(L) Hellsing Ultimate OVA

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by duckroll

Just got my shipment email! OH BOY!!!!

That's what i like to hear.

[duckroll]

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~

[CuXe]

OMFG i want TO WATCH IT!!!!!!

[konart]

The RAW is on the torrents already.

Well...

Spoiler for opinion:

fail as was expected - you can't possibly expect anything good from Gonzo's ex. CG department and subcontracting studio.

80% of ova looks like a lame anime insert from cheap jRPG. Not even mentioning that almost every single moving thing on screen is crappy CG

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Don't see the problem with the CGI. Yes it could be better, but in the end the original story IS a talkfest. I guess the advantage is that I read the manga so I know what was being said without subs.

This entire episode is about Anderson, and also about Alucard's opinion about him. Anderson was just so close to being able to defeat Dracula... But he failed the final test, the one that mattered.

Those who fight monsters, must be careful of becoming monsters themselves.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by duckroll

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~

Watched it yet?

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

Watched it yet?

Yeah I watched it earlier. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it overall yet, since it's been so long since the last episode. I felt they did some of the scenes really well, and there was relatively good motion in the fight sequences. But there was also a lot of weirdness in how the overall episode was directed. More so than any other episode, there seemed to be long periods of total musical silence in this volume. Sometimes it was dramatic silence, at other times it just felt like they had no BGM to put there, or forgot.

Some of the transitions are also very unusual for an OVA. Off the top of my head I can think of 5-6 different scenes where the scene cuts out dramatically by fading out and going silent, only for the same scene to continue immediately after with a fade in. Transitions like this are typically only used for eye-catch breaks on TV episodes, or for transiting to another scene somewhere else in an OVA/movie. When it transits into the same scene, it just feels odd and badly edited.

The main complaint that I expect most people to have, is not so much that they used a ton of CG in this volume, but that most of the "River of Death" scenes from the manga are adapted using CG instead of traditional animation. Similar with how BONES handled the majority of the giant monster scenes in FMA:B with CG instead of traditional animation. It's definitely disappointing, because it stands out, and the lower CG framerate makes it looks really cheap. But there are still moments where they have 2D animation for close-ups, or when characters are fighting against the troops flowing out. Those were nice.

One minor thing I noticed was how different Anderson looks in Vol8. His face looks much shorter than before, and is almost square-ish as opposed to rectangle-ish. I dunno why that might be, since the character designer and chief animation director hasn't changed for the entire run of the OVA. It's definitely noticeable though, and it's actually consistent throughout the episode, so he looks the same in Vol8, but looks different from the way he did in the previous volumes.

I think overall they did an okay job with it, and as a Hellsing fan I still think the majority of the main sequences are pretty cool. But they definitely could have done a better job if they used less CG on the scenes which fans remember as very detailed frames in the manga. I'm not disappointed, because by this point I'm just glad the series is still being animated and that it's going to conclude.

The Dawn was a nice surprise. Instead of a SD anime short like I expected, it's actually the entire first chapter of The Dawn animated in a 9 minute episode. It ends with "to be continued" so I assume they're going to continue doing more with the remaining 2 volumes.

One thing that Vol8 retains very well is how effectively the OVA uses posed money shots. Even if the animation isn't great at times, or if the scene before it is filled with CG garbage, during key scenes when major characters "pose" at the camera for a money shot, it always looks like a really cool colored frame from the manga with more camera effects to make it more dramatic.

[Jarmel]

Not happy about the overuse of cgi.

Duckroll's post is a buzzkill. It seems they should have had the money to draw all these scenes out, and they certainly have the time. The poor directing also is absolutely atrocious and it seems they should know better.

[Gai-Kakashi]

The 'overuse' of CGI really only applied to about half a dozen shots of Vladucards army, the summoning, charge, and battle with Anderson and Millenium were both awesome and horrifying.

Wish we got to see more of the 9th Cruasade, but their opening charge was pretty freaking awesome.

The battle between Alucard and Anderson was fucking perfect, no excuses. It hit the right notes of insanity, courage, and epicness. Anderson is now and forever a BOSS.

Moments I at.

First appearence of Vladucard.
The river of death.
Reunion with Integra and Seras.
Anderson's charge.
The battle of the monsters.

A 9/10 for me.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by duckroll

One thing that Vol8 retains very well is how effectively the OVA uses posed money shots. Even if the animation isn't great at times, or if the scene before it is filled with CG garbage, during key scenes when major characters "pose" at the camera for a money shot, it always looks like a really cool colored frame from the manga with more camera effects to make it more dramatic.

Yeah, that's the thing about the OVA series as a whole. The major character moneyshots are faithful, down to some of the more twisted facial expressions the author do. And that really keeps the important moments looking good.

[Friday]

seen it.....loved it.....
after a year and a half of waiting......it was worth it

Spoiler for reunion:

reuniting of master & pupil and was cute what alucard did to Victoria...very special moment

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by Jarmel

Not happy about the overuse of cgi.

Duckroll's post is a buzzkill. It seems they should have had the money to draw all these scenes out, and they certainly have the time. The poor directing also is absolutely atrocious and it seems they should know better.

I dunno about the money. An OVA like Gundam Unicorn can sell almost 200k per volume. An OVA like Hellsing Ultimate sells about 10k per volume or less. On average I think Hellsing sells more like 6-7k per volume. Plus, when you start to get a reputation for having already replaced two studios and two directors throughout the course of the series, I think it makes the next director/studio who takes on the project less willing to give it their all. It would just be another job, instead of something you are passionately working on from the start.

[Thess]

Originally Posted by duckroll

I dunno about the money. An OVA like Gundam Unicorn can sell almost 200k per volume. An OVA like Hellsing Ultimate sells about 10k per volume or less. On average I think Hellsing sells more like 6-7k per volume. Plus, when you start to get a reputation for having already replaced two studios and two directors throughout the course of the series, I think it makes the next director/studio who takes on the project less willing to give it their all. It would just be another job, instead of something you are passionately working on from the start.

Do you have the number of the OVA sales? I know only the first week, the Japanese tenth tanko of Hellsing sold 97,352 units. Of course, the manga could be way more popular than the OVA. Plus it's cheaper.

Nevermind. I found some rankings. Wow. That's a real significant drop.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

I can't believe it finally came out. Came as a complete surprise. I was beginning to think it never would.

Man, it seems like we've been waiting for over a year for this baby to come out. Oh wait. We have.

But it was worth it. Totally worth it.

[Jarmel]

Originally Posted by duckroll

I dunno about the money. An OVA like Gundam Unicorn can sell almost 200k per volume. An OVA like Hellsing Ultimate sells about 10k per volume or less. On average I think Hellsing sells more like 6-7k per volume. Plus, when you start to get a reputation for having already replaced two studios and two directors throughout the course of the series, I think it makes the next director/studio who takes on the project less willing to give it their all. It would just be another job, instead of something you are passionately working on from the start.

I'm really surprised how low those numbers are.

[Thess]

Originally Posted by Jarmel

I'm really surprised how low those numbers are.

I was in the beginning (since the manga sells a lot more than that): OVA is doing a little better than the Gonzo TV series, but not that much it seems.

[-Sho-]

That was insanely great.
Loved Alucard true form

[Ushio the Omega]

Hellsing Volume 7 week 1 sales

DVD
61 -- *3,874 **3,874 **1 Hellsing v7

BD
22 -- *1,753 *1,753 *1 Hellsing v7

Total 5627

Did not rank second week.

To rank for second week required sales of more than 2174 DVD, 845 BD.

http://www.mania.com/aodvb/blog.php?b=3910

http://www.mania.com/aodvb/blog.php?b=3912

[nines]

O.O they can't kill him thats impossible x.x some one tell me its a lie

[Gai-Kakashi]

There's no such thing as an immortal monster.

Spoiler for OVA9 Spoilers:

Fight's not over yet though. However...