Integra Hellsing
Encyclopedia
, more commonly, Integra Hellsing, is one of the main characters from the anime
and manga
series Hellsing
. In both the TV series and OVA series, her Japanese voice is provided by Yoshiko Sakakibara
and Kaori Mizuhashi
(who plays young Integra), while her English voice in both is done by Victoria Harwood
and Tricia Dickson
(who also plays a young integra). Her prototype appears as a Nazi in one of Kouta Hirano
's earlier works, HIANDLOW.
Sir Integra Hellsing is a 22-year-old noblewoman member of the Protestant Knights who is the head and last member of the Hellsing family, the Bureau Director of the Hellsing Organization, and the current master of Hellsing's vampire, Alucard
. Integra is usually a collected individual, rarely allowing her emotions to get in the way of business. However, she is sometimes prone to fits of anger. The Hellsing family is "on a mission from God", and she values her duties to protect the United Kingdom
and the Anglican Church above everything else. For her, failure is not tolerated, especially her own. She runs the Hellsing Organization with charisma
and patriotism
, and she is one of the few people who can stand up to the force of Alucard's personality and command his respect.
Her surname, "Hellsing", is clearly an alternative spelling (possibly Anglicized) of "Van Helsing"(in fact, Kouta Hirano made a mistake in spelling the name). Interestingly, the booklet that comes with the first Japanese Hellsing DVD also states that "Hellsing" is an acronym for "Her Royal England Legions of Legitimate Supernatural and Immortal Night Guard". The origin of the name "Wingates" is unclear. It is an English name.
s, suggesting either that Integra never met the woman or that she died when Integra was very young. When she was 12 years old, Integra's father died and entrusted her with their family's mission to lead the Royal Protestant Knights and protect England, and asked his brother, Richard, to aid her.
Almost immediately after Arthur’s death, Richard Hellsing, jealous of Integra for inheriting the family headship, attempted to kill her. Integra escaped her traitorous uncle and managed to reach a dungeon in the mansion's sub levels, where her father had said she would find her salvation. She stumbled across the sealed body of a vampire upon entering it. Richard found her, cornered her, and shot her in her shoulder, spilling her blood across the floor of the room. The vampire, whom Arthur imprisoned 20 years earlier, awoke and licked up Integra's blood. Rejuvenated, it proceeded to kill her persecutors, thus saving her. Richard, desperate, attempted to kill Integra one last time, but the vampire blocked his bullet. Picking up a gun, Integra shot and killed her uncle, becoming the last descendant of the Hellsing bloodline. The vampire, whose name was Alucard, became her loyal servant.
Not long after, Integra was knighted and introduced to Vice Admiral Sir Shelby Penwood, a former friend of her father. Upon seeing Integra for the first time, Sir Penwood said that she was far too young to fulfill her duty. He revised his opinion during the actual storyline, in which he admitted that it was an honor to have met and served with her in his farewell message, prior to his death. His eventual sacrifice to destroy countless Millennium foot soldiers during the London invasion was just one of the many examples that helped solidify Integra's resolution about humanity's worth and continue her duty.
Young Integra was portrayed as a timid but willful girl seemingly intimidated by the supernatural who was forced to grow up abruptly when her treacherous uncle tried to kill her. When Alucard became her servant, she grew more confident and comfortable with her position as head of the Hellsing family and a Knight of the Round Table. Much like Seras Victoria
, Integra experiences a coming of age
, gaining experience and losing her remaining innocence as events unfold and the war begins, transforming into a leader with an iron resolution who does not flinch at the first signs of danger and who gains wisdom through dire losses and betrayals. The Major recognizes her change from a "beautiful Fräulein" (he goes so far as to apologize for calling her this) to the most dangerous enemy who stands in the way of his plans, calling her forth into his Zeppelin. Integra reaches the room where the Major is and she tries to break his glass dome but fails. She witnesses Alucard's disappearance and she raged against the Major and Seras, who after defeating the Captain uses her cannon to break the dome along with blowing half of the Major which reveals that he is a cyborg. Integra and the Major both gunned at each other and Integra gets her eye wounded but succeeds in killing The Major. She and Seras feel Walter passing away, the battle won, the two then fled from the giant Zeppelin. Thirty years later, Integra is now in her fifties. She engages Sir Penwood's grandson in a fencing match and exchanges words with the visitors from the Vatican. After they left, Integra laments that Alucard is taking too long to return, but Seras attempts to reassure her. When Integra goes to bed, Alucard finally appears and she offers him her blood.
, a Dutch meta physician and philosopher and one of the main characters of Bram Stoker's Dracula
. Her father was Sir Arthur Hellsing, who died when she was 13 years old (12 years old in the manga), in 1989. While it was obvious that Integra did not have a normal childhood like any other girl her age, it was certain that Arthur loved Integra very much, and wanted the best for her. It was from him that she inherited her current position as Bureau Director of the Hellsing Organization and her seat in the Convention of Twelve. Her uncle, Richard, sought to kill her and take the headship of the Hellsing family for himself. This was prevented by Alucard, when he blocked the bullet that was fired at Integra's face.
There is a faint suggestion/assumption that she is not of full Europe
an descent. Her skin colour is slightly darker than that of other characters (a creamy tan), and in the anime (Order 10: Master of Monster), when Integra has her flashback scene, there is a photograph depicting an infant Integra being held by a woman (possibly and probably her mother) wearing a sari
, suggesting that she may be of Indian descent
, a possibility reinforced by that nation's historical ties to Great Britain
, although that is not certain yet.
Her aim with a pistol is deadly accurate, as well. The anime displays her skill in Order 02: Club M, where she is seen shooting through the same hole on a practice target with what looks to be a Walther PPK
(she also uses a Beretta 93R
at one point). Another piece of evidence to suggest this is her ability to shoot Jan Valentine six times with the same pistol, with the bullets forming a cross on his face, although this is demonstrated only in the original anime. She shows similar abilities in the manga during Volume 6. But the best example of her skill with a pistol is shown in the first episode of the OVA when she empties a modified Sig-Sauer P226 into Alexander Andersons blessed bayonets, shatterring them beyond further use.
Very intelligent, Integra was able to determine the route Leif and Jessica would take and who their next targets would be by following their patterns, and she devised a strategy accordingly. She was also the first to guess what Jan's mysterious clue, "Millennium", was actually referring to (though Walter obviously knew and Alucard probably did as well). In spite of her talents, she is still fairly young and inexperienced as a leader, and thus unable to grasp or deal with the full extent of the Major's plans.
It is also speculated by fans that, just like her father and grandfather, Integra was educated in occultism and alchemy
to be able to control Alucard's releases and to finish the process of building him into the "ultimate undead" (in the anime, this was made more obvious when Integra performed a ritual with Masonic
imagery in Orders 11 and 12). In recent chapters of the manga, when Alucard releases his final control system, he does so after a speech given by Integra, but it does not appear that she has any direct control over this ability of his. Rather, he asks her to give him an order, then obeys it when she does. The magic involved in her releasing Alucard's control system appears to be non-existent in the manga.
Her struggle to become a better leader and to face a war a grand scale as the sole human in the front is removed, since that part of the storyline is absent from the TV series. It is assumed that she is already experienced as the leader of Hellsing; instead she struggles with a ploy to destroy her Organization and the temptation to drink Alucard’s blood to become stronger. In the end, her people are killed, her organization and name framed by a traitor in the Round Table Conference, and she is imprisoned beneath the Tower of London when Alucard arrives to offer her his blood once more. Her response was left open to interpretation.
Integra is also notably taller, with shorter hair than her manga counterpart. Her skin is lighter and she wears a blue ascot with a golden cross pinned to its knot and an olive green suit.
Her rendition in the OVA is much closer to the original manga version, but portions of her lines and appearances have been removed. The most notable deviation is her first reaction to Seras Victoria. In both the TV series and the manga, Integra is first enraged at Alucard's actions in turning a vampire, then eventually comes to accept her; in the OVA, Integra welcomes Seras at the very beginning (the OVA skipped the part were Alucard told Integra about Seras). In the OVA, Integra's hair is longer, her skin is darker, her ascot is red with a silver cross pinned to its knot and a black suit. She is also easily notable as female in the OVA and manga, whereas her TV series counterpart is highly androgynous.
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series Hellsing
Hellsing
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. It first premiered in Young King Ours in 1997 and ended in September 2008. The individual chapters are collected and published in tankōbon volumes by Shōnen Gahosha. As of March 2009 all chapters have been released in 10 volumes in...
. In both the TV series and OVA series, her Japanese voice is provided by Yoshiko Sakakibara
Yoshiko Sakakibara
is a Japanese voice actress.-Direct-to-video animation:* 1983 Dallos - Melinda Hurst* 1985 Greed - Mimau* 1985 Area 88 - Yasuda* 1985 Cream Lemon – Rio* 1985 Megazone 23 – Reina* 1985 The Karuizawa Syndrome - Kaoru Matsunuma...
and Kaori Mizuhashi
Kaori Mizuhashi
is a Japanese voice actress who is employed by Arts Vision. Her debut was in 1998 with the game First Kiss Story.-TV anime:*Ai Yori Aoshi *Ai Yori Aoshi ~Enishi~ *Angelic Layer...
(who plays young Integra), while her English voice in both is done by Victoria Harwood
Victoria Harwood
Victoria Harwood is a California-based voice actress and singer who primarily works on the properties of Geneon Entertainment and more specifically New Generation Pictures....
and Tricia Dickson
Tricia Dickson
Tricia Dickson is an American voice actress who has had roles in anime and video game titles for New Generation Pictures. For a brief time, she was also a cast member of the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series, All That.-Anime roles:...
(who also plays a young integra). Her prototype appears as a Nazi in one of Kouta Hirano
Kouta Hirano
is a Japanese manga artist born in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan, most famous for his manga Hellsing.- History :Starting his career first as a manga artist's assistant , and later an H manga artist, he went on to enjoy somewhat limited success with other relatively unknown manga titles such as Angel Dust,...
's earlier works, HIANDLOW.
Sir Integra Hellsing is a 22-year-old noblewoman member of the Protestant Knights who is the head and last member of the Hellsing family, the Bureau Director of the Hellsing Organization, and the current master of Hellsing's vampire, Alucard
Alucard (Hellsing)
is a fictional characterin the Hellsing manga and anime series created by Kouta Hirano. A powerful vampire, Alucard works with the Hellsing Organization against other vampires and evil forces. He fights with ferocity and often extreme cruelty, rarely killing until his target has been disabled and...
. Integra is usually a collected individual, rarely allowing her emotions to get in the way of business. However, she is sometimes prone to fits of anger. The Hellsing family is "on a mission from God", and she values her duties to protect the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the Anglican Church above everything else. For her, failure is not tolerated, especially her own. She runs the Hellsing Organization with charisma
Charisma
The term charisma has two senses: 1) compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others, 2) a divinely conferred power or talent. For some theological usages the term is rendered charism, with a meaning the same as sense 2...
and patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
, and she is one of the few people who can stand up to the force of Alucard's personality and command his respect.
Name and title
Integra's full name is only used in the manga and OVA. In the TV series, she is referred to once as "Sir Integral Wingates Hellsing", but the main characters in particular usually call her "Sir Integra", "Lady Hellsing" or "Milady". Alucard often drops the honorific title, simply calling her Integra, although on one occasion he calls her "Miss Hellsing". Her first name, Integral, is often shortened to .Her surname, "Hellsing", is clearly an alternative spelling (possibly Anglicized) of "Van Helsing"(in fact, Kouta Hirano made a mistake in spelling the name). Interestingly, the booklet that comes with the first Japanese Hellsing DVD also states that "Hellsing" is an acronym for "Her Royal England Legions of Legitimate Supernatural and Immortal Night Guard". The origin of the name "Wingates" is unclear. It is an English name.
Biography
Born on October 27, 1989 into the prestigious and mysterious Hellsing family, Integra has been educated all her life to take the place of her father, Sir Arthur Hellsing, as Bureau Director of the Hellsing Organization. Integra's mother does not appear in her flashbackFlashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
s, suggesting either that Integra never met the woman or that she died when Integra was very young. When she was 12 years old, Integra's father died and entrusted her with their family's mission to lead the Royal Protestant Knights and protect England, and asked his brother, Richard, to aid her.
Almost immediately after Arthur’s death, Richard Hellsing, jealous of Integra for inheriting the family headship, attempted to kill her. Integra escaped her traitorous uncle and managed to reach a dungeon in the mansion's sub levels, where her father had said she would find her salvation. She stumbled across the sealed body of a vampire upon entering it. Richard found her, cornered her, and shot her in her shoulder, spilling her blood across the floor of the room. The vampire, whom Arthur imprisoned 20 years earlier, awoke and licked up Integra's blood. Rejuvenated, it proceeded to kill her persecutors, thus saving her. Richard, desperate, attempted to kill Integra one last time, but the vampire blocked his bullet. Picking up a gun, Integra shot and killed her uncle, becoming the last descendant of the Hellsing bloodline. The vampire, whose name was Alucard, became her loyal servant.
Not long after, Integra was knighted and introduced to Vice Admiral Sir Shelby Penwood, a former friend of her father. Upon seeing Integra for the first time, Sir Penwood said that she was far too young to fulfill her duty. He revised his opinion during the actual storyline, in which he admitted that it was an honor to have met and served with her in his farewell message, prior to his death. His eventual sacrifice to destroy countless Millennium foot soldiers during the London invasion was just one of the many examples that helped solidify Integra's resolution about humanity's worth and continue her duty.
Young Integra was portrayed as a timid but willful girl seemingly intimidated by the supernatural who was forced to grow up abruptly when her treacherous uncle tried to kill her. When Alucard became her servant, she grew more confident and comfortable with her position as head of the Hellsing family and a Knight of the Round Table. Much like Seras Victoria
Seras Victoria
is a fictional character from both the Hellsing manga series and anime series by Kouta Hirano. In both the television series and the OVA, her seiyū is Fumiko Orikasa. Seras' English voice actor in both series was K. T. Gray....
, Integra experiences a coming of age
Coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
, gaining experience and losing her remaining innocence as events unfold and the war begins, transforming into a leader with an iron resolution who does not flinch at the first signs of danger and who gains wisdom through dire losses and betrayals. The Major recognizes her change from a "beautiful Fräulein" (he goes so far as to apologize for calling her this) to the most dangerous enemy who stands in the way of his plans, calling her forth into his Zeppelin. Integra reaches the room where the Major is and she tries to break his glass dome but fails. She witnesses Alucard's disappearance and she raged against the Major and Seras, who after defeating the Captain uses her cannon to break the dome along with blowing half of the Major which reveals that he is a cyborg. Integra and the Major both gunned at each other and Integra gets her eye wounded but succeeds in killing The Major. She and Seras feel Walter passing away, the battle won, the two then fled from the giant Zeppelin. Thirty years later, Integra is now in her fifties. She engages Sir Penwood's grandson in a fencing match and exchanges words with the visitors from the Vatican. After they left, Integra laments that Alucard is taking too long to return, but Seras attempts to reassure her. When Integra goes to bed, Alucard finally appears and she offers him her blood.
Family
Integra's known family includes her ancestor Abraham Van HelsingAbraham Van Helsing
Professor Abraham van Helsing is a protagonist from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.Van Helsing is a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc." The character is best known as a...
, a Dutch meta physician and philosopher and one of the main characters of Bram Stoker's Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
. Her father was Sir Arthur Hellsing, who died when she was 13 years old (12 years old in the manga), in 1989. While it was obvious that Integra did not have a normal childhood like any other girl her age, it was certain that Arthur loved Integra very much, and wanted the best for her. It was from him that she inherited her current position as Bureau Director of the Hellsing Organization and her seat in the Convention of Twelve. Her uncle, Richard, sought to kill her and take the headship of the Hellsing family for himself. This was prevented by Alucard, when he blocked the bullet that was fired at Integra's face.
There is a faint suggestion/assumption that she is not of full Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an descent. Her skin colour is slightly darker than that of other characters (a creamy tan), and in the anime (Order 10: Master of Monster), when Integra has her flashback scene, there is a photograph depicting an infant Integra being held by a woman (possibly and probably her mother) wearing a sari
Sari
A sari or sareeThe name of the garment in various regional languages include: , , , , , , , , , , , , , is a strip of unstitched cloth, worn by females, ranging from four to nine metres in length that is draped over the body in various styles. It is popular in India, Bangladesh, Nepal,...
, suggesting that she may be of Indian descent
British Indian
The term British Indian refers to citizens of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian descent, and Indian-born people who have migrated to the UK...
, a possibility reinforced by that nation's historical ties to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, although that is not certain yet.
Skills and abilities
Integra is a superb fencer with fast reflexes and speed; she has been able to block Alexander Anderson's attack (volume 1 of the manga) and behead a Nazi vampire after a car crash that shook her. In volume 9, she's even shown to be capable of cutting down a vampire soldier attacking her head on, despite the fact that the heavily armed and battle-hardened mercenaries of the Wild Geese couldn't stand a chance against such enemies.Her aim with a pistol is deadly accurate, as well. The anime displays her skill in Order 02: Club M, where she is seen shooting through the same hole on a practice target with what looks to be a Walther PPK
Walther PPK
The Walther PP series pistols are blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols.They feature an exposed hammer, a double-action trigger mechanism, a single-column magazine, and a fixed barrel which also acts as the guide rod for the recoil spring...
(she also uses a Beretta 93R
Beretta 93R
The Beretta Model 93R is a selective-fire machine pistol, designed and manufactured by the Italian Beretta company in the 1970s for police and military use, that is derived from their semi-automatic Model 92...
at one point). Another piece of evidence to suggest this is her ability to shoot Jan Valentine six times with the same pistol, with the bullets forming a cross on his face, although this is demonstrated only in the original anime. She shows similar abilities in the manga during Volume 6. But the best example of her skill with a pistol is shown in the first episode of the OVA when she empties a modified Sig-Sauer P226 into Alexander Andersons blessed bayonets, shatterring them beyond further use.
Very intelligent, Integra was able to determine the route Leif and Jessica would take and who their next targets would be by following their patterns, and she devised a strategy accordingly. She was also the first to guess what Jan's mysterious clue, "Millennium", was actually referring to (though Walter obviously knew and Alucard probably did as well). In spite of her talents, she is still fairly young and inexperienced as a leader, and thus unable to grasp or deal with the full extent of the Major's plans.
It is also speculated by fans that, just like her father and grandfather, Integra was educated in occultism and alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
to be able to control Alucard's releases and to finish the process of building him into the "ultimate undead" (in the anime, this was made more obvious when Integra performed a ritual with Masonic
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
imagery in Orders 11 and 12). In recent chapters of the manga, when Alucard releases his final control system, he does so after a speech given by Integra, but it does not appear that she has any direct control over this ability of his. Rather, he asks her to give him an order, then obeys it when she does. The magic involved in her releasing Alucard's control system appears to be non-existent in the manga.
Integra in the anime
The TV series changed numerous traits of Integra's personality. She is much colder, more serious and arrogant than her manga counterpart and a year older, being 23 years old when the story begins. She’s less likely to lose control and has a low tolerance of failure. Her family honor matters to her a great deal, probably even above her sense of duty. Her growing relationships with Sir Penwood and Seras Victoria are removed.Her struggle to become a better leader and to face a war a grand scale as the sole human in the front is removed, since that part of the storyline is absent from the TV series. It is assumed that she is already experienced as the leader of Hellsing; instead she struggles with a ploy to destroy her Organization and the temptation to drink Alucard’s blood to become stronger. In the end, her people are killed, her organization and name framed by a traitor in the Round Table Conference, and she is imprisoned beneath the Tower of London when Alucard arrives to offer her his blood once more. Her response was left open to interpretation.
Integra is also notably taller, with shorter hair than her manga counterpart. Her skin is lighter and she wears a blue ascot with a golden cross pinned to its knot and an olive green suit.
Her rendition in the OVA is much closer to the original manga version, but portions of her lines and appearances have been removed. The most notable deviation is her first reaction to Seras Victoria. In both the TV series and the manga, Integra is first enraged at Alucard's actions in turning a vampire, then eventually comes to accept her; in the OVA, Integra welcomes Seras at the very beginning (the OVA skipped the part were Alucard told Integra about Seras). In the OVA, Integra's hair is longer, her skin is darker, her ascot is red with a silver cross pinned to its knot and a black suit. She is also easily notable as female in the OVA and manga, whereas her TV series counterpart is highly androgynous.