Volume 38 Release

[Kaladin]

Simply stunning.



here is a link to the 2nd poster
http://i.imgur.com/531CGrr.jpg

[Aazealh]

Wow, the Erika and Rickert one is cute (love Erika's face), but the one of the elves is awesome. Absolutely love it!

[Walter]

Fucking incredible. A whole new art style for Miura's painting.

[Kaladin]

the new volume cover, the magazine cover, and these new paintings are definitely digital. i wonder if he's limiting digital for paintings alone and not the manga itself, and if he if he is using a tablet to draw the manga, i wonder to what extent. his artstyle is going through a big change, from the last few episodes up until now, if he is indeed drawing the manga digitally, that could explain some of the breaks he took. he probably spend some of that time learning and adjusting to the digital medium, this is of course IF he is indeed drawing digitally and not just painting digitally. Not only that but if he's already this good with digital painting imagine him a few years down the line....

this is all very exciting 

also, the poster with Rickert and Erika is nicely painted but i wish he showed the Bakiraka some love  . Silat deserves better than this! just imagine how badass Silat and the Tapasa would look in a poster.

finally, here is almost all the volume covers in the new style with a decent resolution, only 2-3 are missing http://imgur.com/a/TEVlI

I'm actually digging alot of these, others not so much, for example why is the berserk logo on volume 12 blue? shouldn't it be red or purple?

[Squiddot]

Trying to figure out whether the volume 38 cover was digitally drawn or not was racking my brain the last few days. Thankfully this image is a little clearer and has settled it. I notice Miura has a bit of jaggyness on the borders of shapes, and the highlights don't quite go all the way to the edge. But just like his ink work I imagine he'll be refining and developing his process as time goes by. And the main focus, the elves are BEAUTIFUL.

On the topic of the ink work though, i'm throwing my hat in the ring and saying that its still traditional. Though until YA comes out digitally i can't tell for certain, those damn korean filters blur and sharpen everywhere and make it impossible to tell. Someone actually noticed that a specific pose of Azan from behind in the previous episode was used about 3 times in this episode! Though it wasn't a straight copy-paste and rather a trace judging by the slight inconsistencies, that's one point to traditional i guess.

[Uriel]

finally, here is almost all the volume covers in the new style with a decent resolution, only 2-3 are missing http://imgur.com/a/TEVlI

Gods, Volume 27 still looks so good...

Anyway. Volume 38 is sat next to me as we speak. Although the color posters are gorgeous, and expertly drawn and shaded... I'm not a big fan. This digital style (which I believe it is) doesn't have the grit I look for in Miura's coloured works. There is a odd fidelity to them that has been bothering me since I first clapped eyes on them; a distracting glossiness. Miura is, of course, entitled to change his medium or methods to his heart's content, and, naturally, with time he'll achieve even greater wonders with these tools. I'd wholeheartedly agree that it already works really well with bright tones and strong saturation, like with Elfhelm's poster... but the digital stitches are showing, and it's off-putting.

Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts.

[Lithrael]

I think the digital work looks a little off-putting too but I also think that we can chalk that directly up to the nuts and bolts of a media change.  I'm frankly surprised to see the digital brushwork on, for example, the pumpkins; it's what you get when you use default round brushes.  The exact same strokes would produce a much more visually appealing look if he used a more sophisticated brush.  And the line quality itself is what you get when you have line/brush smoothing/stabilization turned completely off. 

So it looks like the work of someone who has just picked up digital tools and is self-teaching, and hasn't got around to everything yet and/or hasn't had an experienced digital painter over in person for tips and pointers. 

[RaffoBaffo]

http://i.imgur.com/531CGrr.jpg

The image look good, but the brown eyes...

[Eluvei]

I'm not a huge fan of how the cover painting turned out, but I like the two posters. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement, the blurring effect in the distance in the elves poster looks a little jarring, and some elements show too much that they're in separate layers from other elements. I'm personally happy he's started working digitally, it's unexpected.

I think the digital work looks a little off-putting too but I also think that we can chalk that directly up to the nuts and bolts of a media change.  I'm frankly surprised to see the digital brushwork on, for example, the pumpkins; it's what you get when you use default round brushes. The exact same strokes would produce a much more visually appealing look if he used a more sophisticated brush.

I don't really see using the default round brush as the mark of a beginner. There are plenty of very famous digital painters that use the simple round brush most of the time. I do think the overlaying of several low opacity brush strokes on the pumpkin makes it look a little confusing, but I don't think the effect it produces is entirely unsuccessful.

And the line quality itself is what you get when you have line/brush smoothing/stabilization turned completely off.

I may be wrong here, but while some of his strokes appear to have an unusually sudden leap in size, related to pen sensitivity, the stroke quality itself looks normal to me. Doesn't look like it has smoothing turned off at all; at least it doesn't give that impression where they're the most apparent, which is the armor in the cover. I'd say 10% of the lines look wobbly. 

[Aazealh]

I'm not a huge fan of how the cover painting turned out, but I like the two posters. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement, the blurring effect in the distance in the elves poster looks a little jarring, and some elements show too much that they're in separate layers from other elements. I'm personally happy he's started working digitally, it's unexpected.

I can't really say I'm happy he moved to digital, since traditional paint work has its charm and is all too rare these days. But I can't argue against all the benefits digital tools offer, even only in terms of time saved. Beyond the technical details though I just like those two artworks, and I don't think the blur will even be too noticeable in mini-poster form. Looking forward to see what he does in the future, too.

[Kaladin]

yeah the artwork doesn't look digitized when looking at the physical volume, its only when looking at the paintings in high resolution. i think later down the line he'll get so good that people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

[Aazealh]

For those interested I bought volume 1 and volume 38 digitally on http://www.hakusensha-e.net/ and volume 1 doesn't include any new illustrations aside from the cover. However the original color pages are there, which is pretty neat.

[JMP]

I love the poster of the elves! The one of Erika and Rickert is nice, too. I just learned that June 24th is Fairy Day. https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/fairy-day/ Kinda neat to get to see this painting of my favorite elves today.   

[Kaladin]

For those interested I bought volume 1 and volume 38 digitally on http://www.hakusensha-e.net/ and volume 1 doesn't include any new illustrations aside from the cover. However the original color pages are there, which is pretty neat.

oh wow very nice! quick question, those color pages, are they on the same type of paper as the rest of the pages in the volume or did they use higher quality glossy papers for them?

[Aazealh]

oh wow very nice! quick question, those color pages, are they on the same type of paper as the rest of the pages in the volume or did they use higher quality glossy papers for them?

Sorry you're mistaken, like I said in the post I bought the digital editions, not the physical ones. I've looked around a bit online but can't seem to find the new version of volume 1. I'm not sure it's available yet and I don't know if it will have those pages in color.

[Kaladin]

Sorry you're mistaken, like I said in the post I bought the digital editions, not the physical ones. I've looked around a bit online but can't seem to find the new version of volume 1. I'm not sure it's available yet and I don't know if it will have those pages in color.

oh my apology, misread your post, anyway hopefully the physical re-release does have the opening pages in color, they charge the same amount for it as the rest of the volumes so hopefully this time around its included.

[Cyrus Jong]

It's always interesting to see an artist try new things, even if the results are not always straight-up improvements of previous work. Not a fan of the cover personally, but that's in large part due to not really enjoying another piece of Guts striking a pose, and I have mixed feelings about the image with Rickert and Erika, but I do love the way Puck and Ivalera look.

[The Beast of Darkness]

I can't really say I'm happy he moved to digital, since traditional paint work has its charm and is all too rare these days.

It's exactly what was in my mind when I said I didn't liked the new cover. Just like I have a hard time when I see Guts face drawing style in the recent panels... I don't know... sometimes he looks much younger than in the previous volumes; I'll need some time to get used to it, I guess.
Otherwise, it's true that the new posters looks cool, Especially the elves one.

[IncantatioN]

Picked up the volume today and just finished reading it. Lovely.

Higher quality image of the new volume cover.

http://imgur.com/qvPKMGQ

I must say, the colors on the physical volume look subdued and darker (or duller) compared to that ^ high quality image.

In terms of differences with the volumes that came before, the image on the inside of the sleeve is lovely, as always and comes in a new border/frame with a Beherit on top. Everything is now bordered - the cover, the inner sleeve small drawing and the new image of Puck on the back of the cover. The empty spaces of the cover have this granite/marble-like effect vs plain white on older volumes.

Difference in the spine (I need to make room on the shelf and couldn't picture all past volumes)


The back of the volume with the granite/marble-like effect


The volume also came with a promo-sleeve like the last 3 volumes. I don't know what it says! It looks like there are signed copies of the volume cover (?) and Beherits with dates for a promotional thing (maybe those are YA release dates and there's something Berserk related in those YA releases?)


Here's the sad part from my visit to Kinokuniya - I went through the Japanese volume section to find Volume 1 with the alternate cover and I walked through the entire section, keeping in mind I was looking for a long stack of volumes on the shelf but I couldn't find any Berserk. I'd walked through 8/10 aisles twice now. Afraid the store might close soon, sought help and went to the info-desk to ask if they had Berserk volumes in Japanese. The helper got up and exclaimed "Yeah, we have them but you won't find them easily. They're on the shelf facing the window and we only have a few" ... when we got to the shelf, they only had Volumes 33, 36, 37 - that's it. Volume 38 was being sold up front, with other newly released manga. I was honestly extremely surprised and blurted out a "That's it?". The helper said "Yeah, not many people buying Berserk. There's a long wait for each volume. We don't have other volumes at the store".

[Walter]

Thanks for the images. Too bad about that spine... Is there still a tiny, original image when you first open the volume (inside of the dust jacket)? I always looked forward to what Miura would do for those, and I'd be sad to see them go.

[IncantatioN]

Thanks for the images. Too bad about that spine... Is there still a tiny, original image when you first open the volume (inside of the dust jacket)? I always looked forward to what Miura would do for those, and I'd be sad to see them go.

Yep it's still there. This time it's an image of a cherry blossom tree inside a new border which we can probably expect to see for all future images (I guess?). I'll PM a picture of it when I get home. Another change I noticed is you no longer open the volume to a page of Jets Comics, instead there's a page at the back of the volume of ... I can't remember the name.

[The Beast of Darkness]

The volume also came with a promo-sleeve like the last 3 volumes. I don't know what it says! It looks like there are signed copies of the volume cover (?) and Beherits with dates for a promotional thing (maybe those are YA release dates and there's something Berserk related in those YA releases?)

I guess you have to send the three Beherit coupons to Young Animal and you'll get a chance to win a phone card (Those aren't signed covers, they are phone cards) for the three upcoming (well, the first is already out obviously) Young Animal magazine.

[IncantatioN]

^ thanks much for that piece of information!

[Rupert Sinclair]

It's great to see these episodes all together in one volume!

One thing I noticed is that in the original YA release when Griffith puts up his hand to stop Locus after Rickert slaps him he has a gauntlet on while he had been gloveless throughout the scene, this has been changed in the volume.

There is an add for volume 39 at the end that says it will be released in 2017, I imagine we will be staying monthly for some time.

[Walter]

One thing I noticed is that in the original YA release when Griffith puts up his hand to stop Locus after Rickert slaps him he has a gauntlet on while he had been gloveless throughout the scene, this has been changed in the volume.

Nice. Yeah, ever since Aazealh found that enigmatic extra page in Vol 28, the first thing I do when a new volume arrives is a page-by-page comparison.

There is an add for volume 39 at the end that says it will be released in 2017, I imagine we will be staying monthly for some time.

Oh wow, that's a great catch! Here's hoping they can keep that promise.

Though 2017 could always mean December 2017, here's a best-case scenario for what that could involve:

Vol 39:
343 December 15
344 June 16
345 July 16
346 August 16
347 September 16
348 October 16
349 November 16
350 December 16
351 January 17