Berserk Saga Project News

Walter said:

First of all, thanks for reviewing it Tabegoro. It's great to have early impressions from one of our members. But I can't say any of your tidings really bring me happiness... But don't let that soil the fact that I appreciate you reaching out to us for questions. I have a few.
For uninitiated viewers? They'd have to guess more than a little.
How? The fact that there were characters moving around on screen?
Of course...
As we surmised. So that means no burning of the queen and other nobles. Nothing that shows Griffith's darker side, other than moody stares.
Does Guts explain his reasons for leaving to Judo and Carcus? No scene at the bar where Judo tries to talk him out of leaving?
Wait, that doesn't make any sense. What about the Griffith and Charlotte seduction scene? Is Griffith shown being imprisoned and whipped/tortured, like in the trailers? The beherit never falls through the grate?
I'd rather have nothing.

Guys, the Eclipse is going to be a fucking nightmare. And I don't mean the intentional kind.

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I just woke up one minute ago, so I may have some head fog, but I will try to answer everyone's questions. The preview function isn't working for me for some reason, so I hope this thing quotes correctly.

Yeah, with the Gennon/Griffith thing, the viewer would have to guess a lot, but they did have some dialogue between them giving the viewer with no prior knowledge some idea about what happened. But I still had some trouble remembering who Gennon was for the first five minutes.

I enjoyed it for the fact that I got to see these characters that I love move around on screen.

Griffith's darker side was also cut from the duel that he has with Guts.

There was no scene at the bar with Judo and Carcus and no scene with Judo trying to keep Guts in the group. It basically goes from the ballroom scene to the scene with Guts leaving the town. I really missed this scene. The movie had almost no character development.

I didn't mean that the movie ended with Guts leaving. I made an English mistake. I meant the scene ended with Guts not saying that famous line that he only says in the manga. The movie does have the seduction scene, the torture scene, and the loss of the Beherit scene.

The Eclipse will be sad because there was no character development. I don't know about having nothing being better than this because this at least is sparking interest in Berserk in Tokyo right now. Before this, nobody even knew or cared about Berserk, but now it seems to be getting some more spotlight. To me, I think that's cool.

I hope after the 3rd movie the go on a TV Show for lie HBO (Japanese HBO.?) or something. or turn the rest of the Berserk into one long or a bunch of games

berserk36 said:

I hope after the 3rd movie the go on a TV Show for lie  HBO (Japanese HBO.?) or something. or turn the rest of the Berserk into one long or a bunch of games

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Like if KONAMI would make a Berserk Video Game Franchise akin to what Hideo Kojima did with his Metal Gear Solid series we could rest easy at night.

I feel so "verarscht" I think I might not even watch the sequels. That's really what you get for choosing a studio that's known for having difficulties getting funding in Japan because their work is infamously unconventional. Above all they hired a total noob crew showing us the expexted results now I know it's probably never going to happen but Miura should demand a studio change. Pretty sure this is the best we can get with Studio 4C.

SKplag said:

I feel so "verarscht" I think I might not even watch the sequels. That's really what you get for choosing a studio that's known for having difficulties getting funding in Japan because their work is infamously unconventional. Above all they hired a total noob crew showing us the expected results now I know it's probably never going to happen but Miura should demand a studio change. Pretty sure this is the best we can get with Studio 4C.

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Or the worst. In any case its a moot point... The damage has been done its now time to move forward away from Berserk film adaptations as its obvious that they can't be done.

No campfire of dreams... I can't wait for the blu-ray..

hellrasinbrasin said:

Like if KONAMI would make a Berserk Video Game Franchise akin to what Hideo Kojima did with his Metal Gear Solid series we could rest easy at night.

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oh god MGS style sences/gameplay in the Berserk world :rools::

Wow, that's sounds even shittier than the first one. Leave Berserk alone :C

Well, all in all, this makes me feel terrible. I remember when this entire project was first announced I was through the roof with excitement, and now the whole thing's left a bitter taste in my mouth. I guess it ultimately doesn't matter all that much (I hope), since the manga is what really counts, but I'm just thoroughly disappointed with Studio 4c. What's the point of adapting such rich source material if you're just going to butcher everything that made it stand out? I'm not so much mad as I am confused over the weird decisions they've made throughout the films; I could stand the oddly-composed posters and I could stand the odd marketing campaigns, so long as the final product was up to par. Hell, I don't think I would've minded alterations here and there so long as the intent/emotion remained intact, but we didn't even get that much.

But hey, at least Berserk got another Susumu Hirasawa song out of the deal. If, years from now, another studio attempts to adapt the material, I just hope they do a better job (easy enough, the bar's been set pretty low at this point). Oh, and that they'd cover the Black Swordsman arc for a change.

I totally forgot that the movie came out this past Saturday.

Meh, i will watch it maybe next weekend... we shall see.

I just saw the movie myself! We saw the 1:30 show at a theatre in Yokohama. There were about 25-30 people in the audience, I guess... not so many. :/

The thing that surprised me was that they passed out little questionnaires as you entered. You were meant to fill out the questionnaire when you were done watching the movie, and then they collected them as you left. It asked questions like your age/ gender, how did you hear about the movie, when did you decide to see the movie, how did you feel about the movie, etc etc. All the questions were multiple choice and there was no place to write your own comments. I took a few pictures of the questionnaire that I can post if anyone cares to see them, but it's not too exciting I think.

My thoughts on the movie... I give it a 5/10, and my husband gave it a 4/10. I walked out the first movie feeling exhilarated. I LOVED it... but looking back, maybe I was just so amped to finally see a story I loved on the big screen. This second movie just felt so... blah. Like Tabegoro said, it was two big battles with a few scenes in between. The action scenes were great but I found my mind wandering during the non-action scenes. >_>

The animation looks just as wonky as it did in the first one. I actually found myself LOLing a few times at the ridiculous, robotic actions of the background characters (many of whom appear to have the exact same face...). There's pretty much zero character development and a lot of important scenes/ lines have been excised. On the plus side, I love the music.




***SPOILERS!!!***

As has been said before, there is NO Zodd at ALL in this movie. My husband was furious, and I even heard some guy remark on the way out of the theatre at how bummed he was that there was no Zodd.

The Gennon/ Griffith flashback has been cut and there's only a passing, spoken reference to their old relationship. I guess you're supposed to deduce that Gennon's an old perv by the fact that he's seen bathing with a bunch of young lads who look a lot like Griffith. Still, I felt there was no reason to cut that scene.

Speaking of cutting scenes, they cut so many important scenes and yet the ballroom scene stretched on and on. Loooong shots of people dancing, of girls chatting up Corkus and the gang, etc. Why would they make that scene so long at the expense of so many other scenes that so much more important???

No castle intrigue or killing the queen, etc. In fact, there IS no queen. She just doesn't exist.

There are nice cameos by three different characters.... I'll leave those for you to find on your own.

The movie ends with Griffith getting tortured and losing the Behellit/ the Taka no Dan getting ambushed/ Guts striking out on his own. They kinda splice those three scenes together. It's a really anticlimactic ending, to be honest.

I agree completely with Tabegoro that the sex scene with Griffith and Charlotte was the best scene, and not just for pervy reasons (although I was surprised at how explicit it was). I felt like this scene was the ONLY scene in either of the movies that told the story even better than the manga did.

If there's anything specific you'd like to know, please ask.

did they completely cut out the bar scene with Guts, Judo and Carcus? or was it only cut down to 7 seconds?

Okay so this movie is shit too. The only thing I want to ask then is did they change the opening at all? I know it's Aria again but did they use a different part of it or change the scenes or anything? Just curious

StarKodama said:

As has been said before, there is NO Zodd at ALL in this movie. My husband was furious, and I even heard some guy remark on the way out of the theatre at how bummed he was that there was no Zodd.

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It's good to hear others were bummed about that too. To me, it's a huge "scene" for all three characters involved. Not to mention one of my favorites in the manga. And it really detracts from Boscone's character by not having it in my opinion. But then again, given the treatment they gave Zodd in the first movie it would probably have seemed awkward to include him (what's this random monster I barely remember from his three second cameo doing in my battle scene?!).

I know it's stupid asking if they included anything resembling depth in one of the characters, but do they at least hint at why the king reacted so strongly to Griffith having slept with Charlotte? Or did they just leave it as a generic "A commoner? With MY daughter?!" response?

Truder said:

did they completely cut out the bar scene with Guts, Judo and Carcus? or was it only cut down to 7 seconds?

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Yes, gone completely.

And SuperVegetto, no, the opening is exactly the same.

EDITED TO ADD: The Good Reverend Skeleton, to answer your question, in the scene where he's being tortured, Griffith says to the King something like "Isn't it odd that even though Charlotte's of age, there's no talk of her getting married, or even any suitors? Could it be because... YOU want her?" Then the king gets really mad and calls in the torturer dude.

StarKodama said:

Yes, gone completely.

And SuperVegetto, no, the opening is exactly the same.

EDITED TO ADD: The Good Reverend Skeleton, to answer your question, in the scene where he's being tortured, Griffith says to the King something like "Isn't it odd that even though Charlotte's of age, there's no talk of her getting married, or even any suitors? Could it be because... YOU want her?" Then the king gets really mad and calls in the torturer dude.

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I just wanted to add that the lines were pretty faithful in the torture scene because in the manga Griffith uses the exact same lines, which was good. I agree with everything StarKodama said. It's good to see that I am not the only one who thought that. And the ballroom scene DID feel like wasted space. I wasn't sure if I were tired during that scene or if other people felt that way, too, so it's reassuring.

Well, let's see how the next one turns out.

Thank you all for info, I'm no longer interested in this "saga project". Very disappointed...

pirkaf 2000 said:

Thank you all for info, I'm no longer interested in this "saga project". Very disappointed...

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I don't think you're alone in that school of thought Pirkaf. But at the same time we just have to stick around with the Project if for no other reason than to see just how God awful the final film will be.

I haven't been around for the past few days, I wander in here to read views on the new film, and I'm starting to wish I hadn't. This is sounding like a complete cop out, what the HELL are they thinking? What good could they expect to come from crap like this? I'm actually furious about this shit, Studio 4C should be ashamed of themselves and if I worked for them, I would hide away out of public view until the public forgot this whole thing ever happened, but there's no undoing this. We wait 15 years for something more faithful than the 97 series, only to find it's FAR less faithful for the most part. If I ever come across the decision makers at Studio 4C, I would make sure they are in a meeting in a building somewhere, just so I can set it on fire and show them the reality of a missed vital scene in character development, the mindless fuckwits that they are.

Sorry, I'll end my rant there

I don't know why people are freaking out all of a sudden. We all knew from the start the movie is no more than X amount of time and it can only fit Y amount of story. Especially after watching movie 1 - (i) we also know 4c will change (some/ most of) the story for scenes they do pick from the manga, and (ii) expecting a 1:1 of the manga or even a 1:1 of the 97 series is being unreasonable.

IncantatioN said:

I don't know why people are freaking out all of a sudden. We all knew from the start the movie is no more than X amount of time and it can only fit Y amount of story. Especially after watching movie 1 - (i) we also know 4c will change (some/ most of) the story for scenes they do pick from the manga, and (ii) expecting a 1:1 of the manga or even a 1:1 of the 97 series is being unreasonable.

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No one ever expected a 1:1 adaptation. But these cuts still hurt.

I think the trouble here lies with the way Studio 4°C deprioritized character interactions and development over war scenes. It's going to lead to a mess when the story leads to the Eclipse, when the movie will inevitably overdraw itself emotionally.

IncantatioN said:

I don't know why people are freaking out all of a sudden. We all knew from the start the movie is no more than X amount of time and it can only fit Y amount of story. Especially after watching movie 1 - (i) we also know 4c will change (some/ most of) the story for scenes they do pick from the manga, and (ii) expecting a 1:1 of the manga or even a 1:1 of the 97 series is being unreasonable.

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I don't really think its that IncantatioN we were all aware of the length of the segment Project to begin with. Its that the final product being shown is worse than anything we could have imagined.

I think both Walter and hellrasinbrasin have pretty much voiced the reasons for my disgust. Any true Berserk fan knows that the story takes priority over the battle sequences (not to say they're not important, but they can be sized down to accommodate the story) . It seems that Studio 4C have attempted to make a mindless popcorn flick for people who have yet to be introduced to Berserk and have neglected the fan base entirely in some sort of weird belief that they wouldn't even notice the fundamental changes.

Movie 1, opening scene - not in the manga for that long. Still given a lot of importance to by 4C. I mean, we know what to expect in movies 2 and 3 after that. I agree with Walter and there's little we can do. Reading some troll posts on here is disappointing, especially when we know what to expect of the studio's direction.

IncantatioN said:

I don't know why people are freaking out all of a sudden. We all knew from the start the movie is no more than X amount of time and it can only fit Y amount of story. Especially after watching movie 1 - (i) we also know 4c will change (some/ most of) the story for scenes they do pick from the manga, and (ii) expecting a 1:1 of the manga or even a 1:1 of the 97 series is being unreasonable.

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I was prepared to swallow a lot of bullshit for the sake of the runtimes of these movies, as a pretty positive person I would have been able to overlook many things to enjoy the final product, within reason. But taking Zodd's part out of the Boscone battle? There's no excuse whatsoever, that didn't need to take up any time at all, maybe 45 seconds. So the only conclusions I can make as to why it was taken out is that Studio 4C just flat out, I don't know, didn't think it was good enough for their awesome movie, they disagreed with Miura about his own creation. Or they just didn't get it. Or perhaps they just weren't skilled enough to animate it. Or maybe they were too lazy to make a new 3d sword model for Guts. Whatever the case, there is just no excuse for it at all.

People are concluding that the point of these movies is to highlight the action and make it mostly about the cool battles, at the expense of character development and other thing. Well that scene was the coolest battle scene up to that point in the Golden Age, by far. When I first watched the 97 anime, which is what got me into Berserk in the first place, that scene was one of the most epic things I had ever seen. It was so unexpected and just made me squeal with excitement. And they just got rid of it, for no reason. Way to go, assholes. You fail on every level.

And the thing that really pisses me off is that it sounds like they did a pretty good job with the Griffith/Charlotte sex scene and Griffith's imprisonment/torture scenes, and I would really like to watch that and appreciate it, but I won't be able to after watching the reprehensible bullshit that precedes it.