Status of Berserk's Pre-publication

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It migrated to this back in April: skullknight.net/releases and you can also find it in the menu at the top of the forum (Explore).
Are the English and Japanese titles for Episode 358 going to be added soon, along with Episode 359 getting an entry slot added?
 

Walter

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Are the English and Japanese titles for Episode 358 going to be added soon, along with Episode 359 getting an entry slot added?

Eventually, yeah. It's a real pain to update this format. Makes more sense to update it with several at once instead of one at a time. After all, the overall release trend over time is what makes this thing significant.
 
I've already acclimated to the notion that these two episodes would be all that we are getting this year. But, I would be grateful if we got another one.

Based on what Miura said, I'll get more excited about episode releases when it's on a regular schedule. I don't know how long that will be (probably after Duranki concludes, I imagine), but I'm more interested in the prospect of it being released regularly. Regular and frequent consumption of new episodes is I'd like to experience with this series.
 
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As we are getting closer to the end of the year, I think it is unanimous that as we mark the 30th birthday of Berserk the gift Miura gave us was a 2 episode release and a huge hiatus between them, vintage Miura Sensei, but no need to be negative about it, next year he is probably going to give us more, after duranki is done i believe. Btw, he actually gave us a lot of important stuff, said that he plans to end berserk soon, that the final confront between Guts and Griffith is close, and also that he wants to speed up serialization.
 
I would not be too sure about that. I could see the series resuming around march/april if I'd have to guess. We didnt get a confirmation on how long Duranki is suposed to be right?

No, we don't know how long Duranki is going to be.

But since Miura is using this new manga in order for his assistants to learn how to draw in his artstyle, I would guess that he's waiting until they are good enough to draw some pages without his rough drawings.

In any case, i'm sure that when Berserk comes back, the episodes will come out faster since Miura will have to draw less by himself.
 

Walter

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I don't know how long that will be (probably after Duranki concludes, I imagine
I think we won't get another Berserk episode until Miura and his Studio are done with Duranki.

There's no reason to conclude that Duranki's production is delaying things for Berserk. Here's the answer straight from Miura in the Natalie.mu interviews from September, as translated by Puella:

-Berserk isn't available in every issue. With the start of Duranki, some fans might think the publication of Berserk will be delayed.

I'm quite fast at storyboarding, the main reason for the delays is my drawing speed. My staff is competent but I still draw almost every part myself, so it brings out more and more delays. So I hope my assistants' skills will grow with Duranki, so I get to think "this is good enough". So this can make me consider using them more for Berserk, and then I hope Berserk's publication speed will get faster.

For the first and second episodes of “Duranki”, I have done the storyboards and drafts and entrusted the inking to my assistants. My role is, like a drawing director, to modify our work to harmonize the quality at the final step.

1) He's quite fast at storyboarding. 2) He did storyboarding and drafts for Duranki. Add those together, and it does not mean it's creating delays for Berserk. The series experienced unexplained delays long before Duranki. But if you're dying to point to something more tangible as the source of a delay, his studio is in the process of expansion, so Miura has to interview, hire and re-organize his staff:

Since we're starting "Duranki", I need more assistants. So I've reformated the studio recently and prepared working desks for 7 assistants.

That could create short-term delays overall as things get situated. Ultimately though, this expansion is a way for Miura to shape Studio Gaga into a more efficient production model. So that means good things for Berserk. We're just in a drought for now.
 
Looking forward to it's return, but there are so many shows and games in the meantime. Whenever it comes out it'll be great. I mean it's gonna be a huge Skull Knight Episode with awakened Casca in a village of magic users. This era of releases will be some of the most impactful in the whole series. Patience is rewarded in the long game.
 
There's no reason to conclude that Duranki's production is delaying things for Berserk. Here's the answer straight from Miura in the Natalie.mu interviews from September, as translated by Puella:

I personally disagree with this to some extent. Despite being listed as a Producer, Miura still carries 75% off the workload for the series. Even if he is fast with writing and planning out the series, that still leaves him with having to design and sketch out everything for the assistants. And since his assistants can't draw his style by themselves, he has to be more detailed in his sketches so they can ink it without many complications, and if there are any, it just means more time needed for them to adjust to his style.

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And like you said, there is also the fact that he is expanding his studio, take that into account and the assistant team being responsible for Durank, and you end up having Miura pretty much doing most of the work for Berserk and a good chunk of it for Duranki. Inevitably you won't be able to failry balance it with Duranki running every 2 months till eventually the studio can do the entirety of the drawings without needing Miuras sketches for it and who knows how long that could take. Obviously we need more details, but if a part of the assistant team is working on Duranki and the other one on Berserk, then the big picture would look different, but as of now we can't know how its balanced inside the studio.
 
I personally disagree with this to some extent. Despite being listed as a Producer, Miura still carries 75% off the workload for the series. Even if he is fast with writing and planning out the series, that still leaves him with having to design and sketch out everything for the assistants. And since his assistants can't draw his style by themselves, he has to be more detailed in his sketches so they can ink it without many complications, and if there are any, it just means more time needed for them to adjust to his style.
I don't believe this is entirely accurate. In my opinion, Berserk's current break isn't due to Miura spending too much of his time on Duranki and not having sufficient enough time to work on Berserk. I believe it's more deliberate.

If you think about it, the purpose of Duranki is to create a new process of manga creation that better balances the workload between Miura and his assistants. This is done to make things more streamline and time efficient, so he can offload more of Berserk's art related work to his assistants to ultimately increase the production rate of Berserk. Miura mentioned in the recent interview that he tried different techniques (including one he tried with Giganto Maxia and then used with Berserk afterwards) to improve his efficiency, but it still took him a lot of time to finish the artwork without compromising the quality. With all this in mind, Duranki's existence and attention to it makes perfect sense.

And lastly, regarding the break from Berserk, if we assume that what I wrote above is correct, it makes more sense to invest time into developing a better process that would be utilized for years to produce Berserk more efficiently and without compromises, rather than balance time and attention between it and Berserk, just to intermittently produce a couple of episodes.
 
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Aazealh

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If you think about it, the purpose of Duranki is to create a new process of manga creation that better balances the workload between Miura and his assistants.

That's just not true. If the main goal was really to produce Berserk faster, then Berserk would be used for that process directly. The more reasonable explanation is that Young Animal Zero needed a strong series behind it and Miura was asked to provide it. He was game, and aside from that he felt it could also serve to push his assistants forward, which is something that might be useful to Berserk eventually.

As for whether that will actually benefit Berserk down the line... I'm not holding my breath. We'll see how it goes, but these guys have been working on Berserk for years anyway, so I'm not sure how they're supposed to get better now if they haven't in the past 10 years. It might just be a matter of the amount of control Miura is willing to let them have, but I'm not especially optimistic.

I guess part of the reason for it is that personally, despite what Miura has said about it, I don't believe that drawing speed is the only factor for Berserk's sluggish schedule. The way I see it, Duranki (and before that Gigantomakhia) are endeavors that give him a creative break from the burden of that continuing story. I still think, like I have for many years, that there are factors at play of burning out and of having trouble with articulating every element needed to bring the story to an end.
 
That's just not true. If the main goal was really to produce Berserk faster, then Berserk would be used for that process directly.
I believe Miura said he wanted to be sure that the elevated responsibility put on his assistants wouldn't result in decrease in quality of Berserk's artwork. Hence he chose to try this with Duranki.

The more reasonable explanation is that Young Animal Zero needed a strong series behind it and Miura was asked to provide it.
I agree with you here. I assume that Miura was asked to create a new short series to kickstart Young Animal Zero and he decided to kill two birds with one stone with it. Both supporting the publishing company and trying out a new process with his assistants.

As for whether that will actually benefit Berserk down the line... I'm not holding my breath. We'll see how it goes, but these guys have been working on Berserk for years anyway, so I'm not sure how they're supposed to get better now if they haven't in the past 10 years. It might just be a matter of the amount of control Miura is willing to let them have, but I'm not especially optimistic.
Same here. It's no guarantee that whatever is being tested with Duranki will be utilized with Berserk and if it would make any difference.

I guess part of the reason for it is that personally, despite what Miura has said about it, I don't believe that drawing speed is the only factor for Berserk's sluggish schedule. The way I see it, Duranki (and before that Gigantomakhia) are endeavors that give him a creative break from the burden of that continuing story. I still think, like I have for many years, that there are factors at play of burning out and of having trouble with articulating every element needed to bring the story to an end.
I don't want to get too carried away, but I think Miura is more than capable to stably producing 21 page episodes on monthly basis without killing himself. I'm sure that there are multiple factors affecting the release schedule. I'm hoping that Miura will not lose interest in Berserk and will eventually figure out a sustainable way to release the series.
 
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I'm hoping that Miura will not lose interest in Berserk and will eventually figure out a sustainable way to release the series.

I doubt it's a lack of interest. It's probably more a burden of duty to make sure what comes next is expressed in the best way it can, from a story and pacing perspective, the dialogue, art, and new character designs. The story of Berserk is a well-crafted web that's incredibly internally consistent and satisfying as it goes on. It seems like the next episode is going to determine a major plot reveal (Skull Knight possibly spilling the beans) and potentially even direction change for Guts and Casca. I imagine Miura spends plenty of time to marinate on how to best execute the next step in his story. It's his life work, he won't abandon it.
 
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I doubt it's a lack of interest.
I never said it was. My exact word were: "I'm hoping that Miura will not lose interest in Berserk and will eventually figure out a sustainable way to release the series." I was hoping that this wouldn't happen in the future, not that it already has.

It seems like the next episode is going to determine a major plot reveal (Skull Knight possibly spilling the beans) and potentially even direction change for Guts and Casca. I imagine Miura spends plenty of time to marinate on how to best execute the next step in his story. It'shis life work,he won't abandon it.
I doubt this is the case either, since there is no precedence for this. Berserk already has more than a few major plot reveals done. None of them ever required this much "marinating." Miura himself stated on multiple occasions that he finishes the storyboards very quickly, and he never mentioned trouble with writing the story. Hence, he doesn't seem to have trouble coming up with what to do next. Even in the letter sent by this forum there was a question about regrets regarding some story points. Miura answered the he has none, which means that everything was and is going according to his plan.

As for Skull Knight spilling the beans, I agree with you on this point. When I first read episode 359 and saw SK at the end, I too thought that the time is about right for him to reveal his backstory witch will most likely include his relationship with Void and the origin of the God Hand, etc. Also, in the interview from Illustrations File [1996], on the question "How will Griffith/Femto end?", Miura hinted with "The keyword is Void." This interview is from 1996, i.e. 23 years ago. And it being such a pivotal point in the story, I'm sure Miura had more than enough time to figure out this aspect of the story to perfection. So, I highly doubt that the story is what causes the breaks.
 
I doubt this is the case either, since there is no precedence for this. Berserk already has more than a few major plot reveals done. None of them ever required this much "marinating." Miura himself stated on multiple occasions that he finishes the storyboards very quickly, and he never mentioned trouble with writing the story. Hence, he doesn't seem to have trouble coming up with what to do next.

Also, in the interview from Illustrations File [1996], on the question "How will Griffith/Femto end?", Miura hinted with "The keyword is Void." This interview is from 1996, i.e. 23 years ago. And it being such a pivotal point in the story, I'm sure Miura had more than enough time to figure out this aspect of the story to perfection. So, I highly doubt that the story is what causes the breaks.

Not trying to quibble too much here, but based on his previous interviews at much earlier parts of the story, it seems like his process is a bit of a gardener approach. He has a loose idea of where he wants to take things and what he wants to explore, but he gives himself the freedom to create as he goes as well (which is great for deciding the 'how' not necissarily the what). George R.R. Martin has this approach to the Game of Thrones novels (not the show).

And as far as the Void connection, maybe he's elaborately planned this whole thing out 23 years ago. Or maybe he just set up a series of great questions to live up to (Skull Knight, God Hand, IoE) and he's been finding his way to the answers in a spectacularly original fashion. Maybe I'm biased. I started just when Ganishka turned into Shiva about 12 or 13 years ago. The story has taken a meandering but fantastic path to where it is in a way that continuously expands the world and shows us who characters are.

This is of course all speculation based on what he's described in other interviews, but I imagine he has a detailed outline of plot points, and reveals, but allows himself the patience to present very original methods to get there. It's what makes the series exciting, deep in character, and strong in plot.

But maybe I'm wrong and the general delay with Berserk is just the art (which I think he's a total pro at this point) or distraction with other projects (probably not, but who knows what is said for PR purposes). But from my POV it's a series with long term enjoyment in the slow release.
 
Not trying to quibble too much here
Of course not, neither do I. I respect everyone's opinions and don't want to force mine on you or anyone else. At the end, this is just my opinion which is based on very little evidence (sadly).

This is of course all speculation based on what he's described in other interviews, but I imagine he has a detailed outline of plot points, and reveals, but allows himself the patience to present very original methods to get there. It's what makes the series exciting, deep in character, and strong in plot.
I completely agree with you on this. I doubt that he'd spend time writing every single detail in advance. I'm sure that he has a plan that includes major beats of the story and character progression, events, concepts, and world building. But, unless it's 100% necessary, I doubt he plans exactly how he'd end up writing each episode.

But maybe I'm wrong and the general delay with Berserk is just the art (which I think he's a total pro at this point) or distraction with other projects (probably not, but who knows what is said for PR purposes).
I don't think it's just the art, either. I think the story, work-life balance, other projects, trying new ways to complete the episodes, and other personal reason affect the delays as well. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason. I try to avoid getting into speculation territory, so I only use the information that I get from Miura himself.
 
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