Summary

• Studio Taka's Berserk motion comic captures Miura's legacy faithfully, with stunning animation quality.
• Each new episode shows vast improvement in animation, capturing the essence of Guts and the story.
• The motion comic is worth the wait, with plans to speed up production based on viewer support.

Kentaro Miura's Berserk carries its creator's legacy thanks to loving care by Kouji Mori and Studio Gaga. Still, one fan project has been adapting the manga as a motion comic for years. Studio Taka, a team that recently amassed 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, has been slowly adapting the earliest chapters of the original Black Swordsman Arc into a motion comic since December 25, 2018.

The fan adaptation is arguably the best representation of Miura's legacy from the original pages, simply by bringing those pages to life in the Berserk motion comic. Berserk has been circulating in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine since 1989, with its earliest chapters typically not adapted even by the beloved 1997 anime.

The Berserk manga features Guts descending into the most violent depths of his rage before the Golden Age and Conviction Arcs, making it challenging to make him relatable to viewers. But Studio Taka does a beautiful job of creating a Berserk motion comic that, even after four episodes, continues to show its rapid improvements and strict dedication to quality.

Berserk: The Animated Manga is the Purest Interpretation Yet by Fans at Studio Taka

Each New Episode Shows Vast Improvement in the Motion Comic's Quality

The first episode of Studio Taka's Berserk animated manga project has been out for five years, garnering an impressive following with 1.6 million views. Despite the slow pace of the story being rendered, the phenomenal animation quality makes up for it each time, with characters having increasingly expressive faces and believable lip-syncing fitting an English dub. It's increasingly clear that the series favors dedication to the source material above all else, with only mild liberties taken, such as highly sophisticated combat animations in Episode #4, to make the Berserk animated manga fan series truly pop.

Berserk's motion comic begins modestly, with stiff leg movement in the first episode. However, as it refines itself in subsequent installments, Studio Taka's team seizes ownership of their take on Miura's classic. Episode #2 is where the series begins to hit its stride, with genre-appropriate music helping to step out of Susumu Hirasawa's shadow. From the palpable atmosphere, Guts' slaying of the Snake Lord, and Puck's spirited performances, viewers will be hooked. However, the series improves vastly in Episodes #3 and #4, with ambiance, fluid action, and profound cinematic depth greater than the average motion comic.

Berserk's Motion Comic is Ambitious, but the Creators Want to Shorten the Wait

Episode #5 Before 2025: Pipe-Dream or Possibility?

Recently discussed in the titular channel's "The Future of Studio Taka" video, the team has reorganized recently to ramp up production drastically. While this means potentially more of the gorgeous Berserk fan-created animated manga series, they're also keenly aware of how much support the project needs. As it is a fan production, the Berserk motion comic is independently supported by its viewers, meaning the more exposure it gets, the more quickly it'll make increasingly high-quality work.

Studio Taka's name is a clear nod to Griffith's Band of the Hawk/Falcon ("taka" in Japanese), evident from their original Reddit handle, u/FandubOfTheHawks.

While the fan production has still made mild cuts to the Berserk source material, it remains one of the most faithful, high-quality adaptations to date that's released anything beyond trailers. It also supersedes the manga vs. anime debate by simply fusing the two, showcasing Kentaro Miura's artwork as it evolves with each passing story. With enough support, the Berserk motion comic could adapt the rest of the Black Swordsman Arc and perhaps eventually push into fleshing out the Conviction or Millennium Falcon Arcs in a way the 2016 anime never could.