New interview with Mori about Miura, Berserk and more
- Thread starter Vitris
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guuuuuuuuts
Excited for the next chapter!
I doubt it, because most people will accept the manga as-is. Only fan sites places like Skullknight will most actively question it, which is fine.
I may be wrong, but my gut feeling tells me that they're simply doing it for the money.
Miura had long ago said that he'd based these characters on his group of friends (and that Pippin's face was inspired from his own). That being said, if you think about it, these were Japanese teenagers. There's no way their faces actually look like those of Judo, Rickert and Corcas. So in this case I think Mori's talking more about his facial expressions.It must have been really weird drawing the slaugther of people you personally know in real life, especially when even the faces match
What I found funny is that Mori said the one who inspired Corcas complained he's not like that, to which Miura and Mori laughed because "he absolutely was".
guuuuuuuuts
Excited for the next chapter!
Hmm, I pulled a panel into photoshop and appear to have discovered the underlayer they used for reference when sketching up 375.
For the record, I don't think this is the case. I think Mori and Studio Gaga are both doing the continuation from a misguided sense of honoring Miura's legacy. They've concluded that this is the best way to do that. And while I don't agree with their conclusion, their earnestness seems plain.
Now, in the process of continuing Berserk, does it help their careers? Sure it does. Particularly for those in Studio Gaga, whose alternative was finding other roles elsewhere in the manga world. But I just can't imagine that money is the driving force.
TheItCrOw
Knight without Title
Sorry Walter, but if Mori and Studio Gaga are continuing Berserk in order to Honour Miura, they should make sure that the continuation is lore accurate and not the joke that Berserk is right now. Sometimes, it look like they didn't even bother to read the source materials. Or if they did it, they did it like the average Manga Scan reader.
For me, Mori is doing it in order to make more visible his own work (speculation). Studio Gaga to keep their job ( speculation), and the editor for money ( not speculation)
To belive that this people loved so much Miura work to want to honor his legacy and they are not even able to read carefully the last 10 episode miura did in order to get this continuation working is like to belive that Santa is real.
O...kay? Do you want me to tell them that, or something?
You're certainly entitled to a more cynical perspective. As I already said—working on Berserk will help their careers, period. But I think it's more than just that. I think they are doing their best. It's just clearly not enough for the attempt they're making. The root of the problem is that they were so intoxicated by how well 364 went (when they finished Miura's mostly-complete episode), that they fooled themselves into believing they could finish the series just like that one episode. Because of that decision, their good intentions have resulted in an ongoing mess.
BTW, I don't think there is an "editor" for this project currently. I could be wrong. Normally I would check the back of Vol 42 for the currently listed staff, but I didn't buy it. But if you meant "publisher," well... I have fewer scruples about criticizing Hakusensha's intentions. I think this is a dangerous, shortsighted gamble for the Berserk brand, and it's one without much precedent.
I'm not trying to ameliorate the problems, but Mori would likely rationalize them as: "Yeah it's not perfect but we had to change things to make it work."
I imagine they are so focused on hitting particular story milestones that they don't really sweat the details of how they get to each—hence the many jolting bumps in the journey.
guuuuuuuuts
Excited for the next chapter!
In the end this could be just as true as their wanting to work on Berserk for heartfelt reasons. It isn't either/or.
Mori did state in an earlier interview posted that he is not reviewing the actual details, which shows. I've stated this before, but he is actually really excellent on his other work. What I do not agree with is his statement that he could not write Berserk, because the fact is that he chooses to not write/edit/overview it at even the level he has approached his other material. Of course there is grief involved. Anyone good enough to panel, draw and write at a perfectly logical and clear pace [attached] could certainly do a stronger job with Berserk's continuation. Unfortunate.
"Continue" as opposed to "Continue through total commitment and focus".
Attachments
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I just checked my copy (that came with the bust!)
Original story:
Kentarou Miura
Story & art:
Studio GAGA
Staff:
Kurosaki
Akio Miyaji
Nobuhiro Hirai
Naohide Nagashima
Hideaki Sugimoto
Shunki Fujimoto
Takumi Yamamoto
With:
Kouji Mori
If you have connection at Hakusensha why not.... and while you are at it, if you could whip the entire stuff and make sure they read all of berserk carefully before they make another episode will be great.
Like a stated before on this forum, the staff of Studio Gaga are the people that I blame less for the way this continuation is handled. I do not doubt their good intentions. They did complete episode 364 to honour Miura, and in doing so they did an amazing job. But I think that that episode was used by the publisher(yes not the editor.... sorry for the mistake) to legitimate the continuation as it ended with one of the biggest cliffhanger in Berserk history and left fans craving for more.
Mori isn't a credible person, as every time he release a statement he change his mind and direct every issue that fans have with this continuation on Studio Gaga while trying to look like the messiah, that brought Berserk back to life
I understand that to make this continuation work some change are required.... but some thing that they changed make no sense... Like the way the Berserker armor work or the latest kushan situation, it seems that if they did read Berserk they didn't understood what they were reading.
I think it's important to keep the context in mind here: whenever Mori says this, it's to insist that he's not adding any of his own ideas to the story and it's all from Miura. The problem is that, as he admitted in this interview, they do actually collectively decide on what events to depict (and how to depict them) because they don't know enough and don't understand a number of the things they do know.
These statements directly contradict each other. The truth is that regardless of Mori's self-professed good intentions, it is simply not possible to stick to "just what Miura said" when continuing the manga directly in the manner they chose to pursue. But fundamentally he's right: none of them can write or draw Berserk in the way that would befit it, and that's because it was Miura's lifework and Miura was a genius.
Mori may be unreliable, but there's one thing he keeps repeating in the exact same way: the staff asked him to let them continue the manga, and when he saw how they had finished episode 364, he became convinced it would be possible for them to do it. I understand the temptation to blame faceless executives, but this project wouldn't have existed if Mori hadn't been on board. It wouldn't have existed if the assistants hadn't been on board. They are the ones who promote it and whose names are on it. So if you want to place blame, place it accordingly.
As for Hakusensha, they enabled the project of course, and they stand to gain from it. But that decision most likely fell to Akira Shimada, who had a long relationship to both Miura and Berserk itself as its original editor. It'd be bold to assume that he cares less about the series than Mori or Kurosaki.
Which begs the question: how is the continuation come as so unfaithful the the original? Its not only on a shallow level of not fully understanding the nuance of each character, but on large scales like how the mechanics of the universe work with magic or what are the characters's core motifs.
Like, the fact some fans can understand Berserk and its cast better than the actual people who work on the manga is plain bizarre to me.
Like, the fact some fans can understand Berserk and its cast better than the actual people who work on the manga is plain bizarre to me.
Like I said it isn't that I don't blame Studio Gaga, I simply blame them less that Mori and the publisher, as for what I can see, it look like they barely read the source material or if they did they didn't understand what they were reading.
When they decide the continue Berserk I wrongly assumed that they had found in Miura studio enough info and notes to be able to continue Berserk in a proper way.
But it turned out that Miura was even more a genius that I tought as apparently was writing Berserk as he was illustrating it.
Is even true that we don't know from what Mori stated if he saw episode 364 before it was completed by Studio Gaga or if he tought that it was almost all their doing.
But by his initial statement I had the impression that he was going to supervision the project even if now this doesn't seem the case.
About the publisher you are right... I can't presume that he didn't care, but I speculate that the decision of continuing with the regular numbering of the episode was their choice, and If only they would have separate Miura's Berserk from Mori and Gaga continuation us fans would have cut them some slack.... but that ship it sealed so.....
Yeah. I've wondered about it too.
I think it comes down to two things. The first is that they're gravely mistaken in their belief that depicting a handful of "main plot points" and linking them together awkwardly could be faithful to Miura's vision. Quick-and-dirty doesn't work for storytelling.
For example, if you know "Guts leaves Godot's place with Puck and Casca to journey to Elfhelm" and "They arrive at a coastal city called Vritannis where they find a ship", you could think it's straightforward enough. They get from point A to point B. But what happens from volume 23 to 28 counts among the most important developments in the entire series. Guts feeling the burden of caring for Casca. Accepting new companions. Meeting Schierke and seeing elemental magic. Fighting against Slan. Acquiring the berserk's armor. Learning that Casca can be cured... And what I'm listing is itself just a quick summary! There's a lot more.
Similarly, knowing the gist of a scene isn't enough to properly convey it. "Guts' group encounters Rickert and the Bakiraka" has little value in and of itself. What matters are the details. What are the circumstances? Where are the characters? What are they doing? What are they thinking? What's the look on their face? Plus all the subtle things. It includes how much weight you put on each moment, what's emphasized and what isn't, etc. These are the details Miura added when he got to them, episode by episode. It's where most of the magic happened, and only he could do it. That's why Guts and Griffith's confrontation in episodes 365-367 feels so hollow and meaningless, even though it should be one of the biggest moments in the story.
The second point is more of a guess, but it comes down to the fact that none of these people are hardcore fans of Berserk. Mori was Miura's lifelong friend, but they didn't spend their time talking about Berserk. Their last conversation was about The Mandalorian. As for the assistants, I'm sure they loved their job, but at the end of the day, it is just that: a job. Working on something and being a fan of it are two very different things, with different perspectives. You remember how something was created, and being satisfied or dissatisfied this or that part. You recall what the boss said or what your coworker did. But do you spend time thinking about why a character does something in a panel or says a specific line? Not necessarily. That's not what your job is about.
That aside, I think they also have a different area of focus. It seems to me that they're making efforts to portray events in a way that's as bombastic and visually striking as possible. To evoke strong emotion. Which is important of course, because a manga has to leave an impression. But it's not enough by itself, and it can't compensate for what's missing. A single line of dialogue from Guts with a meaningful expression of his face could be infinitely more impactful than him repeatedly falling face-first on the floor.
Certainly.
guuuuuuuuts
Excited for the next chapter!
I've been thinking about this moment a lot... I began re-writing 365 and 366 for fun and roughly came up with this (please enjoy if you can. It is just for fun).
Caska's eyes open
She is alone in her bed
Memories of the child next to her.
The brand bleeds into her gown.
Where is the child? Danger.
She rushes to the front door and open it to see the child
The child turning into Griffith
Griffith brushing away the child's tear
Griffith locks eyes with her for an instant and her memories surge forward.
I am still so helpless?
Is my child also helpless?
Guts realizes Caska is behind him.
He remembers her going to Griffith on the Hill of Swords
Her in Griffith's arms
Her in Mozgus's arms
Her yell of pain towards seeing him.
The beast begins to take over.
He hears her cry and thinks it must be Griffith's fault
Remembering the demon child at birth, and in the egg and now as Griffith
All the while remembering the pain it brings Caska
Griffith smirks:
"To awake in such a place,
and you both brought me here...
Even now, you belong to me."
The beast attempts to assert control over Guts, his vision and emotions fading into violence.
He doesn't know whether he is attacking Griffith to protect or to kill or to just end this cycle
He considers where to land the first strike, but his vision is distorted
He thinks he is attacking Griffith, but it is all a blur
Something is still nagging within him. A doubt.
Who cares? Attack now.
But this person he is attacking, is it Griffith? Is it his friends on the beach? Is it Caska? Is it his child?
She is alone in her bed
Memories of the child next to her.
The brand bleeds into her gown.
Where is the child? Danger.
She rushes to the front door and open it to see the child
The child turning into Griffith
Griffith brushing away the child's tear
Griffith locks eyes with her for an instant and her memories surge forward.
I am still so helpless?
Is my child also helpless?
Guts realizes Caska is behind him.
He remembers her going to Griffith on the Hill of Swords
Her in Griffith's arms
Her in Mozgus's arms
Her yell of pain towards seeing him.
The beast begins to take over.
He hears her cry and thinks it must be Griffith's fault
Remembering the demon child at birth, and in the egg and now as Griffith
All the while remembering the pain it brings Caska
Griffith smirks:
"To awake in such a place,
and you both brought me here...
Even now, you belong to me."
The beast attempts to assert control over Guts, his vision and emotions fading into violence.
He doesn't know whether he is attacking Griffith to protect or to kill or to just end this cycle
He considers where to land the first strike, but his vision is distorted
He thinks he is attacking Griffith, but it is all a blur
Something is still nagging within him. A doubt.
Who cares? Attack now.
But this person he is attacking, is it Griffith? Is it his friends on the beach? Is it Caska? Is it his child?
These ones?
Of course, this is just a comic that Mori did, not an actual photo, so it could be inacuratte, but the guys probably looks like Corkus and Judeau indeed.
LOL, great editing skills
I hope that you are right.
Yes, these ones, and I think he just drew them like that so people would make the connection. Maybe I'm wrong and one of their friends in 80s Japan had blond hair and the other looked like a middle-aged man at 16. It's possible. But I don't think they literally were the spitting image of the characters (no more than Rickert is), and it's not what he's saying in the interview. I guess we'll see how he depicts them when he draws MK.
Every time I read people questioning "why the continuation is happening if there are so many holes to fill", I wonder how you're missing the point Mori has made time and time again, including in this interview.
It is his interpretation of his best friend's wishes that Miura would've wanted him to try to complete the work.
I dont expect the audience on this forum to enjoy the continuation. I haven't enjoyed most of it so far either, except when there are glimmers of what once was. But I would never dream of thinking I'm in a better position than someone's best friend to determine whether or not it was the right decision to try to make the continuation.
It is my belief that Studio Gaga and Mori are doing the right thing to try and finish the work *even if* the end result is bad, because I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of their belief that it's what Miura would've wanted. I don't expect people to agree on that point and that's fine. But I wish people would stop acting like they're in a better position than Mori to decide if this continuation was the right thing to do.
We're fans of Miura's work. Mori was like his family.
It is his interpretation of his best friend's wishes that Miura would've wanted him to try to complete the work.
I dont expect the audience on this forum to enjoy the continuation. I haven't enjoyed most of it so far either, except when there are glimmers of what once was. But I would never dream of thinking I'm in a better position than someone's best friend to determine whether or not it was the right decision to try to make the continuation.
It is my belief that Studio Gaga and Mori are doing the right thing to try and finish the work *even if* the end result is bad, because I have no reason to doubt the sincerity of their belief that it's what Miura would've wanted. I don't expect people to agree on that point and that's fine. But I wish people would stop acting like they're in a better position than Mori to decide if this continuation was the right thing to do.
We're fans of Miura's work. Mori was like his family.
You're the one missing the point here. Mori wasn't oathbound to continue the manga in this specific manner, with no break in episode or volume numbers. And in fact he isn't doing it himself; he's only supervising Kurosaki and his team, who are the ones creating the continuation. As a reminder, these are people who Miura wouldn't let contribute to Berserk beyond the smallest and most elementary tasks, by his and their own admission.
Anyhow, what people are questioning is why Mori, Shimada, YA's editorial department and the assistants thought this format was going to work given how little they apparently knew and what shortcuts and sacrifices were going to be necessary. Why do it like that instead of sticking with Mori's original plan. Because as it stands, the purported goal of the project – to faithfully convey Miura's vision for the rest of the story – isn't much of a success. It is a legitimate question.
These repeated appeals to emotion about sincerity and friendship are fallacious and irrelevant. This isn't a contest to determine who loved Miura the most. It's about whether or not the stated goals of the project are being achieved competently. Mori was uniquely positioned to ensure whatever Hakusensha did would honor Miura's legacy and do him justice. As his best friend and fellow mangaka, he was the only one in the world who could do it. And he dropped the ball. Not just that, but he made us promises when the project started that he did not keep. These are facts.
Now, you say you don't mind if it's bad because you believe in these people's belief that they are doing the right thing. That's a lot of mental gymnastics to justify the fact they probably embarked on this project too quickly/recklessly, can't deliver on their promises and now can't turn back. Personally, I do mind that it's unfaithful to what Miura would have done and I wish you wouldn't lecture us on how we should feel about it, especially since this project wasn't started because Mori had made a pledge to Miura. See the original announcement and what they say about it. Or just read this interview again and how Mori says he did it as much for himself as for Miura. Not exactly the selfless act you're trying to portray.
And as fans, our main role isn't to judge whether Mori believes what he says, but to evaluate what's being produced and determine whether it meets our criteria for quality or not. Is it any good? Worthy of being called "Berserk"? Does it do justice to the series? Would Miura have done things like this? My personal answer to all of these is no. I empathize with Mori and the others, but that stops when they start sullying Miura's legacy, no matter the reason.
We are just questioning the quality of the continuation and some of the things they have said in the interviews.
If it was a good continuation, they would get my full support, even if it had some issues.
BERSERK should have died as an unfinished masterpiece.
If they wanted to release a cliffnotes version to give fans some kind of closure, that's one thing. However, it was always 'optimistic' to think that a seminal work that was so masterfully auteured could ever be continued in the same format without its author.
If they wanted to release a cliffnotes version to give fans some kind of closure, that's one thing. However, it was always 'optimistic' to think that a seminal work that was so masterfully auteured could ever be continued in the same format without its author.
Yup. Let's be honest here, Berserk IS Miura. Without Miura there is no Berserk. He drew it. He wrote it. He put 100% of himself in it day in day out for years and years and years. A lot of people understand that but not Koji Mori and Studio Gaga... Even in Miura's interviews u can see how much pride he has for his work. How much he sees himself in it and how its his and his alone to produce. Reading his interviews you can tell he was special, and its quite disrespectful of companies and people around him to take advantage of that and misunderstand him.
