The long-running but highly-sporadic Hellsing OVA, also known as Hellsing Ultimate, has recently entered its final “season”, with the release of volume 8 this past July in Japan. Now, it’s being announced that volume 9 will follow on February 15, 2012 (on Blu-ray and DVD), leaving one last volume to conclude the story after that – hopefully before the end of 2012.
Meanwhile, FUNimation has announced over the weekend that it acquired the U.S. home video rights to the 8th volume of the Hellsing OVA. They plan to release it – along with the series’ first 7 volumes – starting from 2012.
“Production on the Hellsing Ultimate OVAs will begin immediately at the original studio, New Generation Pictures, and will include the original cast featuring Crispin Freeman in his return as Arucard.
The new home video releases will feature exclusive extras including panel discussions and one-on-one interviews recorded at the 2011 Anime Vegas Convention taking place this month. Fans will be encouraged to submit questions for the cast via the FUNimation facebook page to possibly be included as part of the extra features.”
The OVA has been unfolding in Japan since early 2006, with each new volume taking anywhere from 5 to 19 months to come out. The first 4 episodes were animated by studio Satelight, after which Madhouse took over the production, up to episode 7. Finally, the last three episodes (8-10) are created by studios Graphinica and Kelmadick.