Summary of Kouji Mori's Statements on the Berserk Continuation

[Aazealh]

I think what needs to be said out loud here is that they very clearly do not care about this stuff. Under Miura, arc and chapter titles were included with every episode; it was part of the nomenclature. But for the Continuation they just announced that new chapter on the side, as an afterthought, and I'm confident they'll never reference it again. It's also apparent to me that they'd do away with episode titles if they could, given how bad they are.

Anyway, I don't know what you expected @Xenoskell, but I think Mori's comments so far have made it clear they don't intend to "extend the story" beyond creating stepping stones to the ending. I will be surprised if the group's next destination after these Kushan shenanigans isn't Falconia.

 

[Xenoskell]

I think what needs to be said out loud here is that they very clearly do not care about this stuff. Under Miura, arc and chapter titles were included with every episode; it was part of the nomenclature. But for the Continuation they just announced that new chapter on the side, as an afterthought, and I'm confident they'll never reference it again. It's also apparent to me that they'd do away with episode titles if they could, given how bad they are.

Anyway, I don't know what you expected @Xenoskell, but I think Mori's comments so far have made it clear they don't intend to "extend the story" beyond creating stepping stones to the ending. I will be surprised if the group's next destination after these Kushan shenanigans isn't Falconia.

To tell you the truth...I don't even know what to expect.
By the way, about "extending the story".
I mean if they gonna slow the pace down, not necessarily tell more than what Mori remembers.

Ironically, it seems to me that some things are rushed, while some things are too slow (for example Guts character development which has completely stagnated).

The team in charge hasn't been terribly accurate in their shot calls when it comes to the continuation's production.

When the continuation started, they said: "We will first publish six [episodes] until the end of “Fantasia Arc/Elf Island Chapter”. After this, we will start a new arc." That sounded clear-sighted, at the time. But it actually took 10 episodes before they announced a new chapter (Eastward Odyssey Chapter in 374), and they never announced a new arc. They also advertised that Volume 43 would be out in 2024, but there are still a handful of episodes remaining to be pre-published before that can happen.

But yeah as for "final chapter", here's what Mori said about that in Oct 2023: "...we had also talked a lot about how Griffith appears at the end of the "Fantasia" arc, and then the story really begins in the final chapter."

So based on precedent, we could still get 3 more chapters or 2 more arcs! Who can say?

Right, so the interview itself also seems confusing, like the chapters we got...

And I don't know if I even would like them to "extend" the story.
If they rush, it will be bad (like already is)...but it will end quickly.
If they don't, they have a chance to improve some things...but I doubt it.
In the end it'll probably be bad too, 'cause there are a lot of inconsistencies already.
Like someone else said (I don't know if it was you or Aazealh, or both), as the time goes on, it will get worse and worse.

The thing is, I'm really sad that the continuation is this bad.
I didn't expect anything close to Miura's level, but at least something "okayish".
This unfortunately doesn't seem the case, so I can't help but feel sad about where the things are going.

Anyway, thanks for posting and claryfying this interview.

 

[Dr. Calcium]

Mori has recently been called out on X, as far as emotional intelligence goes, i dont think that he handled this comment very well…

 

[Kaine]

Mori has recently been called out on X, as far as emotional intelligence goes, i dont think that he handled this comment very well…

For sure... but the guy writing to him, doesn't seem really bright... he believe that Berserk should have finish at number 38.... or maybe there is some error in the translation

 

[cijhho123]

Mori has recently been called out on X, as far as emotional intelligence goes, i dont think that he handled this comment very well…

The user do have some valid points, Mori *is* doing the "supervision" as a side husle, which is obviously not enough time and care for such a manga as Berserk. And evidently the quality is awful in every aspect (not that full power SS4 Mori will be at the same level as Miura sensei ofc, but at least... it won't be this bad)

Going over the JP comments of the post, it seems that the Japanese fans are overall ok with the the continuation. I know that since they are commenting on Mori's post there's a bias in his favor, but I still (wrongfuly?) assumed that there's a consensus among them about this topic.
I'm not sure what to think about this to be frank.

 

[Walter]

Going over the JP comments of the post, it seems that the Japanese fans are overall ok with the the continuation. I know that since they are commenting on Mori's post there's a bias in his favor, but I still (wrongfuly?) assumed that there's a consensus among them about this topic.
I'm not sure what to think about this to be frank.

Every previous Japanese Berserk reader gathered here in this reply thread to comment in favor of the continuation? Wow!

 

[Vitris]

Every previous Japanese Berserk reader gathered here in this reply thread to comment in favor of the continuation? Wow!

Someone also confirmed that Mori is the co-author of Berserk! I bet you didn't know this, did you?

 

[Beelzebud]

Every previous Japanese Berserk reader gathered here in this reply thread to comment in favor of the continuation? Wow!

This absolutely inflated someone ego Maybe he'll have some sleep this night

 

[Aazealh]

Mori has recently been called out on X, as far as emotional intelligence goes, i dont think that he handled this comment very well…

Well, looking at his general behavior and the stuff he says in interviews, he does seem kind of insecure, so I guess it's not totally surprising he'd be rattled by the rare negative comments he gets. Not a great way to deal with it for sure, but then again this is a guy who had such a chip on his shoulder during his youth that he used to go out at night looking for drunken American tourists to beat up...

Also, having checked the exchange, he quoted the last message so all his followers would see it as a way to garner sympathy and get his ego stroked. And then fessed up to it in a subsequent reply thanking his supporters. Reminds me of his tweets about the Kamen Rider thing.

Going over the JP comments of the post, it seems that the Japanese fans are overall ok with the the continuation. I know that since they are commenting on Mori's post there's a bias in his favor, but I still (wrongfuly?) assumed that there's a consensus among them about this topic.
I'm not sure what to think about this to be frank.

Japan isn't some magical fairyland where everything's perfect and everyone's always right. Japanese fans have the immense advantage of being able to read the original text for Berserk instead of translations, but other than that, they're just people, same as international fans. Some are smart, some not. Besides, offering support while Mori presents himself as a victim is a natural compulsion for people who already follow his account.

If you want to see what the fans of Berserk as a whole think of the Continuation, look at volume 43's sales numbers.

 

[mathstruggler]

I really despise the Continuation but I really wouldn't go as far as personally pestering Mori. I think these kind of impromptu, heated online interactions aren't as valuable insight as the formal interviews are.

It's interesting to know that he is reading online posts, though. He presumably has been for some time, but finally responded to someone. I haven't looked through the replies of every single thing he's ever posted but maybe there's a trend that's starting to get to him?

 

[Todd Liu]

Well, looking at his general behavior and the stuff he says in interviews, he does seem kind of insecure, so I guess it's not totally surprising he'd be rattled by the rare negative comments he gets. Not a great way to deal with it for sure, but then again this is a guy who had such a chip on his shoulder during his youth that he used to go out at night looking for drunken American tourists to beat up...

Well, this is the first time I've heard about the things he did when he was young from you.

 

[Aazealh]

I think these kind of impromptu, heated online interactions aren't as valuable insight as the formal interviews are.

Long form interviews are more insightful than social network spats? Who could have guessed!

Well, this is the first time I've heard about the things he did when he was young from you.

He talked about it in one of his interviews. Worded differently of course, but that's what it amounted to.

 

[Todd Liu]

He talked about it in one of his interviews. Worded differently of course, but that's what it amounted to.

Yeah, anyway, I have absolutely no trust in him as a person.

 

[Xenoskell]

I really despise the Continuation but I really wouldn't go as far as personally pestering Mori. I think these kind of impromptu, heated online interactions aren't as valuable insight as the formal interviews are.

It's interesting to know that he is reading online posts, though. He presumably has been for some time, but finally responded to someone. I haven't looked through the replies of every single thing he's ever posted but maybe there's a trend that's starting to get to him?

I also think it was unecessary.

But now I'm wondering if Mori would react in the same way if the person just posted a constructive feedback.

 

[veritas]

Mori *is* doing the "supervision" as a side husle, which is obviously not enough time and care for such a manga as Berserk

I do not think anyone was expecting Mori to be Miura. The issue is if one does not have the time or attention for Berserk, if one treats it as a 'side hustle', better not continue the manga at all. Just write a small pamphlet describing what Miura supposedly 'revealed' to him decades ago, add a few illustrations, a few tributes to Miura by some famous mangaka and sell that as 'the final Berserk related thing'. That imo would be the best move. (i) Berserk is not bastardised, (ii) Berserk fans are not left hanging in the dark completely, whatever extra info Mori supposedly had would be conveyed to the fandom.
That said, nobody knows how much Miura told Mori and in what level of detail. Maybe the whole convo could be conveyed in a single tweet lol. "Yeah Mori-san, in the end Slan betrays the Godhand and gives Guts a few tips on the vulnerabilites of Femto. Guts builds a coalition with Kushan and a few rogue apostles and they win. Guts lives happily ever after with Casca." It could be just that for all we know. Specially since Miura said himself that he did not have the exact unfolding of every arc planned out since the beginning of the story.

 

[ssjkakaroto]

Starting the Berserk Continuation

・Before a direct continuation was decided, Akira Shimada, Berserk's original editor, now a higher-up at Hakusensha, was involved in the original plan to get Mori to produce a short book with illustrations that recap the ending of the story. [Oct 2023, DaVinci]​

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・Mori said he was the only one who knew the ending, so he felt compelled to tell that story in some form. [DaVinci]​

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・Mori was still deciding what to do when he received a message from Studio Gaga to review their work on the unfinished Episode 364. He saw a path forward by continuing from where Miura left off. [June 2022, Official Press Release]​

I would have been more thankful if Mori had released a single pager with ideas Miura shared with him.

Perhaps the best approch would have been to just point-wise write what he remembers with date when those discussions happened. Any rough sketches that Miura had shared with team. Any brainstorming if it ever happened anywhere. Any diary entries. Any friendly discussions.

Just that. A small 5-10 page booklet of sorts.

We know Berserk was at 60-70% as a very very rough estimate in 2009, giving a 470ish episodes in all. When Miura passed away, he was 100 episodes short of completing his masterwork.

This completely broken continuation is not really very good idea. They are introducing inaccuracies and most importantly INCONSISTENCIES in the work.

Right now, I believe what is happening is botching up of the story and charecters.

Hi there! I've been visiting SK.net ever since I saw the original anime in 2000/2001, but only now have I registered.

I've seen people here being really harsh with the continuation since the beginning, but I was just glad we could get an ending to it, even if it wasn't the actual ending from Miura himself. But man, these latest two chapters really made me wish we had what Akira Shimada proposed initially. A short book with illustrations would have been so much more satisfying than what they're currently doing.

This continuation must be bringing in quite a lot of money to Hakusensha and Studio Gaga to justify pushing forward like this.

 

[gutsishuman]

I read somewhere that they were best friends, and that Miura based Guts and Griffith's friendship on their own. As crazy as it sounds, it's starting to make sense. Miura is Guts, a struggler, someone who dedicated his whole life to doing the almost impossible with ink, against all odds. Mori is Griffith, with never-ending ambition to have the most popular manga behind his name, and he got that opportunity not from his talent, but from his destiny. But will that be his undoing?

 

[Sokolva]

Hi there! I've been visiting SK.net ever since I saw the original anime in 2000/2001, but only now have I registered.

I've seen people here being really harsh with the continuation since the beginning, but I was just glad we could get an ending to it, even if it wasn't the actual ending from Miura himself. But man, these latest two chapters really made me wish we had what Akira Shimada proposed initially. A short book with illustrations would have been so much more satisfying than what they're currently doing.

This continuation must be bringing in quite a lot of money to Hakusensha and Studio Gaga to justify pushing forward like this.

Agreed. I was open to continuation. It's been done before successfully VERY RARELY for beloved stories. The recent one I know of is The Wheel of Time which was continued successfully by Brandon Sanderson. Notably, the original author, Robert Jordan's wife carefully picked out the successor, and would have walked away if it didn't match his vision and notes. I was hoping because of their very close friendship and his loving memorial to Miura in the comics after his death that Mori would be a good successor. But every chapter Mori and his team have released has fallen short, dramatically so. I would have understood taking some time to really connect with the story and there being a rough transition, but its actually getting worse, not better. The story gaps are increasing, the continuity errors are being egregiously blown past, and its an unacceptable level of work, quite frankly.

I don't expect anyone to be able to replicate Miura's art mastery and composition, but at least they should have people in the studio whose job it is to fact check and research every plot point before its drawn to ensure the arc makes sense according to previous lore. That's the BARE MINIMUM for a studio continuing a beloved already established work of art. If everyone in this forum can compile lists of continuity issues, then it should be just as easy or easier for a team with a paid position in the company to comb through Miura's work and ensure what they are writing makes sense with the previous setup Miura created. That doesn't ensure a great story of course, but its a starting point for continuity, and only with respect to what the story and characters have established can you continue from those threads accurately. Its like they are trying to continue weaving a complex tapestry by cutting half the threads and tangling the others into a new pattern of their choosing, and its exceptionally messy and unprofessional, when a skilled storyteller could ideally continue the weave and introduce their new patterns into the whole artistically so it completes the scene. Absolutely amateurish and embarrassing.

They considered training a generative AI model with a large number of scenes drawn by Miura to help create drafts, but it wasn't viable so they're doing it the "traditional" way. [Yahoo News]

Also, no one has mentioned this yet, but I find their quick desperate attempt to use AI to replicate Miura’s art the most alarming indicator of all that the Continuation team is not passionate or competent. Imagine having such low respect for a master artist (and for yourself!) that you try to train an AI slop recombinant machine to replicate his art for you, rather than homaging it yourself as you are trained and hired to do.

Then again, in Miura’s fairly recent interview for the 30th anniversary of Berserk, he mentioned he only had his assistants help with unimportant backgrounds, never trees or landscapes, and definitely not characters, so I wonder how much practice they actually got drawing Miura’s complex compositions and characters. Like most great artists, it seems he wanted complete creative control over his work and knew how much it mattered.

Explains why the Continuation is so bad when you read Mori’s account of how he supervises Berserk by checking in with these same terrified assistants while they scramble for AI help that doesn’t work as well as they want it to (Go figure) and then attempt to study one of the greatest mangaka that ever lived to rush out the chapters on time for their publisher according to whoever is doing the nonsensical writing.