Hellsing

Hellsing

ヘルシング
2001 -2002 Gonzo Fuji TV 13 episodes Completed
Action Horror Supernatural Gothic
Details & Synopsis
The Hellsing Organisation exists to protect England from the things that go bump in the night. Vampires. Ghouls. The undead in all their configurations. Its secret weapon is Alucard, an ancient, almost incomprehensibly powerful vampire who works for Hellsing because he chooses to, and who destroys monsters with a casual, aristocratic brutality that suggests he finds the whole business mildly entertaining. When a young police officer named Seras Victoria is turned during a mission gone wrong, she becomes his fledgling, and begins navigating a world she was never supposed to know existed.

Produced by Gonzo and directed by Umanosuke Iida, Hellsing aired on Fuji TV in 2001. Thirteen episodes that diverged significantly from Kouta Hirano's manga, the source material was still running and the anime outpaced it, charting its own course into original territory. This is not the Hellsing of Hellsing Ultimate. It is quieter, more gothic, more atmospheric. Where Ultimate is a war epic, the original is a horror series with political teeth.

The English dub by Pioneer is exceptional, Crispin Freeman as Alucard set a standard for vampire voice acting that the genre has been chasing ever since. This was an Adult Swim staple in the early 2000s. A gateway show for an entire generation of fans who thought they did not like horror.

Thirteen episodes. No filler. Pure gothic atmosphere from the first frame to the last.
Alt Title ヘルシング
Studio Gonzo
Network Fuji TV
Aired 2001 - 2002
Episodes 13
Genre Action, Horror, Supernatural, Gothic
Status Completed
← All lore

Seras Victoria: Becoming a Vampire

The Choice at Cheddar

Seras Chooses to Live

Episode 1 · The Undead

Seras does not begin Hellsing as a vampire hunter looking for supernatural power. She begins as a police officer whose unit is destroyed around her. When Alucard tells her that killing the priest holding her will also kill her, he gives her the choice plainly. Seras chooses life. Everything that follows comes from the uncomfortable fact that the life she chose no longer fits the definition she had before that night.
Seras Victoria

She Keeps One Foot in Her Old Life

The Blood Refusal Is About Identity, Not Diet

Episodes 1–4 · Fledgling Arc

Seras repeatedly resists drinking blood because accepting it would mean admitting that the transformation is not temporary. The refusal is impractical, sometimes dangerous and completely human. Hellsing does not rush her into Alucard's certainty. The early episodes let her keep asking whether she can do the work, use the strength and still remain recognizably the woman who entered Cheddar as a police officer.
Seras Victoria

Hellsing Becomes Her New Life

The Valentine Attack Ends the Orientation Period

SPOILER!

Episodes 5–6 · Hellsing HQ

The attack on Hellsing headquarters removes the possibility that Seras can remain a visitor in this world. She fights inside the organization she has only recently joined while its human soldiers are killed and turned against it. From here onward she is not simply Alucard's fledgling observing Hellsing. She is one of the people left standing when Hellsing has to rebuild.
Seras Victoria

The 2001 Series Lets Seras Stay Seras

SPOILER!

Whole-Series Character Logic

The important thing about Seras in this adaptation is that becoming a vampire does not erase the awkwardness, conscience or ordinary emotional reactions that made her human. She becomes stronger and more capable without becoming a smaller imitation of Alucard. By the finale she can stand inside Hellsing's war without needing to pretend she experiences it the way he does.
Seras Victoria