Messages

1

Speculation Nation / Re: Casca's Role in the Future

« on: June 18, 2018, 11:42:59 AM »

you guyss, thanks for replying
i dont have anyone IRL to talk this with. I cant force them read~
 

You should check out our podcast. 100+ hours of Berserk chat 

2

Speculation Nation / Re: Casca's Role in the Future

« on: June 17, 2018, 11:25:43 AM »

And it would give me incredible chills if they managed to pull out the original Hawks and include them in battle or even just an apparition of them. Its cheesy but hey... lets dream.

Sorry, but they were absorbed into the Vortex of Souls, and their individual egos vanished shortly afterwards. But maybe it's possible we'll see a version of them if the Vortex comes to claim Griffith one day (like Vargas did for the Count).

3

Video Games / Re: E3 2018 Reactions

« on: June 15, 2018, 11:34:42 PM »

At least there's two clear reference to Kurosawa at the beginning of the demo :

2 - Sanjuro : the one shot kill (which is a well timed charge attack) when Jin face the Mongols

I didn't know that that's directly attributable.

For those looking for more RE2, here's some in-game footage: https://youtu.be/DFykxpS7xVE?t=1m27s

4

Video Games / Re: E3 2018 Reactions

« on: June 15, 2018, 02:33:36 AM »

Bleac, I'd prefer not to make this thread about new and upcoming games into a thread litigating the merits of Geralt. So check your PMs where I've sent you a lengthy reply.

5

Video Games / Re: E3 2018 Reactions

« on: June 13, 2018, 10:01:58 PM »

I'm surprised to see you guys couldn't get into the Witcher. I'm curious if you actually tried playing any of the games and it wouldn't stick, or if the theme simply couldn't stir your interest enough.

I played about 15-20h of Witcher 1 and about 5 of Witcher 2. The games seemed very preoccupied with demonstrating to me that they are set in a MATURE, DARK world, which, you know, manifests in the form of bearded, swearing fat men, and a sex-for-trading cards sidequest. I found the whole thing quite boring.

6

Video Games / Re: E3 2018 Reactions

« on: June 13, 2018, 04:11:02 PM »

As someone who has followed the industry very closely for years, yet only owns a Switch, this was yet again an E3 where 90% of the show was mostly just spectacle for me.

Things that I am excited about in order of excitement, even if it's just by proxy:

-Cyberpunk — Despite unsuccessfully developing any interest in any of the Witcher games, I'm very interested in this one, and it had an incredible trailer.

-Sekiro — Finally, From Soft seems to be peeking their heads out of the coffin of Souls games where they've been hibernating for about a decade

-Doom Eternal — Spiritual sequel to Doom 2: hell on earth? Sign me up. Too bad they already played the Super Shotgun card though...

-Rage 2 — Listen, I'll be the first guy to say that Rage was a disappointment. I dropped $60 on that game in a year where I was a part-time freelancer, so I have JUST A FEW FEELINGS about that experience. But the wilder take on the world in the footage they showed off looked promising to me. And with Avalanche at the helm it's sure to at least be a fun ride.

-Spelunky 2 — Not at the show, but should have been. No release date, but 2019 seems safe. Spelunky is infinitely replayable, and I have a lot of love for it. It's a game I still play once every few weeks. Just last night I ranked 34th worldwide in the daily challenge I'm not sure what Derek Yu can add for a sequel, but he seems confident, so I'm excited.

-Nioh 2 — Bottom of the list for a reason. I'm excited! But ... it's a very quick turnaround. Nioh was just last year, right? And it's honestly hard to get too excited for this since I still haven't finished the first one (that first boss obliterated my confidence in my abilities).

7

Video Games / Re: Dark Souls

« on: June 10, 2018, 09:13:34 PM »

Sekiro looks damn good. Would it make more sense to merge this with the Ni-Oh thread though? 

8

Manga Mausoleum / Re: Dark Horse Releases

« on: June 09, 2018, 04:39:57 PM »

https://i.redd.it/vi8mryp2js211.jpg

In recent reprints, Dark Horse has changed its translation of the Sovereign of the Flower Storm from "Hanafubuku King" to "Flower Storm Monarch." Good on them for correcting that half-translated mess.

9

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: June 07, 2018, 05:13:03 PM »

The preview for the 22.6 issue is out: http://www.younganimal.com/magazine/next.html
I might have missed it, but I don't see Berserk there.

Yep, just saw that myself. Too bad.

10

Video Games / Re: Bloodborne

« on: June 06, 2018, 10:37:11 PM »

Bloodborne II alledgedly to be announced at E3... I gotta get a PS4 and play the first one still!

Get ready for From Soft's Hell Factory Simulator VI! 

11

Video Games / Re: Dark Souls

« on: June 04, 2018, 02:22:13 AM »

The first 5 minutes of that run was very familiar to me    But wow at 6:30 that's a very strange clipping error that I've never seen, allowing them to get to Sen's Fortress early. After that, the rest was obvious.

12

Vagabond / Re: Official Slam Dunk thread

« on: June 01, 2018, 07:06:23 PM »

Oh man ... these covers look really good. What do you think Walter?

They don't excite me. And this is the second time that I know of for the series to be re-released with new covers. After all that, I still prefer the originals. Each one tried a different style, so that even those that aren't great at least showed an artistic attempt at some fresh take on the characters/mood. And these pristine-looking things are really going to contrast harshly with the art inside them, which developed considerably across the years he produced Slam Dunk.

Anyway, this all seems like a cheap grab for attention and money -- a path of least resistance for Inoue to make a bit of cash. And why not? It's his series. But if Inoue is going to revisit this material, I'd prefer to see something a little more substantial. A teasing flash forward would be pretty powerful for longtime fans (Sakuragi and Rukawa in a college game, for example). The "10 Days Later" serial was too low-effort to satiate that appetite. I doubt we'll ever get a "sequel," despite many seeds having been laid for one throughout vols 20-31, though I can certainly live without one.

13

Podcast / SkullKast: Episode 96

« on: May 28, 2018, 06:11:16 PM »

Episode 96: Bakiraka (+Ep. 356-2 Review) (1h4m)

It's a new era -- shorter Berserk episodes means the return of topic podcasts. We take a long overdue dive into the Bakiraka and their significance in Berserk, along with their historical background.

Aazealh's thread fro 2005 about Bakiraka weaponry and their historical basis: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=3695.msg90697#msg90697

A 2016 interview with a guru of Kalaripayatt, and the history of the martial art that's at the core of the Bakiraka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI84oM_bJeg

===========================================
Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or by plugging this address
into your favorite podcast app: http://skullknight.net/podcast/rss.xml
===========================================

14

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: May 28, 2018, 12:50:04 PM »

What are you guys going to do for the podcast this month? Will you do another volume re-read since this month’s release is so short, and simply cover the second half of 356 in that?

It's already done. Will be posted later today.

15

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: May 28, 2018, 12:52:34 AM »

Since its seems to have been confirmed that the most recent release was in fact Part Two of Episode 356, besides renaming the thread, how should it be recorded in the sites' Episode table archive?: http://skullknight.net/images/eps.htm

Pretty simple: Through the magic of merging cells! Also, for convenience, I switched over to this URL a few months back: http://skullknight.net/releases

Should it be counted as two for the "# releases" with a *note stating that one episode was split apart or should it be vice versa?

Boy, that's more thought than I've ever put into that column I think it counts as two releases,  yeah. Hakusensha is gaming the system a bit, but it is technically two consecutive releases in Young Animal, even if they add up to one episode at the end of the day.

16

Berserk Miscellaneous / Re: Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight novel

« on: May 24, 2018, 04:19:26 PM »

I don't know for the first part, but, well, the actions of Ganishka'son weren't much better.

I disagree, and you're selling Ganishka short here. Ganishka being able to sacrifice his son spoke volumes about how he felt about him. And though I haven't read the book yet, it doesn't seem like Edvard and Grunbeld had developed the same kind of bond as, say, Guts and Griffith, or in Ganishka's case, as father and son (a son whose life had become driven by fear just as Ganishka had endured). Edvard seems just tacked on as a sacrifice. His friends had already been wounded, (and/or violated) so it's all quite watered down from other sacrifice scenarios in Berserk. And of all aspects of this story where Miura could have provided guidance or an outline, one would have thought THIS would be it, the climax of the character's story arc, and basically establishing his character motivation. And yet, based on the outcome, I can't imagine this was sourced from Miura.

Becoming a demon in Berserk is a wholly selfish act, and putting an anti hero spin on it kind of negates the whole point of "cutting away your humanity"

Indeed, that's the other part of it. Grunbeld is basically just empowered through this ordeal.

17

Berserk Miscellaneous / Re: Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight novel

« on: May 24, 2018, 02:12:33 PM »

Apparently Edward, Benedicte and the Blonde knight get branded, and Grunbeld kills them. In every other apostle ceremony the vortex takes them.

 That's not true. As the eclipse showed us, apostles are free to devour them after branding. And even in standard sacrificial ceremonies, we've seen apostles devouring the bodies, or at least in the proximity of the bodies — the Count and Ganishka. The Vortex's function is to take the soul of the branded.

As for the inconsistency in this novel, it has to do with two of the sacrifices being "willing" sacrifices, along with the fact that Edvard made for a shitty sacrifice given his actions throughout the book, particularly the ending. Neither of those things pass the smell test, to me.

18

Berserk Miscellaneous / Re: Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight novel

« on: May 23, 2018, 09:01:01 PM »

I think no one should buy it.15 euro are far to much for this book,the artwork is very good but the rest suck. I am ashamed
that i have buy it

Everyone can do as they will, of course. I feel somewhat obligated to get it. But at the same time, I fundamentally don't want to support anything about this new novel endeavor.

19

Berserk Miscellaneous / Re: Berserk: The Flame Dragon Knight novel

« on: May 23, 2018, 01:31:48 PM »

The novel is out in germany and i have read the first 65 sites.I really hope that this is not canon.It seems that the autor dosn´t know that berserk isnt only about gore,rape and violence. In what i have read it feels like that there is far to much rape and detailed violent i really don´t like it. I regret to buy it. 

Indeed. I've only read summaries, but it seems quite ridiculous and juvenile how sexual violence is used in the story. And I've heard similar accounts from those who have read it, walking away grossed out that it has Berserk's name on it. 

20

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: May 22, 2018, 04:29:27 PM »

So I actually do think this is really "episode 356, part 2" and not episode 357.

That's the best case scenario, then. It means the strange brief pacing of the past two releases will be limited to the episodic experience, not the volume experience. I'm fine with that, particularly if it facilitates more regular releases.  It's just a shame that it comes with a cost of less to discuss each month (in this case, quite a bit less).

21

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: May 22, 2018, 02:26:30 PM »

Hiatuses or not, 9 pages episodes would kill this manga.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, man. Not sure how much I can stress that we shouldn't conclude anything yet. We're dealing with scanlations at this point.

22

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: May 22, 2018, 01:54:23 PM »

Someone on Reddit said that this is an addition to Episode 356, that's why it's so short. If it's true, it makes sense, maybe YA editors or Miura himself chop those pieces so we don't get hiatuses.

So technically it is still 356, I think. It's going to be less confusing in the volume.

It's worth discussing, but far from conclusive. Consider that that episode number was edited by the Korean scanlators. There's a possibility they mistyped it. It's a big enough change in the production (one episode published across 2 months) that I'd rather see the title in Japanese before hanging our hat on this possibility. However, 356 (15 pgs) + "357" (9 pgs) does equate to one large-sized episode (24 pgs). So it's not a crazy thought. Just a whole new ballgame.

In any case, it certainly looks like each release was structured around an episode-ending climax, which is standard with Berserk. But if shorter releases become the status quo, my concern is that if each release builds to a climax in a shorter page count, that could effectively change the way the story is told.

While this episode was basically just eye candy, I have to say it was premium grade stuff.

Speaking of "eye candy" check out the juice coming out of the hydra's eye! 

23

Vagabond / Re: Official Slam Dunk thread

« on: May 22, 2018, 11:54:47 AM »

Is this a commemorative "Remembering Takehiko Inoue (1967-2015)" edition?

24

Current Episodes / Re: Episode 356 part II

« on: May 22, 2018, 11:50:41 AM »

The mystery of the thicket revealed! 

Cool to see Zodd tear into the hydra. I was surprised such a creature required a triple-team of apostles to take down though. Of course, I also didn't realize it could immediately pop a new head.

Too bad about the strange shortness of this episode. From 15 pgs, which was noticeably short last time, to 9 (not including the new title page) is a bit disheartening, given that this is now effectively a HALF length episode.

It's a shame we didn't get anything major this episode but at least there's nothing left to attend to now.

Indeed, but I kind of expected that resolution near the front end of this episode, with more revealed afterwards. I guess that's coming in (3) though.

25

Movies, TV, Books & Music / Re: What are you reading?

« on: May 19, 2018, 06:25:26 PM »

Wheel of Time is....incredibly dense, and spends way too much time with the guys thinking the girls are bossy bitches, and the girls thinking the guys are stubborn dumbies.

https://www.tor.com/2017/03/24/how-many-times-does-braid-tugging-and-skirt-smoothing-happen-in-the-wheel-of-time/