Sunday Splash Page #237

 

"One Count, Two Count," in Hellsing vol. 8, chapter 61, by Kohta Hirano

I think Hellsing was the first manga I discussed on this blog. Of course, at that time it might have been the only manga I was buying that was still releasing new volumes. Can't remember if I was buying Yotsuba! yet or not.

So, Hellsing. Vampires exist, and the UK is protected by the Hellsing Organization, currently led by Integra Hellsing. Their primary weapon is Alucard, an insanely powerful vampire who proceeds to kill a shitload of vampires, ghouls, and various lackeys over the course of 10 volumes. Hellsing finds itself up against a remnant of Nazi Germany, an entire battalion of SS vampires, 1000 strong, led by the mysterious "Major", that invade London with two goals: Have themselves a war, and kill Alucard.

Hirano loves drawing over-the-top violence. Limbs blown off with guns, or the top of someone's head sliced clean off. One vampires swallows a soldier's eyes and the bridge of his nose in a single bite. Seras Victoria, the "police girl" Alucard turns into a vampire in Volume 1, slams an enemy's face against the wall, then drags them the length of the hall until their head is almost entirely gone.

Alucard's ideal for all this, not just because he's presented as so powerful he can cleave another vampire's arm lengthwise with his own, but because he's so powerful he can take what seems an obscene amount of damage. And he's presented as so aware of his power that he will stand there and let a bunch of poor, clueless Brazilian SWAT teams spend literal pages shooting him, until the top of his head is Swiss Cheese and ribs are showing, then casually raise his gun and vaporize one of their skulls.

The longer the series goes, the more Hirano pulls back the curtain on Alucard. He seems quite gleeful at being a vampire at first, but there's a weight to it. Alucard wants a challenge, but more than that, he wants a challenge from a human. I think because there's a will or madness to humans that will drive them forward to challenge a monster against all odds. Despite their mortality, despite their limited strength. It's why he considers Father Anderson, the vampire exterminator of the Vatican's Section XIII, his rival. He's an enhanced human, but at the end of the day, he's human and he won't withdraw. 

And the Major emphasizes that he is still human, that he wouldn't become a vampire no matter what, because it dilutes who he is. Of course, the Major is still a monster, even if he's not a vampire. He's a monster because, at the end of the day, he's entirely indifferent to the loss of life. It's all just a chance to fight a war, to destroy Alucard. His battalion, the ones who stuck with him for decades, the over 3 million inhabitants of the UK killed in his invasion, none of it is anything beyond a means to an end. His currency is still blood. He just spills it, rather than drinking it.

I'm not sure if Hirano is saying Alucard regrets becoming a vampire, because if so, why turn Seras? He didn't have to, he says she chose it, and he gives her a lot of crap about her reluctance to drink blood. To cross that threshold and accept what she's become. Maybe the point isn't whether he regrets it, but that he accepts he made his decision and Seras needs to do likewise. I'd think maybe he regrets the sort of vampire he's been, a true glutton, which contrasts with Seras, who only drank blood when someone freely offered it, and only drained one person entirely.

But no, he seemed to revel in it, that he could take so much, just as he reveled in acting as a weapon that Integra must "fire". He could just kill all their enemies, but he always makes her order him to it. It could be seen as deference, the way he kneels to her in the page above, but it also feels like he enjoys making her take responsibility for all the lives he's about to take. The brutality he will inflict.

Alucard's kind of a dick, is what I'm saying.

I'm Tired

Last night was filled with snow, music, and drunken idiocy. Lots of drunken idiocy. People getting tackled by cops, people nearly getting run down by irate cab drivers, people spilling beer on thousands of dollars worth of DJ equipment. Some of it was pretty funny, but a lot of it was just exasperating.

Better to discuss something else, briefly. I bought Alex the Hellsing Ultimate collections for Christmas. He loved the first Hellsing anime, and I've been telling him for years, the manga storyline was so much better. But I know even if I loan him all 10 volumes, he'll never read it. He's had my copies of all the Dark Tower books for 5 years, and hasn't made a dent in them. As in, he hasn't even finished The Gunslinger. The only way he's going to see it, is to get to watch it as a series of short movies.

It looks pretty good. I certainly like how they worked the sillier aspects in, the times where Hirano goes to his simplified look for comedic effect. Some of the computer-generated stuff looks kind of cheap, but maybe it looked good for 2006? The two musical montage sequences during the Last Battalion invasion of England didn't work very well. The music needed to be more metal for Nazi vampires wiping out everyone in London. It was too poppy, too light for the situation.

The main issue is the pacing. The movies, especially 5 and 6, which I got to see last night, really seem to drag. Maybe because I know what's coming, or because I read fast, but the manga got to the good stuff a lot faster. But that's me. I'd ask Alex, but we keep trying to watch these at 4 in the morning, and he keep falling asleep. Maybe he'll watch them by the time I come back, and I can see what he thinks then.

All Parents Want Their Children To Exceed Them, Even At Getting In Trouble, Right?

There was one other thing about the The Wild Geese. Seeing the movie reminded me Kohta Hirano used that same group of mercenaries in his Hellsing series. They were hired after all of the Hellsing Organization's actual soldiers were killed.

What I thought was interesting was that in Hellsing, the leader of the Wild Geese is a Frenchman named Pip Vernedead. Well, depending on who translates it, I guess, since Wikipedia says his last name is actually "Bernadette", but my copies had Vernedead, so that's what I'm sticking with. In the movie, Janders (Richard Harris) played the tactical genius for the Geese, and he was a bit of an idealist, so he naturally died. Point of fact, he begged Faulkner (Richard Burton) to kill him so the army wouldn't be able to torture him, which Burton did*.

Janders left behind a young son, who he had earlier asked Faulkner to look after. Or the boy's meant to look after Faulkner, who described himself as an out of work drunk, when he isn't killing people for money. Faulkner does take on this responsibility.

Vernedead was a Frenchman, albeit one whose name is "Pip", and whose father died as a mercenary, and the boy in the movie's mother was French. I assume, Janders tells Faulkner she moved back to Paris and rarely sees her son. There was a scene in the manga where a young Vernedead comes home crying from school, because the kids are teasing him about his father being some scummy hired killer, and his aged grandpa confirms this as truth, says it's been true of the family for generations, and it'll likely be true of Pip as well.

It amuses me to think the "grandpa" was Faulkner's character (who the years had not been kind to, but according to me dad, the years and liquor weren't kind to Burton himself), and that Harris' son grew up to help the British fight off an invasion by Nazi vampires.

* There was a point earlier where Burton's character killed one of his men who was badly wounded and would have to be left behind. It actually reminded me of the sequence at the end of the battle that killed most of Hellsing's forces, as Integra has to kill all of her subordinates who were turned into ghouls. The leader's responsibility, I suppose.

I Don't Know Where I'm Going With This Discussion Of Victory And Death

I mentioned in my review of Hellsing Vol. 10 on Saturday that the Major's true target was Alucard all along. He had built all these forces, 1,000 vampire soldiers, werewolves, airships, a 'self-observation which possesses its own will' (that would be Warrant Officer Schroedinger), and expended all of it on one being. Some of them seemed to be in on the scheme (Schroedinger, for one), but others didn't expect the plan would result in their deaths. I imagine the low-level soldiers didn't even know who the real target was. They probably believed they were restarting World War 2, and it was, 70 years later, finally time for Operation Sea Lion, only with airships instead of amphibious landing craft.

When he thought he'd succeeded, when Alucard appeared to dissipate in the rising sun, the Major was happy. He was experiencing victory, finally, and it felt good to him. The fact that Integra and Seras would kill him in a few moments bothered him not a bit. He expected that. He killed someone important to them, of course they would kill him. It didn't matter, though. He had defeated the person he tabbed as his archenemy, that was enough.

The Major believes he died succeeding, but having read the remainder of the volume, I know he didn't. The thing that troubles me, why I'm doing this post, is I can't decide if that matters or not. He died feeling the rush of victory, but it was false. Those who survived know this (eventually, since it takes time for Alucard to return). To them, the Major failed. But that doesn't change the fact he felt victorious at the end, and it can never change that, because he's dead*. His feeling of accomplishment can never be taken away, so does that mean he did win, in a way?

There's a moment in the history of the universe where Alucard had vanished, and the Major thought he'd won. That moment will always exist, regardless of what follows. Integra was furious at the time with the Major for what he'd done. That moment will always exist, too. It had an effect, that's carried forward through time, so the Major did win, I think. Yet he didn't.

Since Schroedinger was a key part in the scheme, and he's a personification of the theoretical cat experiment he draws his name from, perhaps it being both is the point. At that time, Alucard is both alive and dead, and everywhere and nowhere. So the Major thinking he's gone is right, and that we learn later he wasn't dead was also right.

Or, on a less quantum physics level, perhaps it refers to the impermanence of gains made through war. Countries and peoples gain land, resources, or subjects through conquest, but those tend not to last. Empires fall apart, either because they people that were conquered rise up, the conquerors become complacent, or some new hungry group of would-be world rulers comes along. Look at Alsace-Lorraine. It was a French holding, until the Franco-Prussian War, when it was incorporated into a newly unified Germany. World War I ends, and the French take it back. World War 2 starts and they lose it again, only to regain it once the war ends. gains made can't be held, enemies defeated rise again.

* Perhaps in the afterlife he's aware he was wrong, but there's no evidence of it. That's not something the Hellsing universe makes any mention of as a possibility.

The Singing Of The 10th Verse Of Hell

Volume 10 of Hellsing arrived in the U.S. two weeks ago, and my copy was in with the rest of the stuff, and since I've discussed every other volume that's been released since I started this blog, might as well continue the tradition. 

By the start of the volume, there are only a few players left on both sides, as all the faceless cannon fodder have been cleared from the deck. The Major, Lieutenant Dok, Warrant Officer Schroedinger, Walter, and the Captain on the bad guy side, with Alucard, Integra, Seras, Vernedead (well, the essence of him inside Seras), and Heinkel against them. Walter can't kill Alucard, because to accomplish that, he'd have to kill him once for every life Alucard's taken with his fangs, and that is a lot of freaking people. But it was never really the Major's plan for Walter to win, and the final stage of the plan is reached, and it seems to work. 

To the extent I understand the plan, it seems like a good one. Attacking Alucard directly, physically, is a waste, so they opt for this approach. The villains die believing they were successful in their war, and so die happy. The volume ends by jumping three decades into the future to check in on the surviving cast. That part's a tone shift, more comedic, with Integra and Seras arguing over this and that. Hirano uses the more simplified art he favors when he's trying to be funny. The backgrounds are non-existent, speed lines, or goofy pictures, like little skull-n-crossbones, the figures tend towards huge, round faces, with vertical slits for eyes. 

It seems strange coming off all the death and violence from the preceding pages, but this is 30 years later, and Hirano has never had a problem with throwing in such sequences, especially when Seras is involved. He does tend to save them for times when the action's in a lull, so it fits in that sense. 

I'll need to sit down and reread all 10 volumes at once to be sure, but I think the ending ties up most of the major, immediate issues of the series. There are still vampires, but none in such a concentrated threat as the Letztes Battalion. The Iscariot Organization is still around, but too weakened by the battle to try anything, for now. Seras seems more comfortable in her skin, and Integra's still full of fire and determination, but she recognizes the importance of spreading the responsibility, since she's mortal. Alucard seems closer to human than he's been in centuries, which is something the story had suggested he was growing to miss in recent years. As endings go, it was solid. 

Other bits: - Until he came right out and said it, I hadn't realized the Major's target had always been Alucard. I figured he wanted to continue World War 2, and was just happy to have such an impressive opponent as Alucard standing in his way. But England, the Hellsing Organization, even Iscariot once they showed up, were incidental, amusing distractions from his true goal: destroying Alucard. Considering how many lives Alucard has, one probably couldn't focus on anything else but him, if they were to win. 

- The Major talks about how he doesn't approve of Alucard, this monster who keeps himself going by drawing life from others, and so for him, it wasn't just about the opportunity to wage a great war, but to destroy something whose existence offends him. Yet the Major was fine with using beings created to surpass Alucard (though they failed at that) to achieve his goal. Which may be why he ultimately failed. Alucard and Integra both insisted only humans can destroy monsters, because only humans can become obsessed with winning. I'd question whether an obsession with winning can overcome the drive to survive I'd imagine monsters have (if a vampire had no drive to live, they'd simply stop drinking blood and go sit in front of the sun, wouldn't they?), but maybe the difference is in how one looks at it. An obsession with winning may just be "need to survive" in different clothes. If they lose, the monster will kill them, so they can't lose, so they must win. 

 - The catch being, such an obsession can make a human a monster. Father Anderson became the monster he thought he needed to be to defeat Alucard, and failed. Integra says the Major's done the same, though the Major insists regardless of his form he's still human. I think Integra's right, Alucard is likely as much a human as the Major was by the end, but they're different situations. Actually, the reveal of the Major's circumstances surprised me, as I hadn't felt that level of technology had really been hinted at. Then again, it may have been child's play compared to what they managed with Walter. 

- Hirano's art is not always easy to follow as usual. There's plenty of movement to it, too much sometimes. On the second read-through it was more clear what was happening, but he really adds too much shrapnel or explosions, or too many motion lines, to the point it becomes a mess. At one point, Vernedead (Wikipedia says it's Bernadette, but all my volumes disagree, so whatever) kills a werewolf with a silver tooth. When he first grasps it, he seems to be using his left hand, but then he jams it into said werewolf with what appears to be his right, except the hand and arm seem to be coming from the left side of his body. What's happening in the scene is still clear, just off. 

On the plus side, Hirano draws some excellent violence (the amount of blood is a bit ridiculous, but it's at least consistent throughout), can often harness all the energy in the panel and use it to draw your eye around the page, and his faces don't lack for expression. Not just over-the-top expression, either. He draws a good creepy, yet understated smile, and certain characters get such serene looks (usually representing acceptance of their fate), I felt terribly sad for them, even if they were villains. I would have thought after 30 years Seras would have followed Integra's example and started wearing pants, rather than that ridiculous skirt, but no such luck.

Oh Hellsing, How Nice To See You Again

Yes, it's Hellsing, Volume 9! And it's here with me a scant 15 months after Volume 8! You think I'm being sarcastic, but seeing as there was a 21 month gap between Volumes 7 and 8 reaching my hands, this is a welcome occurrence indeed. Whoo! 

So what to say? Last volume left Alucard in seemingly dire straits against his rival, Father Alexander Anderson, who had become some sort of holy beast by impaling himself with a piece of the true cross. Well, that conflict resolves rather more quickly than I had expected, and Alucard spouts off some line about how only humans can kill monsters, which is supposed to be Anderson's mistake I suppose, turning himself into a monster. That raises the question of how Alucard would be able to dispatch Anderson, seeing as they are both monsters and all. Perhaps best not to think about it. 

Of course, things aren't done there, as a rather ugly betrayal rears its head. And this, apparently, is all part of a bigger plan by the evil Major. Assuming he's right, it's nice to know there is actually some way to kill Alucard. Between all the shooting, being stabbing with blessed silver and holy thorns, being hacked to pieces, and everything else, I was starting to wonder if there was. I think that's why I'm not annoyed that the Major is teetering on the brink of becoming an Omniscient Foe, which, as I've mentioned in various horror movie reviews, is a character I generally dislike. In this case though, it's a result of the Major realizing the difficulty of the victory he desires, and thus he's been setting everything up for the last fifty to sixty years, so it bothers me less. 

I'm curious as to what the Major is. He says he's not a vampire, that he's human, but he doesn't look old enough to have been a Major during World War 2. It's interesting though, that he has outright rejected the opportunity to become an immortal monster of the night. He's surrounded by these creatures, who have become that way for one reason or another (fear of death, sense of duty, desire for power), but there he is, just a frail human. Which is why it's fitting he may be the one to finish Alucard, and that he'll probably be finished by Integra in return. I'll have to wait for Volume 10 to know for certain. 

I'm conflicted with regards to the art. Hirano does some beautiful wide angle scenes of cityscapes, both as they're being destroyed and in the aftermath. He can draw some truly gruesome scenes, and some of his facial expressions are wonderfully expressive. Still, this is a book drenched in dark inks, and Hirano also seems to love having frenetic lines of motion jumping all around the panels. 

As a result, I often find myself at a loss to figure out what exactly just happened. Sometimes a character's movement is represented solely by a solid white or black line, but there are no features indicating which character it is in that specific panel. So too much movement for me at times. Still, it's all building up to something pretty wild for the next (final?) volume. I do enjoy those stories where there are three simultaneous battles happening in different places. Adds to the sense of the battle being large, bigger than a simple grudge match. 

Not likely to be any posting tomorrow or Tuesday. So see you Wednesday, I guess.

International Boundaries Can't Deter My Enjoyment

So I read this post, and it got me thinking about manga. I do enjoy a few manga titles, and thinking about the "whys" of that got me thinking about what my favorite mangas have in common with the American comics I enjoy. For the record, I have no beef with people who don't like manga. Everybody has types of "entertainment" that do not, in fact, entertain them. It's all cool though, the differences are what make us cool, dig? *in the background, a beatnik taps on a bongo* So let's move on.

So I just wanted to look at some of the parallels between Japanese and American comics that I enjoy, beyond the fighting, and struggling with internal conflicts related to past actions.

Rurouni Kenshin is about a man, who during a civil war, worked as a highly successful assassin, until he accidentally killed someone he cared about deeply. When the series begins, he's spent the last decade wandering Japan, using a sword that is designed not to kill (the blade is set reversed in the hilt, so the leading edge is not sharp), and helping defend those who need help. Kind of like the A-Team, but without the getting paid part, or Mr. T. But, Kenshin is constantly forced to confront his past, in the form of people who wish to challenge one known as the greatest of all, or by people who hate him for what they feel he represents (the side that won, which he greatly aided) had some nasty skeletons in their closet. Kenshin has to deal with how far he's willing to go to stop them, and resist slipping back into his old, killing ways. Plus he runs into to people who lost loved ones to his blade, and want revenge, and how is he supposed to respond to that?

It reminds me of both Batgirl and recent developments in Cable/Deadpool, as each character has been trying to change their lives, and atone for past deeds. In some ways, both those titles could be considered like seeing Kenshin's early years as a wandering swordsman. Cassandra Cain seems to be constantly dealing with the fact she was raised to be a perfect killer, and trying to make up for it, and trying to move past it, find a better way. It's harder for Deadpool, because he's been even more deeply ingrained in killing for whatever reason for years, but now he's trying to change after Cable sacrificed his life (as far as he knows), to make sure Wade was OK. Wade's trying to change, trying to do better, but he's got to deal with the skepticism of all the established heroes who know him primarily as a violent, amoral goof, and so he's got to keep working to show he's not like that anymore.

Additionally, all those titles have a theme of characters trying to find a place to belong, although when Cassandra found a place where she seemed to be doing well (Bludhaven), DC proceeded to blow it up. Well, no one ever said finding a place to belong was easy. But Kenshin had been wandering for ten years before meeting Kaoru and helping her stop the person killing people in the name of her family's school, and Deadpool has just recently found a place at Agency X, where he can work with actual friends.

The other manga title I'm a big fan of is Hellsing, which I've decided reminds me of the current Punisher MAX series. Both characters kill lots and lots of people, and do so with no real hesitation, but each character has things about them that make them more than just killing machines. Ennis has gone to great lengths to demonstrate how it was more than just three tours in the 'Nam that made Frank Castle the Punisher, it's a culmination of his childhood neighborhood, his tours of duty, the loss of his parents, the kind of kid he was, just so many things that make him a truly unique being In the last few volumes of Hellsing, Kohta Hirano's started giving us glimpses of who Alucard was before he became a vampire that kills other vampires for the Hellsing Organization, and well, he's still not a sympathetic figure, but there is a sadness about him, that for all the power he's gained, all the destruction he can bring, he's lost some very important things, and he knows he won't ever get those back. Not unlike Frank Castle.

Some time, I need to sit down and see how similar some of these series are, and how much differences in Japanese and American culture contribute to differences between them. Are they paced differently, do they present different kinds of challenges to the protagonists, things like that. Uh, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those posts, if I were you, seeing as how I never have started the "Spider-Man: Giant Slayer" posts.

I've Waited So Long, I Can't Think Of A Title

I bought my copy of Hellsing Volume 8 this Friday. I have been waiting eagerly for it to be released since I finished reading Volume 7, which was roughly Halloween . . . of 2005. Twenty-one months. That level of waiting is not good for the book, because the longer I have to wait, the more my expectations rise, because damnit, I am a fanboy, and if I have to wait damn near two years, I am entitled to have my eyes explode from the sheer kickassedness of your product when I get it. By that measuring stick, Hellsing Vol. 8 fails, as my eyes sit safely whole within their sockets, just as they did before I read it.

Which isn't to say it isn't good.

To be fair, Volume 8 was going to be hard-pressed to match up to Volume 7, which had Seras Victoria come into her own as a creature of the night, and ended with an army of Nazi vampires squaring off in London with an army of Catholic Knights, determined not only to eliminate these demons, but to then carry out an Inquisition on the surviving English. And that's the point when Alucard sailed up the river on the burned out hulk of an aircraft carrier. So yes, quite the spot to end a volume, and quite the place to leave me hanging, lo these many months.

Volume 8 does put on quite a show though. It's amusing to watch the two armies, previously so determined to kill each other, turn all their attention to this one vampire that leaps from the ship and lands amongst them. Of course, when he's a vampire with a pair of large handguns (including his 13mm Jackal) and the superhuman reflexes to use them, and he can call forth a loyal army consisting of every single person he's ever bitten (we're talking four digit number here people, including other creatures of the night), well, it's a bit more understandable. And when that army proceeds to impale most of both sides on large wooden pikes, well you can almost feel sorry for them. Almost (I mean, one side consists of Nazis, and the other side did plan on conducting an Inquisition, so compassion only stretches so far). What's impressive is Alucard unleashes this particular level of destruction because his Master, Integra Hellsing, gives him this highly descriptive order: 'Destroy them all. Do not allow them to go from this island alive. With your silver gun, dye the white-robed army vermilion. With your iron gun, dye the black-robed army scarlet. Dye every last one of our foes through with red. Kill all enemies! All that you see!!'

Suffice it to say, Integra Hellsing does not #$%^ around.

The most interesting parallel lies between Alucard, and the one he considers his rival, Father Anderson. Alucard seems to have been a man who became a monster out of some notion that killing lots of people would serve God, Anderson will become a monster to destroy one, in the service of that same God. Alucard's reactions to Anderson are what catch my attention throughout the volume, how impressed he is with the "paladin" (as Papafred dubbed him) making his way through the undead army, holding what's left of his left arm in his teeth, because it still holds a blade, and he intends to use it, and how sad Alucard is when Anderson chooses to become a monster. I think Alucard sees the man he was reflected in this man who is so dedicated to his cause that nothing else is of importance.

I'm not certain what else to say, other than I now await Volume 9, and Volume 10, whatever day in the future they may be released (I don't think they've been finished even in Japan, so their release here is still well off). The art is dark, and quite bloody, but still very expressive, and in general not horribly difficult to follow, though there are moments when I really wish this was on American comic-sized pages, because I think it would just look so much nicer with that extra space to use. The story still has a way to go, as the Catholics are bloodied but far from beaten, and the Nazi commander seems to have expected everything that's happened, and has likely several trump cards still to play.

Based on what I saw in this volume, I hope one of the things he's counting on isn't his aim with a firearm. He's just terrible. I'd give it a 4.0 out of 5, but Volume 7 would have netted a solid 5 out of 5, so keep that in mind for comparison's sake.

Vampires, Guns, It's All Good

If I may be frank for a moment, this week has blown chunks for me. How much still depends on the results of that Wetlands' Habitat and Management test I took yesterday. Hopefully, that bonus question about listing comic book characters associated with wetlands helped a little.

Fortunately, there's my always Tevion, ready to loan me his CDs with the first two Ultimate Hellsing OVAs burned on them. Because it really lifts my spirits to hear lines like 'Heh. It's been awhile since my head's been cut off.'

Or to see a vampire spontaneously combust and burn up giving someone the finger.

Or to see Alucard's patented "Get shot to pieces by a bunch of mindless ghouls with firearms, only to slowly, with great theater, regenerate himself while laughing about how much fun the whole thing is".

I gotta say though, they amped up the blood by a factor of 10, and the sexual content by... well, at least a factor of 3. Just a bit too much groping, you know? But we're talking Tarantino levels of blood spray here. Actually, more than that, what with it being animated and all, they can be a bit more creative with the physiological possibilities, I suppose. On the lighter side, it's pretty, and there are some extremely funny moments, pretty much all involving the "police girl" trying to adapt to her new circumstances. Her reaction to her new rifle (a 30mm anti-tank cannon with depleted uranium shells) was very amusing, as was hers and Walter's entrance to the conference room (poor Admiral Penwood). It's a nice counterpoint to the remarkable amount of the red stuff that starts flying everywhere a few minutes later.

I have to ask, is it pretty common in vampire lore that only virgins (be they boy or girl) can actually be turned into other vampires, and anyone else just turns into a mindless ghoul? It sounds kind of Anne Rice, but I haven't read any of her work, so I couldn't say. It's something that was brought up in the Hellsing manga - to Seras Victoria's benefit - ignored in the anime, and now it's back in play.

Of course, I'm still trying to figure out what Seras is right now. She needs to drink blood, or if she won't do that, at least to sleep in a coffin, blessed silver burns her, but she can be out in the daytime. Her master's eyes are always red, but Seras' are usually their natural blue, shifting to red only during fights, sort of like Wolverine's berserker rages, or Banner changing into the Hulk when he's stressed. She lacks his ability to shapeshift, or call familiars, but she does seem to heal fast, and she's definitely stronger and faster than a human. So she clearly isn't human any more, but she doesn't seem to be all the way vampiric yet. I'm not sure there's a term for such a thing. Maybe the other characters' could dub her a "Whedon vampire"?

It's not as far-fetched as you might think. They referenced Star Wars, might as well go deeper into pop culture. I'd actually like to see what Alucard would think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Angel. Probably about what Spike thinks of Anne Rice (it's trash).

Always love to see Walter in action. I'm not entirely sure why, but it is just so cool to see an old guy darting around, dodging machine gun fire, all the while slicing ghouls up with spools of something like piano wire. Maybe it reminds me of Clint Eastwood's movie badassery in his later years. Man, I love Unforgiven.

Surprisingly, I actually liked Integra Hellsing this go-round. She comes off less mean (which was my main impression in the anime), and more calm, and in control. She faces down Father Anderson, after he's made chumps out of two of her strongest agents, and just diced the two people she brought as bodyguards. And she's smiling! He's got blades on either side of her neck (though she is blocking one with a sword), and she's a Protestant (meaning "heathen" to him), and she just laughs at him when he says he killed Alucard.

The only time she really breaks composure is when Seras loses it, and tears up the ghouls that used to be her soldiers. Otherwise, she's confident in her soldiers' abilities to perform their jobs, and even when the battle comes up right to her face, she rallies the old fellows she was meeting with, and they shoot it's face off.

Plus she deals with one vampire by shooting it three times, then telling it she's had enough of it's chatter, as she is 'put out.' Just barely letting her anger through, only makes her a greater presence.

Query: If stabbing him in the heart with blessed silver, and cutting his head off wouldn't kill Alucard, what would? (And I already thought of "writer's block", so you can't use that one)

Test to See If Blogger Fixed The Damn Thing

Well, the title pretty much says it all. I try to add images to the post I had planned, and I get this "we are sorry for the inconvenience" crap. How dare they be courteous!

Anyway, this is fair warning for when Hellsing Volume 8 is released here in America. I love the Hellsing manga. I mean, Nazi vampire army against Catholics looking to perform and Inquisition? If that isn't a Dave Campbell F--- Yeah!, I don't know what is. So just be advised, and stand by for the actual post I had planned. I'm sure you can't wait.