#major montanna max

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Hellsing Commentary 10 Notes

This commentary is done by Taliesin Jaffe, the voice director and lead script adapter of Hellsing, Patrick Seitz, voice of Luke Valentine and partial script adapter of the latter episodes of Hellsing Ultimate, and Jonathan Klein, the producer for both Hellsing anime. Direct quotes may vary in accuracy, as these are written down from audio without transcripts. I also didn't write down every joke or piece of trivia because I feel like people who watch the commentaries should get to have some nice surprises for stuff that isn't covered here.

-Most of Hellsing's cast were teens or very early twenties when they started with the series. Patrick Seitz was 21 and just out of Catholic school, "And I remember thinking 'A show about vampires and they swear a lot? Gosh, this is-' I had no idea what anime was gonna have in store for me."

-Luke Valentine's original, immediate character notes for voice casting in 2001 were "Luke Valentine. Male, mid-20s, the older of the two Valentine brothers. Slightly effeminate, but serious."

-Only four people have worked on Hellsing scripts: Taliesin Jaffe, Patrick Seitz, Mike McFarland, and John Breen during the original TV series. Jonathan Klein "threw a few lines into the peanut gallery," and was responsible for the "End of the line, Alfred" from Jan Valentine in the original TV series, because he wanted Jan to call Walter "Alfred" at least once.

-Taliesin was "praying" that he could use a different VA for Girlycard, though he respects why they didn't let him. "I had a plan, I can't talk about it, but I had a plan. But, this worked better, I will admit."

-Taliesin and Jonathan occasionally talk at convention panels about how "We almost lost our jobs, uh, basically, 'cause Taliesin- and I mean, Taliesin was right to stick to his guns-"

Taliesin: "I was younger and angrier."

Jonathan: "Yes, when the Japanese told us 'No, it’s Arucard' and we said 'No, it’s not! It’s Alucard!' and they said 'No, you have to dub it as Arucard,' and we were like- Taliesin was like 'No. I'm not doing it! I'm not-' And meanwhile, like, the Geneon producers were like 'If- if you don't want to do it...we could have somebody else work on the show.'"

Taliesin: "I was- I was kinda doing the 'Fine.'"

Patrick: "His name wasn't Dracura."

Jonathan: "You know, that was the whole-! So we had- so, I'm sure we've mentioned this before, but I'll do it again- we said 'Okay, just ask Mr. Hirano, the mangaka, why he went with Arucard instead of Alucard, since it's supposed to be Dracula spelled backwards.'"

Taliesin: "He didn't write back."

Jonathan: "No no, that was the whole thing! They were afraid to ask him, because they were afraid he would be distracted from writing Hellsing. 'Cause he was still- this was early on in the series, and they didn't want- Young King Ours was like 'No no, he has to be working on Hellsing!'"

Patrick: "A question from America, this is gonna throw off his whole groove!"

Jonathan: "So I think the answer, they answered it by fax -for people who don't know what a fax machine is, different times- we got, like, a thermal fax that said: 'It’s Dracura spelled backwards.'"

Taliesin: "I believe my exact- I believe my response to that was somewhere around- (very loud frustrated yell) and then that was, uh- "

Jonathan: "Oh of course, and the irony is, the vindication was when in like, 2005, when we finally got to have dinner with Mr. Hirano at Anime Expo, and Taliesin was like, nudging me, he's elbowing me in the gut, saying 'Ask him, ask him.' And I'm like 'Okay, okay, Mr. Hirano, I'm really sorry I have to ask you this, we really are honored to have been working on your show, and that you've chosen us, again, to do the dub- why is it Arucard? And, and not Alucard?' And he said 'Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know how to spell things in English, please feel free to correct everything I made a mistake about.' and you were, like, staring at the Geneon producers-"

Taliesin: "I was trying to burn a hole through the Geneon producers."

-Patrick pulled up the Major's "I love war" speech and watched it in order to bring back the Major's muse when he was writing OVA 10.

-Taliesin has only cut one line due to being offended, that being when Mike McFarland was helping him write Jan Valentine.

-During the same dinner with Hirano, Taliesin and Jonathan asked what he wanted out of the dub, what he wanted them to do, "And he said, and I believe in English: 'Make it cool.' Like, he was like 'Cool. I want cool! I don't care how you do it, make it cool.'"

-Taliesin states "I believe in adapting for parents. I think if like, your parents or your older brother or your, your dad can come in the room and go 'What- what's this?' (with interest) then we've succeeded...and even better if they come in and their first reaction is not 'This is foreign.'"

-Jonathan agrees and says that "It just- the way it (Hellsing) plays, the way it works, is just not your typical anime. It doesn't have any of the anime archetypes in there, that you typically find in most anime." Patrick chips in with "Seras isn't running late to a meeting with like, her schoolbag and toast in her mouth."

-Taliesin states "You will see that there is a direct correlation between Seras and Alucard- their origins, and the way that they are- like, that relationship makes sense and is a big part of what this show is about, was Dracula recognizing himself in someone else, who...has a similar origin, a modern version of it, but...wasn't crushed by it. He found someone stronger than him and turned her into a vampire. And it's a really fascinating story from that direction. And there's other themes going on here, but that's a big one for me."

-Patrick and Taliesin both talk about how they'd rather have characters be "true to themselves rather than true to the material."

-There was some discussion on whether or not Walter knew that he was evil, and Taliesin thinks that he wasn't and was being "subconsciously manipulated by his younger self."

-As of the OVA 10 commentary, Taliesin had a tumblr.

-The actress that Taliesin had almost settled on for Integra before Victoria Harwood auditioned ended up playing a younger Integra for both series.

-Taliesin had to read In a Glass Darkly because of "the Carmilla episode" of the original TV series. Taliesin also mentions that he liked Incognito, who "gets a raw deal, all things considered."

-Both Taliesin and Jonathan agreed to work on Hellsing because of a short test-animation clip by the Gonzo animation studios, which included the Major slow-clapping. (Taliesin was "so upset" that he didn't appear in the series.) They emailed each other almost at the same time saying "I want this."

-According to Jonathan, the animation for the original TV series became "really, really bad" by episode four. Although he apparently can't talk about it, Jonathan says that it needed more money, but the money went to another show that was being produced at the same time, and calls it a "robbing Peter to pay Paul" sort of situation.

-Taliesin loves Seras's character arc.

-Casting Walter's two younger voices was a long and complicated process, especially trying to get them to fit together. Ralph Lister "could probably have done young, middle-aged Walter," but then Walter's child form would "hit like a ton of bricks."

-Adapting Heinkel's speech to Walter was tricky because in the original Japanese "she was almost literally saying 'die die die kill kill kill' for this whole damn exchange." They left her doing it at the end "where it's just the tantrum" instead.

-Taliesin would've loved to dub The Dawn and was sad that he didn't get to.

-During the Major's speech to Seras and Integra, Taliesin comments again that "At this point, everyone's trying to commit suicide. Like, everyone's trying to have death by gunfire...Walter is now just trying to like, end everything, the Major's trying to end everything, all the vampires inside -the Captain was trying to, like- everyone's just trying to make it end, everyone's just running into the fire."

-Patrick and Taliesin both pause to wish for Integra's VA to read the phonebook, again.

-Taliesin routinely fucks up his computer search history after about a week working on Hellsing. Patrick laughs and states "I had those moments, where I was like ‘Hi NSA, this is for work, I promise.’" Jonathan quips through his own snickers "We’re working on Hellsing! We're not really...we’re not looking to start the local chapter of the Aryanization, I promise you." Taliesin sighs and agrees ruefully: "Yeah, I occasionally feel like adding messages into my Google search engine, going: 'Just for research, I swear.'"

-During Seras's fight with the Captain, Taliesin briefly considered throwing in a reference to The Monuments Men.

-Taliesin also considered adding a line in the exchange between Walter and the Doctor about Molière, presumably in place of the "Molière? You should be so lucky" line. "I almost had baby Walter actually- I just wanted him to record 'Fuck Molière!' you know, 'Bitch!' And I was almost on the edge of 'Fuck Molière!' but its, uh..."

-Taliesin says that "The women in the Hammer Dracula films are really where Integra comes from."

-Both Patrick and Taliesin are uncertain of where the food the Major eats goes.

-Taliesin threw in a reference to Young Frankenstein in the scene between Doc and Walter, with the "dignity and grace" line.

-Taliesin calls young Walter "still posh, but slightly like- he ends up, the young version of him is not quite as polite, a little sloppy, a little mean, a little...(inhales) just a hair, like, prepubescent punk, is the push, but still from money."

-Back during the original Hellsing TV series, a "giant throne-chair" was made for promotional reasons, which Crispin signed autographs in while in costume during an event. Taliesin kept the chair and Crispin kept the costume, although at the time of commentary Taliesin is considering loaning it semi-permanently to one of two friends.

-Taliesin used to work with the actor who played young Penwood while they were both in junior high school.

-Patrick and Taliesin both compliment Makube's VA on his performance, with Taliesin saying "he's made of slime...No, he's fabulously full of shit."

-Jonathan and Taliesin toss about the theory that Heinkel became a regenerator. "Something happened to her."

-In Integra's exaggerated flashback, Penwood is wearing a Legends of the Galactic Heroes costume.

-Taliesin says that it's nice that Integra has chilled in the 30-year time gap. "Alucard has actually -and we'll get to it when he shows up- he's kind of accepted a new role, for the first time in several hundred years. He's sort of let go of a lot of his pissed-off, and is no longer here to mock god and be angry about what happened to him as a kid."

-Taliesin noticed how Alucard's red coat probably connects to the coat Van Helsing wore. Being inspired by that generation was also the reason for Alucard's American accent. "Maybe he was like, taking a cue from Quincey, was our justification."

-Jonathan asks again what the Hellsing drinking game would be, and Patrick suggests every time you see glasses before admitting that wouldn't work. Jonathan agrees and says "Nope, we'd be dead of alcohol poisoning in the first five minutes of the thing." Taliesin offers "every time I fuck up (lip-)flap" and Jonathan says they'd still be dead in the first five minutes as they all laugh.

-Taliesin was "very very pleased" with the ending to Hellsing Ultimate. Jonathan asks if he thinks Integra would take Alucard's offer to become a vampire, and both Taliesin and Patrick say yes.

-During the original TV series, Taliesin and a sound engineer were once so mad at "the Japanese for making me do- and the Geneon for making me do something I didn't want to do" that they got "rip-roaring drunk in the booth," and the engineer actually pulled a knife on the owner of the studio for "trying to fuck with the mix...He pulled out -and I won't say which engineer to protect the engineer- but he pulled out a box-cutter and was like 'If you touch my board, I will fucking cut you.' And I was clapping and like, the studio owner pulled out a baseball bat and there was like a tense confrontation. 'Cause it was like 'DO NOT TOUCH THE MIXBOARD. WE ARE BULDING A 51 MIX, YOU ASSHOLES.'"

[the-jackal224]

Hellsing Wrestling AU

The hellsing organization is a London based wrestling promotion dubbed hellsing pro wrestling

Alucard- company ace, oldest active member of the roster, record number of world championship wins at 15, unbeaten at the annual supercard dubbed One night war. Wrestles in the straight jacket he wears at release level one in the anime( he busts out the red one for special occasions) finisher(s): vertical suplex piledriver.

Integra- heir to the promotion once her father dies or retires, serves as play by play commentator until then.

Walter- retired wrestler, alucards tag partner when they started, secretly bitter alucard out lasted him as a wrestler and that they never once wrestled each other, and craves one more match so he can have a proper send off. Serves as color commentator with Integra. Finisher(s): discus palm strike.

Seras- newest addition to the roster trained by alucard, to the shock of everyone, impossibly strong for someone her size, plucky high flyer, adored by the crowd. Alucards pick to be his successor as company ace. Finisher(s): Poisoned rana

Pip- a talent recently signed from France, tags with seras on occasion if the need arises, the crowds everywhere they go ship him and Seras hard. Finisher(s): double knee jawbreaker, and crossface.

Penwood- senior referee, his family have been referees for the company since penwood and integras great grandfathers.

Maxwell: manages iscariot gets involved in matches way to often, often gets his stable into fights they don't need.

Anderson- the actual leader of iscariot, only other person in the company that alucard respects, of alucards 25 victories at one night war Anderson ate five of those losses. Finisher(s): lariat, canadian back breaker rack

Heinkel- Anderson's prodigy, tags with yumiko/yumi most of the time, only member besides Anderson to hold singles gold. Finisher(s): emerald flowsion

Yumiko/Yumi- trained in Japan, yumi is a persona she dons for big matches, tag teams with heinkel. Finisher(s): spinning heel kick.

Major- his promotion got bought out by hpw so he uses the talent he made there to cause trouble, cuts 30 minute promos that usually boil down to him calling someone a hypricitical asshole. Has tried to hit Integra with a steel chair several times.

Captain- the ace of majors company before it was bought by Integra's father, still wears the championship to ringside, single most well rounded athlete in the company, seriously guy can clear the the top rope from a standing position. Finisher(s) mushroom stomp.

Doctor- surprisingly a wrestler, picks whoever he's in the ring with apart slowly, crowd just watches in awe as doc picks apart some poor sap. Finisher(s): cattle mutilation.

Schrodinger- not very good but gets by via wile E coyote level shenanigans, has a pinfall win over alucard via taping his boots together and kicking him in the dick with a steel toed boot when the ref wasn't looking. Finisher(s): Enzuguiri.

Zorin- former female bodybuilder, trained by the captain and doc, tags with rip and/or tublacain. Finisher(s) double A spinebuster

Rip-. Ballerina turned wrestler, sings opera in the middle of a match, crowd will either sing along or boo, depending on the city, musket is a prop for her entrance, although she has wacked people with it before. Finisher(s): jumping ddt.

Tublacain- cheats regardless of whether or not it's necessary, wrestled across south America as a luchadore before ditching the mask and coming to europe, showed up as a baby face but went heel after one to many losses. Finisher(s): reverse sto ddt.

Luke- thinks he's the future ace of the company, oblivious to the fact his brother has long overshadowed him in terms of popularity. Finisher(s) bridging fisherman suplex

Jan- well aware of the crowds preference to him, just doesn't care, has nearly died multiple times, no one knows how he's still medically cleared to compete. Finisher(s) diving headbutt from the tallest thing he can find and a package piledriver.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Hellsing Commentary 4 Notes

This commentary is done by Taliesin Jaffe, the voice director and script adapter of Hellsing, Kari Wahlgren, the voice of Rip van Winkle, and Ralph Lister, the voice of Walter Dornez. Direct quotes may vary in accuracy, as these are written down from audio without transcripts. I also didn't write down every joke or piece of trivia because I feel like people who watch the commentaries should get to have some nice surprises for stuff that isn't covered here.

-Ralph calls the opening music of OVA 4 "beautiful, almost Wagnerian." Kari agrees, and Taliesin says that "this is my favorite music for any of the four volumes that we've had -actually, including the original series so far."

-Amidst a discussion about how all the blood in this episode is "totally ketchup," Kari comments that she heard they used to use Bosco in the old black-and-white movies, which makes Taliesin laugh. "I'm just imagining John Wayne covered in chocolate syrup, that image will haunt me until I get home."

-Kari has worked with Crispin multiple times, playing both siblings and love interests, before Hellsing and Crispin has gotten "some very strange emails about that relationship." She states for the record that they are neither of these things in real life.

-Taliesin asked Kari to give him "something kinda Hamill-y" (as in Mark Hamill) in the audition, and tells her "you took that so far beyond, uh..."

-OVA 4 was in production for the longest time that Taliesin had worked on anything, with several months between when Ralph and Kari recorded. The episode was also the most with reoccurring roles, so "wrangling everybody back" played a large part in that.

-Kari has to close her eyes when Heinkel kills the bishop, though she opens them in time to see the title logo.

-The queen was listed as "Queen" in the script, which they eventually had to go back and rename as "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II" because her VA said it felt really awkward just looking at "queen."

-During the corresponding scene, Ralph asks "Do you think, uh, Alucard is hitting on the queen? It's a bit fresh, isn't it?" and Taliesin answers that "I think- I actually get the feeling that they shagged. I get the feeling that they definitely shagged." Kari says "I'm going to second that." Taliesin jokes that "I think he's been hitting her once a decade for the last, like, seven decades. What would that be, a decadal booty call? Once every ten years...someone comes to call."

-Taliesin had "a couple little boys read for Schrodinger, we had a couple of young girls, and we finally- Laura Bailey kinda came in and sort of had the right...silly for the character." He also got "one of my favorite pieces of hate mail" about Schrodinger, with a fan angrily telling him (due to the commentary in OVA 1) that Schrodinger was a little boy and not a cat.

-Kari gets "very scared" by the scene where the Major has the defeatists eaten, despite having seen it before, and calls upon her happy place. "Little House on the Prairie! Mary and Laura, rolling down a hill!" Taliesin laughs and asks if that's her happy place. Kari says it is and "whenever I watch something really super violent, that is kinda what, uh, what I think about in the back of the brain."

-According to Taliesin, in Hellsing Ultimate Millennium has the actual SS ranks and not the normal military Nazi rankings. He goes on to say "I spent about three months meeting very questionable people to buy expensive books." when doing his research for the show.

-Ralph states that Alucard "has such groovy hair, its rockstar hair." Taliesin agrees and says it's very glam rock.

-Ralph says that he began voiceacting in Hong Kong for commercials, made a demo tape in New Orleans before he went to LA, and realized that he could "do all sorts of character work as well, using my stage skills."

-Taliesin very seriously asks Hellsing cosplayers to "leave the swastikas off of it. That's all I ask. Do the rest of it, just replace it- be creative, put a Mickey Mouse logo there, put a soup- you can be a soup Nazi, just not a real Nazi."

-Ralph says that he doesn't have "any kind of problem" with female fans cosplaying Walter and idly comments "he would look great in a dress."

-Kari says that the song (Das Engellandlied) that she sang while approaching the ship was very tricky to learn, because she had to learn the tune and get the words right in German, and "it's such a catchy song, and I would catch myself out in public kind of...humming or whistling this song, and you can't do that in public with a Nazi drinking song."

-Taliesin had a similar moment to Kari wherein he was at a coffeehouse calling one of the sound mixers, and he had to shout very loudly over the crowd "'No, no I know I gave you six “Sieg heil”s -just one “Sieg heil!” One “Sieg heil!” No, no, one “Sieg heil!” You did- no, five “Sieg heil”s, ju- just “Sieg heil,” one big “Sieg heil!” That's right! One! One “Sieg heil!”' And it went on for like two minutes, and then I hung up that phone and very quietly took my laptop and left the coffeehouse for the day."

-Taliesin comments that Kari is "very scary in this" as Rip van Winkle. Kari agrees and says that Rip is "so crazy," with one of her favorite moments being the "Dirty limey" line. Taliesin says "it's the little girl voice. Because I, we really tried -and I don't know if we made this clear enough when we were recording, but I really was trying to set you up as a sort've fairy-tale Little Red Riding Hood character...fairy-tale children can be pretty evil and malicious. And downright cannibalistic, occasionally. So she sort've is a fairy-tale little girl."

-Kari agrees with Taliesin and says that the poetry (the tinker/tailor/soldier sailor stuff) that Rip said "added such a creepy element to the whole thing." Taliesin says it gives weight to Rip's later moments, when she isn't "screaming or freaking out, she's just whimpering, she's really- its like a little girl's reaction." Kari says that the "almost-voiceless whine" was what freaked her out the most.

-Taliesin layered a cannon sound into Rip van Winkle's gunshots that was not present in the original Japanese.

-Through laughter, Taliesin says that they "had a lot of fun recording this, as you can imagine" about the scene with Integra feeding Seras her blood. "Especially since this scene made Katie very uncomfortable and made Victoria laugh very very hard." Taliesin goes on to say that they had "Kiss it" and "Lick it" as alternative lines for when Integra encourages Seras, but chose "Kiss it" as "Lick it" seemed vulgar.

-Taliesin re-states, "Yeah, its vampires, vampires are all about -I'm sure I've said this on commentaries before: vampires are all about, uh, sexual repression. They are demons of sexual repression, because every vampire story we have usually involves whatever sexual taboo of the time...the very first, Dracula, the story was all about the fear of Eastern Europeans coming in and ravaging good English women, he was with the big mustache and (cartoonish Slavic accent) 'The sexual proudness of the East,' and then after that we had In a Glass Darkly, which was all lesbianism, and then we had Interview with a Vampire, which was, uh, homosexuality and pedophilia, and- yeah, they're always- whatever sexual deviance of the time is there, that's usually what they gravitate towards."

-Taliesin comments on the fan theory (current at the time of OVA 4) that the Major was actually the god Mars and that was why he didn't age, and intended to ask Hirano about it.

-Ralph asks what Walter uses to tie his hair back, and Taliesin guesses that it might be the same wires he uses to fight with.

-In regard to the Vatican groups that Maxwell lists off in his call to Anderson, the fear was that the line would run too fast, and so Taliesin actually came up with around six real Catholic militias/groups that would conceivably carry arms for the Pope throughout history.

-Kari comments that Walter is always smirking and seems to know everything. "I feel like if it was left up to his character, you know, the whole series would be wrapped up in one or two shots."

-Ralph and Taliesin both make Kari blush by complementing her singing, and Taliesin says that he has Rip's cover of Der Freischutz on his iPod.

-In response to a German language consultant/friend, Taliesin wanted to be "Indiana Jones" careful with his accents. "Just the suggestion that somewhere- that there's a Kraut somewhere in the room."

-Some of Rip's lines as Alucard approaches are loosely lifted from the opera. (Loosely because of the need to fit lip-flap.)

-Taliesin and Crispin talked a lot about what Alucard is in the scene where he hits the ship. "'Just give me fe-fie-fo-fum, guess what I just caught?' It's very storybook." Kari was also encouraged to "tap into" the fear of things going bump in the night, the big scary monster, etc. "coming to kick your butt."

-As previously discussed, all of Alucard's powers have different sound effects. The hellhounds have distorted screaming baby noises mixed into them, whereas the multiple arms involve "this huge audience of people screaming, and we just- mutilated it with our effects track. So whenever all the arms come out, you can actually- somewhere deep deep inside, you can hear a couple koalas, and a -'cause koalas are creepy- every time the arms sprout you'll hear a whole audience somewhere in the background, screaming."

-Kari comments appreciatively on how the SS lieutenant was saying "'Wait everybody, we've got to hold it off for a while,' and then once you see the big half-face comes on, he's just like 'Shoot.'" She also then returns to invoking Little House on the Prairie as Alucard rips through the Nazis.

-Of Rip's death, Kari also says that "this is the finest death scene I've ever done." Taliesin agrees, saying he is very proud of it. Kari says "It was pretty intense -very good directing, by the way, 'cause you just kept saying, 'Go as...wounded animal, as you wanna go.'" She also says she was drenched with sweat by the end of the session.

-Taliesin calls the moment when Alucard bites into Rip's bullet and destroys it as "our Big Bad Wolf moment." Kari agrees, saying "That's when you know you're screwed...That whole part where he catches the bullet in the teeth, is about, that's just -you know you're going down! And you know you're probably not gonna go down in a very...gentle way."

-Of Rip's death scene, Taliesin also comments that "It's difficult to watch this, honestly." Kari points out that "It was surprising- it made this surprisingly easy to record, though, because it's so intense, visually, that you can't help but just really be affected by it."

-Taliesin owns three recordings and one DVD of Der Freischutz.

-Alucard's cackling laughter after eating Rip van Winkle is "actually just Crispin going and going...and Crispin doesn't like to laugh very long. It's not kind to his- it's not kind to anybody's throat, and it's hard to do."

-Ralph comments that the Major's "I love war" speech is "quite an exquisite monologue."

-According to Taliesin, it took three days to record the Major's speech and five days to adapt. "I mean, trying to match body language, and trying to match the manga, and the intent of the speech in Japanese, and the flap, and not make it monotonous...Gildart was freaking out by day three, because he was like 'I don't remember where I came from anymore, am I getting repetitive?'"

-Kari says that Gildart did a really amazing job at it and it was "so disturbing."

-In Taliesin's opinion, adaptation is more important than the director, because you can throw a bad director in with good actors and good adaptation and still have it work, but if you give a good director and good actors a bad adaptation and they will struggle through and it will take twice as long.

-Ralph agrees and points out how much work they have to do in adding or removing words, changing phrases, etc. to make everything fit with lip flap and how fans don't seem to realize that. Taliesin agrees and says that he "over-writes" Ralph, who he always thinks speaks faster than Ralph actually does.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Hellsing Commentary 5 Notes

This commentary is done by Taliesin Jaffe, the voice director and lead script adapter of Hellsing, and Gildart Jackson, the voice of the Major (Montana Max). Direct quotes may vary in accuracy, as these are written down from audio without transcripts. I also didn't write down every joke or piece of trivia because I feel like people who watch the commentaries should get to have some nice surprises for stuff that isn't covered here.

-All the non-Bruce Willis characters in Alucard's dream/hallucination are from Frederick Forsyth novels and/or films. When Gildart asks why in regard to the whole dream sequence, Taliesin laughs in despair and then eventually says it might be "because Alucard's subconscious is trying to tell him that Walter, who gave him the Jackal gun, uh, is going to betray him. That is the, uh, metaphor his brain comes up with...Seras's guns are called the Harkonen canons, so Emperor Harkonen from Dune comes out and is the voice of her gun, that sort of gives her advice, and so Bruce Willis comes out and gives him advice as the Jackal, until the real Jackal appears and says 'No, this Jackal was given to you by a traitor, don't trust Walter.'"

-Gildart was literally the very first person the audience heard in Hellsing, as he played the unnamed man who was nearly eaten by a "vampire hooker" in the first episode of the TV series. This role was also the first voiceover work that Gildart ever did.

-Gildart is continuously bemused by the conventions of anime on display. "And, and the...drawings? All this sort of stylized, like -why are his eyes sometimes like that?" (Referring to the Major's shining glasses.) Taliesin then explains to him the conventions of bunraku theater, wherein the eyes are supposed to be windows of emotions to the character, which carried over to anime in the sense that sometimes eyes are shaded or glasses shine opaque, which means that a character "has become inscrutable or that they're lying to you, o-or acting against their nature."

-Zorin was the only major character whose VA had to be replaced, as her original VA from OVA 4 moved back to London.

-Taliesin tells Gildart that he has a very unique delivery and he loves writing for him. "Whatever I'm imagining for you, you never do, and its just better. Whatever I think is gonna happen, its always more interesting when we finally get in here."

-Gildart built the Major's German accent from his childhood, when he and other kids would imitate the "We have ways of making you talk." or "I want to see your papers and identification." lines to each other.

-Taliesin has heard people compare the Major to the scarred Nazi from Raiders of the Lost Arc, although in his opinion "I like the Major more." He also comments on how the Major is "this jolly mass-murderer," and that his comedy is the key to his horror. "Just...he is horrific. Like, I think he is genuinely scary. And you've got this great laugh -it's been commented on a few times, too- where its just this- i-it never quite manages to build, it just gets caught in him, becomes a choke almost."

-What sold Taliesin on hiring Gildart in the first place was one of the roles in his theatrical reel, wherein Gildart played a Nazi officer. "As soon as we get Montana Max in here, he's in." He has also stated that Gildart has been his ideal person for the Major "since day one."

-Taliesin notes that Walter has black gloves whenever he's killing people and white gloves whenever he's "servicing."

-As of recording the commentary for OVA 5, Gildart has only briefly met Crispin out of the rest of the cast, and does not do much in voice acting for anime or games.

-Taliesin mentions how in OVA 5 the prior generation of Sir Islands and Integra's father and Penwood are sort've "all going down in flames" as Integra steps forward as the next generation of vampire-hunters.

-"So how many people will watch this?" Gildart asks of the show. Taliesin laughs and then says that he gets credit for watching Hellsing at comic con and that people who don't watch anime watch Hellsing.

-As for how the Major came to be recruited/a part of the SS, Taliesin comments that "There was a time, not too long ago, where we used to know where to put sociopaths, where they could contribute to society, as opposed to harming it. And I think that he was just one of those fabulously talented people who had, you know, little morals and some persuasion, to quote another pop-culture travesty. Uh, and I'd like to that that's the sort of thing the Nazis would recognize."

-According to Taliesin, the difference between vampires and ghouls is "Vampires are sentient. They can speak, and their power set is a little different. The ghouls are literally just drained humans. Like, if you drain a human being of all their blood and just kind of...let them languish, they eventually will just sort of rise up, unless you destroy the head."

-Taliesin also states that in Hellsing, a vampire has to feed a victim their blood in order to turn them into another vampire. "You drain them, and then you replace, and then you get a vampire." He says he came upon this rule by reading/watching Hellsing over and over and over again while adapting the series.

-In regard to the show, Taliesin has done his best to "-sorta -and I know a couple of people that will kill me for this- to rob it of its cultural identity as much as humanly possible, uh: to rob it of its- to really make it feel un-Japanese as much as possible, to sort've strip a lot of the Japanese-ification of it away and make it- in a perfect world I imagine this being produced by, like, the Hammer film animation department. That's what we shoot for: brought to you by Hammer."

-Taliesin tries to get dialogue to connect, so when Integra gives her speech to the Millennium vampires, he had to make sure that everything the Nazis said she had to repeat/refute.

-Taliesin gleefully comments about how Anderson will have character development "-in the next four volumes. He goes from this really insane villain, to- by the time we get to volume eight, he's kinda made a 180 degree turn and sort of...really come down to earth and stopped raving and being a lunatic."

-Heinkel and Yumie were difficult to cast. Heinkel went German "because that just makes sense for her," and while Yumie is Japanese, Taliesin decided "We went on the Doctor Who philosophy, which is anyone who's from a country whose accent you don't understand is Welsh."

-Taliesin has somewhat disturbed his roommate because "I sit in my living room quietly mumbling to myself 'embrace the heretical order' 'dare presume to meet my gaze' -I can't actually do the Scottish accent but I can kinda get the cadences, so (bad accent) 'attempting the cadence to make sure it fits flap.'"

-"Are there other shows that are big like Hellsing in Japan?" Gildart asks.

[ajstudio]

Important update: Everything you've researched is spot on, but according to the third and final omnibus volume Alucard returns in the year 2030. It still lines up with him being gone thirty years there would just be additional months included.

1898: Abraham Van Hellsing and his party deal with Dracula, and he gains the Vampire King in December of that year (Merry X-Mas, I guess?).

1944: Alucard and Walter go to Warsaw, Poland to eliminate the S.S. Major and his artifical vampires. Walter becomes a double agent sometime after Alucard heads off to take care of the S.S. Major and Dr. Avondale.

1949: Alucard has a audience with Queen Elizabeth II (possibly to be knighted), and they don't meet again until September 1999.

June - September 1999: The Main Plot happens.

2030: Hellsing Epilogue.

Hellsing Manga/Ultimate Timeline

*June 14th, 1989 –Integra’s father dies.

*June 17th, 1989 –Integra becomes Alucard’s master.

June 14th, 1999 –Vampire priest enters Cheddar.

June 21st, 1999 –First victim of the vampire priest dies.

June 31st, 1999 –Over ten days, ten people are killed by the vampire.

July 3rd, 1999 –One boy escapes from the Cheddar vampire and reports his attack to the police.

July 5th, 1999 –Integra and Hellsing arrive on the scene.

July 13th, 1999 –Maxwell interrogates and kills the other bishop for working with Millennium.

August 12th, 1999 –Hellsing arrives at the scene of the Bonnie and Clyde vampires.

August 15th, 1999 –Hellsing mobilizes at Badrick.

September 3rd, 1999 –Council of Twelve Meeting/Valentine Brother Attack.

September 10th, 1999 –Meeting at Imperial War Museum.

*September 11th, 1999 –Alucard, Seras, and Pip take a flight to Rio (arrive at ~4.30).

*September 12th, 1999 –Anderson arrives Rio at ~four in the morning.

*September 12th, 1999 –Alucard contacts Integra at ~7.00 Rio time

*September 12th, 1999 –Alucard, Seras, and Pip leave Rio in crop duster at roughly 8.00 AM.

*September 12th, 1999 –Alucard, Seras, and Pip arrive in London at ~9.30 PM.

*September 13th, 1999 –At ~4 PM, Integra meets with Penwood to assist with the Rip van Winkle case.

*September 15th, 1999 –At ~4 AM, Alucard crash-lands on the HMS Eagle.

*September 15th/16th, 1999 –Millennium attacks London, the US, and all British forces. Zorin Blitz attacks the Hellsing Manor. The Battle of London and all included events take place.

*September 16th, 2029 –Alucard returns to the Hellsing Manor after an absence of thirty years.

*All dates marked with an asterisk are an approximate guesstimation, though based as firmly as possible on canon information and timeline. (i.e. “The following day”, “38 hours ago”, “10 years ago”, etc.) Calculations were made based on commercial flight times and the perceived urgency of characters. I also did not state the day, as Hirano did in some of the earlier timestamps, as the date (i.e. Wednesday, June 14th, 1999) did not fall on the stipulated day on the week in 1999.

Incidental Things I Discovered Over The Course Of Calculating This:

*That one time when the little boy interrupts Anderson watching the Rio de Janeiro massacre to tell him that “supper’s ready”, was probably the last time anyone at the orphanage ever saw him alive. A commercial flight from Rome to Rio takes twelve hours, and Anderson burst in on Hellsing in their motel room sometime before 8.00 AM the day after they escaped. Ergo, even with a special highspeed Vatican plane, he would still need to leave pretty much right after that scene with the kid to make it to Rio in time to interrogate the local peeps and find out where Alucard & Co. went, then arrange clearance for a nearby Vatican private airfield jet to fly them out of there. And Anderson, of course, only comes back from Rio to get to the battlefield in London, which we all know he does not survive. Furthermore, for security reasons, Anderson probably hadn’t said farewell to any of the kids either (because enemies could come and torture his location out of them if they did know where he went and all that jazz), and if he left in the middle of the night and stopped to say goodbye the kids would definitely want to know where he was going.

*Seras would have become a vampire on July 5th, 1999, and been a vampire for almost three months before she first took blood by consuming Pip on September 15th/16th, 1999.

*Discounting the epilogue/30-year time skip and flashbacks, the entire recorded events of Hellsing take place in almost exactly four months.

*The picture Integra and Maxwell had their meeting in front of, at least as of 2017, is not in the Imperial War Museum. Nor, ironically enough, is the hallway they had their meeting in. My sister and I visited the Museum on vacation during Spring Break, and the only place we discovered with a glass skylight was the center of the very topmost floor, which was devoid of any paintings (or wooden floors) whatsoever.

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Have some shitty Hellsing doodles I did while waiting for my job training program to load up.