2017 Berserk TV Series (Season 2)

[Salem]

Season 2 is announced!  Woo!    It really is though.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Gomarz/status/776781639040983042

[ABH]

1. New director
2. Bigger budget for animation
3. New sound guy

For all this shows faults, it's not that hard to fix. #1 is the key. Someone who will stay faithful as this season has tried to do, but knows how to portray the material. For all the knocking of the show, at the least it's building Berserk's profile and there's a chance to turn things around. Other series have improved in quality after the first season.

[Walter]

I was waiting for official confirmation, since Twitter is...yeah.

It's for real. The end of the last episode says "2017 spring, the next arc arrives." It cuts from the same footage of Flora's mansion shown in the first episode to a panning shot of the Berserk Armor, ending on this:



I wonder what spirit is living in that armor!?

[Salem]

The animation seemed to improve a little by the last episode.  Hopefully the rage and outcry from many of the fans will help structure season 2 better.  If all else fails and the second season has already been done, let's hope they make some changes in the meantime.    I swear I heard this was going to be 24 episodes originally, so that is where my line of thought is coming from.

I don't see the pacing, which at times really does itself no service, changing enough to make things smooth.  I do find it a little shoddy to make so many repetitive sound effects.  I'm no one to specialize in such matters, but don't see how hard it would be to smash steel on different material to get a sweet sound for the dragon slayer.  As much as I love Susumu, replaying one song is not the key.  All these remixes from the golden age movies are pretty bad.  Could be part of the budget?  Dunno.

All in all season 1 felt pretty meh.  Following the manga more closely around episode 4 and on made everything a little better.  Much improvement needed, so let's hope for the best.

Oh man!  That shot of the armor makes me smile.

[Theozilla]

Based on the pacing of this first cour, and presuming the next one is 12 episodes as well, I'm guessing they'll just be adapting the Chapter of The Holy Demon War, and not the entirety of the Millennium Falcon Arc. Maybe the series will be like Sailor Moon Crystal we'll hopeful see some marginal improvement in the production/adaptation quality of the anime.

[Roderick]

Based on the pacing of this first cour, and presuming the next one is 12 episodes as well, I'm guessing they'll just be adapting the Chapter of The Holy Demon War, and not the entirety of the Millennium Falcon Arc. Maybe the series will be like Sailor Moon Crystal we'll hopeful see some marginal improvement in the production/adaptation quality of the anime.

I agree.  It will pretty much end where the PS2 game ends, shortly after the fight with Grunbeld and as the depart the forest.

Now if there's a season 3 (please no), I'll be a bit at a loss as to where it ends.  Probably a case of them dragging out the Vrannitis material and war with Ganishka.  The beginning of the Fantasia arc is too good of a closure to pass up.

If (God forbid), they go even further, season 4 will end at the tail end of what we have last seen of Falconia where Rickert and Ericka leave with Silat.

Lastly, if by some horrible fate a fifth season is on the horizon, there may be enough content available to accomplish that too.  Which would end up happening sometime around 2018 or 2019.

[Oburi]

I was waiting for official confirmation, since Twitter is...yeah.

It's for real. The end of the last episode says "2017 spring, the next arc arrives." It cuts from the same footage of Flora's mansion shown in the first episode to a panning shot of the Berserk Armor, ending on this:

I didn't even realize how much I dreaded a season 2 until now, knowing there's more to come. I was so happy it was coming to an end, where it could die and never be brought up again. But nope, there's going to be more of this nonsense. Dammit.

[Grail]

I didn't even realize how much I dreaded a season 2 until now, knowing there's more to come. I was so happy it was coming to an end, where it could die and never be brought up again. But nope, there's going to be more of this nonsense. Dammit.

Ditto. "Dread" is definitely the word that comes to mind.

Beyond that, I'm shocked that they had enough of a budget to continue to push forward like this. Somebody's buying those Blu Rays!

[Gummyskull]

Does that mean we'll get to see in all his glory?

[Roderick]

I was so happy it was coming to an end, where it could die and never be brought up again. But nope, there's going to be more of this nonsense. Dammit.

Same here.  I thought this was just going to end with a wimper, we could collectively bury the remains and forget this ever exited except as a hunting reminder of how badly this series can be botched.  But no, "Berserk 2016"  looks like it might overtake the '97 series in overall number of episodes and possibly ending up the better known incarnation.

And that's scary.  The series deserves much better than this.

Also looks like we won't get to any "Berserk season 0" that plugs up the plotholes that arose from omitting so much f from the Black Swordsman arc and pretty much everything since the immediate post-Eclipse to Guts fighting the Holy Iron Chain Knights.  While I wouldn't be looking forward to that either, it would at least be more welcome.

[Oburi]

Does that mean we'll get to see in all his glory?

Now that you mention it, think about all of the amazing things that happen in this arc of Berserk. The Millennium Falcon arc is my favorite arc (Fantasia could easily surpass it though) because of how expansive it is for the story. It's got a little bit of everything and it's just so massive and filled with big epic scenes, tons of new creatures and characters, new locations, massive battles, magic, apostles, etc. Its a huge undertaking to try to adapt this part going forward, under any medium, you'd want so badly for it to be awesome, now more than ever. It's so depressing that they are actually pushing forward with this.

Honestly though the thing that'll make me hate it the most is if Miura ends up taking more breaks with the manga to help with the anime. Not that I blame him, it's just the situation that's frustrating. These terrible animes are slowing down the manga     

[Kaladin]

Rest in Peace the best arc.

once again the only good thing out of this is more exposure to the series and some new illustrations from Miura whether its for a Blu-ray box or a promotional magazine poster. That's it.

[Cyrus Jong]

Also looks like we won't get to any "Berserk season 0" that plugs up the plotholes that arose from omitting so much f from the Black Swordsman arc and pretty much everything since the immediate post-Eclipse to Guts fighting the Holy Iron Chain Knights.  While I wouldn't be looking forward to that either, it would at least be more welcome.

They already screwed the pooch on that one. They established their timeline by having Guts meet Puck and the Holy Iron Chain Knights in the same episode. There's no place to fit the missing material into anymore.

[Pink-Dark-Boy]

This is just taking the piss now. I refrained from watching the anime after the first five episodes for the sole purpose of getting that bitter taste out my mouth, and moving on. But another season is going to make that task a lot more difficult. 

[residentgrigo]

The announcement doesnīt state the format, so the producers could just regurgitate whatever the last 2 studios had stuffed away in a random OVA project. I still expect another 12 ep. show. It will hardly blow the piggy bank . I certainly wonīt watch another full season, if the pilot will be as bad as the last batch. I now learned my lesson, never again. Liden Filmsīs somewhat unfairly ridiculed and bipolar Terra Formars adaptation now looks like masterpiece by comparison... It changed the animation studio for the 2nd season though, with noticeably worse results.
May future producers be kinder on us, after all this mess will be allowed to fade away and rebooted. An American adaptation would frankly be of higher interest to me than another Japanese one. 
@Theozilla Sailor Moon Crystal is actually a good adaptation and always was. It faithfully adapts the manga 1 to 1 and the dvd releases fixed a lot of animation errors too. That kind of adaptation, as most of our 90s show was, would be the best possible outcome.

[-cause]

Season 2 is announced!

It's for real.

Fuck. Hearing this legitimately pisses me off.

1. New director
2. Bigger budget for animation
3. New sound guy

For all this shows faults, it's not that hard to fix. #1 is the key. Someone who will stay faithful as this season has tried to do, but knows how to portray the material. For all the knocking of the show, at the least it's building Berserk's profile and there's a chance to turn things around. Other series have improved in quality after the first season.

This means so little to me after what we saw in Season 1. They proved that they were either amateurs or imbeciles when it came to doing just about anything. Nothing I've seen makes me think that they should know how to pick a good director or sound technician either. Even a larger budget doesn't matter much when the people making the decisions are making poor choices. Sure it gives the manga extra publicity, but for me personally, I'd rather it get good extra publicity or no extra publicity at all. Season 1 was, in my opinion, bad publicity. My faith in Season 2 being even somewhat of decent quality is extremely low.

[DANGERDOOOOM]

An American adaptation would frankly be of higher interest to me than another Japanese one.

Why would an American made Berserk adaptation be of higher interest to you?

[residentgrigo]

It would be soothing new and i would like to see what an adaptation with a budget looks like. Animated or life action. Berserk best compares to European albums, if anything (i am well aware of the similar manga it started thereafter), so it wouldnīt even feel "wrong". Americans make the best tv there is and Dark Fantasy is hardly a Japanese genre. Just look @ GoT. Itīs a co-production between the US and UK. I am not the biggest fan of the last 2 seasons of scripts, but dat budget and polish , even in S01. Itīs a shame that HBO abandoned adult targeted toons after Spawn, as i would love to live in that world! Nolanīs Batman for example got an anime anthology. Only the last 2 segments are true home-runs (one is by the Berserk movie director) but i loved seeing the material from different eyes.

Thatīs what an anime with an American budget (3,5 mil. is the rumor for DC toon films) looks like. Anyone but the last 2 production companies get my blessing a this point. I just want to tune in and have a good time... as i get NO satisfaction from disliking an adaptation of beloved source material.

[Uriel]

I was waiting for official confirmation, since Twitter is...yeah.



I wonder what spirit is living in that armor!?

Spooky vision.

But whatever, more Berserk. Nobody asked for it, but we're getting it anyway. We can only hope they drastically alter it for the better, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Aazealh]

For all this shows faults, it's not that hard to fix. [...] For all the knocking of the show, at the least it's building Berserk's profile and there's a chance to turn things around.

I have to disagree with all of these statements. This show's not hard to fix? Sure, you only have to redo everything from scratch. And as for building Berserk's profile, all it's doing is make people think "Berserk = garbage". I sure hope it helps bring more people to the manga and that the new season gets much better and all that, but wishful thinking alone will not suffice unfortunately.

I swear I heard this was going to be 24 episodes originally, so that is where my line of thought is coming from.

That was just a bogus info, the like of which the Internet often produces. They'll be making that new season between now and spring. That means about two weeks per episode. I'm not very hopeful.

Based on the pacing of this first cour, and presuming the next one is 12 episodes as well, I'm guessing they'll just be adapting the Chapter of The Holy Demon War, and not the entirety of the Millennium Falcon Arc.

That seems like a foregone conclusion. I don't expect them to adapt the entire chapter either. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if they skipped the six episodes that are set in Wyndham with Ganishka.

I'm shocked that they had enough of a budget to continue to push forward like this. Somebody's buying those Blu Rays!

Well that's the one big advantage of having a minuscule budget: even the smallest audience allows you to go on. Besides, even if the new season tanks, they'll have lost very little money.

[Gamehowitzer]

That makes me actually mad. They do such a horrible job, however because of the poor budget, this poor job can be continued. I honestly wish i had a better understanding of the anime industry so i could say what i want to say about the approval process, but oh well. I am honestly surprised that this was allowed to be aired on japanese television. I was under the impression that they had higher standards. I'm really worried about how this is affecting miura. Even though he worked with them on an episode to help them, they still fudged it this badly, and they still are going to continue to? ugh. I'm just frustrated. I just finished watching Re:zero, and from what i read they had adapted it faithfully, took more episodes than originally intended, decided not to butcher the story, and while they may not have ended it where they wanted to, they still ended it at a great spot. Why can't berserk get that kind of treatment? Why does berserk keep getting bad adaptations? I don't get it.

[DANGERDOOOOM]

Dark Fantasy is hardly a Japanese genre.

Attack on Titan, Hellsing, Claymore, Vinland Saga. These are just the most well known, but there are plenty of others.

America should honestly work on their own shows and not worry about Berserk, especially a live action adaptation

Let's not forget about Dragonball Evolution.

[Kaladin]

Attack on Titan, Hellsing, Claymore, Vinland Saga. These are just the most well known, but there are plenty of others.

i think he means your traditional knights in armor in a medieval setting. Claymore is the only series here that'd say is comparable here. Vinland Saga is not dark fantasy, its historical fiction. in the manga medium there are almost no good fantasy series out there besides berserk. the western market is much more saturated when it comes to fantasy in general. pretty sure there are plenty of good japanese fantasy novels out there, not so many manga.

[DANGERDOOOOM]

Vinland Saga is not dark fantasy, its historical fiction

I'll have to take back what I said and agree with you on that one. I suppose just Claymore and Attack on Titan (slightly) would fit the dark fantasy genre out of the ones listed.

the western market is much more saturated when it comes to fantasy in general.

I guess my main point is just because the West has a larger audience in the fantasy scene and a higher budget towards their films, doesn't mean it would do a Japanese anime/manga franchise justice (Dragonball Evolution).

Japan already has the right tools they need and have a strong potential for a proper Berserk anime. Unfortunately their execution and planning need more direction that can keep the fan base happy, while also accomplishing fluid animations, story, and music that doesn't seem to jump from scene-to-scene, leaving most people confused and asking themselves, "What were they trying to do here?"

[Kaladin]

I guess my main point is just because the West has a larger audience in the fantasy scene and a higher budget towards their films, doesn't mean it would do a Japanese anime/manga franchise justice (Dragonball Evolution).

I don't disagree with you, and i'm still optimistic and think that one day we'll all get that adaptation we've been waiting for, and it's gonna be from a japanese studio of course.