Episodes 365 & 366

I won't reveal much, but as someone who was skeptical regarding a continuation and this project, i can genuenly say that im not only positively surprised, but also excited for the future. I still haven't seen the full episode so i lack context for how the story is handled, but art wise i think this is as good as we could get.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Agreed, I've seen approximately half of 365 (why would I show restraint at this point? =) and the artwork, while certainly in the style of Berserk, is different and varied in a good way. Like, I want it to stay true to Miura's vision while being distinct and clear it's not him if that makes sense. I don't want it to be an imitation but it's own thing. I imagine it's going to become moreso as we venture further and further out from where Miura stopped and they took the reins.

So far I find the differences intriguing and could geek out on it panel for panel once it's out (more stylized elements, more photorealistic elements like a textbook, techniques traditionally common to manga but not so much Berserk before, etc), plus there's a human drama here where I'm rooting for these guys not just because I selfishly want more good Berserk content but because I'm grateful for all their efforts past, present and now into the future.
 
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Beelzebud

[...] Into the abyss will I run [...]
We have a confirmation that will be two episodes (365 and 366) or it will be just 365 with double the quantity of pages?
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Wow, it looks great actually, much better than the leaks do justice unsurprisingly, and, well... HOLY SHIT!! :isidro: :judo: This is indeed a miracle.

Storytelling was great as well, I kind of feared it would simplify or dumb things down, but the opening with Puck and how Griffith's presence disrupts everything ending with his eye was awesome. It was interesting to see Griffith apparently phasing in and out of existence (I mean, he just revealed a new power, but now every new thing will be treated with an extra layer of scrutiny =), and similarly a lot of the artwork looked like Miura was still somewhat involved (these episodes had a lot of his DNA, whether that's proximity or Mori and Studio Gaga being that in tune with him). I guess we'll see as it goes and how the dialogue hits, but for now "credit Miura" will be the new "blame the assistants" where anything that looks too good can be attributed to THE MASTER. :ganishka: I kid, but a lot of those panels still clearly have his "signature" on them, just as other's are clearly someone else's.

Anyway, I'm blown away, what a way to start, though it's maybe the only situation where Guts vs. Zodd III is arguably a downgrade. Maybe Skully will balance out the fight card. =)
 
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Yeah, the art is a bit inconsistent but none of it is bad by any means. I take back what I said earlier about Griffith not looking right, some of the other panels with him are excellent. It's interesting to see Berserk through what is clearly a more contemporary manga-development lens, just in the way characters are drawn. Schierke especially sticks out to me in that regard. I really, really love that chaotic page of discordant panels showing the quick lines and impacts of Guts' swings as he tries to hit Griffith again and again to no avail. That's some superb visual storytelling.

It is unfortunate that Griffith is displaying this ability to phase through Guts' attacks for the first time in this first episode without Miura. I feel like that may be met with some skepticisms since we never saw him do it before. There go everyone's "Guts decapitates Griffith the end" fantasies now I guess, ha ha.
 
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Studio Gaga is doing a very good job art-wise so far, it largely mimics Miura's most recent art style of his last volume or two practically seamlessly (like if I put the art of these episodes side-by-side with Miura's art of the last couple of volumes and showed them to a random person on the street they probably would assume it was all done by the same person), but I think most long-time readers can just barely tell it's not Miura himself.
I am very curious to see if Casca seeing Griffith may or may not have affected her current condition (after she regains consciousness). Will she now clearly and consciously be able to recollect the events of the Eclipse and/or better recollect her time as "Elaine"? Will it have improved or worsened her ability to see/directly interact with Guts (or not changed at all)? I am actually a little more eager/anxious to see the consequences of those plot-lines, than the potential of Guts and Zod's "Round 3" happening.
 
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Yes, that's what I mean. You can't seriously believe people can't tell the difference. It's plain to see in almost all panels, and I'm not even getting into the storyboarding.
No, that's not what I meant by "long-time readers can just barely tell it's not Miura himself", I meant that in that I do think most people (at least those who have read Berserk) can and will be able to tell the difference (since our eyes are primed to notice any differences) when reading with a moderately attentive eye.

But if I showed some pages from these episodes and some pages from last volume or two, to say my parents, who have never read Berserk, I don't think they would be able to tell the difference, unless I (or another Berserk reader) was guiding and coaching them.
 
Yeah Theo, I know YMMV on this a bit, but very few panels of this really look like Miura's art to me. It's obviously similar, but the way faces are drawn, how lines are used, paneling, etc. It's all very different imo. For lack of a better term, it feels less "dense".
Zodd especially suffers from that. And nobody's face looks quite right, but especially Schierke's imo.
That's not to say it looks bad, far from it, but the difference is obvious to me. I'm honestly okay with Studio Gaga's Berserk having its own look, I look forward to seeing them all refine their skills as they go.

EDIT: Oh okay lol. you posted right when I did.
 
Some thoughts about the release

Regarding Guts' and Griffiths encounter, i personally am not surprised by the lack of dialogue. In fact i would say it makes sense that the first thing Guts does is directly charge at Griffith, given what he has seen just an episode ago. I like the detail of Griffith blinking away his tear and going back into his stoic mode.

The one detail i think that is relevant amidst the disability of damaging Griffith with the Dragon Slayer, is the fact that Guts only manages to cut off one single strand of hair. It's the first time since the eclipse that he had a chance to hit him, and all it does is literally that, so him being frustrated and shocked about it is a reasonable reaction imo.

I also enjoyed how the inhabitants start to sense Femtos presence.

When Farnese and Schierke view Griffiths astral body, the one detail that sticks out to me is how his hair is drawn. There are black strands of hair, most likely indicating the presence of the Moonlight Boy within their shared existence. His astral body also seems to be somewhat mixed, not just plain white, but also wear a shadow of him as Femto.

Lastly i think we all awaited Zodd to arrive, but Puck being the one to notice him breaching the world tree is what i liked the most.

The couple questions i have now. Why didn't Guts go full on Berserk in regards to the armor? And how did Zodd arrive?

The natural deduction would be that Sonia would be right behind him, as it is stated in 357 that only she and Griffith can navigate through the branches of the world tree. It would also conclude the prophecy of her meeting Schierke in a moonlit forrest.

Overall im much more positive than others. The art and visual storytelling is not perfect, but i think the essence and gimmicks are there.

Excited to see where it will go the next 4 episodes.
 
No, that's not what I meant by "long-time readers can just barely tell it's not Miura himself", I meant that in that I do think most people (at least those who have read Berserk) can and will be able to tell the difference (since our eyes are primed to notice any differences) when reading with a moderately attentive eye.

But if I showed some pages from these episodes and some pages from last volume or two, to say my parents, who have never read Berserk, I don't think they would be able to tell the difference, unless I (or another Berserk reader) was guiding and coaching them.
I will play devils advocate here and agree. I understand what you're getting at. The mass feed of social media I have seen backs it up as well. Obviously we know the art is different, but that is not gonna pass the smell test on the average reader. The most obvious change so far is the first dip into digital.
 

NightCrawler

Aeons gone, vast, mad and deathless
Wow, it looks great actually, much better than the leaks do justice unsurprisingly, and, well... HOLY SHIT!! :isidro: :judo: This is indeed a miracle.
I agree, this is indeed far better than I would've imagine. Even though it's clearly a downgrade, it's probably the best imitation possible of Miura's art style. I'd go as far as to say I prefer Griffith's face (and Casca's to a lesser degree) better than Miura's "moe" change in later volumes.
 

Truder

"I frown at Griffith's nipples" -Aazealh
I wonder how Griffiths "phasing" works. I assumed he momentarily would go to a deeper layer of the astral realm so physical weapons cannot reach him. but I thought that Dragon Slayer was being set up to be the one weapon that can damage a God Hand but it seems it cant harm Femto still. unless its a unique power to him? sort of like How Void can distort Space. i wonder how it works mechanically

The art is ok, like Odysseus says it doesnt feel as dense. They give up on certain panels. the most obvious one being the full shot of Zodd with his lower half not drawn. Im not expecting perfection, not even close. This is ok. the paneling is also strange at times and AWKWARD sometimes too. actually thats my best way to describe how i feel about the new episodes, they feel awkward. like when a child puts on adult shoes. throughout my 1st read i wondered how Miura would have done it. I know he would have impressed us with some interesting shots. We certainly can nitpick it to death, at a glance it looks fine and sometimes noticeably GOOD. I wish we would get another Zodd Flash back episode to explain THIS situation. im still looking forward to the next episode, im enjoying the core story
 
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DANGERDOOOOM

Rest In Peace, Kentaro Miura. We will miss you.
Pre-ordered my digital copy! Can't wait!!!!

I did check out the spoilers. Amazed how they have mimicked Miura's artwork. It will only get better with time.

I just hope the story telling is not too rushed and fits just right.
 
Maybe a strange thing to be thinking about, but I wonder if chestnut puck will be retired? Not saying this because I want him gone, it's just that chestnut puck was almost Miura's personal inlet into the story to make weird references and silly jokes. It's kind of like a little piece of himself he put in there. This episode didn't feature him, but then again this is a very serious situation.
 

Truder

"I frown at Griffith's nipples" -Aazealh
Maybe a strange thing to be thinking about, but I wonder if chestnut puck will be retired? Not saying this because I want him gone, it's just that chestnut puck was almost Miura's personal inlet into the story to make weird references and silly jokes. It's kind of like a little piece of himself he put in there. This episode didn't feature him, but then again this is a very serious situation.
I feel that away about characters inner thoughts in Berserk. I feel that Miura would ask himself "what would Serpico think in this situation" (or whatever "side" character) and that is another thing that will just disappear
 

guuuuuuuuts

Excited for the next chapter!
Giving my raw thoughts here, so do understand that I'm not reading the thoughts of anyone else and might well overlap with them...

I will attempt to give equal good and bad...

-- Establishing and Closing panels --
Zodd's appearance looks great in comparison to most other moments in the episode. His landing is clear, because it draws Gut's focus downwards towards the ground and obscures his face, allowing us to instead focus on this cape and the wind whipping around him. It is very visually clear of what is happening. For me thought, this and the puck opening panel are also high points. The establishment points are strong compared to what else we see. Which raises a specific question:

If we waited X months, would it be stronger and more cohesive? Miura-sensei seemed to think so based on history. ...If that is the case, I am more than willing to wait for a more polished release at 4 or even 6+ more months per episode.

-- Panels --
The panel layoutss confuse me. Not always, to be clear, but certain section confuse me....

Casca's necklace... is that a necklace? Is it a bug? Or an insect of some kind? I had to look at the previous panels to understand what I was seeing. I did not make the inference that "this is a necklace" and I also had trouble with "Griffith broke this" or "Casca's broken heart broke this".

Outlines... when Guts is enraged I am drawn to the outline of his nose. My understanding is that the recent Berserk exhibition allows participants to see the process within each panel, because they can see underlying outlines which lead up to the final product. However, I find myself drawn to outlines as the primary artwork. It reminds me a bit of Tintin, where the outline of the character is entirely two dimensional. Obviously, it can still look good... but we are missing all of the superflous details sweat, hatching, depth, shading/lighting, flowers and insects in front of the character) Miura would often inject into each moment to make them feel more three dimensional. Of course it is not strictly required, but I recommend looking back at 364 and particularly the moments of Guts playing with his son. Notice how the movements of Guts convey not only a look, but feelings of motion, sound effects, exertion, stillness, focus, and response to whatever came before in a very subtle and gentle way towards his son. He is "just looking" at someone, because there is also emotional and contextual resonance.

-- Storyboarding --
This is a particularly difficult sequence, because I personally feel that any level of dialogue would elevate this encounter beyond the visual. I think of a previous moment between Guts and Griffith in an earlier encounter, perhaps on the hill of swords, where Griffith simply said "You are beneath my notice" and Guts was drive to total insanity. The progress there makes complete sense.

-- Theatre --
I have a strong background in theatre, so I'm going to touch on it here... in physical theatre there is an understanding of the navigation brain of a performer. The navigation brain is the learned understanding that the point of your scene is to enter, cross stage, and exit through a door. The main note here is that no audience should ever be able to see your navigation brain, because they are there to live that moment and enjoy your show. You must instead play with their expectations and still leave them interested & curious when the final exit through that door inevitably occurs. The crew of this comic are not quite hiding their navigation brain here, so I do hope they will express their intentions more elaborately in future episodes. There is a lot to consider and they have had a full year to sort it out... it improvement means waiting a full year between each episode I am okay with waiting. No need to rush in my opinion.

-- Dialogue --
Dialogue is critical. I do wonder how this will play out in future chapters... the absence is noticeable so far. Perhaps these two chapters were meant to be silent, but it doesn't feel that way right now. I am still hopefully, but I do wonder why all of this was not simply treated as Chapter 365. For me, a singular silent chapter would have made more sense. Time will tell.
 
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