The Tragedy of a Badass

Like many seemed to lately, after seeing the atrocious CGI of the new anime series, I was drawn to revisit this timeless manga once again and was especially ecstatic to do so with the newly released volume. Berserk is a series that can not possibly be praised enough in terms of writing, visuals, character design, world building, plot structure, themes conveyed, I could go on for days. This is a story so far beyond almost anything else in the medium, or any medium for that matter, it single-handedly, in my eyes, has the ability to raise what has been a somewhat scoffed at art form, such as manga, by the ill-informed to the status of high art on the level of any great fantasy novel or virtuoso's painting.

The pages of these stories could fill entire museums many times over, the meticulous attention to detail and expanse of the work is absolutely awe-inspiring. If looks weren't enough, the story could best be summarized by saying that this is an epic at a scale that would give Middle Earth a Napoleon complex, a maturity of theme and brutality that would make George R. Martin squeamish and a wealth of complex, compellingly dramatic and devastatingly tragic characters that would force the likes of William freaking Shakespeare tip his ridiculous feathered hat out of respect. This is a story that may be off-putting to those averse to violence and overwhelming nihilism at times, but to make it through along with the classic characters is an experience you'll never find anywhere else. It's as close to flawless as art can get in my eyes, 10 out of 10 baby!