Rip van Winkle (Hellsing)

Infobox animanga character
name = Rip Van Winkle
series = Hellsing


caption =
first = Hellsing Volume 4
last =
creator = Kouta Hirano
voiced by = Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese)
Kari Wahlgren (English)
nickname =
alias =
age =
gender = Female
species = Vampire
born =
death =
occupation = Army Lieutenant
title =
relatives = nihongo|First Lieutenant Rip van Winkle|リップヴァーン・ウィンクル中尉|First Lieutenant Rippuvān Winkuru is a character in the manga Hellsing and a member of the Millennium forces. She is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto and in English by Kari Wahlgren.

One of Millennium's top soldiers and a member of the Werewolf special forces, van Winkle commands her troops to steal a VTOL carrier called the "Eagle" from the British. Along with Zorin Blitz and Schrödinger, she briefly makes a cameo in a flashback during "Hellsing III", and also during the ending credits. She makes her full appearance in OVA IV.

Rip uses a long-barreled flintlock musket that fires magic bullets which "punish all without distinction," tracking targets of their own accord, and which are seemingly armor-piercing (destroying helicopters, fighter jets and missiles with ease). These magic bullets are even able to change their trajectories in mid-flight and repeatedly pepper a target before expiring. Van Winkle seems to have a limited amount of these bullets, as she only uses one at a time. In fact, she uses only four on-screen before death throughout the entire series and only one directly against Alucard (so far: she might use them again during The Dawn.) She does not appear to have any other powers beyond this however. She also enjoys singing operas, especially "Der Freischütz", and she often compares herself to the character Kaspar from that opera. The Major even notes that she is very much like Kaspar (and also likens Alucard to Zamiel, the antagonist of that opera and representative of the devil.) Additionally similar bullets, that never miss their target, are used by Kaspar, who is taken to Hell by Zamiel at the end of the opera.

In several scenes she is also seen with an umbrella, which could be a reference to the practice of World War II German snipers to use umbrellas with camouflage foliage woven between the arms as light, adaptable and mobile personal camouflage.

Alucard instills a great deal of fear in Rip as he approaches, and inevitably kills her, despite her last ditch effort to force him over the edge of the Eagle's deck with a magic bullet. Alucard stakes her through the chest just left of her heart with her own gun, after being repeteadly peppered by the bullet and then literally catching it in his mouth. He then drinks her blood in the climax to Volume 5 of the manga before using his shadows to devour her body, killing her and making her his familiar.

Ironically, The Major would not permit the Doctor to fry her through the chips, and in fact, in a rare gesture of "generosity," requests other members of Millennium to Heil her, bidding her "Auf Wiedersehen." Her mission was to effectively trap Alucard on the "Eagle" because he cannot cross water without the aid of some form of external transport such as a plane or ship. By using the "Eagle" as a decoy, Millennium isolates Alucard in the middle of the ocean while the rest of Millennium makes its landing operation. Unfortunately for Millennium, Alucard takes control of the ship and manages to return to coastline, though the Major himself seems to be anticipating this.

Rip later shows up as a familiar after Alucard releases his zero restriction, merged with Tubalcain Alhambra. After helping shoot down Maxwell's helicopter and attacking Anderson, she is destroyed in a massive fire along with all the other familiars. This scene was not published in Young King OURs, but was added to volume 9.

In the most recent chapter of "The Dawn", Rip also makes an appearance as a young, farsighted soldier, encountering Alucard after his initial defeat by the Captain and while he was smoking with his coffin. She appears in full uniform, wearing her hair in two braided pigtails, and bears the rank of "Untersturmführer". The glasses she wears (which are not actually hers, but were mixed up in the confusion) make it difficult for her to focus properly, and Alucard spends some time trying to make her understand who he is and why he's in the building. Finally, realizing that he is an enemy, Rip tries to shoot Alucard, but is knocked unconscious by his sentient coffin in an amusing way: being Judo chopped and kicked across the hall.

Since "The Dawn" is currently incomplete, it is often debated among fans that she was turned into a vampire and given magic bullets by Alucard himself. This would seem to explain why they were familiar with one another in volume 5, and it would also make the comparison to "Der Freischütz" that much more literal.Fact|date=February 2008 However, it is unlikely Alucard was indeed her sire, seeing the immense difference in sheer battle power seen between Rip and Alucard's true fledging, the former policewoman Seras Victoria.