Seras Victoria

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Seras Victoria
Publisher Young King OURs First appearance Hellsing volume 1 Created by Kouta Hirano
Characteristics Alter ego Seras Victoria Affiliations Hellsing, Police Notable aliases Police Girl Draculina Mignonette Abilities Clairvoyance, Super-human strength, Regeneration, Flight, Minor Transformation(in the left arm)

Seras Victoria (セラス・ヴィクトリア, Serasu Vikutoria^?) is a character from the anime and manga series Hellsing. In both the TV series and OVA series she is voiced by Fumiko Orikasa, with her English voice in both series provided by K.T. Gray.

Contents 1 Name 2 Profile 3 Weapons 4 Powers 5 TV Series version

[edit] Name

"Seras Victoria" is a British character, yet her name sounds as if it were put in Japanese (surname first) order. It is also possible that Seras (serasu) is intended to be "Celes," which would be a correct British spelling, but "Celes" would usually be represented as seresu in Japanese. The final variant is "Ceres," which seems to be tied in popularity with "Seras". This is most likely the case, because Ceres was a Roman goddess—Demeter, in the name's Greek form (and the name of Alucard's ship in chapter 57 Wizardry)—and the name spawned from mythology, which Hellsing is heavily steeped in (e.g. the Bird of Hermes) and Hirano is prone to using. However, at Anime Expo '05, Kouta Hirano himself apparently dispelled the idea that any one spelling of the aforementioned English variations of her name was technically/canonically correct. When asked by a fan what the correct spelling was, he replied that he was pressed for time when he was coming up with her name, and because his English is limited he never derived an anglicized equivalent, implying that fans can use whichever romanized version they fancy most.

[edit] Profile

A policewoman who, along with the rest of her squad, was sent into Cheddar Village, where a vampire dressed as a priest had taken control of the town and turned its inhabitants into ghouls (zombies). Taken hostage by that vampire, who used her as a human shield, she was given a choice by Alucard: she could either die together with the vampire, or be turned into a vampire herself, and live. She chose to live, and so Alucard turned her into a vampire, her virgin blood allowing her to successfully make the transition from human to vampire (non-virgin vampire victims become ghouls). She was employed by the Hellsing Organization immediately afterwards. She is still the kind and doubting woman that she's always been, but is now forced to deal with her new condition and aggressive urges (which appear to be inherent in her human side as well).

She forms a romantic bond with Pip Bernadotte, the leader of the 'Wild Geese' mercenary group (though neither realizes the other's love until after Pip's death). During the siege of the Hellsing Mansion, he was killed by Zorin's scythe and Seras blinded, but not before getting a kiss from Seras. He tells her to drink his blood so they can win together, but he dies before she can respond. She does drink, however, becomes one of the "True Undead," and her eyes regenerate. Her left arm, which had been severed at the shoulder, is now the type of shadow-matter that Alucard has the ability to turn himself into, suggesting that upon becoming a full vampire, Seras has inherited Alucards powers and perhaps whatever modifications Hellsing had made to him. After killing Zorin, she uses her new powers to fly into London and defend Sir Integra from the treacherous Iscariot priests.

In her fight with Zorin (before she bites Pip), Zorin hypnotizes Seras into a flashback, and we see a gruesome scene from Seras' past. Apparently, Seras's father was also a police officer who "got in too deep" during an undercover mission. The group he had infiltrated traced him back to his home and killed him brutally. Her mother hid Seras in a closet and (for some reason) walked out to face the criminals, and they immediately killed her as well. A distraught Seras then charges out and stabs one of the criminals in the eye with a fork. She is then shot in the gut and thrown against a wall, and the flashback ends with Seras seeing glimpses of the criminals having their way with her mother's dead body. It was also shown that, after the ordeal in her orphanage, she threw a stone at another child for taking a toy she was playing with, other acts of violence was noted as well. Near the end of the flashback, Seras is told that she may be relocated if her violence continues, as the orphanage may not be able to care for her any longer.

It is debated whether or not Pip is really with her. Whether he is is hard to say and seemingly open to opinion, a very well-known and respected group of fan-translators known as the Birds of Hermes have confirmed that the memories seen in Seras's mind are a Ricean metaphor where in which blood carries and transmits memories and essentially fragments of the soul like the negatives of film but spares the consciousness, basically making it a copy of the mind. It is also noted that, after killing Zorin, Seras walks up to the remaining Wild Geese with a smile, telling them that she would fulfill her promise and crush the Nazis. A shot of Pip's body is shown, and the Geese seem to catch onto something, since they stand to attention and say "Yes Sir!" as they salute her before she flies off to Sir Integra's aid. It is therefore believed that at least the Geese consider that some part of Pip lives on within Seras (although whether it's his memory or his actual soul, it is never specified). Due to mistranslation, in the German edition of the Hellsing manga, Seras affirms to Integra that she turned Pip into a vampire.

Seras starts off as the comic relief with little relevance to the plot but, in later volumes, she has become a major player next to Integra and Alucard. She’s the heart to their mind and power. Even possessing the most panel time next to Alucard, however she has the least dialogue next to the Captain, making her quite the paradoxical character, although it should be noted that she was in the prototype version of Hellsing: Legend of the Vampire Hunter.

Seras is an unsophisticated and simplistic tomboy; a very brave, strong willed and heroic girl that can sometimes be too stubborn and disobedient for her own good. She is, however, a very loyal and trustworthy soldier who will diligently follow the orders of her commander, provided said commander has proven his/her worth to Seras. It's somewhat questionable how mature she is compared to other characters; she seems to be the child the others could not be, possessing a sort of worldly maturity and superficial intelligence that most other characters lack, as well as a sort of 'nature winning against nurture' mentality, as opposed to most other characters. Also widely believed to be the shy, introverted type, she seems more like the brooding and anti-social who bottles up her emotions: however, she seemingly outgrew hostility towards others, replacing it with silent concideration (she never trusts blindly) and slight insecurity. This insecurity is reflected only when she doubts about the expectations of others concerning her actions or when venturing out of her shell, as she seems highly confident whenever her commander and her expectations are in accordance. She's also heavily erotophobic. She's the "light that stands out from the darkness" (quoting Kouta Hirano from a recent interview; that may explain why he chose to color her uniform with a bright shade of yellow).

After drinking Pip's blood, however, Seras displays a few new abilities and characteristics, believed to have been brought about by his blood. Not only are her powers enhanced, but it is also visible that she is no longer afraid to use them. Some of Pip's self-confidence also seems to be present: after descending upon an armed party of Millenium soldiers who attempted to kill Sir Integra and the Section XIII that Enrico had assigned to keep her in check, Anderson notes her change and appears unpleasantly shocked by it, declaring her an unholy creature and generally discrediting her (previously, though he displayed his characteristic hatred towards vampires towards her, Anderson was convinced of her status as a "rookie", and favored confronting Alucard verbally and physically to concentrating on her). Seras, in response, calmly smiles and agrees that she's "not afraid of anything anymore".

In recent chapters, Alucard appears to be on the losing end in his battle against a god-like Anderson. Alucard is nearly sliced in two by Anderson's bayonet and can't seem to regenerate the damage. Seras appears at the last second and tears the blade from his chest but the thorns and what appears to be holy fire start to consume her. This gives Alucard enough time to shift into a more powerful form and resume combat against Anderson. With Anderson's defeat, she now is guarding Integra. Seras and Integra were last seen boarding the Major's zepplin to terminate him and the rest of the crew (starting with an unfortunate Schrodinger).

[edit] Weapons

Victoria's preferred (or at least most popularly associated with her) weapon is the Hellsing ARMS Anti-Midian Cannon 'Harkonnen'. Weighing 120 lb. (~60 kg) unloaded this 30 mm cannon uses various types of shells available, including depleted uranium with silver for piercing armored targets and incendiary napalm rounds for destroying large groups of opponents both on land and in the air. It is a single-shot breech loader. Carrying this weapon, the now-vampire Seras serves perfectly as long-range fire support. Her immense strength allows her to use the weapon while moving as well: sometimes, especially in the manga, she wields it with an extraordinary ease, firing over her shoulder. Before gaining the Harkonnen however, she used a relatively smaller rifle, possibly around the same range and firepower as a .50 caliber rifle (estimated by the fact that she shoots a vampire at around 500 to 600 meters with ease). In the manga this gun is unnamed but has the letters BAERLKS spelled out on its side (in the OVA, however, this gun has Harkonnen spelled out in the same place).

This weapon seems like something of a joke, but in the sixth volume of the manga there is a slight 'Vlad the Impaler' parallel: Seras uses her sniper rifle to impale a SS vampire through the mouth before firing, mirroring Vlad Tepes' technique of impaling people on spears. This is one of many subtle parallels drawn out between Seras and her sire.

Later on, for the purpose of defending Hellsing HQ, she also used the Extra Long-Range Bombardment Firearm system for Localized defensive use "Harkonnen II". It had a gross weight of 345kg and sported a pair of 30 mm auto cannons belt-fed from two large ammunition boxes carried on her back. Its maximum range was 4000m, and could snipe fast moving missiles and even shoot down a Millennium airships while still remaining mobile. For additional firepower, the pair of cannons could double as a grenade launcher, launching two of the explosive incendiary grenades for wide-area field dominance "Vladimir," one from each barrel. Due to Seras' vampire strength, she could move around with the system with relative ease after she discarded the massive ammo boxes.

Seras' signature weapons are named after the main antagonist of Frank Herbert's novel Dune, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. This is further reinforced by the appearance of the gun's "spirit" during dream sequences in the manga and episode previews in the anime; the spirit in question bears a strong resemblance to Baron Harkonnen from David Lynch's film adaptation of the novel.

[edit] Powers

Although she primarily uses weapons such as her Harkonnen, Seras is well-trained in hand-to-hand combat and can easily take down opponents using brute strength as shown in Episodes 12 and 13 when facing against the powerful FREAK zombie. It isn't stated how well-trained she is or what techniques she knows, although she states that she received basic self-defense training in Volume 2 of the manga when she became a police officer. She demonstrates some maneuvers and attacks such as kicks and karate chops that suggest that she is taught in some kind of martial arts. Specifically, she put Jan Valentine in a hold, preventing him from moving. She has strong legs and can run very fast, even faster than bullets. But without a doubt, the biggest example of her unique strength is in episode 6 of the TV series or episode 2 of the OVA when she destroys almost a few dozen ghouls in mere seconds, after temporarily letting loose her strength. Her abilities greatly increase during Volume 7 of the manga (when she becomes a true vampire) when she decimates an entire row of vampires in a single move.

In the fanworld, Seras' powers are the subject of a lot of debate and unofficial fan development. Interestingly, anime based fanfiction often portrays her as vastly powerful while manga based ones portrays her as vastly weak. In the anime, she doesn't portray much power beyond superhuman endurance, strength and senses as well as a slight clairvoyance ability. She does bend a machine gun barrel with ease in an episode, showing that she does possess strength. However in the manga she demonstrates considerable power the extent and range of which is unknown. In a manner consistent with vampire lore in popular culture, Seras's powers seem to be derived from those of her sire.

At first she displayed superhuman strength (presumably she can lift at least 6 tons), superspeed (she can dodge bullets at close range), a "third eye" ability like clairvoyance that lets her penetrate illusions and see things from afar as well as sense auras by the look of it, and regeneration (at whose level is unknown but it is quite potent despite the fact that she only drank blood once before Pip, when it was offered by Integra). She could also make her teeth very sharp like most other vampires. After consuming what blood of Pip's she could her clothes get covered in blood from all the slaughtering she did and her hair turned white (according to a recent statue made of her) and depending on which comic cover one follows her eyes turned red (Controversially, a Japanese comic cover featuring her face has her with red eyes but still blonde hair and a yellow uniform however the OVA explains this by making her blue eyes glow red whenever she uses her powers.). Finally her previous abilities sky-rocketted and she learned how to dispel Zorin's magic with a thought. (Zorin saw a mixed series of memories, memories contained within the minds of both Pip and Seras...then Seras grabbed her.)

Another ability whose presence is analogous to Anderson's 4-dimensional status is telekinesis or more accurately tactile telekinesis. Despite having a slight frame and little weight she has the greatest lifting strength and load bearing abilities of all characters but her limbs come under none of the normal strain of such weight and such objects do not crumble when carried. Furthermore extremely high recoil and normally turret fixed weapons afford no such problems to Seras even though powerful muscles would afford her little help without a strong footing. In addition her wings do not flap, instead she soars like a bullet.

Presumably she can also absorb souls (or at least memories) carried in the blood of others, though it has yet to be revealed if she can summon Pip as a familiar like Alucard does. Her most dramatic power, however, is the use of solid shadows from which she makes a bat wing that emanate from the stump that was her left arm, allowing her to fly at enormous speeds and then later use it as a non-lethal weapon against Iscariot. Her overall power level remains under question; Anderson seems to regard her as a true Nosferatu who still conceals herself in human visage and the Major calls her 'one of the fighters in the final tragedy of Walpurgisnacht'.

[edit] TV Series version

The TV series version changes numerous details of Seras' backstory, and changes her importance: whilst Alucard and Integra are the central characters of the manga, the anime focuses more on Seras' point of view, and her struggling to come to terms with her new life as a vampire. Her darker, more aggressive side seen in the manga is not present in the original anime series. However, it is notable that her eyes become red as soon as Alucard makes her a vampire. She also starts drinking medical blood after watching Alucard feed off Kim, but no difference is seen in her appearance or behaviour.

Owing to the vastly different TV series continuity after episode 7, the love plot with Pip Bernadotte is not present. Instead, Seras must struggle with the temptation to drink Alucard's blood, thus fully realizing her vampiric powers, something she does in the last episode of the anime. She drinks his blood, but does not show the grotesque power increase that she showed in the manga. The anime version of Seras is also considered to be a sex symbol by many, though this may be typical of the anime genre that she is in.

Her character in the 2006 Hellsing OVA is much closer to her manga incarnation, in both design and personality.