Ask John: Will There Be More Berserk?

Question:
Is there ever going to be more episodes of Berserk? The ending was left kind of open and never said what happened to Guts, Griffith, or Caska. I heard there was talk of an OVA to complete the series, is this true?

Answer:
The 25 episode Kenpu Denki Berserk animation aired on late night Japanese TV between October 7, 1997 and March 31, 1998. The series earned unusually high ratings for its timeslot- higher ratings than contemporary late night shows including Outlaw Star and Vampire Miyu, but was still a late night show with a very limited target audience and very limited commercial potential. The TV series ending, which has been steadily criticized by American fans for years, was extended the year after its initial broadcast with the release of the Japanese Dreamcast game “Kenpu Denki Berserk: Sennen Teikoku no Taka Hen Sousitubana no Shou,” released in Japan on December 16, 1999. This Dreamcast game continued the TV series story, but still did not provide a resolution to Gutts’ conflict with Griffith. (This video game was released in America on March 16, 2000 under the title “Sword of the Berserk.”)

In April 2002, nearly four years after the Berserk animation had ended on Japanese television, Media Blasters announced at the Anime Central convention that Japanese production studio OLM was considering the possibility of producing more Berserk animation. At that time, it was hinted that new animation would have to be produced in an OAV format because the next chapter of the Berserk story was simply too violent for adaptation as television animation. Now, almost a year later, it can only be assumed that OLM has decided against progressing with new Berserk animation. In the nearly 5 years since the Berserk television series ended on Japanese television, there has never been a confirmed report that new Berserk animation was scheduled for production, and there has never even been widespread rumor in Japan of plans for more animation. While the Berserk manga has been a consistent bestseller in Japanese bookstores, the animation was simply never successful enough in Japan to insure a second series. There’s always a possibility that strong demand from the American market may lead Media Blasters to encourage the production of more Berserk animation, but at the present time such a hope looks remote.