Hakusensha’s long running monthly manga publication Young Animal will announce in the January 2016 issue (being released this Friday, December 25 2015) that there is a new Berserk anime slated to debut some time next year. While it is not specifically confirmed whether it will be a film, series or OVA, the images provided so far show that the series’ resilient protagonist Guts is definitely in ‘Black Swordsman’ mode, meaning that the anime takes place sometime between the end of the ‘Golden Age’ arc and when he inherits the powerful but dangerous ‘Berserk armor’ that once belonged to the Skull Knight.
Based on what you can see below, along with the tagline indicating ‘sleepless nights shall begin’, my guess is that this will be an adaptation of the ‘Lost Children’ arc, which takes place shortly after the sacrifice of the Band of the Falcon that paved the way for Griffith to transform into Femto and becomes one of the God Hand. The teaser image shows Guts sleeping in a ruined building that is likely the abandoned windmill he took refuge in during the ‘Lost Children’ arc.
Some other information will be revealed in the January Young Animal as it regards the future of the series.
- NBC Universal is producing the new anime, and will reveal the first footage at this year’s Winter Comiket taking place from December 29-31 2015. This means that Warner Brothers is no longer involved as the head studio.
- The 1997 anime series will receive a new Blu-ray release of the 2012 HD remaster. It is slated to come out in April of 2016 for 18,000 yen (about $150 USD.)
- The manga will be going on hiatus until summer 2016, and it will be an irregularly published series again at that point. It was originally a series with irregular release, but had been getting monthly installments for the last half year or so.
I will admit that I’m a little bummed to hear that series’ creator Kentaro Miura is putting Berserk into hiatus once again, because in recent years the releases have been very sporadic with frequent extended breaks in between. But I don’t say this to disparage Miura-san, as I am a passionate fan of Berserk and am only downcast because I can’t help but want to see the story continue at as brisk a pace as possible. At any rate, the announcement of new anime featuring the Black Swordsman killing monsters in stories we’ve never seen adapted to the format is a big thrill for me! And if you want to see a larger image of Guts with his Dragonslayer, go ahead and visit the Berserk anime site here and check it out!
