I'm the first person that I know of to have compiled Guts' face over a wide range of volumes to compare the changes in art style. That was a very long time ago. Back then I was making a point against the idea that there ever was a specific ironcast art style from which things would then have deviated. The same face will have variations in it even in the same episode, that's how art is.
Something worth noting in the above is that it picks from panels of different sizes and then resizes them. That means some will necessarily have more details in them than others, and makes for a less than pertinent comparison.
For such a long running manga, the art style changing is quite normal, but obviously this time around people are not liking the changes, which is fair, but its important to consider the context. Transitioning to digital after years of working with pen&paper is not easy
My main issue is simply the inconsistency in how some of the characters faces are depicted. [...] This is an experimentation phase, and line art, simplicity, detail and the style will continue to evolve.
Funnily, as cheap as Dark Horse can be, they use rich black unlike Hakusensha, which is kinda interesting (maybe the pure black ink is why their manga costs more than other publishers'?).'
To me the last major change or true evolution to Berserk's style was Griffith's rebirth when Miura began experimenting more with hyperrealism; which you can see starting almost from the exact moment Griffith is reborn on the closeups of Guts' and Griffith's faces (the timing almost had to be intentional). The changes since then, even with the transition to digital, have been negligible or have represented returns to styles previously seen in earlier volumes.
The exercise of showing characters faces from every few years is pretty limited because there can be variables in every angle and panel. For instance, some of those Guts shots are pretty unique panels or specific shots even in the eras they're from, and not necessarily representative.
I'm still incredibly fond of how the manga looks in the original arc. I definitely have my preferences, but as mentioned above, it's important to remember this style is helping set the tone for Berserk's current location as of writing this (episode 360).
Indeed it is,and actually his recent style is growing on me.I'm still incredibly fond of how the manga looks in the original arc. I definitely have my preferences, but as mentioned above, it's important to remember this style is helping set the tone for Berserk's current location as of writing this (episode 360).
And on the next page his face looks like a teenager.
Where has his jaw and chin gone?
It doesn't even make sense because when you open your mouth,your jaw opens and as such it seems bigger than it was.
Isn't his chin just hidden by the armor in that panel? It looks pretty normal to me.
Isn't his chin just hidden by the armor in that panel? It looks pretty normal to me.
Unless you're talking about something else.
Yes, it's hidden by the armor's neck guard. And I also don't see how it looks younger than the one above.
?Maybe we should go back and compare all the chins.
They were very noticeable for me in my first read of the episode and that's why I thought he looked like a teenager.I see now, kinda. But I still wouldn't call it "much different" they aren't 3D models and I'm sure Miura never used a ruler every time he drew his characters to have everything perfect to the millimeter.
What I'm basically saying is that the characters' faces and proportions always change slightly from panel to panel, so it's not anything important to point out in my opinion.
Of course it allows for slight inconsistencies,and I kinda understand that because Berserk has so many episodes.I think the medium of a serialized manga allows for slight inconsistencies in faces. And if we started scrutinizing proportions in every panel, even within the same episodes, we’d probably notice a lot of things.
That being said, even in your diagram I don’t see any discrepancy that I would call notable.
I'm trying to find good images to compare,but anyway : Guts face was way more longer (even his nose) and I think it had more natural expressions on that episode.What’s the inconsistency, if you say we should exclude the older image? Often when I see people comparing panels, they do so out of context—meaning comparing a half or full page face with a smaller, less conspicuous face. Is that what’s happening here?
The chin itself is hidden of course,but I'm talking about the actual size of the chin (and jaw).
If you follow the guidelines,it would be more or less like this:
Which is very different from the one on the last page.
The proportions from the bottom of the nose to above are actually similar,but the jaw and chin are way too diferent.
This kind of nitpicking really feels to me like it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what a manga is, and not just because it often uses panels of different sizes and angles. It reads like a first year art student's misguided attempt at critiquing a work using the wrong criteria. Paradoxically, I feel like this stems from how high quality the art is, in that it gives people the wrong idea. Berserk isn't an anatomy teaching book or an exercise in drawing the same thing identically. It's not meant to be photorealistic or to have mathematically perfect proportions. Things are exaggerated and deformed and not quite the same from panel to panel. Like in all comic books? And it has been that way since the first pages of the first volume in the series. You can probably reproduce this sort of comparison with any two panels in the series. But what's the point of it? Also, just to be clear: not all panels are perfect. Some are better than others. It has always been the case.