Young Animal announces a continuation of Berserk by Studio Gaga, supervised by Kouji Mori

A major x factor beyond general art style and story that's not being as widely considered is Miura's storyboarding, fight choreography and direction. Unlike plot points, there's really no way for them to recreate this as he was one of the best in the business, so even if they try aping his style or straight up plagiarize elements from earlier fights it's definitely going to be more run-of-the-mill. Hell, just the framing of shots and people's faces I would expect to be more generic... Miura even did the storyboarding for Duranki, so this would be something his assistants had the least practice at. We'll at least get a look at all these elements, including action, in this first episode.
That's exactly what I meant in my previous post in this topic but expressed with my rusted English. :farnese::puck:
 
In Young Animal #12, which is the issue where the announcement of Berserk's resumption was published, Mori's author comment is: ガガの皆さん、編集部と共にしっかりゃっていきます。よろしくお願い致します。
It translates to: "I will work hard together with the editorial department and everyone at (Studio) Gaga. Thank you in advance for your support."
That makes me wonder, will the author’s comments for Berserk going forward be from Kouji Mori or Studio Gaga, or both?
 

Frogacuda

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
It's fundamentally going to be like an oral retelling of someone else's story. It's not going to be what it would have been. And I particularly worry that they won't be fleshing anything out because I think those small details are important to storytelling.

But Berserk is probably around 75-80% complete. So much of the groundwork and character work has already been laid, and is to be believed, he has a pretty good idea of where Miura wanted to to take these characters. We won't ever see the ending as it would have been if Miura wrote it, but we will get insight into his intent that we never would otherwise.

I have been reading Berserk for more than 20 years. That's half my life. I want to see how it was meant to end. I didn't think that was possible, I wasn't sure how much Mirua planned out and how much he made up as he went, but it sounds like he did know where it was going, and did have a lot of the plot details hammered out, and Mori feels like they can communicate those, so I want to see. Again, it won't be told how Miura would tell it, but these are still professional storytellers.

My biggest fear is that it could end up like the last season of Game of Thrones, something that ostensibly follows a lot of the plot beats of the author's intent, but which isn't able to sell them because they haven't done the character work to make them feel earned. I hope that we are late enough in the story that they'll be okay. With so much of the heavy lifting in world building and character building done, they may be able to carry it across the finish line.

Also, I somewhat disagree on how GoT unfolded, or unraveled. While it did immediately go downhill when they ran out of source material, the show was still fine for a couple of seasons, the sixth season having some series highpoints the books have yet to put together. When it went to shit is after those guys burned out as showrunners of such a demanding production and basically started doing half seasons and trying to cop out with big screen spectacle instead of the slow burn characterization that brung them to the dance.

Total agree. But my big concern here is Mori's comment that they won't "flesh out" the story or add anything he hadn't discussed with Miura. I am not sure how strictly he means that, but I feel like you kind of have to, right? In order to land the story beats. I guess it depends where you are in the story and how much is really left but rushing characters through their journeys can often make these beats feel unearned.

I would prefer it much more if Mori would write everything he remembers in a special issue accompanied with illustrations. The main reason is that I would prefer to fill in the gaps and recreate the scenes in my mind with my own fantasy based on Miura's key points, than see someone else's interpretation based on Miura's key points.
Hard disagree. While I would certainly take that over nothing at all, a series of plot points are not the same thing as a story. Take the greatest story ever written and distill it to a wiki summary and tell me if it has even a shred of impact.

Mori is a manga-ka. He's a professional storyteller, and this is medium. This may be a second-generstion retelling of a work in progress story, but this is still the correct medium in which to tell it. It stands the best chance of actually landing these story beats.

We need to get over the idea that this is somehow attempting to do what Miura was going to. That's impossible. It's just about telling the rest of this story in the most effective way possible.
 
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@Frogacuda Well, it's really a matter of personal preferences. It's pretty subjective and I expect it to be even more devisive as soon as we get the actual episodes. Getting a continuation under these circumstances seems to be a good thing, no doubt about that, but I still would prefer a detailed text with illustrations overall. Manga is the medium for Berserk, sure, but it was Miura's heart and soul, and that's the way I fell in love with it. Mori is also a mangaka and a storyteller, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is a good fit for Berserk, we'll find out soon enough. It takes more than just knowing what Miura had in store for the future of the series. Berserk officialy ended with episode 364, but the news we got have me curious and excited. It still won't be Berserk for me, that's why I choose to call it "continuation project" personally, but I try to remain hopeful about the outcome of their decision to keep going.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Mori is also a mangaka and a storyteller, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is a good fit for Berserk, we'll find out soon enough.

To quote Mori's own words: "I cannot say that I can draw it because I know it. That is because only the genius Kentarou Miura can draw a masterpiece like Berserk."

It still won't be Berserk for me, that's why I choose to call it "continuation project" personally

Over the past year, long before this project was announced, I had a thought I found funny that such an endeavor should be called: ベルセルク擬き. That's how Guts calls the pseudo-apostles he encounters during the condemnation arc (like the goat and Mozgus). Of course it could never really be called that, as that's a rather pejorative term. :iva:
 

puella

Berserk forever
I've been refraining myself from manifesting my opinion about this big event and would rather keep silent. It's because I want to follow the typical Asian way to "save your words when a very important moment is ahead of you".

But regardless of my personal opinion, I hope this goes well, because... Miura-sensei would probably want his lifework to be completed. That way the readers can know what he planned for the rest of the story. (And otherwise like Aazealh said in the chat, I might go to Japan to abduct Mori... :beast:)

And I go for...
"Reading Berserk makes Miura-sensei continue to live." -KATSU Aki

I've been excited, restless and anticipating. However, I'd like to propose you to "save your words"!
 
I'm not too worried about how fleshed out things will be, or about the small moments. The first letter, from the editorial department, made mention of his talks with his team. While Mori said he won't be fleshing anything out himself or going beyond what Miura told him, he never said anything about Studio Gaga in that regard. His role as a supervisor leads me to believe he'll be writing certain episodes, or portions of episodes, while Studio Gaga will fill in some of the empty space, so we can get the smaller moments while also never deviating from Miura's overall plan. That makes sense to me at least, especially since his team would've been present while he developed the moment-to-moment stuff, and I'm sure he must've bounced ideas for some small stuff with them from time to time (maybe at least for Kurosaki, since it's hard to imagine spending so much time in an office with someone for almost two decades and not bonding with them in one way or another).
Of course, this is all speculation, and we'll have to wait until we get the episodes to really extrapolate anything further. It sounded like there'll be another message about the production when the episodes come out, so we'll see what it says then. I have a feeling they held back on at least a little information so we can see it with the context of how a completed episode will look and how it will read.

Also, when it comes to the art, if Miura really was less hands-on with Duranki past its first episode as we were led to believe, then I'm not too worried about the art aspect either. If the manticore in Duranki's last episode is anything to go off of, they're plenty skilled enough, even if not quite at Miura's level (I'm sure over time they'll reach a much more comparable level though).
 
Over the past year, long before this project was announced, I had a thought I found funny that such an endeavor should be called: ベルセルク擬き. That's how Guts calls the pseudo-apostles he encounters during the condemnation arc (like the goat and Mozgus). Of course it could never really be called that, as that's a rather pejorative term. :iva:

Haha, yeah, it sounds a little harsh:ganishka: Kinda funny in a playful way thought.

For the time being, I'm sticking with "Berserk continuation project", it's neutral and when I see the results and the way I feel about them, maybe I'll modify the title for better or for worse, who knows... :griffnotevil:
 

Frogacuda

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
@Frogacuda Well, it's really a matter of personal preferences. It's pretty subjective and I expect it to be even more devisive as soon as we get the actual episodes. Getting a continuation under these circumstances seems to be a good thing, no doubt about that, but I still would prefer a detailed text with illustrations overall. Manga is the medium for Berserk, sure, but it was Miura's heart and soul, and that's the way I fell in love with it. Mori is also a mangaka and a storyteller, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he is a good fit for Berserk, we'll find out soon enough. It takes more than just knowing what Miura had in store for the future of the series. Berserk officialy ended with episode 364, but the news we got have me curious and excited. It still won't be Berserk for me, that's why I choose to call it "continuation project" personally, but I try to remain hopeful about the outcome of their decision to keep going.
The question is not whether or not this is "Miura's Berserk." It's not. The question is really what will be the most satisfying and impactful way to tell the parts of the story that Miura didn't get to.

A text summary, or a light novel, or anything else is not going to be any more of a "real" version. They'd be bad. At best a coda to imagine what could have been, but stripped of any emotional impact or satisfaction.

The only real way forward is to let the people who know the material as best as anyone still living to tell the story as best they can. That's all this is.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I'm not too worried about how fleshed out things will be, or about the small moments. The first letter, from the editorial department, made mention of his talks with his team. While Mori said he won't be fleshing anything out himself or going beyond what Miura told him, he never said anything about Studio Gaga in that regard. His role as a supervisor leads me to believe he'll be writing certain episodes, or portions of episodes, while Studio Gaga will fill in some of the empty space, so we can get the smaller moments while also never deviating from Miura's overall plan.

What you're proposing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Whether with Mori, his staff or the editorial department, Miura couldn't possibly have revealed the rest of Berserk's story in minute details. In fact it's a given that many of the finer details are thing he would have come up with as he drew each episode. Moreover, if by saying he'll stick to what Miura told him and won't be fleshing things out himself, Mori just means that other people will be filling it in instead, it has no value except as an abdication of his own responsability (and then why be credited as "supervisor" instead of "writing consultant"?).

So I don't believe that's the correct way of interpreting his words (or those of YA's staff, who also said the team would only do what Miura told them about). But if it turns out to be the case, then I think that would warrant being worried about faithfulness. I get the compulsion to be as optimistic as possible, but we realistically aren't going to be getting 10 volumes of "almost the same thing Miura would have done". Something has been lost that can't be regained or compensated for. That's just how it is.

Also, when it comes to the art, if Miura really was less hands-on with Duranki past its first episode as we were led to believe, then I'm not too worried about the art aspect either. If the manticore in Duranki's last episode is anything to go off of, they're plenty skilled enough, even if not quite at Miura's level (I'm sure over time they'll reach a much more comparable level though).

Just to clarify: on Dur-An-Ki, Miura did the storyboarding, the draft ("name") and then the final touches to harmonize the art between each assistant and make sure everything looks tight. The big deal at the time is that the assistants were doing all of the inking (i.e. they drew the "final" art based on the draft), which is definitely noteworthy and shows their ability, but the Manticore for example was Miura's design, not something they created from scratch.
 
The question is not whether or not this is "Miura's Berserk." It's not. The question is really what will be the most satisfying and impactful way to tell the parts of the story that Miura didn't get to.

A text summary, or a light novel, or anything else is not going to be any more of a "real" version. They'd be bad. At best a coda to imagine what could have been, but stripped of any emotional impact or satisfaction.

The only real way forward is to let the people who know the material as best as anyone still living to tell the story as best they can. That's all this is.

Again, that's a very subjective matter. No one can guarantee that this attempt is the "correct" way to pass the information to the public, or that it will be the most satisfying option. Without Miura's visual storytelling it's just not the same, so from that point of view I would be fine with a detailed summary and some illustrated scenes, in fact I believe that it would pack a serious emotional punch and it would be a fitting closure even if it wasn't in manga format, but hey, that's just me.:shrug:

So far we can only make wild guesses, so who knows. We'll see the actual results pretty soon, and what they will mean to every one of us individually. We all are attached to this story in a different, personal way, so nothing is certain. For some may work, for some may not.
 
Whether or not this continuation will live up to expectations has yet to be seen...but based on the announcement I do believe that the series is in the best possible hands (outside of Miura himself, obviously). Regardless, a little nervousness is very okay--I'm just happy it's back and I'm fully willing to take the ride. I really hope people will be kind to the team taking this on. I'm cheering for them!
 
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Frogacuda

I love YaBB 1G - SP1!
What you're proposing doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Whether with Mori, his staff or the editorial department, Miura couldn't possibly have revealed the rest of Berserk's story in minute details. In fact it's a given that many of the finer details are thing he would have come up with as he drew each episode. Moreover, if by saying he'll stick to what Miura told him and won't be fleshing things out himself, Mori just means that other people will be filling it in instead, it has no value except as an abdication of his own responsability (and then why be credited as "supervisor" instead of "writing consultant"?).

So I don't believe that's the correct way of interpreting his words (or those of YA's staff, who also said the team would only do what Miura told them about). But if it turns out to be the case, then I think that would warrant being worried about faithfulness. I get the compulsion to be as optimistic as possible, but we realistically aren't going to be getting 10 volumes of "almost the same thing Miura would have done". Something has been lost that can't be regained or compensated for. That's just how it is.
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Another possible interpretation is that he means the broader strokes, like he says he won't try to do chapters that he didn't discuss or can't recall, he will stick to the core plot line. Which does not mean that he won't flesh it out in terms of adding scenes or dialog or smaller beats in the story, just that he will stick to the major plot beats he knows.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Another possible interpretation is that he means the broader strokes, like he says he won't try to do chapters that he didn't discuss or can't recall, he will stick to the core plot line. Which does not mean that he won't flesh it out in terms of adding scenes or dialog or smaller beats in the story, just that he will stick to the major plot beats he knows.

Sure, that was actually my first thought earlier in the thread, wondering whether we would get loosely tied "islands" of story. In that case though I do think people can justifiably be apprehensive of how those smaller page to page details will be handled. But, like Puella said, we should probably just wait to see how it goes. We'll know soon enough.
 
Do you think they might add comments from Mori and Studio Gaga about what is from what Miura left, or to show some sketches left by K.Miura ( when there are some) to demonstrate where they departed from to create characters and episodes in the volume ?
It's something I would appreciate to have as a bonus but It can also be compiled in some sort of future book about Miura/Berserk.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Do you think they might add comments from Mori and Studio Gaga about what is from what Miura left, or to show some sketches left by K.Miura ( when there are some) to demonstrate where they departed from to create characters and episodes in the volume ?
It's something I would appreciate to have as a bonus but It can also be compiled in some sort of future book about Miura/Berserk.

There will be comments and details about the project in this issue of Young Animal, from what they said. However they probably won't be detailing what Miura left at this point in time, unless it concerns these episodes directly. Maybe after the series is over. I would definitely like to have a book like that.
 
Was Duranki drawn by Miura or other people? I cant find specific info about this. Maybe this would be example of what we should expect from new Berserk.
 
Was Duranki drawn by Miura or other people? I cant find specific info about this. Maybe this would be example of what we should expect from new Berserk.
Miura storyboarded, wrote, drafted the episodes (pencil drawings) and did final touches on the manga. Basically meaning that the assistants inked drawings that Miura had done, and also added tones, while Miura then added final touches as well to bring the art together. Basically he still did more than majority of the series.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Was Duranki drawn by Miura or other people? I cant find specific info about this. Maybe this would be example of what we should expect from new Berserk.

I answered that two or three times in this very thread, so TheWillOfT's answer will be the fourth time it's reiterated. :ganishka:
That aside, the first two episodes have already been released, so there's no need to speculate based on Dur-An-Ki.
 
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