DRUNK!KRAD’S HELLSING VOL 3 ANALYSIS

[kradeelav]

a 4k word study in sequential pacing, Hellsing and the female gaze, subversions of the genre, deconstructing the Gothic death & sex themes that interplay with the power dynamics (and why, more broadly, it seemed to strike a chord over the years)…

… and a few irreverent comments hopefully in the spirit of the base material.  Don’t take what’s essentially a gushing liveblog of a reread too seriously.  :P

a few notes before we begin:

• canon-typical strong NSFW/18+ for gore/gun-violence given I’m posting scans/gifs, and general frank discussions on the sexual side given the themes.  spoilers, too.
• pasting/typing in the translations from the Dark Horse version, which I have since krad is indeed that Extra™.
• focusing on the triad of Integra/Alucard/Walter with a large side of AxI just because I subjectively find their dynamic interesting. will be skipping the pages in favor of ‘em for stamina. nothing personal.

Strap in, it’s a long one~

 

PREFACE

Let’s start with a few genre notes and a little bit of context for newcomers.

Hellsing is perhaps one of the purest manga homages to the western Gothic literary tradition, what with the tendency to dip into the morbid, the monsters of the night, repressed sexuality, and power dynamics of all stripes.  There is terror of the supernatural in spades, too; Hellsing’s world is one where vampires and the worst of humanity’s very real historical monsters (Nazis, etc) are alive and thriving, and so it paints a world in which the Good and Just must go to extremes to pick up weapons formally unthinkable…

Living weapons, for example - like Alucard, a centuries old vampire that’s been passed down in the Hellsing family, and who is revealed later on to be a bound Dracula / Vlad the Impaler himself.

While it’s tempting to read Hellsing on its face for the infamous gorn (as it repeatedly made the top 5 lists for 'most violent anime’ back in the day), reality-warping bombastic characters and archetypes (cyborg vampires is a thing that is taken perfectly seriously in this series) (… just roll with me) mixed with the smartly placed fairy-tale / Gothic historical references - I would argue that Hellsing has an entire hidden dimension that trades deeply in …

… deeply subverted power dynamics.  Put another way -

it’s hard to even describe it exactly, but I know I wasn’t the only teenage girl who ended up in sort of a knot over the series. like, here, this is just a sampling: there’s this deeply enforced master/servant relationship between a lady knight (who exists at this crossroads of female self-presentation that I think gave many young lesbians a big “ding” moment) and her vampire–dog, I think, is the best word. this terrifying arcane beast who rips her enemies apart with his teeth, and comes to heel at her command, and clearly clearly gets off on the dynamic. he crawls to her on his knees with the darkness of hell yawning open in his wake and she feeds him a drop of her blood and they never touch one another, and frankly it’s still a bit too much for me. there’s this lingering, fetish-y attention paid to the shape of guns, and to gloved hands. there’s binding rituals and monstrous transformation and a vampire fledgling who has this whirlwind of sexualized daddy issues that manifest in whether or not she can allow herself to drink blood like her sire encourages. everyone is in tight suits or billowing silk neckties or leather straightjackets, and double-jointed or their eyes are glowing or they’re licking things and look, I was a kid and this was all pretty overwhelming.

and like. I don’t think this was the intention! but holy hell, this manga and anime slammed into a small female subset of my generation like a runaway train, and gave us all, you know. stuff to think about.

[ from this post ] 

Now, for the story proper.

I.

After a foreshadowing of Hellsing’s new foes to come -  this volume opens with a rare scene of Alucard and Walter on stage, plus a lil’ word-sparring.

They’re both Integra’s loyal caretakers in wildly different ways; Alucard as the mysterious charismatic vampire savior and servant in Integra’s darkest hour, and Walter as her stalwart butler and quasi-father figure.  Their past is far more complicated as it seems, as we find out later - but it’s here that we get that first hint that it’s not wholly dryly affectionate as comrades, or antagonistic; but a delightful wary circling of ruthless men with a common goal.

Spoiler alert: Walter’s a (somewhat reluctant) traitor.

For a while in the fandom, there was a great outcry that Walter’s betrayal to Integra came out of nowhere and was something thrown in at the 11th hour to hike up the drama (when, some would say, it was already past the event horizon). 

I would argue the reverse - it’s in subtle paneling compositions like the above that Hirano-san was hinting that his loyalties were not the steady anchor that it seemed.  He loves Integra like a daughter - and we see that reinforced again and again - but just like the battle-garrotes he uses for combat, he too is a puppet on invisible strings to different Masters. 

One of the most blatant hints was in one of the mini covers of this volume), with him reading the Moon and Sixpence -

- which is it’s own massive spoiler if you look too hard.

Walter, however (perhaps in deflection?), probes at Alucard’s secrets as well - and at the lingering questions that readers had had since the very first chapter: why did a ruthless monster such as he, rescue a young police girl (Seras) and …

(What a mastery of pacing that Hirano-san even uses the gutter there to subtly hint at a longer pause as Alucard mentally rewords what he was going to say, if give a substantial answer at all.)

Free will.  Consent.  Despite (and really, explicitly because) the major relationships are shrouded in deeply unbalanced power dynamics - having that agency of choice is the true holy cornerstone of Hellsing.

Choice to keep existing despite all odds, despite existing as an abomination to the earth itself.  

Choice to serve on bended knee to someone worthy of their hearts and souls.

Choice to live and survive even through a trial by fire - as Seras, Integra, and Alucard all do.

There’s a reason for this meandering conversation other than filling in the reader on the organization’s next steps - and it’s those two lines.

—-

Regardless, those two keep talking, taking no interest in Seras practicing her newfound vampire skills outside with a small french mercenary band that was picked up recently.  They have their moment to shine later on in the series, but for now mostly operate as the comedic relief and slice-of-life between the heaviness.

Remarkably, Hellsing’s gag scenes never interfere with the moody-drama-and-action heavy scenes unlike another popular series that will remain unnamed, ahem - there’s always a clear transition (whether it be a sharp or soft break) from and back to “reality”, and there’s usually a point to the humor, crude or not. 

Here, showing Pip’s general low-class bawdry compared to the English aristocracy of Walter/Integra and Alucard’s own noble upbringing.

(as an further aside, I’ve always loved Hellsing’s weirdly slice-of-life-esque bits with the mercenary NPC’s that they had around, plus the groundsmen that took care of Integra’s mansion. There’s a refreshingly human element compared to the main characters - and it’s also always done in a way to give further details to Integra and Seras’ life.)

—-

Fast-forward to the next page or two, and we’re at everyone’s favorite scene of poor, poor Seras being stuffed into her lovely coffin and everyone sassing about her misery.  :P 

Plot-wise this next scene feels a tad unnecessary (and light) as they’re simply prepping for the trip to Brazil to lure their enemies out, but dynamic wise, it’s anything but.

Not incidentally -right- when Intagra and Alucard are first shown on the page together in this volume, we see his vain trash bag self be a literal visual …distraction…. taking over the page (among other things) as she dissects the current situation.

businesslike, professional - but not immune.

As if the blatant body language wasn’t enough, we get yet another outlandish carbon copy on the very next goddamn page.

(And what do you know, this volume is absolutely dripping with quite a few - 

- of these extremely unnecessary languid poses in this chapter, which the anime -

- takes, and runs away with -

- can only be described as a very explicitly coded female-gaze read on Alucard.  Hirano-san’s background came from (male coded) hentai so while I’m not condoning the tropes in his other stories, it’s damn impressive that he writes and understands that visual language from the other side so effectively. 

(Hollywood, take a note.)

Taking a step back; there’s a lot of discussion over what precisely the female gaze is (whether it’s a straight reverse of the male version or something more) - I would argue it’s masculine power and competency viewed and more importantly consumed through a sexual lens - “existing for our pleasure” in other words.  

Regardless - Alucard’s not above using his body to get a rise out of his master, and clearly gets a hell of a kick from it.  Judging by the look on her face in the top left back there, can’t say she’s too terribly displeased either.

As if the undercurrent of A/I wasn’t strong enough, there’s this page which is a masterpiece of emotional pacing and quite possibly the most blatant case of the visual power dynamics between them.

Her at the true center of the page, metatextually cemented as the master of the household and the one to hold his leash as the Order’s living weapon. Note how he’s waiting for her words as the trigger, with just enough cheek that his speech bubbles nudge over in her panel in sheer giddy impatience and glee to be let loose -

- at last.

( It’s at this point I can’t help but remember Crispin Freeman’s infamous line (as the VA of Alucard) about the vampire’s raw sexuality being the most intense he’s ran across in the whole career.  The man made a living seeking out and playing that archetype - take that as you will.)

II.

Brazil - home to one of the most iconic gag lampshades on vampires as Alucard seduces/hypnotizes the hotel clerk for nothing other than essentially - shits and giggles.

It’s a perfect example of how smartly Hellsing mixes the puply (and occasionally crass) humor with a very blatant nod at the legacy of vampires as the seductors of the night. Alucard’s a living weapon above all else (as we will absolutely see in the next scene), but his Byronic charm’s certainly ain’t limited (or effective) to Integra alone.

As the dears (Pip the mercenary, Alucard, and Seras the police-girl turned vampire) settle in for the night - we get a dream sequence from her, and it’s another hallmark of Hirano-san’s brilliant use of panel pacing for shifting realities.  If you ignore the nuttery in the dream itself (Hellsing has a running gag of the character’s weapons becoming sentient* in dreams, plus a side of pop culture references), note the composition of ever-smaller panels stacked in as a spiral, and the juxtaposition of that spiral -

(*perhaps not so unrelated, given the themes, hm?)

- with the first panel on the opposing page creating a jarring contrast of style and size of when Seras is rudely awakened.  Note too, how it follows up with skewed camera angles everywhere and closeups for maximum surreality and confusion.

Especially given they’re being attacked.

And here we go.

’time for war’ indeed … in case if we ever forgot Hellsing was indeed about monsters as the genuine article …

… and not all of them in obvious shapes.

III.

Hellsing inherently understands the complications of power and lust for violence in the mind of a woman.

Women are either the Virgin, the Mother (or Hag), and the Madonna, the age-old story goes - conniving and manipulative behind demure purity, meekness, and maternal doting, perhaps - but certainly not equipped for male-coded brutality in the glories of war, or for craving split blood like the monsters of the night themselves.

Hellsing, in return, says ‘fuck you and your misogynist bullshit’, and shoves it up the offending hole*.

(*among others because let’s face it, that’s a pretty annoying trope.)

Integra truly deserves at least an essay all to herself, and the different facets of her personality that are flawlessly pieced together - the Commander who wields the genuine (earned!) respect of her men as well as her pistol and blood-streaked sword, the Child baptized in fire and breathes the lesson that tempered hatred can fuel as well as fear and kindness, and lastly; the Woman teetering on the sword-edge of the responsibility of power versus never loosing sight of her conscience and duty to the defenseless, the human, and those attempting to walk on the side of the light.

Here is where we see that conscience briefly bubble up in conflict with the Commander.  She too, wants the war to destroy the Queen’s foes (via Alucard) and shares enough of his bloodlust, but there’s also enough of the remaining naivety of the Child that … she doesn’t want to truly acknowledge her black knight’s monstrosity; the dreamer wanting the shining armor of fairy tales, not the bloodstained figure bearing a corpse back (or hundred) as a dowry.

(but she is Sir Integra - and she will, in the end - demand that corpses of the evil be laid at her feet with her black knight in stained armor bending at his knee - willingly, gladly - to his chosen Master.)

The plot moves quickly here, with Hellsing’s foes using an unmarked paramilitary/police force to react and eliminate the two vampire agents.  They infiltrate the hotel, clear out the lower levels, go up to their top floor- and stumble on his coffin.

( For a detailed breakdown on the “Bird of Hermes” line on his coffin and how that ties back into his mentality and power dynamics with the Hellsing family as a whole, look no further than here. )

He shows up, and in their trigger-happy state, they riddle him so full of bullets he collapses as lead-tainted air rather than flesh.

(As Hellsing goes on, we see this as a favorite trick in his playbook. It’s also a marvelous sleigh-of-hand of drama on Hirano-san’s part, to give at least a sporting chance to his foes otherwise the sheer discrepancy in power levels would render most of the fights moot.)

And so … the fun really starts when he regenerates.

Note the composition of the panels -  it could get very chaotic very fast but Hirano-san always takes great care that it’s never confusing between the splattergore, Alucard’s frankly prehensile hair, and the pitch black tone as they’re getting ravaged.

Soon, there’s only one remaining soldier as he scrambles for the door.

this is Hellsing at its most visually effective - not a impotent, boastful verbal showdown of one ego facing another (of the kind that you see often common in manga), but shows a brutal massacre to underline a monster stalking prey.

- and the ways that humanity reacts to the impossible nihilistic Lovecraftian horror that faces them.

[ graphic suicide cw ]

So it ends, and so Seras walks into the wake of a bloodbath.

It’s a beautiful morbid contrast to grimly show the absolute carnage - Alucard just starting to slake his bloodlust versus Seras - precious cinnamon roll Seras -  as a recently turned vampire with her humanity still intact and recoiling with disgust and horror as any one of us would. It’s a hell of an existential slap in the face for her, as the only path she’s shown is one that follows in his bloody footsteps. 

Interestingly, she doesn’t take it laying down - which stings the monster more than you’d think.

Note how effective the paneling is here; them firmly and truly on opposite sides of a bright battle-line of conscience.

(methinks one doth protest too much, Alucard.  I thought you enjoyed the slaughter?)

it is here that you see the faintest crack through his armor and reasoning - he lives and breathes only because his entire purpose is to be a living weapon - and so what is he, if not that?

You have Alucard with all of his fearsome amount of power explicitly trying to justify his entire existence and mountains of guilt to a mild-mannered protege.

and failing.

Those are not faces that are convinced - only about to move on because the situation demands it.

Seras - dare I say - has personal strength beyond even Alucard, and so she resists.  She’ll follow her shared orders from Integra because it’s the Just thing to do (’does the ends justify the means’ is another question Hellsing ponders on, particularly with these two) - but she’ll save her heart for the defenseless, first and foremost,

fate be damned.

It’s a seed planted that even in the darkest hours and in the most lost souls, humanity and mercy is worth celebrating.

Speaking of Integra …

III.

Alucard calls Integra, riding on the high of killing - ostensibly to receive further orders but in reality, to figuratively breathe down her neck to see if she twitches again. 

Among other… reactions.

Let us set the stage properly with this pertinent interview:

Vampire mythology is steeped in sexual metaphor. Do you think the fact that Hellsing is still relevant is indicative of how transgressive the series was upon its original release?

Vampires tend to be a metaphor for dangerous or forbidden sex - in order to make a vampire relevant now, you have to take him to the edge of what is socially acceptable sexually. Hellsing attempts that by using a more BDSM or kinky sensibility about sex - [and] also adds in a Chthulu or demonic sensibility that is far more alchemical than strictly biblical.

- 2013 Interview with Crispin Freeman, VA of Alucard

You have this scene playing between two of the most disturbingly overtly violent scenes (with Alucard so helpfully reminding the reader) - and it’s in this lurid exchange where you see all the Id - those undertones - take shape.

Hellsing deliberately takes the sexual undertones of the vampire mythos, and takes it a step further into a remarkably blatant femdom approach - and not the surface-level one-sided catsuit stereotype that can be dismissed outside of “the scene”.

This is one where it goes both ways - every leash can be yanked from the other side, and there’s a hell of an apex predator on one side,

Here, integra is clearly, clearly coded as the head, the focus of power, remaining indisputably the protagonist of the story the whole way through and having almost unheard of agency, and in a dynamic literally nonexistent in such an otherwise male-coded genre as a whole between the revisionist history, background of the author, and general military focus.

And - as befitting of that raw power - she is delivered the sword of responsibility.  Taking their dynamic to its natural conclusion - he is that weapon.

Not just a passive object or sub - Alucard is just as much a terrifying monster as he is the one that bends his knee to Integra.

It’s a complicated dynamic, to say the least.

.. with an additional twist.

Integra is a virgin - not quite the archetypical pure Virgin of outdated tradition as she has blood on her hands, but there is enough of the gothic tradition that plainly leans heavily on the additional taboo of repressed sexuality, especially with such a predator circling around her throat, teasing and testing at that strand of control that lies between them.

It is this control - of her firmly standing on the line of what is Right, Good, and Just -

that he is intoxicated by.

the idea of her, unwavering in that Cause, truly standing worthy for him to follow without hesitation, even despite the indescribable darkness that gathers around them and threatens them.

(Don’t think for one second that the exaggerated focus on procuring the cigar isn’t also hanging a massive lampshade on …. certain freudian symbols.)

And so she earns her title.  Magnificently.

gdi, alucard

Let us also not kid ourselves with the idea that Integra remained perfectly in control of her innermost self - immune, to his charms; or even disinterested completely, for otherwise the whole exchange would be as limp as - well.

For a bonus round - it also ain’t the first time he’s enjoyed yanking her chain like that, as the anime provides us this even more explicit gem.

#ugh my terrible awful babies #integra is such a stealth tsundere #i bet alucard does this every gd time #’I have work to do alucard you can talk dirty to me when you get home ffs i am hanging up’

( While we’re here, it’s important to note that Hellsing’s affair with the gothic sexual taboo also extends explicitly to queer - lesbian, specifically - erotica.  As much A/I gets highlighted, there’s just as much of the valid undercurrents for Integra and Seras - if not more.

Blood as the physical currency of the id  - of temptation in more ways than one - especially with Seras mightily trying to resist her baser instincts and abstaining from drinking.  

While Hellsing stumbled on representation in some ways, in this case it was shockingly progressive for its day, to the point where I would throw it in the ring of the narrower genre belonging to ’the Female Gothic’ - the same traditions and same neurosis, but explicitly exalting the agency of its women.

( … can’t believe I haven’t even mentioned girly!card yet but that’d just confuse the newcomers.  :P )

IV.

Back to ground zero of the killing floor.

Alucard dismisses Seras (and Pip) on the pretext they’d be useless compared with his skills (debatable, mostly untrue), and that he’d rather have a go at cleaning out the place to whet his appetite as he walks out the front door. (accurate).

Let’s talk about Alucard a bit.

Throughout the series, he cuts a rather tragic figure (at first blush) as the Hellsing’s vampire-dog and living weapon at the end of the chain - however, as always, the truth is a tad bit more complicated.

What is he, if not an unapologetic monster that gets off on being the dark king over a mass grave of the fallen and the dead?

What is he, if not Dracula, Vlad the Impaler himself living out his current undead life in atonement for his past sins in the hands of a master that would steer him towards deserving darker evil to be slain?

(And what is he, if not genuinely, explicitly, desiring someone else to be in the drivers seat for once, as he mends his broken mind after having Hellsing handlers for centuries?)

Hellsing’s pretty unusual in that it never truly redeems or soften Alucard, like you’d expect for an anti-hero of his stripe (and for the romantic implications).  It’s shockingly blatant in the sheer visceral violence and brutality he metes out - and never tries to blunt it for our comfort, or hers for that matter.

And indeed, whatever one can say about Hellsing’s overkill gorn, there’s a subtler elegant point that hovers in the air that’s a necessary counterpart with his teasing dynamics with the other humans - no matter a pretty face or voice a monster can put on - one only has to flip back or forth a few pages to see his bloodstained history and fate.

Neither does Hellsing attempt to pass the buck wholly onto Integra with him as her dog - he’s defeated, bound, on his knees at her feet, and perfectly happy to stay there - but hardly as an impotent subservient example of degradation.  Again, he tugs the leash from the other side enough that one can be forgiven for seeing them as equals.

He’s someone who delights in the carnage and his own power and legacy when a worthy foe passes by, and yet …

yet, even at his most monsterous….

… one gets the distinct resignation at the sheer millions that have fallen by his hands.  Dissapointed, even - when capable humans throw their precious single life away just to be a stepping stone for a living weapon directed elsewhere.

(Echoes of Seras’ and Integra’s love for humanity, too, possibly rattling in the hole where his conscience was long ago strangled.)

Yet he moves on - any wavering soon forgotten at the scent of blood.

And on. 

After painting the walls with blood - in true Vlad fashion, he decides to make a statement.

War - and the declaration thereof -  is something else entirely to a semi-immortal born of the old world who wants - needs - nothing more than to justify his existence and to put his body and fruits on a silver platter for his Master to lap up.  He craves purpose, use, and most importantly - regained pride - and it’s in statements like this

that we get

a hell of an echo

of the terror that the Imapler himself used to wield as a weapon.

Let us make war, he relays.

War that pits monster versus monster, chosen Master versus Master in a grand mythological chessboard like the olden days where one could play-pretend with swords and muskets that the glories of blood were enough to consume the raw grief, regret, and loss of his soul, and the souls of the fallen.

What is he, if not war itself, and a lightning rod to be used?

What is any of them, in service of an ideal?

It is the ironic echo of these questions that linger throughout the whole series (and the increasing pile of bodies) as the war embroils others - unforgivable men and monster alike - questions about basic humanity, questions about life and death and the Id that threads from both into the great beyond, and questions about the flow of power.

And..

Regardless of being man or monster -

- regardless of choices in life and undeath to survive and kill -

-of the ones that we follow who have touched the literal gates of hell …

… who of them, in the end, say - ’no more’?

___________________

Thanks for reading.  ♥