If the fact he’s packing massive heat wasn’t enough badassery for you, he’s also a bloodsucker.Article originally written by JewelsI think this is befitting as my first recommendation, as well as my first post in general. I’ve always been a huge fan of this franchise, and it IS October after all. >:D Bear in mind I think all the scans included in this article are fan-translated from Japanese, so the font/dialouge will differ from the Dark Horse releases.
After the start of this whole Twilight (which I refuse to read and/or watch. I don’t care how often you tell me the book was better than the movie, Twatlight is still Twatlight [pardon my French, readers.) epidemic hit, I’ve been reminded of just how much ass this series kicks. It isn’t just some useless display of blood and gore (though there is definitely plenty of that in these pages), and it’s not some angsty story aimed soley at teenagers.
“Om nom nom”
Like I said, it still has its fair share of gore, but at least it’s… tasteful?Unfortunately these seem to be prominant factors in any novel or movie that has vampires as their main focus in the past few years. Hellsing is a series with interesting and likable (or not, depending on the character in question) characters, with a pretty good amount of depth considering this is a somewhat short series (I’ve read up to volume 5 of 9). There ard making too many subplots along the way.
The manga was written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano in 1997, and has been released up to the 10th and final volume in Japan. The U.S. copies are liscensed and released by Dark Horse Comics with 9 volumes released so far. A 10th is supposed to be on the way, but I’ve read mixed opinions on when the final release will make it to U.S. shores. I’m going to assume it won’t be much longer.
Basic plot:Hellsing’s overall plot revolves around the Hellsing Organization, a secret order in England led by Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing (who is pretty much the epitome of an iron willed woman). Their duty: to dispose of the undead and any other creatures that threaten queen and country. They seem to mostly deal with a breed of faux vampires that people refer to as Freaks as the story begins, as opposed to actual vampires as they had in the past. Freak vampires are not nearly close to having the abilities and power of that of a true vampire, but they’ve become more active and are causing a lot of trouble for Hellsing regardless. Volume one focuses on introducing three of the main protagonists (of whom I will be giving small character summaries for below), training fresh meat (Seras Victoria) to be a bad ass, some insight to Integra and Alucard’s pasts, as well as the first big battle in the series.
Meet the main characters:
Alucard is a bit of an elitist when it comes to Freaks.Hellsing’s ace in the hole is Alucard, a true vampire who serves Integra and hunts his own kind (Freaks or otherwise) as the Hellsing Organization’s secret weapon. Despite what his giant and silly-looking red hat might say about him (Alucard, are you secretly a pimp?), this guy means business. He’s scary enough without gigantic handguns that a human could never even hope to hold (let alone fire), but guess what? He has those too. Now you’re in trouble, posers. The second chapter of Volume 1 gives some insight as to why he is serving Integra in the first place. Do you think he’d really refer to a human as “Master” without a reason? I don’t think so.
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“Hello, my name is Seras and I will be your eye candy for this series.”In the beginning of the series Alucard turns a young police girl named Seras Victoria into a vampire since she was in the way of his target, and she didn’t want to die yet. Too bad she didn’t take into consideration the fact that now she’d still be dead, just not dead-dead. Say hello to one of the other main characters. She’s not all that keen on the thought of being a member of the undead, but she really has no choice does she? Alucard trains her for combat, and she gets REALLY big guns. Ah, vampiric steroids. Seras also has a tendency to go into a berserker mode and will utterly OWN any and all ghouls (A type of zombie servant. When you’re unchaste, this is what happens when a vampire noms your neck) in her path. It’s pretty frickin’ sweet. Oh, and for those who somehow couldn’t tell, she also has a pretty epic pair of gozongas.
Remember kids, save yourself for marriage. You never know if you’ll get bitten by a vampire and become a zombie like these guys. Then Seras will have to shoot you in the face.
I personally think with the amount of balls she has, Integra needs a ween to go with them. Yowza.Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing has spent her life needing to wear the pants in the Hellsing Organization… so she does. One thing I personally love about Integra’s character is she is a strong woman, who despite having pretty much an army at her disposal, she is still independent and does as much as she can on her own, even if it means intercepting a batshit insane Vatican assassin. Integra had a pretty messed up experience after her father’s passing when she was younger, which is covered in Volume 1. Because of that whole ordeal, she had to grow up in pretty much a day.
As for the interaction between Integra and Alucard, they seem to have a love/hate relationship. However despite the countless fanfictions that portray them as romantically involved, I just don’t see it. I DO know that Alucard respects Integra’s strong will and that is one of the reasons he dedicates himself to serving her every command, and taking pride and pleasure out of doing so. Granted Alucard is a pretty twisted guy and enjoys killing (more specifically battling an opponent who can actually put up a fight) anyway, it says something when he actually wants to help a human because he has respect for said person.
Art style:One of the things that drew me to Hellsing was the artwork. It’s not too dark, and it’s not a style that you look at and automatically associate with the stereotypical Victorian-esque gothic style of some of the other vampire manga series on the market. The details in the clothing and hair are pretty sweet. Sometimes these days I’ll come across a series that looks like it’d be alright, but the artwork is so lax in detail that I’m automatically turned away and would rather find the show, if anything.
An example being another series called Elfen Lied. I’ve heard many good things about the anime, and the story seems pretty plot-twisty and involved, and the show has some nice animation. So I thought I’d give the manga a shot. The art was so lazy that I couldn’t get past the first few pages. But I digress. The thing that gets me the most about the art in the series is the facial expressions and emotions in general. Hirano has a knack for being able to capture a psychotic smiles and movements (if you see how limbs move in this series, you’ll get it), sadness, disgust, cockiness, fright, happiness, hell ALL of them, in a way that almost gives you an emotional connection with the particular scene (at least for me). Example: Seras goes berserk and just mows down ghouls, most of which used to stand beside her in combat. She’s unable to control herself, and has this look on her face as if she’s getting a sort of sadistic pleasure out of mindlessly mutilating her fallen comrades. You want her to stop, to regain her humanity and come to her senses. As soon as she does, you have just as many mixed emotions of what just happened as she does herself in the story, even if it is just a bunch of panels on a piece of paper. I see the expressions and body language as being that powerful in this manga.
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In closing:Whilst I admittedly still need to finish the rest of the manga, I’ve been into this series since probably about 2003-2004. I started with the old anime (which was very lax compared to the new series, Hellsing Ultimate, which totally follows the manga’s plot and style. I will vouch for the old anime having an awesome soundtrack, and I recommend giving it a try if you like jazzy/rock stuff) and was hooked. From there I started the manga, and fell in love all over again. It was refreshingly different, but still the same Hellsing that got me started at the same time. if you like big guns, chicks who can kick some major ass, war plots, vampires (of course) with a bit of comedy and science thrown into the mix (as well as some awesome art), I say you should give Hellsing a shot. It’d hurt a lot less than getting shot by them.
He’ll do it too.
