It looks like we're in the midst of a record-breaking hiatus for Berserk, folks.
The latest information on Young Animal releases indicates that the May 10 issue will once again not include a Berserk episode. May 10 is 19 weeks after the release of Episode 333. So, we're looking at May 24 (21 weeks) at the earliest for Episode 334—a new record for the series. In three instances over the course of the series, Miura has gone as long as 19 weeks on a break, but never longer than that: http://skullknight.net/images/eps.htm
I've always thought it was strange that 19 weeks was consistently the high-water mark for breaks. It could just be an incidental number—the result of a conflation of factors—but the fact that Miura adhered to that duration as the maximum over the years somehow seems significant to me. In spite of his daily workload or the section of story he happened to be working on, it almost seemed like he was keeping his own personal deadline even well after his print deadlines had long since lapsed. Well, now we're in uncharted waters, because the new big number is 21.
To put this in the context of volume releases, Volume 37 came out in March and has everything that’s been released so far. That means there are currently no episodes queued up for Volume 38. So we’re probably looking at Volume 38 coming in mid-2014 at the earliest—which would also make it the longest duration between volumes.
I don't think anyone can justifiably question Miura’s dedication to Berserk. That’s not the issue here. If anything, he's TOO dedicated to making his series great at the cost of a consistent schedule. When Miura responded to our interview request in 2009, he talked about how he works 15-16 hours a day, taking no holidays. In another interview, he said that on average he’s able to produce about a page of art per day.
We presume these breaks are taken so that Miura can chart the story out during this critical upcoming juncture in the series, and of course keep producing the art at his own pace. And I understand the argument that it takes time to plot out the big-picture elements in a complicated story like Berserk. But is that truly the hurdle keeping him from releasing Episode 334? Is there something especially significant about this episode that has to be nailed down to keep consistency with the course of the future he's still plotting? I'm very interested to know the reason, even though an answer will very likely never come. Has he been ill? It sure would be ungrateful to complain about a delay if he was suffering from some illness or physical setback…
Without much information to go on, we're left to guess at the root cause, but there’s also no reason to assume the worst. We're just going to have to wait, and that's all that can be done. Berserk will continue, and we'll be here when it's ready.
The latest information on Young Animal releases indicates that the May 10 issue will once again not include a Berserk episode. May 10 is 19 weeks after the release of Episode 333. So, we're looking at May 24 (21 weeks) at the earliest for Episode 334—a new record for the series. In three instances over the course of the series, Miura has gone as long as 19 weeks on a break, but never longer than that: http://skullknight.net/images/eps.htm
I've always thought it was strange that 19 weeks was consistently the high-water mark for breaks. It could just be an incidental number—the result of a conflation of factors—but the fact that Miura adhered to that duration as the maximum over the years somehow seems significant to me. In spite of his daily workload or the section of story he happened to be working on, it almost seemed like he was keeping his own personal deadline even well after his print deadlines had long since lapsed. Well, now we're in uncharted waters, because the new big number is 21.
To put this in the context of volume releases, Volume 37 came out in March and has everything that’s been released so far. That means there are currently no episodes queued up for Volume 38. So we’re probably looking at Volume 38 coming in mid-2014 at the earliest—which would also make it the longest duration between volumes.
I don't think anyone can justifiably question Miura’s dedication to Berserk. That’s not the issue here. If anything, he's TOO dedicated to making his series great at the cost of a consistent schedule. When Miura responded to our interview request in 2009, he talked about how he works 15-16 hours a day, taking no holidays. In another interview, he said that on average he’s able to produce about a page of art per day.
We presume these breaks are taken so that Miura can chart the story out during this critical upcoming juncture in the series, and of course keep producing the art at his own pace. And I understand the argument that it takes time to plot out the big-picture elements in a complicated story like Berserk. But is that truly the hurdle keeping him from releasing Episode 334? Is there something especially significant about this episode that has to be nailed down to keep consistency with the course of the future he's still plotting? I'm very interested to know the reason, even though an answer will very likely never come. Has he been ill? It sure would be ungrateful to complain about a delay if he was suffering from some illness or physical setback…
Without much information to go on, we're left to guess at the root cause, but there’s also no reason to assume the worst. We're just going to have to wait, and that's all that can be done. Berserk will continue, and we'll be here when it's ready.