Berserk centers around the main character Guts, a large, six-foot-eight mercenary whose objective is one goal: to swing around his massive sixty-foot-long sword that weighs over four hundred pounds. He's a beast, and looks like something straight out of the widely popular Final Fantasy games, even though Berserk was the one that inspired the whole large-sword trend. A lot of our favorite anime series' today like Fullmetal Alchemist, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, Bleach, and Attack on Titan may not have even existed today if not for Guts' creation. Guts travels on his journey with a fairy companion, Puck, trying to survive demons that come to murder him each night after a horrible, tragic event happened to him and his past. From here, the story spins out into many narratives. The wonderful, and highly acclaimed "Golden Age Arc", which is mostly lots of medieval wars and drama, to the beautiful "Fantasia Arc", is more focused on the supernatural and fantasy. However, none of these arcs or genres become reducible to the other. Miura finds a way to blend everything together so naturally smooth, that the story just fits together perfectly. All in all, the story is truly something special. It makes you feel things for each and every character. You laugh and cry for them, and you begin to care a lot for each of them. Obviously, Miura doesn't hold back on the subject matter. Whether that being plot points of Guts' past of his father figure selling him out to be raped as a child, the incestuous longing a king has with his daughter - complete with a nipple-licking scene, or, the infamous horse scene that everybody knows about, and which is famous amongst the Berserk community - don't look it up if you don't know, it's for your own good. All in all, I think Michael Aronson put it best in his critical review of the first volume, and it's always the go-to phrase I use to describe it to people: "a curious mix of medieval barbarism, sorcery, and futurist technology, combining ghouls, guns, and gore. The result is beautifully rendered badass action with enough bloody violence to keep fans of the genre happy."
One of the things that make the series Berserk so wonderful, I find, is the amazing length of characters. Guts, otherwise known as The Black Swordsman, is a former mercenary who wanders the lands fighting demonic entities each night to pursue his own dream. One, that is, still not known, even to him. He knows nothing but the swinging of a sword, something he was taught since he could stand. His character of being an antihero is true to his name. He's neither a horrible, evil entity, but neither is he actually a good person either. Whether that is because he's lost his trust in humans because of his horrible past, and the events of the infamous Eclipse, or something he's still trying to figure out, it's up to him.
"I'm used to fighting to survive. But what grows worse daily is the pressure not to die. Have I ever before wielded a sword so heavy?"
If there is one thing, out of all the other things that I recommend Berserk for, it's the artwork for it. Even though it is - currently - 370 chapters in, it's a long read. But not just because of the number of chapters. It's the artwork. You can see each panel, page, and everything had care and love put in. Every panel looks like a beautiful graphite or ink drawing, sometimes these "works" would span across both pages for more shock value and beauty, and there were moments that I found myself totally encased in this beauty of just staring at a page for its artwork alone. Whether it was overly gory, sexual, or even just a scene of hills, twisted hellish landscapes, or even Gits walking down a path... It's almost less of a book and more of a collection of professional illustrations. And that alone makes the series amazing. I take longer to read it because the work is so amazing. My roommate put it best. She said: "Berserk is meant to be read slowly. It's meant to be gazed at and savored. It's not just a story, it's an experience." The art of Berserk is meant to be seen and read in black and white - any other color would almost take away from the experience and beauty.
It's an experience. Blood, war, fantasy, fairies, friendship, revenge... it's an important work of not just manga, but in my opinion, literature as a whole.
Rest in peace, Kentaro Miura.
You've changed the lives of many and made all of our hearts go berserk with a beautiful and enchanting story.
