I saw that interview yesterday, and I have to say it was not a pleasant read.
As time has passed and Mori has done more and more of them, it's become hard to shake the feeling that he's not very reliable. Even beyond his involvement with the Continuation, it often feels to me that he's self-aggrandizing and recounting events imprecisely, yet in a way that feels voyeuristic. He also makes assertions that seem to come down to his opinion. It's almost like he's still trying to compete with his deceased friend instead of upholding his memory. I guess part of that might be rooted in a desire to establish his legitimacy as the figurehead of the Continuation, but it's unseemly.
Anyway, what I found notable about the project:
- Mori emphasizes that taking part in the Continuation was necessary for him to overcome his grief and be able to draw his own manga again. Says he's doing it for himself as much as for Miura.
Sounds touching, but it also casts a a new light on his motivations. What was best for him isn't necessarily what was best for the series.
- Mori's got an idea of how long it'll take to complete the project, and how many volumes it'll be.
This is similar to what he had said
in a previous interview, that "it wouldn't take 10 years". But given how they've slowed the story to a crawl recently, this means little in my opinion. I wish he'd either give concrete numbers or stop talking about it.
- Mori admits that with only what he knows, the story doesn't make sense. So the people involved in the project (I'm guessing him, the editor and Kurosaki) speculate together to "strengthen" the "original work".
This won't surprise anyone who's read my posts on each episode. It's plain to see that they're making things up and minsinterpreting a bunch of stuff. It's good of Mori to admit it, even though I doubt he'd be willing to reveal just to what extent they're doing it. But it's clear at this point that his original promise when the project started is moot (
"I will only write the episodes that Miura talked to me about. I will not flesh it out. I will not write episodes that I don’t remember clearly. I will only write the lines and stories that Miura described to me.").
- Mori says it's "hard to fill the void left by Miura".
The understatement of the millennium.
- Mori says that he could never create or draw Berserk with what abilities he has, and then specifies that "[Creating] SF is a special skill".
As if the fantasy setting was the problem. Talk about being deluded. Maybe he was misquoted?
- Regarding the final part of the story, "there are still many difficult questions to solve, and there are things on which Miura had not yet made up his mind." Mori says he's racking his brain every day trying to figure out whether to include them or not and how to connect them to the current part of the story they're discussing.
So much for "knowing everything up to the end". This is again just a confirmation of what we already knew from all the inconsistencies. I appreciate his honesty on the matter, but it really makes me wonder why this project was greenlit. He should have stuck to his original idea and done an illustrated summary.
