Hellsing (anime)

"In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished in eternal damn nation. Amen."

- Hellsing's Moto

Hellsing (ヘルシング) refers to the made-for-television anime based on Kouta Hirano's manga Hellsing. It was first broadcast in Japan on Fuji Television from October 10, 2001 to January 16, 2002 and ran in the United States from October 4, 2003 to December 27, 2003 on Starz's Encore Action cable channel. It finished at thirteen episodes long.

The anime follows a different storyline, especially towards the end, but with the same protagonists and main characters. The series was directed by Yasunori Urata under the chief direction of Umanosuke Iida from a screenplay by Chiaki J. Konaka  and animated by Studio Gonzo.

Alucard

 * Alucard is a mysterious figure. A supernatural vampire of untold age and power, he acts as the Hellsing Organization's secret weapon. His reasons for doing so, however, as well as his motivations, remains unknown. His position within the Hellsing Organization is one of unique status. He is the agency's ace in the hole, answerable only to the Organization's Chairman.

Seras Victoria

 * Seras was a member of the D11 elite police response unit, until she was mortally wounded by Alucard in his destruction of a vampire masquerading as a priest. On the verge of death, she chose to allow Alucard to turn her into a vampire. Serving beneath Alucard, she now works for the Hellsing Organization and deals with the consequences of her decision.

Sir Integra Hellsing

 * A young noblewoman, she is the head and last member of the Hellsing family. She doubles as the leader of the Hellsing Organization, and Alucard's "Master." She inherited the Hellsing Organization at the age of thirteen upon the death of her father. Although she often seems strict and domineering, she is respected and admired, even among her sworn enemies.

Paladin Alexander Anderson

 * A warrior priest or paladin who works for the Vatican's Section XIII, Iscariot. Anderson is Iscariot's ultimate weapon in the fight against the undead. With regenerative capabilities and a variety of holy weapons (including his signature blessed bayonets), his mission is nothing less than the complete destruction of all the demons of Hell. As this includes many of Hellsing's subordinates, Anderson is one of Alucard's greatest foes.

Incognito

 * This masochistic vampire is from "the dark continent," a reference to Africa. Though physically androgynous, he is generally thought to be male. Extremely powerful, he combines dark magic with an enchanted ArmsCor 40 mm grenade launcher that fires spines. Incognito vomits into the launcher's cartridges before loading; and he also is known to have a gatling gun as backup. During the final plot arc of the series he summons a snake-like being referred to as Sett and takes it into his body in order to use its power to attack Alucard. Incognito has regenerative powers which seem to be related to the purple stripes and sigils covering his body.

Secondary Characters

 * Walter C. Dornez
 * Walter is a 69 year old retired member of the Hellsing organization. Though now serving as Integra Hellsing's butler, he has still proved to live up to his nickname "The Angel of Death" with deadly razor sharp wires. He has a close friendship with both Integra and Alucard.


 * Enrico Maxwell
 * Enrico Maxwell is the fanatical head of the Catholic Church's secret Iscariot Organization (Vatican Section XIII).


 * Luke and Jan Valentine
 * The Valentine brothers are "freaks," humans who were turned into vampires with the aid of a chip. They have much influence in the criminal underworld. Jan acts, looks and sounds like a member of the lower classes and uses strong profanity, whereas Luke is much more cultured and restrained. The two launch an attack on Hellsing's headquarters midway through the series with a small army of ghouls.


 * Commander Peter Fargason
 * Commander of the Hellsing Organization's paramilitary forces. An experienced, devout, loyal and efficient field commander, he is trusted and admired by Integra Hellsing and Seras Victoria's mentor.

Other Characters

 * Helena
 * A young-looking vampire that spends her time reading and listening to "Solveigs Song" by Grieg. She appears to live alone in a dark old house. Despite her young appearance, she is quite old and becomes something of a role-model for Seras.


 * Kim
 * A news reporter saved in Episode 02 from a vampire, she tries to prove afterwards that vampires exist to the general public.


 * Enrico Stivaletti
 * A foreign exchange college student who appears in Episode 03. An artificial vampire implanted with the "freak chip," he attempts to turn another student, Mick, with whom he is heavily implied to be in a romantic relationship with, into a vampire for the sake of being "together forever."


 * Harry Anders
 * An experienced MI5 agent who works on a case involving snuff films and Hellsing, and later aids Seras Victoria in the hunt for Incognito. He implies that he knew Seras' father years ago.


 * Laura
 * A baobhan sith who infiltrates Hellsing's headquarters in order to assassinate Integra Hellsing.


 * Captain Gareth Henderson
 * Captain of the Hellsing Special Millitary forces, serving under Commander Peter Fargason.


 * Paul Wilson
 * SAS soldier turned artificial vampire by Incognito.


 * Renaldo
 * Adviser and bodyguard to Enrico Maxwell.


 * Captain Chris Pickman
 * Hellsing Captain introduced in the latter portion of the series, serving under Commander Peter Fargason.

Japanese Cast

 * Jōji Nakata - Alucard
 * Fumiko Orikasa - Seras Victoria
 * Yoshiko Sakakibara - Integra Hellsing
 * Nachi Nozawa - Alexander Anderson
 * Takumi Yamazaki - Incognito
 * Motomu Kiyokawa - Walter C. Dornez
 * Hideyuki Tanaka - Enrico Maxwell
 * Takehito Koyasu - Luke Valentine
 * Kazuya Nakai - Jan Valentine
 * Akiko Hiramatsu - Helena
 * Hisato Masuyama - Enrico Stivaletti
 * Takashi Taniguchi - Harry Anders
 * Mika Di - Bubbancy
 * Unshō Ishizuka - Peter Fargason
 * Tomoyuki Shimura - Gareth Henderson
 * Yuuji Takada - Chris Pickman
 * Ken Narita - Paul Wilson
 * Ryotaro Okiayu - Enrico Stivaletti

English Cast

 * Crispin Freeman - Alucard
 * K. T. Gray - Seras Victoria
 * Victoria Harwood - Integra Hellsing
 * Steven Brand - Alexander Anderson
 * Isaac Charles Singleton, Jr. - Incognito
 * Ralph Lister - Walter C. Dornez
 * J. B. Blanc - Enrico Maxwell
 * Patrick Seitz - Luke Valentine
 * Josh Phillips - Jan Valentine
 * Akure Wall - Helena
 * Pam Susslin - Kim
 * Arthur Russell - Harry Anders
 * Siobhan Flynn - Laura
 * William Morgan Sheppard - Peter Fargason
 * Peter Gail - Gareth Henderson
 * Arthur Russell - Chris Pickman (Episode 09)
 * Gidart Jackson - Chris Pickman (Episodes 11-12)
 * Craig Young - Paul Wilson
 * Hisato Masuyama - Enrico Stivaletti

Episodes

 * Order 01: The Undead
 * Order 02: Club M
 * Order 03: Sword Dancer
 * Order 04: Innocent As A Human
 * Order 05: Brotherhood
 * Order 06: Dead Zone
 * Order 07: Duel
 * Order 08: Kill House
 * Order 09: Red Rose Vertigo
 * Order 10: Master Of Monster
 * Order 11: Transcend Force
 * Order 12: Total Destruction
 * Order 13: Hellfire

Broadcast Version
While it is normal for many animes to fix issues from the original broadcast due to deadline issues and such, Hellsing's however, is very different compared to its original Broadcast release. Many changes were made to it, including entire scenes getting redrawn to match with its character sheets, meaning, to keep things consistent and such. One notable episode that changed so much, is episode 8, Kill House; nearing the finale of the episode, Alucard had begged Integra to let Incognito come to the "small" island of England, which, Integra was anxious. During the episode, on the broadcast version, there are many inconsistency with both Alucard and Integra's design; which, they seem to overdetailed them both, which led to some of the most creepiest looking Alucard ever. The DVD version fixes this and made Alucard and Integra look like how they were on the character sheets, however, there are some scenes that were never redrawn. The differences between them both led to many believe that Gonzo had a completely different artstyle in their mind, which would explain the inconsistency and the overdetailed characters.

Differences
The plotline of the anime is different than the manga and OVA. These differences are only slight up until the middle of episode 7: Duel, where the plot begins to diverge dramatically from what is presented in the manga. Like many other anime, the studio ran out of source material to adapt while the show was in production, forcing them to create their own storyline based on what had already been presented.

There were about 2 Volumes at the time this anime was being produced, despite this, there was a trailer for the Hellsing anime that featured the Major, the Captain and the Doctor, meaning that there were some discussions about to create a different story to make-up the 13 episode series, or to stay faithful and adapt the entire manga, which would've led to a season two.

Despite this, the canon episodes were not really adapted straight out of the original manga either, like the incident in Cheddar for example; the Cheddar Priest's backstory is omitted, and the final battle took place in the Priest's church, the manga however, took place in the Cheddar's forest. Due to budget issues, considering that Gonzo was a fairly new studio at the time, the Alexander and Alucard fight was shortened in episode 3. However, in episode 7, Alucard and Anderson fought again; this time however, there were some scenes that was from the manga, notably, Alucard's regeneration and Anderson cutting off his head. The final minutes of the fight is also similar to the final battle between Alucard and human Anderson from the manga, like how Alexander's arms is badly damaged and Alucard standing infront of him while Anderson was hopeless. Furthermore, Alexander bit his bayonet to rush forward against Alucard, however, in the original anime, Alucard didn't have any familiars guarding him; therefore, Alucard shot Anderson's bayonet, sparing him which would let to future fights that unfortunately didn't happen.

Similarities
However, there are some scenes that were faithful to the original manga, even more so than it's successor; most notable, the Valentine Brothers Raid on the Hellsing manor. While the anime didn't add Jan telling Integra the hint for the organization's name that ordered them to attack the organization, in Hellsing Ultimate, there were couple of new scenes added in, and an entirely reworked fight between Alucard and Luke Valentine. However, in the anime, it remained faithful and the battle between them was in a hallway.

DVD
the anime contains 4 DVD's. Each one of them has Special informations including concept arts, creditless openings and endings, magazines, weapons, ect.


 * 1) Impure Souls
 * 2) Blood Brothers
 * 3) Search and Destroy
 * 4) Eternal Damnation

Character Designs
Colored=


 * -|Not Colored=

Hellsing: Psalms of Darkness
Hellsing: Psalm of Darkness is a trailer for the Hellsing anime series. It features some scenes from the manga and even features Millennium at the end, showing the Major, the Doc, and The Captain. Despite this, the anime would follow a radically different storyline, implying that Psalm of Darkness was developed before the deviation from the manga was decided upon.

Characters

 * Alucard
 * Integra Hellsing
 * Seras Victoria
 * Enrico Maxwell
 * Alexander Anderson
 * Walter C. Dornez
 * Luke Valentine
 * Jan Valentine
 * The Major
 * The Doctor
 * The Captain

Trivia

 * Incognito does not appear in the manga and his name comes from the literal definition of the word "incognito." In episode nine, Alucard responds to Incognito's introduction by saying his name's "quite an enigma as well."
 * It has also been argued that, while Alucard may be inspired by, or is, Count Dracula, Incognito may have been inspired by the vampire Count Orlok from the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu.
 * Because of the exclusion of the Millennium Organization, Walter C. Dornez never betrayed Integra and the Hellsing Organisation.
 * In addition to the digital format, anime also uses 16 or 35 millimeter films (for now, the film gauge is unknown). Examples are episodes 2, 3 and 6.