HELLSING: THE DAWN

HELLSING: THE DAWN is the prequel manga to Hellsing, and is illustrated and written by Kouta Hirano. It's also known in Japan as HELLSING: Gaiden (ヘルシング: 外伝,).

Around 2001, Kouta Hirano was given the opportunity to write a side-manga in the pages of Shōnen Gahōsha's Young King OURs Zōkan manga anthology magazine. This was possible for Hirano, who was notorious for having deadline problems because the OURs Zōkan books were not on as strict a schedule as YKO proper. This is what brought about Hellsing: The Dawn. Four chapters of The Dawn were printed in OURs Zōkan until the Magazine was canceled.

However, in 2005, 3 years after the last chapter, Hirano again started making two more chapters after The Dawn had moved to Young King OURs+, and then was shortly discontinued again in favor of the Hellsing manga that was being written and drawn at the time.

Story
1944, Warsaw; Poland... The war, each day, gets more intense and seems no closer to stopping. Each day, the Nazis get stronger and stronger. They seem to be planning something dangerous; creating an army of artificial Undead beings to strengthen their army, in which their genius mad doctor, is an expert.

While doing so, the Hellsing organisation, a secret organisation based in the UK that specializes in eliminating the undead, founded by Abraham Van Helsing himself, received information that the Nazi's Führer, Adolf Hitler, had entrusted an unknown man to create Battalion of vampires. Noticing how dangerous this mission could be, Sir Arthur Hellsing, the Hellsing organisation's head, held a meeting with Sir Hugh Irons about what to do. With likely no other safe options, Arthur sent the organisation's trump card, Alucard, along with the young Walter C. Dornez, to deal with them.

Main Characters

 * Sir Arthur Hellsing
 * Walter C. Dornez
 * Alucard

Volume Guide
While its tankōbon form was released in 2012 as a 6-chapter short story for more Hellsing content, the original 6 chapters originate from way back in 2001, running in Young King OURs Zōkan, before moving to Young King OURs+ just before being discontinued. As an appendix to the February 2012 issue of "Young King OURs", a booklet containing all the chapters serialized in the magazines was made.

Production
Many of Hellsing's cast reappear in Hellsing: The Dawn as the main antagonists, such as the Major, Doc, and The Captain. Since 2001, six chapters have been released and published in special editions of Young King OURs magazine. In an interview with Pafu magazine in 2005, Hirano shows that he doesn't show much interest in working on the Dawn; describing the Dawn as kind of a "snack", and he wasn't even sure about continuing the Dawn after Hellsing had ended. He later goes on to state that he created the Dawn for fun, which means that he wasn't taking the Dawn seriously - which could explain the comedic scenes appearing more frequently than Hellsing's.

In 2005, when the Hellsing OVA series was announced, Hirano and his editor appeared at Anime Expo 2005 to talk about the upcoming OVA. Young Walter's appearance in the trailer prompted fans to ask about the Dawn on a few occasions, at which point his editor proclaimed that if the fans wanted more Dawn, they would produce it. The two then shook hands, with Hirano moaning "Oh great, more deadlines!". Shortly thereafter, The Dawn moved into Young King OURs+ from Young King OURs Zōkan, the first issue of which was Hellsing-centric. It featured cover art illustrated by Hirano, reprinted every chapter of The Dawn thus far leading up to the newly produced fifth chapter, and included a DVD that featured a recut version of the Anime Expo OVA trailer. After this printing, one more chapter was produced in another OURs+ volume, however, it too was canceled as the previous run had been, once again before The Dawn had been brought to a conclusion.

Hirano has never made any chapters afterward, therefore, making chapter 6 the unofficial last chapter of The Dawn. However, The Dawn was never confirmed to be canceled. In an interview at Japan expo back in 2016, a fan asked if Hirano intends to continue the prequel of Hellsing because of the enormous success that it has, to which, Hirano stated that he does have the desire to finish the spinoff. However, because he's notoriously lazy and is very self-aware of that, Hirano said to "wait a little longer" and once Drifters, his main project, has been finished, there would be a possibility for him to continue the spinoff.

In the Hellsing Official Guide Book, Hirano said that he would like to continue the manga, however, he could not because he doesn't have any place to draw (the Drifters manga is his top priority). He also hinted that The Dawn was supposed to have 80 more pages, he also thought about letting The Dawn's story unfold along with Warsaw Uprising.

Hellsing: Ultimate Special
Taliesin Jaffe, the director of the Hellsing: Ultimate OVA Series has﻿ stated in a panel at Otakon 2008 that The Dawn is going to be animated as part of Ultimate. When asked at that same Anime Expo 2005 panel if The Dawn would be animated (as it had been hinted at in the trailer) fans were told it would. Moreso to that, just prior to OVA IV's release, a promotional wallpaper was released that featured an image of "She", a major figure from the Dawn, hinting at a possible animated version.

It was revealed on the official features page for Hellsing VIII on the official Japanese Hellsing website that the special Short Gaiden in the extra disc that comes with the limited edition of Hellsing Ultimate OVA 8 will, in fact, be The Dawn. The post also stated that the team will be working on a manuscript from Kouta Hirano himself and that the 4 pages of this manuscript will be included with the volume's liner notes booklet.

Gallery
Illustrations=