Hellsing Ultimate

**Hellsing Ultimate** is an action, adventure, dark comedy, horror, dark fantasy, drama anime series.  It's based on a manga that

    was written by   Kouta Hirano and published by Shōnen Gahōsha for the magazine Young King OURs.  It originally ran from 1997 to September 30, 2008, and lasted for 10 volumes in total.  After that came another manga series, which was written by Kouta Hirano and published by Shōnen Gahōsha for the magazine Young King OURs.  It originally ran from 2001 to February 15, 2006.  After that came the first anime series.  It was directed by Umanosuke Iida, written by Chiaki J. Konaka, musuically composed by Yasushi Shii, and produced by both Studio Gonzo and Digimation.  It originally aired from October 10, 2001 to January 16, 2002, and lasted for 13 episodes in total.  And finally, after that came Hellsing Ultimate.  It was directed by Tomokazu Tokoro for episodes 1-4, Hiroyuki Tanaka for episodes 5-7, and Yasuhiro Matsumura for episodes 8-10, written by Hideyuki Kurata for episodes 1-4 and Yosuke Kuroda for episodes 5-10, musically composed by Hayato Matsuo, and produced by Yasuyuki Ueda, Yoshiyuki Fudetani, Studio Satelight for episodes 1-4, Studio Madhouse for episodes 5-7, and Graphinica & Kelmadick for episodes 8-10.  The entire series was an OVA, and originally aired from February 10, 2006 to December 26, 2012, and lasted for 10 episodes in total.

## Plot

*Hellsing* is named after and centered around the Royal Order of Protestant Knights originally led by Abraham Van Helsing. The mission of Hellsing is to search for and destroy the undead and other supernatural forces of evil that threaten the queen and the country. This organization is currently led by Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who inherited the leadership of Hellsing as a child after the death of her father. She witnessed his death which turned her from a once innocent and shy little girl to a tough and deadly force. She is protected by the faithful Hellsing family butler Walter C. Dornez, a deadly foe in his own right, and Alucard, the original and most powerful vampire that swore loyalty to the Hellsing family after being defeated by Van Helsing one hundred years before the story takes place. These formidable guardians are joined early on in the storyline by former police officer Seras Victoria, whom Alucard turned into a vampire.

As the scale and frequency of incidents involving the undead escalate in England and all around the world, Sir Integra discovers that the remnants of a Nazi group called Millennium still exist and are intent on reviving Nazi Germany by creating a battalion of vampires. Millennium, Hellsing, and the Vatican section XIII Iscariot clash in an apocalyptic three-sided war in London, and Millennium reveals its true objective: to destroy the vampire lord Alucard, ending a feud begun during World War II.

## Why It Rocks

1. Incredible animation, especially during the fight scenes.
2. Very appealing art style and character designs.
3. Great voice acting in both sub and dub.  The standout is Alucard.  He was famously voiced by Jouji Nakata in Japanese and Crispin Freeman in English.
4. Excellent soundtrack.
5. Amazing fight scenes.  They're heart pounding, intense, fun, and creepy all rolled together.
6. Alucard is a notoriously cool and badass anime character.
7. The Major is a great villain.  You love to hate him, and it's quite impressive that they create a character more monstrous than the unkillable vampire that goes around with his pistols and supernatural powres murdering people in grusome and horrific ways.
8. Due to the series being an OVA, they could make each episode the perfet length for what they wanted to do in the episode. It's for that reason that some episodes are as short as 30 minutes, while others are over an hour long.

## Reception

In 2005, the six and seventh volumes of the *Hellsing* manga series ranked among Diamond Comics Distributors' list of the top 48 manga volumes sold in the United States for the year.[25] In November 2007, the ninth volume was among the top 10 volumes sold according to Japan's monthly sales rankings.[26][27]