Space Runaway Ideon

It has always been humoured that after writing “Mobile Suit Gundam” Yoshiyuki (kill them all) Tomino was suffering from a serious depression. I cannot validate the claim one way or the other, but I can speculate. Depression is a terrible thing. It is like someone has taken all the sound out of music, all the flavour out of food, all the joy out of life, and many other equally metaphorical examples. Depression affects your work, and knowing this I think we can understand a lot when examining “Space Runaway Ideon.”

Space Runaway Ideon - Opening Theme

“Space Runaway Ideon,” is the first anime Kill Them All Tomino worked on after “Mobile Suit Gundam.” He was given complete creative control and with that freedom he was able to explore his wild imagination in all direction. The premise of “Space Runaway Ideon” is as follows, in the distant future, earthlings have begun colonizing other planets. Our story begins on the planet Solo where the military are investigating the construction of unauthorized military equipment only to be informed that the machinery was not produced by the scientist present but rather they dug it out of the ground. At the same time another civilization of space travelers, known as “The Buff Clan” come to the planet Solo with the goal of discovering the “Giant God.” Karala the daughter of the Buff Clan’s military commander comes to investigate the discovery of the earthlings but her overzealous protector, Gije, believes her to be in danger and attacks. The Buff Clan have a technological, and therefore militaristic, advantage over the earthlings however the three pieces of military equipment come alive and combine to form a giant robot who forces the Buff Clan to retreat.

Both sides learn very early on that both the earthlings and the Buff Clan are human; literally, they are the exact same species only from different home worlds somehow. In spite of this, the Buff Clan are relentless in pursuing the “Solo Ship” the space ship that houses the “Giant God” and an elaborate game of cat and mouse across the stars begins. The crew of the Solo ship use the Ideon (The Giant God) to defend themselves and the more they use the giant robot the more they learn how insanely powerful it’s abilities are.

The Ideon firing tens of thousands of missiles all at once.

“Space Runaway Ideon” is a series that is built on tension. There is a constant feeling of unease surrounding the Ideon and what it is capable of. Everything about the war between the earthlings and the Buff Clan is in a state of escalating terror. Every element of the plot moves towards a grimmer and darker setting. This is the only anime that might qualify as both a “real” robot anime and a “super” robot anime. Everything surrounding the science fiction in “Space Runaway Ideon” seems reasonable enough, except for the Ideon itself which is way too powerful to be considered realistic, until you realize what the Ideon really is.

Of course it is much easier to feel the growing tension of war and feelings of terror when we have characters to relate to and Tomino deliveries with great characters in “Space Runaway Ideaon.”

Yuki Cosmo

Our primary protagonist is Yuki Cosmo, a young man whose father is killed in the initial attack by the Buff Clan on the planet Solo. Cosmo is one of several people who seek shelter inside one of three piece of military equipment during the attack and is one of three people end up piloting the Ideon. If the introduction of young man hijacking a mysterious piece of military equipment and using it to ward off an unforeseen enemy attack after a permanent separation from their father sounds familiar, it should, it is exactly how Amuro Ray was introduced in Mobile Suit Gundam.

In fact Cosmo has a lot in common with Amuro. They are both approximately the same age, both are hot headed and need to grow up, and both do this with the backdrop of grandiose epic war in space where they are responsible for piloting the most powerful weapon on the battlefield. Both are naturally talent for commanding machinery, both are mechanically inclined, both are brave and strong young men.

However Cosmo is a fun main character because he surprises us in various was. First of all that hair, even during the eighties when this show came out giving anyone a orange afro would diminish our ability to take them seriously, it takes daring to give your main character hair like that, but Tomino did. Cosmo’s hair is one of the those things that is funny the first few times you see it, then you just get used to it, and Cosmo would not be the same with a different hair do. Also Tomino lets Cosmo be a little more bold and capable than other young male protagonists at the start. At the start of “Space Runaway Ideon” Cosmo is standing up to adults, holding his ground against them both intellectually and physically. He wins arguments against scientist and military officers and quickly establishes himself not only as the logical choice for piloting the Ideon but also as useful warrior outside the giant robot.

Kasha Imhof

Our second pilot in the Ideon is Kasha Imhof. At first it seems like Kasha is the obvious choice to be the love interest to Cosmo, they are same age, both are thrown into the same crazy situation as Ideon pilots when a war with another clan of humans begins. Both are headstrong. Both are capable. Neither trust the adults. Neither is afraid of the tough situations and choices thrust upon them. However they do not get along, Kasha is more brazen and rude than Cosmo, their young egos clash and they do not get along. In fact it is not until the very end of the series that we see them starting to like each other, and at that point it feels very real since they have been through so much together. Also most everyone they know is dead at this point and affections is a coping mechanism for humans at times like those so it feels realistic.

Jorden Bes

Our third pilot (initially) is the young dashing military Commander Jorden Bes. Following Tomino’s nature of surprising us with characters Bes is introduced as a condescending jerk and maybe a bit of an idiot, but then the Buff Clan attack and Bes shows us his true colours as a brave and cool headed leader. Bes is established early on as being dashing and handsome and him being a naturally leader makes him a primary plot point as well as a major character throughout the series. He is still short with the scientist on board, he still shows a lack of patience at times, we know he is not the smartest man on board the Solo ship, but we, the viewers, never question his qualifications as leader because his flaws while real do not cripple him and his strengths are paramount. In fact Bes being the brave daring man he is might be the single thing that saves humanity in the end.

Moera Fatima

It should be noted that even though Bes pilots the third part of the Ideon initially during the Buff Clan attack he rarely pilots it again after that. As commander his responsibilities force him to commander the Solo ship during future battles. The third pilot of the Ideon for the majority of the series Moera Fatima. While Fatima does get a solid amount of character development over the course of the series he is just not as interesting as other characters we need to talk about.

Sheryl Formosa

During Bes’s introduction he in highly confrontational towards the scientist Sheryl Formosa. Sheryl in many ways is the opposite of Bes. She is knowledgeable and highly intelligent; however she lacks charisma and daring. Sheryl is brave though, in fact she is reckless at times in her pursuit of knowledge and she never backs down to anyone. When Bes and her first meet this wonderful bit of dialogue occurs:

“You bitch!”

“My name is Sheryl Formosa, not ‘you bitch.’”

And here is a fun fact, Sheryl kind of is a bitch, but that is what I like about her. She makes some poor choices at times, other times she is right on the money and knows exactly what she is talking about. It makes for a great dynamic between her and Bes, Bes is bold and brave but ignorant towards the mysterious of the Ideon and Sheryl is smart and logical but untrusting and both are belligerent. Both also see the value of the other. They never really get along Bes and Sheryl but they show each other respect casually and passively multiple times throughout the series. Bes knows Sheryl is valuable because they need to unravel the mysteries of the Ideaon and Sheryl knows it is Bes’s military leadership getting them out victorious and alive from the many Buff Clan attacks.

Karala Ajiba

One last character I want to mention is Karala. As mentioned earlier she is the daughter of the Buff Clan’s military leader and she comes to Solo to investigate the Giant God. Karala is important for two reasons. First she is a major plot device as she is the bridge of peace between our two people. She volunteers herself as a hostage to the Solo ship and makes every effort to show the earthlings that the Buff Clan can be reached for peace and also extends this message to her own people over and over again. She is a wonderful caring person who puts herself at insane risk for the betterment of all people. Also she is beautiful.

Karala is a cartoon character, as such her beauty ends up being even more subjective than a flesh and blood woman’s attractive qualities. In live action TV shows and movies you can convey to the audience rather easily is someone is attractive by simply casting an attractive actor, but even then people don’t always agree on what is sexy. I never understood why so many people thought Megan Fox was so hot, and I don’t expect everyone to understand my attraction to say, Sara Quin, but at least a visual effort can be made fairly easily in live action productions. The same is not as easy to accomplish in an animated feature. Yes, they can draw a woman or man is a certain way to appeal to our sexual sensibilities like Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) or Holi Would (Cool World) but both of those examples are deliberate exaggerations almost to the point of comedy, or perhaps literally to the point of comedy. When creating a serious effort in animation some sense of consistency needs to be kept, meaning you cannot have one character have exaggerated features to showcase femininity or masculinity while others look reasonably realistic. You can see how this might be difficult, in fact the most difficult aspect of illustrated art most artist struggle with is variety of physical characteristics between characters. This is why all women look alike is so many comic books and cartoons, but you will notice that this is also why so many men look alike in so many comic books and cartoons.

“Space Runaway Ideon” has a very good art direction that allows for variety. Perhaps this is way Cosmo as an eccentric hair cut. This artistic talent is best on display in regards to the character Karala. She doesn’t look that much different than other female characters at a glance but you immediately identify her as a good looking woman. She is drawn with a glow about her. Her hair dark, light complexion and bright blues eyes create contrast that emphasises her other subtle features, the slenderness of her face, the large size of her eyes and the brightness of her color. Most people probably did not pick up on this, only you did pick up on it, you just did not realize it. This effect only works because Karala is the only person in the entire show to have these exact features which allows her image to stand out to us, also her appearance slowly becomes one of the more memorable ones.

But artistic ingenuity is not the only giveaway to the viewer that Karala is beautiful, there is also the way other characters act around her. Gije is initially obsessed with Karala, and while his overzealous loyalty does stem from a sense of duty it is also quite obvious that is he infatuated with her. In one of the earlier episodes Karala poses as a Solo refugee and gets a ride from two men. There is a brief moment when they are driving and both men are staring at her with smiles on their faces, no attention is drawn to this, but it is suggestive. When Karala first meets Bes there is some appropriate flirting. Men take notice of Karala in realistic ways over the course of the story, the writing does not beat into us that Karala is beautiful but passively suggests to us at irregular intervals that this is the case, and as viewers our brains pick up on this without even realising it.

Combine all this with the fact that Karala is a space princess and a wonderful human being and you have a very attractive and alluring character. Even if you do not find Karala particularly attractive yourself (I don’t she is a cartoon character) it is easy to understand why characters in “Space Runaway Ideaon” do. I just spent four paragraphs talking about Karala, I guess I really liked the character, everything about her. I like the way she was presented to us. I liked her goals in the story, and was rooting for her the whole time. I like what she represented to the story and how important of a plot device she was both literally and metaphorically. Basically Karala was a perfect character.

Still my favorite character was Cosmo, that kid had huge balls.

So to summarize “Space Runaway Ideon” is a fantastically well written story, with awesome characters, and deep symbolism throughout. Stop reading now if you don’t want spoilers, and I mean right now!

In “Space Runaway Ideon” everyone dies.

And I fucking mean everyone! Everyone dies! Everything dies! All of creation is destroyed in the end! This is the series that earned Yoshiyuki Tomino the moniker of “Kill Them All.”

When I told you earlier that there is a powerful sense of escalating tension in this series, and as the story unfolds the greater the discomfort the crew of Solo ship have towards the Ideon becomes, and the danger levels in your brain rise and rise until you are freaking out while watching this anime. It is not like the end comes out of nowhere either we slowly crawl towards a Armageddon ending so when it does finally arrive you feel like “oh man we messed up. But I don’t blame us. We tried.”

In a way it is almost better to know this going into the series. Knowing that the end to this series is so impossibly tragic really lets you embrace this escalation of the plot. The war constantly worsens, the grudges between people constantly grow, and the horror of wars and the Ideon endlessly escalate. Not to over use the word but escalation is the perfect description for this series. Just when you think things cannot possibly get any worse, everyone dies. Not all at once, the battles rages and people are slowly shot down, blown up, or crushed. Then in one final blaze of rage and glory the Ideon unleashes it’s most powerful weapon and all of creation is destroyed. You might think that a robot destroying all of reality seems like a silly exaggeration of its power, but you would be wrong, wrong for two reasons. First there is the escalation factor, we see new powers of the Ideon all the time and the power of Ideon is being realized gradually and eventually the only logical step remaining is a universe ending doomsday attack. Second the plot twist.

There is something else that helps make the Ideon’s power believable, the unspoken and unexplained plot twist at the very end. The end is a flash of light and everything in existence ending, and the souls of our dead characters flying away in space to a new world to start again. It is a “what the fuck ending,” and many people are rightfully confused by it. This ending makes very little sense unless of course you understand the plot twist; the Ideon is god.

The Ideon is god and we used god’s power to fight a war. We messed up.

We kept using god’s power to protect ourselves and the more we used this power the more was revealed to us how unbelievable and terrifying god’s power is. In the end, in our darkest moments when our hero Cosmos is one of the only characters still alive and still fighting when the Ideon is struck at point blank range with a cannon that unleashes the full power of the sun (oh by the way they destroy the sun in the final battle) the Ideon finally wakes up and makes a judgement; human kind has failed. We have failed in the eyes of god and he destroys everything. Literally fucking everything!

Knowing this, the tension through the series, the escalating discomfort, the growing feuds between earthlings and Buff Clan, everything about “Space Runaway Ideon” makes perfect sense. It is brilliant really. Every crazy aspect of the show, every seemingly impossible abuse of science fiction, every convenient plot devise, every unlikely occurrence is explained in one unspoken plot development, the Ideon is god.

My mind is blown.

It is not that difficult to compare characters and plot structure between “Mobile Suit Gundam” and “Space Runaway Ideon” they have a lot in common, but then again Tomino has a lot of reoccurring themes and plot devices he likes to use throughout all his work. In the example of “Space Runaway Ideon” we see something bold from Tomino, we see an uncompromised ending of total finality. We see a disregard towards explaining the far out conclusion. We see a sadness that would not be repeated in Tomino until some of his later work in the Gundam series. It is safe to say that Tomino was very depressed when creating “Space Runaway Ideon.” The man hated writing sequels and it is often joked that by killing off the main characters he could get out of writing one, and I suspect there is some truth to that, but I feel there is something more to “Space Runaway Ideon’s” bleak ending. When dealing with the philosophical issues of cosmic war, something Tomino wrote at length about, there remained only one possible exaggeration, the destruction of the universe whole sale. If I had any recommendation on how to improve “Space Runaway Ideon” it would be only two things, two subtle things that when included would have invoked the viewers. Before destroy everything the Ideon should have spoke, it should have pronounced one word loudly “judgement.” And then after everything, maybe even after the credits we should have seen the Ideon completely restored and acting on its own it would venture to a far away planet and rebury itself, waiting for human kind to find it again.

It is highly suggestive by the ending that this is not the first time human kind has failed in the eyes of god, the Ideon that is, and there is every reason to think that when human kind rebuilds itself that is will find the Ideon again and maybe this time we will use the power of the Ideon for peace instead of war, or perhaps we will be wary of such power and respect the Ideon and leave it be.

A lot of people will not watch “Space Runaway Ideon” because of the very dark themes and very bleak ending but there is a very bright silver lining, because there is hope. Human kind will try again and again and eventually we will find cosmic peace with ourselves; it is an unavoidable eventuality. As I stated before when the terrible end finally arrives there are feelings of failure, utter failure on the part of our species, but as viewers we understand. We did not fail because humans are stupid and evil, there was a solid effort made by many characters to end this war peacefully. There were many acts of violence motivated by extreme fear that it was impossible not to empathize with. By the end when Cosmo swears uncompromised vengeance on the Buff Clan and abuses the power of the Ideon to destroy them, I was rooting for him. These mother fuckers couldn’t just leave the Solo ship alone, and by this point not only have we lost the vast majority of characters plus countless soldiers and civilians (like billions) but Earth is destroyed and so is the Buff Clan’s home world and other inhabited worlds, also the sun is destroyed. At that point the only thing left for Cosmo to do was fight for revenge.

So yeah, the human race failed, we made one too many mistakes and it ESCALATED to a dark conclusion.

But we might make it work next time.

There is hope, and not some small hope, but grand brilliant hope. We very nearly prevented our destruction multiple times during the events of “Space Runaway Ideon” and everyone dies with some knowledge of the choices they made were not perfect. I would love, just love for Tomino to write a short sequel where human kind succeeds where we failed before with Ideon, and I do not want it to be easy. I want the same tension, the same escalation but in the last moments something clicks in the minds of our heroes and they realize human kind has been here before and in a very courageous moment we reach out to each other and find a way to live in love and peace, our true nature.

There is so much to take in from “Space Runaway Ideon” it is one of the deepest pieces of fictional philosophy ever produced in cartoon format. I loved this anime, it was dark yet hopeful, and everything about it is very powerful.

Be invoked.

Various Violent Anime

Another friend of mine wanted anime recommendation, specifically violent ones.  Here is my thorough response.

Fist of the North Star: 

I have never seen “First of the North Star” but here is what I know about it. Inspired by “Mad Max,” and Bruce Lee our hero Kenshiro wonders the wastelands of a post apocalyptic world brutally killing bad guys. The famous Kenshiro line of “you are already dead,” actually was used under two different circumstances, first, it was a bold threat that whoever he was fighting had no chance of walking away alive, and second, he would use a fancy punch that would cause people to explode, so they had yet realize that they were dead.

The first time anyone ever held a real life funeral for a fictional character was when Kenshiro finally killed his older brother. Japan is weird but sometimes awesome.

Berserker:

Guts, what a nice looking fellow

Oh shit I haven’t seen this one either. Guts the berserker is a very big strong dude wielding a huge broadsword and he kills a lot of people. I don’t know the plot but Guts is often considered the manliest anime character of all time and “Berserker” is often cited as one of the most violent. 

Ninja Scroll: 

Watch out! That mother fucker
ain't dead yet.

Inspired by the life of real life folk hero Jubei Yagyu, “Ninja Scroll” is a fantastically well written story with solid characters and lightning fast ninja action. Jubei Kibagami is a ninja who ends up forced to help a government spy in fighting the eight devils of Kimon, each one of which has crazy powers. The creativity that went into the villains’ powers and the way Jubei manages to defeat each one is highly imaginative and exciting, also very violent at times. “Ninja Scroll” was made in 1993 but is probably still the best action themed anime ever. 

The folk story of Jubei Yagyu is about how when the Christians came to Japan they did not just bring their evil Christina magic with them, they also brought their devil, and Jubei was the man who beat him up. The character of Jubei Yagyu has been portrayed multiple times in Japanese cinema including a performance by Sonny Chiba in “Samurai Reincarnation.” 

“Ninja Resurrection” is the anime about Jubei Yagyu and I’m not sure they ever finished it. “Samurai Resurrection,” is a really good live action movie about Jubei Yagyu, he battles Miyamoto Musashi’s ghost at one point in it.

Devil Man: 

If Osamu Tezuka was the godfather of anime than Go Nagai is the perverted uncle no one ever talks about. “Devil Man” was Nagai’s idea of combining western super heroes with horror movies. He was fascinated with the idea of a demon possessed by a man, the opposite of being possessed by a demon, this “Devil Man” could be a super hero whose powers stemmed from evil but were used for good. This may not sound like too original of an idea now (Spawn), but back in 1972 when “Devil Man” was created it sure as hell was. The two part OVA “Devil Man” is very graphic, and the follow up “Apocalypse of Amon” is perhaps even more brutal and is definitely more tragic and heart breaking. 

Rob Zombie is a fan of “Devil Man” and in the song “Super Charger Heaven” he is referring to Go Nagai’s “Devil Man,” with the lyrics:

“Devil man, devil man, calling,
Devil man, running in my head, yeah.”

Stay away from the 2004 live action movie it is terrible and was the winner of multiple Bunshun Kichigo Awards (the Japanese equivalent of The Razzies Awards). “Devil Man” won worst movie among other things. 

Here's a fan made video of Devil with White Zombies' "Super Charger Heaven"

New Getter Robo: 

It is hard to recommend which Getter Robo to watch since the idea has been rehashed and recreated multiple times with multiple sequels. “New Getter Robo” was the most recent and perhaps the least complicated of the bunch. The Getter Robo is another Go Nagai creation where a three piece robot is powered by human aggression. There are three main characters.

Ryoma is a short tempered street brawling martial artists who fearlessly takes loans from the mob knowing (in fact looks forward too) them coming to collect so he can brutally beat them to death.

Hayato is a mass murdering terrorist who may or may not want to destroy the world, in his introduction scene in “New Getter Robo” he claws a man’s eyes out and this dialogue occurs.

“Ah! My eyes!”

“And ears!”

And then Hayato slices off both the man’s ears in with a single attack using both hands. He then proceeds to beat the man’s face in with one finger punches.

Then we have Musashi who is something of a barbarian and simpleton. Musashi is probably the closest thing to a sane person we have in this cartoon.

So yeah some lunatic thought it would be a good idea to give these maniacs a giant robot. In the end when the bad guys reveal that they are not bad guys but rather humans from the future who have been ruined by the getter rays. After this reveal I believe the response from the getter team is something to the effect “Fuck you! We don’t care! Let’s keep fighting!”

So yeah that’s a fun one

I couldn't find the video of Hayato slicing a man's ears off with his bear hands, but here is the opening clip to "Shin Getter Robo Vs Neo Getter Robo - The Movie" where Musashi saves the world from the dinosaur empire:

Violence Jack: 

Looks pretty violent to me

You know I’ve never seen this one, but it is Go Nagai, it is the theoretical sequel to “Devil Man,” and “violence” is in the title so I’m going to have to assume it is pretty damn violent. If Go Nagai feels the need to use the adjective “violent” to describe something it must be insanely violent.

Elfen Lied:

I’ve talked about Elfen Lied (German for Elf Song) a lot lately, read about it here: http://colinkellydreams.blogspot.ca/2012/08/the-mirror-elfen-lied.html

In the meantime here is the most upsetting scene in the entire series:

Space Runaway Ideon: 

I don’t consider “Space Runaway Ideon” to be particularly violent and many people think I’m sick for not begin perturb even a little through the course of these series where EVERYONE DIES! I’ll end up writing a whole report about Ideon one day because I’m enjoying it so much, and admittedly there are some outstanding moments in Ideon that make it pretty damn over the top in the violence department. As mentioned a moment ago EVERYONE DIES, including the children on board the Ideon’s spaceship the Solo ship, one of them, a five year old girl gets her entire head removed by a laser blast, and not long after that the universe blows up. No big deal right?

I guess the violence is plentiful in “Space Runaway Ideon,” but it is not the violence I was paying attention to, I was enthralled with the great story which involved characters I really liked and the horror surrounding the unravelling mystery of the power of the Ideon.

This is the series that earned writer Yoshiyuki Tomino the nick name “Kill them all Tomino.” I love “Kill them all Tomino,” he’s a really good writer.

Here's a video containing every death and Easter egg with some really nice happy music:

Claymore: 

Not a particularly good anime, but certainly a violent one. The world of “Claymore” is one where humankind coexists with demons who want nothing more than to eat us, the best solution we have come up with so far is to turn our own into demon altered warriors. By placing the blood of a demon, or flesh, or something, they never fully explain the procedure, we can gain demonic like strength and power. While this may sound a lot like the “Devil Man” premise it is different enough to be considered more or less wholly original. There is no possession involved nor can someone grow stronger by killing other demons. But the demonic touch does heighten aggressive behavior and men being the more violent half of the species prove too unstable to use the power reliably. That’s why all of our heroes are blonde haired blue eyed women; well that doesn’t explain why they are all blonde haired or blue eyes but whatever. I assume the creator really likes blonde blue eyed women so that was the art direction they took; I don’t think any real racist undertones deliberately exist in “Claymore.”

So yeah “Claymore” is violent. There is a strong reoccurring theme of people losing limbs. I mean there must be like forty severed arms in this series.

Higurashi – When They Cry:

This was the anime that made my friends accuse me of being a freak in love with murder, and if not for that accusation I never would have thought to include it on a list of violent anime. You see I don’t think Higurashi is violent, because the violence is never graphic, most of it is implied. When Kechie beats two girls to death with a baseball bat we see he swing and swing like a maniac and we see blood splatter on the walls but we never see the damage done to the girls. When Shion is stabbing Satako to death and laughing manically while doing so, we see Satako cry and scream and we see blood splatter onto Shion but we never actually see the knife going in. Scenes like that sound horrible and what is being implied to us is terrifying but the actual violence we see is minimal. The story captures us in Higurashi, it is all about paranoia and seeing our characters, all of which are all really likable, mentally break, then cross the line, and then do unforgivable things, that’s what so fascinating about Higurahi.

“Higurashi – When They Cry” is a psychological thriller, but there are a lot of things that would put a lot of people off. Of our main cast of friends five out of the six of them are female and we see all of them die multiple gruesome deaths, and as stated in my essay about “Elfen Lied,” there is something so very unsettling about the murder of females and children and that happening multiple times in Higurashi can upset a lot of people. Also the art style is obnoxiously “Moe.” For those of you who don’t know, which would include me before watching Higurashi, “Moe” (pronounced: mo-eh) is the anime style of bright colorful hair and big, big eyes. Basically really cutie pie bullshit, and Higurashi is all about that art style, and everything being all cutesy makes it all the more shocking seeing them brutally die.

Higurashi is too violent and dark for the faint of heart and too cute and girly for the thick skinned, I may be the only person I ever know who enjoyed it.

The famous door scene:

Hellsing:

What if Dr. Van Hellsing didn’t kill Dracula? What if instead he forced him to fight supernatural evil on behalf of the British government? What if this Dracula was a smirking, uncooperative, violently lunatic, who wielded giant bad ass guns that only he, with his super vampire strength, could use? I’m glad someone asked these questions otherwise we never would have gotten an anime as crazy as “Hellsing.”

I cannot in honesty say that “Hellsing” is particularly good, because it isn’t, but it is one of those wonky, silly shows that we all really enjoy because it is so way over the top. We don’t even see a legitimate threat to the hero Alucard (who is obviously Dracula) until the final episode, and even then there is no suspense, we all know Alucard is going to kill Incognito both brutally and smugly. The support cast die off constantly to the point where I can’t remember any of their names unless they were one of three characters who actually matter other than Alucard. The villains never die easy they all get torn to shreds, which proves to be surprisingly easy for Alucard to do. Whenever Alucard is injured he just laughs it off, and this includes things like being beheaded or reduced to vampire soup.

Yeah “Hellsing” is a violent one.