Millennium (Hellsing)

This article deals with the fictional group Millennium from the Hellsing series. For other uses see Millennium (disambiguation).

Millennium
File:Nazi Swastika.svg
Publication information
Publisher	Shounengahosha Dark Horse Comics Editions Tonkam Planet Manga Norma J.P. Fantastica
First appearance	Hellsing volume 2
Created by	Kouta Hirano
In-story information
Type of organization	Terrorist
Base(s)	Hindenburg II (Deus Ex Machina)
Leader(s)	Major Montana Max
Agent(s)	The Doctor The Captain Warrant Officer Schrödinger Walter C. Dornez Luke and Jan Valentine Tubalcain Alhambra First Lieutenant Rip van Winkle First Lieutenant Zorin Blitz

Millennium is a fictional organization from the manga series Hellsing by Kouta Hirano. The Millennium Organization is a Nazi group. Its name, "Millennium," is a reference to the "Thousand Year Reich" (with a millennium equaling a thousand years) which Adolf Hitler had wanted to establish in World War II. After the end of the war, this mysterious group pooled its resources and, with substantial help from the Vatican, relocated to Brazil and went into hiding. Millennium's researchers have discovered a way to transform people into vampires through unknown means (although it is hinted that some kind of surgery is involved), and monitors them using implanted computer chips.

Millennium seems to be a supernatural version of The Boys from Brazil. Most of the members are monsters of some sort, or have found a way to prolong their lives.

History

Millennium was founded before the end of World War II, by Hitler's Special Order #666 (an obvious reference to the mark of the beast in the Book of Revelation), as a means of researching and using supernatural phenomena for military purposes. In 1944, their grand project of creating a vampire army was foiled by a 14-year-old Walter C. Dornez and his accomplice, Alucard (who had apparently taken on the form of a young girl). In the current storyline (set in 1999), Walter and Alucard claim to have "killed everyone there" and put an end to their experiments, but exactly what happened during these events remains to be seen. It is apparent that they did not, in fact, kill the Major, the Doctor, the Captain, or Lieutenant Rip Van Winkle. Furthermore, the current status of their supposed source vampire (an unnamed female referred to only as "She") was unknown until recently. Chapter 94 of Hellsing reveals that 'She' was in fact Mina Harker. As Alucard was not killed by Van Helsing, Mina did not become fully human and thus, Millennium were able to extract some of her blood which contained Alucard's essence and used this as a base for all their artificial vampires. The events that took place in 1944 are told in the ongoing prequel to Hellsing, Hellsing: The Dawn.

After this event, Millennium began to plan their escape. Some time after the end of the war in Europe, most of the members had left for South America, taking with them a battalion of 1,000 Waffen-SS volunteers. This was known as the "Letztes Bataillon," translated in English as the "Last Battalion," a secret weapon to be used in a future conflict. They also brought with them a massive amount of valuables taken from victims of the Holocaust, as well as an assortment of advanced weaponry, such as V-1 flying bombs, V-2 rockets and advanced Zeppelins.

Members

The Major

A former SS officer, once in charge of the Nazi experiments with vampires, until the operation was attacked by a young Walter and Alucard in 1944. He leads the Letztes Bataillon (Last Battalion) in his attempts to wreak unending war.

The Doctor

The mad genius whose research led to the creation of a Nazi vampire army out of 1,000 volunteers in the 'Letztes Bataillon'.

The Captain

The Major's silent, stoic adjutant and bodyguard. He is the only 'real' werewolf in Millennium's Werwolf forces.

First Lieutenant Rip van Winkle

One of Millennium's top soldiers, and member of the Werwolf special forces, she uses special bullets from a long barrelled flintlock musket which "punish all without distinction".

First Lieutenant Zorin Blitz

A tall, massively muscled female vampire who works for the Millennium organization and is part of its Werwolf force. She is the commander of one of Millennium's zeppelin forces, and is apparently the instigator of the Valentine Brothers' attack on the Hellsing mansion (though this is simply conjecture from mixing the manga and anime storylines).

Warrant Officer Schrödinger

Though there has been some debate in the Western world regarding his species, Schrödinger has been identified by Hirano as a catboy ("Werwolf" would be the military unit he serves in), and created by the Doctor (whom he irreverently refers to as "Doc").

Tubalcain Alhambra

Also known as 'The Dandy Man', Tubalcain is a lieutenant in Millennium and uses razor-sharp cards as a weapon. He is the one who sends a SWAT team after Alucard and Seras Victoria. His Japanese voice actor is Houchu Ohtsuka.

Luke and Jan Valentine or The Valentine Brothers

These two vampires (FREAKs in the TV series; FREAKs were humans turned into vampires with the aid of a chip) have much influence in the underworld. Their exact origins are unknown, though their English voice actors speak with North American accents. In the second episode of the OVA, a comment by Jan suggests that they are from the lower classes of society. The two talk about performing "jobs" which seems to imply that the two worked as hitmen, or have a long history in criminal activity. With an army of ghouls, they stormed Hellsing HQ. Their ghouls were armed with assault rifles, body armor, and shields. Jan uses a pair of heavily modified, suppressed FN P90s, while Luke uses a pair of sawn-off M1 Garand rifles (and, in the OVA, what appears to be some kind of curved bowie knife, while he has a Walther PPK concealed up his sleeve in the manga as well as the OVA and TV series).

While Jan, save for some over-the-top strength and agility, is a more basic vampire, Luke in particular demonstrates an extreme form of celerity (more evident in the OVA II) and accelerated healing, recovering quickly from being pierced by the soldiers trap spears and regenerating from being shot in the head by Alucard (although he cannot regenerate limbs, this might be because he was shot by the Jackal which was made for use against regenerators such as Alexander Anderson. However, this does not explain how he was able to regenerate the wound to his head, which was also caused by the Jackal. In the manga he was shot by the Casull to the face and the Jackal to the legs). Jan faced off against Walter and Seras, while Luke descended into the basement to do battle with Alucard. Alucard overwhelms Luke and easily kills him, while Jan is burned to death by the Major and Doctor for almost revealing their identities, but not before he gave the name "Millennium."

By their clothing and mannerisms, Luke is reminiscent of an English dandy and Jan, a stereotypical chav. The gap between the brothers is further emphasized by their choice of weaponry. While Jan uses two very modern guns, Luke's are rather old-school. Although the two are brothers, they share very little in common in terms of both appearance and personality. Luke, in his own words, is "quiet, focused, and cool" and is by far the more articulate and reserved of the two. Jan, on the other hand, is volatile and rude, constantly spewing forth random profanity and making lewd (often disturbing) comments. Luke can be viewed as the brains of the operation and the primary decision maker, while Jan is the muscle, being the one who commands the ghoul army.

Appearance wise, Jan has tan skin and gold eyes with black hair. He wears a dark blue high-collared sweatshirt and dark blue pants, both of which have white lining. He also wears white gloves and a dark blue beanie with an odd eye symbol outlined in gold on the front. Jan also has multiple piercings, some in each ear, nose piercings, an eyebrow piercing, a cheek piercing, and two piercings on his lower lip (one of which is, in a rather sadistic manner, ripped out by Walter using his wires). Luke has rather pale skin, long blonde hair tied with a white ribbon at the end and green eyes (which are darker in the TV series). He wears silver pince-nez glasses and the same sweatshirt as Jan except it is white with gold lining (the sweatshirt is black with white lining in the manga and is white with green lining rather than gold in the TV series). He also wears white suit pants, white gloves, a white suit jacket over his sweatshirt and, in the OVA, a white overcoat hanging on his shoulders that he loses in the Hellsing spear trap.

Luke seems to fancy himself as the instrument of Alucard's demise, believing that because of his advanced abilites as compared to other vampires that he was designed to surpass Alucard in every way (and has more than the sum total of Alucard's vampiric powers at his disposal). He soon finds that this is far from the truth, being soundly beaten by Alucard, who pleads with Luke to call upon more powerful vampiric abilites (having already been impressed by Luke's speed and reflexes) but is disappointed to find Luke can't even heal his severed legs. After calling Alucard a "monster", (which seems to unerve Alucard in some way) and saying he is nothing more than a "dog" of the church, Luke is devoured by Alucard's black dog, "Baskerville." Alucard quips that in life (as a vampire), Luke was useless and pathetic, and now (if Alucard is a dog) he is simply "dog food."

During their attack on the Hellsing HQ, Jan recites the infamous Konami Code, saying "Bringing the motherfucking death by Konami!"

In chapter 78, Finesthour (3), Luke emerges from the remains of Alucard's hellhound "Baskerville", after Walter slices it in two and is very disgusted by the events surrounding him.

In chapter 79, Walter, using his wires like puppet strings, gains control of both Luke and Alucard's Hellhound, and uses them to attack Alucard. Alucard makes short work of them.

In chapter 80, Walter uses his wires to sever Alucard's arms and legs, to cut his torso in half, and to suspend him helplessly in the air. He then grabs a piece of rebar and attacks Alucard, impaling him through the chest. The Alucard that Walter attacked, however, was a decoy, created by Alucard using Luke's remains, allowing him to shapeshift and sneak up behind Walter. Luke is now believed to be dead for good.

While they were killed in volume 2, they "reappear" many times in the afterword manga (omakes), often in extremely hilarious situations. In the first omake feature, right after Luke and Jan were killed, Jan and Luke talked about their deaths. Jan describing his as "Burnt to a crisp" and Luke saying, "Eaten by a doggy" while holding up a black dog. By the way Luke continues on about his cause of death, more so than Jan in the issue, he seems to be amazed, ashamed, or both, that he was eaten by a "doggy."

(Note: Jan's name is pronounced /yahn/, as the 'j' makes a 'y' sound in German.)

Walter C. Dornez

Walter was a 69-year-old retired member of the Hellsing Organization. At the beginning of the series, he acted only as Integra's butler. However, he later lived up to his old nickname, the "Angel of Death," when Hellsing was attacked. Walter was altered in some sort of procedure by the Doctor, brainwashed to remove his reservations, and now fights for Millennium. The storyline also appears to imply that Walter may have allied himself with Millennium as early as 1944. The reasons for Walter to turn himself against Hellsing is yet to be revealed and is still debated among the fanbase.

"She" or THE SHI

"She" is not a member of Millennium, strictly speaking. She first appears in Chapter 1 of The Dawn as a contorted figure wrapped in bandages and chained to a wall. She appears again in Chapter 2, in which the Doctor describes her as "perfect" and "horrible". He cannot believe that she exists, even after studying her. The Major refers to her as "our beginning and our end" and says that "once before, sanity and insanity fought over her," that "they trampled her underfoot," and that "she is just what is left over". It is assumed that "She" is the original vampire upon which all of Millennium's artificial vampires were based. In Chapter 93, Sorcerian 2, the Doctor stands before a door marked "No. Anfang" (German for "beginning") and "THE SHI". It is implied that he is trying to release her, but doesn't know how to do so.

It is revealed in Chapter 94, "Oblivion", that she is Mina Harker, now only a lifeless skeleton.

See also

• Hellsing
• Hellsing: The Dawn
• Kouta Hirano
• Young King OURs
• Nazi occultism
• Werwolf
• Werewolf
• Project Ragna Rok
• ODESSA