Discussing Studio Gaga's art

[Vitris]

As Walter and I briefly discussed in the chat, having a dedicated thread about Studio Gaga's art might be good to talk about the thing that's basically in every discussion when mentioning the continuation.
I decided to make this thread to analyze Miura's former studio's art to better understand what they do wrong and how they might improve their skills. Of course, the visual aspect of every comic and manga is strictly tied to its story, so most of the time the two will go hand in hand, no matter what we're talking about.
Personally, I'll choose a specific topic and go further into detail, providing (I anticipate) A LOT of visual examples. Needless to say that there are gonna be comparisons with Miura (and maybe other artists) all over the place, because that's what they're trying to emulate. I hope this will be interesting and somewhat educational for everyone who will participate.

 

[Vitris]

Toning down violence and gore

We all know that one of the things Berserk is known for is how brutal it can get.

People getting possessed that start eating each other, Rakshas tearing a horse in half to put out the fire on himself, Ganishka crushing his own army while he's losing his memories... Well, you name it.
But since the continuation had started, I noticed (as probably most of you did) that the violence and gore have been turned down too much, while the pages have been filled with random details.​

The closest they've come to something interesting is in episode 368, when one of the sailors was eaten by the gnawers (although the reason for it was pretty stupid).

And even though they had different opportunities to go over the top with the violence, they haven't done anything that comes even close to this scene since then. There are a couple (and I literally mean a couple) of panels where they try to show something more graphic, but they feel more like the exception rather than the rule.

​

For example, let's talk about Rakshas popping out of that Kushan guy.
The fist thing we see is spikes coming out of the dude's back, which is a good start. Then we see him in an awkward pose, and, for some reason, there's drops of blood coming out from every part of his body, not just the back, which doesn't make any sense.



And after that, we see the others reacting to some kind of “blast”, and a couple of pages later there's Rakshas with his mask covered in blood (a detail that they forgot about in the next episode).
The way they've portrayed this scene is very contrived, especially because of the aforementioned blast. There's this weird panel where a guy is getting hit in the face by something caused by said blast, but it's unclear as to what hit him. But what this panel (and the one after) tells us is that the blast is strong enough to knock people on the ground, as we see in ep. 377's last page. Now let me ask you a question: what exactly caused that blast? Are they trying to tells us that Rakshas tore this man's flesh THAT hard? Well, that can't be it, because when we see Rakshas he's just poking his head out of the Kushan's back. Even though Rakshas seems to get out of the guy's back pretty violently in the next panel (and in the episode right after), we don't see any details, like organs and bones flying out at full speed. The most that we get out of this is some drops of blood.



Changing the subject, there's elephants crushing Kushan soldiers, but they hide the impact by adding the same blast effect that they used for Rakshas.



But this scene isn't anything new in Berserk: we've already seen the same thing in volume 32, episode 280.


​

Notice how Miura did a way better job in just one page with three panels, while Studio Gaga did worse with double the amount of work.

This difference comes down to the way they handle panelling (a topic that I'll go further into detail in another post) very differently, which is that Miura was a genius, and his former assistants are still very amateurish in that regard. The way I would describe Studio Gaga's panelling is that it looks more like an anime storyboard rather than a manga storyboard: there are many things that could be portrayed with half of the panels that they put on page. Every scene is filled with reaction shots, big and small, and some scene are depicted in a “frame by frame” style. Going back to the elephants, while Miura shows them killing people in just one panel, Studio Gaga has one panel to show the elephants crushing people, and another to show that those people have, indeed, been crushed. I mean, of course that would be the outcome. There's no reason to split the same action in two different moments: it's unnecessary and uninteresting. And the fact that the soldiers are just drawn as silhouettes, hidden by that blast effect, only does a disservice to this moment.

Another thing that bothers me is that there's no blood on the ground, even when the place is full of corpses.
For example, in this panel we see Farnese standing in front of what I guess should be dead people. But since there's no blood and they look intact, it looks more like they're sleeping on the floor.



Here's two other panels, where Rakshas is running away. Same problem as above, even though this time there are dismembered people.



And now we see him reaching Guts' cell. There's a Kushan dead on the stairs, but... how did he die exactly? Was it because of the trolls? And if that's the case, then why didn't the trolls try to kill Guts as well? Looking at how everything went, they certanly would've done a better job than Rakshas.

​

Speaking of Rakshas, it was already mentioned in ep. 378's thread that he didn't kill anyone, but it really can't be stretched enough how much this was disappointing. The fact that they even dared to tease a fight with Silat just to forget about it instantly is just the cherry on top, but the "fight scenes" will also be another topic for the future.

 

[Walter]

Censoring implies that Studio Gaga are covering up portions of the panels because they're sensitive or squeamish over gory content. Instead, I think what you pointed out is the result of them masking or simplifying complicated or difficult to execute on-page action. It's easier this way. So I see it as them operating at the limit of their abilities, not necessarily editorialization.

 

[Vitris]

Censoring implies that Studio Gaga are covering up portions of the panels because they're sensitive or squeamish over gory content. Instead, I think what you pointed out is the result of them masking or simplifying complicated or difficult to execute on-page action. It's easier this way. So I see it as them operating at the limit of their abilities, not necessarily editorialization.

Thanks! Now I changed the term to avoid any misunderstanding.

 

[cijhho123]

The Bad
When I think about studio Gaga's art the first thing that come to mind is the blurry, indistinct panels of the kushan soldiers from the earlier episodes they created.



Although they did got better with more time and experience, the core issue remains: the paneling lacks fluidity, and the action feels static when it should be dynamic. The pages often come across as a collection of loosely connected images rather than a continuous visual narrative. More importantly, they feel weightless. It's as if the panels only capture the broad strokes of a scene, missing the subtle details in expressions, poses, and environments that were synonymous with Miura’s Berserk.

Now, manga by definition is sequence of images, but a good mangaka knows how to orchestrate paneling and composition to guide the reader’s eye, and to make each beat feel like a frame in a film, flowing with rhythm and emotion.

Here's a manga panel (and trust me I just picked at random) from the golden age:
:

Look how alive Guts’ momentum is as he charges toward Silat, and how naturally Silat’s body reacts: you can feel the panic in his transition from offense to defense. Every motion is packed with tension, each line suggesting speed, power, fear.

And another one (which I didn't pick at random at all!) from only a little later in the story:


Each small panel here conveys a specific emotional beat. Guts first kisses Casca’s head in a gentle, almost protective way, like a father comforting a child. Then, little by little, the gesture becomes more romantic and vulnerable, as if he’s allowing himself to feel love through soft, hesitant touches. Casca’s initial hesitation: her brief pause speaks volumes. And when she finally responds to his affection, it feels earned and sincere.

This is Miura sensei using the manga form to its fullest potential: paneling, expression, body language, framing - all working together to carry emotion beyond words.

Now let's compare it to another scene from studio Gaga. To make sure we are comparing apples to apples, I'll go with another emotional and intimate scene, and god knows we don't lack any of them in Guts' depression arc we are currently having.



The whole scene just feels emotionally flat. In the first panel, Guts' body language signal he's tired more than anything, not like someone on the verge of breaking down. Then in the second panel, his expression suddenly shifts into this intense, almost feral look like he’s about to scream. But right after that, it shifts again into quiet sobbing.
There’s no build up, no emotional flow. Instead of a natural unraveling of grief, we get disconnected beats that don’t really add up. It jumps from tired, to explosive, to tearful without any of the subtle transitions.


The Good

Now, Just to be frank about everything, when Studio Gaga do it it well, it is really well made and feels a little more like the real Berserk. For example chapter 372 when we see brainwashed Casca's new routine at Falconia.

This scene is handled with care. The pacing feels steady, and there’s a quiet tension underneath it all. The maids treat Casca with respect and loyalty, but their expressions tell a more complicated story. There’s fear behind their politeness, subtle signs of anxiety, like stiff smiles and uneasy eyes.

You can tell they’ve experienced one of her violent outbursts before, and that tension stays with them. It’s not over-explained, it’s just shown through body language and expressions, which is exactly the kind of visual storytelling that made Berserk so powerful to begin with.

It is obviously not close to Miura's level of care and details, but If Studio Gaga can maintain this level I think I'll be pretty ok with the continuation (art-wise at least).


The Meme
It was a really good meme when the episode came, but regardless this panel is legitimately very good in my opinion, I had to mention it.

 

[BlindBison]

The way they draw Guts in Volume 42 looks all wrong. Sometimes they have some OK panels with Guts but it never exceeds adequate and his face in particular looks horrendous from the color cover to the panels it’s in within the manga volume. Some characters are done a bit better like Griffith, but they should’ve waited for a few months to let the team practice drawing the main character.

Maybe they’ll be able to improve over time, but between Mouri being way less involved than was originally let on (he’s just a reviewer/advisor rather than working at a low level on the project) and the massive quality loss for the panels themselves I am not feeling good about the continuation of this project right now.

In my view if they wanted to focus on quality it would’ve been a good idea to not rush into putting out new volumes/episodes. Instead they should’ve let the team focus on shoring up their weaknesses (eg Guts face looking terrible). Isn’t part of why Mouri’s there to point out when a given panel is subpar/insufficient and make the team do it again? I know Miura is a legend but I believe the team should be capable of better than this.

 

[Aazealh]

Maybe they’ll be able to improve over time

Unfortunately that hasn't really been the case. They've been taking their sweet time since volume 42 came out but the artwork is still inconsistent overall and averages at mediocre as far as I'm concerned. In fact the last two episodes they released have some of their worst artwork to date, especially for Guts.

Isn’t part of why Mouri’s there to point out when a given panel is subpar/insufficient and make the team do it again?

Honestly I wonder whether Mori is even all that involved on that front anymore. He seemed happy to let Kurosaki do his thing in the interviews he's given. I think he's self-conscious about his own skills not being all that great.

 

[Vitris]

The way they draw Guts in Volume 42 looks all wrong. Sometimes they have some OK panels with Guts but it never exceeds adequate and his face in particular looks horrendous from the color cover to the panels it’s in within the manga volume. Some characters are done a bit better like Griffith, but they should’ve waited for a few months to let the team practice drawing the main character.

Maybe they’ll be able to improve over time, but between Mouri being way less involved than was originally let on (he’s just a reviewer/advisor rather than working at a low level on the project) and the massive quality loss for the panels themselves I am not feeling good about the continuation of this project right now.

In my view if they wanted to focus on quality it would’ve been a good idea to not rush into putting out new volumes/episodes. Instead they should’ve let the team focus on shoring up their weaknesses (eg Guts face looking terrible). Isn’t part of why Mouri’s there to point out when a given panel is subpar/insufficient and make the team do it again? I know Miura is a legend but I believe the team should be capable of better than this.

Imo there are 3 problems that will keep Studio Gaga on this level:

1) the assistants change over time, so, unless people stop coming and going, there will always be inconsistencies in every episode;

2) it looks like no editor at all is involved with this project, so whatever they put on page is automatically ok. It's pretty sad and infuriating that we've gone from Miura, whom would redo pages from scratch, add new ones, fix some mistakes, or not have some pages (or a whole episode) published in the tankōbon, to Studio Gaga, the people who forgot to put screentones on Casca and publish episodes of pure nothingness;

3) I noticed that when a character has to do something, they forget how to draw them. I know it sounds hyperbolic, but let's take Puck as an example. They had done a decent job so far, but in the last pages of 382 they messed up his proportions, and his head is almost as big as his torso. And he doesn't convey any emotion. Silat is another peculiar case, since they can't get his likeness at all unless his face is covered.

 

[BlindBison]

... the artwork is still inconsistent overall and averages at mediocre as far as I'm concerned ... especially for Guts.

Honestly I wonder whether Mori is even all that involved on that front anymore. He seemed happy to let Kurosaki do his thing ...

That's tough to hear, Berserk has been up there with my most favorite art alongside the likes of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for years now.

I knew I had to lower my expectations and that at best we could likely expect something enjoyable and workmanlike in quality, but I had hoped based on the earlier Mouri interviews that they could at least work towards a satisfying conclusion with the information Miura left them.

I do actually believe there is a team out there that can do a good enough job with this continuation, but I just don't buy so far that this one is it. In my view if the publisher/managers wanted to put quality first and ensure Berserk's legacy they would apply the handbrake right now and step in to make changes.
#1 -- Even if a team has fewer members, stability and giving them a period (with oversight) to practice is clearly necessary here.
#2 -- There needs to be a more firm hand in terms of outright rejecting panels that do not meet an adequate quality bar. Will it be as good as Vagabond or Berserk? No, and nobody really expects this. But what we're getting for the MAIN CHARACTER is worse at times than even a run of the mill average manga, it's really jarring and has none of the charm or emotion of even Miura's prototype.
#3 -- I think Mouri should be involved at a low-level, not a high-level. He should be on the ground floor writing (and maybe drawing too) with the team seems to me. Based on the other thread covering all that's been said about his involvement and considering the quality bar volume 42 was, his standards are much too lax as a "Reviewer" of the team's work.

Another thing they should do is have the entire team re-read Berserk start to finish and make a list of all the open/lingering major questions. An effort should be made to tie up the most obvious ones at least and not just plow through to a subpar ending.

Something that's really tough for these kinds of continuations seems to me is -- the people out there best equipped to continue Berserk may very well just work on their own art instead. Why wouldn't they? Finding the right people is maybe harder than I think it is, but even with who they got the approach seems wrong top down. I really think the team could do better with the right oversight and a better plan.

the assistants change over time, so, unless people stop coming and going, there will always be inconsistencies in every episode;

... it looks like no editor at all is involved with this project, so whatever they put on page is automatically ok. It's pretty sad and infuriating that we've gone from Miura, whom would redo pages from scratch, add new ones, fix some mistakes, or not have some pages (or a whole episode) published in the tankōbon, to Studio Gaga, the people who forgot to put screentones on Casca and publish episodes of pure nothingness

Grim -- I hear you man. On other forums I'm a bit surprised to see the leniency many fans have with the continuation. We all know it'll never be the same as if Miura lived, but this is just sad and painful to watch at points. "It's better than nothing" -- I mean, is it? I want a continuation too, but only if that continuation is actually good. It's kind of like with the Game of Thrones show. They would've been better off leaving it at Season 4 than the dumpster trainwreck that was 5/6 and then even worse bottom of the barrel 7 and 8.

Anyhow, I'm frustrated because I do think with a better plan/more practice/good strict editors and the like the team could produce stronger results. I sort of wonder if they should've consulted the most dedicated fan forums for details they likely missed (or something like that). The Lord of the Rings films were as good as they were in part because they had a strict expert on staff at all times that had read the books like a hundred times and loved them at a meticulous level. You need that kind of expertise to understand the work and continue it seems to me. When you don't you get things like the Demon's Souls Remake which disregard (due to hubris) or misunderstand the source material and make poor decisions downstream of that. But I'm getting off the subject.

 

[Aazealh]

1) the assistants change over time, so, unless people stop coming and going, there will always be inconsistencies in every episode;

That's not really true. One guy left, two came in, but there are five people still working on the Continuation that were already there for Dur-An-Ki, and out of these five, only Sugimoto was recent. The other four had worked "on Berserk" under Miura for over a decade. I think the real issue is that the work they did then was incomparable to what they're having to do now. It's like asking a NASA janitor to take over control of the International Space Station. Yes, he technically works for NASA. And sure, he'll do his best. But he's no astronaut.

3) I noticed that when a character has to do something, they forget how to draw them.

That's because they don't have references to base themselves on (i.e. the same pose drawn by Miura in a past volume).

That's tough to hear, Berserk has been up there with my most favorite art alongside the likes of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for years now.

I knew I had to lower my expectations and that at best we could likely expect something enjoyable and workmanlike in quality, but I had hoped based on the earlier Mouri interviews that they could at least work towards a satisfying conclusion with the information Miura left them.

You're not alone, I think a lot of fans feel like they were taken for fools. I know I do, even though I was worried about the project from the start. At the end of the day, the simple truth is that you can't do Berserk without Miura.

I do actually believe there is a team out there that can do a good enough job with this continuation, but I just don't buy so far that this one is it. In my view if the publisher/managers wanted to put quality first and ensure Berserk's legacy they would apply the handbrake right now and step in to make changes.

This is an art-focused thread so I'm not going to go on at length about this but the real issue is that they have no idea what to do with the story. The art could be on the level of the finest Renaissance paintings and it still would completely miss the mark in the way that matters most. This is what Mori was supposed to bring to the table, first and foremost. And he's spectacularly failed to do so.

 

[Vitris]

Episode 381 analysis, pt. 1

I decided to try a page-by-page approach, so this analysis (and most likely the next ones) will be split in two parts because I don't wanna bore you to death (even though it wll probably happen with just this part).
The first page is already a mess. First of all, why are the Kushans reacting to the sky clearing up as if it's a supernatural event? No, wait, they're actually inside the palace. Is there something wrong with the ceiling? They weren't surprised even in the slightest when the tornado and pseudo-trolls appeared in the first few moments, but this somehow seems to outright scare them.
The composition (not the paneling) is just bad. This is how we're supposed to read this page.
​

As you can see, our eyes have to move in a very convoluted way throughout these panels to understand what's going on (which is not much to begin with). The fact Farnese covers the first two panels just shows you that very little thought is put into how a page looks at a first sight. There's also no reason for them to show Farnese three times in the same page when she's doing absolutely nothing except changing her expression. And her face at the bottom right is horrendous: it's as if they just slapped it from a different page because they did'nt want to erase it, and the white outline makes it stick out like a sore thumb. They needlessly complicated a very simple sequence. Thing is, they had already done this kind of compostition in the past, and it worked, so it feels even weirder seeing this.

Page 2 starts with someone talking to Roderick, Farnese and Serpico, but in typical Continuation style we don't know who's talking.
Sure, he might be an unimportant character, but the reader should be aware of what's exactly happening in every panel. Just showing a leg and expecting the reader not to ask any question and be satisfied is disrespectful.

As it was already pointed out in the episode's thread, one of the Kushan leaders has Guts' knives stuck in his face. And, surprise surprise, it's this guy!​

But... this makes Rakshas' appearence in 377 and 378 even more confusing. He tore the dude's back apart and threw those knives to kill the leader, but he later says that he had no idea of where he was. Soooo why did Rakshas kill him? Oh, right, something has to happen.
So, Rakshas uses the same knives as Guts? Is that why he was after him? “Only I can use them, you thief!” Looking at this reminded me of ep. 374, when one of the Kushans pulled out a chain identical to the Beast of Darkness' and caused a lot of confusion. Maybe this too is a reference to FromSoftware, since they're known for recycling assets.

The third panel looks strange, mainly because the people on the background seem to be chatting as if nothing bad happened.



I don't have much to say for page 3, only that, yes, those faces are horrible, and that Farnese's reaction shot is just filler.

Now onto page 4 and...


Well, Roderick's eyes in this panel are just not aligned correctly (that's a recurring problem throughout the whole episode). Even the mouth, though barely visible, makes his face all croocked. His nose is also shorter compared to the one on the previous panel. It's also not clear what exactly his expression is supposed to convey. He looks serious, that's all. Farnese's shot looks nice.

Page 5 opens with Studio Gaga's trademark filler shot: feet. The second panel is just useless, and the one with Silat should've taken more space to avoid drawing more stuff.
The panel with the “monks” is not half bad, and for once they've put the speechbubbles in a way that guides you to the smaller panel with Roderick & Co. Some actual thought was put into this.



And now we have page 6. And it's horrible. Where should I even begin? Is Tsug simply walking worthy of a semi-splash page? It probably is according to SG since we haven't seen Tsug do anything for almost three years, so him doing something that any human being with functional legs can do is, by their logic, quite something. His head hiding his nose on the top panel looks like shit, but the worst thing is that Tsug goes outside of the panel for no reason. It wouldn't be hard to recognize him if he was just shown amidst the others, so their choice makes no sense. They could've just switched the two panels, and it would've made more sense: first you show the character, then you focus on the eyes.
As for the pose, they probably used this panel from volume 24 as a reference, but they made his walk look incredibly awkward, so now it looks like he's falling.


Also, who walks around with their hands looking like that? And really, what's up with that chain? Why is it still there? The bleeding on his wrist is one of those details they often forget about; sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Just look at ep.380.

Page 7 shows us SG's frame by frame style, where we have three panels of Daiba walking, lifting his hand for no reason (I don't think they're implying anything with this geture, it's random filler) and standing in front of Tsug.


It's worth noting that they stopped drawing the tiles halfway, maybe because they don't follow the same perspective as everything else and didn't care to fix this mistake.

There isn't much to say about page 8, except that the fourth panel is very strange.


Instead of drawing only Silat or him and Roderick, they did both, and the result is that it looks like two panels glued together.

Now onto page 9, and the second panel is a mess.


Here's Miura doing the same thing in ep. 356.

The two figures are separated, and the screentone around Sonia's eyes makes it clear that her power is involved. Now, for ep. 381 I wouldn't know how to interpret this scene if it wasn't for the panel right above. Tsug and Farnese being basically fused together like this is an eyesore, because our eyes can't focus on one of them at the time.
Maybe they used that panel from vol. 40 as a reference, but I don't understand how they'd look at it and miss the point so bad.

The third panel is especially awkward, because Farnese, the only character that has a reaction to Tsug not answering her, is relegated to the background while evryone else just stands still.


One of the few times where a character's reaction should actually be the panel's focus, it's not.

Page 10 has most of the same problems as the first page.
They should've moved Isidro's foot on the previous page, and then have a long vertical panel with the full body shot to leave more room for everything else (possibly other vertical panels).
They also put a panel infront of Isidro, which ultimetly defeates the purpose of a composition like this (making a character pop out of the page), so now he's sandwiched between the “background” and the “foreground”.​