In this world, there are monsters that lurk in the darkness. Ones waiting to devour everything you are and hold dear. To stem the tide of this darkness is the Hellsing Organization. Commanded by Integra Hellsing, the organization’s powerful military force dedicate their lives to fighting monsters. However, their most powerful weapon is the vampire, Alucard, who turned against his own kind in service to Hellsing. Now with his new vampire assistant Seres at his side, he must battle not only monsters, but anyone that stands in Hellsing’s way.
Hellsing Ultimate was not the last anime series to dump blood and viscera upon the heads of audiences, but it was certainly memorable for it. If you need more vicious and bloody anime recommendations like Hellsing Ultimate, head on down below.
Anime Like Hellsing Ultimate
For Fans of Visceral, Violent Vampires
Trinity Blood
After Armageddon, an endless war started between humans and vampires. In order to keep up with the chaos, the Vatican had to entrust some of its battles to outside allies. One such ally is Abel, a wandering priest and crusnik, a vampire that feeds on the blood of other vampires.
If you combined Alucard and Anderson into one body and gave him bishounen hair, you would have Abel. Although, it doesn’t feature a lot of the insane laughing scenes, Trinity Blood deals with a lot of the same ideas as Hellsing like religion, secret organizations, and fighting vampires in a larger conflict.
Black Blood Brothers
Ten years after the Holy War in Hong Kong, Mochizuki Jirou returns home to Japan with his brother Kotarou. The two soon discover that the Kowloon Children, enemies that Jirou thought he had defeated, are still alive. Now the world is separated into three factions: the red bloods that are human, the black bloods that are vampires, and the old bloods that are descendants of an ancient vampire clan. When his brother gets capture, Jirou finds he must fight again.
Like Hellsing, Black Blood Brothers tells the tale of two vampires that fight other vampires. However, they are also somehow better than other vampires. It also seems worth mentioning that Alucard kind of jacked Jirou’s style.
Shiki
The fifteen-year-old Megumi Shimizu dreamed of leaving her small country town behind for the big city, but those dreams died when she did. It was her murder that kicked off a summer of blood and terror in this small town where a city boy and a country doctor try to stop the epidemic of death happening around them.
Aside from vampires and so much gruesome violence, Shiki and Hellsing have very little else in common. Both can be a bit dialogue-heavy at times, but Hellsing at least makes up for it with it by a lot of good action scenes. Shiki has the blood, but it isn’t exactly and action anime so much as it is a mystery one.
Blood+
Saya Otonashi lives a dull life as an amnesiac in Okinawa City. However, her forgotten past comes back to haunt her one night when she is attacked by a creature that feeds on human blood. After being saved by a mysterious man, he forced her to drink blood, sending her into a monster-slaying trance.
Obviously both Blood+ and Hellsing Ultimate are about killing vampires. Both regularly features great action sequences with plenty of gore, but Blood+ is tamer and a little more drama-oriented at times.
Devils’ Line
In this world, vampires, or devils as they are often called, live among humans. The majority of humanity isn’t aware of them as they do not differ much from normal humans. A vampire does not even need to drink human blood, but once they taste it or sometimes even just see it, they experience such lust and pleasure that they are driven crazy with desire. Anzai, a half-vampire, is part of a secret sub-section of the police force that deals with these rogue vampires that transform and go on a rampage. One day, he saves college student Tsukasa from a vampire and their fates become intertwined.
While Devils’ Line is often more focused on romance, what it does share with Hellsing is its non-romantic plot of the city using a subsection of police staffed by controlled vampires to deal with other rogue vampires. Furthermore, both Hellsing and Devils’ Line paint vampirism in a more interesting light compared to some takes on the lore.
Mars Red
In 1923, a rise in an illegal artificial blood trade in Tokyo has seen a dramatic rise of vampires in the city. To combat this, Special Forces Unit 16, also known as Code Zero, was established to hunt down these vampires. Colonel Yoshinobu Maeda has been placed in charge of the unit, tasked with disrupting the artificial blood trade and dispatching of the vampires that are causing havoc. To help him, the unit is staffed with vampires that have fallen under the government thumb.
Both Hellsing and Mars Red follow a government-sanctioned, but secret-kept organization that deals with the vampire menace in the city using other vampires. The biggest differences are the settings and the fact that Mars Red prefers more grounded characters.
Sirius the Jaeger
In 1930’s Tokyo, vampires have infested the city to feed. To deal with the problem, the authorities have contracted the Jaegers, a diverse group of mysterious individuals, that have been tasked to hunt down the vampires. Yuliy is the most skilled warrior of the Jaegers and uses his werewolf blood to augment his abilities. However, their cooperation with the police is really just a front. Yuliy and the rest of the Jaegers are fighting vampires to protect the mystical Ark of Sirius, a relic whose power can change the world.
While Sirius the Jaeger isn’t quite as graphically violent, it is, like Hellsing, a series about an organization that hunts vampires. Of course, these warriors aren’t quite human themselves which allows for a certain grand action when it comes to battle.
If vampires in anime are your thing, check out these 20 Vicious Vampire Characters!
For Fans of Blood-Splattering Violence
Elfen Lied
After violently breaking out of the institution that kept her prisoner, Lucy, a member of a race with horns and telekinetic powers, has lost her memories. In her state of instability, she takes of residence with two college students whose act of kindness will change their lives as they find themselves dragged into the shadowy world of government conspiracy.
Like blood and body parts just flying everywhere? Then Elfen Lied is a good series to follow up your Hellsing binge. Elfen Lied is renowned for being pretty violent, but unlike Hellsing Ultimate, it takes breaks from the seriousness to focus on Lucy’s cute alternate personality, similar to how Seras and Pip take breaks for comic relief and flirting.
Drifters
While forming the rear guard for his uncle’s escape, Toyohisa Shimazu manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa, but is critically wounded himself in the process. While trying to limp back home, he finds himself transported from the field to a hallway lined with doors. There a mysterious man sends him spiraling into another world. Dragged into the forest by two young elves, Toyohisa is patched up by two others from the Land of the Rising Sun that turn out to be Yoichi Suketaka Nasu and Oda Nobunaga. From there, Toyohisa and his fellow historical figures, named “drifters” must save (or conquer) their new world.
Both Drifters and Hellsing were created by the same guy, Kouta Hirano. You not only get that same distinct art style, but you also get that same passion for creating just absolutely psychotic characters. However, Drifters kind of forgoes plot and just likes to make historical figures fight. …And that is just perfect!
Rin – Daughters of Mnemosyne
After accidentally becoming infected by a time fruit from Yggdrasil, Rin Asogi finds herself cursed with immortality. Never aging and never dying, she now works as a private detective. However, in the year 1990, a series of events spark a situation that may put immortals like Rin in danger.
When you are immortal, you can take a lot of terrible things done to you. Many series that have immortality in it tend to gloss over this part, but not Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne. Like to watch women get beaten and brutally tortured like in the fights featuring Seras or Integra in Hellsing Ultimate? Well, here you go. Furthermore, Rin, in her personality, is not so different from Integra in Hellsing.
Black Lagoon
Average business man Rokurou Okajima found his life turned upside down when he was captured and held hostage by a mercenary group in Thailand called Black Lagoon. After learning how disposable his life was to his company, he decides to quit the salaryman life and join the very group of mercenaries that held him hostage. While he finds himself unexpectedly good at their various work, his ideals about the world vastly clash with those of his companions.
In Hellsing, the organization fights monsters. In Black Lagoon, the mercenaries fight humans who act like monsters. Dark, gritty, and occasionally comedic, Black Lagoon captures the same vicious feel of Hellsing without having literal buckets of blood streaming through the streets.
Tokyo Ghoul
The citizens of Tokyo now live in fear of vicious creatures called ghouls that blend in alongside humans and feast on their flesh. One day, Ken Kaneki, a shy college student, meets a girl called Rize who is also an avid reader like him. Unfortunately, as he finds out on his first date, Rize turns out to be a ghoul. Just when she is about to eat him, Kaneki is saved, barely clinging to life. In the process of surviving this attack, Kaneki finds out that he has now become a ghoul.
While the main character in Tokyo Ghoul never quite reaches that same level of classic anti-hero cool that Alucard has, this series about flesh-eating ghouls is as visceral as the vampire-oriented Hellsing when it comes to the quality of graphic violence. They also have a shared passion for lightly psychotic characters as well.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
During the industrial revolution of their world, a monster appeared that cannot be killed unless pierced through its iron-protected heart. Those who are bitten by the creature become zombies know as Kabane. On the island of Hinomoto, humanity has built stations to seek refuge from these creatures. Ikoma lives at a station that brings supplies to the island and has created a weapon he believes can fight these creatures. While waiting for a chance to test it, he meets a mysterious girl named Mumei. After following her, he might just get the chance he desires.
While Kabaneri has a plot more akin to Attack on Titan, it has a ferocity of violence more similar to Hellsing. It follows humanity threatened by what are essentially flesh-eating zombies and a main character who has infused himself with some of that zombie blood, but kept his mind. The deaths are violent, and the battles are slick. However, there isn’t the same sort of variety of creatures in it that Hellsing has.
High School of the Dead
It happened suddenly. The dead rose and threw Japan into chaos. In the high school of Takashi Kimuro, the situation forced him to kill his bitten best friend and protect the man’s girlfriend, Rei. As they narrowly escape the school with a few others, they find the real survival just beginning.
Aside from both having an abundance of zombies, the biggest similarity between High School of the Dead and Hellsing is its passion for bloody violence and big-breasted women. If that didn’t intrigue you, there’s nothing else I can say to sell it. Oh, it also has a character based on Hellsing’s author, so I guess the High School of the Dead author was a big fan.
For Fans of Masters and Their Powerful Servants
Black Butler
Young Earl Ciel Phantomhive is a noble in the service of Queen Victoria of England. Not only does he handle the business affairs of his family’s toy business, but he travels around solving mysteries that irk Her Majesty’s kingdom. However, he doesn’t do it alone. After the death of his parents and in his darkest hour, Ciel formed a pact with a demon to help him get revenge on those that wronged him in exchange for his soul afterwards. Now this demon poses as his butler, Sebastian, a man with superhuman abilities.
While Black Butler can be brutal, its brutality isn’t shown in a shower of blood like in Hellsing. Regardless, like Hellsing, the story is set in Victorian England where a young noble is assisted in his endeavors by an evil creature of immense power whose personage seeps with a sinister longing.
The Case Study of Vanitas
Scorned by his vampire peers for being born under a blue moon, it is said that the vampire Vanitas created a powerful grimoire known as the Book of Vanitas that would bring retribution to all crimson moon vampires. On his way to Paris, Noe is searching for this fabled book. While traveling aboard an airship, he is saved from a vampire attack by an eccentric man that claims to posses the Book of Vanitas and uses it to cure the attacking vampire that was driven rabid by a progressing event afflicting vampires called the Charlatan’s Parade.
In its own way, The Case Study of Vanitas is a Hellsing for people who don’t actually want all the blood and edge. Instead, it focuses on a vampire who ends up guarding a human, who isn’t quite as powerless as he seems, as they dispatch out of control vampires. Like Hellsing, it is also a sort of Victorian-inspired world, but Vanitas is firmly rooted in steampunk.
Gungrave
Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowel grew up on the streets together and both turned to crime in order to get by. However, when their activities are noticed by the eyes of the expansive Millennion mafia syndicate, the pair find themselves brought under their wings and rising through the ranks. Things go well until one fateful day that changes it all. Years later, Brandon Heat is brought back from the dead to fight Millennion and its new leader, Harry MacDowel.
While Gungrave shines most through its flashback episodes, the core of the series is about how a man betrayed is resurrected to be a bodyguard to a weak and threatened girl. Like Alucard, Grave is an undead gunslinger, but not quite as subdued by his master so much as he is endeared to her.
Jormungand
After being raised in a conflict area and living as a child soldier, Jonah hates weapons, but when he takes a job as a bodyguard to the arms dealer, Koko, he is left with no choice in the matter. Alongside a number of other skilled bodyguards, Jonah must protect Koko and her idealistic goal of world peace in a vicious world.
Not unlike Integra, Koko in Jormungand is not a fighter. She is a plotter. It is instead her slew of skilled mercenaries that help her carry out the plan. The “Alucard” in Jormungand isn’t quite as invincible, but he is fairly skilled.
Claymore
In Claymore, the world is overcome with demons called Yoma that constantly plague humanity. After Raki’s parents were killed by Yoma, he teams up with Claire, a Claymore, an order of powerful half-human, half-Yoma women that are shunned by society but fight to rid the world of Yoma. Together, each learns more about the each other and work towards their own goals.
Hellsing and Claymore are like best friends who hold hands. They are both dark, violent, and so viciously bloody. In its bare essentials, they are also about the same thing. Hellsing has vampires fighting vampires, Claymore has Yoma-infused humans fighting Yoma.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Hellsing Ultimate? Let fans know in the comments section below.
