Information
Type: Manga
Volumes: Unknown
Chapters: Unknown
Status: Publishing
Published: Nov 26, 1990 to ?
StatisticsScore: 9.041 (scored by 2780 users)
Ranked: #12
Popularity: #17
Members: 4,421 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action fantasy horror seinen |
SynopsisGuts, known as the Black Swordsman, seeks sanctuary from the demonic forces that persue him and his woman, and also vengeance against the man who branded him as an unholy sacrifice. Aided only by his titanic strength, skill and sword, Guts must struggle against his bleak destiny, all the while fighting with a rage that might strip him of his humanity. Berserk is a dark and brooding story of outrageous swordplay and ominous fate, in the theme of Shakespeare's MacBeth.
Guts, the Black Swordsman, wanders around in a medieval world slaying demons as they are attracted to a demonic mark on his neck. To his help he has inhuman strength gained from a harsh childhood lived with mercenaries, a gigantic sword, an iron prosthetic left hand and the elf Puck. In his search for vengeance on the one who gave him the mark, he meets many interesting persons and creatures, whom all is affected by him in one way or another. |
Related MangaAdaptation: Berserk
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A deep and interesting story, buckets of blood and gore and brilliant characters is what awaits in both Berserk and BotI. As well as great art and naturally, plenty of sword fighting.
Despite the difference in drawing style and adult content (i.e. sexual material of Berserk) these two mangas have a distinct similarity when it comes to atmosphere. They both sport a definite anti-hero, gore, beautiful characters and a great story. I could honestly not choose one over the other.
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Violent action sword fighting manga that is extremely well drawn.
While Claymore may not be just as dark and gory as Berserk, it still holds plenty of bloody battles and monsters. The characters are interesting, and so is the story.
And Claymore is full of nice women. Just so you know.
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10 |
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9 |
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10 |
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10 |
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10 |
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Apr 29, 2008295 of ? chapters read 102 of 132 people found this review helpful Story - 9.38
The first three volumes may discourage some of the readers because it's starts off kind of slow and the initial artwork is not quite up to today's standards. However, after the reader begins the Golden Age arc it is nearly impossible to not be pulled in and become addicted to the series. It is chock-full of action, drama, character development, twists and turns, and just a dash of romance. It defies generalization and is just damn good storytelling.
Aft...er the Gold Age arc wraps up the story come back full circle to where it left us at the end of volume 3. But by then the rhythm of the manga has changed completely. The reader has established a deep connection with Guts, Casca, and Griffith and that only grows more as the story continues. You'll be confronted with conflicting emotions and think things like "I really want to see Guts put Griffith in the ground" and at the same time "Griffith is just so damn cool". These conflicting thoughts and emotions just go to show how invested the reader becomes with the characters.
Another good thing about the Berserk story is that the protagonist (Guts) is not always the focal character in every chapter. In fact, nearly all of the major supporting cast members receive a considerable amount of page space for their own stories to be fleshed out. Each of these side-stories is not only unique and extremely well developed, but also very deep and revealing as it shows the reader why these character are the way they are. One of the side stories that I found most intriguing was Farnese and Serpico's as it was so beautifully orchestrated as part of the manga as a whole.
The only problem with the story, in my humble opinion, is the introduction of magic in the manga. I feel that the magic the group "acquires" in volume 24 is somewhat exaggerated and does not suit the dark atmosphere of the story. In fact, at times it can even make some of the chapters feel a bit shounen-esk. But even still, it's pretty much impossible not to enjoy the ongoing story that is Berserk.
Art - 9.6
The artwork in the first few volumes of Berserk won't do much to impress many of today's manga readers, but at the time when the series was first serialized (1992) it was certainly well above average. Those initial volumes feature many very unique character designs (especially the apostles) and also sport a relatively high focus on detail. However, where Miura really shows off his latent artistic talents early on is through his ability to create crisp, clear, and highly fluid fight scenes.
One of the few negative aspects of the early volumes can be identified as the simple shading techniques that Miura used. Also, sometimes the character faces will look just a bit "off" and it can be a little distracting. However, these minor quality issues were most likely due to the time constraints that were in place at the time and not entirely the fault of the artist.
Then as the series progresses the reader gets to watch the artwork literally evolve. As we learn more and more about the characters and the world in which they live, the characters themselves and their environments become more and more visually detailed. The simple shading from the early volumes is eventually replaced by a hand shading technique which gives the series a more gritty and surreal overall feeling. The character designs become more crisp and facial expressions sometimes are so vivid that one look at a character's face is often enough to tell the reader exactly what the character is thinking. By the time the reader makes it into volumes 20 and beyond Miura has made it very clear that he means for Berserk to be truly regarded as a work of art just as much as it is a masterfully epic piece of storytelling.
In my own experience I have seen very, very few other manga series that can even approach Berserk's later volumes on an artistic level and, unfortunately, I highly doubt that I will ever be able to find its peer.
Characters - 9.5
The very first character you will meet in Berserk is Guts, the "Black Swordsman" with a dark past and a score to settle with his demonic enemies. Certainly not a very revolutionary character at first glance, but even though he may start off as such, his character quickly expands, and ends up as one of the most believable and human characters I have ever witnessed.
As the story unwinds, you follow Guts through his past, allowing you to experience his personality change during his constant battle against fate. You follow Guts through waves of despair and hardships offset only by the flickering fires of friendship and trust. Eventually, Guts becomes like a maelstrom of opposing emotions, and the question arises, will he continue on his path of all-consuming revenge even if it means losing everything he has come to care for?
The other characters that appear throughout the course of the story come in all different shapes and sizes and all play their roles perfectly, just as support characters should. The more important support characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, are all draped in many layers of depth, making their characters both solid pillars and interesting ingredients within the plot as a whole. From Griffith's burning ambition to the skulduggery of the God Hand, from Puck and Isidro's antics to Farnese's troubled past and uncertain future, the characters all appear vivid and alive (Although alive might not fit The Skull Knight...) and all have their own emotions, personalities and ambitions. The supportive cast show their brilliance in how they appear to the reader as actual players in Berserk's grand game, and not just as passive plot devices.
With such a cast of strong personalities and vibrant, living characters, Berserk easily cuts it's way (no pun intended) to the top score in this category.
Enjoyment - 10
The fact that I sat and read through all 295 chapters of this exquisite manga in one sitting should justify the perfect score for enjoyment! The manga has great characters - heroes you root for and empathize with, villains you can't help but admire for their ruthlessness and charisma. The artwork is dark, brooding, and gruesome and complements the story well. And what a riveting story it is... It hooks you from the first chapter and sets the stage for the most intriguing revenge themed manga on the market. Its success is testament to its quality. My only complaint is the excruciating waits between chapters.
Also, I must throw in a cautionary note: this manga is quite definitely not for the faint hearted. There is a considerable amount nudity, sex, gore, violence, and, for the lack of a better word, bad-assery!
OVERALL - 9.69
This review is the final result of a review team composed of members from the "Critics and Connoisseurs" club. The team members were:
8GaugeBrett - Who wrote the Art section and combined the individual review parts together into a whole.
Amaity - Who wrote the Enjoyment section.
Baman - Who wrote the Character section.
Ianmessku - Who wrote the Story section.
Here are their individual scorings for the Manga:
Category - 8GaugeBrett, Amaity, Baman, Ianmessku
Story - 9, 10, 9, 9.5
Art - 10, 9, 10, 9.5
Character - 9, 9 , 10, 10
Enjoyment - 10, 10, 10, 10
Overall - 10, 9, 10, 9.75
In the club wide poll held for Berserk it received an average overall rating of 9.53 read more
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Sep 26, 2008216 of ? chapters read 33 of 46 people found this review helpful Word History: When we say that we are going berserk, we may not realize how extreme a state this might be. Our adjective comes from the noun berserker, or berserk, which is from the Old Norse word berserkr, "a wild warrior or champion." Such warriors wore hides of bears, which explains the probable origin of berserkr as a compound of *bera, "bear," and serkr, "shirt, coat." These berserkers became frenzied in battle, howling like animals, foaming at the mouth, and b...iting the edges of their iron shields. Berserker is first recorded in English in the early 19th century, long after these wild warriors ceased to exist.
-Dictionary,Reference
A great evil threatens the world. A brave hero goes on a quest to defeat it. Sometimes he recovers an invaluable treasure or rescues a fair maiden in the process. It's an archetypal story. The stuff of myths and dreams, it's a story as old as storytelling itself. It's the sort of tale told around campfires by our early ancestors in every culture. When author KentarÅ Miura wrote Berserk, he updated this story for new generations of readers, changing the hero to an inflexible tough guy and launching the modern fantasy genre.
Miura obviously tapped into something. Berserk has become a classic manga that seemingly has been with us for much longer than it actually has. Stories of humble young lead who go on quests to save the world have proved to be quite popular but in Berserk, you have Guts instead. A callous mercenary with a pre-installed dark past who goes on job to job, slicing off people for a living until he met Griffith, the leader of a mercenary group who call themselves the Band of the Hawk.
First, lets get the facts out in the open. Berserk is an obscure seinen manga that leaves no room for bright sides. Excessive gore and nudity is existent here, not to mention issues such as homosexuality. Berserk tackles the worst nature of human beings. People with adolescent minds wont be able to appreciate what Berserk has accomplished.
On the surface, Berserk looks like a manga for action enthusiasts, to be tossed into the back burner by more discerning readers. And yes, those who hunger of action will love its spectacular battle's. But make no mistake: Berserk reserves its greatest appeal for more mature readers. Do not get let that first impression that Berserk is nothing more than a two-dimensional story with revenge as a premise. Since as the story progresses you will gradually learn that Berserk is one of the deepest stories you will ever read.
It offers well rounded, outstanding, realistic characters with prime development. Berserk stays very grounded in his characters, not letting the events tell the story, but only assist the wonderful dialogue and characters. The characters couldnt be better, they are all well flesh out. And the development of each their relationship to each other is astonishing. The emotional disposition Guts has is one of the key points why Berserk is so critically acclaimed for a long time, even as of this moment.
With, hands down, the most beautiful art I have ever seen, Miuara makes Berserk a gorgeous feast for the eyes, while never resorting to over-the-topness. The landscapes here are breathtaking and the action scene's are graphic and superbly detailed. The artistic craft is as accomplished as the characters. Berserk has this uncanny ability to strike an image into your mind, vividly framing it in every detail possible. You have never seen an image of a guy cutting another guy in half with a tremendous sword in this meticulous and morbid detail.
Unlike virtually every other fantasy manga's made, Kentaro has consistently resisted the impulse not to play it straight. Never does he plant his tongue in his cheek and serve up comic relief and anachronistic jokes, as if to say, "We can't take any of this too seriously." Berserk takes it very seriously.
Think of `Berserk' as a mix of Conan The Barbarian and Guin Saga, with enough action and character development worthy of resulting of a merge of this two classics to this magnitude. Yes, its that good.
Those readers ready to sit and read the more than one thousand pages will, for the most part, be enthralled except for those rather long-winded parts where you'll say "get on with it". For those others not quite ready to assume the "massive undertaking" of reading the manga, you will no doubt enjoy the anime as well, it will do the pairing down of Guts earlier years but the way I see it, your better off reading the manga since there were a lot of parts that were taken out and it would be less confusing.
Berserk, when all is said and done, an amazing achievement. It is a fantastic slab of epic entertainment that satisfies on every conceivable level. Read it and see for yourself. read more
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Nov 24, 2008299 of ? chapters read 5 of 9 people found this review helpful A 10. One of the several few mangas that deserve two numbers. Berserk tells the tale of a swordsman haunted by woe and bad luck."Out of the frying pan into the fire" seems to be the only way to describe this manga, for the protagonist, Gutts, always seems to find himself in worse situations than those of his preceding situations.
The storyline line is superb - one of money, love, betrayal, and death. Each of these themes seem to be ubiquitous yet vacant throughout the s...tory. Albeit a bit slow in the beginning, the plot rockets off, forming a most complex and elaborate tale that is sure to suck you in like a vacuum.
The art is amazing as well, though a tad bit confusing at times (as is the case for most action manga). The decapitation and maiming seem to look somewhat authentic relative to the weapon swings and cleaves - a huge plus in my book.
The characters are all fascinating in their own respect. Some big, some young, yet all adventurous and brave enough to fit in such an epic story. Each character is introduced and then reintroduced at a later time with even more background information on them.
Lastly, the mangaka seems to do things differently in this manga then in others. This thing seems to be the "pragmatist POV," the POV any sensible person would take. This made me elated. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read and find out. read more
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External LinksOfficial Site, Wikipedia
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