Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I was looking through an old interview with Miura from 2000, the famous one where he suggests that Berserk won't have a grimdark ending after all, and his wording slightly concerned me. He admits that he had the final moves of the story worked out a while before then (possibly the rough outline him and Mori went over in the run up to the eclipse), but that he'd prefer to leave the specifics of the ending to his subconscious and essentially improvise as he goes along. I know that Mori has claimed that what they discussed then is more or less how the story played out, and that he's heard the ending dozens of times, but he's also proven to be seriously unreliable to put it mildly. Should we be concerned that the few kernels of Miura that survive in the continuation don't even reflect where he was actually planning on taking the story before he died?
Does Mori even know the ending Miura had settled on?
- Thread starter Ithier
- Start date
Short answer: yes, we should be worried.
Two recent threads that may be of interest to you:
Thanks Aazealh. Based on those interviews, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a game of telephone going on at Studio Gaga which only compounds the problem of Mori knowing less than he let on.
I'm not unsympathetic to him but I find his entire approach really distasteful. All of this spectacle about being the only one who knows the ending and about how this is helping him cope with his grief and what is he actually doing? He's just double checking whatever Miura's assistants throw together using his half remembered scraps. It wouldn't be nearly so painful if they could manage releases with any regularity though. I just want this charade to be over with.
Goat
Foolish king
My gut feeling (which seems to be confirmed by the actual execution) is that Mori knows one plausible ending discussed and outlined a ton of time ago with Miura, but he knows almost nothing about the in-between steps, and this mediocre execution of the voyage-towards-the-end is what we get as a result.
But anyway, in an opera like Berserk, I think putting all the focus on the ending is somehow wrong and a partial vision of the overall work and themes. Ignoring for a moment that those things change, change all the time (the ending discussed in - for example - 2002 could not be the ending that Miura had in mind in 2008, or in 2014) execution is everything, and considering Berserk's themes, characters, whatnot... the "how" is way more important than the "what". And we've lost that "how".
But anyway, in an opera like Berserk, I think putting all the focus on the ending is somehow wrong and a partial vision of the overall work and themes. Ignoring for a moment that those things change, change all the time (the ending discussed in - for example - 2002 could not be the ending that Miura had in mind in 2008, or in 2014) execution is everything, and considering Berserk's themes, characters, whatnot... the "how" is way more important than the "what". And we've lost that "how".
Last edited:
I would compare it to Game of Thrones.
GRRM shared his broad idea of how the series would end with the producers of the show, but since he hadn't actually written it yet, there weren't those details and all of it could have changed by the time he got there.
Much of storytelling isn't in the plot points but how you write to them, and we can see in Game of Thrones, the show runners didn't write to those points very well and and so they didn't land. GRRM's novels may do a better job while still following that framework, or he might rethink them once they get there. Probably a mix of both.
Mori probably does know the pillars of the story Miura was intending when he laid out the story, and truly that's probably all there is to know since he didn't get to write the details yet. But how you write to those pillars is where the storytelling lies, and we'll never get a "true" version of that without Miura.
Still better than nothing though, and I think they are improving as they go along. If this endeavor really takes 10 years maybe they will mature enough that we get something satisfying by the end.
GRRM shared his broad idea of how the series would end with the producers of the show, but since he hadn't actually written it yet, there weren't those details and all of it could have changed by the time he got there.
Much of storytelling isn't in the plot points but how you write to them, and we can see in Game of Thrones, the show runners didn't write to those points very well and and so they didn't land. GRRM's novels may do a better job while still following that framework, or he might rethink them once they get there. Probably a mix of both.
Mori probably does know the pillars of the story Miura was intending when he laid out the story, and truly that's probably all there is to know since he didn't get to write the details yet. But how you write to those pillars is where the storytelling lies, and we'll never get a "true" version of that without Miura.
Still better than nothing though, and I think they are improving as they go along. If this endeavor really takes 10 years maybe they will mature enough that we get something satisfying by the end.
It's the obsession surrounding the ending that is keeping the continuation alive. Most people only care about that, not the "how did we get here". And even when Mori and SG had more details about the "how", they just threw them out the window. Now it seems like they don't have that many details anymore, and are grasping at straws to continue the project. I don't think that these longer hiatuses are happening because they're taking their time, I honestly think that they're struggling more now than ever.
If Aazealh's correct about the Bakiraka hideout being swapped for the Kushan capital then I am extremely pessimistic. Either this was the portion they were scrambling to plug the gaps in or Mori's general knowledge is shockingly low and the worst is yet to come. I'm dreading the inevitable reunion between Guts and Casca where they just have a loving handshake or something.
Your concerns are valid and reasonable.After all, they will never let you down in terms of disappointing you.
At the rate they are going, Mori is going to die before it's finished.
This is why I feel it would be much better if they released all the things he remembered about the ending and all Miura's ideas into notes, instead of making a manga Continuation.
Then maybe release it as a book with illustrations paying homage to Miura's legacy - I would buy it without regrets.
Had Mori continued with his summary, we would've had everything we wanted by now. We woud’ve speculated how Miura would depict some scenes, fill in the gaps ouselves, to keep everything interesting and coherent.
But I have to say that with the recent lack of content, and the longer hiatuses, more people are feeling dissatisfied and are changing their minds, even on X of all places.
I know of fans of One Piece and Hunter x Hunter that are already accepting the fact that they'll never see the ending of their favorite mangas
Ending an epic, complex story in a proper way can be really challenging
I just hope we don't receive something similar to what happened with Game of Thrones
For HxH it's fair for fans to not expect an ending at this point, I mean I'm one of them.
But for One Piece it's another story. It's always been a joke that OP will just keep going forever, but with the insane things that have been happening lately, it's very clear that we're in the final saga. And only a couple years away from the end.
Now whether or not that ending is going to be satisfactory is another thing.
Maybe he saw what happened with Berserk and got afraid? Haha
With Berserk it's sad we are getting things made up to connect to some facts that are supposedly known from the ending, at the same time we get massive hiatuses
I wonder if they are using all this time to create the storyline and the art or if they are just arguing a lot to decide what path to take
I feel the same way, but don’t hold too high expectations for this trend now.
My expectations are as low as possible at this point
I guess the equivalent of what happened to GOT in our case would be something like Void or Skull Knight "dying" without us having explanations of their backstories and a crazy and non-sense plot twist near the end
I think getting any backstory is unlikely at this point.
I'm more curious about the backstory on Void/Skull Knight than the outcome of Guts/Grffith
If we don't get anything on that, I don't know what's even the point of the Continuation, but again, I wouldn't be surprised if that's really what we'll get
You'd be hard pressed to find many fans saying they're satisfied with what we know of SK and Void's backstory. The flashback in episode 362 was awesome but very limited.
I think about what exactly happened 1000 years ago literally everyday, I mean, even creating an account here was to discuss about that
I'm kinda obsessed to figure out the origins of the God Hand, how Gaiseric's city vanished, Void's goal, details of what happened when "the angel" came to rescue the tortured Sage, what was the taboo they mentioned
Everything we witnessed so far was because of those things, it would make no sense to end the story with just Guts killing Griffith and that's it. If they do that, it would be Game of Thrones disappointment level for me
I had expected the Continuation to talk about SK's past, but it turned out like this.
It's clear at this point that the dialogues will be as poor as possible because they don't wanna risk doing anything Miura wouldn't
But at the same time, they made a lot of fanfiction to glue the story to what they know about the ending
I hope the lack of meaningful dialogues will not totally ruin the ending and left us feeling that it was just some random meaningless stuff
I was also hoping for the series to end as soon as possible, so the community can "separate" what is original and what isn't (i can clearly see some fans making an animated series adding/changing things from the Continuation after it ends)
At the same time, now i'm just waiting for:
- Charlotte totally in shock after she discovers the truth about Griffith
- The reasons Void is doing all of this. I hope there is another goal other than just wanting to control everything. And the conclusion of his story with Skull Knight
- Skull Knight's full backstory. Explain in details the things that happened 1000 years ago. We need a better flashback. Sadly, i'm not optimistic about that
- The outcome of Griffith/Moonlight Boy X Guts, what the hell will happen here and how will Casca react to this
- A nice conclusion to Farnese. I feel like she deserved to end up with Guts more than Casca, but since this will never happen, I hope she doesn't just die in the war
But at the same time, they made a lot of fanfiction to glue the story to what they know about the ending
I hope the lack of meaningful dialogues will not totally ruin the ending and left us feeling that it was just some random meaningless stuff
I was also hoping for the series to end as soon as possible, so the community can "separate" what is original and what isn't (i can clearly see some fans making an animated series adding/changing things from the Continuation after it ends)
At the same time, now i'm just waiting for:
- Charlotte totally in shock after she discovers the truth about Griffith
- The reasons Void is doing all of this. I hope there is another goal other than just wanting to control everything. And the conclusion of his story with Skull Knight
- Skull Knight's full backstory. Explain in details the things that happened 1000 years ago. We need a better flashback. Sadly, i'm not optimistic about that
- The outcome of Griffith/Moonlight Boy X Guts, what the hell will happen here and how will Casca react to this
- A nice conclusion to Farnese. I feel like she deserved to end up with Guts more than Casca, but since this will never happen, I hope she doesn't just die in the war
Last edited: