[Review] Manga: Berserk

EDIT: If you read this review and think "oh I wanna read it now", and you haven't heard that the author died, the author died. I really highly doubt the story is actually going to concluded. 

EDIT 2: Nevermind, his best friend and fellow mangaka is now at the helm. New chapters are a lot shorter than before, and this is due to the fact he has stated he will only adapt what was expressly written down or told to him by Miura and he will not attempt to flesh anything out, even saying he won't do things he doesn't remember clear enough. This will likely lead to a somewhat dissatisfying conclusion as the detail and fleshing out of things is what makes it so good, but still. I would say yes, do read it, just keep in mind that near the end of the Fantasia arc, you'll need to temper your expectations and only read on if you want to see this finally conclude.

Mr. Berserk and his good pals: Thief Boy, Witch Girl, Fish Girl, Snakey Guy, Serious Lady, The Fairly Oddparents, Cool Dude, Not-so-Cool Dude, and Best Girl... oh, and Azan.*

"I'll burn my life until it goes out... I'll take an unbreakable sword in hand, so I can remain who I am! Ahh, so that I won't lose anything else!... Biting a hole through fate, I'll keep up this hopeless struggle!" - From Berserk 2016 OP, Inferno, 9mm Parabellum Bullet.

"I don't care if I'm not smiling in the end, so long as you're with me. To end this long battle, I'll overcome this fate! Even if it's the hand of God that holds me, I'll risk my bonds and my soul. To end this battle, I'll risk it all!" From Berserk 2017 OP, Sacrifice, 9mm Parabellum Bullet.

Those 2 seasons are terrible btw, don't watch them. Apparently in addition to terrible animation and directing, they cut out most of the slow quiet and character building moments, aka the reason I fucking read it. 

So, Berserk. Another thing I was certain I wouldn't like and had no interest in, but actually ended up really great. As always, I do blame it's fanbase, which is terrible, and you're unlikely to hear about anything other than how badass and cool and metal and brutal and fuckin rad things like Guts, the Godhand, the gore and rape, the BIG SWORD, the violence and monsters, all the other shit that isn't the actually good stuff. Before, if you asked me what I thought happened in the average chapter of Berserk, I would have said "An edgy dude with a big sword kills an even edgier dude or monster and says something edgy, then goes to do more of that, and someone gets raped, and then someone innocent dies- probably because of the first edgy dude.", and while that sometimes happens, I'd actually describe the average chapter as "Guts encounters an enemy, maybe through sheer dumb luck while trying to do something else because he can't catch a break, who threatens his woman or his friends, and they have defeat him and his minions. At this point in the story, Guts will probably do irreparable damage to himself using the berserker armor and when the fight is done, the others will have to patch him up, while slow paced character development scenes ensue. We'll probably cut away to see what big bad Griffith and his companions are up to, or maybe Rickert and his new pals. When's the next chapter?"

In reality, Berserk is not super badass antihero adventures of  CoolBoner McHugeDick, heavy metal album cover in manga form. It is actually a character drama within the backdrop of medieval warfare, high fantasy, and JRPG-like struggles against evil gods and fate. It is deeply character driven, to the point that, while a lot has happened in the plot, it's not nearly enough to take up 40 volumes and 363 chapters alone. At least half of that is character development.

More important, it's a story that evolves and changes over time, altering how you see certain events and characters' actions, and more importantly: unlike a lot of things I end up dropping, gets smarter, more mature, and less edgy as time goes on. Woah! Not only do the characters themselves change drastically over the course of the story, it also just gets lighter and more refined tonally over time. I mean at current, we're on an island full of cute witch girls, sprites, and flowers. Comparing characters over the course of the story as well shows too, Guts and Farnese for best examples; Chapter 1 Guts is so different from Chapter 363 Guts, in the best ways possible. Moreover, it even asks you to rethink him from early on. While, even though he's still acting like an edgy asshole when we get back from the 10 volume flashback, you absolutely are right there with him wanting him to go get his revenge... only for it to pull back, after a short part of the story that executes asshole Guts way better, and tell you "but he actually shouldn't have been doing that, and you shouldn't have wanted him too".  

It's that kind of thing that makes this great, how perspectives and perceptions can shift so smoothly and make so much sense. Farnese as I mentioned is a similar case, you compare how she is in her introduction to how she is now, and it's like night and day. I always love stories that can pull off such comprehensive character growth. Some characters don't grow, but how you feel about them does change. I'll talk more about him when I get to him, but Father Mozgus is also like that. I still dislike a lot about him but I can't hate him due to how my perception of him was changed. 

The plot as well, each arc has a different tone and evolves over time, yet still feel like part of the same story. Well aside from like the first one. I'll get to that. But the tone and even type of story changes from the Golden Age arc to the Conviction arc, the Millennium Hawk arc feels different too, as does the Fantasia arc. They all have different themes to them as well, as an obvious example the Conviction arc deals with people with strong convictions, both pro and antagonist alike. The setting changes as well, going through multiple periods and states throughout, being drastically altered by the story's events. Especially in the arc previous to the current one, hoo boy.

There's just so much good stuff about it I don't know where to start! Well, I got an idea:

Why did I try it anyway? I mean yeah, it seemed like the dumbest shit ever, and honestly it is for a little but I'll get to that. Well honestly, it was just occasionally actually hearing things about it that sounded good, I vaguely knew about Griffith and how he's supposedly this amazing antagonist, and I knew what he looked like and he seemed out of place for what I thought it was. Finally, I just recently heard someone say something like "Remember when Griffith was flying around on Zodd and killing the sky?" and that piqued my interested enough, because I like things where you can say absolutely bonkers out of context shit like that... and also I knew there was a short hair brown tomboy which is something I'm also into. I considered watching the old anime to test out, but I settled on a trilogy of movies that cover the Golden Age arc, Egg of the King, Battle for Doldrey, and Advent, instead since it'd take less time. This was my introduction, so I'll start there.

Part A: The Movies

I. The Egg of the King

This movie is, not great. These movies use some pretty lousy CG for most of their battle scenes, not as bad as the 2016/17 series since there is 2D scenes proper and they actually look real nice. The CG looks better than there anyway. This one is the most rough, with the most CG battles and the least good looking CG. What it, and the others, do have, however, is some well directed and choreographed action scenes that help lesson the blow. It should still be 2D, but it's not bad. This concerns the meeting between Guts and Griffith, joining the mercenary group Band of the Hawk, Griffith's strange object called a behelit, the first(chronologically) encounter with the supernatural with Nosferatu Zodd, many of their battles and accolades, and finally Guts overhearing Griffith talk about true friends and dreams. It's not bad, but not great, some good stuff is cut out. These cut out a lot of good stuff to fit everything in the time limit, which is sad but it's still good enough to hook you in. 7/10

II. Battle for Doldrey

This concerns Casca getting closer to Guts, partly due to the situation in which they have to protect each in the woods while trying to get back to the rest of the Band. They learn a lot about each other and Guts starts to realize he kinda likes her; Strong, dependable, but still feminine in ways. Not bad to have around at least, right? They fight back to back for a bit and it's cool. No spoilers for what happens but it's pretty cool. It also concerns the end of 100 year war, thanks to none other than the Band of the Hawk, which gets them noble status! There's even a great scene where Casca is in a dress and doing that anime tomboy thing where she's all "ehhh, I look weird in this right?" and Guts tells her no she looks good, it's so cute. Guts leaves to pursue his own dreams and this upsets Griffith. This causes him to make some poor choices which incurs the wrath of the king. Again, it cuts out some good stuff, but is none the less very good and compelling. 8/10

III. Advent

This is the one where everything goes to shit. I won't say what happens here at all really, but bad things. Very bad. It sadly also cuts out a lot despite being the longest of the films at about 100 minutes. Yet, it's also the best one of the 3. Remember the behelit. 9/10

In the end I could recommend these as a starter like I did, but if you do you need to go back and read this arc of the manga. It's very good, and though it has some issues, it's worth it. The movies cut out some of the bad shit, like an entire volume's worth with Wyald aka the worst character in fiction, but it also cuts out good shit like the entire infiltration of the castle to rescue Griffith from imprisonment by the king. Those part feature things such as Guts and Casca being super cute together, the princess also being cute, and even learning Pippin used to work in a mine. The first movie cuts out most of Guts warming up to the Band and just skips to when he already has. The second cuts an entire subplot out, as well as chapters which help develop Griffith in a way that helps you know he isn't just a sociopath from the getgo so when the time comes you can't just be all "oh well duh he was just faking". But, I think experiencing it in this form will get you hooked on the story and want to see where it goes, as well as be willing to endure it's faults to experience the full version of this arc.

Right, arcs. This story is told in distinct arcs. After watching the movies I continued on from where they left off, eventually going back and reading the Golden Age... and then the Black Swordsman Arc, vol. 1-3. I uhhhh, I highly recommend starting with the Golden Age and then coming back for that later if you want. Why? Well, to put it simply.

Part B: Black Swordsman

It's bad. The Black Swordsman arc is bad. It's so clear the author, Kentaro Miura, didn't know what he wanted his main character to be, what kind of story he wanted to tell, or even what the setting was like. I don't have much to say and I don't have any pages to show you. It's literally just Guts wandering around, looking for dudes with behelits so he can maybe find out how to get to Griffith and kill him. He bumbles around a bit, for 3 volumes, telling a story that could have been told in 1. It's dumb, it's edgy, it's poorly drawn, it's badly written(well, some of his good writing shows through but not much), it's just not very good. It even begins, the literal first scene, with fucking and then murder. Guts is, inexplicably, fucking a woman who then turns into a demon and then he blows her head off. While this is later revealed to be someone who killed his friend, that smacks of trying to hastily tie this together and justify it because he retconned the story. This makes no sense for several reasons.

1. The only point of this is to show how cool and edgy this manga is. It doesn't work.

2. How does this demon woman not even fucking know who he is? She was like, there, when he got the brand? And the brand attracts evil beings anyway, she should like, sense it when he's that fuckin close? There's no way she'd think he was just some guy.

3. Why would Guts even need to do this to kill her? He could have done it how he normally does. 

4. If he doesn't, why would Guts be having sex with some random woman anyway? He never strikes me as someone who would have casual sex, even if he didn't have issues with it due to having been raped as a child.

5. Even if he was, it still makes no sense because SPOILERS, he loves Casca so much he's willing to literally die or worse for her, he certainly doesn't seem like the type to cheat on her even if it was to kill a demon. He coulda just killed her, Guts isn't gonna cheat on his girl like that.

The whole scene sucks, the only good part of the Black Swordsman arc is the very end, when Guts tells this girl who's dad turned out to be a demon and is thinking of killing herself "fine then, if you're gonna kill yourself then just do it. If you're giving up and aren't gonna keep struggling, go ahead and end it" only for her to almost fall to her death and him to save her. After, she blames him for everything and says she's gonna kill him. He tells her "I'm ready whenever you are" and walks away, in the next panel it's revealed he's started to cry, but he quickly wipes his tears away and carries on. This is actually good, as it helps shift the tone away from this bullshit, and into what's coming next: the actual good shit, where you learn about how tragic of a character Guts is and how broken he is as a person. The rest kinda sucks though. I really think, even though this makes the fact that after 3 volumes of meandering nothing it launches into this 10 volume long character drama that's actually well written and complex actually kinda cool, you should just start at the next arc.

Part C: The Golden Age

Really, probably the best of all 5 current arcs. It's impressive that this manga goes from mediocre at best, to so good, albeit a bit clumsy from time to time. This is the good, it just bolts right on into good.

I'd describe Golden Age as a kind of greek tragedy. It's the story of a man with no ambition who meets one with great ambition, and through his ambition he ends up losing the other man and destroying his ambition in the process. He does, however, find a way out. It's a bit of subversion in a way, because there is a Deus Ex Machina that saves him at the end... but it just makes things more tragic. 

It's the same as the movies, but better in some places and iffy in others. I love it though, You learn all about Guts; his childhood, his teen years, his adult years, and the tragedy that befalls him. Here you find out Guts was always broken. I will say, it starts off overly dark, with Guts being born form his mother's hanged corpse, and a little after that he gets child raped by a scary black man. A bit much. I will say the mother's hanging seems to have either been a lynching, or a mass suicide, since she's actually with several others. A little less "oh my god so fucked up haha" than if it was just his mother like, trying to kill herself instead of having him. There's so many more gratuitously dark things it could be as a single suicide, but with dozens of other bodies there it becomes: Either like a crazy suicide pact who knows, someone's town got attacked(maybe they revolted), or something like that. Typical medieval europe shit. Also, it becomes somewhat important that Guts was born this way later, as he is described as being close to death and adept at avoiding it due to the nature of his birth. The sexual assault is also used for a purpose later, as it causes Guts to both have a serious aversion to being touched or having people stand behind him, and it leads to his major trust issues. Guts accidentally kills his foster father after he gets drunk one night and reveals it was he who sold him out to the child rapist, and he has to run away. From then on, he has no home, and so he wanders from battle to battle getting paid to fight.

Until one fateful battle where he defeats Bazuso, a very strong knight, fairly easily. It catches the attention of Griffith, leader of the Band of the Hawk, and he basically makes him join. Guts learns of Griffith's grand ambition of gaining his own kingdom and taking his comrades with him, and over time Guts comes to care about Griffith and the band, they become his family, and he wants to help him achieve his goals. Finally, Guts has people to be with, and something to live for.

But things start to go wrong one day, when Guts overhears Griffith smooth talking the princess with some talk of dreams and friendship, like you do in a manga.

Guts starts to feel discontent. He starts to yearn for a dream of his own, to be Griffith's "equal". And so, begins the downfall, little does he know. Eventually, after many battles and successes, after he helps carry Griffith as far as he thinks he needs to, he decides to leave and pursue his own dream. As I said before, Griffith does not take this well. But I won't give it away, if you don't know what happens, I don't want tell you.

As I also said, Guts gets closest to one other person, Casca. Here's a spoiler I kinda gotta say, they get together, and it's the sweetest thing.

Undeniably my favorite part of the Golden Age is this. I don't wanna say too much about it, other than I mean it's just adorable. It works so much better in the manga than in the movies just because there's more time for it to develop. I buy it totally though, and anybody who doesn't is an idiot. They share many moments together that let them know they're kindred spirits. They need each other, and want each other. Casca wants someone to stand beside, but Griffith no longer wants or needs her for that. For a time, she's jealous of Guts because of how close he gets to Griffith. Over time, however, especially after their big character development backstory scene, she begins to have feelings for him. Who wouldn't? Guts is a big dumb angry dude, but underneath that is a tenderness. He's a strong, earnest person, who will do anything for someone he's formed a bond with. While she became infatuated with Griffith, she comes to love Guts. In many ways they are opposites, Guts keeps it simple but he's complicated underneath. Griffith is complex but deep down is not much more than a childish desire. In the end, the one she'd rather be with is Guts; A simple man who likes to fight but will hold on to her when she needs him to. Not Griffith, the man who cares more about his ambition than anything else.

Well, that's somewhat the case. 

Griffith is also a very good character, though some of that is sadly cut out of the movies.

This scene is just missing, which sucks a lot. You could easily say that he's just a psychopath without scenes like this, which makes what he does at the end less impactful and meaningful. It becomes an "oh, well of course" instead of a feeling like you can't believe he'd do it, don't want him to, but also deep down know he could. 

It's why he works so well as both a protagonist and an antagonist. He's put together this band of people who had nowhere else to go, people with strong wills but who still need the help of others; people who need a leader. He wants to smash through the foolish birthright caste system and rise up to the top from nothing, secure a place for his people, and change the world. But it takes a toll on him, and he's forced to do terrible things to succeed. It's an ideal, but it's not ideal. His is a constant struggle between that ideal, and the reality around him. He can't give up though, no matter what he has to do. Even if that means...

As for the Edge Factor, despite being probably the best arc, it's also the one with the most problems. Like the aforementioned Wyald. Sometimes it knows when to show something, and while I prefer when stories are able to make it clear without needing to show it, I can also respect one that does simply show sexual content when it's important and used for something. The problem is, while it often does, it just as often doesn't need to be there. There are several instances of just pointless bare breasts and sometimes rape that just don't add or amount to anything to story at all. Most of the time it's just Casca almost getting raped before being saved which is really upsetting. I don't want her to be exploited like that. On the gore front, there's actually way more of it later on and it all makes sense here, actually. Lots of it is just decapitations and people getting smashed up in battle, and well, battle is like that. Regardless, I once again have to say that even with these issues, the Golden Age is just dripping with meaningful character drama, it's just bursting right out. The 3 leads are well written and complex characters, their stories are compelling, the tragedy is so well built up giving you enough time to care about the characters before bad things happen. The entire story is something that would be relegated to an hour long at best cutscene in a game, 3 episodes at most in a show, and maybe one movie out of a trilogy if you're lucky. And it isn't given away to you in the first 3 volumes, you know Griffith goes bad, you know he did something terrible, but Guts doesn't ever like to talk about his past so you don't know exactly what, why, or how. 

Anyway, I can't say much more. The last thing I'll do is just post some more Casca because she's an ultra cutie sweetheart best girl.

Part D: Conviction

The Conviction arc starts with a part I'm not hot on. While it does re-characterize Guts and improve him a lot from Black Swordsman, this part is still too wantonly dark and graphic. It's decently written, it's a perfectly fine little self contained story, but there's a lot of child death and I'm just not really that into it. Not much to say. Luckily, after that, Guts goes back to visit Godot, a blacksmith he meets in the Golden Age who made his black armor and the sword he now uses, the Dragonslayer. Which, btw, is a great name for a sword. He talks to him in that scene I showed earlier, learns that Casca has sadly run off... oh I didn't explain that did I. I guess I need to. See, after the ending of Golden Age, Casca becomes traumatized and mentally regresses, not being able to talk and acts scared of Guts. This is not resolved until, like last year and spoilers she's still having PTSD attacks. It's rough. But well, Erica, the kid of Godot, was taking care of her but lost sight of her one time while walking in the woods. She's gone, and now Guts realizes he needs to make up for leaving her here, and goes off to find her.

Thus the REAL Conviction arc begins.

We get introduced to not 1, not  2, but 3 whole main characters in this arc, in addition to several side characters, many of which will return in later chapters! 

We meet Farnese, the leader of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, of the religious organization The Holy See, who are our investigating a doomsday prophecy from their scriptures. We also meet her second in command, Serpico, who at first appears to be a lazy coward. Farnese is, at that point, a cold hearted and uptight priestess who gets on her subordinates nerves. These two end up being much more complicated than they seem, which is a big theme of this arc. Farnese and Serpico are obvious, for one Serpico is one of those guys whose eyes look like they're closed which of course means there's something up, and Farnese quickly hints at the issues she has. Her story is one of, in line with others, past trauma leading to a current messed up head, and a crisis of faith. You soon learn she enjoys burning heretics at the stake, one of her jobs as a Holy knight obviously, but hates the fact she enjoys it. She comes to question this practice, and her whole religion, after the experiences she has with the supernatural and with Guts during this arc, and her faith is inevitably shaken to the core. Another side character is introduced in a way that makes you assume she has no scruples, a prostitute who clearly helped throw someone under the bus earlier, but is quickly revealed to be strong willed and altruistic; the man she scapegoated was a real shitbag, and it was done to throw suspicion off the other townsfolk so they wouldn't be burned. Her group of prostitutes shares everything amongst each other, even the pearl necklace(not that kind) given to her by one of the Knights. It's her, well, conviction. That Knight, too, seems like a real dumbass and I didn't like him at first, but as the arc went on he became more endearing over time. The biggest and most obvious example of both conviction and feelings for a character changing, is Father Mozgus. I still don't feel right about him, as his design is stupid and he makes these dumb exaggerated edgy faces, but in general I came around. I mean, I still dislike him as a person, you're meant to, but it's strange how I went from thinking he was fucking terrible to thinking he was actually a very interesting character. His inquisitors, too, tricked me as well. When introduced they just seem stupid and edgy, they've got fucked up looking costumes and designs, but it turns out that's intentional; they're all actually deformed freaks, which is why Mozgus took them in, to give them a place and a purpose. They're ugly and terrifying, perfect for torturing heretics and striking fear into them. One of them wears one of those plague doctor masks, but underneath is a fairly handsome albino man who has to wear it to not die. Mozguz is an evil person, but he doesn't simply use religion as an excuse to do these things, he truly believes they are necessary acts and are justified in the name of god. This makes him a worthwhile antagonist for this arc, especially for Guts, who never gave a shit about religion and cares even less for it now. 

The plot of the arc is fairly simple, the characters all gather in the same place, Farnese and co to help hunt down heretics near a place called the Tower of Conviction, Guts because Casca ended up with those prostitutes, the prostitutes because they're part of a group of refugees from the plague, and the demons and spirits because a plot important ritual is going on there. These characters all converge, slowly tell you more about themselves, until everything builds up to evil spirits attacking and possessing people, including father Mozguz and his inquisitors. It doesn't go well for them.

The only outlier here is Isidro, who is also introduced. He comes in at the same time as the invasion from Kushan is introduced. It's a small subplot that isn't revisited until the next arc, but the Kushan Empire, a vaguely afghani/indian people based on the real life empire of the same name, start to invade the territories of The Holy See. Isidro gets caught up after tricking some bandits into eating poisoned meat so they wouldn't take all of his shit. He's a small boy, probably about 12 or 13, and is a thief to make ends meet, but wants to be a master swordsman one day. Isidro is my least favorite character, only because we haven't learned much of his backstory yet. He's well characterized and fun, though he's been relegated to comic relief and not much else lately, but I'm also hoping for him to have a complicated past like all the others. He also doesn't seem to be a broken person like Guts, Farnese, and Serpico, which is unfortunate. It'd be fitting if they all were, needing to find solace in each other to be okay. 

This arc is really good, not amazing it has some issues, but I really like the new main and side characters and really enjoyed learning about them. There are some powerful scenes during this, you even get to learn about a minor antagonist that only two characters ever see. There are good scenes of humor, drama, horror, and even some of tranquility. And there are some cool ass fight scenes! Specifically one with Guts and Serpico. They'll have another good one later. There are certainly some overly dark scenes, especially the first part of Lost Children, a sub-arc at the start, but the main part also has some unnecessary shots of child death too. As for sexual content, oddly I feel like there weren't any really pointless bits of it. The two I can recall of the top of my head that have a point, are the introduction of Luca, the prostitute, which actually doesn't show anything. The other is during a crazy ass pagan ritual, and part of it's purpose is showing how messed up another character, Nina, is. There is one other, but it's pretty ridiculous and hard to take seriously anyway, it features the infamous rape horse, which is a horse that gets possessed with a clear intent to rape Farnese, though he is quickly killed before he can try. I'd prefer if nothing had been shown at all during that, but whatever, at least there's a reason. Other than that, there's plenty of gore and while most of it is from battling monsters and monstrous people, there are some parts of possessed villagers eating other villagers unfortunately. However, this is the last arc that's particularly edgy, and it often uses it as a way to trick you like "oh you thought it was gonna be some edgy bullshit, but actually!". Probably a higher ratio of that, even. The next two arcs are so much lighter, tonally. It still has bits of dark and tragic storytelling, because it'd be stupid if it wasn't, but only in a couple occasions do I feel it takes it to far or does it wantonly, where as some parts of Conviction do feel that way. So while it does still have those problems, it's getting better and refining what is there anyway, and soon there will be much less of it. It's a good arc. The next one is way better tho!

Part E: Millennium Hawk

Again, don't watch the 2016/17 anime. I heard the '97 anime's pretty good though.

This one here is probably my second favorite part. It's just great, Guts gains a bunch of party members, has Casca back, and is generally just feeling a lot better. He's got some problems, mostly in that he's slowly killing himself to protect his friends and defeat the increasingly strong and inhuman enemies, but still. He's probably the happiest he's been since the middle of the Golden Age, even if it's tough for him to show it now since I dunno if he actually knows how to anymore. 

Several new main characters are introduced in this arc, the most important of which is Schierke, the small green haired girl, who is a witch. This happens in the first half, which is primarily just protecting a town from trolls and learning more about the mysticism of the setting and how it works. 

It begins with Guts returning to Godot's house after rescuing Casca, and then meeting Griffith again after many chapters, and many years in world. Guts tries to fight him but Zodd appears and stops him instead, they have a crazy battle which Rickert watches in awe of. Their battle gets put on hold, and Griffith flies away on Zodd to go achieve his goals. The battle destroys the cave that Casca was going to stay in, so there's no other choice... but to go the home of Puck, Elfhelm. Oh, right, Puck. I forgot to mention him. He's a small "elf"(more like a fairy) who follows Guts around, essentially being his moral compass and providing some healing with his "elf dust". He says that, if they can get to Elfhelm, Casca can be safe from the evil spirits that now hunt them after the crazy shit that happened at the end of Golden Age, and maybe even get her memories fixed by the Elf King, Hanafubuku. Guts once again sets off, this time with Casca, to help her, having to push aside his desire for revenge against Griffith. 

Eventually, Farnese and Serpico meet up with him again, as does Isidro. Farnese wants to travel with him, hoping that doing so will open her eyes more to the real world, and not the one told to her in religious books. Serpico comes with because he has to stay by the side of his lady Farnese, I wonder why? Farnese also starts to become a much better person here, she cuts her little pigtails as you can see in that header image, and starts helping protect Casca. Will needing to fight for another person, not just herself, be good for her? 

One thing leads to another and they eventually make their way to Enoch village, stopping here and there for some nice character development. Interspersed are chapters dealing with what Griffith is up to, he shows himself to the people and is believe to be the prophesied "Hawk of Light", and begins taking more and more power, and gaining followers of legendary status such as Locus, Grunbeld, Rakshas, and good old Zodd. He mounts an attack with his army of War Demons against the Kushan Empire, and its leader Ganishka. Introduced around then are also two side characters, Sonia and Mule, a girl who acts as Griffith's medium and a knight who has joined the New Band of the Hawk. Actually, several other side characters are introduced, like Irvine and the Pope. Some characters return, like Princess Charlotte and her attendant from the Golden Age. More characters will return next arc as well, it's something I really like about Berserk; you never know who's gonna show up and who's gonna be important. Silat, seemingly an unimportant throwaway villain, stays relevant throughout, and gets more so with each arc.

Oh right, I was talking about Enoch village. This is where we meet Schierke, and her teacher Flora. I honestly don't know if I want to tell you much more than this, this part of the arc is great. We learn a lot about the supernatural, otherworldly elements, about the behelits, about what Guts is up against. He gains the Berserker Armor, and I don't even wanna tell you what the deal is with that.

I will say Schierke is a great character. In contrast to the others, she is maybe the least complicated, but in a good way. While she is wise beyond her years due to her spiritual education, she's still a sheltered child who hasn't gone much farther than the woods she lives in. Setting out on the journey she does after this part, opens her eyes to many things. Much of this scares her, but she's able to endure it because of the others. She's scared, but she's having a fun time too. She also later becomes instrumental in helping Guts use the Berserker Armor without really fucking things up.

This arc contains lots of great character development for Farnese, Serpico, Guts, Schierke, even Isidro! Also we meet another elf named Ivalera. There are some really good scenes, in what would otherwise be filler, especially with the priest of Enoch village, who provides a good contrast with Schierke, and reminds Farnese of how she used to be. 

The second part concerns almost entirely the massive battle between Ganishka and Griffith, culminating in some crazy, reality-altering shit. It's where he rides around on Zodd and kills the sky. Guts on the other hand is just trying to get a boat, and we're introduced to Magnifico, fun scumbag and greedy jew, who is Farnese' brother, as well as Roederick, who is a total bro and is great. He's a cool manly boat captain and he's always got everyone's back, I love him. Another fight between Guts and Serpico takes place, this one even better. They're the best because Serpico fights tactically, taking advantage of terrain to make up for the difference in strength and reach between him and Guts. 

Eventually, after much hassle, they do get on that boat, while Griffith takes care of his shit, essentially becoming both antagonist... and secondary protagonist. 

If it isn't obvious I think this arc is fantastic, I can barely talk about it because I don't wanna spoil it, there's so much good shit here. So many good character moments, great lore, the tone and perception of what's going on changes again. It's become a different story, almost, and yet it's always the same one. That's just what Berserk is.

And the edge levels are so much lower! There's two bad parts, one where the trolls have apparently kidnapped the villages women to rape them. One of two instances of pointless violence and sex, and it's there, and it's like 3 pages maybe. The second one is brief too, and is arguably important for showing how bad Ganishka is, he has some kind of weird monster-human breeding tank thing? Not even sure what it is but it's some weird fucked up body horror thing. And like, that's really it. Man that's great! Miura, the author, had clearly gotten older and more mature by this time. Mostly this arc is just character drama and some crazy monster battles. It's real good.

Also during these events, and before,  Guts is dealing with this. I think I'll let it speak for itself.

Part F: Fantasia

This is the one I have the least to say about, not because it's uninteresting, it's just that it's not done yet. Feels maybe a 1/5-1/4 done to me. The first part of it isn't great, it's some very filler-y stuff, it's most of when they're stuck on the boat for all those years irl. You deal with a villain who sometimes feels kinda fun, sometimes pretty annoying. A real joke villain, a pirate captain who lends some good black comedy, as well as some pretty cringey joke gimmicks I don't like. He also becomes a zombie. The first part's not all bad though, as it also cements Azan, who was with Farnese during their introduction but hadn't shown up since she quit the Knights, as a recurring side character. It introduces Isma, as well, who is a fun and adorable character who's got lots of energy and cute wavy short hair. So many cute short hairs in this manga, nobody told me. I woulda been right on that shit. 

Interspersed is more of what Griffith is up to, basically creating a utopia and even giving some of the, let's just keep calling them demons for now, a place to hang out and be violent monster assholes to each other and have fun away from normal people. Many characters return, I won't say who because it's best for it to be a surprise, but it's great. Furthermore, Rickert essentially becomes a third protagonist, and is now on his way with Silat of all people to a hidden village where he trained as an assassin that should be safe from all the chaos, and from Griffith's captains, Locus and Rakshas, whose wrath he incurred by slapping Griffith and rejecting his offer to join. Everyone's on an adventure! 

They also have made it to the island and we're learning a lot of history, backstory, and lore. However, like the last arc, I don't wanna say that much, especially since it's not done. 

The edge is almost totally gone, there's still some edgy factors but the kind of stuff I like, like the dark humor, there's plenty of monsters, hell there's like this village that's become body snatched by this squid monster it's fucked up. Tonally though, this is probably the lightest arc so far, even if some sad things are starting to happen. Like I said, there's a lot of cute critters and witch girls right now, on a fluffy island full of flowers. It's really enjoyable.

Part G: Conclusion(unlike the manga)

Alright, so I dunno if I've succeeded in explaining at all why I think this is great and why you should read it too, but I've done just about the best I can. Hopefully you have an idea. 

An aspect which I didn't talk about before, which you can see in the pages I showed, is how good the artwork is. For one, Miura loves his two page spreads. There are so many of them. A lot of the artwork is inspired by classic paintings, that MC Esher non-euclidian stairwell for instance and an artist who I can't remember's depiction of Hell are both homaged/referenced. But classic painting influence doesn't end there, half of the two page spreads are beautiful scenery shots that remind me of paintings from the romantic period. Actually, the artwork does, there's a heavy element of romanticism in this story. The character bios that start each volume now even say that Guts has to fight between his desire for revenge and desire to protect Casca and that "this struggle is nothing short of sublime", which is both very accurate and something a romanticist would say. Indeed, Guts shares many qualities with romantic heroes, he fights entirely for himself and those he cares about, rather than some great cause, for example. Considering how rough and anti-hero he is for a while, he could be considered somewhat Byronic hero. Though don't put too much stock in what I'm saying, since I've only had the concepts explained to me and have never read classic romantic era writing including Byron's work, I'm only familiar with later romantic heroes like Captain Harlock. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm a romantic, at the very least I love romanticism in my stories, so perhaps the way Guts and his struggle against fate is written and presented helps draw me to it. The artwork, too, fills me with that sense of sublimity from time to time, not just the scenes and dialogue, as it is so very expressive. It's a case where I doubt an anime could really do the characters feelings justice, as only the artwork itself can ever really show these characters and how they feel. Even when it was kind of rough in the Golden Age, this was true.

The characters are fantastic, the plots good and wide spanning, altering the setting drastically, it's got great thematic and emotional depth, tragedy, drama, comedy, great artworks, great lore. So much is good, that the bad feels like such a small part of it. Not even a fifth, more than worth it to put up with it. I really like it, and even with it's terrible release schedule, it's worth it. I have no idea if I'll make it to see the end but if I literally read the last page on my deathbed I'll consider it a net gain. Totally read this, feel free to start with the movies to see how you feel, then go read the manga starting from I believe the last chapter of volume 3. It's so good.

Thanks for reading.

*Their names are actually Isidro, Schierke, Isma, Serpico, Farnese, Puck and Ivalera, Roederick, Magnifico, Casca, and THE MYSTERIOUS MOUSTACHIOD KNIGHT(azan).

EDIT: Rest in Peace, Miura-sensei.