Young Animal announces a continuation of Berserk by Studio Gaga, supervised by Kouji Mori

Hakusensha's press release: https://www.hakusensha.co.jp/information/63802/
Announcement on Twitter: https://twitter.com/berserk_project/status/1534022798540435456?s=20&t=Z5h4vPc-UQr7g-7fXSno1g

Young Animal Editorial Department said:
To our readers

We will resume the serialization of Berserk.
Please accept our apologizes for the long wait before we could make this announcement.

We have read as many of your comments as possible for the “Dai Berserk-ten (The Great Berserk Exhibition)”, “Young Animal Memorial Issue (Young Animal 2021 No.18)”, and “Berserk Volume 41”. We are extremely grateful for each and every one of your words and for your messages sent to us through social media. We are truly touched by the love you all have for Berserk and the influence it has had on your lives. It is truly sad that Kentaro Miura himself is not here to read your comments with us.

Before his passing, Kentaro Miura spoke to his close friend Kouji Mori about the stories and episodes he had in mind for Berserk. He also had similar talks with his studio staff and editor. He wondered, would everyone be surprised if I drew something like this? How about a character like this? Would this storyline be interesting? The talks were not meant as his last words, but were a part of his ordinary days as a manga artist.
Such ordinary days continued for more than a quarter of a century. Our minds and hearts are still filled with the thoughts Mr. Miura shared with us during that time. We have also found memos of ideas he wrote and designs for characters that he drew and left behind.
We were reluctant to end his story without sharing these with his fans.
Our hope is for everyone to read the last episode that we have put together, until the very last frame.

Upon resuming the series, our production team decided on a basic policy.
“Mr. Miura said so.”
This is what the production team kept in mind.
Since he did not leave behind rough drafts, it is impossible for us to create a manuscript exactly in the way he would have intended. However, we will write the manga so as not to deviate from Mr. Miura’s own words. We would like to take the “Kentaro Miura” that we knew so fondly through our conversations and work and convey this to all of you in a sincere manner.
We believe that this policy, although imperfect, is the best way to deliver the Berserk that Mr. Miura envisioned to everyone as faithfully as possible.

From the next issue, we will first publish six chapters until the end of “Fantasia Arc/Elf Island Chapter”. After this, we will start a new arc.
Credits after the resumption will be “Original work by Kentaro Miura, Manga by Studio Gaga, Supervised by Kouji Mori,” and the numbering of the manga books will continue in order.

Looking back, the first volume of Berserk was published in 1990 with 28,000 copies released for the first edition. It was not an immediate hit and only a small group of people knew about it. Still, it drew avid fans and was able to hold their interest because people could feel Mr. Miura’s desire to refine his craft. After a while, Berserk became a huge hit through Mr. Miura’s extraordinary efforts and some good luck. Today, the first volume has been read by 2 million people around the world. We believe that Berserk has touched the hearts of many fans, and Mr. Miura would be happy to know that his thoughts have had a great influence on people’s lives and work. We hope that everyone will continue to have the same connection with Berserk in the chapters to come.

Thank you to all the fans who sent us messages.
We are also grateful to the many fans who quietly supported the manga through their thoughts.
Every one of you will be the source of our energy as we move forward.
We are truly grateful to you all.

June 2022
Young Animal Editing Department

Kouji Mori said:
Nearly 30 years ago, Miura called me and said, “I need to talk to you about drawing a rough draft.” I went to his workplace just to talk as we always do, but Miura looked more serious than usual. “I need to draw the Eclipse,” he said. I sensed it would be hard work, but couldn’t believe it when I was trapped indoors for a week… In that very moment, the storyline for Berserk was completed, until the very last chapter.
Strangely, the story for Berserk went on exactly as we discussed at the time, with almost no changes. I continued to talk to Miura often, whenever there was a big episode. We did so ever since we were students, consulting each other while working on manga.

I think people with good intuition would realize by now that I know the story for Berserk up to the very end. Still, I cannot say that I can draw it because I know it. That is because only the genius Kentaro Miura can write a masterpiece like Berserk.
However, a great responsibility has fallen on me.
While he was alive, Miura said, “I haven’t told anyone other than you, Mori, about the story in its entirety.” And that was the truth. It is too big a responsibility. I thought, should I talk to fans about it through an interview? Or should I publish an article with some illustrations? But that wouldn’t convey the scenes that Miura described to me, or the lines of Guts and Griffith…
Just when I was trying to decide what to do, I received a message.
“The staff are saying they will finish the last chapter that was left behind, so can you take a look?”
The last few pages of the chapter were incomplete. Some did not even have the characters drawn on them.
I took a look at the manuscript, without expecting much.
Desperation can push people to create miracles — There it was, the completed manuscript for Berserk.
“Mr. Mori, will you let us do it?”
Miura’s apprentices, who Miura had been so proud of while he was alive, asked me straight.
Company Director Shimada, a mentor for me and Miura, also said, “If you do it, the company will give our full support.”
I thought, if I run away now, Miura would say:
“I talked to you about it so much, but you didn’t do it!!”
Alright. I’ll do it properly.

I have a message and promise to everyone. I will recall the details as much as possible and tell the story.
Also, I will only write the episodes that Miura talked to me about. I will not flesh it out. I will not write episodes that I don’t remember clearly. I will only write the lines and stories that Miura described to me. Of course, it will not be perfect. Still, I think I can almost tell the story that Miura wanted to tell.
The talent Miura’s apprentices have are real!
They are brilliant artists.
Many of you may not be fully satisfied with the Berserk written without Miura, but we hope everyone’s thoughts will be with us.
We ask you for your continued support.

June 2022
Kouji Mori
 
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Definitely mixed feelings, but I'll be cautiously optimistic. It probably would have been better to go with Mori's initial instinct to create an illustrated article with the ending of Berserk rather than a full continuation. If anyone was going to write it, Mori is the best choice. Still, it's hard to imagine what exactly we're going to get. From Mori's letter, it sounds like an abridged version of the final arc(s). I had almost hoped this wouldn't happen so I wouldn't have to deal with the internal dilemma of getting answers without Miura's voice and artistic vision to deliver it.
 
What? I mean, Mori, why? This doesn't make much sense, like, it's almost a hostile take over on a man's life work, and the general excuse is pretty much "Miurasan said so"--- for their central idea on doing the continuation... I don't like it and I'm not okay with this... If, (and that's a big IF) Miura specifically dictated that his story would continue if he was unable to keep going, then I would be okay with it...
 
Happy and yet like hmm. Let’s get the episodes first and see how it does. 1-41 and deluxe volumes to hold people over till new episodes.
 
While it is truly touching, I feel like this effort would have been better guided with "Here's what I recall of what Miura told me of the story."

I don't wish anyone failure, but it's hard to say "good luck". If you're willing to adopt the responsibility, it means adopting the potential culpability.
This is really well said. As much as I'd love to see Berserk continue, it's an incredibly unique work that I'm very hesitant to say anybody can do justice aside from Miura himself.

Sure - Studio Gaga can replicate Miura's art style, and Kouji Mori may know how the rest of the series was intended to play out - but it's impossible to replicate the personal connection & passion that Miura developed over thirty years of work on the series.

I'm not sure the best course of action is one so drastic.
 
Definitely mixed feelings, but I'll be cautiously optimistic. It probably would have been better to go with Mori's initial instinct to create an illustrated article with the ending of Berserk rather than a full continuation. If anyone was going to write it, Mori is the best choice. Still, it's hard to imagine what exactly we're going to get. From Mori's letter, it sounds like an abridged version of the final arc(s). I had almost hoped this wouldn't happen so I wouldn't have to deal with the internal dilemma of getting answers without Miura's voice and artistic vision to deliver it.
This is what I fear too. While Fantasia's current chapter was obviously coming to an end, starting a new arc (if I understand correctly) means this whole arc (fantasia) is over, right? That, I don't like at all. Feels like Berserk will be resumed, and if that's the case, this will be the worst handling of a manga serialisation I've ever seen, it's just not Berserk if things are rushed.
 
Learning more about Kouji Mori in the past few months personally helped assuage some anxieties. It sounds like he was basically the closest person in Miura’s life (outside of his family) and apparently Miura was even planning on moving in with Mori and his wife after Miura retired.

Also I do think the fact that this change won’t be happening mid-volume can help for fans to compartmentalize the differences. Volumes 41 and 42 can act as very clear demarcation points. (sorta similar to how the main Dune books were finished by the author’s son IIRC)
 
I have a lot of feelings about this, but in the end I think they deserve a chance at least. It'll never be what Miura would have made, I think everyone understands that, but Kouji Mori was very close with Miura, so if he believes this is the right thing to do then I will choose to trust him. I definitely find his involvement reassuring.

In any case, Aaz and Walter are gonna wake up to some NEWS, if they don't know already.
 
It will hardly be perfect. We'll debate how well it matched how we imagined Miura's would've done it.

Very excited for it.
 
It looks like they're trying to do things properly, and it's reassuring that Mori would be involved and that they found some sketches to at least base certain things on. That being said, like we've discussed before, I think everyone should keep in mind that this isn't going to be Miura's Berserk. It's an attempt at concluding what he started by guessing based only on those ideas he told others about. As such it will necessarily be an ersatz of the real thing. As many of you will know, the creative process is one of constant refinement and sometimes last minute changes or additions end up becoming big parts of a story or changing its direction in meaningful ways.
 
It looks like they're trying to do things properly, and it's reassuring that Mori would be involved and that they found some sketches to at least base certain things on. That being said, like we've discussed before, I think everyone should keep in mind that this isn't going to be Miura's Berserk. It's an attempt at concluding what he started by guessing based only on those ideas he told others about. As such it will necessarily be an ersatz of the real thing. As many of you will know, the creative process is one of constant refinement and sometimes last minute changes or additions end up becoming big parts of a story or changing its direction in meaningful ways.
What are your quick thoughts on it Aaz? was it a surprise to you too? I feel like this is my main problem with it as you mention it, manga is a really short-term medium. This is why I don't know why Mori accepted this difficult task... he may know how the story was going to develop, but how much did he know? Man, it's too much to process.
 
Wow......just Wow.

I figured(and I'm sure many of you here as well) that Berserk not getting cancelled after Miura died left the door totally open for a continuation....But I never thought they would really pull the trigger to proceed with the story.

I'm sure that this isn't a decision that was taken lightly, and no matter what happens with the continuation Berserk and Miura's legacy will remain intact. With that said, I hope Studio Gaga with guidance from Koji Mori are able to tell a good story moving forward, It seems they really want to do right with what they know and the little they have to go off of.
 
"Nearly 30 years ago, Miura called me and said, “I need to talk to you about drawing a rough draft.” I went to his workplace just to talk as we always do, but Miura looked more serious than usual. “I need to draw the Eclipse,” he said. I sensed it would be hard work, but couldn’t believe it when I was trapped indoors for a week… In that very moment, the storyline for Berserk was completed, until the very last chapter.
Strangely, the story for Berserk went on exactly as we discussed at the time, with almost no changes."

I just hope that if this statement by Kouji Mori is accurate, then the continuation of Berserk that we end up with at the end will accurately reflect at least the broad story as it would have been intended if Miura had been able to complete the work himself, and by extension give at least some of the fanbase the closure that many of us had hoped for while still remaining respectfully distinct from the prior material.

I guess we'll have to see what the currents of causality have in store for us.
 
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