Hunter × Hunter
The first "Hunter × Hunter" anime adaptation was produced by the company Nippon Animation and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, who had previously directed the "Rurouni Kenshin" television series. A total of 62 episodes of "Hunter × Hunter" were broadcast on the Japanese terrestrial television network Fuji Television from October 16, 1999 to March 31, 2001 during the same Saturday evening timeslot as the anime version of Togashi's previous series "Yu Yu Hakusho". Additionally, "Hunter × Hunter" has aired on the satellite television station Animax. Although it closely follows the manga, the violence in the anime version is lessened for younger audiences. Marvelous Entertainment has released all episodes of the series in Japan on DVD in 13 separate volumes between September 20, 2000 and September 19, 2001.
Kouta Hirano
However, "Hellsing" was not the earliest Hirano series to be published in "Young King OURs" monthly. In 1996, the same year "Hellsing"'s precursor, "The Legends of Vampire Hunter", was first released as a single H short story in "Heavenly Pleasure" (a monthly H-centric manga magazine), another World War II-based short story named Hi-And-Low was being published in "Young King OURs" by a then lesser-known Kouta Hirano. The story takes place primarily at a train station in Russia and features two female characters that are strikingly similar to Integra Helsing from "Hellsing" and Yumiko/Yumie in "Crossfire"; and who are, in actuality, undercover Axis spies in-league with one another for a common purpose: the success of Operation Barbarossa. This story saw ink in one issue of "OURs" before being discontinued in favor of "Hellsing" itself.