A while back I spoke about Studio Eclypse, a band of Berserk fans paying tribute to the late, great Kentaro Miura by giving the manga the faithful adaptation it deserves. Berserk: The Black Swordsman promises to skip the Golden Age arc already covered by 2/3 of existing Berserk adaptations on focus on the titular Black Swordsman arc, with no censorship and no CGI. The project is being supported through crowdfunding, and Studio Eclypse have a couple of trailers and teasers on their YouTube channel ahead of the scheduled release of the first episode next year.
However, not everyone is happy about the project, namely the company that owns the rights to the Berserk IP. Hakushensha, who've been publishing the series since it started serialization in Animal House magazine in 1989, before changing to Young Animal in 1992. Hakusensha released a statement regarding the fan animation, which said:
"Dear Readers,
The animation of Berserk is produced by the following X account ( x.com/studio_eclypse ) and on the website ( studio-eclypse.com ) - No permission has been given by the copyright holder, Kentaro Miura (Studio Gaga). Additionally, the footage used is unlicensed.
Hakusensha Co., Ltd."
It goes without saying that Miura couldn't give permission to Studio Eclypse on account of being dead for 3 years. The "footage used" they're referencing is likely the manga panels in the above video, used to illustrate how close the animation is to the original. To be fair, unlike some companies at least they aren't threatening to sue Eclypse or hitting them with a DMCA notice, and maybe this whole notice thing is just a formality. Still, Hakusensha have had the chance to make sure Berserk fans got a good adaptation on several occasions and messed up in different ways each time. Maybe they should learn to trust the fans on this one.
What do you guys think of this? Are you looking forward to The Black Swordsman? Drop your thoughts below!
