October 2024 Kouji Mori interview in Magmix

[Vitris]

「これなら完結させられる」と実感！ 連載再開から2年『ベルセルク』監修・森恒二先生インタビュー【前編】 | マグミクス

三浦建太郎先生の死後も連載が続くダークファンタジーマンガの金字塔『ベルセルク』は、どのような思いで引き継がれ、完結に向かって進んでいるのでしょうか。監修を務める、三浦先生の高校時代からの盟友、漫画家の森恒二先生にお話を聞きました。

magmix.jp

 

[Ithier]

They make such a big deal out of the art as if it’s the single biggest hurdle for the continuation to clear when people have been extremely charitable so far. Maybe I’m just bitter that we learn less and less from these exchanges.

 

[Vitris]

They make such a big deal out of the art as if it’s the single biggest hurdle for the continuation to clear when people have been extremely charitable so far. Maybe I’m just bitter that we learn less and less from these exchanges.

His answer to "why does Guts look so depressed in these new episodes" doesn't even make sense.
But besides that, there's some things that highlight even more how little they're organized, like when he says that sometimes he remembers important stuff only after a manuscript is done, which at least explains why some of the episodes are overall superfluous.

 

[Aazealh]

Here's a summary of the interview.

It's difficult to know what Miura meant, and Mori often forgets important things

Mori reiterates that he doesn't do much on the Continuation, so it's not a particularly difficult project for him. But then he says that he often remembers important things after the manuscripts are finished, which sounds like a big fucking deal to me. It's not like they'll have a second shot at this.

He mentions that he talks as much as he can to Akira Shimada, Berserk's former editor, and that he compares his memories to Kurosaki's to try and determine things. Nothing new really, but it emphasizes that they're interpreting Miura's words from memory, and that it's not obvious to them. He says he sometimes suddenly realizes what Miura meant about something while going through his daily life.

Disparaging Miura to prop up Kurosaki

Mori heaps praise on Kurosaki, saying he's basically as good as Miura when it comes to drawing females characters or even Griffith. He repeats something he's said before: that Miura once told him drawing Griffith as a "living god" was difficult. It's almost pathetic that he doesn't seem to realize Miura was talking about capturing Griffith's otherworldliness and not just about making him look pretty like a girl, something that seems obvious to me even from his own words.

Anyway, the way the interview words this makes it implicitly sound like Kurosaki has an easier time of it and is therefore better than Miura at it (contrasted with Kurosaki having more trouble drawing Guts and other "rugged" characters). It's something Mori does every time: in his efforts to legitimize his or the assistants' work, he ends up implying that Miura wasn't actually that good. I think that says a lot about what kind of a man he is.

Right after that he also comments on how Guts' face was inconsistent when Miura drew him, in what feels like a drive-by shooting of his dead friend's work. It also seems to me to ignore two things, besides evolutions in art style: the fact Guts got severely burned then healed up, and the switch to digital, which was a big change. But really, Mori's point is that it's hard for the team to depict Guts properly... because of Miura, I guess? Or at least that he wasn't perfect himself, so they shouldn't be held to any scrutiny.

Details on how the team works and an anecdote about Miura

Other than that, we get some details on how the team works. Kurosaki handles most of the characters, the veteran assistants do the backgrounds, and the new recruits help with characters. Mori doesn't mention Sugimoto by name but underlines that he's doing the color illustrations while only being in his 20s. Overall he really hypes up their talent, the fact Miura trained them well, and goes on to say they all cried when they decided they "had no choice but to do the continuation". He also proclaims that "when Kurosaki finishes drawing Berserk, he'll be the #1 fantasy illustrator".

One specifically interesting thing is that he does seem to confirm the island was meant to be completely destroyed, saying Kurosaki got a confidence boost from being able to depict it "just as he had heard from Miura". He concludes by talking about the fact Miura was a stickler for realism and would often play out battles with replica swords to ensure they were believable. They'd also done that with fist fights for Mori's own manga Holyland. And he says Miura was particular about the angle at which the sword slashes, which makes sense.

 

[Goat]

As discussed in the chat, I really hate the sense of disrespect towards Miura's legacy that emerges from this interview.
And again, focusing just on art and "how much good x is at doing y", while also remarking how the continuation is driven by random memories happening at random times, underlines the extreme superficiality in how this Berserk continuation project is handled.

 

[hsvfan-jan]

Mori heaps praise on Kurosaki, saying he's basically as good as Miura when it comes to drawing females characters or even Griffith. He repeats something he's said before: that Miura once told him drawing Griffith as a "living god" was difficult.

This really feels like someone talking about a topic they know a few things about but don't understand properly and 100%.
"Why do I need a civil engineer to design this bridge? I didn't have any problem welding a bit of metal and using a few bolts and rivets here and there and I finished thinking about that design much earlier than what the engineer came up with. It's good-looking and was faster to build, too!"
But once the load is a bit different or more challenging for the bridge it'll be easy to see why the engineer had a hard time coming up with their design and why they said "it was difficult" while the "I'll just wing it"-bridge will collapse early on.
It goes to show how little they understand what Miura *really* meant. Man, if I had to analyse Miura's comments as a 10th grade exam and I didn't get those meanings, my teacher would've suggested me to quit school altogether.

 

[Ithier]

Kurosaki handles most of the characters, the veteran assistants do the backgrounds, and the new recruits help with characters. Mori doesn't mention Sugimoto by name but underlines that he's doing the color illustrations while only being in his 20s. Overall he really hypes up their talent, the fact Miura trained them well, and goes on to say they all cried when they decided they "had no choice but to do the continuation". He also proclaims that "when Kurosaki finishes drawing Berserk, he'll be the #1 fantasy illustrator".

I think people who suspected more cynical motivations were driving the continuation weren't entirely wrong, although I think Walter already noted that this could establish some of these guys.

 

[Vitris]

世界中の読者やスタッフ、みんなで「ゴール」を迎えたい 『ベルセルク』監修・森恒二先生インタビュー【後編】 | マグミクス

作者の三浦先生の死後、監修の森恒二先生とスタジオ我画のスタッフによって連載が再開した『ベルセルク』は、どんな思い、こだわりで描かれているのでしょうか。森先生へのインタビューの後半では、「キャスカ」が精神を取り戻す場面の裏話や、『ベルセルク』終了後の展望についてもうかがいました。

magmix.jp

Part two of the interview. Here's some quotes and summaries:

"Miura-kun is a man who loves foreshadowing, so there are parts of "Berserk" where he is carefully solving the mysteries as he goes along. Since it is a part that is related to the core of the story, I can't say anything specific right now, but there were some parts where I had been struggling for over a year, thinking, "This is different from the story I heard before," or "Why is this here?""
Mori adds that it's only after consulting with Shimada that he understood why Miura depicted things in a certain way, but that he was also confused because Miura had told him something different.

Miura would sometimes make changes when writing a manuscript. Mori didn't really pay attention to those changes, and now they're becoming a problem for him.

Mori says that him and Miura would discuss the story many times every week, but whenever he'd read an episode, he'd notice how different it was compared to their discussions, and that this is a thing that only a genious can do.
"He was so immersed in the story that it was as if he was "participating" in Guts and his friends' journey. I think he was portraying himself as a participant, not as the author."
Manga authors often talk about characters having a will of their own, so sometimes Miura would go back to Mori for advice on how to get the characters back to their original plan.

"-Which characters specifically have changed the most?
Mori: Schierke. To begin with, she wasn't originally planned to appear, but was added later. Miura-kun wrote the draft of "Berserk" when he was in his 20s, and by the time he was about 28, the story had been decided up to the final episode, but Schierke wasn't there at the time. However, Griffith's "New Band of the Hawk" that faces Guts and his friends was too strong, so I decided to put Schierke in the role of healer. After Schierke appeared, she seemed to become more and more of a favorite of Miura-kun. Schierke supports Guts and also becomes a character that adores him, but that was originally planned as Farnese's role. Farnese was supposed to gradually close the distance between her and Guts, but that didn't work out. [...] he was worried that "the distance between Farnese and Guts is not closing at all." He said while worrying, "Farnese is not proactive," and "She doesn't open up to Guts." On the other hand, Schierke was getting closer and closer to Guts, so the story changed quite a bit thanks to that."

The original plan for the corridor of dreams was to have an exchange just between Schierke and Casca, but the story changed because of an exchange that him and Miura had over dreams.

"I am grateful for the occasional criticisms I receive, because they are only a reflection of the love for Berserk. If I don't read comments about Berserk on social media every day, I would lose my motivation, so I'm glad I use social media."

"Since "Berserk" and "Sosei no Taiga" will probably end at the same time, I'll draw "Mori-chan Ken-chan" after that. I think everyone, including me, will be sad when "Berserk" ends."
"I think it will also be a work that depicts the footsteps of the genius Kentaro Miura. He was the type of genius who suffered through it all, and I have been working desperately to be on par with Miura, so there are many things to draw. It will be a story about "genius and mediocrity," and I think many people will sympathize with me. I am the main character, and as I promised Miura, I plan to portray myself as a handsome man (laughs)."
"I think the story will continue from when we first met at age 15 through the "high school edition," "college edition," and "manga artist edition." Miura was a very interesting guy in high school, but I was causing a lot of trouble at the time, so Miura, who had to deal with that, may become the main character."

"Miura-kun was really looking forward to the final episode of Berserk, saying, "I want to reach the finish line together with all the fans." Now that I have inherited that feeling, I want to enjoy the final episode as well, and deliver it to Miura-kun."

 

[jackson_hurley]

That last part almost made me cry. To know that he wanted to get to the finish line with us.

I kind of understand. I work on my baby comic book since 2016 and its a big project. Im not known at all but I want to finisb that series.

Of course its far far far from being as good as Berserk lol but I get the feeling.

 

[puella]

After reading Mori's interview, I was shocked because nothing was fruitful in it.

It just confirmed that he's not a man of his word. At first he said he and the team wouldn't change anything to what Miura had told them, and that Miura hadn't changed his plans for more than 30 years.

Now he's saying they've modified the story very liberally and that Miura would change many things even just with a single episode. Which is normal of course! Miura was exceptional and unique as a mangaka and an individual, so his thoughts and inspirations can't be guessed or extrapolated by anybody.

For the people who want to know how he thought, I recommend directly reading his own interviews, rather than checking Mori's comments. It's clear to me at this point that he's not reliable.

 

[jackson_hurley]

Yup, and its very sad. This continuation deserved better. (I would just not have done it. Oh well..)

 

[Beelzebud]

世界中の読者やスタッフ、みんなで「ゴール」を迎えたい 『ベルセルク』監修・森恒二先生インタビュー【後編】 | マグミクス

作者の三浦先生の死後、監修の森恒二先生とスタジオ我画のスタッフによって連載が再開した『ベルセルク』は、どんな思い、こだわりで描かれているのでしょうか。森先生へのインタビューの後半では、「キャスカ」が精神を取り戻す場面の裏話や、『ベルセルク』終了後の展望についてもうかがいました。

magmix.jp

Part two of the interview. Here's some quotes and summaries:

[...]

So that basically confirms that Mori was Miura's Rubber Duck?

It's pretty obvious that their friendship was true, and that Miura just talk to Mori about the story so that he can himself made conclusions, it's not like the ideias came from Mori and obviously he didn't know a fraction of what he first said.

What is more sad is that he seem to have a feeling that he is doing his duty to Miura and that his word is absolute! So nothing will stop this act from now.
This only make me believe less and less that someday we will se a book-like with Miura notes and a written idea of what he planned.

 

[Aazealh]

So that basically confirms that Mori was Miura's Rubber Duck?

It's pretty obvious that their friendship was true, and that Miura just talk to Mori about the story so that he can himself made conclusions, it's not like the ideias came from Mori and obviously he didn't know a fraction of what he first said.

Pretty much yeah. Miura used him as a sounding board. And I mean, I'm sure Mori had inputs, but their value was limited to sparking ideas in Miura's own mind. Which is fine really, but doesn't make him "Berserk's co-author" as Kurosaki once outrageously said.