“I originally meant for it to be a joke”: Kouta Hirano’s One Joke Forced a Hellsing Character to Change Voice Actors
Kouta Hirano’s action-horror manga Hellsing starts a century or so later after Abraham Ven Helsing defeated Dracula. Contrary to the account of Bram Stoker, Dracula was not slaughtered; he was merely cowed and became the Helsing (eventually Hellsing) family retainer.
Hellsing is one of the best, if not the best, vampire manga. The series throws readers into a sinister setting where humans and demonic creatures cohabit and their world collides. While Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a timeless classic, Hellsing melds Japanese manga traditions with Western film themes, making things a bit more interesting with a cocktail of different elements.
Kouta Hirano Revealed Heinkel’s Voice Actor Had To Be Changed Because Of a Joke
Kouta Hirano’s unique sense of humor was exposed in an interview, which was released in an official guidebook for Hellsing in Japan in 2012 after the release of the final OVA episode. The guide consists of artwork, character trivia, and three of Hirano’s interviews.
The third interview contains all the fun tidbits, ranging from Hirano’s favorite and least favorite character(s) to Hirano’s favorite and least favorite things to draw. Apart from that, Hirano also reveals a secret Hellsing trivia, which was quite unexpected. According to the interview, Heinkel being a futanari was meant as a joke. Hirano said:
Like Heinkel being a futanari. I originally meant for it to be a joke, but people started asking me “Is she a futanari? Does she have a d-k?” and I had to draw her with “Heinkel is a futanari” on my mind ever since, you know. The anime OVA staff even had to change Heinkel’s VA from male to female when I told them “Turns out Heinkel is a futanari”.
Hirano also mentioned that he had heard they originally planned Tomokazu Sugita to voice Heinkel, but ultimately Mitsuki Saiga voiced the role.
Kouta Hirano Didn’t Care About Accurate Descriptions Of Weapons In His Manga
The interviewer talked about how there are different types of aircraft and missiles in Hirano’s manga, plus the characters use a wide variety of weapons. He was then asked if he had a favorite weapon, to which Hirano replied that he didn’t particularly care about accurate depictions of weapons in his manga and was just like “whatever” as long as it looks alright in the picture.
For example, he drew Alucard’s weapon from whichever angle looked better and which had an endless supply of bullets. Then he described a scene in which Millennium vampires attack a mansion. Hirano further mentioned that he hated the character of Zorin Blitz the most. He continued:
It was a pain in the a- to draw her tattoos, she had weak character, and she had no appeal. This is a triple handicap right here. Am I Helen Keller? So I thought of balancing it with a large scythe.
Hirano explained that the reason why he put a tattoo on Zorin was just so she could stand out. He went on to say that her external appearance had these tattoos that covered half of her body and glaring so he thought of giving her a huge scythe as well.
