The Hellsing OVA Series

HELLSING OVA SERIES VIII

The eighth spectacular release of the direct-to-DVD and BD series! After leaving the battle at Hellsing House, Seras joins the fray out in London, as the war finally reaches it's zenith! Millennium's forces are advancing on London, The Vatican's forces have arrived full swing, and it appears a familiar No-Life King is floating into town on the Thames. The battle is about to kick into high-gear, and Alucard's true but horrifying power may finally have to show itself...

Japanese OVA Volume 8: Standard DVD Edition

GENERAL INFO

Manga Chapters Adapted: 14
Chapters Contained: Ch. 56 - 69
Japanese Release Date: July 27^th 2011
Runtime: 48 Minutes
Ending Theme:When You Start the War, Fight With Arrows, Spears and Swords! by Yasushi Ishii
Animation Production: Studio Graphinica w/ Production assistance by Kelmadick.

Released on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

LIMITED EDITION

Contains a Digi-pak DVD/BD Cover design with original cover art By Kouta Hirano. Includes an Audio Commentary with Japanese Staff, and a 12-page set of liner notes.
Contains a 2nd "Fish and Clips III" disc featuring an all-new short anime side-story "THE DAWN", creditless closing animation,

Additional Limited Edition Extras have not yet been announced.

Japanese OVA Volume 8: Limited Blu-Ray Edition

ENGLISH LANGUAGE RELEASE

License Announced by FUNimation at Anime Expo 2010. No further information available.
No word on any releases outside the US.

US Publisher: FUNimation Ent.
US Release Date: N/A

Australian Publisher: N/A
Australian Release Date: N/A

UK Publisher: N/A
UK Release Date: N/A

INFORMATION THUS-FAR

As they had done with OVA VI, when Madhouse released the DVD and BD for OVA VII, they included on the disc, a teaser-trailer for the next volume.

To Download an HQ Version of the Above Trailer
Click Here To Download Raw
Click Here To Download Subtitled

The Major in the Trailer

The trailer starts with shots of Millennium and Iscariot, with a narrator giving the total count of each faction's remaining forces (this is lifted directly from the beginning of volume 8) leading up to "Royal Order of Protestant Knights: Hellsing - members left Standing - 3". Followed immediately by Integra giving Alucard the order to release to level 0, with Alucard acknowledging the order. Integra finishes the line about the order to slaughter everyone before it fades to black with a 2010 release date given, and a message in Japanese. "To the Battlefield".

Maxwell's Arrival in London

The footage in the teaser is clearly unfinished. With the exception of a smirk from the Major, there is no character animation whatsoever. Instead, the trailer relies on a moving background and some floating embers to give the illusion of motion, however the art appears finished and it looks absolutely gorgeous. It will no doubt look even better in full motion.

Walter Watching Alucard

Some odd changes however, it appears from the trailer that Maxwell is wearing his normal outfit here, while, as seen in the manga he should be wearing his new black Archbishop robes. Walter too appears to have had a change in wardrobe, as he's depicted here with a white shirt, while at this point he should be wearing black with white pinstripes. Also odd, his eyes appear to be blue or purple rather than the red they should be, as they were colored that way in the manga.

Alucard Leaping from the Ship

Again though, the footage is clearly unfinished, so it's entirely possible that the mistaken colors were simply because the new character design sheets hadn't been drawn up yet, so they just used what they had originally for this quick trailer. It's highly probable that we'll get corrected costumes and colors on both characters when the actual OVA hits, however we have no way of being sure.

The following bits of information will include some spoilers beyond what was shown in the Trailer, read on at your own risk.

Integra Gives Alucard his Orders

The glimpses of footage show that the OVA will extend into volume 8. The furthest piece shown being a shot of Walter, Dok and Schrödinger from Chapter 60, "Wizardry 3". Alucard's dramatic entry from the Thames, jumping off the ship, and appearing before Anderson and Captain is all shown, along with Integra giving him orders, with art that looks so close to the manga one would swear it had been traced!

Anderson Preparing to Fight

The question now is: "Where will the episode end?" It's not really clear. The only logical closure points would be the beginning of the Alucard Vs. Anderson fight, the reveal of Elena's Nail, and Alucard's Flashback. it's very unlikely the episode will even go that far however, as Madhouse's style seems to be for shorter adaptations with less chapters. trying to fit of that information in there would seem rushed. So out of the three, the most logical would most likely be the Nail reveal, but there is no real saying.

Captain in the Trailer

Unfortunately, this trailer is all we have at this point, and it didn't provide a concrete release date beyond "2010", so we have no clue how soon or far off the next volume is. The wait between OVA VI and VII was not that long, so it looked possible the next episode could be a shorter wait as well.

However, the release of the OVA I-V Blu-ray Boxed set appears to have pushed back plans to release OVA VIII.
On the date of the Boxed set's release, the Japanese Hellsing site was greatly updated updated to announce that Hellsing has been renewed for a "Third" and "Final Season" consisting of OVA Volumes VIII-X!

It was also announced the Animation houses Graphinica & Kelmadick, helmed by ex-Gonzo staffers, would be taking a more prominent role in production of animation this time around. It is yet to be known exactly how great their reach will be, and if Studio MADhouse will have any part of production this time around.

We here at Call To Arms will update this section constantly as more information becomes available, so check back often!

The No-Life King's Triumphant Return

On New Years Eve 2010, a second trailer that was shown at a Japanese Comiket event was released on the internet. The trailer was not released officially on any capacity and was actually taken using a camera live at the event.

Scroll down to view it, but please be aware, as it was filmed from an LCD screen at the comiket event itself, the picture is not as vibrant as the final version will be, and background noise often overtakes the audio from the trailer. This fact is also true of any and all screenshots taken from the trailer.

Anderson in the Second Trailer

The trailer begins with quick glances of the Zeppelin attacking the city peppered with a few reaction shots from some of the characters. We get Anderson looking on as well as a brief shot of Alucard's eye and more so, Alucard's familiar army for the most brief of seconds. There are a few interesting things about the shot of those minions that will be discussed at a much greater length below past the point where spoilers are discussed.

Maxwell's Arrival in London Revised

As it continues however, we are treated to the answer to a question that the previous trailer raised. The next scene shows Maxwell's arrival in London complete with him making his anger-filled rant about his feelings on Protestant And Heathens. The good thing about this, however is that the previous trailer showed a brief glimpse of this scene with Maxwell standing before the podium he was speaking on (Click here for the screen) and the shot clearly showed Maxwell wearing his original outfit he wore for every single OVA volume up to this point. However, at this point Maxwell has been promoted to Archbishop as of OVA VI, and should be wearing new black robes. The new trailer shows him in his proper black robes, showing that there were things that were off about the original trailer. This also implies that a similar shot featuring Walter with the wrong colors on his outfit (Click Here for that screenshot) will most likely be fixed as well, but Walter was not featured in this trailer, so there is still no information on that as of now.

Alucard Greets Seras

The trailer goes on to depict several more scenes in quick succession, including the first shots of Alucard in his Level 0 attire! Alucard is seen speaking momentarily with a smile, mostly likely from the scene in which he greets Seras followed by another shot of his familiars before skipping to his greeting of Seras as he adoringly pats her on the head. This is one of the shots from the trailer that, on a side-by-side comparison to the manga, appears nigh-identical, a very exciting fact for those who are fans of this particular set of events from the manga!

Alucard Bows Before Integra

The Trailer goes on to depict another scene straight from the manga, the iconic shot of Alucard bowing before Integra! This scene is unique in that it has so far, with the release of this trailer been depicted four different ways! Once in the manga, once in the original OVA series trailer released in 2005, once at the end of OVA I during the credits (With Abraham Van Helsing taking Integra's place) and now, completely redone for this episode. The scene now appears much more detailed than it has in most depictions, clearly showing a building behind Alucard and Integra as well as several skewered bodies littering London. (Click Here to see a comparison of each version)

Alucard Arrives on the River Thames

The following scene goes back a bit to the the point in the story in which Alucard arrives along the Thames, leaping off the ghost ship, guns in hand to join the fray. The scene is beautifully animated, with shots of Alucard already unleashing his power. The scene ends with the exact same clip of Alucard with his arms, complete with guns spread as he leaps of the ship that was featured in the last trailer, only this time with full character animation including his hair and coat moving.

Anderson Preparing to Fight

The last two shots from the trailer are another quick couple of shots. The first is a shot of Anderson that was featured in the last trailer, only this time with something new. The scene has been completely redone, and includes completely different line art, this time complete with movement. instead of simply starting in the pose with his blades drawn, Anderson is seen drawing them as well as his coat rustling in the wind. Strangely, the scene is bathed in a white glowing light with no background behind him, which is somewhat strange, but it is likely this will be modified by the time the episode comes out.

The Major in the Trailer

The final shot is the final shot of The Major from volume 7 of the manga, with the major dancing among the debris as a helicopter descends behind him.

The following bits of information will include some spoilers beyond what was shown in the Trailer, read on at your own risk.

The trailer truly is spectacular and includes quite a bit from volume 8 of the manga. Despite the low-quality nature of the trailer, being filmed from a live screen, the animation does appear to be quite wonderful. Putting to rest at least a little of the uncertainty swimming around about the current state of the animation studio working on the project

It shows quite a bit of what is coming, and definitely sparks up the appetite for more Hellsing!

In late February, a photo of a page from a Japanese Magazine, most likely Young King OURs hit the internet, including wonderful new pencil art from the upcoming OVA VIII by Ryoji Nakamori, as well as the very wonderful news of a concrete release date!

(Click for Full-Size)

The new release date is officially:
June 22^nd 2011.

UPDATE: On May 24^th 2011, about a month away from the originally announced release date, the Wild Geese announced on the Official Japanese Hellsing website that, as a consequence of the recent Japanese Tsunami, as well as the desire to produce additional retakes for the episode, the release of the highly anticipated volume would be delayed.

The new release date is July 27^th, 2011.

The same announcement also mentioned that a "4 page Continuation of the Gaiden" written by Kouta Hirano himself, would be included in the liner notes for the Limited Edition version of the volume.

June 21st 2011, just one day shy of the original release date, the Amazon.co.jp listing for OVA VIII was updated to include the final cover art for both the Standard and Limited editions.

Standard ------------------------ Limited

We here at Call To Arms will update this section constantly as more information becomes available, so check back often!

Once Again, The No-Life King's Triumphant Return