My view on Saber's kingship

I don't disagree with Saber's idea of kingship. I even think that it's ok to have regrets. But I disagree with her wish to go back and redo things, only because her people - the Anglo Saxons - had been pushed out by other tribes.

Her view is the unrealistic and naive view.

Britain nowadays is quite successful.  [ Success = measured by Human Development Index, GDP per capita, scientific-technological advancements, competent non-oppressive government ].

It shouldn't matter who is leading Britain, as long as it is a prosperous and one of the best countries nowadays.

The struggles between ethnic groups have always been stupid to no end because none has the vision to realize that they are all citizens of planet Earth. Yes, there was oppression and failure of some individual groups but the end-result turns out good (as opposed to the communist and sharia countries that are experiencing the bad result of the "wrong groups" winning). For Britain, does it mean that the losers should go back and rewrite the past just for the sake of being in control? Fuck no.

1. Because the present isn't a failure in any sense.
2. Doing that would change entire world's history. 
3. In case of Saber, she doesn't ask if today's humans would want a different leader.
4. There's no guarantee that the future they would bring would be as good as it is today.

Britain managed to leave huge global influences, and English is an international language nowadays. No other country can say the same.

Too bad her people were pushed out. But what comes? The future isn't worse because of it.

"I want to return Britain to glory."

"Britain is already glorious. What are you talking about?" When something is working, don't change it.

Saber is short-sighted for being fixated on the past instead of the present.  She failed to see that a kingdom divided against itself (feuding among the Knights of the Round Table) would inevitably fall or even that a perfectly united kingdom could never exist in the first place.

The time to try was in the past. Now wishing to undo the prosperous present to save the past is a personal wish, because the future could change for the worse and she doesn't think or care about that. The only time when it's ever ok to redo is when the present is doing so badly due to a particular past event and if you could go back to the turning point to change it (like what Chaldea does).

Did Saber ask whether her people and today's people would want to redo anything - even if it wouldn't change the entire world's history? She was the people's chosen king. Would they be happy with someone else? This is the point that Iskandar brought up: it would be an insult to the people in both past and present to redo especially when the present is doing well.

This is not just her people but humanity's advancement as a whole. Does Saber care about how her wish - if it came to fruition - would change the future? She cares about HER people but does she care about humanity as a whole and where it's heading? Is WHO is leading more important than WHAT they can do? Is this group superiority thinking?

This whole thing proves that her kingship belonged in the past and should not be meddling with the present day because she doesn't have a future vision.

Fate/Zero: Kings' Banquet (and how Gilgamesh sees Saber)

This scene is brilliant!  

The way each of the 3 kings define "King" is different.
But even when that is the case, they can accept the belief of certain views, but not others.

The 2 Kings before Saber make their thoughts clear to her.
No beating around the bush.

Also, Iskandar and Gilgamesh are just so badass.
Their rivalry and respect for each other is one of the highlights of the Servants in Fate/Zero.

Now let's go the meaning of the scene - this is how I understand it:

Gilgamesh's position is that he can do whatever he wants because he's got the power to do it.

Iskandar's position is that the king should be a relatable figure, which means being things like being greedy, holding one's head up high, being a leader figure, in order to win the hearts and minds of his subjects and unify them under those common terms. Ionioi Hetairoi is walking proof that this method worked.

Saber, on the other hand, holds the view of being good will result in good things. But she was good and her kingdom fell apart anyway. She thinks she was wrong somewhere along the way, regrets and wants to do it over again.  My view on Saber's kingship.

Iskandar scolds her on how she's ignoring the reality in favor of her pretty ideals and that's why her people couldn't get on her level. Gilgamesh finds her naivety amusing.

Iskandar dislikes how Saber regrets her kingship, and the burden she takes on as king, in his view, isn't how kingship should be. Wanting to erase everything by choosing someone else is an insult to the people who followed her to the very end since in his opinion, the King must believe in himself. So even if she pointed out to him how he had failed in his life, the point would still stand that regret isn't a thing to him.

How Gilgamesh sees Saber:

The whole scene makes it look like the only right one is Iskandar.  But: Gilgamesh's viewpoint isn't as simple as mocking Saber's ideal because he thinks it's wrong:

I believe him to be, on the spectrum of Iskandar to Arthuria, is closer to the latter. While in his youth he was tyrannical, later after he returned from his adventure, he was a wise and just king who ruled alone, by the law, for the people, and at the end died from overworking for his kingdom! Speaking from experience, he sees a "little girl" attempting to take on the responsibilities of kingship as ridiculous. To his eyes, her ideals and way of life are doomed to fail, yet she continues to fight against that inevitability. It's a stubbornness and idealism that he rarely sees, and he wants to see her struggle to attain the unattainable because of how amusing it will be. The way Gilgamesh sees her also has a touch of admiration because Gil always likes it when a human dares to reach for impossible goals (that's why he acknowledges her kingship and tells her that there's no right or wrong answer and that she should keep going on her path - see the Novel's excerpt below). At the same time, he finds her struggle amusing because it is futile, and in his twisted way, he tries to break her to see how strongly her conviction would hold up against him.

The difference between Gilgamesh and Arthuria lies in the fact that Arthuria let her role as a King consume her and turn her into something almost devoid of any joy and life, while King Gilgamesh wielded that title with pride, giving respect to his subjects and demanding it in return. He was not consumed but living at his fullest the joys and hardships of being King, while Arthuria regretted becoming one. Unlike Arthuria whose kingship is more of a one-sided love which withered and died at the end, Gilgamesh sacrificed a lot for his people but in his mind, he always believes that if the king met his demise, the people in Uruk would suffer greatly! So he stayed alive for the sake of his people. Gilgamesh was a happy King and regretted nothing.

Fate/Zero Novel Volume 3, Act 10, -84:19:03

– Once upon a time, there was a man. He was a foolish and ridiculous fellow whom, despite having a body made of mud and soil, set his heart to stand shoulder to shoulder with gods. 

Even to this day, the King of Heroes still couldn’t forget the way that he passed away with tears streaming down his face.  ................. Like so, when he saw that man taking his last breath, the incomparable king realized – the way that this man, who was human but wanted to surpass humanity, had lived, was even more precious and more brilliant than all the treasures he had collected. 

“You fool who stretch your hand towards realms not of men… There is only one person in heaven or earth who’s worthy of appreciating your destruction, and that is none other than I, Gilgamesh.
Sink into my embrace, oh you glorious and illusionary men. That is my decision.”

The golden majestic brilliance disappeared in the night mist, leaving only an evil laughter echoing long after.

Fate/Zero volume 4, final battle: 

"I don’t know why you are so obsessed with some wish-granting Grail. Saber… the fact that a woman like you exists can already be considered a rare miracle, no?”
Archer’s tone was unnaturally calm, as if it was not a dangerous enemy that was before him.
"Abandon these pointless ideals and vows! These things will only restrict you and bring you misfortune. In the future, you'll need only desire me and live under my protection. In that case I vow, on my honor as King of Everything, that I will grant you all the happiness in the world."

( So... the way Gilgamesh appreciates Saber is the same way he appreciated his friend Enkidu. I never thought there was some genuine admiration in his "Saber obsession" until I've seen Fate/Zero.

Gilgamesh wants to see exceptional things, especially people who are trying to do impossible things and have the abilities to come very close to obtaining these dreams, those who defy gods/destiny, those who never give up no matter what. Enkidu, Saber, Hakuno happened to have one of the traits that Gil admires in humans.

To Gilgamesh who believes that seeking pleasure is the proof of one's humanity, seeing Saber actively avoid seeking her own happiness is quite unsettling and fascinating to him. The difference is that, unlike in his interaction with Kirei, he doesn't let Saber make her own decision.

Saber is someone who, in Iskandar's words, "discarded youthful romance and dreams, discarded love, and sunk into the eternal curse of ideals".  Because of the way Arthuria was raised, she became "inhuman" since she discarded all her emotions; that's part of the reason Gilgamesh and Iskandar made fun of her, especially Gilgamesh seeing having desires is part of being humans so he probably sees her as a challenge to make her feel something other than regret towards her failures in life.  Very very few men, if any, would be interested in a woman who didn't even have love/marriage on her list of priorities. Only Gilgamesh appreciates a woman like that. I would go for women like that, too, as oppose to those who have little dreams/ambitions and only speak the language of "romance".

Note that I'm not trying to romanticize the whole thing. Gilgamesh never truly loves Saber and is quite disrespectful toward her. The irony is that should Saber ever lose sight of her ideal, he will drop her instantly.

In all of that, it's this admiration he has for her and this part alone seems genuine. I give credit where it deserves ).

Best fight in Fate: Iskandar vs. Gilgamesh

Iskandar vs. Gilgamesh in Fate/Zero is the most epic and emotional fight in all of Fate series!  What makes this fight so great is the mutual bond and respect that these two kings have for each other.
Iskandar knew that he would die but he charged on anyway.  What a king!  One can't ignore such bravery of a man who charged forth all alone to a glory far away on the horizon bathing in eternal sunlight.  A king worthy of leading all people standing firm behind him.  A king is there to lead, and people are to follow this conquest path to the Sun. A king can show how glorious life can be, and his people can decide for themselves to live to the ending days in glory.

In this fight, Gilgamesh looked a little sad - no triumphant laugh, no condescending comment, no joy, nothing - when he opened his Gate of Babylon to kill - an expression that Gil has never shown in any other fights so far - because he admired Iskandar's bravery and probably because Iskandar had proposed friendship to him just before the fight.

From the Fate/Zero novel:

To his worthy opponent, whose entire body was skewered from head to toe by the rain of Noble Phantasms, yet who did not stop until thwarted by the Chain of Heaven, the King of Heroes gave his greatest reward – he honored him with true feelings of admiration.

Gilgamesh showed appreciation for his fellow King’s efforts and praised Waver's loyalty. He also mostly forgot his trademark "zasshu/mongrel" even when addressing Waver). He let Ea be stained by Iskandar's blood to allow him an honorable death. I found his last words to Iskandar to be especially touching somehow: telling the whole world is simply his Garden (nice reference to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon), but adding that Iskandar will definitely never tire of it – basically accepting Iskandar claim to try and conquer it – was a pretty nice touch!

One could never think that Gilgamesh is the only one who spared a Master's life in this bloody War.  He spared Waver out of respect and admiration for Iskandar (for Iskandar was a king who inspired his people, and Waver was a living proof of that), and also out of admiration for Waver's loyalty.

"... If I challenge you, I would die."
"Of course."
"I can't do that. I was ordered to live."
Yes - he couldn't die. Not now, when the last words entrusted to him by the King were engraved into his heart.
Waver must escape from this dilemma no matter what. He was before an enemy Servant and had no way to defend himself; even though it was a desperate situation where nothing could be done - the one thing he definitely could not do was give up. He could not ignore the way he had made the oath.
And that was perhaps a pain far more cruel than resigning himself to death.
The boy shook helplessly before the death he could not escape from, but his gaze alone made his adamance known. Looking down wordlessly on that too-small stature for a short while, Gilgamesh simply nodded once.
"The path of devotion is a great labor. Do not ever mar it!"
He had no reason to raise his hand against a mongrel who was neither Master nor traitor. That was his decision as the King.

In any other circumstances, these two kings would be drinking buddies. If there were no Enkidu, Gilgamesh would have been friends with Iskandar, which is something no else can say. (Iskandar's charisma was so strong that it worked on a demi-god! LOL).

The OST in this scene is "You Are My King".

PS:  Ufotable's animation quality is amazing!

Immortality is fantastic!

I believe immortality is a wonderful thing and that all of the reasons for it being bad are just not strong enough to convince me otherwise.

I get that living forever can seem scary; the unknown is. But that is just individual perceptions of immortality. This is not what humanity as a whole agrees upon. People who don't want to live forever or only want to live to a certain age can just kill themselves when they are tired of living.

Earth's overpopulation would be the only problem to worry about on a large scale. But with more time to tackle this issue, we can keep working on them. I don't know the solutions yet - maybe we'll live on Mars - but that's the whole excitement of living to see the ever-changing future: We can keep trying things and learning and pushing for improvement. Imagine what great achievements would come about if humanity's greatest minds (eg, Newton, Einstein, Tesla, etc) were given immortality?

I don't agree with the argument that "without death, humans can't grow". Where did people get the idea that the longer life is, the less meaningful it becomes? Why do some people seem so adamant that continuing on and foregoing the mental and physical degradation we currently deem acceptable is such a bad thing? Remember that humans nowadays can and have the conditions to achieve far more than we ever did because the we don't have to struggle for most basic necessities like ancient humans did. Being freed from bothering about those kinds of inconveniences, we have been able to concentrate on enriching our minds.

In 1900, the average human lifespan was 47 year​s. By 2000, they live​d to 76. Are middle-aged people today wishing they could speed through the next few decades and get them over with? Do those pushing 100 feel like they've been dealt a bad hand?

Not-dying is what we strive for with medical advances, after all. And if you don't think we should continue striving to live as long as possible, where's your cut-off line? Reaching a point where we can live for as long as we want seems like a pretty natural conclusion. Immortality doesn't seem like such a big dream.

The "no progress" argument assumes that death is the only struggle humans do/will ever face in life. This is immortality, not invincibility. There will always be new challenges, new horizons to reach, eg, will we be able to become an interstellar species?

Favorite character: Saber Nero

Some people say Nero's personality is "flat" but I disagree. Nero isn't flat. She has more personality than Arthuria. (Comparing the two is inevitable since the designer made their appearances so similar).  I really like her in Fate/Extra: Last Encore, the way she encourages her Master, the way she shares her experiences. Her lively, uplifting personality is a source of motivation for the MC. SHAFT managed to make her very cute in art, voice and manner.  Her "Imperial Privilege" is a cool ability!  She's confident and arrogant but not annoying, like a female Gilgamesh, and very entertaining to watch.

"I will set my life ablaze for the sake of those who think I am beautiful!"

Nero is passionate and energetic but not overdone. She bravely smiles and accepts her past mistakes and flaws without regret. Even though she had suffered a lot, she still tries to be the most cheerful as she can be.  She radiates that "I am a Queen!" charisma. (On the contrary, while Arthuria is noble and dignified, I don't feel that radiance from her...)

Also, I love her chemistry with Hakuno! It's more fun and friendly than Arthuria's with Shirou. In Fate/Extella, she has the most beautiful speech/moment with Hakuno ever!

My only complaint about Nero is her design:  it's Arthuria replica with big breasts. Ugh. I don't want her to look identical to Arthuria. A little change in her appearance would go a long way in distinguishing her as a character - like how a fan artist drew her in this picture on the left.

Fate series: Caster Gilgamesh Valentine scene

https://youtu.be/4taEA0YcpUQ

Gilgamesh:  "What, a gift?  From you, to me?

..... You really don't know fear, do you? 
I didn't think you would get ahead of me and give me something.

Well, I will take it as a strong point of yours.
After all, you're the idiot who got through that difficult situation with courage alone.

Then? Where is it?
Don't make me wait too much. Hurry up and hand it over!

............
Hey, is this that thing? That thing which all the Heroic Spirits are making a fuss over about?  Valentine's chocolate?

N---!
You fool! Just who do you think I am?! 
Even if I'm being more prudent now, I'm still the great King of Uruk, who collected all the treasures of the world!  
Well, Ishtar took a part of them, but, leaving that aside.  
To give me something like this...
Aren't you ashamed!? Reflect on yourself!"

[ Choices:
1. As I thought, homemade chocolates from an amateur weren't good!
2. If only we had a high-class brand shop in Chaldea! ]

"You fool! I'm not talking about quality. It's about quantity.  
This won't last two bites.  
With this amount of sweets, our banquet will be over in an instant!
Do you think that your fun time with the King will last only a few minutes?!

..... Hmph. You're truly hopeless.
But this must be the limit of a poor Master.
It can't be helped. This time, specially for you, I'll show you a real Valentine.
Follow me, Guda.
You'll learn what my Uruk (treasure) really is!"

Basically... Gilgamesh first complained about your gift, saying that 'quantity matters as much as quality'.  Then he said, "Do you think that your fun time with the king will last only a few minutes?"  ( XD )

Then he invited you on "A Whole New World" trip to see Uruk - it is his greatest treasure so it's like him showing you a part of his heart. He sure knows how to make you feel special.

Caster Gilgamesh is so nice, isn't he?  And Uruk looks absolutely stunning!  (I didn't think that ~2600BC could look that beautiful).

This is a fanservice event but an awesome scene and this is what Caster Gilgamesh would totally do.

Why the upset with Gilgamesh killing Illya?

The scene in which Gilgamesh killed Illya in Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works is a big reason that many fans (especially Illya's fans) hate Gil for. They say, "Gil's torturing and killing a little girl", "she had a rough life, was mentally unstable, so she deserved more sympathy", "Gil was torturing Heracles", blah blah blah.  Here's my rebuttal:

1. Illya acts like a little girl but she's 18.  (I clarified this because some people act as if killing a loli were worse than killing a normal-sized adult).  Her appearance may gain her more sympathy than other adults would, but her role in the HGW made it a fair game.  Some people think she's an "innocent little girl" but Illya is bloodthirsty "little girl" who's out for blood as much as any Fate/Zero Masters did. I don't care how Prisma Illya or Carnival Phantasm portrayed her. I'm sure she wouldn't spare anyone's life if she's having the upper hand. For example, in her words: “Berserker, I don’t care what you do with Saber and Rin. You can kill them or rape them”. In VN Bad End, she keeps Shirou barely alive just to physically torture him. But "it's ok because she had a bad life," right?  /s
2. Illya - like her mother - was created by the Einzbern to serve as the vessels in HGW - to die, even IF they won the War. There was no victory for them. Illya was programmed to self-destruct in a few years. Their fates were sealed from the moment they were born. 
3. HGW is a life-or-death battle. Regardless of Illya's appearance, the only thing that mattered is: Did she understand the implication (life-or-death) of participating in a HGW or not? Did she understand the rules of a HGW? Did she participate voluntarily? Illya definitely understood these things, which equate to full competence. 
4. Her being a loli doesn't mean that other participants should have yielded to her. If you're weaker, you'll lose. You can't go around whining, because you fight voluntarily. It's like you're playing at a casino but can't accept losses. It's like L vs. Light in Death Note: they knew what's at stake but they entered anyway, so could either of them complain about being killed by the other?  
5. Illya's past:  All Masters in the 4th and 5th HGWs felt compelled to enter the HGW one way or another. This isn't a competition of whose past is the worst (considering that characters like Kariya, Sakura and Rin have terrible pasts, too)!  While I feel sympathy for Illya's life and Kariya Matou's plight, I do not feel hate toward the characters that killed them.
6. The part where Gil ripped her heart out wasn't torture (like some people claim it was) since she's already dead. Gilgamesh could have done it while she's still having her final moment with Berserker but he waited till she's dead instead.  If any kind of killing where an opponent does not die instantly is torture (as some fans claim), then 99% of killings in anime are torture. 
7. It looks like some people want nothing less than an absolutely painless instant death for Illya. But there's no such thing as NOT suffering when being killed. If you want instant death, there's just 1 option: cutting their head off - which people will argue as being more cruel.
8. It's ridiculous that some fans go as far as saying that "Gil was torturing Heracles"!  Seriously? Gil was having a fair fight with Heracles. Gil just happened to be stronger. So be it.  Gil annihilated Iskandar and no one complains. Yet when a loli is involved, people seem to lose their minds.
9. Nobody owed anybody an honorable death in the HGW. Look at how the Masters killed each other!  Gil killed Iskandar, whom he actually liked and respected, in 1 stab in the stomach - which was respectful as far as killing goes - but Iskandar didn't die instantly. Does that mean that Gil was torturing him? No. (It's worth noting that Sella's and Illya's loyalty must have very much impressed Gilgamesh, because it's generally a big deal when he actually took hold of one of his weapons to kill a person instead of just launching them).

Overall, I have zero problem with Illya being killed by anyone. Because the moment she entered the HGW, she's a participant like everyone else. I don't give extra sympathy to other characters (some of whom had horrifying pasts, too), and neither to her.

Manga & novels that I would like to see animated or re-animated

Animated:

• Time Patrol Bon
• All the "Fate" games:  Hollow Ataraxia, Grand Order, Extella, Prototype, Unlimited Codes

Re-animated:

• Berserk
• Doraemon
• Esper Mami
• Glass Mask
• Guin Saga
• Mermaid Saga (Rumiko Takahashi)
• Perman
• Ranma 1/2
• Rurouni Kenshin 
• Vagabond

Fate/Stay Night: Shirou's plot armor

One cannot talk about "plot holes" without mentioning the plot armor that Fate/Stay Night gives Shirou.  First, no, I am not salty because I'm a Gilgamesh fan.  Hell, I have hated this plot armor ever since I've watched UBW (without having watched any other Fate series prior) and before I became a Gil fan.

1.  Shirou vs. Gilgamesh fight:

The story can go on and on about how "Shirou has absorbed Archer's skills" and "Gilgamesh lets his pride get in the way" all it wants.  It would be believable if the story let Archer win against Gilgamesh, but not Shirou.  And here's why:

• Even Archer would have a bit of trouble defeating Gilgamesh.  Shirou - who would lose to Archer in a fair fight (reminder: in his fight with Archer, Archer let him win) - should in no way defeat Gilgamesh. Shirou has gained UBW but his agility and skills were lacking; he was someone who didn't even know how to sword-fight 2 weeks ago. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh is famous for many forms of combat, battled gods and demons in his life, can manually use all the weapons in his GoB, single-handedly supplied several Servants at once while protecting Uruk with a magical barrier. Yet FSN dares use the excuse that "Gilgamesh is a king, not a warrior" (Hello, he is both!) for why a high-schooler would defeat him in swordfight. 
• Gilgamesh isn't an A-rank melee combatant. But GARcher himself isn't an A-rank warrior at melee combat, either.
  Gilgamesh < Lancer in melee combat.
  GARcher < Lancer in melee combat.
  Shirou < GARcher.
• While UBW is a decent counter to Gate of Babylon, Shirou can't realistically physically keep up with Gil due to Gil being a demigod and Shirou being a human.
• Gilgamesh had 2 perfect chances to kill Shirou and co. when they were face to face before the showdown:  in the first instance: Shinji stepped in (as if Shinji had any importance to him);  the second instance, Gilgamesh has opened a dozen Gates of Babylon about to launch but the story doesn't forget to have Rin threaten to shoot Shinji as if she were a threat. Gilgamesh himself said that even if she killed Shinji, it'd be no problem to him. Yet he went, 'Ahhh, I've opened a bunch of GoB but I'll withdraw for now 'cuz I don't want dust on my clothes' - haha... what a ridiculous reason! This is the person who had crawled in dust to battle many things in his life. Not to mention that retreating is totally not Gilgamesh's style.  
• UBW itself is a huge mana cost, while GoB costs much less mana and has the most powerful weapons in the universe.
• The weapons projected by Shirou are B-rank so they shouldn't be able to shatter Gilgamesh's A-rank weapons. It's only wistful thinking that UBW can match GoB:  GARcher, while having Rin as a Master, could only take half of Heracles' lives and died in the process. Gilgamesh, while having a crappy Master like Kirei, took all of Heracles' lives effortlessly.  
• Even if Gil didn't want to use Ea, he has numerous magical weapons in his GoB. Yet he only used swords against Shirou. Shirou is able to trace things that aren't swords but it's much more costly for him. Gilgamesh could have easily overwhelmed him with things that Shirou can't replicate repeatedly or replicate at all. 
• The number of times you see Gilgamesh shooting hundreds of weapons from his GoB and suddenly he couldn't hit Shirou.
• The story never shows Gilgamesh in his golden armor, even in his fight with Heracles, because it has to make him look as vulnerable as possible.

2.  Shirou vs. Kirei fight:

Shirou is also shielded heavily by plot armor in his fight with Kirei.  Did you see Kirei vs. Kiritsugu fight in Fate/Zero?  That man fought like a demigod against Kiritsugu - who was an experienced assassin and well-versed in the defense art himself, who used Double and Triple Accel and still couldn't "get" Kirei. Shirou is a lesser mage and a lesser fighter than Kiritsugu, is simply no match for Kirei.

This is a pretty typical hero's journey BS where the protagonist wins by plot armor and a lot of dumb luck.

Fate/Stay Night: Ufotable vs. Visual Novel

Let me sing my praises to UFOTABLE - for doing a phenomenal job adapting the Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works visual novels (VN) into two anime series!  The GLORIOUS artwork, animation and soundtracks easily put them among the top 5 anime series in this decade!

Fate/Zero set the bar for animation in a TV series, and Unlimited Blade Works exceeded it!

I must say, watching Ufotable's adaptation is much more satisfying than reading the VN, because I get to see the most fantastic, epic, eye-gasmic battles that one can ever see in the anime world.  I also get to see the characters' movements and interactions - which I can only imagine in my head when reading the VN.  I also am extremely pleased to see that Ufotable's anime adaptation stays faithful to the original VN work! 

Seeing on screen what I remember from the VN is truly a treat to behold. The backgrounds and characters are absolutely stunning. All the fight scenes are so beautifully choreographed and when the deciding blow occurs, you can almost feel what the loser is feeling. There is real weight to the fights due to how great the animation and artstyle are conveying the conflicts. This is a real stand-out feature for me.

Although all internal monologues are cut out, the anime - through its amazing animation - successfully conveys all the subtleties in the ways the characters interact and fight.  [ For instance: the farewell scene between Archer and Rin was done perfectly in the anime:  The scene is only 2-minute long, and no description of the characters' inner thoughts and feelings are given, but it successfully conveys all the emotional subtleties of this scene.  Here's the scene in the VN for comparison. ]

There is no other company that I would entrust this franchise to.  Ufotable + Fate = dream team.  I am looking forward to Ufotable's adaption of Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel which are coming in 3 movies.  I have high hope that they will adapt Fate/Hollow Ataraxia as well.

On the other hand:
The VN is the place to go for clarifications and to gain a better understanding of the characters, since a lot of dialogues and internal monologues are cut out of the anime.

One thing I disapprove of Ufotable is its censorship of sex scenes. When I first watched UBW, I just thought that the "magic circuit transfer" scene between Rin and Shirou was an awkward scene ("Rin just took off her sweater... what's she so upset about? It's not like she was naked or even just wearing a bra. She still had a shirt on!") - until I found out that it was supposed to be a sex scene. In the VN, this was not just mana transfer between these two; they wanted to actually have sex because they had feelings for each other. How the characters react to the initial request of "mana transfer" is also part of their characterizations. Why did they not make the sex scenes like that in Parasyte, for example, just briefly, and the audience will understand that it's a sex scene? I don't need to see the explicit details. I only need them to show that these characters (who have feelings for each other) had an intimate moment.

Fate series: My favorite Servant for each Class

Saber:  Arthur (male), Nero
Archer:  Gilgamesh
Lancer:  Cu Chulainn
Rider:  Iskandar
Caster:  Merlin (male)
Berserker:  
Assassin:  King Hassan

[ to be updated ]

My Love-hate Relationship with Fate/Stay Night

LOVE:

• FSN's strength is characterizations: Each character has a unique design and unique abilities.

• Interesting magical abilities.

• Some really interesting characters that should have got more screen times (eg, Cu, EMIYA, Iskandar)

• A carefully thought-out plot showing how "fates" intertwine from events in Fate/Zero to UBW.

• Ufotable's unbeatable artwork + animation!


HATE:

Trying *too hard* to appeal to viewers, and that consists of:

• Gender-bending, fanservice (especially F/GO and F/Prillya)

• The typical harem trope with 3 types of girls: the flat chested, the medium-sized chest and the E-cups. The flat- or medium-chested girl tends to be assertive and the big-chested girl tends to be shy.

• Making Illya a loli, because the story really needs her to be a loli  /sarcasm.

• All of the main girls go for the MC. No girl ever goes for the grown men in FSN, not even in Hollow Ataraxia because god forbids a potential waifu to show interest in anyone else.

• Japanese "morality": 'Listen, although you're 17 years old, you shall not bring a girl home' without the female in the house getting jealous/territorial and proceeding to give you a lecture on morality.

• Saber and Shirou are given too much spotlight. Ok, I know they are the main characters of FSN, but is it necessary that 4 of the 6 fights in HF part 1 be given to Saber? UBW is not her route but you see her in most of the scenes nonetheless. Shirou is always given the final fights in all routes - like how Sailor Moon is always the one to save the day in every final battle in SM anime. I'd prefer the Servants playing a more active part.

• Romance in general is not very well done. There's either something missing or not right in all 3 romances in FSN. I think this can be overlooked when romance isn't the main focus in a particular route.

• The soap drama that is most of Heaven's Feel what tries too hard to guilt-trip viewers into liking the heroine. While I enjoy the dark plot and the fights in HF, the romance consists romantic tropes such as asking your love interest cheesy questions like, "Am I dirty?", "If I become a bad person, will you forgive me?", and the infamous, "I'll kill you [Shirou], then you'll be with me forever" (an extreme version of the failure in thinking that many people seem to have that they find killing your lover to seek "eternity" to be romantic).

• the damsel-in-distress proceeding to hatefuck the world trope.

Castlevania seasons 1+2 Review

- It's utter irony that all the world's scientific knowledge is in the mind of Dracula while the humans are worshiping god and destroying centuries of knowledge!

- It's also irony that nobody asks how the magic works in this anime: it breaks science. Ahh the coexistence of magic and science isn't possible - unless all of the magics can be explained by science somehow.

- The religious assholes are the true villains of this series. They are deluded, pure evil shits. At least more than half of mankind at that time consisted of humans who didn't want to live in harmony with others, eg, proven by the priests who killed Lisa. Dracula is evil, too, but he listens to reason (as proven by when Lisa entered his castle), values science and certain human qualities in people. As Alucard said, Dracula could use his centuries of knowledge to improve mankind. Normal humans like Lisa could live in harmony with him. Imagine how advanced the world would be without the Dark Ages!

- The character of Dracula:  how this anime portrays Dracula impresses me: The scene in which he throws Isaac away to save his life speaks to his character. Although he is a monster who has done monstrous deeds and sees humans as cattle, he's also a fair-minded being who listens to logic and reason (even if it comes from a human) and is capable of real love and is willing to change his way for his loved ones. He values science, loyalty and true friendship.

- I knew early on that Dracula's Generals were going to turn against him later. That's where Dracula is being careless to employ these individuals:  your enemies are sure to kill you, but when you have 'friends' from the inside who want to kill you, too, you're doomed.

- The scene where Dracula snaps out of it must be the best moment in this season! I was hoping for a father-to-son heart-to-heart conversation that would end the war but... well.

- Seeing the ending where Alucard sits alone in the castle crying, a realization dawns on me:  Damn, religious assholes ruined it for everybody!

- If the anime ends here, it is a satisfying enough ending to me. I know there are more seasons after this and I wonder what they will be about. The only two characters I care about are Dracula and Alucard. Isaac is interesting, too, but I don't really care to see more of his life unless he's working for Dracula or Alucard.

- Animation quality:  the fighting scenes aren't so fluid, but the final fight in Dracula's castle is very satisfying to watch.  The animators didn't do a good job conveying the bonds among the three protagonists:  for example, the few scenes where they giggle and laugh together look very awkward.

Bram Stoker's Dracula VS. Hellsing's Dracula

The author of Hellsing explicitly stated that his inspiration came from Bram Stoker's "Dracula". This is originally a novel published in 1897.  There have been many movie adaptations of the novel to date.  The three most notable ones are 1931 "Dracula", 1977 "Count Dracula" and 1992 "Bram Stoker's Dracula".  I have watched all 3 movies and read up on the novel.  Here are my thoughts:

Bram Stoker's original novel:

In Bram Stoker's original novel, Dracula sails to England to buy the estates that he has signed a contract for. It's implied he is planning to take over England before his plans are foiled by the vampire hunters, and forced to retreat back to Transylvania. He specifically targets Lucy to hurt the heroes. Dracula and Mina have zero sexual attraction:  Dracula turns Mina into a vampire to get back at the group of men who are hunting him. Simple as that.

"Dracula targets Mina Harker because he thinks she is his reincarnated wife from his previous life, that probably committed suicide when she learned false reports that he died while fighting the Ottomans. Mina falls madly in love with him despite being engaged to Jonathan Harker as well as Dracula raping and killing her best friend Lucy. She wants to be with him for all eternity and begs him to turn her into a vampire, but he is initially reluctant".  Doesn't this sound familiar?

Except that in the original Bram Stoker's novel, there is never anything romantic even hinted between Dracula and Mina. In fact, he specifically attacks her to punish the vampire hunters for thrashing his resting place, threatens to kill her and her husband if she so much screams for help, feasts on her blood and forces her to drink his, afflicting her with vampirism. In turn, she is repulsed by his appearance and is mentally disturbed for the attack she endured.  She does, however, expresses some pity toward the Count, specially when he dies, but that is it. In fact, she was portrayed as a stronger female character in the original novel than in most adaptations that came afterward: she goes from a very determined young woman that helps the heroes hold it together and track Dracula down to a weeping, hysterical damsel in distress that is often in love with Dracula in movies.

1931 movie:

The 1931 movie  generally stays faithful to the novel and casts the best actors as Dracula and Van Hellsing. I love how Van Hellsing is portrayed in this movie: inquisitive, wise, no-nonsense scientist-detective! Still, it cut out too much interesting/important stuff from the novel. How Van Hellsing defeats Dracula involves a great deal of planning which the movie didn't show.  One of the absent scenes is the one in which Van Hellsing fights and kills the Dracula brides. Also, because of the time, they could not show any gory or sexual scenes at all.

1977 movie:

The 1977 "Count Dracula" movie is the closest adaptation to the novel I've ever seen. Although the Dracula actor does not appear as intimidating and menacing as the 1931 version, he stays faithful to the original storyline and characteristics.  I particularly take interest in some philosophical points he brings up to the vampire hunters, such as:  "The cross is an instrument of torture",  "Why do you hunt me?", "What is the difference between me drinking blood and your cooked chicken?" - to which the vampire hunters have no satisfactory response to.  +1 to Dracula.

1992 movie:

This movie adaptation completely turns Dracula into a tragic romantic figure who becomes a vampire out of anger at the death of his wife, and subsequently does everything for "love".  [ IMO, making Dracula that way is so... lame, although being able to love one woman for 400 years is admirable ].  In Hellsing, we see that Dracula is made of much stronger spirit than that:  He never gave up even in death!  He was raped repeatedly as a child, but he rose in rank and power; he conquered nations.  He turned into Dracula only at the very end when he was decapitated. History has it that after Vlad's wife committed suicide, he did not give up; he got out there and lived and kept fighting. Not any one single event made him lose hope but rather, a combination of events.

In 1992 movie, Mina follows Dracula willingly. And Abraham van Hellsing has a slight crush on Mina. Mina ultimately prove herself to have no backbone. She is shown to love Jonathan Harker but then takes in immediate interest in Dracula as soon as he says he is a prince (despite him acting creepy as fuck on first meeting). First, she betrays Jonathan, then she betrays Dracula, then when Dracula is dead, she returns to Jonathan. This reminds me of Twilight when Bella diddles back and forth from one guy to another between every scene. Confusing as shit when one moment Mina professes undying love for Dracula then the next, she helps the Van Hellsing hunters kill him.  She simply goes with the flow, swings with whoever is the winner.  Sure, she's a Victorian woman who "had no choice" but this is a damn headache, a weak typical boring character. She is nothing compared to the thunderstorms that are Integra and Seras in Hellsing Ultimate!


HELLSING

Best Dracula/Alucard character design and personality. Period.

Only in Hellsing do you see an atheistic take on vampirism: It is said that Vlad turned into a vampire "by his own power".

The series definitely adheres closely to Bram Stoker's novel but also seems to follow the 1992 movie somewhat:  It is said in manga vol 7 that Dracula traveled to England to "obtain the woman he desired."  However, in the scene where Van Hellsing defeated Dracula, we see Mina cling to him with a horror expression on her face - unlike in the 1992 movie where she fell in love with him.

In Bram Stoker's novel and the movies, Dracula's henchmen are useless. LOL ...  Different from all the movies in which Dracula is shown to have very low power, in Hellsing, Dracula apparently had soldiers and servants (all were killed by the Van Hellsing group). The biggest difference in how Van Hellsing defeated Dracula is that - in Bram Stoker's version - he "killed" Dracula BEFORE dawn. In Hellsing, it looks more like an open combat that ends AT dawn than a sneaky attack. If this was the power level of Dracula before he became Alucard, it's totally believable that a man could defeat him.

Of course Hellsing's author added his own creative touch to the tale:  mirror, Science, alchemy, and all the powers that Alucard later gets.

I like how Van Hellsing is portrayed in the 1931 movie.
I like how Dracula is portrayed in the 1931 and 1977 movies.
I like how Mina is portrayed in the 1977 movie.

Hellsing Ultimate: Life Eternal - Seras Victoria

“Giving up is what kills people. Those who refuse to give up are entitled to trample upon humanity”.

The reason Alucard saved Seras speaks to the depth of both his and her characters:  For Alucard, he only respects humans who are persevering despite everything, because that’s what he considers the defining (and best) trait of humanity. He admired the fire in Seras and offered her a chance to thrive over the rest of humanity.  For Seras, she proved her character from the moment she jumped at that opportunity without the slightest hesitation.

An interesting thing to note:  Alucard has the "Improbable Aiming Skills" that enable him to hit any target without even looking (you can see it in his fight with Luke Valentine). He could have just shot the priest and spared Seras. But he wanted to take her, that's why he shot both of them. So... he took advantage of the situation to force her to make a choice.

Since then, Seras follows him without questions and shows great loyalty to him - without taking a moment to observe what kind of person her master is. Is this blind loyalty?  I think either Seras was unaware of Alucard's abilities or she didn't mind that he was an opportunist.  Nonetheless, I think she could conclude that she's alive because he was there at the right time.

Notice that Alucard only offered her his blood after she displayed great loyalty to him: in the encounter with Anderson where she brought his severed head along with her despite being severely wounded herself. The scene in OVA 1 where Seras refused to drink blood is poignant when you realize that her motivation to live for many years was her family's death and her feeling that she needed to remain strong. But a vampire is a servant until they drink blood. So... despite being in a fatal encounter with Anderson in OVA 1, Seras' instinct was to resist drinking the blood because she now has a parent figure in a time when she feels extremely vulnerable. It partially explains Alucard's shocked response: a vampire that didn't want to walk alone was a rare thing for him to witness. Seras had "parental issues" as hers died a violent death at a young age. I think it's similar to her having "daddy issues". Alucard is like her adoptive father. She is very loyal to him and certainly holds some affection. But that affection does not stretch romantically. There isn't anything that suggests romance between these two to me. She just seems to be devoted and loyal.

Since then, Alucard never told Seras to drink blood again because (1) he was betting on her survival instinct and (2) if she didn't step up, she didn't deserve to thrive over the rest of humanity. Then Pip comes along, bringing out her hidden backbone and she brings out his hidden heart of gold. She supports him, and he strengthens her. In OVA 9, she pulls Alucard back from the brink of death, and he finds the will to fight again.

Alucard sees in Seras something that he had lost long ago: the will to live.

And Seras finds in him something that she had been longing for: a real family.

The role of Seras Victoria is to relate to us, the viewers: a normal police girl, 19 years old, innocent of the world despite going through childhood trauma. She wants to live; she would rather live as a vampire than die. She does not see immortality as a weakness. She represents humanity's greatest dream. She serves as the average-human connection to Alucard to offer us insights into his character. Very few of us would probably relate to a powerful nobility figure like Integra. So there needs to be something, some character, that makes readers think, "This could be me, I would do the same thing and/or feel the same way she does". And that is Seras for you.

Stronger than romantic love, stronger than time - Alucard and Integra

First of all:  I love the ways female characters are portrayed in Hellsing! They are not the typical shoujo girls we so often see. Both of our main females are strong-minded women who kick serious asses. (And what does that say? Alucard has good taste! LOL).

The relationship between Alucard and Integra is very deep and complicated to explain; what is obvious is that Alucard would never let anything happen to Integra and Integra would never let anything happen to Alucard.  Not a word of love is spoken between these two; it's all in their actions. They pretend to keep a business-like facade around each other but in the end they can't enjoy life without each other; they are soulmates.

Let's go back in time a bit:  After being defeated by Abraham Van Hellsing, Alucard was experimented on (probably for decades) and used only once in WWII, then was sealed in the dungeon for 50 years. He did not have much of a life in those 100 years until Integra released him.  Then, by keeping him by her side instead of sealing him again, Integra has allowed him the chance and the time to assimilate with humanity again. Ten years being around humans, Alucard himself admits that it mellows him out. Serving Integra, he also gets lots of freedom - to the point that he feels comfortable trolling his Master (:D) and acquire his own vampire servant!  Needless to say, the previous Hellsing Masters did not allow Alucard this much freedom. It is this kind of humane interaction that enables Alucard to start returning to the light at the end of the series.  Integra and Seras (subconsciously) act as his anchors to humanity (and his connection with Seras pulls him back from the brink of death once again).

Alucard's loyalty to the Hellsing bloodline:  I think that he was mainly bound to Abraham and Arthur by magic and respect, while he truly has a bond with Integra because she treats him like a human being, which explains his undying loyalty, and more. Can you imagine Abraham and Arthur yelling, "Don't disappear!" when Alucard was disappearing? I can't. XD .. Integra is also the first Master who never calls Alucard a "monster".  Because at the very least, he is family to her.  Alucard's devotion to Integra is way different from to others.  Because she is interesting, he likes hanging around her. [ Again, I wish there were flashbacks about how Integra grew up under the guardianship of Alucard and Walter! ].   While it's true that one of the reasons Alucard serves Integra is to kill his boredom, the bond between them is deep, genuine without any pretense.

Seras and Integra are basically the same in the beginning: They met Alucard as young girls in distress who were in the run from an enemy they weren't supposed to fight (for Integra, it was her own human family; for Seras, it was vampire and ghouls when she was trained to fight humans). Alucard chose to save Integra's life and made her his Master.  Integra and Seras were lost children who had no choice but to rely on a vampire to survive at a time when they were extremely vulnerable.  There's no doubt now:  Both of them see Alucard as the most important person in their lives.

When Integra was a young impressionable child, her father taught her that vampires were fearsome creatures and there was nothing worse than them.  But then her own experience shaped her views:  While her human relative was trying to kill her, a so-called monster came to her rescue and, together with Walter, brought her up.  Given such unique childhood experience, Integra does not care about Alucard's vampirism (or Seras' for that matter).  The day he saved her and knelt to her is the day he became her knight, her savior.  Integra is shown in few instances in denial of Alucard's vampire nature because of her feelings for him (which doesn't necessarily mean they are romantic; she cares for him).  I am 100% sure that Integra will NOT have Alucard locked up again after her death.

Their bond isn't exactly platonic, either.  There is a subtle mutual romantic attraction between them but for some reasons, they choose not to pursue it. There are a lot of scenes that suggest that to me (eg, every moment between them is tender despite the craziness that's going on in the background, how he jumps to her defense even in conversation, how she welcomes him back, etc). But then, there are scenes that indicate she cares a lot about her soldiers in general including Walter.  It cannot be put into clear words. I think that her love for Alucard expands beyond the possibility of romantic.  Alucard is the only person who's there for her through thick and thin - the only one whom she can trust and rely on.  Alucard is her knight in shining armor, her loyal bodyguard, and will do anything to protect her life and honor, and brings out her best leadership qualities.

The moment that really defines how they feel about each other is in the final chapter: "Romancia":  Alucard did not have to come back after Schrodinger but he did anyway because he loves Integra.  30 years is a freaking long time and not many people can say that they can go that amount of time (or even longer) without talking or even seeing a certain person and somehow their bond does not fade one bit.  This is truly everlasting.  When Alucard comes back, Integra tells him, "You took too long", to which he apologizes.  She is upset about him taking so long to return because more than half her life is now gone and she cannot spend as much time with him as she otherwise could. There is no better expression of love than (implicitly) saying that she wants to be with him for a lifetime!

Alucard as Dracula might have kept multiple "brides" and lusted after Mina Harker (despite having had minimal to zero interaction with her).  But with Integra, it's a whole different level:  He knew her since she was a child, watched her grow into the woman she is today, lived under the same roof for 10 years.  He never treats anyone else the same way he treats her.  With Integra, he has found love beyond lust. 

Their relationship is complex because of feelings that they've developed as a result of all of the things they've been through together and the combinations of circumstances that keep them from exploring those feelings. These circumstances include their species, their master-servant relationship, Integra's duty-desire conflict, her pride of being human, and Alucard's man-monster struggle.  Their love has already transcended time and romance.  I wish to see that they transcend species as well!

In the end, Integra says, "Okaeri" ("Welcome home") and Alucard responds with, "Tadaima" ("I am home") - it reminds me of how Kaoru greets Kenshin when he returns.  Like Kenshin, Alucard has found home.  And Integra has found her true family.

Hellsing Ultimate: Alucard

First of all:  THE CHARACTER DESIGN OF ALUCARD IS FUCKING COOL!  His personality is uniquely interesting.  He catches your eyes every time he's on screen.  Alucard >>> any other vampire ever. of all time. He is the absolute pinnacle of vampire fiction.

Not in every vampire fiction can you see Dracula adopting a child and taking on a fatherly role. Not in every vampire fiction can you see Dracula being raped as a child. Not in any other vampire fiction can you see Dracula transform into a girl. XD

Alucard in HELLSING ULTIMATE is a character with great depth. His sadistic and powerful yet loyal personality is explored thoroughly and he is bad-ass and dangerous - all the while makes it extremely entertaining to watch.

Part of what makes him interesting is his unbreakable spirit.  When you think about it:  The Ottoman sultan raped Alucard not for sex (maybe there's a little of it) but to send the message that the Ottomans had absolute power over Wallachia, and to break Alucard's spirit. What was his response? Instead of whining and blaming his kins for not coming to his help, he rose to power and led an army to fight the Ottoman Empire and killed his rapist.

VAN HELLSING:
What makes this scene brilliant is that you actually feel sorry for THE Dracula. When Van Hellsing told him, "You have nothing, Count! Nothing!" as he drove the stake into his heart, you forget it's the evil Dracula for a moment. It's just someone who had been utterly defeated. Van Hellsing knew Alucard wanted to die but he chose to bind him to his family which would be the greatest punishment.  We see Alucard cry remembering that moment when he almost found peace in his life, and the words Abraham said, "You have nothing" which speaks close to home considering Alucard's past and the reason he became what he is: because he lost everything.  I really wish the author would have shown us more of Alucard's past (and Integra's past) instead of The Dawn. The Dawn is pretty good but not showing what went down between the Hellsings and Alucard is kind of an important thing to skim over.

We are never offered insights into Alucard's life as Dracula, and I don't like extrapolating from Bram Stoker's Dracula because they aren't the same characters. Every novel depicts Dracula as extremely evil and vicious (eg, he steals a baby from its mom in Transylvania to feed to his brides and when the mom comes sobbing and screaming at the gates of the castle, he calls his wolves to eat her. He devours every last crew member on the Demeter ship that takes him to England, except the captain, who ties himself to the steering wheel with a crucifix and dies of exposure. When he gets to England, he scares an old man to death just because he’s passing by. He takes his sweet time draining Lucy when she has 3 men devotedly in love with her, and turns her into a vampire that eats small children. He accidentally scares Lucy’s mom to death as well while he’s draining Lucy).  Anyway, that is Dracula in other works and I would like to think that "they" are different entities from Hellsing's because they just come across so differently.  And Alucard is simply just…not that bad? He’s a monstrous fucker but…not to that extent?  Also, Hellsing's Alucard holds certain viewpoints that are vastly different from any other Dracula version, namely, his respect for people who have overcome great adversities in life, his repulsion for mindless killings (eg, a vampire kills when it doesn't need to feed itself), his self-hatred, self-reflection, etc.  Alucard is only interested in humans who are persevering despite everything, because that’s what he considers the defining (and best) trait of humanity. And that's what makes his character so relatable.

Alucard maybe a monster, blood-thirsty and battle-crazy, but he is honest about who and what he is. You may not like a person like Alucard, but you can respect a person who is honest about himself.  I think Alucard is ready to return to the light when he tells Anderson, ".... until my past is overshadowed by the greatness of my future". The affections he has for Integra and Seras are neither fake nor shallow.  Here we see a vampire who has an infinite strong will and values, who treasures real emotional bonds with the two humans (who waited 30 years for his return!). What did he do that earns this kind of loyalty from these humans? Besides the fact that they both owed him their lives, he treats these two with genuine kindness. This being had lost everything in his previous life and once again had everything taken from him by Abraham Van Hellsing 100 years ago, has finally found a belonging place with the two humans who likewise have found a home in him. This is real family bond that transcends bloodlines, species, and time.  With these people, in the present time, he has found everything he could never find as Dracula.  By the end of Hellsing Ultimate, he ends up with an adorable Master and a loyal Servant. Things he sought as Dracula and could never find.

Capable of such destruction, reveling in the carnage of war, yet somehow able to admire innocence and revere goodness, protecting it where he can, transmuting it to power as he sees fit (Seras). He is not the Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel or any other Dracula. For one, we see so much of his inner world. His will and his spirit have proven unbreakable, but he is not untouched by regret... or desire, or hope.
What really captures the essence of Alucard is the moment in the last episode when he is about to vanish: When he turns to the light of the rising sun and reminisces about his previous deaths, he is not sad or bothered by his imminent death but instead he's admiring the Sun, "And each time I think... how lovely that sunlight, which I forsook so many centuries ago..."  He still finds beauty in the world, in life itself, even when his life is at its bleakest moment. Other things, like the way he places his hand over Seras' when she was pulling the blade out of him in OVA 9, really communicate the emotion inside him. He's not just a monster. He's not a hero, either. Alucard is incredibly compelling and complex.  He still has much humanity in him, whether or not he wants to embrace it.  (More on "humanity" in my next post).

PS:   I forgot about [this interview](http://hiranomoe.com/r/read/hellsing_guidebook/en/0/1/page/5). Kouta Hirano, in regards to how Alucard became a vampire, said:  "He turned into a vampire by his own power. Not because someone turned him, or that he was a natural born vampire or anything like that. He turned into a vampire by his own will."  hahaha.. Only in Hellsing do you see an atheistic take on Dracula. I LOVE IT!

Hellsing Ultimate: Immortality and Humanity

THE THEME OF "ONLY A HUMAN CAN DEFEAT A MONSTER":

The fact is that monsters are slaughtering humans and humans (the Hellsing Org.) need to employ monsters to kill them.

Alucard says time and time again that only a human can kill him. However, he doesn't regard all humanity as the pinnacle of existence - just humans who are courageous enough to stand up to monsters. Not every human will qualify. Alucard just wants to be killed by someone worthy of killing him - a hero so to speak. Anderson isn't entirely human and Alucard still thinks of him as worthy. Seeing how humans are inherently weaker than monsters, they have quite a challenge on their hands to fight the monsters. He has huge respect for humans who can. He's also a monster that was bested and captured by humans, and he has grown to respect the ones who can show him strength and resolve. He is also portrayed like a loyal dog in some ways, as in, a dog that respects and is happy with a strong-minded Master.

A lot of his hatred of monsters seems to come from the fact that quite a few of them are pale imitations of himself, like the Valentine brothers.  "Only a human can defeat a monster" - it is ultimately proven untrue by the events of the show. Rather, the theme is more about the blurring of the line between humans and monsters. The very worst people are humans, and the greatest beings are monsters.

IMMORTALITY:

"To become a monster like me is to admit you were too weak to remain a human".

I disagree.  Fear of death is not a weakness.  All sentient beings are.  I'd argue that the will to live is stronger than anything. As Kenshin Himura has said, "One can die at any time. Living takes real courage".  Forget about the real historical Vlad; I'm talking about Hellsing's Vlad/Dracula:  Despite all the monstrous things he did, his life was full of misfortunes (was raped repeatedly as a child, wife and children were killed, lost his kingdom, everything). He himself was facing death, what was he to do?  Accept death as a human or wish to live as something else? He chose to live.

There are many humans who would turn down immortality if it meant they would live alone for eternity without their loved ones, or live in pain. Are they the strong ones? In my view, only people who have the will and the courage to persevere despite hardships (like Alucard and Seras) are the strong ones.

Alucard was once human, however due to certain things in his life, he threw away his humanity to become what he is today. He perceives this as his own weakness and thus, to some extent, considers himself less than a human.  This is why he ends up hating Anderson so much, because in a way, he saw his former "weak" self.

Alucard, Gilgamesh, Sun Wukong, etc. All these characters who strive for immortality have an interesting thing in common:  They share a great fear of death. That fear alone motivated some of them to master the magics. Alucard's desire for immortality and power was also motivated by the fear of losing what he had.  This is a very HUMAN reason to wish for power and immortality, considering that immortality has always been humanity's greatest dream.

Alucard believes that he was too weak to face mortality and found solace in immortality. But are humans who have the courage to live and die as humans the admirable ones?  I disagree.  We HAVE TO live and die as humans because we have no other choice realistically.  However, in a magical world where there is a choice to extend one's life and eventual immortality - and especially when gaining immortality in this world doesn't take away one's intelligence and autonomy - NOT choosing it is wasting one's life to me.  Also in Hellsing, it is reiterated that humans are superior to others, and that's the reason humans should not succumb to magical powers. But I see nothing wrong with accepting these powers in order to become stronger.

HUMAN SUPERIORITY:

Humans as a species are indeed ruling the Earth. We have accomplished things that other species could never dream of, and we never stop progressing. However, we are also the biggest monsters to one another and to other species. In the realistic non-fictional world, humanity as a whole is superior, but the individual humans are not. Being a human does not automatically qualify you as superior. Each human must be judged for who he is and what he is capable of. In the fictional worlds where non-human species such as vampires and aliens exist, humans are far from being the superior ones among them all. We are weaker than them physically and we are probably not any more intelligent than them. To declare ourselves "superior" is to claim that their powers (eg, immortality, regeneration, superhuman strength,...) are somehow "inferior". Truth is, they are not inferior. Objectively speaking, THEY are the superior ones that we might learn from rather than taking too much pride in ourselves that we become blind to our own limits. It is important to realize and accept our own limits. Besides mental capabilities, we aren't stronger than them in any other aspect. 

Alucard only regards humans' will to live and perseverance as superior because those are things that he has lost long ago, since having lived for so long, he has grown bored of most things and found no purpose in his life. He may not realize it, but his will to live and his mental strength are second to none: Although he may regret becoming a monster, I don't think he would choose to undo his choice even if time could go back. Through it all, he's still too stubborn to die. He could have drifted into non-existence when the Major "defeated" him, but he didn't. He wills himself into existence again. He is like Seras in that regard: Despite everything that happened in his past, he still clings to life.

Not only in Hellsing but in a lot of other fictions, the anti-immortality viewpoint is widespread. I believe that it is some authors' way of giving solace to themselves and to the human audience watching their fictions. Ultimately it's all a form of convincing oneself that one's own state is okay because there is no better alternative realistically.  More of my view on Immortality

Hellsing Ultimate: overall series impression

"The Bird of Hermes Is My Name, Eating My Wings To Make Me Tame"

• I can summarize in 2 words: BEAUTIFUL. STUNNING. Animation, artwork, voicing and music. Everything.
• My favorite way of watching this show is English dub + English subtitles. The dub is just.so.awesome. The accents are fun to hear. (I need subtitles because the dub is not 100% faithful).
• Some people say that this show is pure action sequence entertainment. I disagree. It's a very characters-driven story. The complexity of the characters actually make it brilliant. While the plot isn't much, there are so many meaningful subtleties that make you THINK. I always love anime/fiction/movies that can make me THINK. It is such a spectacle; it rings with a deep, philosophical exploration of humanity, of good and evil, and characters so nuanced and real!
• THE CHARACTER DESIGN OF ALUCARD IS FUCKING COOL! Uniquely interesting. Alucard >>> any other vampire ever. of all time. He is the absolute pinnacle of vampire fiction.
• Not in every vampire fiction can you see Dracula adopting a child and taking on a fatherly role. Not in any other vampire fiction can you see Dracula transform into a girl. XD
• Alucard’s personality is so strong but it doesn't make other characters shrink. 
• I do not agree with the series' take on human superiority (I'll talk more about this on r/hellsing).

• I love the ways female characters are portrayed in Hellsing! It's not the typical shoujo girls we often see. Both of our main females are strong-minded women who kick asses. (Alucard has good taste! LOL).
• The downside of this series? To me, the biggest appeal was Alucard and that made some episodes without him a bit boring to watch at times.
• I want to see a more flashbacks of Alucard's past life, and how Integra grew up under the guardianship of Alucard and Walter.

Overall, HELLSING ULTIMATE has set the standard for vampires. I won't enjoy other vampire fictions in which the main vampire fails to overshadow Alucard.

I can give this series 10/10.

My thoughts on "Mary and the Witch's Flower"

The movie did a great job at maintaining a sense of mystery and suspension throughout. At any given point, I always wondered what would happen next and didn't fastforward (like I did with lots of boring anime) for fear of missing something important. The animation is super fluid; the colors convey a peaceful atmosphere. The house where the broomstick takes Mary to gives off a magical feeling a lot like Zeniba's house in Swam Bottom in Spirited Away.

The story certainly contains very dark elements, despite being a children tale. It's an interesting take that the story concludes with the denial of magic - that which so many children dream about.

The downside is that the character of Mary was established a bit forcefully in the beginning. I know they're attempting to highlight her character growth at the end, but the beginning could have been toned down. Also, the attempt to make the main character fight the bad guys without magic is too ambitious.

There's a lack of good music.

Overall it's a good movie. 8/10

Hellsing Ultimate: episode 8-10 reviews

Episode 8

• Alucard's entrance is magnificent!
• The visual is stunning and chilling when Dracula appears.
• Aww... that warm father-daughter moment between Alucard and Seras

Episode 9

• The English SUBTITLE in this episode is terrible: full of mistakes! The English dub got it right.
• Alucard's childhood rape scene :O T_T How many times, or how long, was child-Alucard raped? The anime didn't make it clear. I like that Alucard/the author didn't use his past as an excuse to justify anything he did.
• So many moments to love in this episode. I think my favorite is the immortally cool Alucard showing some emotion and lamenting the fall of his foe. My 2nd favorite is the flashback of Alucard's past. And Anderson's dying speech to him.
• ALUCARD AND SERAS' BOND: Another moment that showcases he cares for her is when he was stabbed by Anderson and he is about to die, he sees an image of Seras.
• * Seras calling for Alucard * . Alucard's like: 'Oh right, I have a kid... I have parenting to do...'
• And then the action is just insane and oh so satisfying to watch. I always say that it's hard for action in anime to impress me because I've seen so much of it. At this point I'm much more interested in plot and characters than the average action sequence. For me to really enjoy an action sequence, it has to be visually spectacular, have a certain visceral weight and be executed flawlessly, and Hellsing manages to do all three of these things.
• Alucard's genuine smile

Episode 10

• I'm amused by Alucard taking on the form of a girl to mock Walter like "you transformed into a little boy, it's only fair that I transform into a girl" :D
• Instead of lamenting defeat, the last thought Alucard has before he starts to vanish is how beautiful the sunlight looks.
• Killing his stolen lives doesn't accomplish anything. Contrary to what he says, he is immortal. There's probably some way to kill Alucard, but ending his many lives wasn't it. The Major's plan came closer than anything, but that failed too. Not only did it fail, but it gave him true immortality. With Schrodinger's power, he's completely incapable of being destroyed.
• Whenever Seras (or anyone in general) mentions the name Alucard, Integra goes all... what I'd call "self-conscious defensive". Now why would she do that, hm... hm... It's funny how Integra sounds like a jilted lover.. LOL.. She talks about Alucard as if he were her husband and Seras' father.
• When Alucard returns, he has earned true immortality and he seems a lot more content now than he did before, given how badly he wanted to die, yet here he is, pledging to remain forever! I can only assume he's just himself now, rather than losing himself in the millions of lives within him. He's figured who he is and accepted what he is. A very satisfying conclusion for our beloved character!
• Intergra says, "Okaeri" ("welcome home") and Alucard responds with, "tadaima" ("I am home") - what does it remind you of? It reminds me of how Kaoru greets Kenshin when he returns. Like Kenshin, Alucard has found home.

Hellsing Ultimate: rewatch discussion links

"The Bird of Hermes Is My Name, Eating My Wings To Make Me Tame"

Hellsing Ultimate (Anime OVA) - Anime-Planet

 | Funimation

 | Hulu

 | Crunchyroll

 | Youtube by Funimation

 | Action, Horror, Vampire, Supernatural, Seinen - /r/Hellsing

For first-timers: No spoiler here, but needless to say, if you like epic actions, mature and cool dialogue that isn't cheesy, a serious and dark storyline, a proper depiction of a modern-day vampire (and believe me, the way Alucard is depicted has set the standard for vampires :D). This series is not Bram Stoker's "Dracula" re-told, or "Dracula 2001" or anything you've seen related to vampires. There's absolutely no need to watch the old Hellsing anime or read the manga first. Hellsing Ultimate the OVA Series is a brilliant piece of work. It follows the manga closely. There is no filler episode in this series at all and it will glue you to the screen; the action sequences are flawless and you would struggle to think of more creative villains/heroes to add to a plot; each character is unique and makes you wonder what comes next.

July 7: OVA episode 1

July 9: OVA episode 2

July 11: OVA episode 3

July 13: OVA episode 4

July 15: OVA episode 5

July 17: OVA episode 6

July 19: OVA episode 7

July 21: OVA/episode 8

July 23: OVA episode 9

July 25: OVA episode 10

July 27: overall series discussion

Dub or Sub?

This is a FAQ. My answer is: rarely do I see an anime series that has such awesome English dub like Hellsing Ultimate! I love how the characters' accents complement their nationalities, and Alucard's voice is the perfect fit. HOWEVER, there are some altered dialogues that may lose the humor or change your interpretation of some scenes, characters, and their relationships with one another. So keep that in mind. (My favorite way to watch this show is English dub + subtitles). Once or twice, I see mistakes in the Sub, too.