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All hail Alucard

Image: Geneon

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Back in the day, we didn’t have theatrical anime events like Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man unless it ended with the word “mon.” If you wanted to see something big from your favorite series, you had to track down OVAs — through nefarious and less-than-official means. One of the last great releases of the pre-streaming era was Hellsing Ultimate. Its first 50-minute episode dropped in 2006 to major buzz, with Funimation and Universal picking up the international distribution rights that same year.

The original 2001 Hellsing TV series had already cemented itself as a cult classic among Western fans, but Ultimate served as both a more faithful retelling of Kouta Hirano’s manga and a stylish reintroduction for newcomers. The production values were a huge leap forward — cinematic angles, slick 3D gunplay blended with traditional animation, and enough lens flares to rival Hollywood director J.J. Abrams.

That debut episode set the tone for what would become one of anime’s most defining vampire sagas. Nearly two decades later, Hellsing Ultimate still stands tall as one of the best horror anime ever made, and the definitive take on vampires in the medium.

Hellsing Ultimate follows the Hellsing Organization, a secret British task force dedicated to eradicating supernatural threats to humanity, with vampires being among the chief targets. Led by the unflinching Sir Integra Hellsing and her ultimate weapon, the ancient vampire Alucard, the series plunges viewers into a brutal, gothic world of blood-soaked battles and religious warfare. As rival factions, including the Vatican’s Iscariot Organization and a Nazi vampire army known as Millennium, rise to challenge Hellsing, Ultimate delivers a relentless blend of horror, action, and dark satire that pushes the boundaries of anime’s depiction of good, evil, and which monsters to root for.

If that all sounds a bit too cerebral for a Halloween watch, don’t worry. . Hellsing Ultimate is an action-packed bloodbath first and foremost, here to entertain rather than deliver a high-caliber plot. It’s best to temper expectations and approach the series as a rollercoaster ride, enjoying the action, gore, and dismemberment.

Image: Geneon

Fans these days revel in anime characters that aura farm at any opportunity, and Alucard serves as one of the first and best to do it. He carries the show, and your attention is immediately piqued the moment he appears on-screen. His powers begin at their peak from the start, leaving little to no room for character development or an arc of self-improvement. He’s cooler than everyone, even more than the Vatacin’s rival ultimate weapon, the vampire-hunting priest Alexander Anderson. Alucard is also more evil than anyone else, arguably even the literal Nazis he eventually sees himself fighting against. Despite being at the beck and call of the stern but stylish Integra Hellsing, their master/servant dynamic is played in such a way that audiences can’t pin down who is the master or the servant.

Although Alucard serves as the demonic mascot of Hellsing Ultimate, the story primarily revolves around two women at the heart of the Hellsing Organization: the stoic leader Integra Hellsing and the rookie officer-turned-vampire Seras Victoria. Throughout the series, we witness Integra’s evolution from a vulnerable young heir who frees Alucard in a moment of desperation to a formidable and commanding head of a supernatural task force. Alongside her, Seras undergoes her own transformation from a timid police officer haunted by her past to a confident Draculina who fully embraces her vampiric power. Together, their journeys anchor the chaos around Alucard, grounding the series’ religious iconography and blood-soaked spectacle in themes of identity, strength, and survival.

Image: Geneon

Before Hellsing Ultimate, anime fans measured high-quality animation by the likes of Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn or the cinematic mastery of Studio Ghibli. Hellsing Ultimate bridged those worlds — it was an OVA series that not only eclipsed the original Hellsing in fidelity and scale but also delivered the kind of polished, theatrical animation usually reserved for anime’s most prestigious feature films. Despite its early experimentation with blending 3D and traditional animation, Hellsing Ultimate’s visuals still hold up remarkably well today. The long waits between each installment, culminating with the final episode in 2012, felt endless for fans at the time, but the payoff was always worth it. Once you’ve binged all 10 episodes, it’s easy to see why Hellsing Ultimate remains a must-watch masterpiece of horror anime.

Hellsing Ultimate* is streaming now on Crunchyroll.*