The series chronicles the efforts of the mysterious and secret Hellsing Organization as it combats vampires, ghouls, and other supernatural foes who threaten England.

A thirteen-episode anime television series adaptation by Gonzo, directed by Umanosuke Iida and Yasunori Urata, with screenplay by Chiaki J. Konaka, was broadcast on Fuji TV from October 2001 to January 2002.

Hellsing is named after and centered around the Royal Order of Protestant Knights originally led by Abraham Van Helsing.

These formidable guardians are joined early on in the storyline by former police officer Seras Victoria, whom Alucard turned into a vampire.

In 1996, manga author Kouta Hirano published a one-shot, titled Hellsing: The Legends of Vampire Hunter, in Wanimagazine's hentai magazine Comic Kairakuten.

[8] Hirano said that the original story did not take him long to create, and that the fact that he was drawing hentai at the time afforded him the opportunity to have it published.

[9] Afterwards, Hirano considered to create another story, using the same setting, removing the erotic side and focusing more on the action, explaining that this was the origin of Hellsing.

[9] Written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano, Hellsing was serialized for eleven years in Shōnen Gahōsha's seinen manga magazine Young King OURs from April 30, 1997,[a] to September 30, 2008.

[13] Its 89 individual chapters were collected by Shōnen Gahōsha in ten tankōbon volumes, released from September 24, 1998,[14] to March 27, 2009.

[24] Crossfire is a three-chapter one-shot story, which was published in the defunct Hobby Japan's magazine Comic Master [ja].

Across the three chapters, Heinkel and Yumie face a variety of opposition, including Islamic terrorists, communist revolutionaries, and finally, an obscure pagan cult.

[6] The Dawn features a fourteen-year-old Walter C. Dornez and Alucard, in the form of a young girl, attacking Millennium's base of operations in Nazi-controlled Poland in September 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising.

's Encore Action channel, as part of its Animidnight late night programming block, starting in October 2003.

[44] The three following episodes (5–7) were animated by Madhouse, directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka and written by Kuroda; they were released from November 21, 2008,[45] to December 23, 2009.

[46] The three last episodes (8–10) were animated by Graphinica,[47] directed by Yasuhiro Matsumura (8, 10) and Kenichi Suzuki (9 and 10), and written by Kuroda;[48][49][50] they were released from July 27, 2011,[51] to December 26, 2012.

An extra CD, titled Warsaw Recording Selection, was released with the limited edition of the fourth episode on February 22, 2008.

[83] In March 2021, it was announced that Amazon Studios is developing a live-action film adaptation of Hellsing with scripts by Derek Kolstad.

It will be produced by Kolstad, Automatik's Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger, Ranger 7 Films's Mike Callaghan and Reuben Liber, and Soluble Fish Productions' Jason Lust.

[87][88] In a review of the first volume, Winnie Chow of Animerica commented that the English translation "works to enhance the locations and people of the story", and noted that the original manga contains more comedy elements than its anime adaptation.

[89] Reviewing the first volume, Publishers Weekly called the series "mostly a fun, violent romp", stating that the "rather awkward" religious sparring between the Catholic Church and Hellsing, are "goofy details" that give it "some charm and energy".

They concluded: "Hirano's storytelling is easy to follow, as stylish close-ups of the "we're-groovy-and-we-know-it" characters explode into violent full-page illustrations of all-out mayhem.

"[93] Reviewing the fourth volume, Liann Cooper of Anime News Network (ANN) said that one its "greatest strengths" is the impeccable storytelling of Hirano, calling the story "dark and gory", but also "incredibly amusing".

Huston wrote that the series "borrow heavily" from the stylistic elements of Blade, Castlevania, The Crow, and BloodRayne,[b] also calling it "very contrived", stating that "there's nary of whiff of originality", and criticizing the "inconsistent" artwork.

She commented that the series is "ridiculous, violent, over-the-top, and absolutely revels in its debauchery", and called the epilogue "a little underwhelming".

"[103] In Manga: The Complete Guide, author Jason Thompson gave the series 31⁄2 out of four stars, stating: "[a]lthough the story is technically sex-free, the phrase 'pornography of violence' doesn't begin to describe the fang-in-neck and gun-in-mouth action.

lovingly drawn with gangly black silhouettes and rapacious, ghoulish faces", calling it as well a "masterpiece of fetishistic violence on a grand scale.