Ah Berserk, infamous for its dark story, Rated M for Manly story, and its badass main protagonist. Sure the manga is full of awesome moments, and Guts IS the definition of a badass, but those three things hardly do the manga justice.

I will attempt to remain as fair and balance in my review of this epic manga.

--Story--

The story of Berserk is actually the best thing about this manga, in my opinion. The first three volumes, collectively known as the Black Swordsman Arc, start off as a simple revenge story. Guts, our main protagonist has been wronged, and he aims to rectify that by brutally killing any demon/apostle and asshole humans in his way.

However, that type of story is averted, as we're shown Guts's backstory, and this quickly changes from a revenge story to a story of betrayal, romance, politics, building friendships, enduring hell, adventure, protecting the ones you hold dear, and the psyche of the main character.

As one progresses through the story, the more the characters are built up, the more relatable they become, and the more you start caring for them and root for them.

Until the infamous Eclipse happens. I won't spoil ANYTHING on this event, but suffice to say that after it, you relate with the protagonist's Jerk-Ass facade even more, and you even relate to the main antagonist. I won't say their name for sake of spoilers.

The setting overall, is a crapsack world. And the reasons why Midland is such a brutal and dark place to live is shown in DETAIL.

Overall the story is deep, thoughtful, and thrilling, and it maintains this level of quality throughout the 320 or so chapters, which is impressive seeing as the manga was first serialized in the early 90's.

Speaking of detail, on to the art.

--Art--

Artwork in a manga plays just as important a role as the story, arguably even moreso.

The artwork in Berserk is outright fantastic, and remains a level of quality throughout, which is just as impressive as the quality of the story.

The first three volumes or so show detail and skill, but the quality is not up to the later chapters. And that's what makes Berserk even more of a joy to read, as Miura aims to show that he wants Berserk to not only be remembered by its epic story, but he wants it to be regarded as a work of art.

As the art style improves, we see the quality of the art get better and better. It's very detailed, and small things like soft hand shading, character expressions, use of ink artistically to imitate spurting, gushing blood, and such make the artwork a masterpiece of pen and ink style.

--Characters--

Bar none, every single character is deep and realized, relatable, and likable. Hell, even the villains are deep and relatable, even though they do deplorable acts. No doubt deep characters are aided by the quality of the plot, but every character you can relate to, and root for.

Special mention goes to Guts. Guts is one of the deepest, most complex protagonists that exist. He has faults, he makes mistakes, he's strong, and of course, a badass, and highly prone to awesome moments. Said awesome moments aren't always battle scenes, sometimes they're conversations with other characters, chapters devoted to his psyche. All of these make Guts an amazing character.

Even the villains are deep and unique, which adds to the overall intrigue of the plot. The main antagonist gets special mention, as they are shown both sides of the coin. You get scenes where they are a good and decent person, then you get scenes like the infamous Eclipse.

The characters just add to the story and makes it more believable.

Suffice to say, I found great enjoyment out of this manga, and I frequently re-read it because each time I do, I find new things to enjoy about it.

Overall, it gets a 10/10. Amazing art, amazing plot, amazing characters all culminate to make a manga that is a must-read, even if you aren't into manga.

A fair bit of warning though, this manga is definitely not for the faint of heart, it's dark, it's brutal, but it's so enjoyable.