New Berserk animation project confirmed

Three films to cover the Golden Age? It's better than one I suppose but really, how can they possibly break up the material from that arc into three neat, standalone features. Like Aaz said I can't see any other way other than making a whole film dedicated to the last three books, which would be like one long action sequence that I don't think any mainstream audience today is prepared to handle.

Makes me feel even more like they shoulda just started with something else, and maybe when they cover everything else go back and do the Golden Age as a prequel. Why does the Golden Age stuff seem to get all glory? The Millennium Falcon Arc would be amazing animated, and into a trilogy no less! I feel like that's the meat and potato's of the series. Oh well, maybe someday.

So how long is the average anime movie these days? How much total time do you think we would need between all three movies to have the Golden Age told properly? I think 2 and a half hours per movie would be enough, but is that realistic?

DarkDragoon said:

So how long is the average anime movie these days? How much total time do you think we would need between all three movies to have the Golden Age told properly? I think 2 and a half hours per movie would be enough, but is that realistic?

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I'm hoping for 2 or 2 1/2 hours for each film. This is really good news and I would love a third movie featuring Griffith's rescue, the fight with Wyald and the Occultation ceremony.

How do you think they'll wrap up the third movie? Do you think it will end with Guts leaving Godot's house? I can't imagine they'd end with Guts and Casca's rescue at the hands of the Skull Knight. There isn't really a good spot to end things until Guts leaves with the Dragon Slayer.

Why are you guys assuming it will be 2 1/2 hours long? That's long for a live-action movie. Animated movies are generally much shorter. I doubt it will be longer than 90 minutes.

Oburi said:

Three films to cover the Golden Age? It's better than one I suppose but really, how can they possibly break up the material from that arc into three neat, standalone features. Like Aaz said I can't see any other way other than making a whole film dedicated to the last three books, which would be like one long action sequence that I don't think any mainstream audience today is prepared to handle.

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I don't see why breaking the Golden Age into 3 films can't be done cleanly. I picture something like (I) ends with 22: Bonfire of Dreams, (II) ends with 48: Sparks , and (III) ends with 94: The One who Hunts for a Dragon. Yeah that 3rd movie is going to be pretty beefy, but I'm sure we can handle it! Certainly they shouldn't end at the ceremony again. I'm thinking they will give the audience more closure this time around, and ending the trilogy where the actual Golden Age Arc ends seems only fitting. It's complete, and it's a great lead into the rest of the story. Maybe even the Black Swordsman Arc!

As far as the length, yeah, as much as I'd be happy with a 2+ hour film, it's probably unlikely it'll be that long. If it's anywhere between 90 and 120 mins, I'll be cool with that, and I think that SHOULD be enough time to pace the films.

July 15! July 15!!!

Walter said:

Why are you guys assuming it will be 2 1/2 hours long? That's long for a live-action movie. Animated movies are generally much shorter. I doubt it will be longer than 90 minutes.

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Well yea 2 1/2 hours is pretty crazy, but the new Eva movies are all slightly over 2 hours so I would say 90 mintues to 2 hours at the max is a fair estimate.

Rhombaad said:

I would love a third movie featuring Griffith's rescue, the fight with Wyald and the Occultation ceremony.

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The point I was making is that in its original form it doesn't make for a super smooth theatrical experience.

Rhombaad said:

How do you think they'll wrap up the third movie? Do you think it will end with Guts leaving Godot's house?

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I think that'd be proper, given that it's the actual end of the Golden Age arc. It's a perfect place to stop no matter how you think of it.

DirectDK said:

I don't see why breaking the Golden Age into 3 films can't be done cleanly. I picture something like (I) ends with 22: Bonfire of Dreams, (II) ends with 48: Sparks , and (III) ends with 94: The One who Hunts for a Dragon. Yeah that 3rd movie is going to be pretty beefy, but I'm sure we can handle it!

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Those parts to end each film correspond to what I thought about myself, but the problem isn't that the third movie would be "beefy". It's that the source material wasn't made to be split into three neat standalone features, like Oburi said. Considering their repeated statements that they're leaving the story almost untouched, I'm really curious as to how they're planning to do it.

DirectDK said:

It's complete, and it's a great lead into the rest of the story. Maybe even the Black Swordsman Arc!

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Don't joke with that.

Walter said:

Why are you guys assuming it will be 2 1/2 hours long? That's long for a live-action movie. Animated movies are generally much shorter. I doubt it will be longer than 90 minutes.

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I'm not assuming anything regarding the length of the films. I just hope they're 2 to 2 1/2 hours long so they give the story the most reasonable amount of time to be told. Odds are they'll probably be between 90 and 120 minutes, but who knows at this point.

Aazealh said:

The point I was making is that in its original form it doesn't make for a super smooth theatrical experience.

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Gotcha. Yeah, it's going to be tough finding good ending and beginning points for each film. At least we're not getting the whole thing crammed into one feature. My hopes are starting to rise again despite my best efforts to remain neutral.

I'm not going to lie, I've dreamed of a Berserk trilogy forever so this excites me despite the valid concerns the format still raises. Though, a trilogy was the minimum they were going to need to decently adapt Golden Age to film, so this is nothing but a good sign (well, I guess they could have said four movies or a series, but I'm happy they're doing three anyway =).

Oburi said:

Well yea 2 1/2 hours is pretty crazy, but the new Eva movies are all slightly over 2 hours so I would say 90 mintues to 2 hours at the max is a fair estimate.

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I'd say it's fair to be optimistic about that at this point. If they've already committed to three movies to cover the material, it's not unreasonable to think they'd make them long enough to do it well. Hopefully averaging around two hours each, and MAYBE adding time with DVD releases?

Aazealh said:

The point I was making is that in its original form it doesn't make for a super smooth theatrical experience.

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Absolutely, but at least now they can work with it somewhat. It doesn't eliminate the original problem, but it certainly eases things somewhat, as I'll explore below.

Aazealh said:

Those parts to end each film correspond to what I thought about myself, but the problem isn't that the third movie would be "beefy". It's that the source material wasn't made to be split into three neat standalone features, like Oburi said. Considering their repeated statements that they're leaving the story almost untouched, I'm really curious as to how they're planning to do it.

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Well, quite frankly, I still don't believe that they're leaving it "untouched," and neither do you. =) This is going to be an abridged adaptation no matter how they slice it, save for the unlikelihoods that each film is three hours long or they supplement the films with home releases or a series. As we've been saying, the problem before wasn't only that two movies would have made for a crappy adaptation of Golden Age, but that Golden Age makes for crappy movies anyway because it's long form material (here's two hours of pure talking, and the next movie is two hours of pure action, wee). This news raises my hopes that they can do a good film adaptation now because their two main problems may actually solve each other; they need to make time and they need to adapt the material into three effective films, ergo they need to do some judicious editing, hopefully with Miura's input. It won't make for that perfect adaptation we might have hoped for, but it might make for a good film adaptation, and as the saying goes, "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Of course, I wouldn't mind a supplementary series of some kind if they still want to shoot for perfection.

Rhombaad said:

My hopes are starting to rise again despite my best efforts to remain neutral.

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As you can see, I've already reached the final stage of grief: acceptance.

Thanks for the translation Puella and Aaz!

News of the trilogy is exciting to say the least. I'm hopeful. I think the fan-following will be crazy around the time of the releases. I know a lot of people who know of Berserk who aren't into Anime in general, so it's already kinda gone further than the regular Anime/ Manga reader.

Hopefully the story can stay intact. I'm hoping the botch up of Guts' sword is just on the early preview and it'll be corrected for the movie (with the back-story around it).

3 movies ... it's going to be insane!

Griffith said:

Absolutely, but at least now they can work with it somewhat. It doesn't eliminate the original problem, but it certainly eases things somewhat, as I'll explore below.

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Well I expected 3 movies anyway, so I'm not complaining about that (the more we get the better); I'm just wondering how they'll manage to adapt the story arc within the feature film format.

Griffith said:

Well, quite frankly, I still don't believe that they're leaving it "untouched," and neither do you. =)

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Hey I'm trying to be candid here! I'm taking the guy's word for it.

Griffith said:

Golden Age makes for crappy movies anyway because it's long form material (here's two hours of pure talking, and the next movie is two hours of pure action, wee).

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My point exactly (I wouldn't say "crappy" though). As I was about to tell Rhombaad, it's not even so much a matter of beginnings and endings, but of the events themselves not fitting the usual mold. I'm genuinely curious as to how they'll do it.

Griffith said:

Of course, I wouldn't mind a supplementary series of some kind if they still want to shoot for perfection.

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We should get OVAs covering the rest of the series once the movies are released. No details on that for now though as we aren't there yet.

Am I the only one hoping to finally have my own trilogy to harp over for the foreseeable future? I've been surrounded by Star Wars and LOTR fanatics my entire life, not that I don't love both of those series, but now I have something of my own. I know it's somewhat juvenile, and obviously it's pretty impossibly for it ever to reach the caliber of those giants, but it's still pretty cool. Now I'm even more concerned than ever about the quality of this work. My heart races at the thought.... woo-sha!

It being the "caliber" of the LOTR movies is exactly what I'm afraid of, as they suffered from many of the same problems we're dreading here. Also, I'm more excited about what's potentially coming beyond this trilogy, in the form of the promised OVAs Aaz mentioned!

Ok, so where do we want to start cutting? My first suggestion, no Lord Adon.

NightCrawler said:

Ok, so where do we want to start cutting? My first suggestion, no Lord Adon.

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When I was still thinking of turning RECUT into a movie, that was my first thought as well. I don't like the idea of cutting him out of this project completely though. Obnoxious as he is, he has a pretty significant supporting role in Golden Age and that should be reflected. Having said that, I don't think he needs to be fucking featured like he was last time; the guy actually got original material centered around him, of all characters! So, if anyone's screen time should be condensed, it's his, and it would not only be prudent, but poetic justice.

Honestly to me whatever changes they make won't bother me just as long as the direction is good. If I want to read see the manga accurately adapted 1:1, then I'd just read the manga itself. There's no reason to really expect that out of an adaptation, and it's downright unrealistic to do so imo.

To me I would be going to see the same story being told in a different way. 1:1 would just be boring since it'd just be material I've seen before. A lot of things in comics also don't transition well to theater sometimes. The way plotting is used in Berserk as an aspect of of character development is something you can only do in manga, so already the movie will lose something in that respect. What I expect to see is the same story, shot and shown differently than before. So small changes like garment changes don't really bother me too much; neither does axing the Black Swordsman arc.

bmtrocks said:

Honestly to me whatever changes they make won't bother me just as long as the direction is good. If I want to read see the manga accurately adapted 1:1, then I'd just read the manga itself. There's no reason to really expect that out of an adaptation, and it's downright unrealistic to do so imo.

To me I would be going to see the same story being told in a different way. 1:1 would just be boring since it'd just be material I've seen before.

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Well, you can always watch another anime if you're interested in something where "the direction is good" more than an earnest adaptation of Berserk. Those things aren't mutually exclusive though, and it goes without saying it can't be exactly the same by the very nature of adaptation, but there's a distinction between necessary differences and unnecessary changes, which is why their obligation to adapt it faithfully is so important; otherwise, it's too easy to make a bunch of lazy decisions. I'm ready to appreciate this for what it is, differences and all, but any changes need to serve the adaptation of the original material one way or another, not forsake it.

bmtrocks said:

A lot of things in comics also don't transition well to theater sometimes. The way plotting is used in Berserk as an aspect of of character development is something you can only do in manga

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I agree with the former, but not the latter. Again, it's why their commitment to the material is paramount.

bmtrocks said:

so already the movie will lose something in that respect. What I expect to see is the same story, shot and shown differently than before. So small changes like garment changes don't really bother me too much

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Nor I, but it's worrisome when the anime from 1997 already has something over this adaptation in the way of accuracy. Such a change isn't a matter of making a better adaptation, and you can say you don't mind it, but it's certainly not a good thing.

bmtrocks said:

neither does axing the Black Swordsman arc.

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I'd think it would bother you if you want to see something relatively new and different; Golden Age has been done twice already. This just makes you sound like you don't care what they do as far as Berserk goes as long as it's a cool anime, which defeats the purpose.

bmtrocks said:

If I want to read see the manga accurately adapted 1:1, then I'd just read the manga itself. There's no reason to really expect that out of an adaptation, and it's downright unrealistic to do so imo.

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Makes sense.

bmtrocks said:

So small changes like garment changes don't really bother me too much; neither does axing the Black Swordsman arc.

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Are you sure? the Black Swordsman arc is pretty important...what better way to introduce Puck? And Guts' vengeful state of mind? We even see the Godhand and learn about Hell in this arc. Ignoring all that in a "faithful adaptation" would be kind of stupid...

Guts having the wrong sword in that picture is really worrying me more than anything I have to say. It seems like a minor detail but anyone who knows the story knows how significant that minor detail is. Guts having his Raiders sword there would mean very important things would be left out. I'm reeeeeally hoping the mistake will only be in that picture.

Griffith said:

When I was still thinking of turning RECUT into a movie, that was my first thought as well. I don't like the idea of cutting him out of this project completely though. Obnoxious as he is, he has a pretty significant supporting role in Golden Age and that should be reflected.

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As long as he's portrayed like he is in the manga I have no problem with Adon. He's not really obnoxious in truth (a kind of wacky/serious mix, not unlike the "boss" in recent episodes), nor even very present. Appears thrice: as a prelude to the hundred-men battle, then as he overlooks the battle and eggs on the mercenaries, and finally when he fights Casca during the battle of Doldrey. I've got absolutely no problems with that. The stigma he's associated with comes exclusively from the TV series. They really fucked that one up.

bmtrocks said:

Honestly to me whatever changes they make won't bother me just as long as the direction is good. [...] To me I would be going to see the same story being told in a different way.

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You're contradicting yourself from the get-go here. If you want the same story (told differently or not) then you can't say you won't care regardless of what they change. That's downright stupid. Unless by "same story" you mean "an angry guy with a sword gets into fights and shit."

bmtrocks said:

1:1 would just be boring since it'd just be material I've seen before.

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Again, what do you want exactly? If it's Berserk then it's going to be the same story anyway. You'll know the beginning, the middle and the end, sorry to break it to you. It's not like getting the armors and weapons wrong is going to bring so much freshness to the movies you'll feel like it's a new thing altogether, and neither will the omission of crucial material. What a dumb reasoning. If you don't want to see material you already know then just watch something else.

bmtrocks said:

The way plotting is used in Berserk as an aspect of of character development is something you can only do in manga, so already the movie will lose something in that respect.

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Yeah that's what we've been talking about.

bmtrocks said:

What I expect to see is the same story, shot and shown differently than before. So small changes like garment changes don't really bother me too much; neither does axing the Black Swordsman arc.

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Those aren't "small changes" with a purpose. They're mistakes that bring nothing to the table. Continuity errors. They're not excusable, they're not necessary, they're not normal, nor to be expected. And axing the Black Swordsman arc isn't desirable either, no matter how you look at it. Maybe they're making it an OVA because they don't think it could go on the big screen without material being cut, which I would understand. But it's not like not featuring it at all would be no problem. That's already been explained more than enough. What strikes me here though is that someone yearning for new material and who doesn't want to see just the same thing again is fine with watching all of the Golden Age arc while it's been done before but doesn't care about not getting never animated before material.

Sammoniac said:

Are you sure? the Black Swordsman arc is pretty important...what better way to introduce Puck? And Guts' vengeful state of mind? We even see the Godhand and learn about Hell in this arc. Ignoring all that in a "faithful adaptation" would be kind of stupid...

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And we learn about apostles, and beherits, and the Brand, and the Dragon Slayer, and the rest of Guts' equipment (arm cannon, crossbow, throwing knives) and Guts' and Casca's son, and spectres and incubi, and sacrifices, and the world of Berserk at large, and so on and on and on.

http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=7747.msg199702#msg199702



And in official news there's a new tweet from Clara de Porras.

Clara_de_Porras クララ・ド・ポラス said:

あした、Yahoo!映画で素敵なことが起こるみたいです。 #berserkfilm

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Either we're getting a trailer on Yahoo! Movies, or... something much less exciting, like more profiles of Clara!

I've got a question. If this is the pace they are taking with the movies, why did we see long haired Caska in the original teaser images, as well as in those trailers in the scene where Griffith is staring at the screen he is obviously wearing his Rebirth armor with the winged shoulders? That is him standing on the hilltop right after he has been reborn.

Obviously we'll be seeing these things in the first movie, so does that mean that the narration will begin later on in the story, and that Guts/whoever will be recounting what has happened before starting the Golden Age Arc?

I don't understand.

todus said:

I've got a question. If this is the pace they are taking with the movies, why did we see long haired Casca in the original teaser images, as well as in those trailers in the scene where Griffith is staring at the screen he is obviously wearing his Rebirth armor with the winged shoulders? That is him standing on the hilltop right after he has been reborn.

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That was just test footage. Also, Griffith wasn't reborn. Femto was incarnated.

todus said:

Obviously we'll be seeing these things in the first movie

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We definitely won't see them in the first movie.

24 hours and counting!

Griffith said:

And in official news there's a new tweet from Clara de Porras.

Either we're getting a trailer on Yahoo! Movies, or... something much less exciting, like more profiles of Clara!

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Deci said:

24 hours and counting!

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I'm going to be refreshing like a mofo tomorrow. Exciting times!