Vampires
For this vampire topic, I was temped to rant about how much I despise the Twilight movies, even though I love them to an extent but only because they're so absurd, but instead I'd rather talk about one of my favorite anime/manga: Hellsing. I've both read the manga and watched the television series Hellsing Ultimate, and they're my current favorite vampire works. To be fair I haven't read too many things featuring vampires, I could add another to my list when I read Interview with a Vampire, but I personally enjoy vampire works with a lot of violence and gore, which is why I love Hellsing so much.
The series is very interesting because it doesn't just focus on vampires, it also features the Vatican, the Hellsing organization, Fascist Germany and the Nazis, and more. If you've never heard about or read it, sounds interesting, right? I know, that's why I adore it, there's always so much going on and the huge conflict between these three main groups is both outrageous and wonderful. It's a lot of guns, explosions, blood, supernatural elements, and fighting.
The "main character, "Alucard, is basically Dracula (Did you notice Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards? Clever, I know) but he's been sort of engineered over many years and perfected in a sense to be the ultimate unstoppable vampire, the engineering being done by the Hellsing Organization. (I use quotations because he's very important but not always really the main character, there are many others who are very prominent throughout the series, it shifts around.) Alucard is an interesting character because throughout the series you're given flashbacks of past versions of himself in several very important moments in history, so it points out how he's always been there in a way just in different forms. He's also interesting because ironically he's used as this ultimate weapon by the Hellsing organization to hunt other vampires that are causing huge problems and running rampant going on murder sprees. Alucard however really enjoys his work as this monster vampire hunter even though it means eliminating others of his kind. There's an incident for example where he and his partner, Seras (who is a female he turned into a vampire to save her life) take out a vampire couple that have been going around killing families including children. While he's shooting and terrifying the two, he explicitly states that they're an embarrassment to the name vampire and that they have no self control and it's shameful. (Yes I said shooting, Alucard and Seras use a variety of guns with special bullets designed to kill vampires, the bullets often being made of melted down holy crosses and whatnot.
I could get into the rest of the series because it's great and entertaining but a lot of it would get away from the vampire thing so I'll try to keep focusing on the vampire parts. The thing I mentioned about Alucard saving Seras by turning her into a vampire is unique because to my knowledge there aren't always a lot of instances where vampires deliberately save people. Part of it was because he shot right through her to hit and kill the vampire holding her hostage who was standing right behind her, so he probably felt a bit bad, but I think he also saved her because he was bored and thought it would be fun to make her a vampire as well. Alucard could easily be considered overpowered because he can't be killed, at least not permanently.
I just find this whole series fascinating because of this unique take on vampires hunting other vampires while fighting the Vatican and the Nazis; it's a riot. It's also cool because it bring vampires back to a more relatable level in a sense because most of them aren't these folklore story creatures like Nosferatu who live in castles alone in the woods, most of them look like normal people who happen to be powerful vampires and are involved in these human conflicts. I enjoy that the vampires get wrapped up in these massive human issues and it's funny because many of them die because of it, a good number of them being killed by Alucard which is the ultimate irony, him being a vampire as well.
If you like/don't mind violence and haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it, it's a lot of fun, here's a link to the first episode of the show below (I put the English dub because it's more fun to watch and not have to read the subtitles with the Japanese version)
(also for some reason the link often starts the video at 10 minutes in so you might have to pause it right away and start it from the beginning, sorry about that, youtube is weird haha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUls2mFBE7A&list=PLundriVad2xd_qMTDL2jCywf-uQtKbznh
The series is very interesting because it doesn't just focus on vampires, it also features the Vatican, the Hellsing organization, Fascist Germany and the Nazis, and more. If you've never heard about or read it, sounds interesting, right? I know, that's why I adore it, there's always so much going on and the huge conflict between these three main groups is both outrageous and wonderful. It's a lot of guns, explosions, blood, supernatural elements, and fighting.
The "main character, "Alucard, is basically Dracula (Did you notice Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards? Clever, I know) but he's been sort of engineered over many years and perfected in a sense to be the ultimate unstoppable vampire, the engineering being done by the Hellsing Organization. (I use quotations because he's very important but not always really the main character, there are many others who are very prominent throughout the series, it shifts around.) Alucard is an interesting character because throughout the series you're given flashbacks of past versions of himself in several very important moments in history, so it points out how he's always been there in a way just in different forms. He's also interesting because ironically he's used as this ultimate weapon by the Hellsing organization to hunt other vampires that are causing huge problems and running rampant going on murder sprees. Alucard however really enjoys his work as this monster vampire hunter even though it means eliminating others of his kind. There's an incident for example where he and his partner, Seras (who is a female he turned into a vampire to save her life) take out a vampire couple that have been going around killing families including children. While he's shooting and terrifying the two, he explicitly states that they're an embarrassment to the name vampire and that they have no self control and it's shameful. (Yes I said shooting, Alucard and Seras use a variety of guns with special bullets designed to kill vampires, the bullets often being made of melted down holy crosses and whatnot.
I could get into the rest of the series because it's great and entertaining but a lot of it would get away from the vampire thing so I'll try to keep focusing on the vampire parts. The thing I mentioned about Alucard saving Seras by turning her into a vampire is unique because to my knowledge there aren't always a lot of instances where vampires deliberately save people. Part of it was because he shot right through her to hit and kill the vampire holding her hostage who was standing right behind her, so he probably felt a bit bad, but I think he also saved her because he was bored and thought it would be fun to make her a vampire as well. Alucard could easily be considered overpowered because he can't be killed, at least not permanently.
I just find this whole series fascinating because of this unique take on vampires hunting other vampires while fighting the Vatican and the Nazis; it's a riot. It's also cool because it bring vampires back to a more relatable level in a sense because most of them aren't these folklore story creatures like Nosferatu who live in castles alone in the woods, most of them look like normal people who happen to be powerful vampires and are involved in these human conflicts. I enjoy that the vampires get wrapped up in these massive human issues and it's funny because many of them die because of it, a good number of them being killed by Alucard which is the ultimate irony, him being a vampire as well.
If you like/don't mind violence and haven't seen it, I highly recommend you watch it, it's a lot of fun, here's a link to the first episode of the show below (I put the English dub because it's more fun to watch and not have to read the subtitles with the Japanese version)
(also for some reason the link often starts the video at 10 minutes in so you might have to pause it right away and start it from the beginning, sorry about that, youtube is weird haha)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUls2mFBE7A&list=PLundriVad2xd_qMTDL2jCywf-uQtKbznh
My favorite vampire stories are most definitely when they are more relatable or human. The anti-hero is a fun take on the vampire, especially because its so different from vamps like Nosferatu. Although legendary and spooky as hell, theres a charming aspect to more human vampire stories like Hellsing, or even twilight (though I could rant about that one too)
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