The Hellsing Organization's (officially, the Royal Order of Protestant Knights) job is to protect Great Britain from those who prey on the living — and their chief operative is none other than the powerful vampire "Alucard". He doesn't even have to use guns (with Depleted Phlebotinum Shells, Improbable Aiming Skills and near-Bottomless Magazines, no less) to kill other vampires and anyone else in his way, but he sure does like to.Alucard faithfully serves the leader of Hellsing, Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. Her devotion to the Anglican Church and the Queen prompts her to swiftly erase any threats towards them from existence and she sees no problem with employing the undead to destroy the undead.The same cannot be said of Hellsing's rival, the fanatic Section XIII Iscariot, of the Catholic Church. They consider Hellsing little better than the monsters they hunt, despise the Anglicans of England, and their champion, the paladin Father Alexander Anderson, is just as bloodthirsty and as apparently un-killable as Alucard.Enter Seras Victoria, the sole "surviving" member of a police squad killed by a vampire. Alucard offered her the choice of dying human or becoming a vampire. Seras chooses to become a vampire and, by consequence, work for the Hellsing organization alongside Alucard. Although she mostly acts as comic relief (among other duties), her weight as a character greatly increases in the second half of the story. Meanwhile, Hellsing uncovers a plot of apocalyptic proportions, hatched by the mysterious “Millennium”.Hellsing exists as the original manga, an OVA series, and a television series. There is also a prequel, Hellsing: The Dawn which focus on Alucard and a young Walter during World War 2. Did we mention Alucard is a girl in this one?This page deals with the manga and its OVA. For the TV series, seeHellsing.See also: Crossfire by the same artist.
Tubalcain Alhambra has absurdly sharp playing cards.
Adaptation Dye Job: In the manga, Maxwell's hair is blonde, but was changed to silver in both anime adaptions. Pip's hair is also blonde in the manga, and was changed to brown in Ultimate. Opposite of Maxwell, Doc's hair went from silver to blonde.
Aerith and Bob: Integra, Seras Victoria, Alucard and...Pip.
Ammunition Backpack: Taken Up to Eleven in Ultimate. For the final battle, Seras's anti-tank rifle gets upgraded to a fully automatic belt-fed version and she uses a pair of them (with the appropriate reserve of ammo, many times her weight) to go Guns Akimbo against the vampire Nazi zeppelin.
Anime Catholicism: There's no way in hell that the Church would allow an Organization such as Iscariot to exist, namely with their willingness to sin to fight all the nasty beasties that inhabit the Hellsing universe....its breaks from Catholic doctrine. It DOES, however, allow for truly epic displays of badassery.
The official stance of the Church In-Universe is that there is no such organization—in one of the prototype comics starring Yumie and Heinkel, they get chewed out by Maxwell because their shenanigans got plastered all over the news.
Armor Is Useless: Hellsing's mauve shirts die by the dozen, to say nothing of the men of Millenium's military and police contacts and most notably the men of 9th Crusade. Though to be fair pretty much everyone with a name is a Badass Normal or worse. When said 'worse' folks are wielding weaponry than can punch through armored vehicles with pin-point accuracy it's not like body armor would be particularly useful anyway.
Art Evolution: There's a noticeable change in style as the series progresses. Hirano even comments on this in the omakes.
Alucard in particular gets a makeover after the early chapters. In the first volume, he actually looks more human and wears a more traditional style of greatcoat with a high collar which he keeps buttoned-up most of the time. Integra seems more feminine and has very wavy hair, and Seras just looks weird and badly-proportioned until the start of the 'Sword Dancer' mini-arc.
Art Shift: Characters will occasionally go super-deformed when odd stuff is happening in some parts of the manga. Ultimate has this as a RunningMythology Gag regarding Seras. She goes super-deformed at least Once an Episode, sometimes more often than that.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Most of Alucard's battles are like this on both sides. Many of the characters he fights seem to think that instead of running or trying to defend themselves, they should just keep attacking despite the fact that he's Nigh Invulnerable. Alucard usually doesn't defend himself, either.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In her attack on the Hellsing manor, Zorin Blitz creates a gigantic illusion of herself and tricks Pip and The Wild Geese into believing said gigantic illusion is making mince meat out of them with her scythe, resulting in a Freak Out.
Attempted Rape: In the very first chapter/OVA by the preacher holding Seras hostage.
Author Appeal: Not surprising, given that some of the characters are adapted from the author's earlier work in hentai. Frequently appearing fetishes include glasses, gloves, androgyny, and incredibly large weapons. (Note that Rip fits all of these.)
Awesome Mc Cool Name: Arguably everyone. Alucard, Integra Faibrook Wingates Hellsing, Zorin Blitz, Heinkel Wolfe, Rip Van Winkle...
Axe Crazy: Everyone except Integra, Seras, and Pip.
Badass Boast: When Alucard says he'll make Tubalcain Alhambra squeal like a pig.
Badass Creed: Please see Iscariot's chapter-long Pledge of Kickass. Also, Major's famous monologue about war is incredibly badass, being the textbook (if villainous) example of Crazy Awesome.
Badass Normal: Hellsing's ex-special forces red/mauve shirt field operatives. In hindsight most of their deaths are avoidable, Alucard just can't seem to be bothered taking down the armies of ghouls which occasionally overwhelm them. Also, Integra vs. Anderson and Millennium mooks. Oh, and don't forget Pip and his Wild Gueese!
Also Integra and the Council of Twelve. They really do a number on Jan Valentine.
When Zorin's army attacks Hellsing, Seras stands on a rooftop with a BFG. She strikes a Badass pose and then proceeds to shoot them out of the airship.
Integra pulling herself from a car crash relatively unscathed, decapitating the vampire who attacked her, mocking the rest as weaklings who couldn't bear humanity, and telling them to bring it on so she can kill them.
Anderson trash talking Millennium's mooks before slaughtering them all: "You will not die an easy death, I'LL CUT YOU ALL TO SHREDS! AAAAAAAMEN!"
The Bad Guy Wins: Technically speaking, the Major achieved everything he wanted. He annihilated London, caused an incredibly destructive war (London's entire population of 8 million people was wiped out in one night, not to mention all the damage occurring around the rest of the world), Alucard is defeated through his ingenuity and he dies in battle against a worthy opponent. But considering that all he really wanted to do was kill Alucard, he still fails, since Alucard eventually comes back.
Subverted. He just thinks he wins. London was rebuilt, Integra mocked that he thought this was a war (it was labeled a terrorist attack eventually and that's it). Unless you count Alucard as a bad guy who got his happy ending, keeping what it's told be destroyed in all his important battles. Twice.
BFG: Seras's weapon(s) of choice, the Harkonnen series, especially the Harkonnen II. It has a gross weight of approx. 760 pounds, a max range of 4 km, has a pair of 30mm auto cannons belt-fed from two large ammunition boxes carried on her back, a can snipe high-speed missiles, shoot down Millenium airships, AND the two cannons double as grenade launchers, each barrel firing a single extremely powerful Vladmir incendiary grenade for the decimation of a large area.
Bleached Underpants: Kohta Hirano's earlier work included hentai, with earlier versions of characters including Alucard, Integra, Seras, Pip, Anderson, Yumie, Captain, Doc, and the Major showing up.
Anyone who takes a headshot from one of the Jackal's explosive bullets tends to do exactly the opposite, however.
Boring Invincible Hero: Alucard (as much as he can be called a "hero"). The result of almost every confrontation he has with, well, anyone is a foregone conclusion. Even the situations where he puts any actual, visible effort into slaughtering all his enemies are rare.
Bottomless Magazines: Practically every gun. Especially notable is Alucard's ridiculously enormous handgun the Jackal, which Walter says has a six shot magazine. Alucard tends to fire it in tandem with his other oversized gun, which holds more bullets. Neither gun runs out of bullets until Alucard is done shooting everybody.
Alucard is actually seen reloading sometimes, though. It's far more noticeable with Luke Valentine, who uses a pair of sawed-off M1 Garands, which in reality use 8-round en bloc clips.
Breaking and Bloodsucking: Alucard decides the best way to announce his return, after decades of un-existence, is by trying to sink his mouthful of fangs into a sleeping Integra's neck. She empties a pistol into him before he can.
Break the Cutie: Throughout the first half of the series, Seras was very upbeat and happy. Then Zorin Blitz came along and forced Seras to re-experience her mother and father's brutal murders, her mother's corpse-rape, and then being shot by the guys who killed her parents. To make it worse, Zorin then proceeds to cut off Seras' arm and slice her eyes open. Finally, after Pip saves Seras from Zorin, gets shot and then stabbed in the back with a giant scythe, he kisses Seras and tells her to drink his blood. And then he dies in her arms. This is a Break the Cutie taken Up to Eleven.
Breast Expansion: Of uncertain veracity. Once Seras becomes a vampire and Hellsing agent, she has very large breasts, but it's never been made clear if this is due to a quirk of her transformation or if she was well-endowed beforehand and it wasn't noticeable due to her standard-issue ballistic vest. Comments in omake suggest her breast growth is probably Word Of God.
The dub producer for the OVA, Taliesin Jaffe, implied that their size in any given panel in the manga may correlate to how stressed Hirano was at the time of drawing said panel.
Considering how many times he's met with and talked to Hirano personally, there's probably a level of truth to that.
The Butler Did It: Not a murder mystery, but it's eventually revealed that the one who had betrayed Hellsing was Walter, already long ago.
Butt Monkey: Have you seen Heinkel in volume ten? First Yumie dies on her and then she gets her mouth shot off, only to get her arm cut off by Walter.
Cannot Cross Running Water: Alucard makes a point of averting this (although via a plane) on one occasion. It's still a weakness, as traveling over water is dangerous for Seras, and even Alucard cannot do it without a vessel.
Rip Van Winkle's "Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor; my bullet punishes all without distinction!"
While he uses a variety of biblical quotes (of varying accuracy) either before a battle or just upon entrance, Anderson is most noted for ending them not with a docile "amen", but forming a cross from his bayonets, highlighting his crazy eyes and a Slasher Smile to rival Alucard's, and absolutely screamingAAAAAAMMMEEEENNNNNN!!!
Take a drink every time the Major says "war".
Casual Danger Dialog: Used often, but Integra gives us this gem just before she and and the Council of Twelve shoot Jan full of holes:
Cast of Snowflakes: While it's not a series with Loads and Loads of Characters per se, the main and secondary characters in it are all extremely stylized with completely unique outfits, hairstyles, facial features, weapons and poses that make them look entirely distinctive.
Child Soldier: Schrödinger looks like he is 14. Seras comments on this.
He is probably older.
Christianity is Catholic: Neatly averted. While some of the more zealous members of Iscariot would hope to make this a fact someday *ahem*, a major part of the friction between Hellsing and Iscariot is the fact that Christianity is NOT always Catholic due to Hellsing's Protestant roots. Though it wouldn't be hard to miss that little fact when all you see of Hellsing is Redshirts(with emphasis on the RED part) being led by an Eldritch Abomination
Chekhov's Gun: The Jackal, but the twist is that it is not Alucard's Chekhov's gun but Walter's. When Walter fights Alucard, he turns the Jackal against him.
Schrödinger is Chekhov's Gunman. He appears relatively early on in the manga and OVA series, and has the interesting but passingly mentioned ability to be "everywhere and nowhere". His ability comes into full effect in the final volume of the manga, where he commits suicide and allows his body to fall into the river of blood Alucard is absorbing. The Major explains that Schrödinger's ability depends on his ability to perceive himself as an individual; if he becomes one of the many millions of souls within Alucard, however, he is unable to distinguish himself and is thus unable to truly exist. This quandary, in turn, causes Alucard to cease existing in the real world, which was the Major's Evil Plan all along.
Church Militant: Hellsing are Protestant; Iscariot are Catholic. Sometimes they're actually able to stop fighting each other long enough to fight vampires... sometimes. Climaxes with the Vatican's 9th Crusade against the Nazis and, eventually, all of Protestant England.
As the various pieces of clothing he wears act as a means to restrict his vast and considerable power, it's a Justified Trope.
Integra dramatically rips hers off in response to the Major's "Come, let us make war!" It is truly a Mundane Made Awesome moment.
Also, the Captain in his fight against Seras. It's the first time we get to see his power as a werewolf. It's also the first time we find out that he wears no shirt under his jacket.
Collapsing Lair: The Nazi compound in Dawn. Also the HindenburgII/Deus Ex Machina super-Zeppelin, which took an awfully long time to collapse, burn, and ultimately explode after its forced landing. As is the case with many villain lairs, one has to wonder why they would use explosive building materials(in this case Hydrogen).
Cool Chair: The Major's chair is totally sweet. What other chair can you think of that has a built-in shield of bulletproof glass?
Cooldown Hug: Integra does this to stop Seras' Unstoppable Rage during the Valentine brothers' attack on the Hellsing headquarters. Thankfully, it works, and Seras is instantly horrified of what she's just done.
Corrupt Church: A very dim view of the Catholic Church and Protestant Church of England. The militant wing of the Protestants, the Hellsing Organization, uses many anti-Christian powers and creatures to achieve their goals. Including the use of Alucard. Iscariot, a covert branch of the Vatican, knows Millennium is going to attack England. To help against a common enemy, the Pope sends a Ninth Holy Crusade, but instead of fighting Millennium as it was intended to, the commanding Bishop drunk with power decided to order attack the Protestant population of London instead, and is killed a short while later by Anderson.
Crapsack World: Are you a Muggle? enjoy getting killed by Vampires and turned into a ghoul or killed by the Millenium. Are you a vampire? Enjoy getting killed and eaten by Alucard.
The Nazi's basically spent an entire chapter messily devouring whatever the hell they could get their hands on. Including babies.
Creepy Cool Crosses: Most notably Anderson and his underlings. Alucard is sometimes seen with them as well, and they're a running theme in the series itself.
Curse That Cures: Seras is being held hostage by an enemy vampire when she finds herself between her captor and the business end of Alucard's pistol. Alucard asks her if she will agree to help him. When she nods, he mortally wounds both Seras and her captor. Alucard keeps his word and converts Seras to save her.
Custom Uniform: Seras' uniform appears to be a one-off. Also The Wild Geese, being a vigilante band.
Curb-Stomp Battle: All Alucard fights to the point of being a Running Gag. It went Up to Eleven when he invocated every single victim in a form of a ghoul to annihilate the entire Milenium batallion, Maxwell's Holy Crusade, and Walter. Done to him by Abraham Van Hellsing who not only defeated him at his strongest, but enslaved him and literally forced him to become his family pet vampire.
The force is questionable. Most of Alucard's cruelty and enthusiasm comes across as being in the hope of being defeated a mortal man again. Cue displeasure at Anderson becoming a monster to fight against Alucard...
Yumie vs Walter.
And let's not forget about Seras vs Zorin Blitz after Seras drank Pip Bernedotte's blood.
Daywalking Vampire: Alucard dislikes sunlight, but he is not harmed by it.
Death Seeker: One possible interpretation of Alucard's character. Also explicitly the motivation of the Major and the Last Battalion plus the majority of vampires.
Declaration of Protection: Alucard for Integra (though it's all part of the contract), and to a lesser extent, Pip for Seras.
Determinator: Alexander Anderson gets one arm so mangled by Alucard's Jackal that it's literally hanging on by skin and maybe a handful of tendons. He proceeds to grip his hand, which is somehow still holding on to a bayonet, with his teeth and charge headlong into Alucard's thousands-strong undead army.
Deus Exit Machina: Anderson and Alucard are killed off (temporarily in Alucard's case) right before the climactic confrontation with the Major.
Also, when Alucard is stuck on the ship while the 'war' starts in London.
Doom Troops: Iscariot Organization soldiers, who dress in Spanish capirotes (pointy-hooded Catholic priest robes that were made infamous during the Inquisition and worn to this day), although outside of Spain would be probably mistaken for Klansmen robes. Bonus points for one of the four commanders wearing a beak mask under his hood, which was common among plague doctors in the middle ages as a crude breathing mask.
Anderson becomes one when he stabs himself with Helena's Nail.
The Captain
Elevator Action Sequence: Happens in the forth novel/OVA, but considering Alucard's the perpetrator, it's more of an Elevator Massacre Sequence. The chapter arc in which this happens is even called "Elevator Action".
Emergency Transformation: The series opens with Seras' emergency vamping after she's shot through the chest. It is later revealed the Major was saved from a fatal gunshot of his own by being turned into a cyborg.
Granted, anime!Alucard had made sure she wanted to transform before shooting her, so it was more like an "insurance transformation."
Weird Moon: Series begin with full moon and ends that way (not to mention the night of the battle happened during a full moon night, in 1999 and 1944).
Cherry Blossoms: Not literally cherry blossoms, because this isn't set in Japan, but there are instances of Dramatic Wind indoors that inexplicably carries dainty leaves that serves to emphasize an emotional moment. Some examples could be seen in volume 7, during the battle against Zorin (when it wasn't just debris) and another in volume 10: After Alucard returns in the epilogue, during his exchange with Integra. Curiously, the windows appear closed to let these fluttering leaves sneak in when she bites her ring finger.
Enemy Mine: Anderson and Co. with Integra Hellsing, very briefly, when Maxwell attempted to annihilate what remained of London.
Also, in Ultimate VIII, Millennium and Vatican forces gang up on Alucard when his Control Arts Restriction Zero is lifted. Which is not really ganing up as much shooting at something that scares the shit out of you. With very good reason.
Even Evil Has Standards: Even if the Millennium is a bunch of nutcases who will do everything to win, they too look down on traitors who would betray their own kind for selfish needs. That's why they reward the traitors as they deserve.
It's okay to commit acts of violence, but it damn well better be in the name of God and not to increase your own power. That was when Maxwell went too far in Anderson's eyes.
Everyone Calls Him : Captain, Doc and the Major. There is some fanon about giving them names, but nothing officially out of the manga.
Evil Laugh: Something of a staple in the series, but Alucard and Anderson do it the most. Alucard typically engages in this when he's been shot to pieces, literally, and indulges in this as he's pulling himself together to scare the shit out of whoever is there. A textbook example of how to use this trope if there ever was one.
Evil Uncle: Richard Hellsing, who tried to murder 12-year-old Integra.
Exposition Of Immortality: As a part of the series backstory; Alucard is Dracula, after all. The anime series show the audience how events went after the end of Bram Stoker's novel, explaining that the Count became the van Helsing's loyal servant and that was over a hundred years ago. The TV series, which misses out the scenes linking Alucard and Dracula explicitly, has a scene implying he's Vlad The Impaler.
Eye Scream: In a flashback, Seras attempts to defend her mother's corpse by putting a fork through an attacker's eye. Also, Zorin cuts Seras' eyes out after forcing her to experience said flashback.
A less gross example is when the Major shoots Integra in the eye as she make the move to kill him. It barely phases her.
Expy: Almost all of the cast is based from Hirano's old and obscure Hentai works. Anderson, The Major, The Captain and The Doktor are the exact same with no glaring changes; Alucard, Seras and The Valentine Brothers appear as themselves in The Legend of the Vampire Hunter, an one-shot erotic doujinshi of what it would turn into this series much later.
Pip, Shrödinger and Renaldo are also taken from older hentai works, while Integra, Yumie, Walter and Heinkel are from two non-hentai action mangas (Hi-And-Low and Daidojin Monogatari).
Girlycard, Alucard's young girl form. Also known as Lolicard in the Japanese fandom.
Anderplant for Anderson's monstrous form after he stabs himself with Helena's Nail.
Since the Major is never actually named, several names for him have popped up, Montana Max being the most popular.
Taliesin Jaffe, the director for Hellsing and Ultimate's dubs, calls the Major this since he's a fan of the manga.
Hans Gunsche and Avondale Napyeer, fannames for Captain and Doc, respectively.
Montana Max and Hans Gunsche come from the prototypes of the characters in older works. On the back of volume 5, you can see a small drawing of some papers with Major's face on it with some reading "Montana Max".
Fangs Are Evil: Subverted, as some human characters appear to have prominent canines due to the art style. But yeah, with vampires and werewolves it's standard business. Except for Seras, who will always be adorable. The fangs just add to it.
Glass Cannon: Releasing Alucard's restraints completely turns him into this, as it releases all the souls under his service, giving him an entire army to command, but in return it means they can't die in his place whenever he takes damage (though that just means he goes from Nigh Invulnerable to having the durability of your average super-powered vampire).
Glowing Eyes of Doom: The anime uses and abuses them, with great effect. Played with in most cases as it's not the eyes glowing, but the glasses: Alucard and Anderson.
Godzilla Threshold: Releasing Alucard from his bonds in the final arc, only after London is completely overrun by Millennium and the Iscariot Order.
Go Out with a Smile: Several characters Anderson, Walter, Major, the Captain, Jan, Schrödinger, several Millenium soldiers and Alucard.
Alucard gives his sanest, most sincere smile in the entire series as he fades away after absorbing Schrodinger.
The Major dies smiling, his face a look of peace, such as one never could have imagined might have rested there.
Anderson dies smiling, hearing the voices of children.
Walter.
Gorn: Much like Berserk, this series is dripping with it.
Gory Discretion Shot: Common in the TV series. The Ultimate OVAs, however, are not fond of these.
Hand Cannon: Alucard wields a pair of oversized pistols that are far too heavy for a normal human to wield. The Jackal in particular weighs 16 kilograms and is 39 centimetres long.
Hey, It's That Voice!: In English, Togusa is a literally bloodthirsty immortal monster, and in Japanese Hayate is an ambiguously-gay-Nazi-cat-boy-scout-paradox.
Hollywood Darkness: In Ultimate, Seras mentions how it's pitch-black, and yet the audience can clearly see the full moon in the background, along with everything else.
Home Sweet Home: "Welcome home, Count". "I'm home, Countess."
Hope Spot: Alucard loves doing this to his opponents before destroying them.
Humans Are Special: "That which defeats a monster...is always a man." Not all humans though as the manga makes the point to differentiate from "human dogs", "humans who become monsters" and "real humans".
Hypocrite: Rip Van Winkle chastises the turncoat officers on the HMS Eagle for turning their crewmates into ghouls and pays them accordingly, despite the fact that she and her batallion murdered elderly SS officers who they strung along for money and support and not following through on their promises to turn them into vampires.
I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Seras seems to have this attitude towards Alucard sometimes. It doesn't help the fact that he mocks her, acts like a downright jerk and enjoys scaring the hell out of her, especially in the manga. Ultimate softened the relationship a bit.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: You...do remember who the main character is, right? Vlad Tepes? Vlad the Impaler? Yeah, he hasn't lost his touch. At all.
If anything, he's only improved.
Implacable Man: Almost all non-humans and Alexander Anderson.
I Will Wait for YouIn volume 10, after she kills Major and even if Alucard said farewell to her, Integra insists Alucard will return. She sourly waits for him, with the cheerful support of Seras Victoria who keeps her from losing her patience, for the next thirty years.
Jerkass Has a Point: Bastard that he was, Richard was right that Integra shouldn't have had control of Hellsing when Arthur died; She was only 12, after all.
Jumped at the Call: If Alucard gets to participate in bloody slaughter, Stuff Blowing Up, among other things, he'll do it — as long as it's Integra's wish.
Kill 'em All: By the time the series is over thirty years in the future, only Integra, Seras, Pip, Heinkel, and Sir Rob Walsh are still around without counting the descendants of Islands, Penwood and new Iscariot characters. Of course, Alucard finally came back, but it's still only him.
Lady and Knight: Alucard and Integra. A rather warped version, but still there.
Large Ham: Many, but the Major stands out with all his dramatic speeches about WAR!
Last Kiss: Pip gives a surprise one to Seras when she's blinded and he's already dying.
Last Stand: The entire second half of the series is one big last stand after another.
The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: Alucard can regenerate from most damage, so he usually lets enemies do a number on him first; anytime he doesn't...
Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Spirits of Bruce "Jackal" Willis and Harkonnen from the 1980s Dune movie, complete with Sting in the background.
Limited Wardrobe: Subverted in Pip's case, he's been seen in at least three different outfits besides his mercenary apparel.
Looming Silhouette of Rage: Alucard, particularly when he changes forms. Anderson is a big man, so he gets to do this too.
Love Hurts: If the couple consists of a vampire and a vigilante, then yeah.
Played straight with the Captain, who shrugs off high caliber bullets even in human form.
Part of Alucard's schtick is to allow his enemies to shoot him literally to pieces...before reforming and returning the favor. Not many people can stand up from that.
Mood Dissonance: The OVA will often segue very clumsily between the dramatic, gory story-lines, and the goofy chibi-style sequences that take place between events.
Mood Whiplash: Quite a few times, most notably the "conference call" with the Major, which goes from wacky hijinks involving Schrodinger hitting on Seras and trying to get the camera working to one of the most horrifying declarations of war ever.
Mooks: Too many to count, although not for long considering how fast the heroes chew through them.
Monster Mash: Millennium contains vampires, a werewolf, a catboy, a witch, a magical sharpshooter, a Mad Scientist, AND a cyborg.
More Dakka: The series just loves showing how utterly useless this trope is against vampires. Especially Alucard and Seras.
My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Seras's big fights tend to go like this, as well as Alucard vs Anderson final round.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Alucard generally calls Seras "Police Girl" as a way of mocking her youth and inexperience (as well as the fact that she was a rookie police officer). He only refers to her by her actual name during serious situations, and she rarely insists that he use it. After she becomes a true vampire, he proudly uses her name.
The Needs of the Many: Unlike the other members of Millenium, the Josef Mengele/Frankenstein like "Doc" genuinly belives that his inventions will bring great benefit to all of mankind.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Synthetic vampire Nazis! A gunslinging super-powered vampire bound by Hermetic Magic! A regenerating warrior priest who has nigh-infinite bayonets! A literal Schrödinger's Cat!
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Alucard's calling card, however it does happen to him once as well; he takes such a beating from Anderson's 'monster of God' form he flashes back to his death, has his whole undead army set on fire, and needs Seras to rescue him for the rematch.
No New Fashions In The Future: The final chapter takes place 30 years in the future. Everyone's outfits are exactly the same.
No Ontological Inertia: Killing a true vampire will also kill any ghouls they've made (or at least, it's supposed to work that way).
Except for the ghouls created by Millennium's artificial vampires.
Noodle Incident: Is never explained or show even a glimpse (for all the massive Flashback) of how Abraham managed to defeat and enslave Alucard. All that is stated is that Alucard went all out, was imprisoned, and Abraham managed to put such fear (and respect) in Alucard that he haunted his nightmares for hundreds of years and made him weep blood...
No Swastikas: Gloriously averted in Ultimate and the manga.
Not Even Human: The Major is a cyborg! Not that we would regret killing him anyway...
Alucard takes great offence when Anderson becomes a monster because he wanted to be defeated by a human.
Not So Different: Played straight with Alucard and Anderson, to the point where Alucard cries Manly Tears because their lives are so similar. A more direct parallel is drawn between Alucard and the Major (by Alucard himself, no less), where Alucard notes that they are both the types who would sacrifice and destroy everything around them, whether enemies or allies, in pursuit of their mad ambitions. It goes so far as to show the Major on the verge of being executed when he was an SS officer in Russia in the middle of Alucard's flashback to his own battlefield execution by the Turks. The major difference between them turns out to be that whereas Alucard embraced vampirism in order to escape death, the Major rejected it out of the desire to preserve his humanity (or at least his ego).
Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The ending and its aftermath. It takes thirty years for things to take on some semblance of normality again.
Of Course Im Not A Virgin: Inverted with Integra in a scene where she forces Sera to lick some of her blood to get her more comfortable with it. She specifically tells Sera that her blood is 100% virgin blood, and therefore extra tasty.
Offhand Backhand: The shoot in two different directions at the same time variety.
The Captain counts too. [[spoilers: He shoots one in the face, but non lethaly and provides her with a first aid kit. Then he fights Seras and by extension allows her to kill him]].
Off with His Head!: Anderson tried this on Alucard in their first fight. It bought him a few minutes.
The reveal of The Captain's lycanthropy and Alucard's return to London are the biggest.
Ominous Walk: All the time. It's a series with vampires in it. And not just any vampires, but FUCKING DRACULA HIMSELF, it would seems a bit incomplete without someone indulging in this at least once or twice.
Only Sane Woman: Seras is the only character in the series with a fully functional moral compass.
The nameless Marine officer in Millenium. He is one of the few non-SS members and speaks up to the Major when he orders the remaining soldiers to prepare for a full frontal attack on Alucard.
Oral Fixation Fixation: Lots of it, given that half of the characters in this series are smokers and the ones that aren't a probably vampires. In one scene, it's basically just a shot of Alucard's tongue dragging across the bloody floor with everything else blackened out.
Anderson, who is neither a smoker nore a vampire, often holds his bayonets with his teeth.
Orphaned Series: Hellsing: The Dawn, 6 chapters since 2007, not enough to release a single collected volume.
Our Vampires Are Different: Despite various rules mentioned that vampires have to follow, few in this series do so. Seras, however, was bound to most traditional limitations. Alucard even comments how he can walk under the sun, but doesn't do so very often because he just hates it. Justified with Alucard, as the Hellsing organization spent pretty much the entire century they've had him in their custody experimenting on him so he won't have the same weaknesses of other vampires.
Considering this series seems to go off the various film versions of vampires, this is somewhat justified. If it had been going from the original novel, it would not, since in Stoker's book, vampires are very much capable of going around in the light of day. However, they do so with their powers reduced in effectiveness. Thus the comment wouldn't be him being able to go out during the day because of the idea that the sun would destroy him, it would be whether or not he could go about during the day without suffering a loss of power due to the experimentation the Hellsing organization had put him through. Considering how much he seems to be above and beyond normal vampires, one has to assume they gave him massive power ups over the century plus that they've had him in their service.
Crossing large bodies of water is an issue, as addressed in Stoker's novel. He certainly can't be immersed in it, and most of the travel must be done within his coffin. Seems to apply directly to the water, as flying over in a plane has less of an effect on him. Seras gets stuffed in her coffin, partly out of this and partly Rule of Funny.
In the eighth volume it's revealed that Alucard's Nigh Invulnerability stems from the fact that he has inside of him the souls of every person he's ever devoured and that it essentially acts as spare lives for him.
Also, a non-virgin will be turned into a ghoul, as will anybody of the same sex as the vampire regardless of whether or not they are a virgin. As mentioned earlier, only virgins of the opposite sex of the vampire can be turned vampire.
Paint the Town Red: Most of the time it's done for dramatic irony. A vampire couple roams England in an early episode, killing Christian families and painting upside-down (Satanic) crosses with their blood. When the boy is shot to pieces his blood splatter forms... a traditional cross as Alucard grins. Likewise, when Anderson goes berserk on a group of Nazi vampires, his Axe Crazy hacking leaves a swastika of blood on the walls. Seras forgoes symbolism against Zorin and redecorates Hellsing manor... with her face.
Rip also paints a Nazi Swastika on a captured boat of the British Navy. She ran out of paint and had to improvise...
Parental Abandonment: Integra and Seras were both orphaned in their youth. Pip was too, apparently - he lived with his grandfather. Maxwell was abandoned by his parents into an orphanage, and all Iscariot members are hinted to have been raised by Anderson. Alucard, if going by his historical background, was sent as political hostage to the Ottoman Empire along with his brother Radu by his father.
Panty Shot: Despite Seras and her ever changing breast size, her short skirt never shows anything until the final chapter's epilogue, where we see her underwear briefly as she kicks a door open.
In volume 5, a Nazi mook laments his inability to feed pigeons in the park.
Alucard is generally cruel and mocking towards Seras (although he is privately fond and respectful of her), but when he genuinely upsets her, he usually relents or makes slight apologies. He also shows concern when she is injured, and offered her his blood so she could defend herself from Anderson. When he meets her after her becoming a true vampire, he literally pets her on the head while looking genuinely proud of her.
Please Don't Leave Me: A variant of this in volume 10: when Integra cries out to Alucard "Don't disappear!!"
Pointless Band-Aid: Pip always wears one on his (apparently broken) nose.
Pulling Themselves Together: Minor vampires are capable of this, but Alucard demonstrates it to a ridiculous degree, being able to rebuild his body in seconds when reduced to a bloody smear. Also Anderson after installing Helena's Nail.
Public Domain Artifact: Helena's Nail. Alucard also mentions the Veil of Turin and Longinus' Lance.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Alucard is blatantly obvious, but Seras' eyes only turn red when she's actively calling on her vampiric abilities. Once she fully embraces her vampiric nature by drinking Pip's blood, her eyes turn red and stay that way.
In the TV series, however, Seras' eyes are permanently red after she is turned.
The premise. See that vampire? He fights Nazis. For England. Oh, and he hits on the Queen. And takes orders from Integra, starting when she's just a little girl.
Schrödinger. Named for the cat. Even has the same "powers" as the thought experiment/protest, with himself as the observer
In universe, Integra pulls this on Anderson. And hundreds of Iscariot soldiers.
A nail from the cross that Jesus was crucified on? It turns Anderson into a thorn monster.
Alucard's immortality. The series finds increasingly unbelievable injuries he can regenerate from.
And then kills him. Temporarily.
The entire Gorn aspect.
Jan Valentine. Period.
Virtually any time the Major opens his mouth. He really likes war, and could go on about it for eight minutes. And then sit back and eat a filet mignon while his Nazi troops destroy all of England...and eat babies.
Alucard coming back from death/purgatory/non-existence by killing all 3 million souls he had taken as his own, except Schrödinger. It takes him thirty years and it's never explained how he did it, but he got it done!
The Remnant: The current Millennium, although they've got a whole new army of zombie vampires!
The Reveal: The Major is revealed to be an android, a vessel for his soul/will. And in chapter 94, it was revealed that Millennium's vampires are created from Mina Harker's remains, who still had Dracula's power dormant inside her after Abraham Van Helsing saved her. This means that all of Millennium's vampires are actually defective clones of Alucard's power.
Right-Hand Cat: Played with via the Major and Schrödinger.
Robotic Reveal: What happens when Seras shoots the Major. Though he's likely not 100% robotic.
Roofhopping: Seems to be how Iscariot are getting around in Volume 6.
Rousing Speech: Maxwell likes broadcasting these, with plenty of Milking the Giant Cow. The Major too, once or twice. And Alucard certainly finds Integra's speeches rousing.
Rule Of Cool: In multiple interviews, it's been admitted that all the symbolism and whatnot is blatantly there for the purpose of being cool rather than having much of a higher meaning. Hellsing is about a Bad Ass Longcoat Dracula fighting superpowered Inquisitors and an army of Nazi vampires. Who fly around in Zeppelins loaded with V1 rockets. Arguably, the only reason for anything occuring in Hellsing is pure Rule Of Cool.
Seras was offered blood three times before she became a true vampire. First Alucard, whose offer she rejected; secondly Integra, from whom she simply licked a few drops; and finally Pip, who she drank from after he told her to.
Alucard was defeated twice before the main storyline and after those, he had nothing left. Once 500 years ago, another time 100 years ago. The third time he fought he wasn't defeated and returned home. At the same time during the third time, there were three attempts to defeat him one by Anderson, one by Walter and finally the one that seemed successful by Major, but it backfired in the end.
When their minions failed and were kept alive, Millennium set them on fire. They did that with Jan and Tulbacain, but the Major decided to not do this with the third, Rip Van Winkle.
Rip Van Winkle wasn't burned because her mission was a success, to be bait to get Alucard stuck in the middle of the ocean ans away from London.
The Major was finally killed by the third time Hellsing attacks him. First by Integra, secondly by Seras and finally Integra again.
Say My Name: "ALUCARD!" "ANDERSON!" "SERAS VICTORIA!" "SIR INTEGRA FAIRBROOK WINGATES HELLSING!"
Scary Shiny Glasses: Pretty much every character with glasses will make them shine. Monocles too!
In several cases, the glasses shine even when their lenses have shattered.
Scenery Gorn: Starts with the Nazis firebombing London in the shape of a Swastika, until in the end we have Walther slicing skyscrapers in half.
Schedule Slip: 10 years to finish a 10 volume manga, Hirano Kohta is (in)famously known for being quite a lazy mangaka when editors are not keeping constant watch on him, near the end of the series it seemed Hirano would release a new chapter whenever he felt like it, he was often taking breaks from working in a monthly magazine and also some of the near end chapters are just 9 to 12 pages long!
The OVAs also followed suit in what it seems to be a staple in the franchise, the first three episodes had just a few months between each other, from the 4th and on the delays would just get longer and longer as Satelight was having a hard to time to keep producing the episodes all by themselves, after a year and half without releasing anything Satelight passed the baton to Madhouse and finally looked like they would keep up the pace, and they did... only up to the 7th episode, another year and few months (and many rumors that Madhouse just dropped the series) is what it took for the 8th episode to get a release date; the series finally finished with the release of the 10th episode in late December 2012, nearly seven years after the series began.
And the official US releases were worse, with the original license holder going bankrupt, the gap between releases was 4 years, with two Blu-Ray/DVD sets compiling the eight OV As so far finally being released in October and November 2012 after the release of the DVD for episode 4 in september 2008.
Hirano topped himself with the prequel, Hellsing: The Dawn, after 6 chapters he simply stopped in 2007. The Dawn didn't even have enough chapters to publish a single volume, so the series remains just a collection of 6 separate publications in 6 different Young King Ours+ issues.
When he reveals his true form and unleashes his hell army, Alexander and Enrico call him Dracula.
Series Hiatus: Hellsing: The Dawn. Hirano felt like stopping out of nowhere in 2007, and yet Young King Comics did not declare the series as finished nor cancelled.
Sexy Discretion Shot: The last page. When Alucard and Integra finally reunite and she bites her ring finger to let him suck her blood. There's a shot to the blood dripping, and his mouth opens, then the blood dripping until it fades into the moon and pans outside the Mansion.
Shirtless Scene: Captain has no shirt under his coat, as revealed from chapter 82 on.
Jan Valentine shouting out "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right" and saying it was boring using "God Mode".
The "Wild Geese" mercenary company, with its soldiers' distinctive red berets, that the Hellsing Organisation recruits to replace its casualties references the classic British war film The Wild Geese.
Also is a double shout out to a famous French mercenary team in the middle ages of the same name, as well as many others. In fact, the Wild Geese throughout history have been a sort of Legacy Character as a group.
If his dreams are any indication, Alucard really likes movies that either star Bruce Willis or that are based on Frederick Forsyth novels.
The inner sides of the manga's front and back covers have occasionaly featured characters or references to other series, such as Fullmetal Alchemist or making characters dance Hare Hare Yukai.
When Hellsing first learns of "Millenium", she has Walter investigate everything from the definition to a bar named after the ship from Star Wars.
Vampire Nazis. Gundam style.
Showy Invincible Hero: It's true that Alucard is incredibly powerful. But at the same time he has a ton of style in abusing his powers.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Integra and Alucard could be seen as an extreme example. Pip got beaten up by Seras when they first met.
Slasher Smile: Mostly Alucard and Anderson, but seriously, everyone in the manga and OVA does this at some point. EVERYONE.
Sliding Scale Of Vampire Friendliness: Hard to categorize. Traditional vampirism is not massively contagious (only virgins can become vampires), nor does it cause 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. However, Alucard and a few other traditional vampires can be massively dangerous with age, capable of godlike power levels and forming ghoul armies from the fed upon. FREAK vampires seem to have a more morality corrupting influence or worse candidates, since they all become monsters.
This is mentioned as why the FREAK vampires are so dangerous. True Nosferatu are powerful, but have their own goals and motivations that are vastly different from a human's, whereas a FREAK has that power, but the motivations of a human psychopath.
Small Girl, Big Gun: Seras wields a number of examples of firepower way too big for normal humans to handle. Her Harkonnen Assault Cannon, for example, can take out tanks. Rip Van Winkle, on the other hand, uses an enormous, if lighter, musket of disproportionate firepower.
Sniper Pistol: Alucard uses his Casull to snipe a kilometre-distant target early on in the manga.
Spell My Name with an S: "Seras"/"Ceres"/"Celes"? There is even some argument about how her name should be arranged, since either way works, and "Victoria Seras" would make marginally more sense even though both name orders work. Hirano has admitted in interviews that he never came up with a decent Westernization of Seras' name. The title quote about Hermes gets this treatment as well. In the TV series, it was translated: "I am Hermes. I become tamed by devouring my own wings."
Smug Snake: EVERYONE is prone to underestimating Alucard's abilities.
Super Loser: Every Villain of the Week dealt with before the main antagonists appear thinks they're a match for Alucard and use their vampirism to slaughter hundreds. Hellsing just see them as nuisances.
The only exception to this is Rip Van Wrinkle, who was the only one Genre Savvy enough to know she was fucked.
Super Strength: Apparently standard for all vampires/werewolves/immortal priests.
Taking You with Me: Sir Penwood in an uncharacteristic moment of badassery.
Talking Is a Free Action: Anderson reels off whole Bible passages before he actually starts fighting his opponent. Said opponent usually waits patiently for him to walk over and engage them.
Tear Off Your Face: Seras finishes off Zorin by grinding her face against a wall until all that's left is a shredded mess of blood and bone.
Transhuman Treachery: Ghouls don't really have a choice in this, but more powerful vampires do.
Walter, subverted in that he was The Mole since much earlier.
Translation Convention: Apparently all Germans, Italians and French speak English 95% of the time. Or, you know, Japanese.
Truer To The Text: The manga got a more faithful adaptation in the form of the OVA series, titled Hellsing Ultimate.
Try Not to Die: Integra orders Walter to 'come back alive at any cost'...yeah, too bad he did.
She also gives a variant of this to Alucard just before he vanishes.
Tsundere: There are times Integra acts like one. Her exchange with Penwood as a teen for instance, or her attitude in volume 1 around Alucard and Seras, when Alucard teases her, or towards the end.
Unexplained Recovery: Played twice with Pip first in volume 9's ending and then Alucard in volume 10's ending.
Unflinching Walk: Pip shows how badass he is by stopping to lighting a smoke right at the moment a bomb explodes in a tent in the background...a bomb he installed.
Unskilled, but Strong: The early vampires such as the valentine brothers rely primarily on their newfound enhanced strength, with the more powerful abilties like enhanced regeneration, familiars, and becoming smoke unavailable. This comes back to bite them when they go up agianst Alucard who has 4 centuries of fighting experience.
Vampire Bites Suck: The series' vampires typically have whole mouths full of fangs and generally make a huge mess.
When Seras drains Pip's blood, she has a whole mess of fangs and chomps down hard enough to make blood spurt out. However, when she pulls away from his neck, the only mark is the classic pair of fang holes. Also, her teeth look like perfectly normal human teeth most of the time, rather than the conical fangs shown when biting. A Vampire Did It?
Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Okay, Alucard is a Sociopathic Hero at best. But is running Seras through with holy bayonets twenty-odd times and intentionally missing the heart so she would lie there in agony really needful, Anderson?
Verbal Tic: The spirit of the Jackal really likes ending sentences with his own surname... Willis.
Villainous Breakdown: Alucard's opponents tend to have a hugeOh Crapmoment right before their defeat. Rip's starts when she realizes that Alucard is within twenty miles of her.
Villainous Glutton: The Major. Additionally, some of the vampire characters straight up gorge themselves during the series (they simply don't get fatter for it).
Virgin Power: While not a power, per se, virginity is prerequisite for becoming a vampire instead of being simply ghouled. Also, apparently virgin blood is super tasty and nutritious. The first half of this aspect is removed from the original anime version; there, it seems to be a combination of the "sire" being a True Vampire (FREAK Vampires can't change people into vampires by biting them; they need to install FREAK Chips), the sire wanting the "childe" to change, and the childe being willing to be turned into a new vampire.
Vocal Evolution: Just watch the English dub of the original series and compare it to the more recent OVA's...
We Can Rebuild Him: A dying Major gets this treatment between the prequel and the series proper.
Weird Moon: It's ALWAYS full. And red. But it's somewhat plausible if not Justified Trope because more than half of the series takes place over one night, while the other half spans a couple of months.
World of Ham: It's a series based on Rule Of Cool with a whole lot of Large Hams, what do you expect? Particularly the OVAs, which at times seem to be nothing more than epic fight scene followed by hammy speech followed by even more epic fight scene.
Worthy Opponent: Luke believes he is this to Alucard — right before he gets scared out of his wits by Alucard's familiars.
This seemed to be the relationship of Alucard and Abraham Van Hellsing, who, after defeating him, decided to use him as a weapon instead of destroying him.
Alucard acknowledged Anderson as such in their final fight... Right before Anderson used the Nail of Helena and "became a monster"
Xanatos Gambit: Depends on how you view the Major's motives. If you take him at face value, that all he really does want is some krieg, the Major wins whether or not Millennium and himself are killed off. He gets his glorious war and a shot at taking out Alucard. However, it can also be interpreted that the Major's war was just an elaborate plan to destroy Alucard, which was his true goal all along. Ultimately, after 30 years, his plan failed.
Adaptation Induced Plot Hole: In his fight with Alucard, Luke Valentine is shown to have a strong Healing Factor, surviving after getting shot in the head by Alucard's specialized gun. However he is unable to regenerate his legs. In the manga there was no headshot. He was instead shot in the stomach by the Casull, while his legs were shot off by Jackal. In the OVA, Jackal was the cause of all three wounds.
This was rectified in the FUNimation re-release, where Luke's initial injuries are now caused by the Casull.
Country Matters: Anderson says it in the background during episode 5. According to Taliesin Jaffe, Steven Brand pleaded that he say it once, since "I'm Scottish, I've said since I was 12 years old, I don't know a man alive in Scotland who hasn't said it, I need to say it at least once!"
Averted with Integra (London-born Victoria Harwood), played straight with Seras (K.T. Gray, who is from Washington).
Also averted with Walter (Ralpha Lister, who is from then-British Hong Kong)
Fake Italian in the case of Enrico Maxwell, who is played by englishman JB Blanc (who coincidentally, used to live with Steven Brand).
Another aversion is Anderson, who is voiced by Scottish actor Steven Brand. Word Of God says that Anderson isn't supposed to be any nationality, but at least his accent's authentic. And awesome.
Taliesin: People keep telling me that Anderson has a terrible Irish accent. Well of course it is, he doesn't have an Irish accent!
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Before FUNimation re-released this series, you pretty much had to do this with the older Geneon releases, now that they packed their bags and headed out the door.
Averted when Alucard has a dream of back when he was still Dracula/"Vladycard". He speaks in a very believable Romanian accent.
In the commentary for the first OVA, Crispin Freeman mentions that he did practice his Romanian accent a lot and was going to use it, but it just ended up sounding corny and his (Romanian) language teacher chewed him out over it. That isn't apparent in the flashback because he only has one line, which is spoken very quietly.
Crispin's teacher: Creespin, vot you are doing, it is terrible!
He finally uses said accent in present time in episode 8.
In Brazil, no one has any sort of accent whatsoever, except one of the more important characters. And even then, it comes across as more Spanish than Portugese.
Yumie is voiced by Siobhan Flynn in the dub, who uses her normal Welsh accent.
This is addressed in the commentary for the fifth and sixth OVAs, where Taliesin Jaffe humorously says he went with the "Doctor Who theory" for Yumie's voice: if you don't know where they're from, they're Welsh. In the commentary for the sixth OVA, after discussing it Yuri, he then tells his theory that since Yumie was an orphan, she was raised in a Welsh orphanage.
Precision F-Strike: English dub. While strong language is nothing new for this series, it can be a bit surprising to hear Nice Girl Seras drop the F-bomb not once, but twice, once while the Nazis invade Hellsing Manor, and again while cheesegrating Zorin's face.
Screaming Warrior: Anderson breaks the decibel scale during OVA 8 with his suicidal charge through Alucard's army.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Played straight in the fourth OVA at the part where Alucard brutally slays Rip Van Winkle. A scene almost bordering on Gorn (much like the entire anime, really), made only more disturbing by the cheerful German music playing in the background. The opera is Der Freischütz; but since the whole Rip's episode is Freischütz-flavoured (and -sounded), and both music and lyrics are rather appropriate, it bein' a first major German Romanticism opera.
The opera ends with the Marksman being dragged to Hell by the Devil. Rip considers Alucard the devil come to claim her, as modeled on the opera.
And on OVA 5, elevator music plays during a car chase!
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