Ask John: Can You Explain the Ending of Hellsing?

Question:
I have a question regarding the Hellsing anime series. I was waiting a long time for the fourth volume and I can not tell you how disappointed I was when I watched it. What happened to the animation? The quality turned to nothing at all. Also, if there ever was a cop out, confusing ending to a series, this is it. If you could, give me your interpretation of the last volume and let me know if you know why the anime ended the way it did. Did the manga end in Japan, or is it going to continue? If it did end, then was the ending similar?

Answer:
WARNING: Mild Spoilers Included

I’ve heard complaints about the finale of Hellsing from numerous viewers. Honestly, I can’t say I was ever really disappointed with the show, possibly because I had some expectation of what I was getting into before I watched the final episodes. Gonzo is an animation studio that consistently has some difficulty in maintaining consistency and quality. The Samurai Girl: Real Bout High School TV series, made near the same time as Hellsing, suffered massive fluctuation in art and animation quality and ultimately revealed terrible writing and an horribly incomplete story. Melty Lancer and Chojushin Gravion both showed initial promise but both ended up being disappointing, clichés. The Final Fantasy: Unlimited anime is well known to have been so poorly received that it was cut down to half of its originally planned running time. Full Metal Panic is excellent when it’s good, but suffers from several uneven lulls and unsustained momentum. Knowing what to expect from Gonzo, I personally went in to Hellsing with a conscious attitude of taking it one episode at a time. As such, for me, the exhilarating early episodes easily overcompensated for the weak concluding episodes.

The Hellsing manga, which I’m not particularly familiar with, extended through 4 collected volumes. I’ve been told that the anime storyline diverges quite a bit from the manga storyline. I don’t know why Gonzo Studios decided to take the TV animation story in a different direction, but I can only guess that after doing so, they simply didn’t know where to go with it, resulting in a confused and fragmented conclusion. There’s been great speculation over the proper spelling of Alucard’s name- some arguing for “Alucard” and some arguing for “Arucard.” Given that Japanese is a phonetic language, technically both Romanji spellings are correct, leaving little doubt that the character’s name in Japanese is supposed to be “Dracula” backwards, regardless of how English speaking viewers decide to spell it. With that in mind, it seems obvious that Alucard’s true identity, as hinted at by the infamous “split face” sequence is supposed to suggest that Alucard is in fact the most famous of all vampires.

I’m aware that my response may be a bit non-committal, but it’s the only response I have. Regarding the fates of Seras Victoria and Integra Hellsing, the background of Incognito, and the identity of Alucard, I can only say that viewers can draw their own conclusions. I’ve honestly never tried to analyze the concluding episodes because I don’t believe there’s anything there to explain. Typically with Gonzo productions, what you see is what you get; take it for what it’s worth. I found Hellsing to be phenomenally enjoyable, even with its flawed ending, because I never placed high expectations on it, nor never demanded that it explain itself. I think the final two or three episodes of Hellsing are a victim of poor planning and execution, not intentional ambiguity and stylish minimalism. However, I think that the bulk of the show is good enough to excuse the breakdown of the production quality at the end.