Alucard (anime)


 * "This is the Anime version of Alucard. For the OVA version, click here.""'You're less than inhuman. A pitiful defect, a failed science project! Sending you to your maker would be an act of mercy!'""— Alucard"

Alucard アーカード (Akaido) is a powerful vampire and one of the main protagonists of the Hellsing anime series. He is the most powerful weapon of the Hellsing Organization working against other vampires and other such supernatural forces. Alucard is no mere vampire; it has been implied that he is one of the most powerful vampires (besides Incognito), as well as the most powerful entity in the entire series. In the English dub of both series, he is voiced by Crispin Freeman. He was responsible for saving Seras Victoria's life by turning her into a vampire at The Cheddar Village Chapel, rescuing her from the Cheddar Priest. He is also Seras' master due to her refusal to drink blood and free herself much to his annoyance.

Appearance
As commonly seen among Vampires, Alucard has eyes which are blood red in color, and they glow a brighter hue of red when angry. His hair length changes according to his release states from short to knee length. His usual outfit is comprised mainly in a classic Victorian fashion, including a charcoal suit, leather riding boots, and a intricately knotted red cravat, covered by a full-length, red frock overcoat (similar to the duster coats often associated with cowboys) with cape. He also wears a red fedora with a wide, floppy brim and a pair of circular, heavily tinted, wire-framed orange sunglasses with goggle sidings. Alucard's gloves have five-pointed seals on them which limit the personal use of his powers. As a vampire he possesses enhanced shapeshifting abilities, allowing him to change his shape.

It appears that his clothing is part of his physical form due to the fact that when he regenerates, his clothing also repairs itself.

In Level 1, He wears his leather coat/straightjacket seen right before Integra released the vampire from his captivity in the dungeon of Hellsing HQ, but it's color is changed to red instead of it being black.

In the Order 10 of the anime, during Integra's flashback, his hair was white probably due to his body drying up from the lack of blood or even as a stressful reaction to his imprisonment.

Personality
Alucard fights with ferocity and often-extreme cruelty, rarely shooting to kill until his target has been totally disabled and humiliated. However, he does seem to have some small shred of humanity left in him, as he is still capable of shedding tears, taken by Alexander Anderson to mean that he is not completely lost. As he is essentially immortal and invincible, Alucard is very egotistical as well. He freely taunts and belittles his opponents, often allowing them to inflict seemingly fatal wounds before healing himself and obliterating his enemy. One of his favorite methods is allowing himself to be blown to shreds before simply flowing back together. It can accurately be stated that rather than killing his opponents, Alucard breaks them. An example is shown in volume 2 when Alucard fights Luke Valentine. When Luke gains an advantage over Alucard, victory seems within his grasp. The tides turn when Alucard transforms a part of himself into a hellhound. Alucard then shoots off a part of Luke's leg before telling him to regenerate them. However, he has a kind and caring side and a sense of morality as he acts as a father figure for Seras Victoria. He also becomes deeply disgusted by the vampires he hunts, as not only are they pathetic to him but they cause destruction, chaos, and are cruel towards humans, meaning that he still retains sense of humanity despite being an undead monster.

Order 01:
Alucard first appears as the Hellsing Organization is called in the investigate happenings in Cheddar. Here he meets Seras Victoria, one of the police sent in beforehand to handle the situation. As Seras runs away to a church, Alucard soon enters the church where Seras, as well the target, the Cheddar Priest. who is inside and is able to eliminate the ghouls and the Vicar controlling them. Before killing the Cheddar Priest Alucard asked Seras if she wants to be a Vampire, which Seras agrees. Seras is critically wounded in the gunfight, and Alucard turns her into a vampire to save her life. Alucard asks Integra if she could transfer Seras into the Hellsing Organization.

Order 02:
Alucard sets about trying to teach her how to be a true vampire, helping her unlock her bloodlust and tap into her superhuman abilities. On one mission in Birmingham. Alucard meets Leif and Jessica, a cruel, trigger-happy, sadistic and psychotic as they ruthlessly killed innocent people without reason. He then puts them both in an illusion and makes them fall of their bike, as Alucard insults Leif, Alucard pulls his gun out and kills Leif. He then tells Seras to shoot Jessica. He then tells Seras that she did a good job, telling her that she's now a child of the darkness while also telling her to drink blood, telling her that if she doesn't drink blood her body will become weak. He then disappears.

Order 03:
TBA

Seras Victoria
While his own personality is less harsh than that of his OVA counterpart, Alucard seems to be rather patient and accepting of Seras' refusal to drink blood. He mentions Seras' decision as an answer to Integra scolding him on taking a fledgling. He states that she is incomprehensible, along with humans. Seras appears to be extremely loyal to him, disobeying his order to draw back as to help him against Incognito. Alucard takes on a role of a mentor and teacher to help Seras reach her full potential.

Powers and Abilities
The following are Alucard's powers gained from both his being a Vampire and due to several years of research by the Hellsing Organization. Alucard is an extremely formidable and deadly opponent who can cut down most supernatural enemies without releasing the seals that contain his true power.
 * Superhuman Strength: As a true vampire, Alucard is inherently strong. To start, his guns Jackal and Casull are far too unwieldy for a human to hold, let alone use, but he does both with ease. He has been seen going up barehanded against even some supernatural weapons and destroying them, such as Tubalcain's magic cards. Despite their armor, Alucard was able to disembowel and tear apart several police officers with one hand. The extent of his strength is unknown, though it appears to vary with the release state that he is in, as his black, jumpsuit clad form has significantly greater feats of strength and durability than his other forms.
 * Superhuman Speed and Reflexes: Alucard is too fast for the human eye to follow. Alexander Anderson, a regenerator, can also do this, near-matching him step for step and blow for blow in a fight. Alucard's reaction times are top-notch. It also safe to assume that same as strength his reflexes and speed becomes more potent in other forms.
 * Enhanced Endurance: Alucard takes most damage without flinching or making a sound, quietly allowing the enemy to attack before retaliating tenfold. He can even attack after being torn asunder by bullets.
 * Enhanced Durability: Alucard appears to have the ability to harden the surface of his body to the point where he was able to survive while being attacked by Incognito's magic.
 * Regeneration: Alucard has the ability to perfectly and quickly recover from any physical injury. He has been torn to shreds by conventional weaponry and holy weaponry designed to kill his kind and has survived all of it. Holy weapons, while they do affect him more, are regenerated all the same if not as quickly.
 * Extrasensory Perception: Alucard has senses that are not only sharper than a mortal's, affording him abilities such as perfect accuracy, but he has abilities that they completely lack. In particular he possesses a 'third-eye' which allows him to see things from far, far distances. Though he never uses it to do so, he can likely see through things that fool human eyes.
 * Dark Composition: Though he generally dons a corporeal, humanoid form, Alucard is made up of a highly variable otherworldly substance that is black in core and reddish on its edges. This can be especially seen whenever he takes heavy damage, the darkness being immune to conventional weaponry. Along with composing his being, it can serve as a weapon. Alucard is able to transform this material into virtually anything he chooses, like a puddle of goo.
 * Intangibility: Alucard has the ability to walk through solid objects, such as walls.
 * Immortality: It is unclear if Alucard is a true immortal, but he is at least biologically immortal, immune to disease and aging. Alucard has suffered all manner of injury to the most extreme degrees, only to reform himself. This seems to indicate structural immortality as well, but the vampire himself asserts that there is no such thing as a true immortal. This means his immortality is only biological, and there is a way to kill him. Anderson's talk of him being "alone" and his duel with Walter implies that after his seals are removed, his heart is vulnerable to being impaled if not other forms of destruction, which would in turn destroy him for good.
 * Hematophagy: As a vampire, Alucard has the ability to consume blood raw. He has long, conical fangs to assist in this job as well as serpentine-like tongue. His feeding habits have been seen to vary: from the traditional neck-biting to simply ripping people to pieces and outright devouring them. Alucard doesn't seem to need blood to survive, however if starved of of it, he will enter an inactive death-like state.
 * Aestivation: Alucard will enter a dormant state if he goes too long without blood. It is unknown if he can be starved to death, as he goes decades without a drop of blood before a young Integra finds him. It is never made clear if this is unique to him or if all vampires can do this.
 * Hemokinesis: Alucard has the ability to manipulate blood . This ability seems to be limited to blood outside of the body, as he is never seen influencing the blood of enemies while they are intact.
 * Soul Absorption: By draining a person of their blood, Alucard gains dominance over their souls and very forms. He also takes on whatever knowledge they possess.
 * Familiar Control: Alucard can summon forth anyone he's taking the soul of at will.. He has an entire legion dwelling within him but seems to favor using Baskerville, the Black Dog. Whoever he absorbs, their powers are at his disposal. Alucard seems content to completely dominate everything living inside him. It is unclear if this is due to their individual wills or a lack of experience on Seras' part.
 * Shapeshifting: Though form is of no particular importance to him, Alucard claims to be able to change into anything. He has changed into a child, several bats, an amorphous darkness, has several "default" forms, and can assume the form of a hellhound. It is unknown if he can take the shape of inanimate objects such as tables or chairs.
 * Mist Body: Alucard is capable of turning his body into some sort of dark reddish mist in order to render attacks against him useless.
 * Telepathy: Alucard is able to communicate telepathically with his fledgling, Seras. The telepathy doesn't seem to have a maximum range. He can also read the thoughts of others, if he wishes.
 * Teleportation: Alucard is able to vanish and reappear at a different location. The range in which he can teleport is unknown.
 * Daywalking: Other vampires operate in the dark, because of a presumed weakness to light. Alucard however seems to have no problem with sunlight, only complaining that being up during the day is exhausting.
 * Weather Control: The ability to control the weather to an unknown limit, as demonstrated by the fog created by him during Order 8.
 * Hypnosis: Alucard has the ability to control minds, doing so on exclusively with Humans. The afflicted human will enter a euphoric, stupor-like state and their eyes will glow red. They will be pliant to all of Alucard's designs, doing and speaking as he wills. This hypnotic link is established through direct eye-contact and does not waver, even when Alucard's attention is elsewhere.
 * Gravity Defiance: Alucard is seen flying while fighting Incognito in the last Order of Hellsing.
 * Supernatural Detection: he could see the blessings on Father Anderson's bayonets as well as the holy barrier preventing their escape, he also sensed Incognito's presence in Order 8.

Hellsing ARMS .454 Casull Auto
The Casull is a semi-automatic magnum pistol, based on two pre-WW1 handgun designs by Colt: the M1903 and M1905 pistols (the early versions of the M1911). The gun weighs approximately 6 kg unloaded and has a magazine capacity of six .454 Casull cartridges. Its appearance is also similar to the AMT Automag III. The overall design of the Casull is simple, using the Browning short recoil mechanism. Its most recognizable feature is its long slide, counteracting the weapon's heavy recoil with its weight. The barrel is 10 inches long (specified on the slide) and finished with titanium nitride which gives it a characteristic gold color. The Casull is able to kill normal vampires with only 1 shot. It is too heavy and unwieldy for a human to use, yet a perfect match for Alucard's strength.

Ammunition
The gun fires custom-made explosive .454 Casull rounds, with the steel bullets bearing a core made from the melted silver Christian cross from Manchester Cathedral. They are used in a six round single-stack magazine.

The Jackal
The Jackal is a massive pistol made especially for Alucard, and one of the most powerful handheld weapons in the Hellsing series. It has a length of 39cm (16 in), a weight of 16kg (35lbs), and a black gunmetal construction, and uses massive 13mm explosive rounds. The words "Jesus Christ is in Heaven now"  are engraved upon it, in mockery of a similar statement on Alexander Anderson's gloves.

Ammunition
The Jackal fires a huge, armor-piercing, 13mm hollow point bullet. The rounds are jacketed with a "casing" of blessed Macedonian silver and features an explosive tip containing a charge of pre-blessed mercury. However, the 13mm round's size limits the Jackal's magazine capacity to six rounds. In Order 13, Alucard was also shown creating a spear on his Jackal that was broken by Incognito with a Liquid metal.

Release States
Being too powerful to be left on his own, his power is restricted by the "Control Art Restriction System" and has to be accessed by the "Cromwell Invocation". There are shown to be six levels of restriction and six corresponding states, with lower numbers meaning greater levels of power. He can often be heard stating what level he is releasing immediately prior to combat ("Releasing control art restriction to level two"). This is, perhaps, a requirement of the release mechanism, but this has never been confirmed and is likely a literary device. Another possible reason is that it is to unnerve his opponents as he goes into battle. Given what has been seen of his personality, this is quite likely. Alucard can release his power up to Level Two by himself. It is noticeable that Alucard's attire sometimes changes according to how much power he is using: as he charges up to engage in battle, first his sunglasses, then his fedora will disappear

It is clear that Integra herself is in control of Alucard's release states as she was seen giving him permission to release to level one, the state where he is in a red version of the black straightjacket-like garb he is shown in when Integra finds him in her youth.

Identity
In the Final Order of the Hellsing anime, Alucard refers to his name as being "a bit of an enigma" when speaking to Incognito before they fight. There are few obvious references to the character of Count Dracula. Also in the last few minutes of the anime's last Order Incognito is impaled. Impaling his enemies was common practice for Vlad III The Impaler (Vlad Ţepeş, also known as Dracula). Additionally, upon Incognito's defeat, a close-up is seen of Alucard with half his face shrouded in shadow. When lightning flashes, the other half of his face is revealed to be that of the Impaler.

Voice Actors

 * French Dub: Eric Peter
 * German Dub: Torsten Munchow
 * Czech Dub: Martin Stránský
 * Japanese Dub: Jōji Nakata
 * English Dub: Crispin Freeman
 * Korean Dub: Eung-sik Min
 * Italian Dub: Roberto Pedicini
 * Portuguese Dub (Brazil): Affonso Amajones
 * Spanish Dub: Jose Manuel Vieira

Gallery
See Alucard/Gallery