Seras Victoria

Seras Victoria
Publication information
Publisher	Young King OURs
First appearance	Hellsing Volume 1
Created by	Kouta Hirano
In-story information
Alter ego	Seras Victoria
Team affiliations	Hellsing, London Metropolitan Police London Metropolitan Police D-11
Notable aliases	Police Girl Draculina Mignonette Kitten
Abilities	Clairvoyance, superhuman strength, superhuman speed and reflexes, regeneration, skilled fighter and marksman, flight, major shapeshifting since chapter 86, major umbrakinesis, immortality, eternal youth, superhuman senses, familiar summoning, absorbing souls and memories through blood, extremely high tolerance for most vampiric weaknesses.

Seras Victoria (セラス・ヴィクトリア, Serasu Vikutoria) is a fictional character from both the Hellsing anime series and manga series by Kouta Hirano. In both the television series and the OVA, her seiyu is Fumiko Orikasa. Seras' English voice actor in both series was performed by K. T. Gray.

Seras Victoria is one of the main characters in the manga, anime and OVA Hellsing. But in the anime, she acted as the point of view character for the audience. Seras is a Draculina, a term used to refer to the female members of the Dracula bloodline, since she has been turned into a vampire by Dracula. A character similar to Seras was present in a prototype version of Hellsing: Legend of the Vampire Hunter.

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. "Celas" is a real surname, and matches the Japanese spelling, but it is, for some reason, less popular than others. 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 the ship Dracula used to arrive to England)—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 forementioned 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. It is also possible that the name Seras Victoria is derived from Spanish, meaning "you will be victory". Another translation, using Latin, would be "you (the you being a woman) will be victorious".

Profile

Seras was originally a police officer who, along with the rest of her squad, was sent into the village of Cheddar, where a vampire disguised as (or possibly was formerly) a priest had taken control of the town and turned its inhabitants into ghouls (zombies). She was taken hostage by that priest vampire, who used her as a shield from Alucard, she was then given a "choice" by Alucard after shooting her through one of her lungs in order to kill the vampire: she could either die as a human, or be turned into a vampire herself, and live. She chose to live, and so Alucard turned her into a vampire, her virgin blood allowed her to successfully make the transition from human to vampire (non-virgin or same-sex vampire victims become ghouls- this aspect is only present in the original manga and the OVA series however; in the televised series, vampirism is simply determined by the will of the drinking vampire, and possibly by the victim being willing to make the change, and vampires can raise any newly dead humans nearby as ghouls). She was employed by the Hellsing Organization immediately afterwards, and it supplies all her needs such as sufficient blood for consumption and shelter secure from any daylight exposure. Seras is a strong willed woman, and apparently had always been since her childhood which is confirmed through flashbacks.

Seras Victoria is often considered a tomboy; a very brave, strong-willed and heroic young woman who often rejects following orders of her master that cross with her personal beliefs. However, she is a loyal and trustworthy soldier who will diligently follow the orders of her commander, provided said commander has proven his or her worth. Her level of maturity in comparison to the other characters is somewhat questionable; she seems to be the child the others could not be, yet 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 of other characters. She's the "light that stands out from the darkness" (quoting Kouta Hirano from a recent interview). Her actual age is not known but she is generally believed to be at least 18 and is popularly believed to be 19 or 20. The most possible, though, is the latter, since she had already joined the police force at the beginning of the manga, making the age of 18 unlikely.

Seras's father, also a police officer, "got in too deep" during an undercover mission. The group he had infiltrated traced him back to his home and brutally murdered him. Her mother hid Seras in a closet and then walked out to face the criminals, who immediately killed her as well. A distraught Seras charged out and stabbed one of the criminals in the eye with a fork before being shot in the gut and thrown against a bloodstained wall. The flashback ends with Seras seeing glimpses of the criminals having sex with her mother's corpse. 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. 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. There, she expresses her strongest wish - to become a police officer.

Relationship with other characters

With Alucard

Alucard might be aloof and deriding of Seras' intentions to cling to humanity for as long as possible, but he can be quite understanding, as he still values whatever humanity she still has, even if somewhat sarcastic in his approach. For instance, in the Badrick scene, after Seras refuses to drink blood after being attacked by Paladin Alexander Anderson, Alucard melds sarcasm and understanding, by stating that there could be perhaps a space for a vampire like Seras who refused to drink blood, but becomes truly proud of her when she does indeed drink, seeing she has earned her position; it is at this point when he stops calling her "police girl" and starts referring to her by name; this trust is rewarded when she jumps into action upon Anderson's usage of the Nail of Helena and its holy power against Alucard; she stops the divinely-empowered bayonet Anderson had used to try to cut him in half from dealing further damage to allow him to shift to a more potent form even though the fire of the blade had started engulfing her. It is extremely difficult to surmise Alucard's position, but he clearly values Seras' life greatly and only sees his master's life as being as important as hers, as seen in his battle against Walter, when he brags about his master and his fledging being "only his now" to the former butler. As for her own feelings towards him, they involve a great deal of respect, almost always bowing as politely as she knows to his remarks and orders, while still occasionally defending her own stance or rebuffing his position. She was also the most faithful that Alucard would return after the Battle of London, even though 30 years had passed.

With Walter

Walter is also key to Seras' acceptance of her new vampiric powers, and their joint defense of the Round Table meeting against Jan Valentine and his army of ghouls is one of the scant moments when she allows her full powers loose in order to destroy the Hellsing ghouls and stop Jan's attack. He, along with Alucard, is a possible father figure to her, guiding her more gently than the brash No-Life King in the ways of vampirism. It is also possible that he has romantic feelings for Seras, asking Seras if telling her the reasons for his betrayal of Hellsing would "satisfy her". While Walter's own position is uncertain, given his eventual defection to or brainwashing by Millennium, he does give two explanations for his state for Seras' benefit, both saying he is a puppet under Millennium's control and a free man attacking Hellsing out of his own free will. Seras, not knowing what he truly is, demonstrates her affection for him by wishing him well before engaging Alucard. Walter, briefly confused, but still touched, sincerely thanks her and points her and Integra to the Hindenburg II to attack the remnants of the Major's forces.

With Integra

Her relationship with Integra Hellsing is strained and professional in the TV series. It's purely employee-employer with a degree of tension. But in the manga and OVA, the two main heroines interact very well. Seras is dedicated to her and Integra herself trusts her and has expressed sympathy towards the young Draculina. In volume 2, when Seras loses control of her vampire instincts during the attack of the Valentine brothers and kills ghouls in a berserker rage, Integra, who had been looking with horror at her, doesn't hesitate to run to her and embrace her, pleading for her to stop. Seras after this, finds herself again and feels remorse for her actions. In volume 4, chapter 8, seeing that Seras refuses to drink blood, Integra cuts her finger, ordering her to lick it, for both avoiding infection and helping Seras drink blood to become stronger. Seras hesitantly obeys and feels "relief", as Integra says, having drank blood. In volume 7, chapter 10, Seras is the one who saves her from the Iscariot priests, creating a protective barrier all around her with her shadow-shifting abilities of her left arm. Seras does not even have to say that Captain Bernadotte has died before Integra realizes it.

In chapter 82, Integra and Seras face the Captain and Seras suggests that Integra go on to face the Major while she faces the Captain. Integra calls her name, her worry for her obvious and doesn't go further in the ship, unless Seras assures her that she will be all right. Even then, Integra says that she "won't forgive her if she dies". Near the end of the manga, we see that Integra and Seras' relationship has lightened over the years since the battle of London, portrayed by several comedic scenes.

With Pip

Seras also interacts a lot with her Captain, Pip Bernadotte, the leader of the 'Wild Geese' mercenary group. Hirano revealed that "if Seras wasn't a vampire and Pip wasn't a mercenary, they would be the perfect couple, everybody would be envious of".

This is quite clear from the manga: Seras shows genuine grief at the moment of his death, thus she expresses feelings of love that had been developed earlier in the series (confirmed in the title of the chapter: The Man I Love). Along with many humorous fights, both had shared trust and fondness they feel for each other, in volume six, saying to each other "don't die" before a fierce battle with Millennium. Especially from Pip's side, in volume 7 he tries to kiss her twice, only the second try being successful, after the deadly blow by Zorin Blitz. He offers his blood and life to her when she's mortally wounded, suggesting that from now on they will "fight together" to "crush them all." Seras accepts and, since that incident, Pip exists within her and they become one when Seras is in need of help for a combat (such as Zorin or the Captain-in chapter 86, Pip is revealed to be Seras' familiar). This relationship is absent in the TV series.

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, single-shot, break action, breech loader cannon uses various types of shells, 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. Carrying this weapon, the vampirically-enhanced Seras serves perfectly as long-range fire support. Her immense strength also allows her to use the weapon while moving; sometimes, especially in the manga, she wields it with an extraordinary ease, even firing over her shoulder. Before gaining the Harkonnen, Seras used a smaller rifle, firing 12.7 mm rounds, as is seen written on the gun in the OVA. In the manga this gun is unnamed but the letters BAERLKS are spelled out on its side; in the OVA, however, the gun has Harkonnen written in the same place.

Later on, for the purpose of defending Hellsing HQ, Seras used the Extra Long-Range Bombardment Firearm system for Localized defensive use "Harkonnen Cannon II". It had a gross weight of 345 kg 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 Millennium airships. For additional firepower, the pair of cannons could double as a grenade launcher, launching two of the immense explosive incendiary grenades for wide-area field dominance "Vladimir," one from each barrel. Due to Seras's vampire strength, she could move around with the system with relative ease after she discarded the massive ammo boxes.

Although she loses her weapons during the confrontation with Zorin, relying instead on her "Shadow Arm," Seras makes use of firearms again during the confrontation with the Captain, using a pair of MG-42 Machine Guns salvaged from dead Millennium soldiers. In a recent chapter, she even used a Flak gun to destroy a bullet-proof glass wall that protected the Major.

File:HarkonnenOVA26717.png

The Harkonnen spirit in the OVA

Seras's 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 thus OVA) 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.

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 of the anime when facing against Incognito. 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 faster than bullets. But without a doubt, the best example of her unique strength (before drinking Pip's blood) is in episode 6 of the TV series or episode 2 of the OVA when, when the ghouls starts drooling and groping her she enters "Berserker Mode"; she destroys almost a few dozen ghouls in mere seconds in a furious, mindless state. The series has shown this trait more than once, including squashing a ghoul's head until it exploded. Her abilities greatly increase during Volume 7 of the manga (when she becomes a true vampire) when she destroys an entire row of vampires in a single move. Her overall fighting style is fairly strategic; unlike Alucard, she has no desire to find an opponent capable of ending her life, and thus does not give her opponents chances to defeat her. After being fatally wounded by Zorin's scythe, Pip tells Seras, who was blinded and crippled, to drink his blood so they can win together; he dies before she can respond. She does drink, however, and becomes one of the "True Undead." Her eyes regenerate and she regains the use of her legs. Furthermore her left arm, which had been severed at the shoulder, is restored as the same type of shadow-matter that Alucard can manipulate. It seems that upon becoming a full vampire, Seras has inherited some of Alucard's powers, and perhaps whatever modifications Hellsing had made to him as well. After she kills Zorin, Seras uses her new powers to fly to London and defend Sir Integra from the treacherous Iscariot priests. She also appears to gain the ability to regenerate her limbs as seen when she and the Captain destroy each other's arms during their fight, but Seras is seen a few pannels later with both arms.

After drinking Pip's blood, Seras displays a few changes. Not only are her powers vastly enhanced, but it is also evident that she is no longer afraid to use them. Some of Pip's self-confidence seems to have rubbed off: after descending upon an armed party of Iscariot soldiers who are about to kill Integra, Alexander Anderson notes her change, declaring her an unholy creature (while Anderson displayed his characteristic hatred of vampires towards her before, he was convinced of Seras' status as a "rookie", and favored confronting Alucard to concentrating on her). Seras, in response, calmly smiles and says that she's "not afraid of anything anymore". When Iscariot agent Heinkel Wolfe attempts to duel with her, Anderson stops her, saying Iscariot has no longer any means to truly wound Seras.

A very well-known and respected group of fan-translators known as the Birds of Hermes have stated that the memories seen in Seras' mind are a Ricean metaphor in which blood carries and transmits memories (essentially fragments of the soul) that act like film negatives, but lack the original consciousness, creating a copy of the mind. One scene relates particularly well to this issue. 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 the place Pip died but with his body nowhere to be found is shown and the Geese, catching on to something, stand to attention, salute, and say "Yes Sir!" as she flies off to Sir Integra's aid. In chapter 85 - Warcraft (3), Pip's spirit speaks to a wounded Seras after an assault from the Captain. At the end of the conversation, it's implied they are going to fight "together" against this foe once again. Due to mistranslation, in the German edition of the Hellsing manga, Seras affirms to Integra that she turned Pip into a vampire. Unusually, Pip appears to have retained his personality as a somewhat separate entity from Seras's consciousness, unlike Alucard's familiars who are simply subservient tools for his use. It is unknown to what degree the two consciousnesses are separate, as Pip had to actually offer his help to Seras during her fight with the Captain rather than her simply accessing him (she was about ready to give up and die when he intervened, leading one to believe that she cannot access his consciousness at will or that Pip had to struggle to reach her). However, when Zorin tried to use her powers of illusion against the newly-vampiric Seras, she found that she could not because of the fact that Pip's memories were integrated with Seras's own, and thus she could not target a specific individual.

Around the end of volume 8 and the beginning of volume 9, 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 grabs the blade to prevent further damage to Alucard, but the thorns and flames start to consume her. This gives Alucard enough time to shift into a more powerful form and resume combat against Anderson. Following Anderson's defeat, she boarded the Hindenburg II with Integra in order to finish off Millennium. After protecting Integra from Waffen SS vampires, she engaged the Captain in battle. After a vicious battle which demolishes Hindenburg II's main hanger, Seras kills her nemesis with help from her new familiar, Pip.

In the TV series, she doesn't portray much power beyond superhuman endurance, strength and senses as well as a slight clairvoyant ability. She does bend a machine gun barrel with ease before drinking blood in an episode, showing that she does possess enhanced strength. However in the manga she demonstrates considerable power even before her transformation is complete, the extent and range of which is unknown but far superior to the levels she is depicted as having in the TV series. 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 can also make her teeth very sharp, like most other vampires. After consuming Pip's blood, the effectiveness of all these abilities sky-rocketed and several more were added.

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 phenomenal lifting strength and load-bearing abilities, 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, though in the sixth OVA the system is shown to deploy several metal planks to affix her to her position. In addition, her wings do not flap. Instead, she soars much like a bullet.

She can also absorb souls carried in the blood of others. Her most dramatic power, however, is the use of solid shadows from which she can control and shape at whim that emanate from the stump that was her left arm, allowing her to create a bat wing to fly at enormous speeds and then later use it as a non-lethal weapon against Iscariot priests who held her boss, Integra Hellsing, prisoner. She has also used this power to recreate her arm to wield two pistols at once; also, she can turn them into normal shadows, which follow her slithering much like Zorin Blitz's tattoos follow her; lastly, she has demonstrated the ability to turn them into deadly spikes capable of stabbing and killing effortlessly. Her fully vampiric form might lack a human left arm, as it was severed by Zorin Blitz just before she became a true vampire. Her current power levels are unknown, although her transformation does not appear to have progressed at all since her absorption of Pip. Like Alucard, her transformation was completed upon her truly embracing her vampiric nature and brought about the enhanced effects and access to the higher-level powers; subsequent souls would thus serve only to increase her overall power level without changing the nature of her powers. The overall progression of her abilities and combat prowess is best depicted by the fact that Seras (with Pip's help), managed to not only do battle with the experienced Captain, Millennium's greatest soldier (besides Dark Walter) on nearly equal terms, but best him. Prior to drinking Pip's blood, Seras could not walk in the sun without a hooded jacket and overcast skies. However, after she does, she is able to stand sunlight and has a shadow, as depicted in Chapter 73.

TV series version

File:Seras Victoria.jpg

Seras in the anime series

The TV series version changes numerous details of Seras' backstory, and changes her importance: while Alucard, Integra, and Seras 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 side, seen in the manga and the OVA series, is not present in the anime series (though a scene in episode 6 hints at it). However, it is notable that her hair is orange and her eyes become red as soon as Alucard makes her a vampire. She also starts drinking the medical blood after watching Alucard feed off Kim (the reporter from episodes 2 and 4), but no difference is seen in her appearance or behavior, other than her suit color, which is yellow with white stockings and brown gloves in the manga and OVA, and a blue uniform with black stockings and white gloves in the TV series.

Her affiliation with the English police is also different. In the manga, Seras is a solitary constable assigned to Cheddar, but in the OVA, Seras was partnered with two male officers, Simon and Eddie. Both men were turned into ghouls by the priest vampire.

The TV series, however, has Seras placed in Division 11, the precursor to SO19 team sent to Cheddar to combat the vampire. Seras' D-11 teammates often watched out for her, affectionately referring to her as "Kitten". Sadly, Seras' entire D-11 team was turned into ghouls, either by the priest vampire or the other ghouls roaming Cheddar. In the manga and OVA, Seras confronted the priest vampire outside, while in the TV series Seras confronted him inside the village church.

Owing to the vastly different TV series continuity after episode 7, the interaction 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 final episode of the anime. She drinks his blood, but does not show the power increase that she showed in the manga/ova. It could be however, be due to Alucard being dead at the time she drank the blood. Incognito even states that " Even if you drank every last drop of your master off the tower, you will never become a true Nosferatu. You're running out of blood, and soon you will run out. You're already dead, there's nothing for you to be afraid of any more."