Ask John: What Can You Tell Me About Hellsing?

Question:
Can you tell me about Hellsing? How many episodes are there? I heard its like a horror/Cowboy Bebop type anime.

Answer:
The Hellsing anime TV series was a 13 episode show based on the 4 volume manga by Kouta Hirano first published in Japan in 1998. The TV animation premiered in Japan last October, and was produced by Gonzo Studios. The best way I can describe the series is as a cross (no pun intended) between Trigun and Vampire Hunter D. The character design is filled with gaunt, angular characters and the costume design filled with long trenchcoats and robes, both very reminiscent of those in Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun. The focal character of Hellsing, the ancient vampire Alucard (“Dracula” spelled backwards) also carries a .45 long barrel semi-automatic pistol- a gun reminiscent of Vash the Stampede’s equally distinctive revolver.

The storyline of Hellsing revolves around the threat of artificially created vampires terrorizing present day London. The secret government sanctioned Hellsing Institution maintains a tempestuous alliance with the British SAS special forces, British police agencies and the Vatican’s own vampire hunting forces to eliminate this vampiric threat. Alucard has allied himself with the Hellsing Agency under direct command of the agency’s chairwoman, Sir Integral Wingates Hellsing, a descendant of the original Abraham Hellsing of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Alucard serves as the Hellsing Agency’s ultimate weapon in defense of the country and crown.

Technically there’s almost no similarity between Cowboy Bebop and Hellsing apart from an emphasis on style and violence, but those two similarities are somewhat appropriate on a very superficial level. While Cowboy Bebop is a brightly colored, jazzy and free-form adventure, Hellsing is a dark and gothic, tightly structured story. However, the extreme graphic violence depicted in the Hellsing animation, and Alucard’s unwaveringly, morbidly optimistic self-confidence are thematically similar to the mature tone and atmosphere of Cowboy Bebop, and Cowboy Bebop’s unflappable protagonist Spike Spiegel.

Possibly in an attempt to break out of its traditional mold of non-threatening, family friendly offerings and create a line of more hard-core fan oriented titles with SoulTaker and Vandread, Pioneer has announced plans to release the Hellsing animation in America, eventually.