Master of Monster
From Anime Indepth
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The tenth episode of the Hellsing anime.
Summary
In an isolated operating room on the Hellsing estate, doctors rush to improve the condition of Integra Hellsing, the victim of a vampire attack as well as deep cuts to the chest and throat. Seras attempts to apologize to Alucard, but Alucard merely asks her to watch on as their master fights, refusing to give up. As surgery commences, Walter receives word that Boabhan Castle has been destroyed, and that the 66 members of SAS’s 211th division stationed there have gone missing. Seras, being unable to watch walks away, while an unconscious Integra remembers herself as a young girl.
Meeting her father in the study, Integra is asked by her father, Arthur Hellsing, why vampires are such feared creatures. Integra points out that they can only venture into the world at night, and can only die by unique means. Arthur admits that both of these are true, but it is not what makes vampires so feared, leading Integra to believe that it’s their strength. Arthur agrees, saying that they are fearsome because they have strength, and because they have logic, concluding by charging the protection of the nation and the organization to young Integra. As she holds his hands they begin to decay, and he next appears in a bed, asking his brother, Richard, to support Integra as the new leader of Hellsing. Turning his eyes toward Integra, he reminds her that her family’s blood and honor is within her, as he passes, the surgery in the real world continues on. Back in her mind, Integra sits in an airduct, crying her last tears, as she steels herself to strength. As Seras wonders what it means to be her master’s master, a young Integra watches on from the airduct as Richard Hellsing, annoyed to find that after twenty years he’s lost the organization to a little girl, is determined to seek her out and kill her, aware that she is still in the house. Integra, remembering her father’s words that, were she ever in need of help, to find the forgotten jail cell, heads into the underground section of the manor. In touching the handle of the jail door, she’s given a vision of a mysterious man clad in red, killing Hellsing soldiers, just then, Richard discovers her, and a voice behind the door if she “doesn’t want to die now,” causing Integra to throw herself into the room.
Seras, locating Walter in the manner, finds him preparing afternoon tea for Integra, commenting that once, when General Patton stood alone in the freezing cold to watch his troops march, inspired the men to go further than they ever thought. Back in Integra’s mind, her younger self is shot in the arm by Richard, and as Integra begins to rise she finds a man in the corner, bound and tied, who begins to drink the blood Integra spilt, following this by executing all four of Richard’s guards and tearing off Richard’s right arm. Alucard tells Integra that, if she joins him, she can have all of these abilities and more, but she raises one of the guard’s guns to Alucard’s head, who begins to tell her the gun is useless, but she cuts him off and says that she will never give into him and will always uphold the honor of the Hellsing organization. He laughs and bows, positive that she is her father’s daughter, and catches a bullet from Richard before allowing Integra to finish the job. Their faces, past and present, meet and smile, and as her younger self, Integra thanks him. Integra wakes to face her doctor, and notices the door closing, smiling when she realizes who just left.
Elsewhere, Incognito, armed with the MGL, a mini-gun and several other armaments, raises multiple pillars of ice from around his frozen island, each pillar containing members of the missing SAS group, as the purple markings cover and radiate his body, he screams for Alucard.
Trivia
-About 2/3 of this episode, i.e. the flashback sequences, is composed of Volume 1 Chapter 2 (also dubbed “Master of Monster”) and V4C1 of the Hellsing manga. The only differences between the two mediums being that, in the anime the flashbacks are pieced out against Integra’s surgery and Seras’ pondering, while the manga showcases Integra’s discovering of Alucard from beginning to end(later adding in V4C1 to Integra’s past), with the end of the chapter returning to the Hellsing manor. The TV series, however, contains one major change of the original source material, in that, when Alucard awakens, he does not immediately fall into the servitude of Integra, at first, he asks Integra if she wishes to serve him, and Integra denounces Alucard completely, earning his respect. This is a move by the show to strengthen Alucard and Integra’s relationship from master and servant to something much more.
-Alucard notes that he has been imprisoned for 20 years, which is apparently the most recent instance where he was magically-bound and sealed, and judging by the flashback he had no loyalty to Hellsing when he blithely murdered so many of its members. Is he any experiment gone wrong, a captured beast, both, or worse?
-More information about General Patton can be found in Hellsing Indepth’s References section.
-Norio Wakamoto, who plays Richard Hellsing in this episode, would go on to play Anderson in the Hellsing OVA.
-Arthur Hellsing, Integra’s father, is the man in the portrait in Integra’s office. As the camera pans about the room during Arthur and his daughter’s discussion, we see a picture of a tan woman holding a young Integra in her arms, which we can assume is her mother, though no information is given on her mother beyond this in either the TV series or manga. In the second picture we see the Hellsing brothers, Arthur and Richard, standing with Walter, indicating that the three run operations at Hellsing.
-This episode appears on the Volume 4 DVD, titled "Eternal Damnation," of Geneon’s release of Hellsing.
