Berserk

I feel compeled to ask, how is this relevant to Berserk?

I have a better questions for like nearly everyone here:

When people reference Bittersweet Ending why is it that Berserk is one of the examples used? Just throwing this out there guys, but Miura said that Guts is going to get a happy ending.

edited 29th Dec '13 4:41:00 PM by Couchpotato20

This is the reference to how the Golden Age arc ended, with everyone in the Band of the Hawk dead, and while Guts and Cazca are alive, they're fated to be hunted down for the rest of their lives by evil spirits due to the brands they've been given.

@ Myssa Rei

And that IMO is some silly and incredible BS. Just because Guts and Casca lost all their friends from the Band of the Hawk doesn't mean they'll be forever doomed to a miserable life. If anything Guts and Casca's lives will be better since they have new friends like Puck,Isidro, Farenese, Serpico, Scherieke, Evarella, Roderick,and Manifico.

If Guts life was truly as full of suck as it's believed to be then all his friends would've died brutally cruel deaths at the end of the "Age of the Millennium Falcon arc".

That's the thing though, the first anime ended at the bleakest point of the Golden Age, and for many, that's it for Berserk. Remember, the rescue by the Skull Knight? Never happened in the anime.

And not many had the patience to follow the manga through twenty-odd years, so they don't know that Guts or Cazca even survived the Eclipse.

edited 29th Dec '13 6:41:10 PM by MyssaRei

@Myssa Rei

K then that's viewers faults for following the stereotype of Viewers Are Morons of TV networks for not being able to grasp that's barely the last piece from the "Golden Age Arc" of Berserk. IIRC after the credits you see Guts walking away from Godo's place seeking revenge. If anything it's a Gecko Ending.

How is it that following the Berserk manga is difficult for people to wait for its conclusion and yet Shounen's big 3 series "Naruto" "Bleach" and "One Piece" are simpler to sit through? We don't know if Naruto or Luffy will accomplish their goals of To Be a Master or are even close and yet people continue to read. "Not having the patience" is a weak excuse to rationale why you're opting out of continuing to read it. Might as well say because it's not your usual upbeat manga with the usual formula that you come to that conclusion.

Again, quite different, in that the Big 3 of Shounen Jump, for their faults, are updated regularly and barely take hiatuses.

Berserk — and Miura — is quite infamous for its years long breaks at the drop of a hat. The guy has problems, true, and this isn't even taking into consideration his love for Idolmaster, but that schedule slip... It's quite telling that many of the fans I know are, you know, my age.

And when was the last time we had a Berserk chapter again, hmm?

edited 29th Dec '13 9:41:03 PM by MyssaRei

@ Myssa Rei

How old are you exactly? I'm 23 years old and been reading this manga for 10 years. So what if Miura has his long breaks. He'd lose a tremendous amount of fans if the art quality dropped so he could hurry along the release of a chapter dude.

It's called art inconsistency something which sometimes mangas which have large fanbase's that they don't deserve (like Naruto).

edited 30th Dec '13 10:44:43 AM by Couchpotato20

You started reading Berserk when you were 13?

@Saint Deltora

Yeah, I hung out a lot in Borders when I was living in California. Even though Berserk books were wrapped in plastic I still ripped off so I could read 'em.

It seems like he's grown tired of drawing Berserk, he has a short manga going on now which will apparently have 5-6 chapters, meaning it'll be at the least another half year before we see another chapter. When he's done with that, he might be able to handle more than 1-2 chapters a year. That having no assistants line has been spouted in his defense for years now at least since 2006, does anyone even really know if it is or ever was true.

@Jeorg

Really dudes if you think it's not that difficult then try putting yourself in his shoes. ^^

I am not a plumber, yet if someone take 6 months to change a pipe, I would still know there is a problem. You don't need to be an expert at drawing to know that 3/4 chapter the good years is too slow to be caused by the high quality of the work.

Yes, the art of Berserk is gorgeous. Yes the story is mostly very good (the Rosine arc is still one of my favorite story). It is still absurd to think that the one year hiatus of Berserk is perfectly natural and that the mangaka is very good and motivated at his job.

Just to be clear, I am not one of those fans who think that writer have a duty toward their reader to complete their story once they started them. They can do whatever they want, and I don't think I have the right to whine about the way they choose to have their life. However, if I think the actual rhythm is slower than it should be, then I will say it is unnatural and will not recommend the manga if his quality heavily relies of its ending.

If you think it's alright for Miura to go with speeding up his pace and forgoing the usual brilliant artwork you're crazy. That beautiful artwork is what made Berserk awesome in the first place (along with the writing and dialogue).

Arguably, Hunterx Hunter's author is much worse, because he has similarly atrocious pacing, but his non-tankobon chapters are shitty in art quality.

He is perfectly able to draw Berserk faster while maintaining the quality. The manga wasn't always at a rate of 3/4 chapter per year, and worse, I got the impression that the speed is decreasing over time.

And I got different priority than you: I care far more to have a good and completed story than to have beautiful artwork.

Just to give us all a bit perspective, the last Berserk chapter we had was in January. Miura basically took all of 2013 off.

Is there a reason that Miura doesn't have any assistants?

No one knows, really, though there's always the in-joke about the Idolmaster and how assistants will just get in the way of Miura's playtime.

@Violent Orange

I think you're being dishonest with yourself if you're saying "completed story>artwork". Homie, that's like saying it would've been alright if Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann anime continued in the same horrific art style that it did in episode 4 of the anime.

To quote Futurama's Calculon regarding the animation from that episode "That was so terrible I think you gave me cancer!"

Honestly the art work can go stuff itself, have you ever read any of One's works such as Mob Psycho 100 or One Punch Man?(Ironically, that is also on hiatus, goes to show how hard to think up a good story is.)

Episode 4 of kill la kill is probably its best episode. But I really don't think it's detail to art that's holding him up, you can say he wants to make a mona lisa out of every panel and I can say he's busy playing idolmaster again, no one really knows.

Maybe he isn't quite sure how to proceed the story once they get off the boat and that's understandable, hopefully the mini series he's working on let's him see things from a new perspective once he gets back to it.

edited 30th Dec '13 6:24:08 PM by Jeorg

@Jeorg

Miura said that Guts will get a "relatively" happy ending. Also if the artwork sucked then I'd drop it like a hot potato. Mixing the artwork and its boss artwork is the only thing keeping it together.

Sure, but that's significantly different than knowing all the steps to get there. Sometimes you have an ending in mind, but the path to it changes as you write.

I didn't see Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, so I have no opinion on it. But considering my choice of webcomics, I would say that I have always prefer those who provide me good story rather than those who have pretty pictures. When I say that I love the lost children arc, I don't think it is because of the art (of which I don't remember much), but the story, which is a beautiful fairy tail.

@Corr Terek

Just making sure but you're not implying that Miura is writing by the seat of his pants are you?