Clockwise from top: Seras Victoria, Integra Hellsing, and Alucard.
"In the name of God, impure souls of the living dead shall be banished into eternal damnation. Amen."
In the jolly old land of Great Britain sits the Hellsing Organization. Led by Integra Hellsing, the clandestine group's mission is to protect Queen, country, and the Anglican Church from supernatural threats—mainly vampires. As the series begins, one such vampire has been ravaging the English village of Cheddar and turning its inhabitants into "ghouls". In response, Integra sends Hellsing’s most powerful operative—a vampire named Alucard—to deal with things.
Alucard confronts the vampire as he is about to murder Seras Victoria, the last survivor of police forces sent to handle the situation. In order to kill the vampire, Alucard shoots through Seras, mortally wounding her as a result. As she bleeds out, she receives an offer from Alucard: He can save her life...but only if she agrees to become a vampire herself. Seras accepts, Alucard turns her, and she soon becomes the newest member of Hellsing. Alongside Integra, Alucard, and Hellsing’s human operatives, Seras ends up on the front line of the fight against mass-produced undead called FREAKs.
The Hellsing TV series (also called Hellsing: Impure Souls in media) by GONZO explores Seras’s perspective as she adjusts to life as a vampire in the employ of Hellsing and helps unravel the mystery of the artificial vampires and the FREAK chips. The first half of the series stays generally faithful to the original Hellsing manga, although specific themes (e.g., what it means to be "human") and character development are given more depth, while the latter half of the show diverges wildly from its source material as a result of overtaking the manga.
Chiaki Konaka was a writer for the show, and it features his customary dark themes and H. P. Lovecraft references.
For the original manga and OVA, see Hellsing. The TV series has its own characters page.
Hellsing contains the following tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Both played straight and inverted in case of Valentine brothers. On the one hand, in the TV series, they are independently acting, wealthy and powerful vampire crime lords who raised a ghoul army and launched the attack on Hellsing HQ on their own, unlike the low-ranking Mook Lieutenants they were in the manga continuity. On the other hand, their attack, although seriously damaging, failed to kill every Hellsing agent outside of the central cast like it did in the manga.
- Adaptational Villainy: The Chips are shown to be what is used to created the Artificial Vampires, in the Manga and OVA the chips were nothing more than monitoring devices. This is obviously because it wasn't revealed that it was Mina Harker's body used to make the fake vampire until long after this series was over.
- Adapted Out:
- Pip Bernadotte and the Wild Geese from the original manga. A mercenary group very similar to the Wild Geese shows up in the later episodes, but they don't get nearly the screen time or importance the Wild Geese had in the manga. (Pip and company were brand new at the time the episodes were produced and it wasn't clear just how important they'd be at that juncture.)
- Tubalcain Alhambra had already shown in the manga when the anime was produced, but given that his storyline with Millennium wasn't cleared yet, he wasn't used for the series.
- Millennium itself is a strangely subverted example, as while the organization doesn't appear as itself, it is heavily implied to exist in the anime's universe and to be in fact the nameless group behind the actions of Incognito, his British master, and the FREAK chips (which even retain the swastika design). The series's trailer actually shows the silhouette of the Major clapping his hands with the Captain and Doctor by his side note This hints he might have been considered to appear in the series at some point, perhaps as an Unknown Character and/or Sequel Hook, but if he was, these plans were abandoned in the final product.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Seras is strawberry blonde and wears a blue Hellsing uniform. In the manga she's a regular blonde and wears a yellow Hellsing uniform.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The series added in more Character Development in the first six episodes, especially for Seras. It also adds a flashback for Anderson in a possible past encounter with Alucard or another great vampire before gaining his powers.
- The Hellsing Organization itself gets a lot more detail around it. In the manga and OVA, it can seem like Alucard and later Seras were its only field agents. The anime shows that Hellsing has a highly trained army and intelligence agency to take on the evils of the night.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In Episode 1, Alucard straight up warns Seras that he'll shoot through her lungs in order to pierce her captor's heart and kill him, but asking her first if she's willing to choose to die and then be turned into a vampire by him, saying he won't shoot if her choice is no. This is a far cry from the manga and later Ultimate, where Alucard simply asks if she's a virgin and shoots right through her after she answers yes, not preparing her at all for what's to come and giving her no choice in the matter.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Anderson is considerably less hammy and more restrained here, even seeming more smug at times due to his seiyu's higher pitched voice compared to Ultimate's Norio Wakamoto.
- Alas, Poor Yorick: Seras carrying Alucard's head, twice.
- Ambiguous Ending: At the end, Alucard visits Integra in her cell and offers to turn her into a vampire, and she just smiles before the camera fades to black, leaving open whether she will accept or not.
- Ascended Extra: The Red Shirt Army of Hellsing gets a lot more attention in the series, shown to be a highly skilled paramilitary that regularly takes on Vampires and other creatures of the night without the assistance of Alucard. This means that the Valentine brothers' massacre of them feels more personal than in the manga.
- As the Good Book Says...: Alexander Anderson, naturally.
- Ate His Gun: In a flashback, Alexander is shown attempting this during his first encounter with Alucard. Obviously, either it didn't work or he stopped himself.
- Badass Normal: Walter, Captain Pickman.
- The Bad Guy Wins: By the end of the series the conspirators have won, the surviving heroes are imprisoned as traitors and Hellsing's been disbanded. However, the final scene reveals that Alucard is still loose and loyal to Integra, leaving open the possibility that they will continue their task on their own.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the first episode, an older man and a woman with black hair are in a room together. The man's predetory actions with her (and centipedes falling in the room) make it seem as if he were a vampire about to feed on the woman. When Alucard arrives to elimate the target, it's the woman who's the vampire.
- Batman Cold Open
- Batman Gambit: Hellsing's plan to lure out Incognito to the Tower of London.
- Big Bad: Incognito.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Seras has most of them.
- Alucard showing up just in time to prevent Father Anderson from ripping Seras apart. Twice.
- Integra's flashback is built around Alucard getting in on this trope.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hellsing is destroyed and their members outlawed, but it seems Hellsing and Integra will continue with their mission.
- Bloodless Carnage: Most vampires and ghouls of the first arc turn to "ashes" when they die. The series gets bloodier towards the end though.
- Body Horror:
- The sequence where an SAS member is turned into a monster.
- Any scene which features Alucard's powers being used, or Incognito in general. Bonus points for both at once.
- Book Ends: The confrontation with the Vicar vampire takes place in a church. The last episode features Incognito and Alucard finishing their battle in a cathedral near the Tower of London.
- Bound and Gagged: Integra, in a strange dream sequence brought on by Alucard.
- Canon Foreigner: Incognito, Helena, Hellsing Captain Peter Fargason, Pickman, and one-shot characters Kim and Harry Anders.
- Car Bomb: How Harry dies.
- Character Development: Lots more compared to the manga, especially Seras and Integra.
- Cheeky Mouth: Only a few instances, fortunately.
- Christianity is Catholic: Averted, the Hellsing Organization is Anglican, and it does get into turf wars with the Catholic Iscariot Organization.
- Church Shootout: In the first episode, Alucard confronts the vampire priest in a church.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Incognito.
- Crucified Hero Shot: Fargason.
- Cult Soundtrack: Yasushi Ishii's original score, the quality of which is the one thing the
Broken Base can agree upon. Logos Naki World in particular is universally accepted as the theme for both anime adaptations. - Damsel in Distress: Integra spends much more time in life-threatening danger than her manga and OVA counterparts.
- Darker and Edgier: Although this series doesn't contain as many battles and deaths as the manga and the Ultimate OVAs, its atmosphere is generally darker, quieter and more psychological, and its conclusion is much more pessimistic (albeit the pessimistic tone stems in part from the ending being a fairly obvious Sequel Hook that was not actually followed up on, and thus as a de facto conclusion, the sequence comes across differently).
- Demoted to Extra: Iscariot is less important than in the source material and neither Anderson or Maxwell play any role in the series' climax.
- Disposable Woman: Played with in the first episode. A creepy, lecherous executive acting very suspiciously and talking about his love of the night and unique tastes is groping a prostitute. Alucard shows up and calls out the vampire. It's the woman. There is also a Rewatch Bonus if you notice she is wearing Valentine's symbol on her necklace.
- Dramatic Shattering:
- Anderson's glasses.
- Alucard's glasses after he's gunned down in the first episode.
- Dull Surprise: In the English dub of the anime, Integra sounds rather bored instead of furious upon discovering that the Valentine brothers had invaded Hellsing Manor.
- Evil Laugh: Seriously, this anime is full of characters (good and bad) who love to laugh like they're evil maniacs.
- Expy: Where else have we seen a snarky guy that enjoys causing bloody slaughter wearing a Badass Longcoat and a hat? Was his name Caleb?
- Fan Disservice: Integra gets partially undressed once, but it's creepy/squicky considering the circumstances.
- Fanservice: The fetish club scene from "Brotherhood".
- Finger Poke of Doom: Luke dispatches a Red Shirt this way.
- Fisticuffs Boss: Seras VS the last SAS squad member.
- Flat Character: Incognito's backstory is never really explored, nor does he get a lot of characterization. He's just there to be the Final Boss.
- Freak Out: Seras when seeing that Hellsing's human personnel had been turned into ghouls.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Incognito.
- Gecko Ending: The anime stops directly adapting the manga after episode 7 and follows its own storyline to a radically different conclusion. This is due to the anime being produced 7 years before the manga ended.
- Godzilla Threshold: Integra orders Alucard to enter his Level 1 form once Incognito summons a god to destroy London.
- Good Scars: Fargason
- Gun Porn: There's a lot of pistol close-ups.
- A House Divided: Honestly, at least half the body count on the good guys' side is caused by each other. Police, special forces, the army, various paramilitary groups, everybody treats them as anywhere from expendable through collateral damage all the way to mandatory targets.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Seras has her moments.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Integra's last encounter with Bubbancy brings this trope to mind...
- I'm a Humanitarian: Incognito eats Helena alive. Alucard also counts, especially when he kills Luke Valentine.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Incognito’s fate.
- Invincible Hero: To a degree, Alucard is this. He's not completely invincible but being beheaded was only an inconvenience.
- The Abridged series gives an excellent nod to this trope when Alucard and Integra talk on the phone. "Oh what are you going to do, call that guy that can stop me? What was his name? Michael McDoesn'tExist?"
- Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Kim
- Kiss of the Vampire: In "Brotherhood", the victims are shown to have very...suggestive expressions.
- Lesbian Vampire: Laura
- Lighter and Softer: Partly due to the anime's departure from the original storyline, Alucard’s sadism is toned down and his relationships with Integra and Seras are emphasized.
- Limited Wardrobe: Actually averted in the case of Seras. When she's not in her blue uniform, she has a variety of civilian clothes. Played straight with everyone else, though.
- The London Underground: In "Duel".
- Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: How Incognito dodges a gunshot in Episode 13.
- Masochism Tango: Integra and Alucard. Their dynamics (and characterizations) changed from Bodyguard Crush in the Manga to Masochism Tango in the TV series.
- The Masquerade: Keeping supernatural activities secret is emphasized in the TV series.
- Mauve Shirt: Fargason. An anime-original character, he stands out as the only named captain in the anime organization to last more than one or two episodes, letting him define himself as A Father to His Men and The Mentor to Seras.
- murder.com: In "Innocent as a Human", a Snuff Film featuring a man being killed on screen by a Vampire also has a Hellsing soldier in the background, which forces Integra to deploy Hellsing and Seras to investigate the film and find out who is responsible for broadcasting the film and end further snuff film broadcasting before widespread curiosity can be incited regarding the Hellsing Organization.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Walter, after he is hypnotized into nearly killing Seras.
- Never My Fault: The news reporter takes no responsibility for her actions in the snuff films, blaming it on the person publishing the videos and claiming she was just doing her job as a reporter. Integra doesn't buy it and has Alucard kill her.
- Never Trust a Trailer: This
is the original Japanese trailer for the TV series, featuring stellar animation (save for a couple of shots) and plenty of violence, as well as the Major. In addition to half of the animation from the trailer being cut from the final product, most of the remaining bits were only used in the show's opening. - Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot:
- Holy Knights Templar Dracula with Guns Akimbo!
- Incognito takes it further: African Black Magic Nosferatu.
- Anderson: An Ax-Crazy Cyborg assassin Badass Preacher with endless projectile bayonets and Implausible Fencing Powers.
- Noble Bigot: Integra and Walter are both clearly annoyed that, due to the lack of manpower after the Valentine attack, they need to loosen the requirements to allow "heathens and atheists" into the organization.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Incognito's master is never seen, let alone ever fighting the heroes. S/He lets Incognito do all the heavy lifting and is left defenceless to be taken out as soon as Incognito is killed.
- No Swastikas: Avoids the issue entirely by excluding the later Millennium arc, but this is due to production timing rather than censorship. However, the shape of the circuitry in the FREAK chips in the series is still an obscured swastika.
- Not Quite Dead: Alucard pulls this off twice.
- Incognito does this as well, also twice, and both after being shot by a gun that should have killed him.
- Now That's Using Your Teeth!:
- Anderson briefly wields a bayonet with his teeth.
- Alucard also uses his teeth to cock his gun once.
- Old Soldier: Fargason.
- Ominous Latin Chanting: Part of the soundtrack.
- One-Winged Angel: Alucard's Level 1, his most powerful state (in the anime only).
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: "Ghoul", in this setting, refers to a shambling, ravenous, flesh-eating zombie that a vampire can create from the corpse of someone they completely drained of blood. Ghouls are bestial creatures, but can clumsily use tools, including guns, as shown when the Valentine Brothers attack the Hellsing Estate.
- Our Vampires Are Different: In fact, with the existence of Truebloods and FREAKS, they're even different from each other!
- Trueblood Vampires more closely resemble the Gothic Vampire archetype; they have powers like regenerating, turning into animals or banks of mist, Super-Strength, Super-Senses, and the like. It's hard to judge just how powerful they are, especially seeing as how Alucard has been experimented upon to make him more than an ordinary vampire, but it's implied that age plays a part in their potency. Truebloods reproduce in the standard method of drinking blood from a human and willing them to change.
- FREAK Vampires are artificial vampires, created through the implantation of special body-altering microchips. They are vastly inferior to Truebloods, lacking their more supernatural powers and failing to attain similar levels of physical potency. There is a shown discrepancy between the power levels of FREAKS, which may have something to do with how many chips are implanted. They do have the ability to raise their dead victims as Ghouls, which is implied to be a trait present in Truebloods as well, but don't have the ability to create other vampires.
- Out-Gambitted: Integra's Batman Gambit technically succeeds, but Incognito outmaneuvers her.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Integra, Fargason.
- Shout-Out:
- Possibly to the Wilmarth Foundation in the Cthulhu Mythos, which may have influenced the portrayal of the Hellsing Organization. The show's writer is known for being a fan of the Mythos, and often adds Lovecraftian themes or references to his works.
- Take That!, too—The dub of Episode Four of the anime references The Sun, a British tabloid, when a newscaster is being chewed out over a broadcast of Hellsing operatives.
- Jan Valentine calls Walter "Alfred" in episode 6.
- When Alucard confronts Anderson in episode 7 he calls him Judas Priest.
- The soundtrack "Hidden Leaves Harmony" samples Godzilla roars.
- Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Hard to categorize. Traditional vampirism is not massively contagious (it takes deliberate decision to make a new vampire), nor does it cause immediate morality shifts, and the Horror Hunger is so subdued that Seras could go a good long while without feeding and never lost control due to hunger note . FREAK vampires seem to be either more vulnerable to moral decay or just awful people to begin with, since they all become monsters.
- This is mentioned as why the FREAK vampires are so dangerous. True Nosferatu are terrifyingly powerful, but have their own goals and motivations pretty far removed from human concerns. A FREAK is also powerful, but retains a human capacity for evil and a very pressing reason to indulge it.
- Snuff Film: The plot of "Innocent As a Human" revolves around these being distributed on the internet—the fact that they involve filming humans being eaten by vampires is what gets Hellsing involved.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- In more ways than one—Walter not only survives thanks to the series quickly
overtaking the manga's storyline, he also never has a Face–Heel Turn. - Anderson and Maxwell survive as well, mostly thanks to them not participating in the final battle.
- In more ways than one—Walter not only survives thanks to the series quickly
- Stages of Monster Grief: Seras goes through most of them.
- State Sec: The paramilitary aspects of the Hellsing Organization is played up more in the Anime. Here, the Red Shirt Army actually goes around and take out vampires.
- Supporting Protagonist: Seras becomes this as well as an Audience Surrogate in this series. She's actually quite a bit more well-rounded than in either the manga or the OVA, surprisingly.
- Time Bomb: One of the many dangers Hellsing's Red Shirt Army faces.
- Undead Child: Helena, the world-weary vampire in the body of a little girl.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: There seems to be even more of it between Alucard and Integra in the anime. Emphasis on "sexual".
- Official Couple, if you take into account Studio Gonzo's statements and interviews.
- Official Couple, if you take into account
- The Unreveal: The organization which created the FREAK Vampires, with epilogue text in the finale even saying that MI-5 is continuing Hellsing's search for them. Of course, since this is purely the result of the anime overtaking the manga, one could assume it was this continuity's version of Millennium.
- Vampires Own Night Clubs: The Valentine brothers.
- Vampires Sleep in Coffins:
- Alucard the vampire sleeps in his special coffin when he needs to rest; doing so also recharges his energy as most of his powers are sealed within the coffin.
- The new vampire Seras Victoria is issued a coffin, and is locked in it during the flight to Argentina in one episode as she's too young to resist sunlight or cross running water like Alucard can.
- What the Hell Are You?: Said to Alucard a couple of times. Just before his death, Incognito gets an answer, as Alucard's half-shadowed face reveals the mustachioed face of Vlad Ţepeș.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Episode 10 depicts Integra and Alucard's first encounter.
- Wolf Man: The SAS squad members, once turned into monsters, gain the ability to transform into these.
- Word Salad Lyrics: "The World Without Logos", the catchy opening theme, is (almostnote ) entirely in English, ''none' of which makes any sense.
- You Monster!:Alexander Anderson: You monster.Alucard: I get that a lot.
