Hellsing – Ultimate Series One (Geneon/Animé)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Episodes: C+
Hellsing
is back and this time produced widescreen.
Hellsing – Ultimate Series One
has more evil in the world, the British Empire again threatened by the undead
and the subversive vampire Arucard returning from the dead in a freak incident
to stop them. I can see with HDTV why
Geneon would want revisit this popular character and we did cover the Signature Collection of the previous
show, but there is only so much more they could do with this within the
confines of the genre.
There is
nothing groundbreaking or innovative here, though it is interesting and
entertaining if you are an Animé fan.
The artwork is nice and in line with the original series, while the disc
only offers a 50-minutes installment.
Why not two? DVD has the
room. Still, fans will enjoy this and it
delivers for the 16 & up crowd enough to at least be appealing.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is stylized in a way that holds back
fidelity and detail, and though the case says it comes “Encoded from HD master”
is really no different from the original block style transfers. Maybe a Blu-ray version will look better. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is better, with
constant surrounds, though it seems the Dolby compression cannot handle the
dynamics of the mix. Except for Geneon
previews, there are not even any extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
