HELLSING: ULTIMATE

"The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame."

Hellsing: Ultimate (Known in Japan as: HELLSING OVA (Herushingu OVA) is an Original Video Animation series that's based on Kouta Hirano's manga, Hellsing. The series was created after the Hellsing anime had finished, and was intended to be more true to the manga than the anime was.

The first 50-minute installment was released to Region 2 DVD in Japan on February 10, 2006, and as of December 26, 2012, all ten episodes have been released. North America's release of the OVA was quite slow, as its dub was finished in 2014; 2 years after Hellsing: Ultimate had finished in Japanese.

Summary
There exist creatures of darkness and evil that plague the night, devouring any humans unfortunate enough to be caught in their grasp. On the other side is Hellsing, an organisation dedicated to destroying these supernatural forces that threaten the very existence of humanity. At its head is Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, who commands a powerful military and spends her life fighting the undead. Integra's vast army, however, pales in comparison with her ultimate weapon: the vampire Alucard, who works against his own kind as an exterminator for Hellsing. With his new vampire servant, Seras Victoria, at his side, Alucard must battle not only monsters, but all those who stand to oppose Hellsing, be they in the guise of good or evil.

Alucard
Voiced by: Jōji Nakata (Japanese); Crispin Freeman (English)
 * Alucard is a mysterious figure. A supernatural vampire of untold age and power, he acts as the Hellsing Organisation's secret weapon. His reasons for doing so, however, as well as his motivations, remains unknown. His position within the Hellsing Organisation is one of unique status. He is the agency's ace in the hole, answerable only to the Organisation's Chairman.

Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing
Voiced by: Yoshiko Sakakibara (Japanese); Victoria Harwood (English)
 * A young noblewoman, she is the head and last member of the Hellsing family. She doubles as the leader of the Hellsing Organisation, and Alucard's "Master." She inherited the Hellsing Organization at the age of thirteen upon the death of her father. Although she often seems strict and domineering, she is respected and admired, even among her sworn enemies.

Seras Victoria
Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (Japanese); K.T. Gray (English)
 * Seras was a member of the London Police Department until she was mortally wounded by Alucard in his destruction of a vampire masquerading as a priest. On the verge of death, she chose to allow Alucard to turn her into a vampire. Serving beneath Alucard, she now works for the Hellsing Organisation and deals with the consequences of her decision.

Production
An article about the new adaptation of Hellsing was announced at AnimeNewsNetwork (ANN) on the 5th of April in 2005. And Geneon was listed as the North American and Japanese distributor for the new Hellsing: Ultimate OVA release. Studio Gonzo's parent company, G.H.D. is listed as the Asian and European license holder for the upcoming OVA. However, they're not significantly involved in the production of the OVA.

A magazine by Kara Reynolds released in December of 2006 titled "Ultimate Triumph" was released. Here, she spoke to the series' creator, Kouta Hirano, the scriptwriter and producer of Ultimate. She first spoke to Hirano and Yasuyuki Ueda, in which, when Hirano was asked about the comparison between the original TV series and Ultimate, Hirano said "I think they're doing a great job on Ultimate. The first series had some restrictions because it aired on television, but I feel that for its purpose, it did well enough." Hirano later answers that the part that he wanted the most to be animated was the Nazi's attack on London, but as he drew the shot, he kept thinking about whether it could be animated or not.

In another interview with Ueda and Hirano, Ueda expressed his love for Hellsing; stating that he has always been a huge fan of Hellsing, calling the anime produced by Gonzo good, but stating that there was no way for them to actually adapt it faithfully; knowing that it would take years for Hirano to finish his manga. Ueda added that the West's interest in Hellsing is important also, because if they didn't have any interest in the new Hellsing OVA in the west; they wouldn't have the budget to do so. Hirano and Ueda said that they were looking forward to anything that wasn't in the TV series, but was in the manga. Ueda was hopeful that Hellsing: Ultimate would set the bar higher for anime, in general.

Ueda added that adapting the manga's art style was very difficult, as the manga was very detailed; and in doing so, they were trying to be careful with how they adapted these characters. Thankfully though, they have the money to do it. Since they also have the entire Hellsing story done by Hirano, they could finally adapt this faithfully; something the original anime could not do. With a higher budget than the previous anime, along with working with another animation studio; the animation quality was declared by Ueda to be "spectacular".

The series' scriptwriter at the time, Hideyuki Kurata, was interviewed also. When he was asked about the main appeal for Hellsing, Kurata answered "I think Mr. Hirano's twisted sense of style is the selling point of the show." Moreover, he added that he was invited by Ueda to work on Hellsing; who apparently knew that he liked Hellsing, too. "I couldn't pass up the offer." Hideyuki added.

Music
Only one soundtrack was released; however, the album included two extra CDs other than the main music of the series; the Warsaw Recording Selection, and the Nazi CD. Titled "Black Dog", it was released on February 22, 2008. However, in 2015, an extra CD was released along with the limited edition of the second Blu-ray box set titled "Somehow, Iscariote".

The ending of each episode uses various pieces of instrumental music composed by Hayato Matsuo and performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, up to the fifth installment. Episodes VI and VII feature vocal closing themes by Japanese rock group Suilen, titled "Magnolia" and "Shinto-Shite", respectively. Episode VIII has "When You Start the War, Fight With Arrows, Spears and Swords!" and "P.S. Lord Amitabha Have Mercy on Me" a song from the original TV series, while episode IX features Japanese singer Maon Kurosaki performing the song "Scars."

Casting
Many of the voice actors from the previous TVA return to reprise their roles as each character; notably Jōji Nakata as Alucard, Fumiko Orikasa as Seras Victoria, and Yoshiko Sakakibara as Integra Hellsing. However, Nachi Nozawa was replaced by Norio Wakamoto as Alexander Anderson, Hideyuki Tanaka was also replaced by Shō Hayami as Enrico Maxwell. In addition, Norio Wakamoto previously played Richard Hellsing in the original TVA; because of that however, Richard got a completely different actor for the role; Yosuke Akimoto. Minor characters like Arthur Hellsing's voice actor in the TVA returned for their OVA counterpart.

In addition to the Japanese voice actors reprising their role as each individual's character for the most part, the English Dub did the same; Crispin Freeman as Alucard, K.T. Gray as Seras Victoria, and Victoria Harwood as Integra Hellsing.

In an interview with ANN (Animenewsnetwork), Taliesin Jaffe stated that the OVA is not a classical vampire story; unlike the anime. Jonathan Klein described working with the English Dub cast as "let's get rid of what we know as the original series and put that back in. In some ways, I'm glad we're doing this, but in other ways, I'm wondering if it is that we're late now, or behind everyone else?" Jaffe stated the inspirations for the script and voice directing are way different from the first TVA series, describing it as quite similar to Hammer films of the 40s and the 50s. He also apparently had not expected to do it again when the project was announced, and stated that "If they call me, I'm going to go and step up to the plate. If they like what I did, I'm going to come in and knock this thing out of the park."

Later in another interview, Jonathan Klein said that it was very difficult to track down the same actors for the Hellsing TVA, for Hellsing: Ultimate years later. They had also wanted Ralph Lister, the voice of Walter C. Dornez, to reprise his role as Young Walter in episodes 9 and 10; however, the Japanese Producers insisted that they get a different actor for the role too, and said that "It was still kind of sad that we couldn’t see him during the last episode, though." He also mentioned that they couldn't get Helena Taylor to reprise her role as Zorin Blitz after episode 4 of Ultimate, because at one point; she goes to England, and Jonathan stated that "It’s one thing when an actor’s just a few hours away, but when you’re in England the cost to bring someone out — especially for anime — gets pretty high." Ultimately, they couldn't get Helena Taylor to voice Zorin Blitz again for the remaining episodes of Ultimate, re-casting her.

Production Hell
Initially, in an interview, producer Yasuyuki Ueda said that they're making this series end within three years. Furthermore, he called the OVA a "there-year project", remaining hopeful that they're gonna animate the entire manga series; starting over from the beginning. "Expect two OVAs per manga volume, at 35 minutes apiece" Ueda added. However, this turns out to be very wrong. It actually took Hellsing: Ultimate 6 years to finish because of the change within directors, writers, and such.

Release Schedule
The first 50-minute installment was released to Region 2 DVD in Japan on February 10, 2006. OVA VII was released in Japan on December 23, 2009. The DVD included a teaser trailer announcing the eighth episode with a tentative release date of "Sometime in 2010".

The English release of the OVA series is licensed in the United States by Geneon USA. In producing the English dub of the series, Geneon used much of the original cast from the English dub of the anime, which Geneon also licenses. The first episode (OVA I) was released to Region 1 DVD on December 5, 2006, after premiering at the 2006 Anime Expo. In 2008, distribution of the Hellsing: Ultimate series was assumed by Funimation entertainment, although Geneon remains its licensor. Funimation released the fourth episode on September 23, 2008, along with a re-release of the first three episodes, since then; Funimation had released all of Hellsing: Ultimate in DVD and Blu-ray.

The first episode was released in Japan on February 10, 2006, and as of December 26, 2012, all ten episodes have been released. The first episode was released in North America on December 5, 2006, and as of December 2012, all ten English subtitled episodes have been released.

Broadcasting
Originally, the first two OVAs of the series were broadcasted on Starz Edge's Animidnight programming block in 2008.

The series began airing on Adult Swim's Toonami block on September 13, 2014, at 3:00 AM. However, due to rights issues; the show was announced to be canceled after just 8 episodes. They had later announced that they finally acquired the rights to the show, deciding to release the last 2 episodes of the series on Toonami on December 6, 2014.

Studio Changing
The series took 6 years to finish due to multiple studios animating it. Over the years, they have changed animation studios on multiple occasions. Hellsing: Ultimate 1-4 were animated by the animation studio Satelight, before Madhouse took over for 5-7. It was then announced that a new company would be animating the final three episodes of the series; Graphinica x Kelmadick, though it is still being produced by Geneon.

2 years without any episodes of Hellsing: Ultimate happened between Volume 7, which was released previously in 2009, and Volume 8, which was released in 2011. In addition, this was probably caused by the change of studio; as studio MADHOUSE was announced to be replaced by Graphinica in 2010.


 * Reasons for Leaving


 * Satelight's reasons for not continuing the OVA were because of the fact that it was stated to be a 3-year project.
 * The cause of MADHOUSE deciding to not animate the Hellsing OVA furthermore was probably because of the box office bomb of their feature film, Redline, which made $8.2M in the box office, and was therefore; considered a failure. This particular incident caused many of its higher-ups to leave, so they probably decided to not continue the Hellsing OVA because of this.

Hellsing: The Dawn
Taliesin Jaffe, the director of the Hellsing: Ultimate OVA Series has﻿ stated in a panel at Otakon 2008 that Hellsing: The Dawn is going to be animated as part of Ultimate. It was recently revealed on the official features page for Hellsing VIII on the official Japanese Hellsing website that the special Short Gaiden in the extra disc that comes with the limited edition of Hellsing: Ultimate OVA 8 will be The Dawn. The post also stated that the team will be working on a manuscript from Kouta Hirano himself and that the 4 pages of this manuscript will be included with the volume's liner notes booklet.

However, despite most of it being a clear and accurate adaptation of the Dawn; the ending of episode 3 completely diverges and instead, promoted Kouta Hirano's new manga - Drifters instead, leaving fans a little disappointed.

Crossfire (Drama CD)
While talks about adapting Crossfire into an anime happened, they eventually set out to release Crossfire instead as a CD Drama series; releasing alongside Hellsing: Ultimate VI and Hellsing: Ultimate VII. Since Crossfire is mainly an episodic series; with each chapter featuring different main villains, the Crossfire CD Drama features Jin Horikawa as Aphram, Rei Igarashi as Ilyushin, and Susumu Chiba as Abraham Van Rogh as the main villains of Crossfire respectively. The voice actors for Heinkel Wolfe and Yumiko Takagi reprise their roles, alongside Alexander Anderson and Enrico Maxwell.

Luke and Jan Valentine - A Merry Manga
A commercial for Hellsing: Ultimate IV features the Afterword segments of the Hellsing manga, however, with some slight changes. Most of these are completely original segments written by the OVA's staff, despite it being directly inspired by the Afterword segments of Hellsing. Essentially, these segments are just the animators having fun and it's completely comedic; there's nothing serious about this at all. Furthermore, since it's a commercial, some of the lines written, especially near the ends are sometimes Luke Valentine directly saying that the "Blu-ray discs will come out along with the CDs" for example.

Also, the Hellsing TVA's next-episode preview sequences, where mostly Seras and The Spirit of the Hallconnen are talking; episode 5 and 6's preview adapts some of the Afterword manga; however, more accurately than the OVA - despite it being approximately 30 seconds long, and the end will some times say something like, "Hellsing will have a rain of blood", it still features some scenes that are directly taken from the manga, but colored or redrawn with their own style.

Blu-ray and Original DVDs Comparison
While they really aren't that different, episode 3 of Hellsing: Ultimate was heavily recolored in terms of the color contrasts, glasses, windows, etc. Despite the edit being mostly focused on changing the color palette of the OVA, there are many differences in terms of camera angles, re-edited scenes, re-drawn faces, bodies, etc., along with some VFX works being redone. They had also changed some backgrounds images to make it more consistent, in addition; Alucard greatly suffers from the time constraint; fortunately, the Blu-ray release fixed him in some spots, along with many other characters like Integra.

Censored Versions
A heavily cut-down version of Hellsing: Ultimate I was released, and titled: "Hellsing: Digest for Freaks". In addition, two discs were released for the people who bought the direct-to-DVD version of Hellsing: Ultimate, the rated R version; along with the 13+ version. The 13+ version does not remove the blood for most of the scenes, rather, they covered the gory scenes with shadows. In addition, many countries that aired Hellsing: Ultimate on TV censored a few scenes of it, like Seras' flashback in Hellsing: Ultimate VII.