Castlevania showrunner wants to animate Berserk

NightCrawler

Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
“Berserk needs to come back. If someone reputable gets me the rights I’ll bring it back in that 2D hand-drawn vibe and make is closer to the manga, because the hyper-detailed beauty of Kentaro Miura’s artwork in the manga is the true masterpiece.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/11/14/adi-shankar-on-the-success-of-castlevania-and-his-crusade-to-have-animation-taken-seriously/
 

Walter

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Staff member
Well Berserk would certianly be more material to work from than Castlevania provided. That being said, not sure I feel the need for yet another adaptation. I think the brakes should be hit for a while before they re-up. Clear the air after the stink of 2016-17.

In any case, it's nice to see Berserk and Miura get some recognition abroad.
 
I want to know if he would just use the Dark Horse translations as the source for a script, inheriting their mistakes, or if he’d have one made sourcing the original Japanese.
 

Aazealh

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Keratos said:
Someone has to give this man the rights. I think that this is the only way for Berserk to get the adaptation that it deserves :ubik:

You must be joking. Let's be brutally real here: the Netflix Castlevania series is passable for what it is, but as a high profile manga adaptation it would be considered poor quality. No offense to Adi Shankar (it's cool that he thinks highly of Berserk) but he's hardly the most qualified for the job.

NightCrawler said:
"the hyper-detailed beauty of Kentaro Miura’s artwork in the manga is the true masterpiece."

That's not a very clever thing to say. First, I disagree: I think Berserk's story and characters are the real masterpieces, although Miura's artwork definitely ranks among the best in the world. Second, no animated series will ever come close to that art quality, and certainly not if it's on the level of the Netflix Castlevania animation.
 
Maybe it's my natural preference for manga, but I've never shared the desire to see a new berserk anime; even if done well, it'll ultimately just amount to fan service: some spiffy animation and - hopefully - a few new Hirasawa tracks.
 
The Castlevania anime was top-notch work IMO, so I want this to happen SO BADLY. I lost my sh*t when I saw this floating around the internet. Would love for another adaptation. Can never have enough Berserk in my life! :iva:
 
I want this to happen, because having seen what Shankar has done to works like Castlevania why not give Berserk over to this man. Although, if that's to be the case then he would need to redo possibly Conviction Arc AND Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc as well as animate The Black Swordsman and Lost Children arcs in tow. Go back and fix what was ruined by inexperienced people and bring hopefully something different to the show that wasn't there before. Because I'd rather see something like Berserk in the hands of someone as talented like Shankar than go through the motions of someone who doesn't care.
 

Aazealh

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Staff member
Skullgrin140 said:
I want this to happen, because having seen what Shankar has done to works like Castlevania why not give Berserk over to this man.

Aazealh said:
You must be joking. Let's be brutally real here: the Netflix Castlevania series is passable for what it is, but as a high profile manga adaptation it would be considered poor quality. No offense to Adi Shankar (it's cool that he thinks highly of Berserk) but he's hardly the most qualified for the job.
 
Setting aside how talented and qualified he is, because those are highly contextual and arguable statements, people who are wishfully optimistic about this idea miss some important aspects. He's mainly a producer, and he's only recently dabbled in animation. Having him at the helm isn't enough to guarantee a good Berserk animated series. Good animation is done by teams of people who all need to be capable and somewhat talented and also have enough financial support. Sure, he managed to pull off a decent product with Castlevania aided by Netflix, but if you think just one man with a vision is all it takes to put together a high quality adaptation of Berserk, I'm afraid you might be in for more disappointment.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
I didn't think the Netflix Castlevania anime was all that great to be honest. The animation was ok, but the writing, especially the dialog, was really weak and unnatural. It turned me off throughout. Maybe it was a combination of the writing and the voice talent but almost every spoken line I thought sounded off and not natural for the fantastic medieval period it's set in (especially the jokes and light comedy) . I know it's a cartoon but the dialog sounded like it was written by a teenager. I could've done a rewrite that made it sound a million times more natural.
 

Aazealh

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Bleac said:
He's mainly a producer, and he's only recently dabbled in animation. Having him at the helm isn't enough to guarantee a good Berserk animated series. Good animation is done by teams of people who all need to be capable and somewhat talented and also have enough financial support.

Yeah the point is he's not a miracle man. The Castlevania series was "fine" thanks to Netflix's financial support. Now they're launching a bunch of other series, like "Gods & Heroes", that will likely be of the same level. But to properly adapt Berserk you'd probably need 10 times their budget.

Oburi said:
I didn't think the Netflix Castlevania anime was all that great to be honest. The animation was ok, but the writing, especially the dialog, was really weak and unnatural. It turned me off throughout.

Exactly. And it was mostly the writing in my opinion, the voice talent was fine. Even the plot, direction and action scenes were underwhelming as far as I'm concerned.
 

Walter

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Aazealh said:
The Castlevania series was "fine" thanks to Netflix's financial support. Now they're launching a bunch of other series, like "Gods & Heroes", that will likely be of the same level. But to properly adapt Berserk you'd probably need 10 times their budget.

I'm with you but I wanted to also note that Castlevania Season 2 must have been developed as a rushed afterthought, as evidenced by how the story is structured (the two main plots never actually converge, as if one of them were fabricated in a separate writer's room to pad the length of the already-brief season). So even with Netflix's support, shortcuts are going to be taken to get low-priority cartoons anime out the door and ready for consumption. In fact I was quite surprised to hear the positive reception of S2 in particular, given how thin and poorly planned the story was.

These kinds of writing shortcuts also happen on most Netflix original series that I've watched, as if they're written using a similar "best practices for constant consumption" playbook. For example, it's become a staple to provide a solid 1-2 episode intro, 5-6 episodes of stretched out, often unrelated character pieces, and then wrap it all up in a finale that spends its final third on firm hooks into the next season.

So given all of that, the prospect of Netflix funding a Berserk adaptation doesn't really bode well for me. If anything it would probably be "fine," but by no means a guaranteed hit.
 

Aazealh

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Walter said:
I'm with you but I wanted to also note that Castlevania Season 2 must have been developed as a rushed afterthought, as evidenced by how the story is structured (the two main plots never actually converge, as if one of them were fabricated in a separate writer's room to pad the length of the already-brief season). So even with Netflix's support, shortcuts are going to be taken to get low-priority cartoons anime out the door and ready for consumption. In fact I was quite surprised to hear the positive reception of S2 in particular, given how thin and poorly planned the story was.

These kinds of writing shortcuts also happen on most Netflix original series that I've watched, as if they're written using a similar "best practices for constant consumption" playbook. [...] So given all of that, the prospect of Netflix funding a Berserk adaptation doesn't really bode well for me. If anything it would probably be "fine," but by no means a guaranteed hit.

Yeah, that's true, and I agree. I didn't mean to say that having Netflix make a Berserk adaptation would be a best-case scenario. They're a great distribution platform, but their production formula (that you summed up well) just wouldn't work here because it's inherently compromised.

The problem with Berserk is that to get an adaptation worthy of the manga, we'd need a company willing to put down serious money without a guarantee they'd make it all back. It's not a story for all ages and it doesn't really fit the usual market categories that TV shows live and die by. It's "just" an amazing story with superb art and great characters, but nowadays it seems that's not enough to warrant a big investment.
 
I'm of the opinion that Berserk is radioactive. Each adaptation has created problems for any possible successor. Short sighted writing has left giant holes in the story and continuity. A huge chunk of Berserk has been done poorly.

A faithful adaptation requires ignoring everything that has come before but that must seem insane to investors. At this point it would take a miracle to put together an adaptation that doesn't suck regardless of who is at the helm.
 

Aazealh

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buttonmasher said:
A faithful adaptation requires ignoring everything that has come before but that must seem insane to investors.

Oh, no actually I don't think so. It's how it's usually done: once an adaptation is over, if another one comes along by a different team it's typically a completely separate project. Otherwise it's the same adaptation that's continuing (which won't happen here).

There just needs to be one guy that really wants to see it happen and has the means and talent to see it done properly. Not unlike what Peter Jackson did with the Lord of the Rings, to be honest. The fantasy genre stayed dead for 15 years in Hollywood until the big studios saw the light. My guess/hope is that it'll be the same here. Eventually someone will manage to get the budget and talent necessary to do a proper adaptation, but there's no telling when it'll be.
 
buttonmasher said:
I'm of the opinion that Berserk is radioactive. Each adaptation has created problems for any possible successor. Short sighted writing has left giant holes in the story and continuity. A huge chunk of Berserk has been done poorly.

A faithful adaptation requires ignoring everything that has come before but that must seem insane to investors. At this point it would take a miracle to put together an adaptation that doesn't suck regardless of who is at the helm.

One of the main problems with adapting Bersek is that it's a very interconnected story, remove one innocuous peice and you leave yourself a miriad of problems later down the line, such as the ninties adaptation that removed Skull Knight entirely, which meant there was nobody to rescue Guts, Rickert and Casca

Even the 2016 series which was innitialy praised for finally moving on from the Golden Age arc, had to compensate with rushed flashbacks.

I'd say the ideal option for an adaptation is to do an offshoot story seperate from the manga, like Sword of Berserk.
 
MrFlibble said:
I'd say the ideal option for an adaptation is to do an offshoot story seperate from the manga, like Sword of Berserk.

The idea of an anime exclusive side story doesn't sound half bad, as long as it's written and guided by Miura and there's a seasoned team of animators and directors to execute it, with a comfortable budget or at least a lot of collective passion and dedication to compensate. These are all such idealistic circumstances that I don't see it happening though; however, if the right conditions were met, I'd be among the supporters.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
buttonmasher said:
Maybe Miura is masochistic enough to direct it himself after he finishes the manga.

His choice in creative partners on these adaptations is proof enough of masochism. :carcus:

syIbDay.gif

Pictured: The new producer, director and showrunner of the next Berserk adaptation.

pulp15%5B3%5D.jpg

Pictured: Us.
 

I know that I know :)

My post our worse
Griffith said:
His choice in creative partners on these adaptations is proof enough of masochism. :carcus:
Pictured: The new producer, director and showrunner of the next Berserk adaptation.

Pictured: Us.

Am I'm suppose to believe Miura is the gimp in this situation
Gimp.jpg
 
Bleac said:
The idea of an anime exclusive side story doesn't sound half bad, as long as it's written and guided by Miura and there's a seasoned team of animators and directors to execute it, with a comfortable budget or at least a lot of collective passion and dedication to compensate. These are all such idealistic circumstances that I don't see it happening though; however, if the right conditions were met, I'd be among the supporters.
As of right now, I'd rather Miura focus on the manga strictly versus pointless anime fillers. Miura has been notorious for working on other projects during his manga writing. I'm not saying any of these would be bad,but the true essence of Miura shouldn't be diverted any more than it already is.
 

Walter

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Zenki said:
Miura has been notorious for working on other projects during his manga writing.

Notorious...? Give me a break. Spanning 20 years he's undertaken 6 projects of varying time commitments:

1) Supervised the script for the '97 anime (1996)

2) was executive producer on the Dreamcast game (1999)

3) contributed original art for the TCG series (2003-5)

4) wrote a scenario for the PS2 game (2004)

5) created and published Gigantomakhia in 2013-14 (his one solace from Berserk in 20 years)

6) scripted one episode for the 2016 series.
 
buttonmasher said:
I'm of the opinion that Berserk is radioactive. Each adaptation has created problems for any possible successor. Short sighted writing has left giant holes in the story and continuity. A huge chunk of Berserk has been done poorly.

A faithful adaptation requires ignoring everything that has come before but that must seem insane to investors. At this point it would take a miracle to put together an adaptation that doesn't suck regardless of who is at the helm.

I think it's gotten to that point where that might be the case, Berserk no matter who is behind it always seems to fall short of being anything but perfect when it comes to adaptation to anime.
 
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