The Big Berserk Exhibition

[Death May Die]

Nope. It would have been very unlike Miura to have said so, anyway. It was surprising when he said that Griffith and Guts would square off in that 2019 interview, but that's within the realm of possibilities, as they're already enemies. SK vs Guts would have been a big surprise, and Miura wouldn't have spoiled it.

General rule of the internet, if someone says something that doesn't add up, just ask them for the source

Thank goodness. I read this from a freaking comicbook.com article. It was telling about a translated interview featured within the recent exhibit. I went to the links provided for sourcing but I couldn’t find anything mentioning the Miura said Guts and Skully would be fighting. I didn’t exactly want to bring this stuff up, but this is a terrible time for them to be running headlines like this when people are wondering about Berserk’s future and what could had been. Here is the article if anyone cares to read this crap. I’m not saying comicbookcom is reputable, but I can never recall exactly something so particularly misguided from them. That’s why I felt to ask on here.

https[://]comicbook[.]com/anime/amp/news/berserk-kentaro-miura-posthumous-interview/

 

[Walter]

Yeah... that site is a content mill that's known for clickbait, so I don't think it's to be seriously regarded. For one, they completely misunderstood what Sandman_AP said on Twitter. The interview at the exhibition is not a chat between Eiichiro Oda (One Piece's creator) and Miura—that would have been huge news, of course! The guy, a fan of both mangaka, just said he "was hoping" they could have had a chat. It also sounds to me like the Guts vs SK thing is a result of the writer combining a few of the different teases that have been floating around Twitter (Guts vs Griffith + a SK story).

That being said, without the new interview in hand, no one can confirm anything about it, so it's an uncomfortable place for fans to be. Even Sandman_AP seems to have misinterpreted the comment about SK. I asked him for clarity, but never got it... If you're interested, Aaz recently broke down some of the things people have been sharing on Twitter, from the tiny snippets that we've heard.

I do hope we can get definitive information soon, but that might be a few weeks, presuming that it's the interview said to be included in the new artbook. Until then, everything about it should be taken very lightly.

 

[Aazealh]

I edited your post to make that link non-clickable, @Death May Die. It's good to have the reference but I'd rather not send traffic their way unless someone really wants to see it. This sort of garbage, low quality content should always be discouraged.

 

[Walter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qAStC6t2rA&t=260s

Someone on YouTube (撚貓男之日本生活) grabbed 2 photos of Miura's workspace from the exhibition (starts at 4:20).

A few things to note:

• The mice are on the left side of the keyboard... Miura's left-handed?
• Basketball player in the top left... looks like a Spurs jersey + #50, so maybe David Robinson? Obviously there just for body reference, but interesting choice.
• Behind the posable figure in the first image, there's a few diagrams of sword guards that Miura seems to have been iterating on. One of them looks like it had elf wings wrapped around it. Casca's Golden Age sword also appears to be obscured by the lamp.
• A few different books on ship designs are right at hand, even though Miura hasn't drawn the Sea Horse in 5 years (ep 343), hmmm...
• Very cool to see Miura's actual tools. Even though he transitioned to tablet, his pens were never far from hand!
• And finally, that little Void drawing. I wish I could read it, but it's pretty funny either way, hehe

The Berserk Exhibition portion of this video is only about 5 minutes long, but everyone interested should check it out.

 

[ModalEternal]

Thanks for stitching the images, Walter! I was just about to do that myself so you saved me a minute there. But I am so glad we got to see this, I always love seeing how much went into the process for Miura and seeing what references he uses is always so nice to see. Love the Puck figure holding onto the G-Pen too

 

[rasputin]

Long time lurker, not really one for posting, but I have enjoyed this site tremendously over the years. Thank you all for such a great site, it really is unsurpassed.

Can't say how shocked and saddened I am by the passing of Miura-sensei. Still don't know how I feel about this. Don't think I've quite come to grips with this yet. My thoughts go out to his family and fans. I know that he will always be loved and remembered.

I was lucky enough to have been able to attend the event on opening day. It was very interesting to see Miura-sensei's original works. They were very impressive to view in person.

Don't know what I can add that won't be said about the exhibit by others better able to describe it than myself. I will say that I enjoyed it very much.

Opening day was very crowded and they were only letting in groups of people in specified time slots. When I went at 1pm or so, and after viewing the exhibit, it was estimated to be around 7pm to be able to simply "enter" the gift shop as they were limiting the number of people entering. There were already a couple hundred people or so who were waiting to "purchase" their items in a line that was not moving at all. I was unable to wait that long due to other obligations, but was able to get some kind of flimsy assurance from someone working at the exhibit that they would probably let me enter just the gift shop the following week. The exhibit since posted a note that yes this was possible if you were unable to enter previously, and I was able to visit the gift shop yesterday.

For me personally, the book of Miura-sensei's works was the best thing in the shop. Yes, most of the pictures in the book were things that all of us have seen over the years, but it was nice to have a collection of his works in a nice large format.

For most of the exhibit, it was prohibited to take pictures except at certain "stations". Here are some of the pictures that I took.

https://imgur.com/HhqLkdB

https://imgur.com/gm9LnWM

https://imgur.com/n7INCaP

https://imgur.com/3nr6SrN

https://imgur.com/yLfvfZK

https://imgur.com/RtaRMNi

https://imgur.com/X2nQ6lN

https://imgur.com/eD7AVAk

https://imgur.com/LPu3j2n

https://imgur.com/NzImcSc

 

[Aazealh]

The mice are on the left side of the keyboard... Miura's left-handed?

He was absolutely left-handed, but this was already known. Old pictures of him from the Illustrations File show him drawing with his left hand! How could you have forgotten!

Behind the posable figure in the first image, there's a few diagrams of sword guards that Miura seems to have been iterating on. One of them looks like it had elf wings wrapped around it. Casca's Golden Age sword also appears to be obscured by the lamp.

Hmmm, I see butterfly wings and designs of rapiers, but not a drawing that combines the two?

You can see the sketches of "Metabaron" displayed there on his desk, of course — makes me wonder if it was set to already be announced around the time of the event...

No, those aren't it. That's old concept art he did in the early 2000s and that was published in a Doujinshi. It's not widely known because his name isn't on it (he's credited with a "reversed name"). I have that book and it contains four such illustrations (all are on the desk, one is a two page spread). There's nothing else to it as far as I know. Material from the Metabaron project (it doesn't appear to be the name of the intended work, but that of the working group) is said to consist of 12 color illustrations and I'm guessing they're displayed in a nearby area, not on the desk itself.

A few different books on ship designs are right at hand, even though Miura hasn't drawn the Sea Horse in 5 years (ep 343), hmmm...

Note that this is a "reproduction" and not his actual working space at the time he passed away (I doubt he had his own signed shikishi displayed...). Might be best not to derive too much from it...

And finally, that little Void drawing. I wish I could read it, but it's pretty funny either way, hehe

The highlight of those pictures to me! Love it, especially Puck lifting the brain up.

 

[Letty]

The special booklet(Messages to Miura Kentaro) that comes with the final chapter of Berserk in Young Animal has a photo of his actual desk. It’s a very blurry photo but I think it represents what I was able to see at the event but more cluttered.

 

[Aazealh]

Letty, by any chance were you able to watch Miura's video message or to spot the giant robot color illustrations? I'd be curious to hear your impressions/descriptions.

 

[Walter]

Don't know what I can add that won't be said about the exhibit by others better able to describe it than myself. I will say that I enjoyed it very much.

Thanks for sharing. I'm eager for any kind of description of the event, and you don't need to worry about what others have said. I’d urge you not to hold back. How did certain pieces that struck you make you feel? Was there any particular art piece that stood out to you seeing it in person? The number of members here who have actually attended the event is something like 2-3. So please, we want to hear it!

Hmmm, I see butterfly wings and designs of rapiers, but not a drawing that combines the two?

Here's what I meant. In the first circle, you can see what looks like the wings draped over the sword's guard. In the second circle, there's what looks like an actual elf design on the guard.

No, those aren't it. That's old concept art he did in the early 2000s and that was published in a Doujinshi. It's not widely known because his name isn't on it (he's credited with a "reversed name"). I have that book and it contains four such illustrations (all are on the desk, one is a two page spread). There's nothing else to it as far as I know. Material from the Metabaron project (it doesn't appear to be the name of the intended work, but that of the working group) is said to consist of 12 color illustrations and I'm guessing they're displayed in a nearby area, not on the desk itself.

Ah, got it, I had seen the Metabaron news and the "D.RI.F.T" images and assumed they were the same. Seems there were multiple Sci-fi series he'd produced work on.

Note that this is a "reproduction" and not his actual working space at the time he passed away (I doubt he had his own signed shikishi displayed...). Might be best not to derive too much from it...

Sure, but all we can comment on is what we see on display.

 

[Rhombaad]

He was absolutely left-handed

I’ve always been proud of being left-handed. Sharing that with Miura makes me feel even prouder.

The highlight of those pictures to me! Love it, especially Puck lifting the brain up.

Same here! I got such a kick out of seeing that.

 

[Lawliet]

I’ve always been proud of being left-handed. Sharing that with Miura makes me feel even prouder.

Same here! I had no idea

 

[Draculoid]

Went to the exhibit yesterday :) it was an amazing experience that took me about 3 hours to walk through. We got there nice and early so waited about an hour before going in.

We actually stopped by a major Animate store by chance on our way and they had this shikishi that I'm sure some of you have seen on social media.

The exhibit took place across from an Inuyasha exhibit that had almost zero traffic, so that was amusing to me (no shade thrown on inuyasha!). Pics for a comparison of the 2.

The gift shop from outside the venue

Where you hand off your ticket when entering.

An interesting, but not surprising, thing about the crowd. I had almost never seen that many Japanese with clothes referencing western film and music in one place, good ones too lol. There was a guy with a cool Silence of the Lambs collaged shirt, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Metallica, Bad Religion, all sorts of stuff like that. It seems the western influences in the manga are something that's attractive to many of the readers in Japan.

From here on, lots of the pictures I took were of things you were "allowed" to and you've probably seen a ton. I'll link the imgur but won't post all the statues and stuff.

Except this one....

Seeing the artwork in person was exhilarating. Even immediately seeing the reproductions afterwards.... You can notice things that stand out more in the originals. The stroke work on the giant close up of Zodd from volume 5 (I believe) was one where seeing each individual stroke was just amazing. At another point, due to the layout you could see down the hallway and the image of a greenish skullknight with a blue night sky background looked like it was practically glowing. When I got up close, the blood reds used on the shadowed part of the horses neck and under cloak were so bright and pronounced it was like seeing the image for the first time. It was totally crazy. There tons of other examples maybe I can get into in a later post (still on vacation)

Had to represent ;)

And the loot haul. Luckily since I was with my girlfriend, I got to snag two of the things that were limited to 1,like the canvas reproductions and the art book.

As far as Aaz's question about the mecha series drawings. It was very Giant Robo style like people have described. There was one that was attacking a city that looked very Pacific Rim inspired, but also old school at the same time. There was a group driving frantically to get to a location where I believe their good robot was. Getting inside (boy and a girl) and the Pacific Rim one getting punched. I believe there were 12 pages. I'm sorry for the shitty description...even though it was a cool original thing to see, I don't tend to gravitate towards that type of story and was in such a Berserk mode I only sort of retained the gist of it...

imgur.com

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like Draculoid4.

imgur.com

 

[Walter]

Great review! Thanks for walking us through that and your feelings upon seeing the art— and of course for your choice of wardrobe!

 

[Aazealh]

Thanks for the photos and details Draculoid, glad you had a good time. And it's so cool that you wore the hoodie!

 

[uzumaki]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qAStC6t2rA&t=260s

Someone on YouTube (撚貓男之日本生活) grabbed 2 photos of Miura's workspace from the exhibition (starts at 4:20).

Spoiler: Images of Miura's desk, taken surreptitiously

A few things to note:

• The mice are on the left side of the keyboard... Miura's left-handed?
• Basketball player in the top left... looks like a Spurs jersey + #50, so maybe David Robinson? Obviously there just for body reference, but interesting choice.
• Behind the posable figure in the first image, there's a few diagrams of sword guards that Miura seems to have been iterating on. One of them looks like it had elf wings wrapped around it. Casca's Golden Age sword also appears to be obscured by the lamp.
• A few different books on ship designs are right at hand, even though Miura hasn't drawn the Sea Horse in 5 years (ep 343), hmmm...
• Very cool to see Miura's actual tools. Even though he transitioned to tablet, his pens were never far from hand!
• And finally, that little Void drawing. I wish I could read it, but it's pretty funny either way, hehe

The Berserk Exhibition portion of this video is only about 5 minutes long, but everyone interested should check it out.

It's shocking to me he worked from such a small, confined space. I was imagining a much larger workspace. I think you could fit all of that into an american sized cubicle. Amazing what can be created from such a space that size. Maybe that's just my American perspective; Japanese are probably used to working with less space.

 

[Aazealh]

It's shocking to me he worked from such a small, confined space. I was imagining a much larger workspace. I think you could fit all of that into an american sized cubicle. Amazing what can be created from such a space that size. Maybe that's just my American perspective; Japanese are probably used to working with less space.

Let me reiterate that this is a reproduction and not his actual workspace. Like Letty mentioned above, his real desk (one of them, at least) can be seen at the end of the "Messages to Miura Kentarou" booklet including with YA #18. Other photos of his workspace in his studio were published in the past. For example, check out this interview from 2019, you can see several great pictures.

 

[uzumaki]

Let me reiterate that this is a reproduction and not his actual workspace. Like Letty mentioned above, his real desk (one of them, at least) can be seen at the end of the "Messages to Miura Kentarou" booklet including with YA #18. Other photos of his workspace in his studio were published in the past. For example, check out this interview from 2019, you can see several great pictures.

That helps me understand better, thank you!

 

[rasputin]

Thanks for sharing. I'm eager for any kind of description of the event, and you don't need to worry about what others have said. I’d urge you not to hold back. How did certain pieces that struck you make you feel? Was there any particular art piece that stood out to you seeing it in person? The number of members here who have actually attended the event is something like 2-3. So please, we want to hear it!

Thanks, Walter. I'll try to give a few more thoughts on the event.

The first thing that surprised me after arriving was the very different types of people that had shown up for the event. I've never really thought about what constitutes a "Berserk Fan", nor did I have a specific mental image of who might attend, but I was still surprised at who attended. There were the typical suit wearing Japanese salary men, young, old, people in groups, people attending by themselves (including a lot of single women), goth types, straight laced types, and a few foreigners. In short, I found out that Miura-sensei touched many more people from very different walks of life than I had imagined was possible.

Being able to see his hand drawn pictures was very interesting. At first I think that I was shocked at how much time each single picture must have taken to make. The number of strokes, the use of white out, the typed dialogue pasted into the word bubbles. Especially to see originals of some of my favorite scenes. To look at them and see the imperfections, the smudges of ink and white out; all of this made the art feel more personal.

The actual exhibit seemed to have captured most of the major events in Berserk. Not everything that i wanted to see was there, but they had artwork from just about every story arc represented. Interspersed with the art work were statues or figures that matched the events in that area.

Never having any Art of War figures in person before, I was very excited to see the ones that made it into the exhibit. There weren't as many as I would have liked, but they ones that they did have were very impressive. Wish that I could afford one or a couple!

The larger statues (and by larger I mean large, like some were at least 1 meter tall!) that populated the exhibit seemed to have been made by another studio, but I don't remember the name at the moment. These, while not as detailed as the Art of War statues, certainly made the walk through more enjoyable.

The buildup to the eclipse was well done. This was one of the few places that had music and as you were walking towards the large "Eclipse Room", there was a steady dull beat in the air. The Eclipse Room itself was pretty cool and I wish that photography was allowed. They had recreated the birth of Femto and had the pillars made out of heads. There were larger statutes of the God Hands in the back of the room. Creepy!

Towards the end of the exhibit, there was a coffin display with the broken remains of Casca inside. Next to this was a video message from the actress who voiced Casca in the 1997 anime, Yuko Miyamura.

As for the "desk" display, I was a little disappointed in it. I had already seen pictures of Miura-sensei's desk before and thought that the desk in this exhibit was too "fake" for me; it had some of the major props that did surround his desk, but most of the clutter that I remember seeing before was missing. I know that it would be impossible to faithfully reproduce his real desk, and while I do appreciate the sentiment a part of me still wanted to see the "real thing" instead of a "prop".

The last part of the exhibit had a few monitors that were playing an actual video interview with Miura-sensei on them (I believe that the interview was recorded last year). I certainly hope that it becomes available to view elsewhere later. I haven't started reading it yet so I can't confirm, but I am guessing that this interview was transcribed and printed in the end of the book for sale at the exhibit, "The Art of Miura Kentaro".

All in all, this exhibit was a long time coming. The shear number of fans that attended was heart warming. Miura-sensei is still beloved.

(side note. as i'm typing this, there is a segment with Naoki Urasawa, the artist of the manga "Monster", playing on tv this morning. i can't help but feel saddened that it's not Miura-sensei. the lack of media coverage surrounding his death and this exhibit was pitiful. i remember nothing about his death in mainstream media here, i think that they only care about which celebs are cheating with what other celebs. the only reason i found out about this exhibit was because i kept checking the Young Animal website to see what their official response was going to be.)

 

[Aazealh]

(side note. as i'm typing this, there is a segment with Naoki Urasawa, the artist of the manga "Monster", playing on tv this morning. i can't help but feel saddened that it's not Miura-sensei. the lack of media coverage surrounding his death and this exhibit was pitiful. i remember nothing about his death in mainstream media here, i think that they only care about which celebs are cheating with what other celebs. the only reason i found out about this exhibit was because i kept checking the Young Animal website to see what their official response was going to be.)

Miura sensei's passing was covered by Asahi, Mainichi and a bunch of lesser newspapers. Not sure about the TV situation. The exhibition has also been covered by Asashi as well as the usual specialized websites like Natalie or Oricon. I agree with you that he doesn't get the recognition he should have, but it's not nothing.

EDIT: The official Twitter account just confirmed that the exhibition's catalog ("The Artwork of Berserk") will be available to purchase online in the future (once the tour across Japan has concluded). Some other products will be as well, but have yet to be confirmed.

 

[IncantatioN]

Thanks SO MUCH for sharing that news, Aaz.

 

[Beelzebud]

For example, check out this interview from 2019, you can see several great pictures.

Just check It out by curiosity to found out that I already see it.

Just to note, those diagrams of swords are the same of the exhibition, so not big news.

 

[Walter]

Just to note, those diagrams of swords are the same of the exhibition, so not big news.

Yes I believe that’s what Aaz was pointing out by noting that particular interview. Quite eagle eyed, really. I certainly never noticed that one shot of sword guards before…

Anyway, those are older designs from around the time of 358. We can know that both by the publication time and by the fact that one of them (an octopus design) was shown in 358, worn by the bald Octopus-armored guy after the council meeting.

Having Casca’s sword there could also be demonstrating that he was considering what kind of weapon she’d wield. And in the very next episode (359) we got to see it.

The “big news” as you said actually hasn’t been photographed yet—the giant robot animation project.

 

[Beelzebud]

Yes I believe that’s what Aaz was pointing out by noting that particular interview. Quite eagle eyed, really. I certainly never noticed that one shot of sword guards before…

Hahaha, I don't mean that Aaz don't see, he and you are our Guru here, just pointing it out for those who do a "fast read" on the thread one or less time a day(I do that most of time) and don't want to click on the link.

The “big news” as you said actually hasn’t been photographed yet—the giant robot animation project.

If was rude or something, english isn't my main language, so sorry.
And yeah, I'm anxious to see any hint of the giant robot project, for me it's a nostalgic genre and any project that Miura ia involved should be awesome

 

[Promek]

Someone managed to sneak a video of the eclipse section of the exhibit. The god hand look super cool. I can only imagine what the atmosphere must have been like in person.