Please note that the following review contains spoilers.
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At some point, anyone who reads manga and engages with the community would be encouraged to read Berserk. Not only rated the highest on this very site, but beloved by fans who have been invested in the characters that they have spent so much of their lives admiring and despising, and, in the case of some, both in equal measures. This is not the least bit difficult to understand why once the reader comes across Guts, the intrepid and implacable "hero" of the story. Many mistake him for the protagonist of the manga. A shame, really, given how that just sets up many for disappointment later down the line. This was the case with me, too, initially.

You see, detractors are just as much inspired by reactionary zeal as they are with a genuine feeling of betrayal. This is the case with a lot of things in life, and, I believe, is the case here too. The number of people who would bandy about the sheer brilliance of "The Golden Age" arc is so large it is almost insufferable when one encounters them. Not that they are wrong, just that their attitude appears controversial to them, and those they speak to would predictably be provoked at the suggestion that Berserk kind of does fall apart after that (should they know what Berserk is in the first place, of course). But the reason I was feeling uncomfortable with the direction the story was taking came much later, after the equally appreciated "Lost Children Chapter". This chapter, along with the initial chapters before the prequel starts, gives the reader the impression that this is the direction Berserk is taking: a lone, grizzled man struggling against the world's worst to kill someone he once wanted to be an equal to but ended up being responsible for perpetrating almost unspeakable cruelty on both him and on the ones he loved. He is fighting not just monsters, but monsters who have reasons to regret their lives, for all have lost something or someone they held dearly to become what they are. Guts will kill anyone in his path, even children, to reach his goal, no matter the fact that he has no actual idea how he will accomplish his goal.

A tragedy of a man who knows how to survive a fight with a hundred men as well as the truth that the need for revenge alone is keeping him sane. Perhaps he always knew that Griffith, the man he once looked up to, can no longer be defeated by his own strength. But he does not care and he will go on harbouring the wish, regardless of what it costs his soul, as he goes about killing monsters. He would rather die fighting than grieve and try to move on. So he does just that, because you cannot use a sword to build a house or to find solace in what you have left. He kills and kills and does not stop. Griffith has got to be at the end of one of these treks.

Suddenly, the deformed demon child born to Casca, Guts's lover, informs Guts that its mother is in danger. Guts stops. What was his quest about, really? To defeat Griffith, now that he is furthest from human? Is the reason behind his crusade not his lover? Guts promptly leaves for the city where Casca is to be burned without thinking twice. And everyone is confronted with a change in tone that many refuse to swallow.

You see, Miura, the author, seems to have realised, or believed, that one of the core aspects of Berserk is the political intrigue and large scale battles that he introduced in "The Golden Age" arc. Not only are the main characters during this arc involved in scheming, planning, and executing war against a variety of factions in this medieval setting but Griffith has apparently been promised a kingdom and he will get it. He forces Guts to become a member. Guts is in awe of Griffith, as are the band of followers Griffith has amassed around him. He appears above human law or grasp, something to be worshipped or desecrated rather than just loved or despised. He seems to believe that about himself too. But, eventually, Guts is tired of simply being Griffith's lackey and decides to walk away. Griffith is having none of it, but he no longer commands Guts's awed loyalty, only his respect. This clash of wills, and the subsequent course of events that creates the unbridgeable rift between Guts and Griffith, would not have been possible without the intrigue, without the battles they participated in together. Perhaps Miura believes that maybe this will pay off in the future?

And, given that this is still where we find ourselves, with an incomplete saga and Guts in the company of people he would not think twice about abandoning along the way about ten volumes ago, we are not sure how the answers will arrive. There are a lot of characters that appear to have something in their pasts that could have been used for some extremely dramatic purposes: Farnese, the one-time leader of a band of ceremonial holy knights sent to capture Guts, finds herself attracted to this "bad boy"- she could have failed to rescue or protect Casca on many occasions, because nothing suggests she is ready to handle any pressure from someone she has conflicting feelings for and about; or Casca herself could have deliberately endangered Guts after he attacked her, since, having lost her sanity, she doesn't much feel for Guts; or perhaps Guts himself attacking the rest of the group, or the major members of his group, while in his cursed armour. Anything to reiterate the themes of the earlier stories: that the world that the characters thought they knew is actually full of cruelty and hatred, that the perpetrators of this cruelty are mostly humans trying to achieve the best for themselves, that people will be prepared to sacrifice that which they love most if they are going to get what they want. The amount of time we are made to wait is what makes those who have decided to keep reading antsy and those who have given up on the manga feel vindicated.

I began the manga thinking it was a better version of The Witcher: where The Witcher tried to do a deliberate send up of fairy tales, Berserk was not particularly concerned but achieved it (spectacularly) anyway. The use of magic was quite interesting, for Berserk implicitly suggested that all the magic in the world (insofar as the initial chapters are concerned) is some form of dark magic. This taints all magic seen in the manga, and Guts's fortitude to take on foes who have lost parts of their humanity gives the impression of someone fighting fate itself, the definition of a strong, instantly compelling protagonist. But then Puck, the good-natured elf who was only acted as a foil to Guts before, apparently remembers he has a home that he can bring humans to, and Schierke, the witch in training, more-or-less confirms that there are noble magi who practice magic away from the wicked world of men and their machinations. The spark was almost gone, to be replaced by the melodrama of how much the women (including the prepubescent-looking Schierke) are drawn to Guts, and how terrifying yet awe-inspiring Guts is to the others once he lets his darker impulses gain control of him, represented literally by the cursed suit of armour he wears encasing his head and his false left arm completely to give him the appearance of the wolf he imagines his hatred looks like to him in his dreams.

But then there is Griffith, who is, unfortunately, the second protagonist. Capable of transcending time, he nevertheless comes back just to have a kingdom, starting his own band with near-limitless powers he had achieved through his transformation. One wonders why, since Griffith obviously cannot age, he could not have chosen a better time to be resurrected, perhaps after Guts had died? If not, it is clear that fate, or rather the fact that Miura has to end this manga somehow, forced Griffith into coming back. Griffith brings back the politics featuring increasingly interchangeable nobles and battles that would have once taken whole volumes to complete but now end in one chapter or less. And if fate has already decided how the manga will end, I can only hope that there are a lot of days between where the manga is right now and where it is supposed to end.

For, despite the adventures on the high seas, Griffith going about doing boring stuff without anyone like Guts for him to obsess over, or the band of friends Guts himself has amassed, Guts is still there. The difficulties he has experienced and how he has tackled them have stuck with me, no matter how much the artwork looks like it owes a little too much to H.R. Giger. Despite the brief amount of time he spent with Casca before she lost her sanity, it is clear that he will be there for her, whether she wants him to or not. Some might say that it might not be the best thing for Casca. Guts is going to find that out now. I can't wait to learn what comes next.