Bedtime

Well, I survived the convention and am absolutely tuckered out. I’ve been reading to ensure that I go to bed at a normal time and don’t wake up in the middle of the night because my body’s gotten what it considers to be a normal amount of sleep. Of course, it’s Sunday after a four day con and my ability to focus is minimal at best. Which is why it can’t be any surprise that I finally got around to reading more of my library sale acquisitions, Hellsing 1-4. I’d been thinking about rereading them ever since I got my hands on them, but there was always something else in the way. Well, I did manage to pick up something that might require even less effort to read, but that would still be new material for me which means it would be more difficult to read in this state than Hellsing.

What can be said about Hellsing? It’s a manga series from the late nineties loosely based on Bram Stoker’s work. It’s set mostly in England and draws heavily on Christian…stuff. I’m loose on that part of it even at the best of times and right now I am not up for analyzing a foreign religion. The manga itself is probably classed as horror due to the vampires and violence, although there’s also some comedy and sexuality. There’s been discussion on Seras Victoria’s changing bust size in the anime and, well, it’s not exactly subtle in the manga.

The Hellsing organization is a religious government group responsible for safeguarding Queen and country from supernatural threats. Namely vampires. There’s been an upsurge in such incidents of late – an unnaturally high occurrence rate. Something stinks and it’s Hellsing’s job to figure out what’s going on and put a stop to it.

The story opens in the small town of Cheddar which is rapidly destroyed by a vampire. Hellsing is sent in…and Hellsing sends in a single agent. This is, of course, Alucard, the Hellsing organization’s “pet” vampire. He takes care of the mess and brings the police girl, young Seras Victoria, under his wing. She ends up as the audience stand-in as she tries to understand this strange new world of evil night creatures, those who fight against the, and her own place within it.

Hellsing is classic. The original anime suffers from being based on just the first two volumes with no real understanding of how the third really starts delving into the main plot of the ten volumes. The new anime is…let’s just say I love it and when I run out of manga I’ll probably finish up by rewatching the last episode or two. If I have time.

It’s been a long, exhausting weekend. But a good one for all that. I did take home more books than I had feared, though not with the same distribution that I would prefer. I didn’t get more than a couple books that I had specifically hoped to acquire, but that’s life sometimes. I’ll simply have to hope and continue trying to track down those specific volumes I seek. As has been aid before, sometimes the hunt itself is more important than the book. Because in the age of the internet yes, I can find just about anything online. However, there’s still no substitute for seeing and handling books in person to truly understand their quality and judge whether or not it’s worth the price. For example, who am I to turn down a copy of In Conquest Born with a cover that’s not about to fall off? Especially when they ask only a dollar in return? Totally worth it.

There’s not really anything else to say at this point. I am falling asleep as I type and starting to make more typos and grammatical errors than normal that I then of course have to fix as soon as I notice them. So I’ll wrap up and get to bed.