Berserk

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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.

After 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

"Have you ever hated someone so much, that this feeling alone would drive you to do horrific and impossible to grasp things?
Have you ever hated someone so much, that your whole life was focused on finding that person and ripping him apart?
Have you ever hated someone so much, that you would forget about your humanity, purge it all just to find enough power, for one, single fraction of a moment, one chance to get your revenge...

What would your eyes look like in that very moment...? Insane? Terrified? Passionate? Happy? Or maybe... satisfied...

Look into his eyes, and find nothing there..."

When I first learned that there is ... something like Berserk manga, I was a bit surprised. That was some 7 years ago and little did I know about relations between anime and manga. Either way, I took my chances and downloaded several first volumes.
You can imagine my surprise when I noticed that the manga is a far cry from the anime which really made my day some time ago. Having struggled through the first chapters I moved on to the next volumes. You know, the anime itself is, in all its ingenuity, only a small fraction of the whole manga... As small as several volumes with some deleted scenes and a bit redone ending at that. However, by the moment I reached 'the anime plotline' in manga (which is volume 3) I got already interested in the manga itself.

I think that there's no point in summarising the plot. You can read it above, and for the sake of not spoiling anything, I think you should. You have to, however know this: Berserk manga, in terms of plotline and characters development - is by far the best manga I have ever read, the most complete one, the most multi-dimensional one, the most memorable one... Nowhere else will you be told the stories of sub characters so bluntly and yet discreet that you won't even notice. Nowhere else will you receive such a huge dose of information, and yet still be able to comprehend it effortlessly. This is something uncanny, and frankly, I doubt that anyone ever will be able to reach the level.

The characters are just great. On one hand we have Gutts and Griffith, shades of black and white, fire and water. Being so different, neither can live without the other one. They're like Yin and Yang, two halves of the same coin - even in his darkest moments Griffith still finds himself as Gutts' friend, although few minutes later this friendship changes into hatred and horrific envy. Their whole story is like that, they start off as great friends who would die for each other with smiling face, but only one of them is really committed here.
Characters shine even more when we consider other protagonists and antagonists. No person is left shallow and without a story to tell. Miura-sempai explains everything in a given time and briefly enough to keep you interested. Unlike in other titles where antagonists exist only to serve as a powerup training bag for the protagonist, here all demons have their motives. Even the smallest monster is explained, by which you get attached, even to such scumbags.

The story itself is brutal, broody and hectic sometimes. But you never really lose the track if it. You can have two mini-arcs in one mayor arc, but you'll always remember what the team's real destination is. In this way, Miura-sempai makes it clear to you, that Gutts, although a little less passionately, follows his path and even if he was to be destroyed, he would neither falter nor go back. And the same goes for Griffith, who despite his appearance (nowhere else will you notice that appearance is deceitful so much as in Berserk) is a very strong-willed and straight-forward character. And in all this, having seen all the atrocities that happen in Midland, you never ever think of Griffith as the wrong one. He's not wrong, he's just following his dream, a dream that was clouded with Gutts appearance in his life.

The art itself, is a state of art to watch and read. Detailed panels, hundreds of characters on one page during a hectic battle, highly textured monsters and what I love the most - fluid, realistic and clear fighting scenes. You don't need Kubo trolling with ink to see that Gutts has his speed even despite the weight of his sword. You don't need hundreds of straight lines to increase the dynamics of the scene - Miura-sensei manages it all without a loss in quality.
Facial expressions are something completely else. Even if you cannot follow the plot for some weird reason you can always judge whether the character is good or bad by just looking at his or her face. Those are very detailed and so rich in expressions that you never get bored. You can feel the difference between smooth and angelic appearance of Griffith and a brute, yet kind rectangular face of Gutts.

The mangaka puts a lot of effort into shade and light in Berserk. By that we get a very distinctive nights, sunshines and sunsets as well as dynamic shadows (however awkward it sounds) that no anime director can mime. It's simply sensational to look at all that and even be able to read the story of it... It is clear to me, that Miura-sensei is trying to end up with a sort of masterpiece in terms of manga. And you know what? He's pretty close to achieving this.

There are, however, some bad points too. The manga is not for everyone. I would strictly add parental advisory and 18+ to it. Nowhere else will you see so much nudity, sex and violence as in this manga. It's not a hentai-like nudity and sex though. Berserk shows a violent world with all its aspects, hence these parts were as relevant as any other to make the story as believable as possible.

I'm glad I was able to read the manga. It's one of the best titles ever, if not the best so far. I sincerely hope though, that Miura-sensei lives up to the expectations and finishes this story in a fitting way. Judging by his up-to-date work, it's more than possible.

Berserk: best manga of all the time or GREATEST manga ever? This isn't up for debate, its written in stone.

The story is incredible in every way imaginable. It starts out with a few small arcs featuring the Black Swordsman named Guts who hunts down demons known as Apostles. We aren't really sure why he does this at the beginning but the mangaka, Miura indicates that there is a lot of history between Guts and these Apostles. The setting is realistic fantasy at first with dashes of supernatural and high-fantasy elements sprinkled here and there. Guts doesn't appear as a very likable protagonist at first. ... He's rude, cynical, wooden and somewhat insane. The only definite characters are him and his elf sidekick, Puck. There is definitely a strong sense of mystery at first with Guts' motives being hinted at very subtlety as he makes his way through these self-contained arcs. There are no real characters that one can attach themselves to and the tone is extremely bleak. Themes such as existentialism are brought up quite often as the audience wonders why Guts continues at what seems to be a hopeless goal. Its eventually revealed that he has a personal vendetta against one of the God-Hands named Femto, one of the 5 deities of the Berserk universe.

As soon as this is revealed, the manga goes into a very long flashback of Guts' entire life up to the present. It explains how he joined a mercenary group called The Band of the Hawk and became friends with the leader, Griffith. We see that Guts' enjoyed his life with the Band, and was friends with many of the mercenaries. Themes such as comradeship, identity and love are brought up which is stark contrast with the themes in the present. While reading all this, there is a nagging sensation that the audience hears at the back of their heads: this can't last. Miura skillfully throws in elements into the story and brings them up again much later. Its all masterfully weaved together, and as the past starts to catch up with the present, you can't help but dread the outcome of it all. And finally when the Eclipse rolls around, all sorts of emotions surge up such as sorrow and anger. It all comes full circle when the audience realizes that it was foreshadowed since day 1. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we call masterful storytelling, and the best part is that its only one-third of the story. Truth be told, the manga could have ended after volume 13 and it would still be spectacular but Miura goes the extra several miles and turns Berserk in the stuff of legends.

The characters in Berserk are phenomenal and are expertly written. Many characters undergo vast changes, and it all feels natural and not forced at all. Despite how they all appear at first, you can't help but come to like them all, shortcomings and flaws be damned. Guts becomes one of the best protagonists after a while, a true tragic hero in every meaning of the phrase. It really is a pleasure just to see all the characters interact and to see all their quirks. A chapter can be filled with nothing but dialogue and exposition, and it will be every bit as interesting and compelling as the action-packed chapters. The characters and story go hand in hand, they are all products of their environment and fit so well with the setting. All the fantastical elements fit just as well if not better. Berserk doesn't really require that much suspense of disbelief at first but once you get into it, it doesn't really matter what it pulls, it all seems possible and the sky is limit.

The art is easily some of the best I've ever seen in a manga. The level of detail in the drawings is absolutely insane, everything looks so good. Characters all look great and have their own style and flavor. Faces are never recycled and even background characters all have a distinct look from each other. One of my favorite parts of the drawings are the eyes, their not overtly huge like in most anime and manga, but have a unique design that fits the characters well. Its not ultra realistic like Vagabond or Blade of the Immortal, yet the artstyle it sports is just as good if not better.

Overall, Berserk is easily the best manga I have ever read. From its well developed and written characters to its deep and intricate plot. There's loads of action, blood, gore, nudity, violence, horrific monster designs and I love every bit of it. Truth is all the extreme elements of this manga simply play second fiddle to the characters and story. There is no manga out there that has captivated me like Berserk, it has no equal. I don't even need to read every manga in existence to tell you that. You could take it as fanboy rambling, but I'm not kidding you when I say Berserk is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. If you have the time to read this review, than you sure as hell have enough time to open a new tab and read the first few chapters of Berserk. You won't regret it!

If you like Berserk then you may find this review offensive. Read at your own risk.

STORY: 6/10
Berserk starts off very poorly. A man with a ten foot sword and a robot arm kills a bunch of people and some gross looking monsters. Now I like gore just as much as the next guy, but there needs to be SOME sort of story or reasoning behind it. It seemed like the main character, Guts, just walked around and killed ugly things for the first few volumes just because he liked being covered in blood.

But then the golden age arc started...This my friends, is one of the ... greatest arcs in manga history. It almost feels like the mangaka walked away from his desk and let God himself write this part of the story. The characters become deep, the disgusting fights gain meaning, and basically everything is executed to perfection. Then, after about a hundred chapters, it ends. God gives the pen back to the original mangaka and he proceeds to make Guts kill billions of ugly snake penis monsters for the next few hundred chapters. 25% of this manga is pure gold. The other 75% is utter shit.

ART: 10/10
Berserk's strongest point, aside from the golden age arc, has to be its art work. I believe I mentioned disgusting monsters a few times in the first paragraph and trust me - they are DISGUSTING. They've got rows of razor sharp teeth, they're covered in dirty fur, they're oozing with slime, they're drooling, and they all have snakes for penises. The amount of detail put into these beasts can make you hurl...but in a good way. This manga provides a few debatable subjects, but its artwork isn't one of them. It is nothing less than perfect.

CHARACTER: 7/10
The rivalry between Guts and Griffith is legendary. During the golden age arc both characters are given ample development time in order for the reader to truly feel for these guys. In fact, most of the characters from the golden age arc are given enough face time for people to get attached to them. Unfortunately, all the non-golden age arc parts of the manga have minimal development for the male characters aside from Guts, and most of the female characters are rape-bait. The golden age arc was so good though, that I'm going to give characters a higher score than it truly deserves. Seriously, most of this manga is bad.

ENJOYMENT: 3/10
Just so we're clear, golden age arc enjoyment = 10. The rest of Berserk is literally the same thing over and over again just with different ugly monsters. Here is a brief rundown of every chapter of Berserk:

Guts walks into a city.
Mutant panda bears are raping 900 women with their snake penises.
Guts kills the panda bears with his man-sized sword.
Everything is depressing.
End.

OVERALL: 6/10
Drop it after the golden age arc. It doesn't just go downhill after that. It falls off a cliff and lands in a pile of dog shit barf...with snake penises.

hi, I know nobody is going to read this but I just want to shout my controversial feelings about Berserk into the void so here I go.

More than anything else, I find that Berserk is horrifically overrated. People act like Kentaro Miura is the second coming of Jesus, but to me his work doesn't live up to the hype, and here's why:

I was initially drawn in by the admittedly very good art style in the first few chapters, especially considering they're from the late 1980's. The unusually dark themes and haunting medieval setting made it an interesting and enticing read. Because of those first few ... chapters, I thought that Berserk was brimming with potential, Unfortunately, I quickly came to the conclusion that Miura completely failed to utilize it.

It begins with the characters. As much as I want to like Guts, he's barely more than a two-dimensional trope of the "strong and silent type who ends up unwillingly collecting a rag-tag group of people who follow him". While I'm usually a big fan of these types of characters, he becomes stale very fast. He has likeable attributes, and his backstory and the Golden Age Arc make him at least somewhat interesting, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that he has next to no character development or meaningful dialogue.

The antagonist Griffith..... annoys me very much, to put it politely. He is ugly and a bad character. Griffith is given absolutely no reason for doing any of the horrible deeds that he does over the course of the story, except that ""he wants to rule his own country"". But why? I guess it doesn't really matter to Miura. He's a bad and boring antagonist and I want to punch him in the face.

In addition to being flat like Griffith, every female is barely more than a glorified sex toy, which leads me to my next point: Miura's apparent rape fetish.

Initially, the series' gore and rape was striking, because it actually seemed to serve a purpose, e.g. to show how gritty and cruel the reality of Guts' world and life is, and to illustrate how horrible the people (and monsters) inhabiting this horrific world really are, even if they hide under a pleasant facade. But as the series progresses, it becomes apparent that Miura simply likes drawing dicks very much, and enjoys seeing every female character he creates being sexually assaulted in increasingly perverse and weird scenarios (horse). As the saying goes, there can be too much of a good thing, which is the case here. Miura completely desensitizes the readers to the violence and gore and makes it lose its impact.

The action scenes also lose their appeal as the series progresses; in fact, they become downright ridiculous. Guts' sword alone is so comically large and heavy that it makes every feat he performs with it seem hilarious. The battles themselves are very rinse and repeat: Guts encounters incredibly OP enemy, Guts gets beaten within an inch of his life and injured so horrifically that it's almost funny he never seems to carry any lasting consequences, and somehow recovers to near perfect health every time. The gore and battles become boring in their predictability. Add to this the fact that some arcs are badly paced and drag painfully at times, and one has the perfect formula for underwhelming.

In conclusion, Berserk had potential, but decided to waste it on essentially becoming the boring embodiment of Kentaro Miura's rape fetish. I can't understand why it is as highly regarded as it is.

Let's get straight to the bone with the negatives as the positives have already been done to death. I don't like at all how mangaka Kentaro Miura handles female characters which is only a complain to some if you make it one. However, there's much more to that. There are major problems with Casca. She — like most female characters of Berserk — has been heavily sexualized (for reference, Wyald chapters, post-Eclipse Casca under waterfall) and sexually assaulted and then chucked aside. What should have propelled development of her character makes her a human cabbage. And I do mean the Eclipse. A Band of Hawking ... Readers go: "One can't imagine what Casca must have gone through and anyone with such trauma will be rendered insane" et cetera. Well, neither can you or Miura. And yet, he chose to put Casca through the Eclipse and was not willing to follow through with her character. It may be so that Eclipse was written during pre-internet era and Miura was out of ways to research the nuances regarding such topics. Yet again — I stress — he chose to depict the act. If all he came up with was sidelining Casca's character agency for almost entirety of the remaining narrative scaling twentysomething volumes, it's not very good writing, is it? Especially when the central concerns revolve around her. You call it bold and visceral and transgressive. I say thoughtless and obtuse and a missed opportunity. Even Schierke wasn't spared in the fetish department and she's thirteen. Tell me we can't use modern lenses for something authored thirty years ago. Except we can. Except dated artistic decisions are to be acknowledged in all kinds of art for us to appreciate the rest of it.

Adding on, violence seems to go hand-in-hand with such assaults on many fronts. Wyald was thoroughly unnecessary, especially after the Bakiraka chase. We had been already introduced to an apostle, and him coming right before the Eclipse as a clunky foreboding lessens the impact. We get it. Apostles are evil, rapey, and hideous. The point was made in prologue. What's that, you say? It was to show Guts is now more powerful and can hold his own against an apostle? Well, obviously, he's been splitting logs coming down a waterfall's mouth so I think we would have been okay following that. Let's leave the trolls out of it too. We get it, dammit. Violence desensitized me to the extent that it was no longer shocking and I didn't care for the hack-and-slash, apostle-of-the-week cool factor. To help sum up the paragraph, Japanese composer Susume Hirasawa is willing, quoted by Miura in Tezuka Osamu Prize (2002): "I think Guts' sword represents a penis and the monsters destroyed by it represent women's genitalia." Poetry, my man. Big-dick poetry.

I find myself indifferent following the ensemble of RPG-like cast gathering around Guts while he wanders in search for Griffith — a trope as old as the novel Journey to the West. Need not talk about tonal inconsistencies because it is partly the fault of manga's length. Berserk could use a fat trim which I doubt will hurt manga's credibility. It's so repetitively heavy, the entire thing, an almost Sisyphean undertaking — stitching cults, causality, existentialism, divine caprice, dynamic morality, and like. So heavy you get tired reading it, no wonder it struggles to carry itself, for hammered-in complexity doesn't equate to quality. If the meatier themes need the ceaseless bluntness, the structuring and handling needs to be subtle and sure. I don't see it beyond Golden Age arc. Miura even admits to writing the manga as it progresses, and also regrets overdoing the sexual assaults of the manga looking back, a case of inexperience. At least knowing this, it's understandable how things came together to be as they are.

Berserk isn't bad, by any means. It's just so damn uneven, carried by momentary sparks in later two-third of the manga. We know there is an obvious raging passion here. It's a lifetime work hence the collective and eclectic fantasy esthetic — a world populated with spirits, centaurs, elves, dragon, demons, trolls, witches, fauns, goblins, golems, ogres, unicorns, you name it. Miura's guiding vision, however bloated and overstuffed, is there. It takes time but emerges. Birth of Fantasia is one of the most beautiful unfolding in animanga medium. The art style morphs the mythopoeic sections with awe and you want the panels framed and tucked away. At the same time, there are more volumes on the other end of the spectrum as well where the art seems to be window-dressing, drudgery, indulgence. Not a unifying element.

It's a mess, maybe at times a beautiful one. This isn't to say only polished and structured works are worth it because we know manga, by very nature of the industry, is a spontaneous medium, living and dying by its ad-libbed frenzy. I'm actually a hardcore believer in Steve Erickson's "I don't find perfection especially interesting. Art is not all about refinement and formal accomplishment. It is about passion and imagination and courage and these things that I didn't understand when I was kid being taught the rules. I realized that . . . art could be . . . what I wanted to make it if I could pull it off.” So while I see what people value in Berserk and where the strugglers come from, it isn't pulled off well.

It remains what it is. Manga community doesn't openly talk about the issues enough. Berserk's praised to heavens and back here. It is being read by underage people and I hope to put out there what's absolutely not cool. Think through your favorites. That's enough from me.

(Gave it a six. Regardless I wouldn't recommend it to anybody therefore the "not recommended."

Edit, copied from my reply elsewhere: People got confused when I mentioned the rape and sexualization in the same sentence. I don't have problems with use of rape in a work. I have problems with Casca's character being ultimately denied any impacting action further in the story just after the assault in Eclipse. Users here think I have problems with rape but really actually I have problems with how the aftermath is handled. We have seen Guts dealing with his trauma but we hardly see Casca have the same arc for so, so long. It's like Miura was out of ideas what to do with her.

I don't care for censorship of triggering topics. Write/draw whatever and take responsibility. It's a free world. When Casca gets portrayed in a sexualized light and tossed aside with little agency, just after what she went through in Eclipse, I can't really take it seriously anymore.

Conclusion, no, I don't think rape = sexualization. However, sexualization is a problem. Not fan of the loli shit.)

Another edit, tired now, very much hoping the last one to come. Berserk is a fantasy, y'all. It's not an accurate account of Mediaeval Ages, and it has no intention of being one. Pure artistic expression. I don't see it putting rape in any meaningful context other than just for the sake of being edgy. Add to that the above edit's text, you know where I stand.

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 story. 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.

Please note: this review is a warning, and is focused primarily upon the start of the manga. The manga is, of an overwhelming proportion, garbage, would be the warning. Don't take this lightly. And don't think I'm being unfair to the manga; this is merely the objective truth.

This manga is thoroughly terrible in nearly every possible way; art (ugly and disgusting), story (there is none), and characters (stock characters with no depth, ego, or even self-awareness).

The art: Comparing the artwork in chapter 318 with that in chapter 3, Guts somehow managed to get uglier (ever so slightly), and the thought of seeing his ugly ... face for 300 or so chapters would be absolutely unbearable. There are many characters that aren't so hard on the eyes (though manymore expendable ones who are) in the manga, but Guts will be there to torment you for good. The art style is detailed however, and remains relatively consistent. The monsters and such—rather, the humans, which are synonymous in Beserk--are graphically disgusting, vile, aand gross, which was perhaps intentional, with the purpose of contrasting with Guts’s own character design; however, I cannot approve of a foil between the bad, the ugly and uglier. Don't read with a weak stomach.

Characters: So in the beginning, ugly bastard just chops his enemies down, and generally acts like an ass towards everyone he meets, and they, normally monsters and abominations respond in kind. The only other character outside of this pattern is simply “there,” and hangs around Guts for no real reason. An absence of sentient life; the cast is essentially a huge cast of monsters and abominations.

Story: Guts chops up his enemies and acts like a psychopath, which to be fair, correlates with the title, Berserk. Finally, he is shown to have some history, but is pretty irrelevant. Everything that happens is rather generic and painfully boring, and is made even worse by the art and character designs.

Note again; this review is a warning to anyone starting this manga; you're going to be digging through a lot of crap before you get to anything good; expect a godawfully long and boring read through volumes of disgusting, mindless, and and tasteless violence.

Of course, it must be possible for people to get through the beginning, since the ratings are positively skewed. If you are able to stand Guts’s character design for hundreds of chapters. If you are that intent on reading this manga, I recommend "skipping to the good parts" assuming they exist. If you do enjoy the ugly and grotesque, this manga is certainly for you.

I don't consider myself to be much of a contrarian, so it is with little pleasure that I add this score to one of the highest rated series on this website.

I think Berserk is GROTESQUELY overrated, pointless misery porn with some very nice illustrations. The violence is hideously over the top, the worst of which is reserved specifically for its female characters, the sheer darkness of the setting mutes any of the story's supposed triumphs, and as far as I'm concerned you lose any potential allegorical worth to the brutality of the real world when you have demon rapist horses and giant rape machines ... to breed demon armies. I cannot see this work appealing to anyone other than voyeurs who delightf in gratuitous, inhuman suffering. Perhaps it takes a turn for the less depraved further on, but at this point I've lost interest, and at the rate Miura puts out chapters, frankly, it's not worth sticking around for.

Oh, but the art is impressive. There's that.

Following Kentaro Miura's announced death I felt the need to just share what his life's dedication has done for me personally.

There are many reviews on Berserk which will be much more analytical and more in-depth about how Berserk deserves the title of the best manga of all time. Rather than that, Berserk and what it means to me is something dear to my heart. There are not many things in the world that can impact me as a person, something like being in a relationship, but for a piece of literature to change and impact me is something only a masterpiece like Berserk could do. ...

Berserk is quite simply a manga about struggling, and why Guts continues to struggle until he eventually reaches some form of happiness. For someone like me who was struggling with my will to live, Berserk hit me hard.

Say what you will about Berserk, whether you only like the first one hundred chapters or so, whether you hate every character but the more dark horse characters etc, the fact that this manga resulted in me standing where I am today, is something I am eternally grateful for.

Berserk is a masterpiece to me, and I hope the author can rest in peace knowing how much people value his work.

RIP Kentaro Miura

"To me, a friend is something else. Someone who would never depend upon another's dream. Someone who wouldn't be compelled by anyone, but who would determine and pursue his own reason to live and should anyone trample that dream, he would oppose him body and soul...even if that threat were me myself. What I think a friend is, is one who is my equal." – Griffith

Words of wisdom and complete despair. Griffith’s speech at the top of the ballroom stairs is truly sublime and grotesque in nature. Many would agree with what is being said but only few expected the horrors this speech would imply. ... Welcome everyone to my review of Kentaro Miura’s masterpiece, 'Berserk'.

Spoiler-Free Review (In the sense that I don’t discuss major details on plot or characters):

Every person and their mom know how much I love 'Berserk', to the point of obsession. It is the perfect blend of many genres and styles of literature. It borrows many concepts including: tragedies (ie: Shakespearean tragedies, Death of a Salesman, etc…); literature classics that involve themes such as life experience (ie: Siddhartha, The Catcher in the Rye, etc…); the bible, organized religion and philosophy (ie: Plato and the realm of ideas); fantasy adventure classics (ie: Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, etc…); and many western movie epics (ie: Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, etc…). The scope of this story is incredible but the main problem some might point out is: do all these big themes and concepts mesh well together while at the same time keeping a cohesive pacing and plot? Yes it does because all these big themes are separated by story arcs and sections where they each get their moment to shine while at the same time creating a perfect transition for the next part of the story. These shifts in themes also keep the story from not ever becoming stale and/or boring. All the while, the word “berserk” is the over arching theme of the entire manga. The uniqueness of the story in 'Berserk' is also unrivaled. While it does take many aspects of traditional and modern literature such as the tragic hero (Golden Age Arc) and individual societal drama (Conviction Arc), Miura added his own twist to everything like his opinion on the moral values of the themes he presents (which are all great might I add) and his own unique fantastical elements (Behelit, demon’s, God-Hand, etc…). Childhood rape is another topic that Miura delves into and it is safe to say that he handles it with complete respect and understanding. It is not a topic he simply glosses over in order to shock the reader, but is a full on subject and consequence within the story. The subject is handled with great care, subtlety, and realism. Miura makes sure that every moment, theme, and action taken within the story is a build up for the final act within the certain arc. 'Berserk' is not simply a bunch of ideas blended together but a mix of different puzzle pieces that are carefully fit in place in order to create a truly monumental achievement in story telling.

All these different themes seem very good but is the story any fun to read or is it all just standing around and talking? Well do not fear because there is action a plenty in this manga which is all very well detailed. The action in and of itself is brilliant, and character movements are all drawn and dictated with precise panel accuracy to the point of obsession. To add to how incredible the action is, 'Berserk' itself is probably the most beautifully drawn manga (this includes comics and graphic novels) of all time. This statement of it being the best could probably be debunked, but I have not yet come across a better art-work. The character proportions and details, the world and backgrounds, the fantasy creatures, etc… are all marvelous to look at. Do not be surprised if you start staring at the art for hours on end, it is that good. Kentaro Miura in an interview said that it took him about 24 hours to finish drawing just one panel and be satisfied with it. Goes to show how much he cares about detail.

The main character Guts is the very definition of a tragic hero. His character arc is beyond that of any other protagonist and his emotional torments are unrivaled. To truly understand this man’s point of view is to go through hell itself and beyond. Every arc adds to his growth, redemption, and eventual becoming of a hero and mentor. It is truly beautiful and poetic in nature. His character complexity just continues to grow (the manga is still publishing) and eventually he will become the definition of enlightened, or so we hope he will be? One of the many ways for a great protagonist to shine is through a great villain. Thankfully, Griffith is the very definition of a perfect villain. Taking on the classic tragic literature elements of the villain once being best friends with the protagonist, Griffith takes this idea and magnifies his betrayal to the point of complete horror. Imagine taking a man, forcing him to watch everything horrible in life and everything personally horrible to him. Griffith does exactly that and the magnitude of his crime is unbelievable. This crime is all done in the name of his own goals and dreams. The starting top quote of the review spoken by Griffith is taken all the way to the extreme. Griffith was once a man who was in love, happy, childish, angry, intimidating, fearful, compassionate, heroic, etc... But he replaced all that in order to simply follow his dream. He became the very embodiment of the anti-Christ, a man who cares only about his own selfish ends, who looks majestic in nature but is a complete and utter villain, who schemes and fools the world into believing that he is the savior of mankind. As for Guts, he learnt from this betrayal and became the very man Griffith should have been. He became the hero that everyone now looks up to. The last and only step he must now face is to defeat his inner rage, which has been building up since the beginning of the series. He must rid himself of this berserk instinct and darkness inside him. In doing so he will turn into the true hero he is meant to become and defeat the anti-Christ known as Griffith once and for all.

The secondary characters are all incredible in their own right. Guts’ friends are divided into two groups. The first group of friends are the ones that gave him a family for the first time while at the same time each giving their own advice on how he should go on in life. They all have an interesting back story and are quite well developed, some more than others. These friends feel like people and each one of them is smart in their own way. However things change with the second group of friends. Guts’ is introduced to a new family but this time it is him that gives them advice and guidance thanks in part to the experience and knowledge he’s gained through out his journey. This second group of friends are much more interesting than the first because since they all have issues they need to overcome, each and every one of them have an incredibly well handled character arc. Guts through experience, learns to rely on his companions and they all connect with each other in different ways. The fantastic thing about each and every character in 'Berserk' is just how natural and subtle their development is. Nothing ever feels forced or thrown in your face. It is all very well paced and sometimes poetic in nature which are either done through great dialogue or subtle character actions that are well detailed. Paying attention to the drawings and art is crucial not only in terms of beauty, but character development as well. Character expressions are all taken into account and are very crucial to the story. Every interaction between the main and secondary characters has a purpose and that includes the comic relief characters/moments. The amount of attention to detail is simply astounding.

The final subject that must be touched upon is the tone and violence of this manga. Many have complained that this series contains too much gore and nudity. If one is too delicate to look at grotesque and violent actions, then this manga can easily turn some people off. However, I assure the readers that the nudity and extreme violence all have a purpose. What does it mean to be human? Love, hatred, pain, pleasure, life, and death (readers of 'Berserk' know what moment I am referencing) are all taken to the complete extremes in order to find out that answer. Like I stated in the beginning of my review, 'Berserk' is the definition of sublime and grotesque. It is beautiful in both aspects of the extreme. This is the tone that is kept through out each and every arc. That is why the story has that “epic” feel which no other manga has ever been able to replicate.

To call 'Berserk' perfect after all the praise I’ve given would still be a lie because the series is not over yet and nothing is ever truly “perfect”. There are many ways in which Kentaro Miura can make a mistake in the later upcoming chapters. There is also one more minor companion among Guts’ group that has not had much back story or development, something I’m hoping Miura will fix in the later chapters. Some people have criticized some certain parts of the manga like the first intro Black Swordsman Arc or the beginning of the newly started Fantasia Arc, but the nit-picking can easily be rebutted. The Black Swordsman Arc was meant to introduce the world of 'Berserk' which includes: the main protagonist and antagonist, the fantastical and medieval world they live in, the tone and intense action, and the over arching theme of the whole series which is Guts’ inner “berserk”. It is a fantastic set up and gets the reader aware of what type of journey they are about to embark on. As for the beginning of Fantasia Arc, the same introduction argument can be used because the world and rules have changed drastically since the last arc. This is all really pointless to debate because this story arc has only just begun.

'Berserk' is by far the smartest, most diverse and well developed story I’ve ever seen and/or read. This includes comics, movies, novels, TV series, anime, etc… It is perhaps the greatest piece of literature of our generation and Kentaro Miura deserves ever single praise he gets. It is in my opinion the closest story to have reached perfection and I feel truly privileged to be reading such a masterpiece. Thank you very much Mr. Miura.

The only reason I regret reading Berserk is because now no manga or anime even comes close to how good it is. It might act as a turn off to some younger viewers because of the violence, complex story line, sex (probably not), and tragedy.

Everything in this anime is perfect and might take a little difficulty to be appreciated because of its age.

It's original
The artwork is amazing
The story line is tragic and superb
It's the coolest and saddest thing you will ever read

Thank you. There has never been a greater story told, even if there will never be an ending to it. I don't think I've ever come across another one with characters as complex, so complex that it felt like you were only drawing the world around them while they were living in it with a mind of their own. I was never able to think of them as mere products of someone's imagination. But it was all you. It was an absolute privilege to read it while you were still here, and I only understand that now that you're gone. Rest in peace.

Mod Note: This review was initially posted for the one-shot, Berserk Prototype, and was subsequently merged into Berserk.I've only recently started reading Berserk, so I've decided to check out the Prototype. I think that anyone who enjoys reading Berserk will find this interesting and worth reading. In itself it does not stand out particularly, and it really looks like another chapter of Berserk with some differences concerning the details of the story. (There are slight defferences in the treminology, and Guts is somewhat differently drawn.)
I found it worth while because it actually shows you that a rough idea needs to be refined and thought through ... to bring about something as good as Berserk is. I've read some mangas that were potentially great, but seemed to lack that period that the author of Berserk took to think things through between the idea and its actual realization.
So if you like Berserk, and if you're interested in the origins of the manga, you should definitely read the Prototype.

//Blatant spoilers because most of my Berserk talking points are either weirdly specific, or come up literally 150 chapters in, and context is required//

Okay, I see a sacred cow, and I have to fire up the barbecue once more. There was a time when I could say I loved Berserk, and would unquestioningly give it a 10/10, but now is not that time. Maybe I grew up, or something, idk. God, I'm so disappointed upon reading it again now, I barely know where to begin. Berserk is difficult to talk about, due to its complexity and length, but I'll do my best.

Berserk's Golden Age arc ... has been done to death in reviews, and it's amazing. We all know it. No need to say more. The homoerotic subtext between Guts and Griffith is *chef's kiss*. And we all know how it comes crashing down, due to miscommunications that are brilliantly baked into pretty much every character's fatal flaws during that arc. If I had to fault it on anything, I'd say Casca's scene during the eclipse was handled poorly in the manga, but more on that later.

For the minute, I'm here to talk about the absolute slog that is everything that comes after. The problems I see in Berserk are deep and structural, and have to do with Guts as a character. He's almost purely reactionary, because up to a point, he has no personal investment in the plot at hand beyond 'Casca in danger, me smash', or 'impaling Griffith's supple body on his 'raw heap of iron' which is totes not his dick, we promise'. His interactions with others are limited. The man barely speaks, barely thinks about anything beyond the humanoid sack of potatoes that is Casca, or the man he hasn't talked to for years and hasn't made any moves towards doing so. He doesn't interact with either of his primary motivations past a certain point. His only other interactions basically amount to 'Hey Guts, don't do the stupid thing and overuse spoopy armor', and then Guts saying 'I won't.' before promptly using spoopy armor in the next boring shonen fight scene. Tell me how that is good writing, please. I hate to say it, but that's really freaking boring over the course of over a hundred chapters. Those chapters often go something like:
Alas, dickwolves have appeared and are menacing AREA OF THE WEEKville! Watch as Guts and company near-effortlessly mow down an array of dickwolves, but not before they menace poor, mentally ill Casca and tear off all her clothes with their dickpaws! Repeat. In the distance, Griffith accomplishes something of significance to the setting, like repelling an entire continent's worth of demonic Kushans, using a quarter of the pagecount.

It's as if Miura didn't know what he wanted to do with Guts and company after Casca's mind was fixed, so he dragged out their half of the story to an almost absurd degree, and I'd chalk up a good three quarters of the dragging to the incessant battle scenes.

But PushMe, I hear you cry! Battle scenes are awesome! Er, not when they lack stakes, emotional investment, and eat up an absurd amount of page count for their trouble. They don't have any technical elements that might make a fight interesting, and the seemingly only allowed failure state is 'Guts dies/Girl is raped'. It's never a case of 'we need to run the fuck away', leading to a desperate fighting retreat using actual tactics, because then we wouldn't get ten more awesome panels of the dragonslayer effortlessly bisecting dickwolves. Any fight tension is displaced solely onto whether the armor will eat Guts' soul or not. Quiet moments that might be genuinely poignant(and were, in the Golden Age) are interrupted every other chapter by these near-pointless fights, as if the mangaka believes his audience will lose interest if the manga goes ten pages without seeing Guts screaming and covered in blood. He is, in some ways, like a parody of action movie tropes, his introspective, needy side subsumed into scowls and really cringeworthy one-liners. He harpoons any sense of atmosphere a scene may have, either by the dad jokes he utters when he opens his mouth, or by everyone suddenly pausing to admire his sword/technique/sweet ass. Whoever happens to be nearby will form an impromptu peanut gallery to remark at length on the oft-mentioned 'heap of raw iron', with Isidro at the helm, which gets repetitive fast and usually eats up a page or so per fight scene for its trouble. It doesn't make the fight seem any more impressive for its effortlessness, either. We know Guts = Stronk, and considering how slow Berserk is to update, wasting precious pages to reiterate this or have him engage in fights that don't further anyone's character is a general waste of everyone's time.

I feel that he needs actual emotional investment in the plot at large, something more than his revenge quest vs his companions. That was compelling back in Lost Children, at his lowest point, where whether or not he accepted Puck, or let Jill in, felt like it meant something deep and personal to his character arc. It was pretty obvious that if something didn't change, if he didn't let them in, he'd die forgotten in a ditch as a bitter shell of himself - a 'Gambino was right' ending, so to speak. By the time of the Fantasia arc, that theme is feeling pretty worn out. He exists only to protect his friends, which is a very well-worn path for shonen protagonists to travel (see also: Bleach, Naruto). And we all know by now how boring shonen protagonists who fall into this trap are. It's characterisation that began with him leaving the Hawks, and sticks around for an uncomfortably long time without significant development. He's too busy swinging his sword around like an angry Beyblade to notice. And to me, that's just not compelling, in the long term, as it lacks the brevity and poignancy we got with his internal struggles during Lost Children.

For the record, this was a problem as early as the latter half of Conviction, where Guts is trying to save Casca from dickmen/fire. His investment here is his guilt over leaving her alone for two years. That's interesting. Guts fighting with the beast of darkness over whether to abandon her was interesting. How does it play into the events of Conviction? It basically doesn't. Instead, we have Guts effortlessly killing stuff, Guts killing Mozgus and co. with some effort, and the themes don't really add up at all. Guts motivations in the scattered plot of Conviction do not matter one iota, and my investment in his fights literally hinges on me caring deeply, intimately for potato girl's safety. It's like... meaningless noise, past a certain point. There's no great ideological or personal conflict, and Guts doesn't have any meaningful internal conflict to make me care about his great and epic, ten page struggle with 'Masked Torturer #3, now with a side of wings'. It's the same storytelling mistakes, over and over again. Ultimately, Luca the fearless prostitute shines as the most interesting character in the whole arc, because her conflict with Nina is ideological and neatly self-contained, with both having clear viewpoints and a depth of character often lacking in members of the RPG party to this day. Luca doesn't need a slab of iron to save someone from a mob, and she doesn't need 200 chapters to give someone she disagrees with a stern talking to. Strong contender for best written female character in Berserk, in my opinion.

Speaking of women... something I never see brought up in discussions of Berserk is the way Casca's rape is portrayed in the manga. It's just... not horrifying, at least not to me. It reads, literally, like porn. The angles and focus of the panels are exploitative of Casca's body, with little focus on her face or the emotions that lead to her becoming a potato. If you disagree, please, compare the way Casca is portrayed to Guts' rape by Donovan, or the way Ganishka is portrayed as he stands menacingly over Charlotte's bed, or even the 1997 anime's version of the scene. Miura knew how to portray rape in a scary, realistic way, from the perspective of the victim. He just decided Casca was too hot not to draw like a pornstar for twenty odd pages. Really, it never quite ends, as Casca is drawn naked in poses clearly meant to be alluring with worrying regularity, when she's a goddamn rape victim, so traumatised she's lost the ability to speak. Her trauma also fluctuates in intensity. At one moment she can kill three armored bandits while butt naked, and in another she can barely run on flat ground without tripping over her own feet, so that she can drown the scene in Damsel In Distress tropes. Miura's inconsistency in his writing of these characters makes it hard for me to take the plot involving curing her of her brief porn career at all seriously. Or any other of the many times Casca (specifically) is threatened with rape. Combined with my above problem with Guts' later characterization, it severely undermines my ability to enjoy either of them as characters, because 'woman in danger, man save, you care' stopped being a compelling plot point by itself some five decades before I was born.

Griffith, for all the hatred he gets from fans for his role in Casca's disastrous career as a pornstar, is a breath of fresh air in comparison. He's about the same now as he was on rebirth, which isn't great, but Griffith has goals and he accomplishes them quickly, without fifty chapters of screwing around, which is more than can be said of anyone (bar maybe Farnese) in Guts' party. He tried to talk to Guts about what happened, and Guts wasn't in the mood, so now he's off doing his own thing and loving life. Griffith has uninterrupted quiet moments. Griffith's ultimate goals are nebulous, but he's efficient, and achieves small things towards that ultimate goal without taking up pages upon pages to messily bisect dickwolves we don't care about. Griffith is proactive, where Guts is almost purely reactive. Griffith vs Ganishka is, to me, a more satisfying section of the manga than anything Guts achieves in the same arc, and is over in roughly a quarter of the page count. The entire world changes as a result. Guts gets on a boat. Eventually. After acquiring spoopy armour, to make him fight good, for... reasons. To summarize, in my opinion, Guts is the least interesting character that the manga could focus on at the point where the plot has found itself, with seemingly little ability or interest in interacting with the setting, and yet so much time is spent focusing on him that it feels bloated and glacially paced. The result is... not exactly fun for me to read any more, now that I'm not wowed by him killing lots of stuff with no effort or personal investment.

God, I'm tired. The point of this rambling, sleep-deprived tirade is that Berserk had an amazing opening, then spirals down into a deep, deep pit of mediocrity, from which it has yet to emerge. The story almost feels stretched to the breaking point, perhaps a mirror for the burnt out author, with no resolution in sight. What happens on page is frequently surface-level, seemingly for the purpose of not advancing the plot while appearing to be doing something, anything, to convince its diehard audience that the manga is not dead. Guts gets stronger, Griffith builds his kingdom, Skull Knight is cryptic, and as a long time reader, it feels as if the wheels are spinning fruitlessly. The Golden Age was tightly written, plotted, and the tension was palpable that something horrible was about to happen. That was a long time ago, and I have to be honest with myself that Berserk likely isn't ever going to return to that level of quality.

I just want these two guys, who haven't talked to one another since the Hill of Swords, to finally talk out their problems that began with Guts leaving, and finally bury this zombie of a franchise. And maybe kiss. Just... end it already, Miura. We all know you want to. Only the dead can know peace from this Elfhell.

Edit: Miura, I gave you hell in this review, but I am genuinely sad we likely won't see an end to your work, right when it seemed like things were actually picking up on Guts' story and we might have actually got confirmation that Griffith = Moonlight Boy, even though that does seem to be the obvious outcome. If there is an afterlife, hopefully you're resting on some amazing thighs around about now, like you'd probably want.

First of all, keep in mind that I'm a bit older than average manga readers.

Art: It's bad. Character models and drawings are nowhere near good enough. When in action, it's very difficult to see what's going on, especially in early volumes. It's slowly improved but at the end it's still just at an acceptable level.

Story: Good for the most part. It's terrible at the first 3 volumes but then the story goes back to the beginning and things are well explained. This is the best part of the story (golden age). After that, when Guts found new companions, story got illogical and boring. At times, ... it feels like Moon's Sailor.
The author's obsession with sex and rape causes excessive uses of these in the manga. At times it feels like porn.

When I got to volume 30, I lost all my interest and just skimmed quickly to the end. The ending is non sense.
Not recommended obviously for grown-up readers.

Berserk feels like two different series.

The first, the "Golden Age" arc, is where its acclaim rightly comes from- it easily stands alone as the single best Manga arc I've ever read. Deserves 10s across the board. Reading Berserk is *absolutely* worthwhile for that experience alone- superb, mature characters, fiendishly inventive plot twists, and some beautiful worldbuilding. The way it ends is absolutely heartbreaking.

Then, after the first ~110 chapters? There's, ah, the rest.

The post-Golden Age arc's still enjoyable- and the magnificent art style, if anything, has got even better. The problem's with the setting and pacing- it scarcely feels like the storyline has ... any idea where it wants to go anymore. The serious, heartfelt tone of the Golden Age arc's faded away, and been replaced with something much closer to a standard shōnen plotline. Guts and Griffith are still about, and the relationship between the two is still fantastic- but just about everything that made the Golden Age arc so distinctive's vastly reduced. The worldbuilding's still spectacularly creative, the sparse moments of actual plot development are interesting, and the characters from the original arc are still around, and develop in unexpected ways- but the feeling of close camraderie that made the Band of the Hawk's stories so wonderful to read about is just gone. What's in its place is a pretty, formulaic string of sequences- roughly summed up as "Guts et al wander into new setting, mysterious phenomenon transforms into eldritch abomination, the party thwack it with magical weapons for a few chapters, then Guts screams and gravely injures himself destroying the monster of the week". That's it- the overarching, beautifully written story of the Golden Age arc's been replaced by something that feels distinctly less... human? Berserk's become a story dominated by the spectacle, rather than the characters- which, unfortunately, has entailed jettisoning a huge part of what made it so wonderful in the first place.

The plot's meandered along at a glacial pace for almost two hundred chapters now. Given the slow rate of chapter releases (three hundred chapters over twenty years?), it's hard to imagine the plot getting anywhere soon.

Scored a "7" with a heavy heart. The Golden Age arc on its own deserves "10"s across the board- but the latter two thirds of the story drag the score down. The soul just isn't there anymore.

Read it, absolutely. Just expect to find the magic trailing off after a certain point.

Berserk is what happens to a series when it tries to one-up itself in each passing page and when the writer promises so much that he can't possibly keep his promises.

It starts of strong, with a bang. Guts, our scarred hero, battles monsters and creatures from some other dimension with n sword almost as large as him. He alienates the people around him, hurts them but we soon learn that it is he who is being hurt more than anyone else. Like a Byronic hero, he is menacing but simultaneously compelling. The first two volumes itself are a testament to great storytelling. And then, the ... flashback that reveals Guts's past and his relationship with Griffith is epic storytelling at its finest. Until volume 13 (or so), Berserk keep building up the tension, raising the stakes and which finally results in a (horrific) climax that makes the reader shower Berserk with the hype and praise that it receives. And then... And then, we get a slow downward spiral into mediocrity.

The trouble with Berserk is one that plagues most fantasy series in which the author simply doesn't know his own limits, his plot's limits and his character's limits. There comes a point after which it becomes impossible to raise the stakes any further and so the author to make up for his lack of ideas, instead introduces new villains (satanic priest anyone?), new side-kicks (loli witch anyone?), new sub-plots (psycho-elf valley detour anyone?), makes the action scenes even grander, more gruesome, more violent but devoid of the same emotional stakes that made the first third of the series so great. The result is a series that while amazing to behold in its scale and scope is no different from a hack-and-slash RPG game in which the main character levels up, dons a new armor only to face a larger and more powerful monster. Guts, Griffith, Casca - all the characters the reader comes to love/hate by volume 13 (released in 1997) are exactly the same in volume 40 (released in 2018). Guts, while much stronger, is still hacking at monsters and villains with no clear sense of direction. Mysteries introduced in 1995 continue to remain unanswered in 2020.

During this time, the manga-ka (Kentaro Miura) at the age of 54 has burnt himself out. He takes long hiatuses, designs mascots for vocaloid software, plays Idol-Master videos games and puts out 3-4 chapters a year. Only 40 chapters have released in the last ten years and in those chapters, the plot has advanced less than what it did in a single year when the manga was in its peak during the mid-1990s.

To be sure, the art is magnificent. Each panel of each chapter is a sight to behold. But here's the thing - if I was truly interested in art, I visit the Louvre in Paris or purchase an artbook by Akemi Takada. What I need from a manga is both art and plot. Berserk has the former but by volume 35, it has become clear there is not a morsel of plot here. And given how slow Berserk's production is, I don't think Berserk will ever finish or deliver upon the promises that it made when it started in 1990.

Would I recommend this? If you like something with great potential to devolve into brainless hack-and-slash and side characters that include a prepubescent elf and a loli-witch, go ahead. Otherwise, don't believe the hype and give this a pass.

If not for the over hype and characters (Guts, specifically) i would have enjoyed this more.

People over hyping and praising this manga as if it was written by God himself, is honestly so disgusting and delusional.

Guts is the biggest Mary Sue i ever had to bear reading. Although i noticed people called him 'badass'. Understandable. But that was what it cut it for me. I don't like 'badass' characters in the first place, because you know why?

Together with 'badassary' comes big, inflated, tumorous egos, and cringeworthy one liners.

There were absolutely no stakes when characters were getting raped/attacked by big ugly evil monsters, because Guts ... would ALWAYS come and save them from baddies. No matter how hurt, or crushed he would be.

Sure he lost an arm and an eye, but did it cripple him? No. He got a cool mechanic arm he could fire arrows and god knows what else, out of. The eye? No biggie. Still can see with the other. It happened only because the author wanted to further showcase just how badass and cool Guts was.

Onto the next point:

As many people said, the females in this manga only existed to be rape-bait. Nothing more, nothing else.

The author excessively forced nudity into this story when it was unnecessary.

You would see many fat ugly men, without penises and only beautiful women with their perky tits, but i guess that's every seinen manga.

At least Griffith was pleasant to look at.

Scull Knight (?) would always deus ex machina his way into the plot, so that readers wouldn't start complaining about Guts always saving the day.

So, how do i wrap this up? Don't know how, bye.

p.s. this review is all over the place.

-- [ Berserk ] --

One line: "Highly detailed scenes. Very impressive and complex plot. Lively and varied characters. Berserk rules!"

- [ Story - 10 ] -

Berserk is about Guts, an exceptionally skilled swordsman and his adventures with The Band of the Hawk, along with its leader, Griffith, and other characters like Caska. After a betrayal, Guts is branded as a sacrifice by the God Hand and loses all his friends and his love, set to be killed during The Eclipse. He fights like an insane, becoming an Eclipse survivor. Following this, he is cursed and always attracts evil spirits and violence around him. He now ... devotes himself to fighting God Hand, his betrayer and all evil accumulating around him, even at the cost of whatever he came to cherish in life, accumulating scars after scars, and risking the lost of everything, including his life. All for revenge.

Berserk is a dark, violent series, definitely targetted to an adult audience. It also contains significant amount of nudity and sex, even rape. Ok. now you are warned.

The plotline is extremely detailed and complex, going from the present, to Guts' background story extensively, before returning to the present and moving on. This is makes very good chracter development and background story elaboration. You are told about most of the characters, how they are related, and why they behave as they do in the present. I felt that no detail lacked. Very very well made!

The story is very captivating too. There is no humor, since it's almost a tragic story, about real suffering at the lost of loved ones and dear friends, because of the betrayal of somebody held in high-esteem. A superb plotline, which views the classic "man fights demons" from a very different angle, as if you were inside the story. The problem is that there is no "good side" to balance the evil powers, so Guts is all alone in his fight for revenge, with no help at all. Berserk takes another look at religion and its concepts, at god and the foundation of faith, at friendship, love and betrayal. Overall, Berserk packs an incredibly complex plot, which is definitely worth discovering.


- [ Art - 10 ] -

The first volumes have quite poor art, with simplistic toning as shading. Even the characters are sometimes weirdly drawn, with wrongly positioned facial features and some other things.

The artist, Kentaro Miura, shows his true skills as the story goes. As the volumes go on, the level of detail, the quality of the drawings and shading increases exponentially, making Berserk a true piece of art. It's definitely one of the best illustrated manga I've seen till now. The characters and specially environments are magnificently detailed. You will see pages dedicated to picturing the environment, on which you will maintain your stare!

Just give a glance to the armor of Griffith or even Guts. It's extremely detailed, down to the nearest mail. Plain impressive. The art is sometimes "heavy" with shading, but this weakness is compensated with detail and intricate shading.

Miura excells in depicting complex fight scenes, with Guts surrounded by enemies, and in great, gory details. Those spread pages are a real pleasure for the eyes. Specially when you get to see the environment too. Miura is definitely the details-man!


- [ Characters - 9 ] -

This manga takes character development to a whole new level. You are given every small detail about all the major characters, and how they are related to all the other characters. The development is made at a great pace, not too fast, not too slow. You will be given details just when they are required. You won't be complaining about lack of details about characters in Berserk.

There is nothing very extraordinary about the characters. In fact, they all seem normal! Guts looks kind of evil and loveless at first glance, and Griffith, seems to be kind-hearted. That's just at first glance though, because the characters have incredible depth. So much that the reader can almost feel the emotions of the characters. You will even pity Guts at time, telling yourself "poor guy...".

The characters are driven by their emotions and ambitions. Guts wants revenge, and channels all his anger and frustration in his fights, even hurting those he cares about in the process, literally becoming berserk. Griffith has ambition and will stop at nothing to reach his goals. The God Hand is pure evil, despite the word god often associated with good in their name. Such a lively and varied cast of characters makes Berserk great.

Interesting enough, Berserk is one of the few series where the main character is not always present and hogging all the action. Sometimes, Guts is not even doing anything great, save for some talking. This gives other characters some role, which makes Berserk even more interesting, since you get to discover side characters. An example would be the Farnese/Serpico arc.

Then why 9 and not 10? Because in my opinion, Griffith gets too much attention. It's just my opinion though! :P


- [ Enjoyment - 9 ] -

Berserk is not something you are going to enjoy, considering the violence and dark theme. You are going to appreciate it, if I may say. That, I did!

The detailed art, the non-lacking story line, the varied cast of characters and the plot twists make Berserk totally great, unsurpassed in its genre in my opinion. You will get to admire, hate or even support the characters as Berserk progresses. As I said earlier, you will become part of Berserk.

Why 9 for enjoyment? Because I didn't like Guts getting trashed incessantly for nearly 25 volumes by overwhelming force and not getting any powerups! It was plain unfair, specially considering all odds are against the guy.


- [ Overall - 9 ] -

If you can handle the violence, gore, fighting and sex, you will want to see Berserk, simply because there is nothing better than Berserk when it comes to those themes! :D

I am not convinced about the re-read value yet. I find it difficult to go over all those dark plots again. It's going to be a once-off-love-it series I guess. For me at least.