HELLSING SIDE-STORIES
During Hellsing's famed print run, author, Kouta Hirano presented his audience with two extra stories both existing within the limits of the Hellsing universe. The Dawn is presented as the prequel to the events that inspired the original Hellsing novels. Meanwhile, the Crossfire stories were added as supplementary material when Hellsing's tankoban editors motioned that the first three Hellsing volumes did not reach a sufficient page count prior to publication. Please explore the summaries below to find out more on each of these interesting side-stories.
 |
The Dawn [Project Abandoned] |
 |
Click Here to see extra publication information on "The Dawn".
 |
Crossfire |
 |
Click Here to see extra publication information on "Crossfire".
Extra Publication Information on "The Dawn".
Around 2001, Hirano was given the opportunity to write a side-manga in the pages of Shounen Gahousha's Young King OURs+ (Plus) manga anthology magazine. This was possible for Hirano, who was notorious for having deadline problems because the OURs+ books were not on as strict a schedule as YKO proper. This is what brought about Hellsing: The Dawn. Four chapters of The Dawn were printed in OURs+ until the Magazine was canceled.
Later in 2005, when the Hellsing OVA series was announced, Hirano and his editor appeared at Anime Expo 05 to talk about the upcoming OVA. Young Walter's appearence in the trailer prompted fans to ask about the Dawn on a few occasions, at which point his editor proclaimed that if the fans wanted more Dawn, they would produce it. The two then shook hands, with Hirano moaning "Oh great, more deadlines!". Shortly thereafter, OURs+ went back into publication, the first issue of which (Pictured above) was Hellsing-centric. It featured cover art illustrated by Hirano, reprinted every chapter of The Dawn thus far leading up to the newly produced fifth chapter, and included a DVD that featured a recut version of the Anime Expo OVA trailer. After this printing, one more chapter was produced in another OURs+ volume, however it too was canceled as the previous run had been, once again before The Dawn had been brought to a conclusion.
The future of The Dawn is currently unkown. There is information going around that The Dawn is planned to continue publication "after Hellsing proper finishes it's run", however Hellsing has been over for months now, and no word has been given on The Dawn.
Anime Status: When asked at that same Anime Expo 05 panel if The Dawn would be animated (as it had been hinted at in the trailer) fans were told it would. Moreso to that, just prior to OVA IV's release, a promotional wallpaper was released that featured an image of "She", a major figure from the Dawn, hinting at a possible animated version.
UPDATE: Upon the revelation of product specifications for Hellsing VIII It was announced the "THE DAWN" would be animated as a short side-story extra to be included with the Limited edition version of the episode.
Extra Publication Information on "Crossfire".
"Crossfire" was originally written as an unrelated work before Hirano began Hellsing, making it technically another "Prototype" Manga. The major difference here, however is that unlike the others it was actually printed in the pages of Hellsing itself. When Hirano was publishing volume two in Young King OURs, his editors wanted to release a tankobon volume, however there weren't enough pages available to fill a whole volume. The solution was to print one of Hirano's older works about the Iscarot order in the tankobon as a "Special" to provide backstory for them.
The characters in Crossfire are, personality-wise, exactly the same as they would later appear, just shown outside their conflict with Hellsing, making the story apparently "Canon" to Hellsing. The only major differences stem from the character designs. Anderson appears much younger than depicted in Hellsing, having black hair instead of grey and much younger features. Maxwell is also radically different looking, with a very feminine look and glasses, which Hirano later said he had to change because this version of Maxwell "Looks too much like Integra". Heinkel and Yumie however, look exactly like they would later in their appearence in Hellsing proper, with one very aparent exception: in Crossfire, Heinkel has rather large breasts, while in Hellsing is apparenly flat as a board. This has raised some fan questions as to whether Hirano had decided to change Heinkel to a man in Hellsing, or whether she just "straps herself down" to fight. Hirano's never given an entirely concrete answer for this, and has kept Heinkel's true gender ambiguous whenever asked, one time in an interview sugesting she may be intersexed. The OVA didn't aleviate any matters when Heinkel made her appearence there, drawing her the exact same as she appears in Hellsing and giving her a female voice actress who deepens her voice convincingly to a male octive.
Anime Status: At the same Anime Expo 2005 panel mentioned in The Dawn's section, the OVA staff were asked if they would be animating Crossfire as well. Their response was that they had "completely forgotten" about Crossfire, but that they would have to do something involving it because these characters appear in Hellsing later. Their answer to this was a Drama CD released as an extra with Hellsing OVA VI's Limited Edition. A Drama CD does not include any video, it's strictly an audio dramatization played out by voice actors. Every voice from Hellsing proper reprises their roles for this production.