After Alucard's triumphant return, the streets of London were flooded with the blood of vampire Nazi soldiers and crazed Catholic warriors. After the dust settled, only the Hellsing order of Protestant knights was left standing. Now it's up to the earthly agents of divine punishment to save the souls of the innocent. However, chaos soon engulfs the streets yet again. Come to find out, not all the Nazis were vanquished after all. Will Alucard and his allies have what it takes to save what is left of the city?
Kohta Hirano (平野 耕太 Hirano Kōta) is a Japanese mangaka most famous for his manga Hellsing. Starting his career first as a mangaka's assistant (self-described as "horrible" and "lazy" in said assistant position), and later an H manga artist, he went on to enjoy somewhat limited success with other relatively unknown manga titles such as Angel Dust, Coyote, Gun Mania and Hi-Tension. His first major success came with his manga series Hellsing, which got its start and was subsequently serialized in a monthly manga magazine, Young King OURs, towards the latter half of 1997.
It's pretty common to have all the all-powerful immortals really want to die, but I like this story's interpretation that all the war and bloodshed is really for finding a good place for it. Can't just go and end their lives themselves, that'd be anti-climactic.
I also like to see Alucard finally being put on the ropes, at least a little bit.
It’s a little difficult to know how to review a book that’s mostly illustrations. The 2019 Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Reading Challenge includes a book from a genre you normally don’t read. Manga fits that for me. A friend has been lending me his copies of Hellsing, apparently now quite rare. Perhaps it’s my age, but I find it difficult to follow what’s going on at times. My reading has been spread over a year and I read each one only once. If a character reappears after a prolonged absence I find myself not remembering.
The plot remains interesting—there are those who want war for its own sake. History remembers them as monsters, not necessarily the vampires, though. There is sophistication and betrayal and the religious elements are played down in this penultimate volume. The drawing is quite good. There remains enough unexplained to let the last volume go in any direction that it will.
Synopsis: There's a secret organization somewhere in England created to defend the Queen and country from monsters of all sorts. Their secret weapon? The most powerful monster in the world. What better way to deal with monsters than to send an even bigger threat their way?
Review: Vampires vs. Nazis vs. Catholic Extremists vs. Secret Agents of the Queen of England.
Hellsing is pure carnage, following a twisted cast of characters that know how to take pleasure in the unfettered chaos that war brings. Alucard is a high-class vampire that hunts down supernatural beasts, Alexander is a priest fueled by bloodlust and an unhealthy love for God, Major is the second coming of Hitler, Integra is the granddaughter of Van Helsing himself, and that's only a few of the main players. The premise of the plot and the characters playing the game of war make for an absolutely ridiculous and bloody fun time.
Again, the word that comes to mind here is carnage, and carnage is what is delivered in a very cunning and charming fashion. The plot may indeed be insane and a bit silly, but Hellsing takes pride in its crazy premise and has a badass sense of self-awareness that makes it a cut above the average pulp fiction escapade.
Walter is a jerk, Alucard actually gets hurt for once, and Seras gets a puppy! Aww, what a cute little puppy she has. It's neat to see both Alucard and Seras fighting different opponents at the same time, for much of the series it was just Alucard or you had Seras with her big fight but now... now we get them both!
I thought I'd read this one before, but realized quickly after starting to read that I so clearly hadn't! Definitely the strongest volume of the series, in my opinion shadowing the actual final volume.
Ya ne diyim bilmiyorum. Eskisi kadar zevk vermiyo bana Hellsing ama son 1 vol kaldı yani bırakmak mantıklı olmaz bence. Umarım o finalle fikrim değişir ve güzel hislerle geride bırakırım ilk manga serimi.
The art in this is excellent if you look at just a panel at a time. However as sequential art, I couldn't tell at all what was happening. It's just nonstop fighting between random people. Maybe if the whole series came out at once and I could read it straight through, it's be different. To me this read as just a bunch of random people getting dismembered and turn apart amidst swirling effects in every panel and the occasional terrible dialogue like "I will kill you until your die."
The war and story rage on, with plenty of fantastic art and fantastic moments.
...and then Girlycard shows up.
Every time I used to re-read the series, I'd always forget about that atrocious moment, and until it shows up. Girlycard is the Wesley Crusher of Hellsing, and she's the reason I can't read "Hellsing: the Dawn." WHY Hirano, WHY.
The obvious filler of stretched-out fighting and repetitive speeches doesn't help. And to top it all off, the butler did it. That is seriously the grand twist.
On the other hand, we do get the start of Seras and Pip's fight against the werewolf Captain. And as stated before, the art continues to rock. I also really enjoyed Irons and Welsh's cameos, and their words of respect for Penwood, who I always felt so bad for.
The battle for London, and possibly the world, but really just London, is coming to a close in this volume as tertiary players are taken out and our main characters rise to the forefront of the story. Kohta Hirano really keeps us guessing as to how this will all end and I’m sure a lot of us don’t want it to, considering the gore and the fun ultra violence that is depicted in the pages.
Por muy lejos, el mejor tomo de la historia. Me da algo de tristeza porque solo me queda uno, es el más largo y no creo que el último tengo un cierre…ammm ¿Como decirlo? No se que final quiero para Hellsing, solo espero que sea coherente y me haga decir “oh sure”
And there's the betrayal. UGH. So good and so sad. Poor Integra. This volume has two of Alucard's best looks, the all black outfit and his female form. We also now have a werewolf to deal with, but Pip is back so did we really lose? Loved this volume.