Berserk: SPECIAL EDITION

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
berserkse.jpg


Now that's more like how I'm used to seeing Guts dressed around Apostles!


Imagine what if an unsatisfied Kentarou Miura went the way of George Lucas and someday started altering Berserk episodes years after the fact? Well, it might look something like the above, for starters. Of course, that's not all he might change, there's probably plenty of things he's come to see differently about the series or limitations he had to produce certain segments under (notably the early volumes when he had multiple commitments). In pursuit of an impossible perfection he might even go nuts and start redrawing the whole thing from the beginning! Probably not, but what sorts of things, big or small, specific or general, do you think Miura might go back and change if he were so inclined? You don't have to draw or edit anything, that's why I put this in a discussion section; it's food for thought. So just see what you can think of or better yet share something that's always stuck out in your mind and maybe one of our resident artists will bring it to fruition! One disclaimer though, while this is obviously a somewhat irreverent subject and all in good humor, nontheless try to remain respectful to Miura's work. Awkwardly cautious and mealy-mouthed nominations are welcome; we'll get the idea. :griffnotevil:


That said, here's a fix even Aaz can't shoot down (:daiba:):

berserkse2.jpg


First non-admin to call it out wins an edit of their choice. :carcus:
 
JoeZeon said:
ahhhhhhh damn't you beat me to it!!!!!
=)

Here is another one, it's from the first time we see the Skullknight. I remember reading about it in a thread (i think it was Truder that mentioned it)
oHsXZNU.jpg
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Judges?

Nope, nobody's quite gotten it yet! Hint: Remember, the alteration isn't supposed to be adding a mistake, but "fixing" one. :daiba:
 
Griffith said:
Nope, nobody's quite gotten it yet! Hint: Remember, the alteration isn't supposed to be adding a mistake, but "fixing" one. :daiba:
Oh i see what you mean ! I didn't get it at all the first time :schnoz:.
 
Back on topic


It would be really something to see the Slug Count battle brought up to his modern day level. As well as when the God Hand and the vortex of souls are introduced.

More episodes for Guts during his young years with Gambino. Walter would like that one :carcus:

I've always wondered about Guts right after his departure from Godo's cave. Seeing him really settling into his Black Swordsman persona and learning to use the Dragonslayer would be a neat addition. Maybe a fight with an Apostle before the Snake Baron?

Even though it made perfect sense not to include any sign of her at the time, Guts internally grappling with what happened to Casca during the first three Vols would be a really cool insight.

In Vol 15, when the Demon child summons the flaming children after Guts escapes from town, the one child that asked "Mommy...where are" (DH translation) is actually the Demon child himself trying to communicate with Guts.

Griffith said:
Judges?

Nope, nobody's quite gotten it yet! Hint: Remember, the alteration isn't supposed to be adding a mistake, but "fixing" one. :daiba:
Ahhh Challenge accepted :guts:

I've got one, my DH version has a *ZHA inside the giant H effect.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
I already know the answers to the proposed ones, so I'll just cool it in the back of the classroom here and act smug :badbone:

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that he could flesh out some of the environments and background details in volumes 1-3. Give them that good ol' post-vol 27 insanely detailed, 'oh-my-god-look-at-all-those-bricks' shine. As I said in another thread, the atmosphere in those early volumes is potent just with what's there, but imagine if he wasn't on such a deadline with those earlier releases (he was working on Oh Roh Den with Buronson at the same time, I believe), and could really polish it to perfection.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Joe Chip said:
Here is another one, it's from the first time we see the Skullknight. I remember reading about it in a thread (i think it was Truder that mentioned it)

Yeah, his design has definitely evolved since that first appearance. Hell, even during that first appearance you practically can see the spikes getting longer.

JoeZeon said:
I've always wondered about Guts right after his departure from Godo's cave. Seeing him really settling into his Black Swordsman persona and learning to use the Dragonslayer would be a neat addition.

I used to facetiously rationalize the fact that Guts looks so much thinner during the Black Swordsman arc than at the end of the Golden Age or the beginning of Conviction because he was at his lowest point, still recovering physically and mentally from the eclipse, still getting used to the Dragon Slayer, struggling to survive and surely quite depressed about everything; no wonder he was malnourished! That's probably also what drove him to such lewd acts to catch that female apostle despite his love for Casca. =)

JoeZeon said:
Even though it made perfect sense not to include any sign of her at the time, Guts internally grappling with what happened to Casca during the first three Vols would be a really cool insight.

Hmmmm, I think if we combine that idea with my latter point above we'd have something. He was probably thinking of her the whole time. :???:

Walter said:
The first thing that comes to mind for me is that he could flesh out some of the environments and background details in volumes 1-3. Give them that good ol' post-vol 27 insanely detailed, 'oh-my-god-look-at-all-those-bricks' shine. As I said in another thread, the atmosphere in those early volumes is potent just with what's there, but imagine if he wasn't on such a deadline with those earlier releases (he was working on Oh Roh Den with Buronson at the same time, I believe), and could really polish it to perfection.

See, I was wondering today if that's the one part he'd ever consider fully revamping just for that reason, since if one looks at the prototype they'll see detail work sometimes far beyond what's typical in the first three volumes. He wasn't able to give it his best like the rest of the series. It's a slippery slope though, as I joked in the OP if he goes down that road he might never stop adding to everything to bring it up to his current standards.

Bender said:
The added boot was the fix, the mistake was Casca being barefoot.

BINGO! Good work, Bender. Name your prize, what would you like to see? :void:


I've got a pretty big one, which I've even entertained as a project idea back when I still used to draw regularly, but... well, you'll understand why it never happened.

GAMEFRONT.jpg
1118546.jpg


I always thought it would be pretty damn cool to see the Oblivion Herbs Chapter (the story of the Dreamcast game written by Miura) drawn up proper like the rest of the series. This was especially attractive back when it's plot was actually AHEAD of where we were in the manga (I remember we were even analyzing the weather in the game against the snow in the Winter Journey episodes =), so it was cutting edge, and poorly translated enough to be even somewhat intriguing (cool trivia, BSOM has a thank you credit in the U.S. manual). Anyway, I used to daydream about this while reading the Visual & Story File artbook for the game; which contains the script and is basically the closest thing to a "volume" for it. It fits perfectly between volumes 22 and 23. :guts:

Balzac.jpg
 

Truder

"I frown at Griffith's nipples" -Aazealh
Griffith said:
(the story of the Dreamcast game written by Miura)
I would like to know why Zodd randomly showed up to fight Guts and pretty much say "that was fun, i'm going now. bye!" :zodd:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
I always thought it would be pretty damn cool to see the Oblivion Herbs Chapter (the story of the Dreamcast game written by Miura) drawn up proper like the rest of the series. This was especially attractive back when it's plot was actually AHEAD of where we were in the manga (I remember we were even analyzing the weather in the game against the snow in the Winter Journey episodes), so it was cutting edge, and poorly translated enough to be even somewhat intriguing (cool trivia, BSOM has a thank you credit in the U.S. manual).
That's a pretty fantastic idea. I think it could actually be condensed pretty easily into a volume or so of content. That being said, there are a lot of parallels between Balzac and the Count, so...

Truder said:
I would like to know why Zodd randomly showed up to fight Guts and pretty much say "that was fun, i'm going now. bye!" :zodd:
He was "looking for warriors," likely referring to Nico, and he and Guts happened to cross paths.
 
I can't think of too much that hasn't already been said, but one that I don't care for would be how Puck was drawn in the first three volumes. It's not horrible or anything, but I like his more recent self rather then the pudgy one.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
That's a pretty fantastic idea. I think it could actually be condensed pretty easily into a volume or so of content. That being said, there are a lot of parallels between Balzac and the Count, so...

Sure, but that goes for the Snake Baron, Rochine, and a number of other characters and recurring themes that run throughout the series as well. Plus, it's not really the same, Balzac is human and does sacrifice the one he supposedly loves, only becoming an Apostle at the end (ironic that it was the Count, an Apostle, that did the right thing =). Also, I like that it sort of fits "the Black Swordsman archetype," but with a number of interesting new wrinkles and innovations, most notably the incorporation of Casca and all that entails (maybe this IS the Special Edition Black Swordsman story =). Considering that Guts and Casca become estranged about 4 episodes into their journey together in the manga, this is actually the most time we see them cooperatively coexisting since the Eclipse! Plus, the ending... I could go on, I feel like we should talk about this story more than we have.

Truder said:
I would like to know why Zodd randomly showed up to fight Guts and pretty much say "that was fun, i'm going now. bye!" :zodd:
Walter said:
He was "looking for warriors," likely referring to Nico, and he and Guts happened to cross paths.

Yeah, and if you played the English version the translation was pretty confusing and downright wrong in some aspects (creative liberties were taken with the info section for sure). In many ways it was more confusing than enlightening about what was going at the time in general (I remember one horribly mangled translation where Guts and Zodd spoke as if Zodd WAS Griffith), and of course that's exactly what we we're trying to squeeze out of it at the time. =)
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Griffith said:
Plus, the ending... I could go on, I feel like we should talk about this story more than we have.
I recently reviewed the game through a YouTube series that had all the story bits, trying to determine if it's something we could discuss at length on the podcast and... I dunno, I didn't have much to say about it, after all was said and done, aside from the Casca parts which we recently talked about. But sure, we could talk about it more.

Griffith said:
Yeah, and if you played the English version the translation was pretty confusing and downright wrong in some aspects (creative liberties were taken with the info section for sure). In many ways it was more confusing than enlightening about what was going at the time in general (I remember one horribly mangled translation where Guts and Zodd spoke as if Zodd WAS Griffith), and of course that's exactly what we we're trying to squeeze out of it at the time. =)
I remember it. Poor localization all around, really. Though I still liked Guts voice. They referred to Zodd as "Griffith's vessel." So, they had confused the word "vassal," or a subordinate, for a "vessel." And boy was that confusing for a chunk of the series that was, as you said, ahead of where the manga was at the time (though it took place in the Millennium Falcon arc, it was released during the Conviction arc, before the Incarnation Ceremony began, yet still during a time when SK was talking about Femto coming into the physical world.) So yeah... heady times, those :ganishka:
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Walter said:
I recently reviewed the game through a YouTube series that had all the story bits, trying to determine if it's something we could discuss at length on the podcast and... I dunno, I didn't have much to say about it, after all was said and done, aside from the Casca parts which we recently talked about. But sure, we could talk about it more.
I remember it. Poor localization all around, really. Though I still liked Guts voice. They referred to Zodd as "Griffith's vessel." So, they had confused the word "vassal," or a subordinate, for a "vessel." And boy was that confusing for a chunk of the series that was, as you said, ahead of where the manga was at the time (though it took place in the Millennium Falcon arc, it was released during the Conviction arc, before the Incarnation Ceremony began, yet still during a time when SK was talking about Femto coming into the physical world.) So yeah... heady times, those :ganishka:

Yeah, little did we know Zodd was literally Griffith's vessel, like a boat would be. Some of that stuff was pretty awful, but it was funny how they tried to have it both ways on Guts' name; major bullshit. I agree on Guts' voice too, I think he captures Guts' attitude better than the more agitated interpretations. Anyway, as for what more there is to say about it, you sort of brought it up. I think it's pretty interesting, and a testament to his involvement and enthusiasm for the project, that Miura basically spoiled his own story for the sake of the game. It could have easily been something more derivative like the PS2 game, but instead it was about as fresh and authentic as it gets outside the manga, like he gave a genuine piece of story away to a different medium (it's still sort of surreal that this happened in a Dreamcast game =). It's especially wild when you consider that he presented a version of a reveal we're still waiting for, even if it was just simulated. Unfortunately, because it is in a video game, part of the story but not part of the manga, its like a lost chapter to a large degree.
 
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