Coinciding with the opening of the Great Berserk Exhibition in 2021, Prime1 Studio launched a gimmicky "Dragon Slayer body pillow", or as they call it in Japanese: ドラゴンころし 抱き枕クッション (DORAGON KOROSHI DAKIMAKURA CUSHION). It's being sold for 8000 yen ($54 at the current exchange rate) both at the exhibition and by Prime1 directly.
But you may wonder who would buy this sort of ...
2022-11-03 17:49:24 +0000 UTC View PostNow available to Bronze & Silver patrons.
Page 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Page 2: Part 1...
The Chapter of the Elf island opens in volume 35 with Guts' group getting stranded on a lone, desolate island after an encounter with a ghost ship. It demonstrates the dangers of the new world our protagonists find themselves in. During the course of this little adventure, they meet Isma, a member of a race of beings known as Merrows.
In Japanese, the word used is 人魚 with メロウ as furigana. 人魚, which is normally pronounced にんぎょ (NINGYO), simply means mermaid or merma...
2022-10-31 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Here is a self-portrait Miura drew in 1998. It was used to illustrate an interview about the upcoming Dreamcast game (released in 1999) that was published in Dreamcast magazine at the time. It's not a very extensive interview, and it's shared with the producer and director of the game, but it's on our list of things to translate down the line.
Miura did a number of funny self-portraits over the years to go in place of having his picture taken. A practice not uncommon among mangaka. This...
2022-10-25 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Berserk gets a new dynamic in volume 22 with the return of Femto in the physical world, having been incarnated into a new Griffith. This starts a new story arc called 千年帝国の鷹 with ミレニアム・ファルコン added as furigana in Japanese. In English, we follow the furigana and simply call it the Millennium Falcon arc.
As you might have guessed, the name is an homage to Han Solo's ship from Star Wars. Miura was a fan of the original trilogy, being in the demo...
2022-10-23 17:10:08 +0000 UTC View PostFantasia arc
Elf island chapter
Refugees on the western sea
Page 1
Serpico: Lady Farnese!!
Serpico: Excuse me!
Puck: Picorin, there!
Page 2
Serpico: Lady Farnese…!
Serpico: Schierke also remains unharmed!
Ivalera: Hey, where have you been?!
Puck: Night flying
Farnese: …Serpico…
Page 3
Second part of our review of Kouji Mori's tribute to Kentarou Miura, who was his best friend for 40 years and to whom he owes his life. Mori goes over the plans they had made for their late life and the manga about their life Miura was pushing him to do.
Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.
2022-10-11 08:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Here's a relatively rare piece. It's a depiction of a funny scene with Isidro and Puck from the end of episode 238 (The Boy Under the Moonlight), as they fall to sleep before the Kushan familiars attack. It's at the beginning of volume 28. Puck is sleeping like a log... on Isidro's face, and poor Isidro is having a horrible night as a result.
This scene was recreated by Art of War in 2010, but it wasn't made publicly available. It was only offered to their "platinium members", meaning t...
2022-10-10 11:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostNow available to Bronze & Silver tiers
First part
Second part
Interviewer: Looking back on what you have drawn so far, can you feel some developments or changes in you?
Miura: Regarding my drawings, (I get to) to draw as I want… no, that’s not true. Maybe noth...
Do you have any Berserk or even SKnet related questions? If so, please write them as comments below or send them by private message and we'll address them in a future update!
2022-10-07 08:55:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Since the recut version of the 2012 movie trilogy – the so-called Memorial Edition – is now airing, I figured I'd highlight a scene they did not feature but that is meaningful to the story. In volume 4, when Casca warms Guts' body as he lays delirious, he has a nightmare about Gambino and Donovan. In this feverish state, he briefly wakes up and feels her presence, only taking note of her eyes.
What he says in Japanese is 黒い瞳, pronounced くろい ひとみ (KUROI HITOMI). In...
2022-10-05 09:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
From the archives, here's one of Berserk's earlier issues, back when it was serialized in "Monthly Animal House", the magazine that came before "Young Animal". As you can see on the title page, this one is REVENGE 10, which was renamed "Golden Age (2)" in the volume (it's at the beginning of volume 4).
It was Berserk's 12th release, since the "Revenge" series started after "The Black Swordsman" and "The Brand". And it was published in Animal House's September 1991 issue, which came out ...
2022-09-30 21:25:16 +0000 UTC View PostFor easy reference, here is an index for the translations of all the tributes published in the "Messages to Kentarou Miura" booklet that was included with the memorial issue of Young Animal, released on September 10, 2021.
Tamami Momose
Part 1
Part 2
Ena Moriyam...
Now available to Bronze & Silver tiers
First part
Interviewer: When you made your debut, did you expect “Berserk” to be a work that would grow this much?
Miura: No, I don’t think even a manga god could have easily envisioned that he would continue to serialize a work even after 30 years. Actually, even when I was young, I never pictured “the type of m...
2022-09-25 21:53:08 +0000 UTC View PostIn this episode, Walter & Aazealh go over Kouji Mori's tribute to his best friend, Kentarou Miura. This tribute is both the most expansive as well as one of the most personal ones, going over a friendship that spanned 40 years. In fact it's big enough that we're splitting our commentary in two. This is part one!
Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes. 2022-09-19 17:42:49 +0000 UTC View Post
The existence of elementals in Berserk is revealed in volume 24, while Guts' group stays at Flora's place. Four elements are initially presented, corresponding to the four classical elements of the European tradition (dating back to ancient Greece). Their names and symbols are derived from the writings of Paracelsus and are associated with Alchemy.
In Japanese, the word "elemental" uses the kanji 元素霊 with エレメンタル added as furigana.
THE FOUR CLASSICAL ELEME...
2022-09-18 15:21:45 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a unique autograph Kentarou Miura gave somebody a long time ago. I don't have any information about its provenance anymore unfortunately, but it's almost certainly from before 2000. It may have been a special prize in Young Animal.
What's rather special about it is that it was done on a telephone card, and we can even see what he penciled in before drawing the final thing with a marker....
2022-09-13 10:58:02 +0000 UTC View PostFantasia arc
Elf island chapter
Disappearance on the arc island
Note: The title actually refers to 'bubbles' or 'foam', like with soapy water, and to how that can quickly vanish. "Arc" refers to the crescent shape of what remains of Skellig.
Page 1
Schierke: …uts! Where are you!?
Schierke: At least… At least please reply…!
Schierke: Guts!! Guuuuts!!
Ivalera
2022-09-09 12:03:07 +0000 UTC
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Now available to Silver and Bronze tiers.
Miura Kentarou-sensei passed away in May 2021 due to an acute aortic dissection. This interview is about what Miura-sensei looked back on from "his 30 years (of artwork)" in the fall of the previous year. To deliver his attitude, always enthusiastically engaged in creating manga, we’re boldly publishing it as it was recorded at the time.
---------------
30 years that flew by
Inte...
Kelpies are originally beings from Scottish folklore. A kelpie is usually depicted as a stunningly beautiful white horse that seduces humans into sitting on its back, then plunges back into the river or lake from which it came, drowning its victims. Miura kept the basic concept alongside the name, but associated it with his own design, a creative mix between a pony and a frog.
The Japanese word used in Berserk is ケルピー (KERUPI—) and it's applied as furigana on 川馬, literally...
2022-08-29 22:18:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Miura didn't just add pages for the volume release from time to time, he sometimes changed or removed a page from an episode too. This one was removed from episode 167 (collected in volume 21). It was originally the episode's first page.
The reason for its removal isn't clear, but it could be because it interrupted the flow of the story by showing Guts' attack again, but from his perspective. Or Miura may have judged it not up to his standards. Either way, it was excised, but remains an...
2022-08-24 21:58:40 +0000 UTC View PostThis marks the end of the tributes to Miura. I hope they will have been as touching for you to read as they were for me to translate.
Part 1 of this translation can be found here
Page 03
Momose: Mi..Miura-sensei～
Miura: Sorry for the lateness.
Momose: Thank you very much～
Miura: Most of all, (I’m happy) you like it.
Momose: Please...
We recorded this podcast directly following the previous one, where he had some drinks while we talked. We are therefore slightly buzzed as we go over the cultural works that marked our childhoods, be it novels, comic books, TV series, movies or video games —and how they prepared us to fall in love with Berserk.
The booze also means we missed a bunch of stuff, or at least I (Aaz) did, like Jules Verne, whose entire works I read as a kid, or H.P. Lovecraft and Philip K. Dick, which mad...
2022-08-21 11:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostFantasia arc
Elf island chapter
Gnawers
Page 1
Evil spirits: Sacrifice… san!!
Evil spirits: Sacrifice…
Evil spirits: …Reply (to us)!
Evil spirits: Sacrifice…
Evil spirits: Sacrifice…
Note: The spirits are using the suffix "-san" even though they refer to Guts as a sacrifice, which is peculiar as it indicates politeness.
Page 2
I've posted about the name "Idea of Evil" before, going over how it is formed and what it means. But the word イデア (IDEA) shows up in two other places in Berserk, and it's applied as furigana to a different word than in 魔の源形 (Idea of Evil).
The first instance where it shows up, it's only in Katakana. That's in episodes 163, 164 and 165 (located at the end of volume 20), which are...
2022-08-10 00:47:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Berserk had dedicated fans in Japan long before the series was even known in the West. In the early days, some of these fans even made fanzines, like Berserk Freaks, for which three fans visited Miura in his workshop, interviewed him and took some pictures of him that are still widely used on the Internet today (without credit, of course).
Among those fanzines was the "Berserk Handbook" series....
2022-08-05 22:10:28 +0000 UTC View Post
Just saw this on Twitter and I thought it was noteworthy. The Berserk exhibition that's about to open up in Nagoya will feature unpublished creature sketches Miura made for D.RI.F.T. It'll be the first time they're ever shown.
D.RI.F.T is an animation project Miura helped with graciously that didn't end up being made. More information about it can be found i...
2022-08-04 09:48:09 +0000 UTC View PostThis post is now open to Bronze & Silver patrons.
To Miura-sensei
Page 01
About 23 years ago, I was kindly charged with drawing a “postrecording report” manga for Kempuu Denki Berserk.
Miura: I’m Miura.
Cool guy !!
Miura-sensei
This led me to have a great opportunity to meet Miura-sensei.
In volume 25, while helping Schierke protect the town of Enoch, Guts is confronted by a new fantastical enemy: an ogre. In Japanese: オーグル (ŌGURU). As Miura tended to do, he used a spelling reflecting the pronunciation of the name in its original language (French). In English, it would have been オーガ (ŌGA).
オーグル is used as furigana on the kanji 巨鬼. It's a word Miura made up for the occasion, composed of 巨 (KYO) meaning large, and 鬼 (ONI or KI), which can me...
2022-07-30 21:46:14 +0000 UTC View Post
In July 2008 was released Gackpoid (がくっぽいど), a voice pack for the singing voice synthesizer software Vocaloid (ボーカロイド), created by Yamaha. Gackpoid is one of many third party extensions created for Vocaloid over the years. The most famous voice and virtual singer associated with Vocaloid is Hatsune Miku, which you may have heard of.
Anyway, Gackpoid was developed by a Japanese company called "Internet Corporation" (株式会社インターネット), and wh...
2022-07-26 19:24:52 +0000 UTC View Post