Hellsing: Order 13.

[Pyle]

But now, artificially spawned vampires have appeared, forcing Hellsing to call in their ultimate weapon – the rogue vampire, Arucard.

http://www.thehellsing.org/faq/

Did you know Alucard is Dracula backwards?
Er, yeah. So does the rest of the world.

You morons! It's Arucard, not Alucard. Says so on the DVD package.
The nature of the Japanese language is such that certain translations from Japanese to English are not as precise as they could be. The most literal translation of Alucard's name is Aakaado, so either one is taking a certain amount of liberty from what's written in the manga. Even if his name were written Arukado, as it is for a certain dhampir in the Castlevania games, the sounds of l and r are interchangable in the Japanese language. In addition, the name is written in katakana, one of the two sets of symbols used to represent syllabic sounds in Japanese. Katakana is used almost exclusively for foreign words and names, indicating that the best attempt has been made to transliterate the sounds into Japanese. In such case, translating back to English must take this into account, and seek out not just a similar sounding word, but the word that was most likely to be meant by the author. Because of the obvious Dracula references, it seems clear that Alucard was the intended name. Pioneer just spelled it wrong. (And incidentally, if you want to insist that the "official" romanization is always right, the Dark Horse manga translates it "Alucard".)

So what, are we both wrong.

[HellsingsCeresVictoriafan]

New hellsing Episodes Are out in japan I am here on Business, I won't Bother to give spoilers so don't ask

[aesling]

I know this does not exactly relate to what people have been discussing lately on this thread, but it is about Hellsing Order 13 so....
OK, I have seen all 13 eps of Hellsing, and recently I was discussing it with my roomate, who has also seen all 13 eps. I made some comment about how it was pretty much impossible to kill Alucard. To my astonishment, she seemed to think that he had died in the last episode. Which makes me wonder, did I REALLY miss something important?! I was pretty sure that he was reduced to a puddle of blood and a severed head, but that he revived and impaled Incognito. Who is right, me or my roomate? And if she is wrong, where in the world did she get this crazy idea!?!

[SS5_Majin_Bebi]

But now, artificially spawned vampires have appeared, forcing Hellsing to call in their ultimate weapon – the rogue vampire, Arucard.

http://www.thehellsing.org/faq/

Did you know Alucard is Dracula backwards?
Er, yeah. So does the rest of the world.

You morons! It's Arucard, not Alucard. Says so on the DVD package.
The nature of the Japanese language is such that certain translations from Japanese to English are not as precise as they could be. The most literal translation of Alucard's name is Aakaado, so either one is taking a certain amount of liberty from what's written in the manga. Even if his name were written Arukado, as it is for a certain dhampir in the Castlevania games, the sounds of l and r are interchangable in the Japanese language. In addition, the name is written in katakana, one of the two sets of symbols used to represent syllabic sounds in Japanese. Katakana is used almost exclusively for foreign words and names, indicating that the best attempt has been made to transliterate the sounds into Japanese. In such case, translating back to English must take this into account, and seek out not just a similar sounding word, but the word that was most likely to be meant by the author. Because of the obvious Dracula references, it seems clear that Alucard was the intended name. Pioneer just spelled it wrong. (And incidentally, if you want to insist that the "official" romanization is always right, the Dark Horse manga translates it "Alucard".)

So what, are we both wrong.

Listen to Integra next time she screams out "Arucard!". You'll hear the sounds of "Aakaado", as you spelt it. Sometimes "hard" consonants don't have to be pronounced - for example, take the word/dish "sukiyaki". You'll find it is pronounced "skeeyaki", indicating that the first "ki" is a hard consonant, enunciation optional. So your "literal" translation was actually right on the money.

"Arucard" pronounced "Aakaado" follows thusly.

Ah-(ru)-kah-do = Arucard, seeing as the sound for "d" would be "do", and the (ru) is not pronounced. So you actually hear:

"Ahkkahdo". Right on the money.