Hellsing

Hellsing is a manga (with OVA adaptation) and anime series that /tg/ likes to point to in order to discuss how vampires can be fucking awesome. The basic plot, which goes in wildly different directions between the "Pure" (manga/OAV) and "Geneon" (TV) continuities, revolves around the Hellsing Organization; a secret British special forces unit dedicated to defending Great Britain from supernatural threats, mostly monsters. They are served in this cause by Alucard - a super-powered ubervampire who enjoys the chance to pit his strength against anything and everything that gets in his way.

Ostensibly, the main character is Seras Victoria, the last member of a British police squad wiped out by a priest-turned-vampire in the village of Cheddar; when the vampire took her hostage, Alucard killed him by shooting through Seras and then turned her into a vampire. In reality, the star of the show is Alucard; quite blatantly revealed to be Dracula who was made to swear an oath of allegiance to Van Helsing after being beaten, and then scientifically upgraded into something far more monstrous than any vampire.

Differences between Pure and Geneon

The Pure canon is... well, frankly, it's kind of schizophrenic, switching wildly and unpredictably between darkly epic action-horror and goofy slapstick comedy. The fight scenes are epic and awesome, but the interactions between characters often devolve into gags and goofball humor, complete with standard cutesy chibification scenes. However, it concludes with an epic finale story involving London being blitzed by an army of Nazi survivors and Neo-Nazis turned vampires, led by superpowerful monstrous captains, only it was all an epic ploy to get Alucard weak enough that they could finally kill him off. They failed, but damn if they didn't come close.

The Geneon canon, due to having been aired and ended before Millenium (the aforementioned Nazi vampires) was introduced in the comic, is a slower, more sedate and serious affair. The storyline, revolving around a mysterious group that is creating artificial vampires through occult science and implanted "FREAK" microchips, isn't bad, but isn't as epic as Pure's battle against Millenium, something made worse by the fact Geneon was going bankrupt at the time and so the animation can get rather cheesy. However, the characters are treated more seriously, their interactions are deeper, the Hellsing organization seems less like a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites, and it's generally not as schitzo as the Pure canon.

Relevance to /tg/

For the most part, Hellsing gets a pass on /tg/ because, as said above, Alucard is one of the most kickass examples of vampires being badass, especially in the wake of atrocities against vampires that deserve no name. However, it's not entirely irrelevant for pure /tg/ reasons.

For starters, there is an official Hellsing RPG using the Big Eyes, Small Mouth RPG system, created as part of the many "tie-in books" published by the Guardians of Order - however, due to the time when it was released, this is based on the Geneon canon rather than the Pure canon.

Additionally, Hellsing could easily serve as inspiration for a World of Darkness game. The Pure canon is harder to place, but perhaps best fits into a Vampire: The Masquerade game played under the "vampire superheroes!" mindset. Geneon canon, though, could easily work as Vampire: The Requiem/Hunter: The Vigil crossover, with the Hellsing organization as a cancerous compact using "tamed" vampires - or perhaps better yet as a Deviant: The Renegades game, as both Hellsing's Alucard and Anderson from the Iscariot Organization (a band of psychotic fundamentalist Catholic monster hunters run by the Catholic church) make great examples of Loyalist Deviants.