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PREFACE

As the sun goes down and light turns to darkness, few things can stand in the way of the creatures of the night.  Vampires rule the nighttime with their supernatural abilities that make grown men quake with fear. 

The exception being the men and women of the Secret Protestant Agency known as Hellsing.

Armed with their trump card named Alucard, they send the demons of the night back into the shadows where they should stay.

Faced with demonic opponents that seem to be on some sort of organized crime wave, the Hellsing agency has its hands full to say the least.  Not only does Hellsing have to make sense of massacres created by the suddenly surfacing vampires, they must face off with their rivals from the Vatican.  

MANGA VISION TEST

ARTWORK: The artwork in Hellsing is remarkable.  Kohta Hirano put an incredible amount of detail into each frame of the manga. Through the detail, the reader can understand what is happening in the many action scenes and yet not so detailed as to make the frames confusing.

SOUND EFFECTS: The Japanese sound effects blend very nicely with the action scenes.

EDITS: No edits have been noted. 

EXTRAS: The extras include an insert about the Author Kohta Hirano, a character explanation page, and a bonus chapter about the Vatican special unit.

BOOK REPORT  

STORY:  “Hellsing” is an intense action manga with a horror aspect mixed in.  The story depicts the event of Alucard and the Hellsing agency as they face case after case of increased vampire attacks.  Each chapter depicts a mission that Hellsing deals with, mostly consisting of Alucard going in with his big handgun and putting the ravaging vampires in their place. There is not real definitive plot in the beginning of the manga, however at the end of each mission a plot slowly starts to become visible.  

TRANSLATION: Overall, sentences flow smoothly and correct grammar was used.  The only flaw is when it comes to the dialogue of Father Anderson.   Anderson is a rather uneducated Scottish man, so his dialogue does not consist of real words, but letters put together to make the sound of a thick Scottish accent.  You may find yourself reading it aloud to understand what he is saying. Though very bothersome, it does give a more realistic aspect to the character.

CHARACTERS:  Alucard is a vampire that helps The Hellsing Agency hunt down others of his kind. The reason why is a big mystery. We do know that the Hellsing Agency had alterations done to him to make him even more badass.  Alucard is an aggressive and cocky character.  He is also very violent and often plays with his foes before destroying them.

Seras Victoria is a newly turned vampire who follows Alucard around and does his bidding.  She is short tempered and naïve about fighting like a vampire, but once she gets going she is force to be reckoned with, not to mention she carries around a huge rifle all the time. She is always loyal to Alucard and willing to follow him anywhere.

Sir Integra Hellsing is the head of the Hellsing Agency and a person that Alucard has sworn to protect.  She leads the Hellsing Agency through strict discipline. Just because she is a woman does not mean that she cannot run things with a capable hand.

FAN SERVICE: Not much in the way of fan service in this series. It is an action manga, you will not see anything but some tight shirts on Seras.  However “Hellsing” does a good job applying all the myths of vampire legend and there is a reference to the very old Dracula movie Nosferatu.

FOOTNOTES:

The dark nature of “Hellsing” really makes the series stand out among other mangas.  The story gives a break from the over abundance of romance mangas, where everyone lives happily ever after.  Sometimes all we need is a bit of violence to give ourselves a break every so often.

In this volume, there are four chapters called "Orders" and a side story featuring the members of the Iscariot Organization.

First order: “Vampire Hunter”-A story that introduce the cast of this great manga.  A vampire runs rampant in a small town and Hellsing has to clean up the mess that the vampire created.

Second order “Master of Monster”-A quaint little flashback depicting when Integra took over Hellsing Agency around the age of twelve and how she had to be saved by an unlikely knight from jealous relatives.

Third order: “Murder Club”- Two novice vampires slaughter many innocent families while working their way up a freeway.  Hellsing must deal with them before more lives are lost, but somehow it seems these are not just random massacres they seemed…planned.

Fourth order: “Sword Dancer”- Enter Father Anderson the Paladin, the trump card of the Vatican specialized secret agency Iscariot.  Watch as territory feuds and opposing religions spark an interesting fight between an enhanced Vampire and a very “special” human.

Extra chapter: “Cross Fire”-When terrorists take a catholic relief and refugee camp hostage special agents Heinkel and Yumie teach the assailants what happens when they mess with the catholic church.

“Hellsing” is a manga that is adored or despised.  It’s intense violence acts as both and plus and a minus. The plot comes together slowly, but the real eye catcher is the constant action and dark tone.  People who seek a manga with deep themes and hidden meanings should probably keep searching.  However, those people who just want to see some good hardcore battle sequences should definitely try this manga.

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