Skullknight.NET posts
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Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 4 part 3
This post is now available to Silver & Bronze tiers.Page 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 3: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 4: Part 1 | Part 2Interviewer: For drawing, are you aware of having made specific efforts?Miura: I’m sure most mangaka who are excellent at drawing would just say this: they all like to draw and they become more and more skilled as they continue to draw. For example, they're always noticing...
Going to the Berserk exhibition in Sapporo
As you guys know, Grail, Gobolatula, Walter and I went to see the Great Berserk Exhibition in Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan. Why this city? Because it was the first showing of the exhibition after the Japanese government finally reopened its borders. We went in January 2023, so it was the heart of winter there, and temperatures ranged from -5 °C to -10 °C during the day (25 °F to 15 °F).We had the time of our ...
Bonus card included with German volume 41
Skullknight.net member Benoît recently registered only to spread the word that a rare illustration of Guts was included with the German version of volume 41, published by Panini. Of course I was intrigued and promptly ordered a copy myself.Note that it isn't never-seen-before, since it had been included in Young Animal's commemorative issue for Kentarou Miura, which was magazine #18 of 2021. Anyway, the card is standard sized (145 mm x 1...
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 4 part 2
This post is now available to Silver & Bronze tiers.Page 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 3: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 4: Part 1Interviewer: How do you divide the workload between what you draw yourself and what you entrust to your assistants?Miura: Basically, I precisely create the draft of the poses (1) in relation to the buildings, and I hand them over. For background characters that have already been shown or...
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 4 part 1
This post is now available to Silver & Bronze tiers.Page 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 3: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 4Guts’ armor, pleasant but painfulInterviewer: Then (for the next question), please tell us about your daily working schedule. They say you drew with an inverted day and night cycle all the way through the "Golden Age arc"…Miura: (Now I’m) a bit more of a "day type" than dur...
YA showing off international editions of Berserk
In February 1997, Young Animal published a little showcase of various international editions of Berserk. Taiwan and Hong Kong are featured, as well as Spain, Thailand, France and Italy. It would be six more years until Dark Horse picked it up for release in the USA!
Fun drawing from a doujinshi cover
When we visited the Berserk exhibition earlier this month, we saw an original drawing (or more likely a copy of it) Miura had made for the cover of a doujinshi he released with his friends in late 2004. This reminded me that I had never posted that cover, so here it is.The one displayed in the exhibition is in black and white, but the actual cover is colored as you can see. As reminder, it's in that doujinshi that you can find four illustrati...
Podcast: The Great Berserk Exhibition, day 4
Grail, Gobolatula, Walter and Aazealh recently flew to the northernmost island of Japan – Hokkaidō – to attend the first installment of the Great Berserk Exhibition taking place since Japan reopened its border to foreign tourists.This podcast was recorded on our last day at the exhibition. These will be posted publicly on Skullknight.net along with written impressions, but they are being made available to patrons first as a mark of our appre...
Podcast: The Great Berserk Exhibition, day 3
Grail, Gobolatula, Walter and Aazealh recently flew to the northernmost island of Japan – Hokkaidō – to attend the first installment of the Great Berserk Exhibition taking place since Japan reopened its border to foreign tourists.This podcast was recorded after our third day at the exhibition! These will be posted publicly on Skullknight.net along with written impressions, but they are being made available to patrons first as a mark of our a...
Podcast: The Great Berserk Exhibition, day 2
Grail, Gobolatula, Walter and Aazealh recently flew to the northernmost island of Japan – Hokkaidō – to attend the first installment of the Great Berserk Exhibition taking place since Japan reopened its border to foreign tourists.This podcast was recorded after our second visit to the exhibition! These will be posted publicly on Skullknight.net along with written impressions, but they are being made available to patrons first as a mark of ou...
Podcast: The Great Berserk Exhibition, day 1
Grail, Gobolatula, Walter and Aazealh recently flew to the northernmost island of Japan – Hokkaidō – to attend the first installment of the Great Berserk Exhibition taking place since Japan reopened its border to foreign tourists.We went there four times, and recorded a podcast after each day to document our thoughts. These will be posted publicly on Skullknight.net along with written impressions, but they are being made available to patrons...
Learning Japanese with Berserk: Hydra
After Norse mythology, Greek mythology! In episode 356, other than the word Jötunn for giants, we learn about the word for "hydra" from Raban. One such creature had first been seen in episode 305, but not been named. Miura uses the kanji 多頭蛇 for it, alongside the furigana ヒドラ (HIDORA). The word is composed of two parts: 多頭 (たとう), which means "many-headed" in this case, and 蛇 which means "snake" or ...
What sacrificial ceremonies are actually called in Berserk
The sacrificial ceremonies of the God Hand aren't without a name.While we usually just refer to it as "the apostle ceremony", Void uses a specific name when the Count gets his second chance in volume 3: 降魔の儀, pronounced こうま の ぎ (KOUMA NO GI). Notably, Miura added furigana to specify the pronunciation (KOUMA and not GOUMA) and therefore the meaning of it (unrelated to buddhism).In English, the best translation I can t...
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 2 (part 3)
Now available to Silver & Bronze patronsPage 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Part 2 | Interviewer: I see, you mean that with digital, it's impossible for something to be created unexpectedly.Miura: A part of analog work was about how to use accidents, andthat was also the case when penning in black and white manuscripts. Digital is inflexible because the pen-work is done under total control.Interviewer: You started drawing digital...
Learning Japanese with Berserk: Jötunn
Episode 356's title is 巨人 (normally pronounced きょじん, "KYOJIN"), which means "giants". Miura added the furigana ヨトゥン to indicate that it should be pronounced "YOTUN". It it a reference to Norse mythology, which features a type of beings called Jötunn (plural: Jötnar). As was often the case, while Miura applies a mythological name to give some color to Berserk's world, there's no clear relat...
Ending the year with a "bang!"
What better way to celebrate the end of the year than with one of Miura-sensei's illustrations! This one is sadly very rare as it was only printed on a telephone card, and there aren't many going around. It's an homage to Akira, the legendary sci-fi manga by Katsuhiro Ōtomo, and the incident that destroyed Tokyo in that story.Quite a fitting tribute for the end of the millennium! And of course here it's reinterpreted with Puck in...
Learning Japanese with Berserk: Dwarf
We get a hint of dwarves or similar spirits in Berserk as early as volume 14, when the Skull Knight explains to Guts that elves (妖精) once dwelled in Godot's cave. But it's only at the end of volume 26, in episode 226, that Schierke drops the name when she explains how the Berserk's armor was created.She uses the word 鉱精, which Miura created, along with ドワーフ as furigana, giving us the pronunciation DOWA–FU (dwarf). Th...
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 2 (part 2)
Now available to Bronze & Silver tiersPage 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Interviewer: I’d like to know how you design your color manuscripts and through what process they’re created.Miura: It's not that complicated. Since the color illustrations of manga are supposed to be used for tankōbon or magazine covers, what can be drawn is limited. Because they include a logo and title among other things, the available space is unex...
Podcast #23: Shizuya Wazarai's tribute to Miura
Walter and Aazealh give their thoughts on Wazarai's heartfelt tribute (Part 1 | Part 2) to his friend, on how it differs from Mori's and reveals what kind of a man Miura was.Something I (Aaz) forgot to say while we recorded is that, much like Wazarai, I wish I had written to Miura more over the years, and been more forthcoming in my letters.Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.
A look at Animal House #2, 1992
Here's another issue of "Monthly Animal House", the magazine that came before "Young Animal". This is the February 1992 issue, where the first segment of volume 5 was first published. I wanted to show the index page this time because it highlights the simple numbering system they used.The title page of the manga itself goes with a relatively fancy subdivision name: 戦慄のヒーロー伝奇 REVENGE15. It translates to "t...
Episode 371 translation
Fantasia arcElf island chapterLight going out on a narrow dark night [not sure about the first kanji, it's too small and blurry] Page 1 Roderick : Open up! Roderick: Guts!! Schierke : Guts… Page 3 Schierke: Memories of battles… Schierke: Of Guts… and the sword Page 4 Schierke: Guts! Page 5 Schierke: Could it be… Guts…!? Schierke: Gut… Page 6 Guts: Everything (I did)… was in vain… Page 7 Schierke: …ts!! Ivalera...
Drinking the same tea that Miura once served to Nico Nicholson
Nico Nicholson told us in her tribute about the そば茶 (buckwheat tea) that Miura offered her when she visited his studio in 2010. Actually, even back then she had drawn him holding that tea during her coverage of Young Animal’s popular mangaka. At the time she had joked that she mistook him for a mere assistant at first.She concluded her tribute by saying that she would always treasure the memories of the smell of paint in his studio and th...
Learning Japanese with Berserk: Fantasia
Volume 34 ends with a bang: Ganishka explodes, unleashing the Great Wave of the Astral World. Once it's over, we see that the entire world has been profoundly transformed. That last episode of the volume is titled 幻造世界, with ファンタジア (FANTAJIA) as furigana to indicate how it should be pronounced. Two episodes later, the same word is then revealed to be the title of the new arc.幻造世界 essentially means "the world cr...
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 2 (part 1)
Now available to Bronze & Silver tiersFirst part | Second part | Third part Page 2Interviewer: By the way, what did you ask for this "Big Berserk exhibition"?Miura: I've entrusted all of the management and selection of drawings to the team. However, I can guarantee (the quality of) the contents on display since no drawing was selected carelessly. To be honest, an exhibition is too good for me… *laughs* If there's one thing I hop...
Learning Japanese with Berserk: Piskie
Puck's an elf (エルフ), but not just that! In volume 24, Ivalera drops the "shocking" revelation that he's a Piskie, like her, a subcategory of elves that are related to the wind elementals. It's written ピスキー (PISUKII) in Japanese, and refers to Celtic folklore.The word is more commonly spelled "pixie" in modern English, but Miura chose to use the original spelling from South West England. It can be spelled ...
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 3 (part 3)
This post is now available to Silver & Bronze tiers.Page 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 3: Part 1 | Part 2 | Interviewer: Actions where we feel Guts’ weight are definitely exceptional compared to today’s fantasy.Miura: Regarding how Guts’ sword fights are different from those of other works, it's intended for a reason. First, I don’t know about Western swordsmanship, so I thought about what I could do ...
Podcast #22: The Splatter Platter 2
The Splatter Platter is back! Walter and Aazealh each choose three moments from Berserk and submit them to the other, who then has to give his thoughts on them without preparation. What will it be this time? Listen and find out!Want more of the podcast? Click here for the public episodes.
Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 3 (part 2)
This post is now available to Silver & Bronze tiers.Page 1: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 2: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Page 3: Part 1 | Interviewer: How do you work on dividing panels for your manuscripts or on the composition of your drawings? Especially, Guts' actions are divided in a way that gives them an incredible impact.Miura: I'm not especially conscious of that, since I draw as I feel. When I was in university, I used to join the ma...
Evolution of Dark Horse sales of Berserk volumes
Dark Horse's CEO, Mike Richardson, revealed in an interview published on November 10, 2022 that they've sold almost five million copies of Berserk to date. That prompted me to compile all the numbers they've given over the years to track the sales progression.Here is the result, which I am reposting from SKnet for your convenience: - In November 2022, Dark Horse's CEO mentions having sold almost 5 million copies of Berserk.- In Ap...
Learning Japanese with Berserk: Wise Man
In volume 18, Farnese goes to the chapel at the top of the Tower of Condemnation to have a talk with Mozgus. He tells her a story about a sage, said to have been imprisoned there by Gaizeric in the distant past. The word used in Japanese is 賢者, pronounced けんじゃ (KENJA). In English, its meaning is that of a "wise person" or a "sage".What has made its use in Berserk tantalizing for the fans is that it's only utilized ...
