Berserk Saga Project News

[hellrasinbrasin]

I want the Box Office numbers to be good we want them to be good but the reality is that the numbers are what they are. The only silver lining is going to be what the Box Office revenue will be as a whole for these films + DVD/Blue Ray sales before we can gauge what Studio 4*c will or won't do with Berserk.

 

[ApostleBob]

Keep in mind the number of screens. If it's a more limited release, it's box office will be lower.

 

[DirectDK]

Berserk not doing so well its opening weekend?

http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/japan/?yr=2012&wk=5&p=.htm

Unless their numbers are drastically off, outlook not so good for the movies.

By that chart, Berserk isn't actually doing too bad, IMO. If you consider how many screens Berserk is being shown on, you can see the average in the 3rd column to the right (weekend gross divided by screens). In comparison to the other 2 movies that debuted this weekend, Tower Heist, and Arakawa, it averaged more. In fact, Berserk averaged more per screen than nearly all of the movies on that list, except for four.

Anyways, I'm not the best person to get a lot out of numbers. And I really don't have much frame of reference when it comes to anime films on the big screen in Japan. But certainly, if Berserk is doing poorly, or does poorly, I will be truly truly heartbroken. I'm not only looking forward to this trilogy but for the entire Saga Project that has been spoken of that comes afterwards. I want to see my Schierke, Serpico, Rochine, crazy Casca, trolls, pucks, ogres, more Slan, more God Hand, and MORE SKULLKNIGHT! =)

ANN posted impressions today:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/berserk-ogon-jidai-hen-i/hao-no-tamago

As you might guess, the animation was the movie's biggest "flaw" -- if that's the right word for it.

Mmmmm, I do think that this "flaw" might not be too much of a "flaw" to certain people. I feel like it is comforting to know that most of the real emotional / heartfelt scenes were done with 2D animation, where it's mainly the action scenes that are done with 3D. If this is the case, I think I should be cool with that. For the most part, I really enjoyed those first 10 minutes and the CG only took me out of the element when I saw the general speak. I was pretty blown away by everything else.

Also, it seems like the OST and the voice actors have been receiving high marks all around, which is fantastic to hear! And hear!

how long would this take to come out on DVD/Blu-Ray.? anyone got a good idea.?

I'm hoping the first movie will come out in Japan DVD/BR by the time the 2nd movie comes out! Nevertheless, I'm sure us foreigners will be able to view this movie at some point this year. I mean, they've clearly made it a point that they want to make this movie an international success. They got WB on board too, so I'm pretty hopeful that we will all get to see this movie soon enough! YESH.

 

[Walter]

I posted that box office info last night but no one noticed... I kinda just figured it was too sad to comment on

In fact, Berserk averaged more per screen than nearly all of the movies on that list, except for four.

Indeed, that's a very important statistic to note when looking at this chart. What it says is that Berserk did better in the theaters it was shown at than others in the competition. The closest premiere runner up (Arakawa) was shown on nearly 2x as many screens and only made 28% more than Berserk.

I truly hope the movie's success isn't stymied because someone on the production/marketing side wasn't able to secure enough theaters for the premiere...

 

[kaimera]

So i hope it will get good reviews and makes a good comeback at the box office. But to be honest, normally the box-office gets it's highest volume on the weekend debut. So now you can say that until the next weekend it will possibly gross 20 % to 40 % less than on the debut. It will of course steadily decrease. Unless it gets a insiders' tip and many go to watch it. So i assume it will gross in 3-4 weeks about 1 to 1,5 million dollar. Now it would be useful to know what the production costs were.

 

[JezzaX]

What the film may lack in box office sales, may hopefully be made up in DVD/Blu Ray sales. It worked well enough for Fantastic Four to get a sequel.

 

[Bramwell]

The original anime is what got me into berserk, i now own all the manga and of course agree that it is the ultimate.
My goodness! I just rewatched the original Bazuzo battle from the series as dont remember it being as bad as it is. Although i do not agree with the amount of cg being used in the new film, I think it portrays an action battle scene pretty well.
I also disagree with the colours being used, bright yellows and white greys. I feel dark greys and greens would be more fitting in the berserk universe.
I like the music video theory from your podcast, it makes me feel more at ease about the project. After all, we all stiull have the wonderful manga

Best part of the 10 min for me. The epic title scene, the music is wonderful as usual.

 

[SaiyajinNoOuji]

Here are the weekend rankings, but still no information on how much money it made: http://jpboxofficewatch.tumblr.com/weekend According to that site:
There's a lot of data out there about the top 10 films of the weekend, but because Berserk is in 11th, there's not as much information on exactly how well it did. A few Japanese sites have made mention that the country is currently experiencing one of the worst snowstorms in the past decade. So that could also be a factor?

yea its pretty bad in the northern areas... Hokaido, Misawa, etc... last week was it, 100 cars had to be abandoned on the highway because the snow was so bad.

 

[RyoGTO]

I also disagree with the colours being used, bright yellows and white greys. I feel dark greys and greens would be more fitting in the berserk universe.

I would also say it is bright for the Berserk universe; however, this particular part of the Golden Age did have a slightly 'lighter' feel to it than most other parts. Also, in the '97 anime this particular scene is just as bright, along with the scene where Guts first encounters the Band of the Hawk--and I don't think it was a problem.

 

[kaimera]

In a german berserk forum i stumbled upon this pic, which was posted yesterday. You can guess what that means, if it's legit.

 

[Rhombaad]

Very cool! Thanks for posting that, Kaimera!

 

[voodoo_sh]

Wow, I wonder where they took this pic ?

 

[RyoGTO]

Hmm, that could be from something totally unrelated to the Berserk Saga Project though; it could be an independent work. Also, while it would be nice to assume that it's from the Black Swordsman arc, and that they are animating it, she also plays an important part during the Eclipse. Only time will tell...

 

[kaimera]

Hmm, that could be from something totally unrelated to the Berserk Saga Project though; it could be an independent work. Also, while it would be nice to assume that it's from the Black Swordsman arc, and that they are animating it, she also plays an important part during the Eclipse. Only time will tell...

I asked the person who uploaded the picture in the board. I will tell you all when i got more information on that one..
Yeah could be just for the Eclipse. But so much effort just for one little scene of slaughtering corkus? mhm

 

[Jaze1618]

I asked the person who uploaded the picture in the board. I will tell you all when i got more information on that one..
Yeah could be just for the Eclipse. But so much effort just for one little scene of slaughtering corkus? mhm

I think you are seriously underplaying the importance of Corkus' death scene and I don't think it's wrong to expect that studio 4C would put a lot of effort into every scene of the eclipse.

IMO killing Corkus is the biggest role she ever plays and her appearance at the eclipse is far more significant than at the beginning of the black swordsman arc.

 

[RyoGTO]

IMO killing Corkus is the biggest role she ever plays and her appearance at the eclipse is far more significant than at the beginning of the black swordsman arc.

I tend to agree with this sentiment. For instance, she is in the '97 anime only during the eclipse when she kills Corkus, but she is not portrayed other than that (i.e. Episode 1). I would be much more excited if someone happens to find a picture like this of The Count, but perhaps kaimera knows something we don't.

 

[Draculoid]

Very nice find! Thank you! From that picture I would assumed its from the eclipse simply based on the stance. I believe I remember her standing upright like that only then.

 

[kaimera]

I tend to agree with this sentiment. For instance, she is in the '97 anime only during the eclipse when she kills Corkus, but she is not portrayed other than that (i.e. Episode 1). I would be much more excited if someone happens to find a picture like this of The Count, but perhaps kaimera knows something we don't.

Yep you're both right, i got a bit carried away by my thoughts.Though i wouldn't take the '97 Anime as an argument .

But to be honest. She is way more active in the first volume. She's talking to guts. The scene with corkus is important. but there she is just a tool to conclude corkus stampede. And that is his death. I never wanted to say corkus death is unimportant, but her role is not significant. And her role in the first volume is not way more significant. But at least a bit. That's all.

Edit: The Screen is from the MagnetTV episode Dar Klink posted here http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=12735.msg206669#msg206669
It is 43:48 and then. So it seems like they are doing the eclipse there. yep.

 

[Roderick]

Not to be down on the movie, but I hope there is minimal 3D models used in the Elcipse. Otherwise, it may be even more laughable in motion than the worst adapted scenes in the TV anime. Crossing my fingers that 3D is relied upon less in coming features.

Possibly in order to make the film's CG look closer to the limited animation style of Japanese anime, the frame rate of the 3D animation is often lowered significantly, which many times only has the effect of making the characters look stilted and unnatural. Other times, character movement may look mechanical or clearly motion-captured, which along with the sometimes-uneven modeling can result in action scenes that look like Playstation 2 in-game cinematics or tech demonstrations. While the previously-mentioned positives to this style manage to salvage the film's action sequences to some effect, these problems result in it being incredibly difficult for viewers to make vital emotional connections to characters so long as we see them primarily depicted in this way.

I definitely got the same vibe from the previews, though I wouldn't even compare what we have here to Playstation 2 game cinematics. The Berserk PS2 game had more impressive use of CGI than what is used in what looks to be offered in this movie. A good comparison would be to compare 3D Zodd's appearance and animation in this movie to the PS2 game.

Other than the mishandling of the 3D however, I'm happy to see these films being made and look forward to seeing it.

 

[SuperVegetto]

I watched the first 10 mins and loved them. Great to know it keeps the gore and the opening was awesome. Listening to Aria at this moment. I wonder how Black Swordsman arc would look animated with the latest technology though. It would probably be pretty cool, especially if they made it look darker. But to the actual film that was released, I can't wait to watch the whole thing.

 

[Metatron]

I don't think it's really fair to compare the 3D in this movie to the PS2 game. They are completely different styles.

The problem is that they tried to mimic 2D anime-style animation to some extent, but failed. The 2D scenes are much better. I'm completely fine with the 3D used for distant scenes with many soldiers on the screen, like in the opening siege. The problem is when they use it in place of 2D animation and not in order to complement it. That scene inside the siege weapon, the commander talking right at the camera and some close up shots from the Pazuso fight (the distant and fast ones are fine): they're the shots from the first 10 minutes that most complain about. Close, immersion breaking shots that are also unecessary (just trying to save time and use the models as much as they can it seems). That's a bad way to use their technology. It's good for distant scenes and unimportant characters in fast scenes, but it completely fails when trying to take the place of the 2D animation (another example is Casca vs. Guts).

I have no complains about the overall direction and style though. From what I've seen of the movie, it looks like a good extra. Background are also gorgeous.

But they do have to change how they approach the 3D. The way I see it, the first movie(s) being criticized for it is a good thing. I don't think they'll just cancel the project. It's more probable they'll listen and change their approach for the next movies, even if they're only released direct to video.

I do like the 3D when it's capable of doing big action scenes. They just need to get their heads together and not used it cheaply in completely unecessary ways. One character or two on the screen? Come on...

 

[Rhombaad]

I agree wholeheartedly. I watched the first 10 minutes again last night, and I think you hit the nail on the head. Where they get into trouble is trying to use 3DCG characters in situations where a 2D character would suffice (and look a whole lot better). In Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. (I'm sorry I keep going back to this, but it's one of the few anime I've seen where the 3DCG looks really good) they only use 3DCG characters in shots that are far away, or when they're animating the mechs. The characters are hardly ever computer generated. As you said, the mistake they made with The Egg of the King (and most likely the other two films) is they used it to replace hand-drawn animation, instead of supplementing it.

I do hope they take the criticism of the 3DCG into account during post-production on the next two films, though, but other than making it look more polished, I don't think they'll be substituting hand-drawn animation for the CG characters already in place. That would require a lot of extra work, and based on what we've heard regarding their budget, I don't think that would be very practical at this point in time.

 

[IncantatioN]

From the new YA issue, here's an interesting page with Movie II info/ images. There are other pages for the movie, but it is for movie I and nothing we haven't covered/ seen before.

I'll try to up a better picture.

 

[Walter]

Thanks for the preview. I like what I see so far, but that ballroom scene is either going to look pretty amazing or pretty terrible. /

I just hope they don't overuse that sweeping camera technique that they showed off in the 10-min preview. It makes the CG elements really stand out.

 

[Aazealh]

For info I received my first "Young Animal Remix" volumes and they're the same as the old MBRs that came out a few years ago. Start with the Black Swordsman arc and all. Basically just a quick way to catch up on the manga for those who discover the series with the movie.