a vampire to kill other vampires? The catholic church thinks so too and has a few things to 'say' to Alucard and Hellsing.

Volume one introduces us to Serras Victora, a blonde, large breasted somewhat ditzy police officer who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alucard ends up granting her eternal life and she joins the Hellsing organization. A side story of the novel is Serras coming to terms with her vampirism, despite her appearance, she isn't over-feminized and remains her own character, unlike a lot of girl characters in manga. There is no fan-service, the story is too dark and serious for that.

The manga contains a good mix of seriousness and comedy, Serras usually providing the later, Alucard is a somewhat serious main character, but it's clear from the beginning that his state of mind is inhuman, as it should be. Alucard is quite insane, as you can imagine someone would be if they never died. He's just looking for some fun, a good fight and a lot of carnage along the way. He's not to be confused with 'A good vampire', he isn't there to save humans, he's there to get rid of the lowly 'scum' giving vampires a bad name.

The art starts off not being exactly great, but it has it's own style and the mangaka seems to quickly get better at it, by the end of the book it's all drawn quite well. Some of the full page cells look amazing. It's a very 'dark' book as you can imagine, it's refreshing to see London as a location as well, rather than Japan again.

Hellsing is one of the best vampire stories ever, it's dark, has alot of action, a crazy anti-hero and an insane anti-villain. The first volume was great and I recommend any male or female of around 15+ to read it.