Also: Manga to go on hiatus until summer, with series being published irregularly

The first 2016 issue of Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine (cover shown right) is announcing on Friday that a new anime adaptation project of Kentarou Miura's Berserk manga has been green-lit. NBC Universal will unveil the anime's first promotional video at its winter Comiket booth, which will run from December 29-31. The announcement did not note the format of the anime (TV, film, OAV, etc.).

Miura comments in the magazine that the anime project will depict Guts in his "Black Swordsman" appearance, which is only revealed in parts of the manga that go beyond any previously animated Berserk story, and is only briefly hinted at in the first and last episode of the 1997 television anime series.

The magazine also notes that the 1997 Berserk television anime series will get a newly priced Blu-ray Disc release with the 2012 HD remaster. The new boxset is slated for an April 20 release, and will cost 18,000 yen (about US$148).

In addition, Miura will put his Berserk manga on hiatus, with the next chapter coming in "around" summer next year. The manga will also then be published as an irregular series.

Miura had recently resumed the manga as a monthly series in July, after taking a break from Berserk in early 2014 to publish the six-chapter Gigantomakhia mini-series. Berserk returned to Young Animal in the eighth issue on April 11 last year, but then the manga went on hiatus again in June. It returned again in August, and went on hiatus again in September of last year.

Hakusensha published the 37th compiled book volume of Berserk in Japan in March 2013. Dark Horse Comics published the same volume in North America in December 2013. As of July, the manga has 27 million copies in print in Japan and 8 million copies in print overseas.

The manga inspired a new movie trilogy from Studio 4°C in 2012-2013 that Viz Media released in North America.

Embedded cover image via Yaraon!, Earlbox