The name 'Hellsing' comes, of course, from the character of Van Helsing, in Draclua by Bram Stoker. As we have later learned (both near the end of the Anime series and in the Manga) Alucard, Hellsing's Ace, is in fact Dracula. Vampires exist. It is the duty of Hellsing, an organization sponsored by the British government, to hide that frightening fact and protect the blissfully unaware populace. Along with its own personal army, Hellsing also has a few secret weapons. Alucard, an incredibly powerful vampire, has been controlled by Hellsing for years. Although he dislikes being a servant to the Hellsing family, he certainly enjoys his job as Hellsings vampire exterminator. Seras is a fledgling vampire and a former police woman. Although reluctant to embrace her new self, she is still a valuable member of the organization. Integra Hellsing, the current leader, is usually fully capable of fulfilling her duty, but lately, vampire activity has been on the rise. Unfortunately, the cause is more alarming than anything she could have imagined. A group long thought dead has been plotting in secret since their apparent destruction over 50 years ago. Plotting to plunge England, and perhaps the entire world, into war.
In fact Hellsing is the culmination of many characters and plot elements from lots of other previous works by Kohta Hirano. I list them below for your pleasure.
Hellsing: The Legend of Vampire Hunter

A hentai (sorry) which closely resembles the Hellsing we know. A character called Alucard foils a vampire duo (brothers), one of whom looks like Jan Valentine, who are attacking a pretty, young police girl.
Angel Dust

Another hentai, this time starring a priest character who eventually became Paladin Anderson, who carries a big gun. Anderson, a mafia assassin tried to escape from the police after betraying the organization he worked with (Taking along with him 50 Kilograms of Heroin). To trick his pursuers, he dressed up as a priest and hid himself in a village. A nun that worked there offered him work at the church. He accepted, seeing this as an opportunity to live the rest of his life atoning for his sins. But one day Flanders, a mafia member (And an ex-partner of Anderson) found the church he worked with and while Anderson was absent, he and his partners gang raped Kris (A nun from the church) many times. Threatening Anderson with killing the sister, he demanded the return of the stolen "goods". But Anderson proved to be too skilled for them to handle and was able to defeat them and rescue the nun. Now the two of them are fleeing from the organization and leader itself, a ghost of the Nazi military has chosen to go after them personally...
Coyote

Guess what - hentai again - Featuring a character called Pip Bernadette and his Wild Geese, and a Major Max (only thinner). The evil force controlling the country will do anything it takes to destroy The Resistance including rape and indiscriminant murder.
Doc's Story

Not translated, but depicts Doc helping Hitler with a project. Guess what - hentai again. The project seems to involve the raping of a "catgirl" possibly producing what we see later as Schrodinger.
Cross Fire

Paladin Anderson appears here, too, only with dark hair. It isn't him who kicks the butt though- oh no. This is left to his buddies Yumie(Yumiko) and Heinkel Wolfe, of Section XIII. Yumiko is a split personality nun who's handy with a blade and Heinkel is a sassy and delicious killer. There were three short stories - and they aren't hentai! Published in the first three volumes of Hellsing.
Hellsing: The Dawn

Okay, so this is a prequel to Hellsing as we all know it. It's actually been written after the manga, so it's not really an origin comic, so to speak. But it centers around a very, very young Walter, and a very girly looking Alucard battling Nazis intent on producing vampires. The name of this group of Nazis? Millennium. The leader said group? The Major. Hmmm.... The pasts of Walter, Hellsing and Millennium are revealed in this exciting prequel to the main Hellsing storyline, which takes place during the WWII era -- September, 1944 to be exact -- somewhere around Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland. More info can be found here.
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