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.
