Can you clarify to me what your thoughts are on this topic. In Mori's statement, he seemed to say that when the assistants showed him the manuscript for 364 that it was unfinished and even some characters were not drawn. Do you think that means that Miura's assistants drew many characters from scratch including guts in 364 or am I interpreting it incorrectly.
Young Animal announces a continuation of Berserk by Studio Gaga, supervised by Kouji Mori
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Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
A major x factor beyond general art style and story that's not being as widely considered is Miura's storyboarding, fight choreography and direction. Unlike plot points, there's really no way for them to recreate this as he was one of the best in the business, so even if they try aping his style or straight up plagiarize elements from earlier fights it's definitely going to be more run-of-the-mill. Hell, just the framing of shots and people's faces I would expect to be more generic... Miura even did the storyboarding for Duranki, so this would be something his assistants had the least practice at. We'll at least get a look at all these elements, including action, in this first episode.
If it goes over 10 and is not clearly barreling towards a finale and I'm going to become suspicious. =)
We had already determined they had drawn Guts and a couple other characters in at least a few panels, but I was surprised to hear Mori essentially say entire pages were left blank. Maybe it's a good sign for things to come!
They did the finishing touches on the last pages of the episode. Mostly details and smaller panels as far as I can tell, which you'll notice if you check carefully (hint: they don't look as good). My understanding is that the "biggest" thing they handled was the full page with Casca at the end, which was also unfinished. Do note that this isn't new, though. We already knew episode 364 hadn't been fully finished when Miura passed away.
So anyway, to answer your question: no, they didn't draw "many characters from scratch". The episode was almost done. Miura had storyboarded it (meaning done the panels, dialogue, rough sketches for everything), then completed and inked most of it. The new episode coming out this month is the first time we'll see the assistants work without his direct input. It can't be compared at all to what they did before, even with Mori's close supervision.
Indeed. There's much more to manga than writing the plot and drawing the characters, and I think those who aren't too familiar with the medium might underestimate just how good Miura was in that department. As for Dur-An-Ki, yeah as a reminder, Miura did the storyboarding, the draft ("name") and then the final modifications to harmonize the art and make sure everything looks tight. The big deal at the time is that the assistants were doing all of the inking, which is definitely noteworthy, but is also far from working "from scratch".
@Aazealh But Miura did at least the slashing illustration of Guts that came with vol 41, right? I was honestly confused with what Mori meant in his message, in a way, this means they already decided to continue the manga or at least that was their intention from the start, right?
Also, I'd dread if Mori and Gaga decided to trace or replicate old Miura's fights, a la Toyotaro with the dreadful Super manga devoid of any kind of imagination on some parts and not even close to peak Toribot panelling in Dragon Ball. I could say that Miura had similar faces/reactions in his current digital transition, but fight scenes or where things were going fast were always designed well, and that's one of the many aspects that make Berserk a great manga.
Also, I'd dread if Mori and Gaga decided to trace or replicate old Miura's fights, a la Toyotaro with the dreadful Super manga devoid of any kind of imagination on some parts and not even close to peak Toribot panelling in Dragon Ball. I could say that Miura had similar faces/reactions in his current digital transition, but fight scenes or where things were going fast were always designed well, and that's one of the many aspects that make Berserk a great manga.
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Yes, he had done that one long in advance. Either because he thought it would be fitting for the exhibition, or maybe simply because he wanted to draw that scene. Anyway it's definitely his work.
Sorry, I don't get what you mean. Care to expound?
I want to give this team my full optimism and benefit of the doubt. It is understood that studio gaga was usually tasked with doing small work in the background, but people do not stay stagnant in life. They grow, gain skills and get better. People also grow when a new challenge is in front of them. I think we can put a little confidence in them.
As @Sir Schraffl mentioned, I thought Mori referred to episode 365 with this unfinished manuscript, but that obviously doesn't make sense, given as you explained to me with the illustration above and YA mentioned it too, past 364 there were no manuscripts left... So, Mori kinda supervised 364 even though it's not credited, right? And thus, like we discussed in the chat before, the decision to continue the manga probably got taken as early as the episode premiered in september or even earlier, right? (I guess it also helped as a hype enhancer
) also taking into account any other licensing or administrative process with the intellectual property, if that was even the case.
Mori is basically just reiterating what we already knew: the assistants finished episode 364, they busted their asses off to make it as good as possible, and they did a great job of it all things considered. What he reveals (that we didn't know) is that the Young Animal Editing Department asked him to take a look at episode 364 before it was published to gauge its quality, and that he was personally amazed at what the assistants had been able to accomplish. That's why he said "desperation can push people to create miracles". It's also what convinced him to agree to oversee a continuation project.
And thus, like we discussed in the chat before, the decision to continue the manga probably got taken as early as the episode premiered in september or even earlier, right? (I guess it also helped as a hype enhancer
Mori is the catalyst and the pillar on which it all stands, so based on this anecdote, I estimate that the decision took place in August or September 2021. They likely worked extremely hard to be able to produce something in such a relatively short time frame (not even a year). The reason the official announcement only happened now is because Mori and the Young Animal Editing Department must have judged that the project is viable, and will have something to show very soon (smart choice to minimize the wait).
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the latest podcast episode. Of course alot of hope and unsettling feelings were awakened.
As someone who got into the story of berserk through its medium and due to Miura' s style of drawing, I too, as Az says in the episode, wonder if the choice of the form is so wise.
(I might be too sensitive to this. For example the image of Guts in episode 364 beneath the canopy looking at The boy on the moonlight going toward Casca after their little knight play... That face doesn't look like Guts', it isn't drawn in Miura's style, and thus it awakens sad feelings because it's all very unheimlich...)
I would really appreciate it if the story was presented as written information and not visual.
Processing and decoding visual content that isn't Miura's, could make it hard to separate from his storyboarding? It could also affect one's own imagination for the worse. At least for me it would definitely lower the quality and shrink it.
I wish someone would transcribe the coming episodes...
Although all of the team members involved are professionals and care much for this project, the work could still never be done with the same passion that is present in all the lines, dialogues, humour, details and so on.
Very conflicted.
As someone who got into the story of berserk through its medium and due to Miura' s style of drawing, I too, as Az says in the episode, wonder if the choice of the form is so wise.
(I might be too sensitive to this. For example the image of Guts in episode 364 beneath the canopy looking at The boy on the moonlight going toward Casca after their little knight play... That face doesn't look like Guts', it isn't drawn in Miura's style, and thus it awakens sad feelings because it's all very unheimlich...)
I would really appreciate it if the story was presented as written information and not visual.
Processing and decoding visual content that isn't Miura's, could make it hard to separate from his storyboarding? It could also affect one's own imagination for the worse. At least for me it would definitely lower the quality and shrink it.
I wish someone would transcribe the coming episodes...
Although all of the team members involved are professionals and care much for this project, the work could still never be done with the same passion that is present in all the lines, dialogues, humour, details and so on.
Very conflicted.
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
It puts the quick cancellation of Duranki into a much nicer perspective, "You boys have a much bigger task at hand."
Since you already said the quiet part out loud (at least the series' wiki summary will be complete!), if this project really doesn't work for me, I'm totally going to rely on summaries and translations from here and basically exist in some parallel universe where Miura's work continues and I still go through my usual process of following the series on SK.net, just without ever actually reading the episodes myself!
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Since you mentioned it above, about Duranki (which I loved and I believe that it had great potential), I think that I would personally prefer it if the team decided to continue that story, and just Illustrate key moments of Berserk, with Mori telling us what Miura had in store for the future. I get that it would be a weird choice because Berserk is by far the most popular series in comparison but the risks would be very low. Also, I would like to see their future as a team, in other projects.
Compared to Duranki, Berserk is far more difficult to handle in every respect, even with the best of intentions and this seemingly ideal team of Mori and Studio Gaga. The reactions of the characters, their facial expressions, these are by far the biggest obstacles in my opinion. How would they react in certain situations, what would they say, how would they say it, how would they interact with each other? These things made all the difference, and are by far the things that make me nervous the most about the continuation project. I hope that the team will try to recreate as much as possible these finer details, in hope that the fans won't find the transition too jarring or out of place. Visual storytelling is key in Berserk, and a picture literaly means a thousand words in this case... I truly hope that throught conversations with Miura and their general interaction while they worked together in Berserk, they have a basic understanding of each character's voice.
I don't know, I'm trying to analyse and rationalize the situation right know, based on my personal feelings concerning Berserk. I'm excited only because we'll see a version of what Miura had planned, so that's an automatic "yes please, show me what the creator intended". That makes the future episodes partly canon. But the fleshing-out of Miura's ideas seems in a sense like an officialy approved fanfic. So, combined... a weird mixture of canon & fanfic?
I would prefer it much more if Mori would write everything he remembers in a special issue accompanied with illustrations. The main reason is that I would prefer to fill in the gaps and recreate the scenes in my mind with my own fantasy based on Miura's key points, than see someone else's interpretation based on Miura's key points.
So in summary, I'm mostly curious and nervous, but also kind of excited.
Compared to Duranki, Berserk is far more difficult to handle in every respect, even with the best of intentions and this seemingly ideal team of Mori and Studio Gaga. The reactions of the characters, their facial expressions, these are by far the biggest obstacles in my opinion. How would they react in certain situations, what would they say, how would they say it, how would they interact with each other? These things made all the difference, and are by far the things that make me nervous the most about the continuation project. I hope that the team will try to recreate as much as possible these finer details, in hope that the fans won't find the transition too jarring or out of place. Visual storytelling is key in Berserk, and a picture literaly means a thousand words in this case... I truly hope that throught conversations with Miura and their general interaction while they worked together in Berserk, they have a basic understanding of each character's voice.
I don't know, I'm trying to analyse and rationalize the situation right know, based on my personal feelings concerning Berserk. I'm excited only because we'll see a version of what Miura had planned, so that's an automatic "yes please, show me what the creator intended". That makes the future episodes partly canon. But the fleshing-out of Miura's ideas seems in a sense like an officialy approved fanfic. So, combined... a weird mixture of canon & fanfic?
I would prefer it much more if Mori would write everything he remembers in a special issue accompanied with illustrations. The main reason is that I would prefer to fill in the gaps and recreate the scenes in my mind with my own fantasy based on Miura's key points, than see someone else's interpretation based on Miura's key points.
So in summary, I'm mostly curious and nervous, but also kind of excited.
I like how Walter put it. That basically we have to kind of squint and see everything now with a blurry lens. The most important thing we should be looking at are the major plot points. The fact that we will even get this kind of view is a major blessing.
Truder
"I frown at Griffith's nipples" -Aazealh
Yeah, it's Glénat's (publisher of Berserk in France) collector edition for volume 41. Comes out soon I think. I pre-ordered it back then, I'll post pictures if you want.
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
That is gorgeous!
Do they have editions like that for the rest or just volume 41?
That is gorgeous!
Do they have editions like that for the rest or just volume 41?
Nah, it was just for volume 41.
Damn I'm jealous of France! All we get in the states is fake leather and cheap newsprint paper for our fancy version.
Also, related slightly, I had a more cynical thought for why it's being continued as just "Berserk" and not a separate manga. It probably makes licensing deals easier. You don't need to renegotiate if it's still the "same" manga, so it makes things easy for international publishers. Dark Horse can keep printing their hardback version, Glénat can carry on making volumes, no new contracts required.
I dunno if that's actually the case, but it's a reason.
Also, related slightly, I had a more cynical thought for why it's being continued as just "Berserk" and not a separate manga. It probably makes licensing deals easier. You don't need to renegotiate if it's still the "same" manga, so it makes things easy for international publishers. Dark Horse can keep printing their hardback version, Glénat can carry on making volumes, no new contracts required.
I dunno if that's actually the case, but it's a reason.
Don't be. Aside from that special edition of volume 41, the French version isn't that great.
Honestly I don't think that was a factor. These contracts are renewed regularly and Berserk is a best-seller so it's not like licensees would drop it. That aside, I'm not sure adding a subtitle would even necessitate new contracts. It's probably all just up to what Hakusensha feels is proper. And who knows, maybe they will add something to differentiate it.
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
It's probably all just up to what Hakusensha feels is proper. And who knows, maybe they will add something to differentiate it.
Say hello to NU-BERSERK!
Radio interview with Mori released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LokelApLyI
Soon as this news hit me I became a little worried and concerned and I have so many conflicting thoughts about this.
On one hand I have complete confidence in Kouji Mori and the rest of Studio Gaga for continuing on without Kentaro Miura especially as Bersek is so close to grand finale and of all the people to continue Berserk, I feel like Mouri is the best choice. Being Miura's long time friend and everything it makes such a huge difference that this story should continue with Mouri supervising it and it's a really beautiful feeling knowing that this story is given to someone Miura was close to and not being handed over to some total stranger with 0 creating experience.
But at the same time, Kentaro Miura IS Berserk and Berserk IS Kentaro Miura. Everything he poured his heart and soul into and everything that he spent so much of his life dedicating to and every ounce of blood, sweat and tears he gave to make Berserk such a grand, cultural icon of a story. This is his story and any ending Berserk had really died with Miura and I'm sort of coming to terms with that and the writer of the story is just as important as the story they make and when they pass on no one can really take their place.
If anything I really want, more than anything to be proven wrong and that Mouri will honour his friend and will deliver a grand ending to Berserk that really feels like something Miura would be proud of. I'm not jumping into this thinking though that everything will be the same because I know it won't be.
So we'll see.
On one hand I have complete confidence in Kouji Mori and the rest of Studio Gaga for continuing on without Kentaro Miura especially as Bersek is so close to grand finale and of all the people to continue Berserk, I feel like Mouri is the best choice. Being Miura's long time friend and everything it makes such a huge difference that this story should continue with Mouri supervising it and it's a really beautiful feeling knowing that this story is given to someone Miura was close to and not being handed over to some total stranger with 0 creating experience.
But at the same time, Kentaro Miura IS Berserk and Berserk IS Kentaro Miura. Everything he poured his heart and soul into and everything that he spent so much of his life dedicating to and every ounce of blood, sweat and tears he gave to make Berserk such a grand, cultural icon of a story. This is his story and any ending Berserk had really died with Miura and I'm sort of coming to terms with that and the writer of the story is just as important as the story they make and when they pass on no one can really take their place.
If anything I really want, more than anything to be proven wrong and that Mouri will honour his friend and will deliver a grand ending to Berserk that really feels like something Miura would be proud of. I'm not jumping into this thinking though that everything will be the same because I know it won't be.
So we'll see.
Beelzebud
[...] Into the abyss will I run [...]
I needed some time to proper 'digest' that news, on the start I haven't even believe it was real, even reading it right here on SK.net I could not believe that one year later of what was my hardest lost on probably my entire life. One year and I don't even properly got used to not having any news about it, my routine of visiting this forum looking for news was the same as if any time YA announces when the next episode will be release, and then right here I was convincing myself that I should stop doing that because this wasn't letting the wound heal, it was healing, and then, that! Wow, I really don't know what to think. But after reading this entire thread, and barely starting to read the podcast(I have a little son, and my work demanding a high availability to voice chats and call), I finally can write here what I feel about all that.
After the fell o sadness because of opening the wounds, and then fear that they can ruin Berserk, I finally convince myself that the worst have already happened, Berserk it's a Masterpiece until here, and will be forever even unfinished, nothing and no one can change that, there's no way that a continuation can ruin what we already get from Miura sensei, if the "continuation" come to be pure shit, then Berserk will still be the best story ever! If it was a standard quality manga, at least we get a glimpse of what Miura planned for us all, so anything we get for Mori and Miura's assistants will be a gain, since the worst already happened at least it will continue the same.
I know that my feelings and what I think will not change the course of this thread, but I haven't anyone to talk about it, so write this are making me fell better, thanks SK.net for existing and all the veteran members for being nice to the less active members
After the fell o sadness because of opening the wounds, and then fear that they can ruin Berserk, I finally convince myself that the worst have already happened, Berserk it's a Masterpiece until here, and will be forever even unfinished, nothing and no one can change that, there's no way that a continuation can ruin what we already get from Miura sensei, if the "continuation" come to be pure shit, then Berserk will still be the best story ever! If it was a standard quality manga, at least we get a glimpse of what Miura planned for us all, so anything we get for Mori and Miura's assistants will be a gain, since the worst already happened at least it will continue the same.
I know that my feelings and what I think will not change the course of this thread, but I haven't anyone to talk about it, so write this are making me fell better, thanks SK.net for existing and all the veteran members for being nice to the less active members
I always have think that Miura was a huge fan of Griffithmagine if Mori is a huge Griffith fan. I'd be disappointed
Here in Brazil, what they call a "Deluxe edition" it's merely a hard cover with the same drawings, the best version we have here it's a Portuguese Deluxe edition very similar to the Dark Horse one, and it costs half a minimum wage, it's hard to live in a country that the local currency it's 1/5 USD
In Young Animal #12, which is the issue where the announcement of Berserk's resumption was published, Mori's author comment is: ガガの皆さん、編集部と共にしっかりゃっていきます。よろしくお願い致します。
It translates to: "I will work hard together with the editorial department and everyone at (Studio) Gaga. Thank you in advance for your support."
It translates to: "I will work hard together with the editorial department and everyone at (Studio) Gaga. Thank you in advance for your support."