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Miura's amazing panel framing

Reading Berserk, I was always amazed at Miura's cinematographic scene composition as if he had a camera in his head. From below to above, from above to below – dioramic or three dimensional drawings – I thought he must have incredible ability for viewing angles.

My thought was unsurprisingly confirmed by his comments in one of his interviews : "I can come up with a 3D composition in my head and draw it at any angle by turning it round and round"; "In technology class, I was ridicul...

Podcast #46: Understanding Griffith

I (Aazealh) had an idea for a post recently that was sparked by the misconceptions I've seen people have about Femto after his incarnation. That ranges from the belief (or hope) that he's really a nice person or is going to "regain his emotions" all the way to thinking he's masterminding everything and anything, will destroy the rest of the God Hand, and so on. I thought that'd make for an interesting podcast so I roped Walter into it!

Want more of the podcast? 2025-09-14 13:35:04 +0000 UTC View Post

Unpublished Guts illustration from 1992

Young Animal debuted in 1992 with a flagship series called "Japan", written by Buronson and drawn by Kentarou Miura. As Japan's serialization was wrapping up in YA #8, the magazine advertised the return of Berserk in issue #11.

What interests us is that they used an illustration to do so that, for whatever reason, didn't end up in the manga. It was however reused six months later... on a telephone card. In YA #2 of 1993, to mark the new year, 40 cards were offered by lottery among reade...

Podcast #45: Artbooks

Walter and Aazealh discuss all the Berserk artbooks (only featuring Miura's artwork) that have been released to date, and cheat by including a whole bunch of things that aren't really artbooks because otherwise it's a one and done.

Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.

Three pages removed from episode 133

Episode 133 of Berserk, titled クシャーン斥候① (Kushan Scouts (1)) was published in Young Animal #1 of 1999, which was released on Christmas day, 1998. It's a notable episode because it introduces the character of Isidro. It also sees the return of the Bakiraka under a new form, which we discover in the following episode is commanded by Silat.

While it's a great sequence from beginning to end, this particular episode is also noteworthy because its last three pages were omitted ...

Special Podcast: Walter's Berserk Musou review

We didn't have time to record an episode this month due to various circumstances.

Instead, from Walter's archives comes this review of Berserk Musou, known in the West as "Berserk and the Band of the Hawk", possibly the stupidest title ever conferred to a video game. See what he had to say about the last "real game" dedicated to Berserk, before the current era of cheap collaborations. Enjoy!

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A look at Animal House #3 of 1991, where Guts encounters the God Hand

Here is a look at Animal House's third issue for 1991. It was released at the end of January and features "REVENGE 6", which opens with Guts unconscious and at the mercy of the Count, and ends with the God Hand making their first appearance in the series. It's 59 pages long and features two color pages, both of which were included in the Illustrations File artbook that was released in 1996. It was later published in volume 3, where it was renamed "The Guardian Angels of Desire (4)".

Podcast #44: Raban & Owen

Forget Guts and Griffith, it's time to talk about Berserk's foremost male friendship: Raban and Owen's! In this episode, we go over their development throughout the series, the roles they played, and how they were present for some of the biggest moments of the story. We even touch upon what might have happened to them if Miura had continued the story.

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Podcast #43: The Splatter Platter 5

We're back with the fan favorite, the Splatter Platter! What are Walter and Aazealh hiding under their dish cover? Only one way to know.

Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.

Podcast #42: Formative anime and manga

Walter and Aazealh discuss their early exposure to anime and manga growing up, before they discovered Berserk, and how that shaped their perspectives.

Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.

Podcast #41: Berserk's influence

In this end of year podcast, Walter and Aazealh discuss Berserk's impact on other works, whether they're manga or video games. They cite a few examples of authors who've publically talked about their love for the series, and go over its popularity among creators in general.

Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.

Uncommon Guts illustration from the early days

Here is yet another Guts illustration that doesn't appear in the story proper. However this one was actually rescued: it serves as the splash illustration at the beginning of volume 2. In the magazine (January 1991 issue of Animal House), it was the title page for the last segment of volume 2, when Guts engages the Count. While it's not as rare as some others, I think it's worth highlighting ...

Charles, the apostle from the PlayStation 2 game

The second Berserk video game was released for the PlayStation 2 on October 7th, 2004, exclusively in Japan. It had some pretty enjoyable gameplay, but instead of a completely original story like for the Dreamcast game, it took place between volumes 22 and 27 with a story that was very liberally reworked to accomodate the video game medium.

Charles' story

While he didn't create an entirely new setting for the game, Miura did contribute an original story that runs...

Variants of the title over the years

This isn't meant to be comprehensive as there have been a bunch of small variations, but the Berserk title "logo" went through three main iterations in the magazine over the course of the series. The first one was similar to the old volume covers. It lasted all the way through the Golden Age and until "the Black Swordsman returned".

Then, I guess to celebrate said return, they used a logo with a Dragon Slayer (sort of) in it. That lasted for a bit, but quickly, within the Lost Children...

A Berserk ring from 1999

Here is a silver ring that was that awarded to 10 readers of Young Animal in 1999 as part of a giveaway lottery. A number of rings were produced by a jeweler for the Great Berserk Exhibition, but before that they were quite rare. And I believe this one may have been the first.

Regarding the size, I believe the internal diameter is about 20 mm, so close to Size 11 on the US scale and 64-65 on the European scale. I haven't measured it precisely though. The text on the side just says "Bers...

Unpublished Guts illustration from 1990

When Berserk's serialization debuted, previews for upcoming releases were often new illustrations rather than existing ones, like it became the case later on. That makes sense given that the series was young and there wasn't a wealth of well-known pictures to pull from.

What's interesting is that a number of these previews never actually made it into the story proper, so they only survive in that form. Here is one from Animal House #8 of 1990, before the third issue of the series was pu...

News - Late 2024 and 2025

Hi everybody,

Sorry for the lack of updates this past month, Puella has had a serious health issue that is taking time to recover. But we're back on schedule: a new part of the Persona interview was just published and more is to come. I'm also preparing a few treats for the rest of the month, since this is the holiday season after all.

We're about halfway done with the Persona inte...

Podcast #40: Fantasia

The most consequential event that happens in the world of Berserk is no doubt the advent of Fantasia, a new world where mystical creatures suddenly cohabit with humans. It reset a lot of things in the series and prepared the terrain for its final act. Walter and Aazealh go over its significance to them and how they perceived it when it was first published, what they think Miura meant to do with it in the future, what they would have wanted to see, and more.

Want more of the podcast? 2024-11-09 02:34:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Cookies from the Big Berserk Exhibition

The original Tokyo venue for the Big Berserk Exhibition in September 2021 had some food items for sale, notably a Charlotte-themed Baumkuchen cake, beherit-themed "egg bread", and some cookies with special prints on them. You had to be there to experience these as they were discontinued afterwards. While foreigners couldn't attend the exhibition...

Podcast #39: The "Splatter Platter" 4

Watch out! Here comes a new edition of the Splatter Platter! Walter and Aazealh have each selected three scenes from Berserk that the other has to give his thoughts about, on the spot and without preparation.

Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes. 

Draw Guts in 3 easy steps!

See? Easy! Now it's your turn. 😜

Alright so more seriously this is from the old "Berserk corner" on Young Animal's website circa 1999. It shows the progression between basic storyboard, polished pencil copy and finalized inked drawing. The picture is taken from episode "Cracks in the Blade", in volume 17.

The reason I'm sharing it is because the website is long gone and the Wayback Mac...

Rare Puck telephone card

This is a collectible telephone card that was awarded to Young Animal readers through a lottery. It was issued in May 1999. I'm not sure how many were available and I'm not willing to rummage for the issue of the magazine that would have that information at the moment, sorry. It usually ranged between 50 and 200.

This card was used to advertise a "manga challenge" that was running every month in the magazine at that time. What makes it especially interesting to us is that the il...