The
Hellsing animated television series, popular as it was, barely
scratched the surface of the possibilities from Kouta Hirano's wild and
intense manga series. Some of the stories from the manga are going to
be animated in a new Hellsing series that will be an OVA
direct-to-video release. Sample footage from that new series was being
shown at Anime Expo, and Hirano himself was at the convention to
promote the forthcoming production. "With the TV series, the titles are
the same and the names are the same, but the stories will be
different," said Hirano. "Within my head it (the Hellsing TV series)
was a different product, not related to the manga. The tv series was a
sole entity, but the OVA will be a totally new project. It'll be more
based on the mangas." What you see in the Hellsing manga series (the
U.S. volumes being released now give you a good idea of what the
animation will look like) comes from the imagination of an artist,
influenced by "an enormous amount of manga and anime," who has made
Hellsing his life's work. "This is something that since I was a student
I've been thinking about the story. It took many, many years. I've been
stewing this story in my head, and when I got older the story became
more developed. When I became a manga artist, I reached the level when
I was able to publish the story. It wasn't spontaneous, it's something
I nurtured for many years."
The
new Hellsing project brings producer Yasuyuki Ueda back into the mix;
he produced the first Hellsing TV series and is very enthusiastic about
the possibilities of the OVA series. "It's not that there were more
stories to be told, but the TV series was not true to the manga. In the
OVA series, we're going to be true to the manga and we're going to take
more time." The Hellsing TV series was a late-night offering in Japan,
and the intensity and violence of its series was beyond anything that
could be broadcast in the U.S. The manga series is even more violent,
and Hirano said that violence should be taken seriously and not as a
kind of dark humor. We'll see more of that violence in the Hellsing
OVA's, and Ueda said that will not happen because there's less
censorship in OVA's as compared to TV series. Again, it's a matter of
following Hirano's manga story lines in the new series. "The original
manga has such a quality as far as artwork, that's difficult to do in a
TV series because of the time limits. In an OVA, we have more time to
spend on the artwork and the visuals, so that will be different."
The
Hellsing animated television series, popular as it was, barely
scratched the surface of the possibilities from Kouta Hirano's wild and
intense manga series. Some of the stories from the manga are going to
be animated in a new Hellsing series that will be an OVA
direct-to-video release. Sample footage from that new series was being
shown at Anime Expo, and Hirano himself was at the convention to
promote the forthcoming production. "With the TV series, the titles are
the same and the names are the same, but the stories will be
different," said Hirano. "Within my head it (the Hellsing TV series)
was a different product, not related to the manga. The tv series was a
sole entity, but the OVA will be a totally new project. It'll be more
based on the mangas." What you see in the Hellsing manga series (the
U.S. volumes being released now give you a good idea of what the
animation will look like) comes from the imagination of an artist,
influenced by "an enormous amount of manga and anime," who has made
Hellsing his life's work. "This is something that since I was a student
I've been thinking about the story. It took many, many years. I've been
stewing this story in my head, and when I got older the story became
more developed. When I became a manga artist, I reached the level when
I was able to publish the story. It wasn't spontaneous, it's something
I nurtured for many years."
The
new Hellsing project brings producer Yasuyuki Ueda back into the mix;
he produced the first Hellsing TV series and is very enthusiastic about
the possibilities of the OVA series. "It's not that there were more
stories to be told, but the TV series was not true to the manga. In the
OVA series, we're going to be true to the manga and we're going to take
more time." The Hellsing TV series was a late-night offering in Japan,
and the intensity and violence of its series was beyond anything that
could be broadcast in the U.S. The manga series is even more violent,
and Hirano said that violence should be taken seriously and not as a
kind of dark humor. We'll see more of that violence in the Hellsing
OVA's, and Ueda said that will not happen because there's less
censorship in OVA's as compared to TV series. Again, it's a matter of
following Hirano's manga story lines in the new series. "The original
manga has such a quality as far as artwork, that's difficult to do in a
TV series because of the time limits. In an OVA, we have more time to
spend on the artwork and the visuals, so that will be different."
