The changes are regrettable but sometimes necessary
Necessary my ass. It's an inexcusable train wreck.
they have the potential to be very entertaining and will help to get more people into the manga
Well the potential sure was wasted in the first movie, we at least know that much. You sound unreasonably optimistic here.
especially those who aren't really used to animation enough to notice the traditional to CG switches.
You mean the blind people.
This saga project should be seen as a complement to the manga
It doesn't complement anything. Brings nothing to the table, and it could be argued that it actually takes away from it.
The impression I get from the movies, and what I suspected from the start, is that STUDIO 4°C are more interested in/fans of the more recent/contemporary Berserk volumes (i.e. Millenium Falcon, etc) and that's why they put in Farnese, Serpico, Isidro, Schierke, etc in the opening credits and have the cameos in Movie 2.
That's a pretty stupid line of thought. If they wanted to do the Millennium Falcon arc, they would have done it in the first place instead of releasing an inferior, truncated rehash of the Golden Age arc. The credits are nothing more than a poorly thought-out (as it spoils later events) load of fan service and aren't an indication of a secret intent or anything. Same goes for the lame cameos.
And also why they won't cut out Silat. (I know they cut out Foss, but he didn't really add much in his appearance in Millenium Falcon).
Nonsense.
So that might be why they're rushing the early volumes to get to that part faster.
They're rushing them because it was terribly stupid to try to adapt the Golden Age arc into a theatrical movie. And I doubt we'll be seeing the Millennium Falcon arc animated anytime soon.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the director only became a fan of Berserk recently.
I highly doubt the director is a fan of Berserk.
Older fans of the series, most of whom probably regard the early volumes as the best, wouldn't treat the much praised Golden Age arc this way.
What a load of shit. It's probably partly because of fatuous reasoning of this type that we're having such a train wreck on our hands.
Heck, if Miura felt he had to state that he would like to see Black Swordsman next he might've been nervous that they'd actually skip it, which wouldn't surprise me if they did.
Don't you understand? They've
already skipped it. And for all we know, Miura might have asked for it to be done as a movie first instead of doing the Golden Age arc again.
I mean Black Swordsman is something that naturally should be next, not something that Miura should have to be consulted about, or feel he has to state.
It should have naturally come before. And yeah, Miura shouldn't have had to ask for it.
That's a bit of an overstatement and unfair analysis, if you ask me. Everyone who reads the manga doesn't necessarily HAVE TO like it, same with the 97 series or the current movies. One of my pals doesn't like the manga as much (nothing can surpass FOTNS or Akira for him), big deal. People have different tastes.
Oh, so now your rationalization for why the movie doesn't suck and why people of taste don't like it is that Berserk itself isn't for everyone and people wouldn't have liked the manga anyway? Appalling.
By the way, if one has to nitpick that much, the 97 anime was not a good representative of the manga
It isn't nitpicking to point out that the '97 TV series was mediocre in many respects or that it hasn't aged well. It is a testimony to Berserk's greatness that it was relatively popular despite all of its flaws.