Hellsing Ultimate V-VII

[paradigm]

My apologies for creating a new thread for this. It was either this or resurrect a very old thread, and I didn't know which one would be worse.

Volume 4 of Hellsing Ultimate was released in the US on September 23, 2008. Think about that. Barack Obama's campaign to be the first half-black President was in full swing, the financial meltdown was also in full swing, and members of the US House and Senate were just days from deciding to go against the will of the American people and approve a $700 billion bailout for the "too big to fail" banks. That's how long it's been since we last had a Hellsing Ultimate release in the US.

So here we are in May 2011, and still there's no word even on the release of volume 5, let alone 6 and 7. I can only figure that FUNimation must be running into some major problems with these releases, because there's no other reason I can fathom for them to wait this long. Hellsing Ultimate is undoubtedly one of their most popular titles. I and many other fans are ready and willing to buy the expensive limited editions of Hellsing Ultimate 5, 6 and 7, and I'm sure quite a few others will buy the regular editions. As soon as they release them, they can have loads and loads of our money. These delays are hurting them far more than they're hurting us.

Does anybody know what's going on with Hellsing Ultimate?

[Mazinkaizer]

My wishful thinking is that Funi (or other), might have the option to pursue the remaining OVAs. Perhaps the fact that the OVAs were made by different studios would not make the licensing process as smoothly as other shows. I would surly love to see more Hellsing getting a US release. And a BD release would be even better !

[Hayate Kurogane]

Long story told (kind of) short:

Geneon Japan was sold by Dentsu to Universal Japan several years ago, and was merged with their Universal Entertainment Japan division to become Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan.

There was a period of time after this where there was essentially a licensing embargo on anime titles due to unresolved details caught in the merger fallout.

This period of time ended, in which was a small window where titles were licensable, and thus FUNimation ended up licensing such properties as the rest of Shakugan no Shana, the Black Lagoon OVA, and of course episodes 5-7 of the Hellsing OVA.

This small window was followed by a period of time which we are still in, in which there are license and contract negotiations and other such maneuverings still ongoing with Geneon Universal Entertainment Japan. There was either kind of a bait-and-switch where FUNimation was led to believe everything was in order when it actually wasn't, or they jumped the gun as far as making public announcements about titles before the ink on the contracts was dry.

As a result of the nature of the current delay (i.e., private licensing negotiations), there has been little actual news or details, other than an occasional comment that things are still being worked out.

[paradigm]

Wow, that was a very well structured and informative explanation. Thank you for that. Hoping as always to get some sort of official word on release dates soon from FUNimation, but your explanation at least gives me a good idea of what might be holding up the works.

Believe it or not, I haven't watched V, VI or VII online (although I did read a spoilerrific synopsis for V). When it comes to Hellsing Ultimate, I vastly prefer the English dub over the Japanese one, so I'm willing to wait as long as it takes to watch the episodes in English.

[russ869]

Wow, that was a very well structured and informative explanation. Thank you for that. Hoping as always to get some sort of official word on release dates soon from FUNimation, but your explanation at least gives me a good idea of what might be holding up the works.
Just keep in mind that everything you just heard is either second-hand information or pure speculation.

[Buckeye]

Wow, that was a very well structured and informative explanation. Thank you for that. Hoping as always to get some sort of official word on release dates soon from FUNimation, but your explanation at least gives me a good idea of what might be holding up the works.
Just keep in mind that everything you just heard is either second-hand information or pure speculation.
Like he said. If you asked Funi this stuff at a panel, you will not get an answer since there are too many unknowns at this point even to Funi and Geneon Universal. I would like to believe it will be here someday, but you just need to be patient.