An incredibly blood thirsty take no prisoners style of manga where no one is safe. This title is incredibly violent and not for the faint of heart. This title is so violent that no one in the story is spared not even the elderly, the women and the children (all of whom share an equal amount of brutality) therefore this is definitely not for the squeamish.

The story is set during a medieval Europe style world and is divided mainly into three major arcs (for now at least since this is an ongoing series and will most likely have more major arcs in the future). Each arc is very different from each other for instance the earliest arc is comprised mainly of man on man combat and plenty of castle siege scenes so expect plenty of soldiers and dead bodies littering the pages, while the second arc focuses on Guts killing probably the most disturbing monsters in manga history.

The artwork is exceptional good considering this is a long running series that started during the late 80's. There are plenty of highly detailed scenes and this can be very disturbing since it is extremely graphic with plenty of severed heads, decapitated bodies and exposed intestines. It also contains plenty of hard core sex scenes which gives you the feeling that you are actually reading a manga title. Regardless of the shear brutality within these pages, the reader will be able to appreciate the amount of detail here such as the unique armor sets of individual soldiers, the grotesque individual details on the monsters and the extremely detailed environments that range from small villages to castle dungeons and the city sieges.

Characters are pretty well developed and mostly focuses on the main character Guts and his relationship with other major characters but the rest of the cast also share a fair amount of exposure. All characters have a dark side and it can be difficult to actually determine who the good guys are since the main character himself is sort of like a demon in nature.

For the enjoyment part, if you like a deep story and plenty of action then you'll love it. There are plenty of chapters that only contain battle scenes

Overall if you like an action packed blood thirsty manga with a monster fetish then this title is for you