Update: 4/30/2016

As you can tell, I was pretty disappointed with the then current state of the manga when I wrote this review. Now that the party has gotten off the boat and production has sped up, I am cautiously optimistic. Also having re-read the manga recently, I find myself liking the post Eclipse manga more than I did on the first read through. I like the struggle that Guts must go through on whether to pursue revenge or choose protecting those he loves. This inner struggle and psychological drama is quite interesting. I also find myself liking the gradual redemption of the initially vile and brutal character Farnese. Of course I'm also getting worried after the introduction of Isma. My generation has spent 20 years trying to defend Miura's bullshit plot devices and various perversions and saying that Berserk belong's in High School curricula along with Alan Moore's comics. Don't you DARE turn Berserk into a harem series and fuck us over Miura! Also no more Schierke fanservice! Stop it Miura!


The late 1980s and 1990s were known as the "Dark Age" of American comics. However, on the other side of the Pacific there was a comic that was FAR darker than any American comic of this period. Berserk is the comic that for me best defines the 1990s decade. This was a time of excess, morally ambiguous heroes, and pointless gore and nudity. Berserk took that formula, skull fucked the American comics, and shit down their necks. This is the comic where there is a pointless rape every 5 God Damn pages! This is the comic that comic stores in the US refused to carry and bookstores kept in the back under heavy plastic wrap along with the seedy pornos.

Despite the late 80s/90s excesses of Berserk, it actually does something besides just bathe us with blood and make us blush with countless, brutal rapes. Berserk actually offers a gritty but effective parable on the corrupting effects of power and of ambition without regard to others. Berserk has a special effect on me as an American. At the same time that the Dark Age of comics was going on, corporate CEOs decimated American manufacturing by sending all the jobs that created the American middle class overseas. Wages were slashed in order to allow for MASSIVE bonuses for the guys at the very top. It was during this time that the prosperous age of the American Middle Class started to die because greedy, disgusting sons of bitches like Jack Welch sacrificed his loyal employees in order to award himself with more money and power. Griffith is a great villain because he absolutely embodies the Corporate American culture of the 80s and 90s. He is a slimy, son of bitch that has great charisma, but doesn't give a fuck about anyone but himself and is willing to sacrifice anyone and everyone to further his own power. That is one thing that gave this comic such poignancy.

Then the 2000s happened and Berserk kept going on...and on...and on. Rather than ending with Eclipse Arc like the critically lauded anime version, the manga just keeps trucking without really knowing where it is going. In other words, Kentaro Miura seems to have lost his original purpose and is now just meandering around. Berserk is becoming more of a generic shonen manga every year instead of the brilliant and daring seinen that won our hearts in the 90s. That is one reason that Berserk doesn't have too many new fans. I don't think anyone aged 15 would pick up the most recent volume of Berserk in 2015 and say, "Holy shit this is AWESOME!" Berserk continues thanks to a loyal albeit zealous fandom of "oldtaku". What I am saying is what we all know already in our hearts. The ending is going to suck, and that is if the manga even ends before Kentaro Miura dies. It is interesting that the story of Berserk is often like a Greek tragedy, and sadly the history of the manga itself is starting to look like a tragedy. The tale of a once daring, poignant, and "Gutsy" comic that didn't know when to wrap up and eventually became a convoluted mess of mediocrity and deus ex Machina bullshit! Why else does the Skull Knight exist?! This is a manga with an entire character that has the sole purpose of getting Miura out of jail when he has written himself into a corner.

Although I am not a big fan of the more recent Berserk manga, this is a series with some classic moments that defined a decade and should be remembered as a real "game changer" in seinen manga and for comics in general. As frustrated as I get with Miura, I have to remind myself that Berserk was once great and that is the way that we should all remember it!