Hells Angels (manga)

Hells Angels is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shinichi Hiromoto [ja]. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from August 2002 to April 2004 and compiled into three tankōbon volumes. It follows a teenage girl named Rinne Amagane who dies on her way to school and ends up in another school, in the underworld. While down there, she learns to get along with her new classmates, who are all demons.

Hells Angels
First tankōbon volume cover
Genre	Dark comedy[1] Dark fantasy[2]
Manga
Written by	Shinichi Hiromoto [ja]
Published by	Shueisha
Magazine	Ultra Jump
Demographic	Seinen
Original run	August 19, 2002 – April 19, 2004
Volumes	3
Anime film
Hells
Directed by	Yoshiki Yamakawa
Written by	Yoshiki Yamakawa Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Music by	Edison
Studio	Madhouse
Licensed by	NA: Discotek Media
Released	October 18, 2008
Runtime	117 minutes[3]

Hells Angels was adapted into an anime film produced by Madhouse, which premiered at the 2008 Tokyo International Film Festival. The film was initially released under its original title, but was later retitled to Hells on the 2012 Blu-ray release. The film was licensed by Discotek Media in 2017.

Plot

Amagane Rinne is a playful and cheerful teenager. One day, she gets hit by a truck on her way to school, and lands in Hell. Far from being discouraged, she wants to finish her schooling and will try despite the circumstances to make friends, which she had promised herself when she was alive. But what she doesn't know is the fact that she is dead.

Cast

Hells cast

Roles	Japanese	English[4]
Rinne Amagane	Misato Fukuen	Amanda Lee
Ryu Kutou	Daisuke Kishio	Howard Wang
Headmaster Hellvis	Fumihiko Tachiki	Jason Marnocha
Steela	Miyuki Sawashiro	Megan Shipman
Rokku	Chō	Martin Billany
Mario	Hidenobu Kiuchi	Joshua Gotay
Rei Kagurazaka	Yūna Inamura	Amber Lee Connors
Luca	Akeno Watanabe	Corinne Sudberg
Phantoma	Yui Kano	Marin Miller
Kiki	Ami Koshimizu	Sarah Anne Williams
Wolfie	Yuki Matsuoka	Marissa Lenti
Cronola	Yū Asakawa	Caitlyn Elizabeth
Gillealla	Rina Satō	Amanda Gish
Curia	Nana Inoue	Elizabeth Maxwell
Mummyla	Akeno Watanabe	Emily Fajardo
Franken (grunts)	Nobuyuki Hiyama	Benjamin Tehrani
Who	Keiji Fujiwara	Chris Guererro
Rinne's Mother	Romi Park	Jessica Calvello
Pandaz	Nobuyuki Hiyama	Scott Frerichs
Female gatekeeper	Yuu Kobayashi
Male gatekeeper	Hiroki Yasumoto
Captain of the East Witches	Takako Honda	Melissa Sternenberg
Dorm mother	Masako Nozawa	Lawrence Simpson
Homeroom teacher	Zennosuke Fukkin	Nick Landis
Hebo	Keiji Fujiwara	Anthony Sardinha
Abel (young)		Kristen McGuire
Captured angel	Akiko Oka
Lone student	Airi Sakuno
Students	Jin Sakakibara Kiyohiro Yamaguchi Nozomi Sasaki Yui Shoji Yuuko Shima

Media

Manga

Hells Angels is written and illustrated by Shinichi Hiromoto [ja]. It was serialized in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Ultra Jump from August 19, 2002,^[a] to April 19, 2004.^[b] Shueisha collected its chapters in three tankōbon volumes published from April 18, 2003,^[9] to July 16, 2004.^[10]

Volumes

No.	Release date	ISBN
1	April 18, 2003[9]	4-08-876438-2
2	October 17, 2003[11]	4-08-876521-4
3	July 16, 2004[10]	4-08-876633-4

Film

An anime film adaptation by Madhouse, which premiered at the 2008 Tokyo International Film Festival.^[1][12] The theme song is "Breathe Again feat. Sphere" by Jamosa.^[13]

The Japanese distributor TC Entertainment released the film simply titled as Hells on Blu-ray with English subtitles on August 3, 2012.^[2][14] On June 12, 2017, Discotek Media had announced at their panel at AnimeNEXT that they would be releasing Hells on Blu-ray and DVD.^[15] On August 13, 2017, Discotek announced that the home media release would include an English dub.^[4] The English dub of the film marked the first time voice acting/video production company TeamFourStar (known for the comedic webseries Dragon Ball Z Abridged) worked on an official dub.^[4][16][17] Discotek released the Blu-ray on November 27, 2018.^[18]

Reception

The Hells anime film was one of the Jury Recommended Works at the 12th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2008.^[19]

Notes

1. It debuted in the September 2002 issue,^[5] released on August 19 of that same year.^[6]
2. It finished in the May 2004 issue,^[7] released on April 19 of that same year.^[8]

References

1. Loo, Egan (November 27, 2008). "Madhouse's Hells Angels Anime Promo Video Streamed". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
2. Loo, Egan (July 13, 2012). "1st 3 Minutes of Dark Fantasy Anime Hells Posted". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on November 27, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
3. "HELLS" (in Japanese). Japanese Film Database. Retrieved October 18, 2024.
4. Mateo, Alex (August 12, 2018). "Discotek Streams Hells Anime Film's English Dub Trailers". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on August 12, 2018. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
5. ウルトラジャンプ9月号（69号）・ホ－ムページ. ultra.shueisha.co.jp (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on December 26, 2002. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
6. ウルトラジャンプバックナンバーのご案内 (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on October 2, 2002. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
7. ＨＥＬＬＳ ＡＮＧＥＬＳ. ultra.shueisha.co.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on December 10, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
8. ウルトラジャンプ5月号（89号）・ホ－ムページ. ultra.shueisha.co.jp (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on April 26, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
9. "HELLS ANGELS 1" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on August 23, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
10. "HELLS ANGELS 3" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on August 7, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
11. "HELLS ANGELS 2" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Archived from the original on August 23, 2004. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
12. Loo, Egan (August 24, 2008). "Hells Angels Anime to Premiere in October in Japan". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
13. 「HELLS ANGELS」遂に披露 東京国際映画祭でワールドプレミア. animeanime.jp (in Japanese). October 18, 2008. Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
14. Loo, Egan (April 24, 2012). "Hells Angels' Anime Adaptation Gets English-Subbed BD". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
15. Luster, Joseph (June 12, 2017). "Discotek to Bring "Galaxy Express 999" Films, "HELLS," and "Kaiba" to Blu-ray". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
16. Green, Scott (August 14, 2017). "Discotek Announces Plans for "Robot Carnival," "Bananya" And More". Crunchyroll. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
17. TeamFourStar [@teamfourstar] (August 13, 2017). "We're proud to announce that we'll be dubbing the Madhouse film Hells. Our first *official* dub! *Not* a parody!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
18. "Hells Blu-ray". Right Stuf-US. Archived from the original on December 15, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2018.
19. "Animation Division – 2008 [12th] Japan Media Arts Festival Archive". Japan Media Arts Festival. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.

External links

• Official anime film website at Madhouse at the Wayback Machine (archived 2012-07-26) (in Japanese)
• Hells Angels (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia