Kentaro Miura’s Berserk might be one of the greatest Seinen titles in history, but the series cannot catch a break in terms of anime adaptation. Berserk is famous for not having a decent anime adaptation, and this has disappointed fans for years who have been hoping for the series to get the fame and recognition it deserves within the anime world.
And when the fans decided to take matters into their own hands, they got shut down by the authorities who hold the legal rights to the intellectual property of the Berserk manga series. This was witnessed during the ongoing controversy of Studio Eclypse, the studio that was creating the fan animation of the Berserk story called Berserk: The Black Swordsman fan animation.
After going through a lot of struggle and tussle with the Japanese publishing company Hakushensha, it looks like Studio Eclypse has finally lost. This is because no new update about the anime series has been reported in such a long time, thus bringing another disappointment to the fans who are just waiting for a decent Berserk anime series.
Studio Eclypse’s battle for approval of Berserk fan animation
Studio Eclypse is an unofficial studio comprising fans from all over the world who help in the development of high-quality fan animations for the anime community. Their entire motive is to get different series the adaptations that they actually deserved rather than the one they got. Their biggest recent project was Attack on Titan: Requiem that came out in January this year.
In October 2023, the studio announced a new Berserk fan animation project called Berserk: The Black Swordsman, which was aiming for a release in the summer of 2025. The project got a lot of hype and appreciation from the fans as it was going to adapt the Berserk narrative that was neglected in the previous adaptations by official studios.
However, in September last year, Hakusensha, the publisher of the Berserk manga series, issued a statement on X claiming that they had not given any kind of authorization for an anime adaptation of Berserk. They also pointed out that the trailer/teaser videos shared by the studio were displayed without permission, thus becoming a big controversy in the end.
To our readers#BERSERK #ベルセルク pic.twitter.com/EgiIvmzxmG
— ベルセルク公式 (@berserk_project) September 11, 2024
A few days later, Studio Eclypse issued a statement of their own claiming that although they had to take down the videos and announcements about Berserk fan anime adaptation, they will work on getting legal permission from the authorities and then return with an anime adaptation. This still gave Berserk fans a little bit of hope that they might still get a decent adaptation.
Berserk fans are living in false hope
While fans are eagerly waiting for the Berserk manga to get a decent anime adaptation through Studio Eclypse, they are certainly living in false hope. This is because the Studio has not yet made any official statement about Berserk: The Black Swordsman even after so long. This has caused panic and disappointment among Berserk fans.
The last statement from them came in January when they released the Attack on Titan Requiem trailer and claimed that they might have more news about the series in the coming months. However, since then, Studio Eclypse has been silent about the Berserk fan animation, which raises big questions about whether or not Hakushensha will allow them to make the anime adaptation.
Considering the strictness and legality of the copyright laws, it is next to impossible for an “unofficial” studio to get approval for a fan animation. Plus, the gigantic stature of the Berserk manga series makes things even more difficult for a studio like Eclypse.
Berserk manga is available to read on the Dark Horse Comics Digital website.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
