Golden Age making of interview

[ApostleBob]

I found an interesting interview regarding the making of the new films and the difficulties involved. Worth a look.

http://www.animeuknews.net/article/101/berserk-q&a-with-naoyuki-onda-and-fuko-noda

 

[Doc]

That interview states that it was Miura who approached the studio, furthermore it was his idea for the Golden Age to be remade.

This contradicts what I've been led to believe: that the producers approached Miura, and that Miura ideally wanted the Black Swordsman arc animated but the studio chose the Golden Age.

Could someone clear this up, please?

 

[Walter]

This contradicts what I've been led to believe: that the producers approached Miura, and that Miura ideally wanted the Black Swordsman arc animated but the studio chose the Golden Age.

Could someone clear this up, please?

Indeed that would be contradictory to what was reported before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJo9HtK10oM (fast-forward to 9 minutes in).

From recollection, we learned in an interview with the producer of the project that Miura has regularly rejected pitches from various studios for Berserk adaptations. However, Studio 4C went the extra mile for their pitch and actually created a brief animation pilot for his consideration. He approved the project on those grounds. I remember distinctly the director saying it was a gamble to invest in the animated pitch.

Actually, after reviewing the interview again, the question remains: were those rejected pitches solicited, or just hopeful prospects that came his way? It actually doesn't preclude the possibility that Miura was seeking pitches for a new animation adaptation, and had rejected anything that didn't meet his standards. Too bad, if that's the case... Because he was bamboozled by that pilot.

 

[Aazealh]

That interview states that it was Miura who approached the studio, furthermore it was his idea for the Golden Age to be remade.

You know, I find that interview to be pretty abysmal all things considered, not so much because of the questions asked or anything but rather the answers given and the general attitude of the movie staff present there. They're just not very involved or helpful with their answers and mostly I think they come across as unprofessional and not really caring about things, almost to the point of rudeness.

Anyway, as for Miura ("the manga artist") being the one who approached the studio, I really don't believe that's how it went. Like, reaaally not. Walter's already posted the most obvious proof there is, which is the TV interview where producer Eiji Matsuo, described as being "in charge of the movie planning and production", details his first meeting with Miura, how he pitched him with an animated segment to win his approval, etc. That's a guy that's actually listed in the first movie's credits as associate producer, unlike Fuko Noda, the woman answering questions there, who isn't credited anywhere that I saw.

Besides that, the answers to the questions asked are rather vague and could be interpreted a number of ways, not to mention that they went: question > translation > response > translation > transcription to text. A pretty good recipe for information loss. Anyhow, I myself hadn't taken them to mean Miura had asked specifically for the Golden Age arc to be re-adapted, and indeed I still don't believe that's how it should be taken. To quote the exact text: "What was the actual reason to make these movies...?" > "That was what the writer of the original wanted us to do." So, when asked why they adapted the manga again, the response was that the author wanted it to happen. It's really not saying much.

Now, when pressed again about it later, Naoyuki Onda (character designer), the guy who had answered at first (what I quoted above), says that he doesn't know, that he himself was approached by Studio 4°C to work on the project. Great. So then Fuko Noda answers, saying: "As far as our studio is concerned, we were approached by another company to see if we wanted to be involved and we thought it was a very popular work around the world and of course, why not?" Which boils down to saying that she doesn't know anything either. Now, Eichi Matsuo, the guy I mentioned above, actually works for Lucent Pictures Entertainment, a company listed among the many production companies for the movies, and that is part of the "Berserk Film Partners" backing the general project. That company, or another obscure partner, was likely the one to contact Studio 4°C for the job. Which explains why the images of the animation reel originally shown to Miura (Guts as the Black Swordsman, Puck, Casca post-Eclipse...) to gain his approval are nothing like the finished product.

As for Miura's wishes, like you said, the director (Toshiyuki Kubooka) commented in an interview that Miura had asked them to do the Black Swordsman arc. Aside from that, an excerpt from Miura's own comments in YA:

I never imagined I'd receive such a great blessing again: to have the manga animated. [...] And, I had a chance to visit STUDIO 4°C, known for its craftsmanship and to first meet the director Kubooka and then the other staff.

He "never imagined" it'd happen, that doesn't sound like someone who was actively trying to get it done to me. Furthermore, he first visited the staff working on the movie well after the production started, in June 2011. And that lack of direct involvement is corroborated by the comments of Noda and Onda, who say that Miura "just saw the finished film and was happy with it" and that "he saw the character design and didn't say anything". A "hands-off" approach. That's pretty consistent with how we've imagined things going down from the beginning (and as for Miura actually being happy with the result, I'll take that with a grain bucket of salt).

 

[Doc]

Thanks for the clarity, fellas. It really does read like a spurious interview. I don't know if anything got lost in translation or what, but I have a hard time believing that Miura was pimping Berserk to animation studios, especially when we've already been informed that Studio 4°C produced an animated segment just to win him around in the first place.

 

[Walter]

Thanks for the clarity, fellas. It really does read like a spurious interview. I don't know if anything got lost in translation or what, but I have a hard time believing that Miura was pimping Berserk to animation studios, especially when we've already been informed that Studio 4°C produced an animated segment just to win him around in the first place.

Quite simply, the person being interviewed appears to have had only second-hand interaction with Miura. So it's hard to take it too seriously given that it doesn't align with what we were told previously, by someone closer to Miura.