HELLSING (manga)

Hellsing (ヘルシング) is a manga series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano.

It first premiered in Young King OURs in 1997 and ended in September 2008. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahosha. The series was licensed for English language release in North America by Dark Horse Comics. From 2001 to 2009, Hirano released a 6-chapter prequel series, Hellsing: The Dawn, in special editions of Young King OURs. This series consists of 10 complete volumes on which both TV Series and the OVA are based.

Plot
Hellsing is named after and centered around the Royal Order of Protestant Knights originally led by Abraham Van Helsing. The mission of Hellsing is to search for and destroy the undead and other supernatural forces of evil that threaten the queen and the country. This organization is currently led bySir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who inherited the leadership of Hellsing as a child after the death of her father. She witnessed his death which turned her from a once innocent and shy little girl to a tough and deadly force. She is protected by the faithful Hellsing family butler Walter C. Dornez, a deadly foe in his own right, and Alucard, the original and most powerful vampire, who swore loyalty to the Hellsing family after being defeated by Van Helsing one hundred years before the story takes place. These formidable guardians are joined early on in the storyline by former police officer Seras Victoria, whom Alucard turned into a vampire.

As the scale and frequency of incidents involving the undead escalate in England and all around the world, Sir Integra discovers that the remnants of a Nazi group called Millennium still exist and are intent on reviving Nazi Germany by creating a battalion of vampires. Millennium, Hellsing, and the Vatican Section XIII, Iscariot clash in an apocalyptic three-sided war in London, and Millennium reveals its true objective: to destroy the vampire lord Alucard, ending a feud begun during World War II.

Volumes

 * Hellsing: Volume 1
 * Hellsing: Volume 2
 * Hellsing: Volume 3
 * Hellsing: Volume 4
 * Hellsing: Volume 5
 * Hellsing: Volume 6
 * Hellsing: Volume 7
 * Hellsing: Volume 8
 * Hellsing: Volume 9
 * Hellsing: Volume 10

Hellsing Official Guide Book
Unfortunately, this guide book is only available in Japanese and was not officially released in English.

Prequel Manga
In 2001, Kouta Hirano made a prequel manga set fifty years before the main plot of Hellsing started, which, features many characters from the original Hellsing. However, six chapters were released in total, and there were no volumes of this manga released, which led many to believe that it was cancelled. However, it was never confirmed that it was cancelled or not, leading for many to hope that this will continue.

Anime Adaptation
The anime studio Gonzo adapted Hellsing, into a thirteen-episode TV series. Since Gonzo was a fairly new studio at the time, and the budget was pretty low, they hired plenty of talented people to work on Hellsing; such as, Umanosuke Iida as the chief director and Chiaki J. Konaka as the writer. The Hellsing anime was first broadcasted on Fuji TV from October 11, 2001, to January 17, 2002, therefore, at the time this was in production, there was about two volumes of the Hellsing manga released which led to the plot differing from the manga. However, even the canon episodes were made and written differently from the manga, such as the Cheddar Village incident, the Badrick murders and the notable Alucard and Anderson fought. Ironically, the Valentine Brothers attack on the Hellsing manor was more accurate in this version than in the OVA.

In 2000, a trailer was made for the Hellsing anime which features the Millennium members like the Major, meaning that the anime was possibly supposed to end at the massacre in Rio, and there were some talks about making this faithful to the manga or not.

OVA Adaptation
3 years after the anime ended, it was announced that a new OVA adaptation of Hellsing will be made, with its main goal was to be as faithful to Kouta Hirano's storyline as possible, which the anime did not do. The Series took 6 years to finish due to multiple studios animating it. Over the course of the years, they have changed animation studios at multiple occasions. Hellsing Ultimate 1-4 were animated by the animation studio Satelight, before Madhouse took over as of 5-7. It was then announced that a new company would be animating the final three episodes of the series; Graphinica x Kelmadick, though it is still being produced by Geneon.

The English release of the OVA series is licensed in the United States by Geneon USA. In producing the English dub of the series, Geneon used much of the original cast from the English dub of the anime, which Geneon also licenses. The first episode (OVA I) was released to Region 1 DVD on December 5, 2006 after premiering at the 2006 Anime Expo. In 2008, distribution of the Hellsing: Ultimate series was assumed by Funimation entertainment, although Geneon remains its licensor. Funimation released the fourth episode on September 23, 2008, along with a re-release of the first three episodes.

Upcoming Live-Action Film
In March 2021, it was announced that Amazon Studios is developing a live-action film adaptation of Hellsing with scripts by Derek Kolstad, known for his works on the John Wick series.

Prototypes
This series includes Kouta's old works, before he started Hellsing that features the character's prototypes.


 * Angel Dust: Alexander Anderson and Enrico Maxwell
 * Coyote: Pip Bernadotte, The Major and Rip Van Winkle
 * Desert Guardian: The Captain
 * Doc's Story: The Doctor and Schrödinger
 * Hi and Low: Integra Hellsing and Yumie Takagi
 * Magic School: Renaldo
 * The Legend of Vampire Hunter: Alucard, Seras Victoria, Luke and Jan Valentine
 * Daidōjin Monogatari: Walter C. Dornez and Heinkel Wolfe
 * Susume!! Seigaku Dennou Kenkyuubu: Makube (Section XIII Iscariot's second leader)

Reception
In 2005, the sixth and seventh volumes of the Hellsing manga series ranked among Diamond Comics Distributors' list of the top 48 manga volumes sold in the United States for the year. In November 2007, the ninth volume was among the top 10 volumes sold according to Japan's monthly sales rankings.