Berserk

It seems like people that don't like this manga hold it up to some standard that there has to be hype involved in it built upon previous hype etc...Like most manga do to keep readers interested. But Berserk is different, It is stated by the Author that Berserk is more about Emotion than Logic unlike most other manga that are Logic>Emotion. So there is a lot of emotional growth within Berserk which can be very boring to a lot of people or very good to the ones that love this series. If Berserk was like any other average series, by this current chapter there wouldn't be any character growth in a lot of these characters and the main character would of gotten his revenge a long time ago.

At first, the manga seems like just an ordinary story. Big ass guy, with a big ass sword fighting scary ass demons...blah blah blah!

Then it gets to The Golden Arc thats when it draws you in!!!

Berserk is a tale filled with betrayal, anger, revenge, sadness, and humanitys sins.

Berserk is filled with gore, extreme violence and incredibly disturbing scenes! Featuring some of the most unique heroes such as Guts, Skull Knight, and Puck with some of the horrifying villains like The God Hands and The Apostles!

Its a great read if you like well written saga and crazy ass action!

IT will make you addicted to the extreme awesomeness of Berserk.

The best dark fantasy title in manga form; period. Medieval kingdoms, big swords, frenzied warriors, gore, nude, sex, intrigue, betrayal, demons, a quest for vengeance, and … no ending in sight. High chances the creator will die before completing it.

The pacing of the story is definitely slow to the most part, but it is focused either on getting to know the characters (especially their demented side) or long battles with all sorts of abominations.

The artwork is amongst the best one can hope to find in any manga, extremely detailed and graphical, capturing your attention and not letting you go. Every frame is magnificent fine art and you clearly see how it takes hours to be drawn with such attention to facial expressions, clothing and sceneries. Especially the panoramic views showing entire armies clashing are breath taking. It manages to build atmosphere very fast and offering you a world most dark and horrid. Many parts of the show, usually those involving demons, are full of WTF sceneries, all of which have to do with basic carnal desires and fears. Unlike most shows with demonic dimensions, which are nothing but generic depictions of torture of the damned, here all the monsters and their Eclipse world are directly attributed to their personalities having been given in completely to their desires. The characters are not scared of getting crazy because of them. Heck, they are mostly terrified of becoming like that as well. Not because it is bad or wrong, but because it feels inappropriate for any human being to end up like that. Which is again are very interesting as a concept.

This extends to the battles, which are also extremely epic in proportions, with Guts the protagonist taking on men and monsters alike and BUTCHERING THEM TO PIECES! Plus, it uses a form of violence that is quite appealing to me; hand-to-hand and sword-to-sword battles between frenzied armoured warriors. Using magic or lasers to do the same just doesn’t look raw enough. The level of gore is sky-high (not even women and children are spared) so it is not recommended for ages lower than 15.

The actual story begins as a typical revenge against the one who betrayed the hero, but along the way slowly changes to something far more complicating than that. It does not remain on a team of heroes, protecting a good-willed generic kingdom from evil wizards and doing stand-alone missions. The world they live in has affected them and is affected back by them, all part of Griffith’s goal to leave his mark on the world by getting his own kingdom. As more secondary characters enter the scene, it turns to a war for supremacy, nobles conspire against them, dimensions colliding, desires and hatred beyond limits take over their bodies and souls. This double battlefield, the external and the internal, create a feeling far more realistic to any typical medieval story with a knight in shining armour protecting the kind king and fending off evil invaders. There are no black or white characters here; everybody is grey to black, scared by the constant atmosphere of death and decay in the name of greed and ambition.

At the same time the character DO develop along the way and don’t remain frozen in their initial role or power level. Most heavy on action and/or nude series are usually nothing without these elements while Berserk works fine even without them. The mangaka doesn’t forget them along the way and constantly offers them new challenges they need to overcome as means to grow stronger and more prepared in their dark quest. You gradually see them revealing all their inner thoughts to you, their pasts, their goals, their desires and hopes. You see them getting beaten, learning from their mistakes, maturing, being broken by betrayal and coming out more crazy than what they already were. Shows which do that in such a degree AIN’T that many. Plus, the aforementioned violence is used to bring out their weak side and hidden thoughts, something which other anime like Hellsing or Devil May Cry don’t and have them permanently frozen in a state of brainless battle-frenzied euphoria, which becomes tiresome fast.

What is also very interesting is how each one is eventually limited to a certain role, even if he or she would rather be something entirely different. Guts never manages to live a peaceful life, as he is constantly thrown in battles he can’t escape from and is addicted to mayhem. Griffith never manages to fulfil his quest to gain his own kingdom, without constantly having to sacrifice more and more of his humanity, to the point he stops being humane just to get an impersonal piece of land. And Caska, no matter how much she tries to be an independent woman, who can fend off herself and protect Griffith, eventually her own body limits her to the role of support and a target of lust by many horny men. All that are rarely seen in other shows, who follow the very simplistic view of “You can be anyone you want and achieve anything you want if you really believe in it and work hard.” Well, I am sorry but some things are simply not as easy for some as they are for others, purely because of body restrictions or lack of charisma and/or talent. Sounds depressing but it is true and this anime has the guts (lol bad pun) to admit it.

Although religion is a topic hardly mentioned directly in manga, over here it is openly trampled as nothing more than a false ideal to hide one’s dark desires. It is extremely interesting how the show uses ideals and hopes as means for clergy and ambitious leaders to control their underlings. This was never done before so openly. It even goes as far as claiming how all the demons in the show are in reality people willing to sacrifice everything in order to fulfil their desires, even if it means losing their humanity and killing everyone they love. I really liked how monsters are not treated as generic incarnations of evil or plain misguided mortals; they are shown to be the pure form of ambition liberated by the constraints of morality, emotions and ideals.

Bottom line, Berserk is fine dark fantasy material, with great action and story and characters. It rightfully deserves a place in the hall of fame in its genre, with it sitting on the throne, wearing the crown and holding the sceptre. I know many who prefer the much later Claymore manga; but nah, that one was too heavy on fan service with chicks in tight spandex and had one of the most annoying support characters in the history of fiction. So hands down; for Berserk is the king and demands you to pay tribute.

Oh, and for those of you who want more, check out Vinland Saga. It reminds me of Berserk in many ways and it is an equally good manga.

Berserk

- A tale about a man and his sword




Story: 8

The story of berserk is centered, around Gatsu , a man equipped with a massive sword and his humongous strength. Destined to live a life of battle, and constant struggle.Gatsu discovers from young age, , that he can only trust his sword, and must fight everyday, just to stay alive.

From boy to adult, Berserk shows Gatsu's life though countless battles, as he grows from a simple mercenary to one of the most powerful and feared knights of the land.

Being a mature manga to the core,you can expect the world of Berserk to revolve around violence/gore, primal instincts, existentialism, faith, relationships, despair, loss, life, death and everything in between. These elements are constantly being used to give depth to the story and characters, resulting in dark and gritty plot.

For the most part, this is a good thing, the problem is that Berserk, tends to overuse some elements, that in my opinion don't enrich the plot or the overall experience, with the main two being rape and torture.
Somehow the author is a big fan of these and really likes to overused them. while in some cases they make sense, in others i couldn't help but feel annoyed to see the same character being a victim of rape for the seventh time, or every bad guy torturing random people .

Fortunately, despite all the violence, Berserk has a good amount of comic relief, offering some really silly humor that give a nice contrast, to the darker scenes.


Characters: 9

One of the things, that you can say about Berserk's characters, is how "real" they feel, and even though the story is set in a alternative historic setting, is hard not to relate to them in one way or another.

One of the reasons for this, is that besides Berserk's large cast, every character acts and looks differently, being instantly recognizable just after a few pages.And although some characters are weaker than others, they all share the author's attention to detail, having their own inner struggles and back stories.

In fact, most of them are given a little "screen time" to show what happened to them up to that point of the story, giving the reader insight over their motivations and personality .

And in my opinion this is one of the problems of such a large cast of characters, while for some readers, the back story information might be a nice touch by the author, to others that just want to follow the story of the main characters, is just to much information in what is sometimes a very convoluted plot, with so many things happening at the same time.



Art: 10

Berserk art is in my opinion simply one of the most detailed and impressive out there. Not very manga can reach Berserk's art quality in terms of fight sequences, violence/gore, to character faces, clothes, weapons and backgrounds, everything is drawn to almost perfection.


If there's one manga that deserves a 10/10 in terms of art, is definitely Berserk.


Enjoyment: 8

I could have enjoyed Berserk, a little bit more if it wasn't for the plot getting so convoluted at times, or the over repetitive rape scenes, other than that the action and the fate of the characters keeps bringing me back to this manga, even though it takes forever for new chapters to be released.

Pros:

- great action scenes
- top notch art
- interesting story, with complex characters
- great character development
- mature plot with lots of violence and gore
- great comedy bits(comic relief)

Cons:

- convoluted plot
- overuse of certain violent scenes, such as rape, torture, etc.

Overall score: 9

If you like Berserk then you may find this review offensive. Read at your own risk.

STORY: 6/10
Berserk starts off very poorly. A man with a ten foot sword and a robot arm kills a bunch of people and some gross looking monsters. Now I like gore just as much as the next guy, but there needs to be SOME sort of story or reasoning behind it. It seemed like the main character, Guts, just walked around and killed ugly things for the first few volumes just because he liked being covered in blood.

But then the golden age arc started...This my friends, is one of the greatest arcs in manga history. It almost feels like the mangaka walked away from his desk and let God himself write this part of the story. The characters become deep, the disgusting fights gain meaning, and basically everything is executed to perfection. Then, after about a hundred chapters, it ends. God gives the pen back to the original mangaka and he proceeds to make Guts kill billions of ugly snake penis monsters for the next few hundred chapters. 25% of this manga is pure gold. The other 75% is utter shit.

ART: 10/10
Berserk's strongest point, aside from the golden age arc, has to be its art work. I believe I mentioned disgusting monsters a few times in the first paragraph and trust me - they are DISGUSTING. They've got rows of razor sharp teeth, they're covered in dirty fur, they're oozing with slime, they're drooling, and they all have snakes for penises. The amount of detail put into these beasts can make you hurl...but in a good way. This manga provides a few debatable subjects, but its artwork isn't one of them. It is nothing less than perfect.

CHARACTER: 7/10
The rivalry between Guts and Griffith is legendary. During the golden age arc both characters are given ample development time in order for the reader to truly feel for these guys. In fact, most of the characters from the golden age arc are given enough face time for people to get attached to them. Unfortunately, all the non-golden age arc parts of the manga have minimal development for the male characters aside from Guts, and most of the female characters are rape-bait. The golden age arc was so good though, that I'm going to give characters a higher score than it truly deserves. Seriously, most of this manga is bad.

ENJOYMENT: 3/10
Just so we're clear, golden age arc enjoyment = 10. The rest of Berserk is literally the same thing over and over again just with different ugly monsters. Here is a brief rundown of every chapter of Berserk:

Guts walks into a city.
Mutant panda bears are raping 900 women with their snake penises.
Guts kills the panda bears with his man-sized sword.
Everything is depressing.
End.

OVERALL: 6/10
Drop it after the golden age arc. It doesn't just go downhill after that. It falls off a cliff and lands in a pile of dog shit barf...with snake penises.

First of all, keep in mind that I'm a bit older than average manga readers.

Art: It's bad. Character models and drawings are nowhere near good enough. When in action, it's very difficult to see what's going on, especially in early volumes. It's slowly improved but at the end it's still just at an acceptable level.

Story: Good for the most part. It's terrible at the first 3 volumes but then the story goes back to the beginning and things are well explained. This is the best part of the story (golden age). After that, when Guts found new companions, story got illogical and boring. At times, it feels like Moon's Sailor.
The author's obsession with sex and rape causes excessive uses of these in the manga. At times it feels like porn.

When I got to volume 30, I lost all my interest and just skimmed quickly to the end. The ending is non sense.
Not recommended obviously for grown-up readers.

Would definitely recommend it, great characters, compelling story, enjoyable fights that have strategy in them and a well-done dark theme.

If you're looking to get into it your options are either the 1997 anime or the manga.

From the black swordsman arc to the conviction arc (if you're reading in that order, you could also read it chronologically) this manga is a 9/10 but falls off afterwards, the fights no longer have as much strategy and there's way too many side villains or conflicts that don't feel impactful + can get repetitive watching guts just beat every enemy with the berserker armor, if you expected the quality of the first few arcs to remain throughout the 363+ chapters you will be disappointed, but it's not bad either.

That being said, if you haven't read this manga yet and you're looking for a good manga to get into, berserk is outstanding especially in it's high points and so it's very recommendable. The story goes over themes of betrayal, rage, perseverance etc. and has characters that are layered to go along with it.

Where do I even begin... Berserk is a hero to manga as a whole. It is where the bar lies; there is simply nothing else out there that surpasses it. Every other panel belongs in a museum. Kentaru Miura is a borderline DEMIGOD when it comes to storytelling and art.

Seriously, if you had 1 last thing to do before you died, you would want it to be to read Berserk. It is truly otherworldly. JUST WOW. You are missing out if you haven't read every last chapter, even if you've seen the animes. Words cannot describe fam.

Let us pause for a moment and reflect - what exactly are you doing with your life? Well stop. Just stop what you're doing right now, and go read this legendary legend among legends.

Oh, you've already seen the animes? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHHHAHHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHAHAHAH. NO. YOU HAVEN'T SEEN SHIT. THE MANGA IS 1000000000000000000000000000*error error there is not a number big enough* TIMES BETTER THAN THE ANIMES (though the first season from the 90's is definitely worth a watch, since the studio who made it actually knew what they were doing). But quite frankly, there is just no reason to NOT experience BERSERK in it's most pure and untainted form.

Please... this is actually you from the future trying to give your younger self some serious advice. Go read Berserk. Go breathe Berserk. Go eat Berserk. Go sleep Berserk. Life is too short to do otherwise.

*NO SPOILERS*

Berserk lets you know within its first panel that it's an adult manga and that if you're not ok with that, you should put it down immediately.
Rape, gore, swearing-- anything and everything vulgar is present in Berserk.

Berserk is about a man named Guts and his quest for Revenge against a new god (kinda) named Femto.
As the manga's main premise is set after its first arc, ("The Golden Age" volumes 3-14) it's really hard to not spoil anything for you. I'll have to remain kind of silent about its story, as its surprises and twists are insane, and I want you to get your full experience.

If there's one reason I could tell you to read Berserk, without spoiling the story, it's the art. I can say, without a doubt, that Berserk has the most impressive art of any manga or comic I've ever seen. It is utterly breathtaking.
Its designs are amazing as well. Every armor set that Guts has had is pretty unique, the weapons are really neat, and everyone has a face very unique to them.
The most impressive designs go to the monsters throughout the story. They're unique, grotesque, and very different from monsters I've see in other fictions.
Aside from designs, the characters themselves are also very fleshed out and unique from one another.
I think that what makes a good character is their actions, not their personalities. Berserk has one of the most involved casts out there.
If they've been useless, you can count on them either leaving the story, or doing something of use later.

The only problems I have with Berserk are its inconsistency of tone, and the constant, meaningless rape.
Let me address both: At first you get the feeling of a hopeless world with Guts as its only person with a will to fight. Then it goes to the Golden Age arc, (A fan favorite, not mine,) which is placed before the hopeless feeling world. This one feels like a classic, medieval fairytale. Still dark, but there are prospering kingdoms, and hope. After the Golden Age, it goes to the Conviction arc, (My favorite,) where it's once again hopeless feeling. Guts is alone, trying to figure things out, while endlessly fighting for his life and searching for revenge. Next arc, it feels like I'm reading a video game... Guts meets allies and kind of calms down. He starts to seem like a fatherly figure and feels like the DPS character of your MMO. He's still the main character, but dialogue is coming from mostly his allies going, "How can anyone lift a sword like that!?" "What power! How will he ever defeat this enemy!?" I'm honestly bored of where Berserk currently is. The only thing keeping me with it are its art and the suspense. I want Guts to get his revenge, I want things to happen, but I have to sit behind an MMO feeling for these arcs. (The Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc, and now the Fantasia arc.)
My other previously mentioned "problem" is completely opinionated: The constant, useless rape.
Now, I get that it's in a dark, medieval world, and that back then, if you were a peasant and pretty, you'd be likely to get raped. A lot of times, the rape in Berserk is tied to the story and is important for setting a dark tone, but at some points it was straight up predictable and almost comical. "Oh, female character is missing? I guess they're gonna get stripped and almost (or actually) raped."
I can think of seven times that rape was important to the story, but trust me, many other rapings will occur, simply because the artist loves drawing sex.
I warn you again, there are hentai-like moments everywhere. Sometimes, genitals are shown.

Berserk is an insane ride that's been going since 1990, and I can't see the end yet. If you don't care about vulgarity and you love art, Berserk is a must read.
I apologize for not telling much (Really any,) of the story, but take my word, it's very interesting.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

This series already gets plenty of praise, so I will mostly focus on criticism for this review, despite the fact that I do have plenty of positive things to say about Berserk. I want to make a review that will be legitimately helpful to people, rather than simply echoing the beliefs of every other reviewer on here. Look at the myriad "10" reviews for raving about how amazing it is, there is plenty of that already. This series does not get nearly enough proper criticism. Please read the whole thing before marking the review "helpful" or "not helpful." Because if you don't finish it then you don't really know, do you?

The first flaw that is quickly apparent is in the first three volumes, or is simply the first three volumes in their entirety. They are a tad cliché and they follow our beloved lone wolf anti-hero and his elf buddy (comic relief sidekick who also heals out of convenience to the plot) on a couple adventures. The villains are cliché, everything is kind of cliché, the art is nothing special (yet), and it seems sort of generic. Not the best exposition to any series. This would have been best moved into chronological order.

The true glaring issue here is that, after this, there is a lengthy flashback/reverse-time-skip that lasts around 11 volumes and is called the "Golden Age" arc. This arc will now be called the "GA" arc because typing on my iPhone is inconvenient. It is easily and widely acknowledged as the best part of the series, to the point where people dub berserk the greatest manga of all time simply because of this one arc, but it is still seriously held back by the first three volumes.

The conclusion of the astounding GA arc is one of the most intense and emotionally impactful scenes in manga and it would have been, additionally, one of the most unexpected, but we already knew it would happen, due to the first three volumes, which greatly lessened the impact. It was a great scene, but it could have been even better and had an even greater effect on me as a reader. I would not have seen it coming if not for the first three volumes, despite some masterful foreshadowing within the GA arc itself. There was a marked lack of foresight shown in the first three volumes. It seems like Miura was trying to show how everything built up to the situation in the first three volumes, but by the time I finished the GA arc, I really didn't care about the first three volumes anymore. I could nitpick some elements of the GA arc, but it's so superior to the rest of the series that I won't even bother.

The art slowly became some of the best and most detailed art in manga, but it was also often used as a crutch after the GA arc. The misty valley arc is the earliest example of this. The image of the “elves” slaughtering each other and “playing human” was one of the most brutal in the series, and it may fit in thematically, but the arc lacks overall significance and character development, especially considering its length. It would have established Guts's personality after the GA arc and how he had changed, but we already knew from the first three volumes. It was also the perfect opportunity to turn Puck into something more than a pointless comic relief character that we've seen a million times before, but that potential was quickly squandered as well, and Puck's character never really develops beyond a comic relieving plot device.

Guts's showdown with the evil apostle fairy chick foreshadowed a descent into fights that are shounenesque in both verbosity and length, a serious depart from the gritty fantasy realism that the series is so often praised for. The realism further deteriorated as it went on, proportionally to the increase of clear shounen elements. Guts gathered a crew à la one piece, an inexplicable depart from his character, including an uninteresting masochist, a loli witch, and a motherfucking veritable shounen protagonist. The loli witch was one of the worst things to happen to the series. The thief kid/shounen protagonist was another one of the worst. I have no idea what Miura was thinking there.

The masochist chick was actually quite an interesting character before she fell in love with Guts and started rolling with his crew. She was a powerful reflection of the pervading theme of masochism that usually manifests itself in the oft depicted self-destructive nature of humanity. Now she's the epitome of cliché. She shows some promise of recovery, but at the pace the plot is moving that will likely be in the distant future. The women are all in love with Guts by the way. No shounen is complete without a harem of women who exist to make the protagonist look cooler.

The Skull Knight was another promising character, but it's been a while since we've seen him, he appears infrequently anyway, and having next to nothing known about him, after all this time, is simply bad writing. There has been some fairly obvious clues regarding his identity and origin, but there has been no true follow up on that, and we still know very little about him as a character. He's only existed to make a couple of convenient actions and philosophize about Guts's fate. Therefore, he too, has been reduced to more of a plot device than an actual character. There is also a possible major contradiction in his backstory, but I can't get into it without spoilers and I suppose it could still be explained somewhere down the road.

Magic was introduced along with the witch and the crew gained shounenesque (I'm using this word a lot) power ups and thus realism went entirely out the window. Guts got a power-up that was reminiscent of Sasuke's curse mark early in the Naruto series. The theme of camaraderie is more omnipresent and becomes more about the “power of friendship,” harem elements develop, the ruthlessness is reduced, there is a moe loli witch, there is now campy abilities and gimmicks, there is shitty power-ups, there is in-battle commentary by secondary characters, battles are often increasingly drawn out, yesterday's enemies are today's friends, characters announce special moves when they are preformed, the general purpose becomes a noble fight against the very idea of evil, there is a general saturation of overused clichés and tropes, and there was even a slapstick comedy fanservice shower scene. Yup, berserk is undeniably in an increasingly noticeable downward spiral into battle shounen territory. Many fans deny this, but they are, well, in denial. This is sort of funny seeing as so many Berserk fans are pseudo-elitists who hate on popular battle shounens. It may be more explicit than a typical shounen series, but that superficial aspect of it does not grant it any sort of inherent maturity.

Now, the mangaka clearly has no idea of what to do with the story. It's been ongoing for over twenty years and the story isn't close to being done; it is moving at a snail's pace, both on the rate at which it's released and the actual speed of plot development. It has been a half a year since the last chapter came out. Recently there was an arc where the motley crew nobly fights off a sea god/kraken thingy and mermaids are somehow involved. And they actually teamed up with comic relief pirates. My one piece comparisons are getting more accurate. Now, exactly what was the point of this arc? No one knows, but it sure as fuck isn't the fucking elf island that they've been trying to get to for over 10 fucking volumes. Fuck... He's clearly stalling because he's out of ideas. The dude does have serious myopia and a strange method of storytelling. He once decided that a published chapter of Berserk didn’t count because it gave too much information and insisted that it never be printed again. Seriously. If you’re putting that little thought into what you publish and how it will affect future chapters, that’s a problem. These 18 pages introduced a huge concept (although they didn’t go into great depth about it) that has yet to be seen again, even over 200 chapters later. Ummm, maybe you should have just kept the chapter after all?

Despite my criticisms, the GA arc is a tragedy of epic proportions and it is a must read for any manga fan. There is a reason that this is the highest ranked manga on MAL. It has extraordinarily wide appeal and some very good qualities, despite it often falling into the "sex and violence=depth" trap.

Make no mistake, I may compare it to shounens, but it is still far superior to shit like Naruto; you won't hear the word nakama being tossed around, although similar themes of companionship are increasingly echoed in a more subtle manner, and, unlike the worthlessly lazy Tite Kubo, Kentaro Miura puts an incredible amount of effort in his artwork. Although he made many mistakes in the plot, his artwork is indisputably among the best in later volumes. I've seen maybe one or two mangaka that come close or are on the same level.

Guts is a powerful and tragic character and Griffith and Casca are compelling, until something happens to Casca, which kills her value as a character, and reduces her to a plot device for the majority of the series. One of the early themes of Berserk was how every man had his own dreams and motivations and, at least during the GA arc, it showed. All of the characters were detailed and had their own emotions. You could make an argument that, at that point, not a single character was a one dimensional plot device.

Later on we get Guts's aforementioned posse, plus at least three or four comic relief characters with no depth to speak of, or higher purpose to serve in the storyline. I'd say that Guts and Femto are the only true quality characters, as it stands right now.. The fact that I still have sympathy for Femto after all that he did, really drives in what a great and multi-faceted character he is, his character is full of symbolism, and his rivalry with Guts is incredible.

The antagonists have become less convincing over time. Despite interesting theories about and the philosophical nature of Void, and despite the fact that they all have awesome character designs, only one of the God Hand members is truly developed and compelling. One of them has only really existed for fanservice. Did I mention that berserk is actually pretty big on fanservice? Shit, Conrad isn't even good for fanservice, the Majin Buddha lookin fat fuck. Conrad's "personality" section in the Berserk Wikia is blank for a reason. He just kinda floats there while everybody else does all the hard work.

And don't even get me started on Ubik. There's a reason his Berserk Wikia page doesn't even have a personality section. And at least Conrad made that big rock hand thing during the eclipse, this tentacle-ass motherfucker does absolutely nothing at all. What does Ubik even bring to the table? They oughta fire him or something..... Femto is an incredible and complex character that is the perfect foil to Guts while paralleling him in many ways. I don't expect all of the God Hand to be that, but at least give us something.

I rate highly on conclusions as well as expositions, and from the looks of it, this series will have a very bad conclusion, or not have one at all. The climaxes of the series were often vastly epic, although the arguable biggest climax was pretty early on and the story never reached that height again in terms of intensity or quality, but the exposition was sub-par to say the least, and we'll have to see about the conclusion, but I'm not too hopeful. The GA arc is kind of rendered pointless if the overall series fails to deliver on its promise and delivers a lackluster conclusion. That's just speculation though. He may pull it off yet. But, at the pace he’s going, I seriously doubt it.

Art: 9.5/10 (it wasn't as incredible in early volumes and there were some minor mistakes and inconsistencies throughout, so minus .5)
Characters: GA arc 10/10, post GA 5.5/10
Story: GA 10/10, otherwise 6/10
Enjoyment: 9/10 Easily, it's only recently that my enjoyment of it has significantly waned, but enjoyment is the least important category by far and I don't usually count it, except when I'm deciding whether to round up or down.

Overall: 7/10
Actually a very good rating, considering this was a mostly critical review. I just felt like the series wasn't getting properly called out on its flaws, although I like it. The fact is that it's far from perfect and I believe my "7" rating is a somewhat generous one, inflated due to nostalgia and other similar biases.

In addition, the GA arc is simply too amazing for me to give the series anything below "good." That arc will stay with me forever and I've read it around 7 times. Too bad the mindless fanboys will not consider any of this and will simply click "not helpful" without reading the review, despite the fact that "7" is a positive score. On the other hand, haters may deem "7" to be too high a score and they will be butthurt as well. Well, I said what I had to say and I stand by it.

Berserk - An Infinite Loop (?)

Carrying a sword bigger than himself and using a mechanical arm, the mysterious Guts carries with him a shower of blood and leaves a trail of corpses wherever he goes. At his side, the little elf Puck is surprised by the terror that haunts the Black Swordsman. His "stigma" attracts demons and evil spirits and among hordes that persecute him, Guts seeks revenge.

First of all, Guts is a really mysterious person. I didn't know Berserk, except for his fame. I hadn't read the manga nor watched any episodes of the anime (2017) and it was very pleasant to read that first volume. Not that anyone who already knows the title would not find it, but it is very good to read something that you already know will improve, to see that fame is not for nothing. As I didn't know the details of the plot (I only knew that the story was inspired by Shakespeare's "Macbeth"), this manga is loaded with mystery.

Guts live by defeating demons and with a mark on his neck, he has a stigma that attracts him. This same stigma bleeds when he approaches a creature dressed up as a human but actually feeds on them. We know that he seeks revenge, that he throws himself into this sea of blood for this, but we don't know the reason. He seems to be completely indifferent to the people around him, but we realize that it is something he wishes to establish, does not bond with anyone, does not suffer from losses. In short, Guts looks like a demon who has taken this path against his will, which has suffered greatly to the point where we know him.

The comic relief comes in the form of a little elf named Puck which Guts saved, though he himself denies it happened. The elf goes on to follow Guts and sees the darkness and horror surrounding him, but also sees that deep down, deep down, he is a good person.

The characteristics of Miura Kentarou fits in well with this type of story. Even in action scenes, you can clearly see what is happening, along with the gush of blood. In addition to the various sinister creatures exposed largely in the manga, the good thing to know is that he improves this trait more and more. The only negative point about Berserk comes not from his edition, but from the author himself. Miura writes on average two chapters a year and this makes the manga a risk of never being finalized.

All the mystery present in this first volume of Berserk binds the reader to the pages, besides the trait and, for those who like, blood and violence.

Story: 9 | Art: 8 | Character: 8 | Enjoyment: 8
Score: 8/10

Personal Note: Bought the first volume in Japanese and again, the story told in an oriental tone makes the reading experience somewhat different from the point of view of a western reader. This is the review of volume one only. I have a crush with first volumes of manga and in Berserk the key thing is this: for me the first volume sums it all up, summarizes the main idea of the author, the ostentation and what he really gave up to do, the second volume presents the reasons why the author chose that idea, basically explains the reason of the protagonist and the third volume (in this particular case) ends the main idea, which is the Black Swordsman Arc.

you'll hear alot about this manga being one of the best and although people like to hype things up but this time they are %100 right

Berserk is probably the best looking Manga ever made with some of the most beautiful detailed panels you'll ever see in a fictional comic , youll follow the story of Guts and his crew in a fantasy like world that is similar to the " dark ages " tone , many fights and blood will be spilled in a holy amounts

you might think the art is the big positive about this series but youll be surprised about how rich the story really is

it is a heavy read with mature themes and gore + nudity all over so dont go to it expecting a friendly shonen .

the pacing of this manga is awful with chapters taking years to drop , if you can wait youll get your time worth but dont read it chapter to chapter unless you have godly patience.

This is the greatest thing you will ever read and if you give it a fair shot you will receive so much in return. If you find you aren't interested in the beginning, just skip right into the golden arc; it's not that big a deal. However; reading this is so worth it you cannot give up reading it. If you get bored just skip a few chapters and it will get better again, so go for it.

Berserk is about such an honest human agony that you want to rip the books apart and trow them away with your heart because you can't stand caring anymore. The story has multiple arcs that blend together and keep you interested all the way through. The start is slow because of the detailed character development that occurs all the imperative setup that will just come back to hurt you later. The raw emotions and characters worm their way into your heart until you are every single character and even feel empathy for background characters.

The author makes you think: while the gore happens around these characters you are often reminded that even if this is just a book, you are cheering on slaughter and mayhem. The reality is so horrible, but that's why you keep reading and want something to go right for once.

If you watch the art while you read, you will be so pleased to see it develop alongside the story and characters. The current art is above anything I've ever seen in any manga. The artist completely understands human expression and the emotions that are being felt. While you read and feel hope, anguish, despair, love, hatred, joy, and taste bitter tears the artist displays all those same things in one expression. The emotions and expressions are all realistic to a human being and are often scared and hurt while calculating the best move for survival.

Survival is a huge theme in this series, often times you just wish all the characters would do what's best for themselves and just give up and die.

Despite how this may sound, reader Berserk is the best decision I ever made. The honesty and truth in the story, characters, art, emotions, and everything put together is so enjoyable you can't stop. It is brutal to read but changes your perspective on everything around you. You start to care so much and the enjoyment just escalates with the depth of the story and characters.

I caught up to the series back in November. It was the eighth or ninth manga I'd read (I've been transitioning away from anime towards manga recently), and after reading other series and re-reading select parts of the story, I feel like my overall perspective on Berserk has only been reinforced.

It's my personal favorite manga so far, but I do not think the series is above criticism. I'll list some brief pros and cons. Before I get started, ignore anyone who says the story falls off after the Golden Age. I've dealt with the argument before, but suffice to say, from a character, world-building, art, and meta-narrative perspective, the Falcon of the Millenium Empire Arc blows the Golden Age arc away. Honestly, the main reason I think people rate the Golden Age arc above everything else in the series is nostalgia. Either that or they read the series with distorted expectations due to all the praise for that arc. The Golden Age, while very good, has always just been a foundation for the rest of series.

Pros:
- The protagonist-antagonist dynamic aka the driving force of the series. Guts and Griffith are some of the most interesting fictional characters I've ever encountered, and the way they play off of one another is incredibly captivating. My personal favorite moment in the story isn't a fight scene or some crazy hype panel, but a conversation between these two.
- The secondary and tertiary characters are surprisingly well written. Characters like Casca, Judeau, Corkus, Farnese, Serpico, and Shierke that may initially seem like cliches are surprisingly complex. Other characters that aren't particularly complex, such as Minister Foss, Pippin, Roderick, etc. are still enjoyable.
- The dark fantasy setting. This point is a very personal one to me. I love games like Dark Souls and the Witcher, and A Song of Ice and Fire is my fictional book series.
- The art. :> There's no other series I've read where I consistently felt the urge to save a panel and/or make it wallpaper.

Cons:
- Isidro and post-Conviction arc Puck. Blech.
- The first three volumes are somewhat slow and not particularly representative of the series. They're enjoyable, especially during a re-read, but they don't really highlight the excellent character writing that's gotten Berserk the bulk of its praise.
- The sexual violence (sometimes). As general plot points, the assaults in Berserk are handled quite well, and the impact on the characters is never made light of. That being said, certain scenes are drawn similarly to hentai, and I do feel that overtly eroticizing a violent act can come across as a little cheap and misogynistic.

Conclusion. If you've got the stomach for it, 100% give this a go. I love analyzing and re-reading this series, and it's definitely one of my personal favorite stories.

hi, I know nobody is going to read this but I just want to shout my controversial feelings about Berserk into the void so here I go.

More than anything else, I find that Berserk is horrifically overrated. People act like Kentaro Miura is the second coming of Jesus, but to me his work doesn't live up to the hype, and here's why:

I was initially drawn in by the admittedly very good art style in the first few chapters, especially considering they're from the late 1980's. The unusually dark themes and haunting medieval setting made it an interesting and enticing read. Because of those first few chapters, I thought that Berserk was brimming with potential, Unfortunately, I quickly came to the conclusion that Miura completely failed to utilize it.

It begins with the characters. As much as I want to like Guts, he's barely more than a two-dimensional trope of the "strong and silent type who ends up unwillingly collecting a rag-tag group of people who follow him". While I'm usually a big fan of these types of characters, he becomes stale very fast. He has likeable attributes, and his backstory and the Golden Age Arc make him at least somewhat interesting, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that he has next to no character development or meaningful dialogue.

The antagonist Griffith..... annoys me very much, to put it politely. He is ugly and a bad character. Griffith is given absolutely no reason for doing any of the horrible deeds that he does over the course of the story, except that ""he wants to rule his own country"". But why? I guess it doesn't really matter to Miura. He's a bad and boring antagonist and I want to punch him in the face.

In addition to being flat like Griffith, every female is barely more than a glorified sex toy, which leads me to my next point: Miura's apparent rape fetish.

Initially, the series' gore and rape was striking, because it actually seemed to serve a purpose, e.g. to show how gritty and cruel the reality of Guts' world and life is, and to illustrate how horrible the people (and monsters) inhabiting this horrific world really are, even if they hide under a pleasant facade. But as the series progresses, it becomes apparent that Miura simply likes drawing dicks very much, and enjoys seeing every female character he creates being sexually assaulted in increasingly perverse and weird scenarios (horse). As the saying goes, there can be too much of a good thing, which is the case here. Miura completely desensitizes the readers to the violence and gore and makes it lose its impact.

The action scenes also lose their appeal as the series progresses; in fact, they become downright ridiculous. Guts' sword alone is so comically large and heavy that it makes every feat he performs with it seem hilarious. The battles themselves are very rinse and repeat: Guts encounters incredibly OP enemy, Guts gets beaten within an inch of his life and injured so horrifically that it's almost funny he never seems to carry any lasting consequences, and somehow recovers to near perfect health every time. The gore and battles become boring in their predictability. Add to this the fact that some arcs are badly paced and drag painfully at times, and one has the perfect formula for underwhelming.

In conclusion, Berserk had potential, but decided to waste it on essentially becoming the boring embodiment of Kentaro Miura's rape fetish. I can't understand why it is as highly regarded as it is.

Before i say, or spoil anything, here's my short, spoiler free verdict -
I do recommend this title to everyone, but with one condition - if you are prepared to have another half life 3 in your life, since this manga is pretty much the half life 3 of manga/ anime, as in only god knows when and if we'll ever get to see the ending. 8/10


*contains spoilers, obviously*

Well, my experience with the show and manga was quite the odd one (compared to actual fans) and by that i mean that i literally didn't have any involvement with this title until about a month ago (i'm writing this on july 09 2016). First i finally decided to look into the anime. Took me about two days to finish it. I couldn't rate it too high (7/10) due to the extremely dated visuals and somewhat slow parts of the story, but most of the show was still very enjoyable.

What really got me interested though, is what happened after the eclipse, and since the end was a cliffhanger, i obviously had to know what comes next. Next came the long trial of trying to figure out the movies and eventually ending up on the forums, where i finally got convinced to try out the manga. And i am glad i did - immediately i was enjoying the great art it has, all the things the anime decided to drop and the continuation of the story.

More than with the anime, i enjoyed the grim atmosphere the story has, the obvious aim of it to mature audience with not hesitating to perform the darkest and most vile of acts (gory slaughter, rape, and both of those don't discriminate between men, women, and even children...), and show them pretty much without any censorship at all. This is a truly adult title... Or so i thought. After the eclipse, things slowed down quite noticeably, and although it was still really interesting, it just kept and kept slowing down, until when apprentice boy and the witch came around, i finally noticed - the manga is nothing like it was before.

Slowly, from an original title that had lots of interesting concepts and ideas behind it (well at least back when it came out) that where mostly not seen before, it became more and more like a standard Shounen title - the progression pretty much stopped, while the story started focusing on new main and side characters, distracted by fights that don't bring the hero any closer to his goal. Before you know it, Guts suddenly gained a "dark side" that gives him power but tries to take over, gets tons of friends and even a frigging harem that he opens to, gets an armor that grants him superpowers but works with his dark side, and the manga gets pretty preachy about the values of friendship and whatnot... Sounds familiar? It does to me, most Shounen title kind of familiar in fact.

And then, before i knew it, it ended. Well, not really, more like i caught onto it, but for me it felt like it, since i also understood that over the week that i read the manga from start to 'finish', i went over 26 YEARS worth of material. 26 years and you could finish it in a few days of reading, and what's worse, 26 years, and the ending seems as distant as it was after the eclipse, if not more.

So then my final verdict - 8/10, and that's actually barely, i'd rank it 7.7/10 if i could. If i could separate it into 4, i'd rank it 9/10 for the first 3 fourths and 5/10 for the newer part (around when the witch came, or maybe a bit before that), but again, i have to put one mark on it as a whole, so too bad, since i'd prefer to rank the older stuff separately, it really was great. Now i'm probably going to drop it, at least until its complete (if it ever will be), since to me it looks like we can't expect an ending in the closest decade at the very least...

Please note: this review is a warning, and is focused primarily upon the start of the manga. The manga is, of an overwhelming proportion, garbage, would be the warning. Don't take this lightly. And don't think I'm being unfair to the manga; this is merely the objective truth.

This manga is thoroughly terrible in nearly every possible way; art (ugly and disgusting), story (there is none), and characters (stock characters with no depth, ego, or even self-awareness).

The art: Comparing the artwork in chapter 318 with that in chapter 3, Guts somehow managed to get uglier (ever so slightly), and the thought of seeing his ugly face for 300 or so chapters would be absolutely unbearable. There are many characters that aren't so hard on the eyes (though manymore expendable ones who are) in the manga, but Guts will be there to torment you for good. The art style is detailed however, and remains relatively consistent. The monsters and such—rather, the humans, which are synonymous in Beserk--are graphically disgusting, vile, aand gross, which was perhaps intentional, with the purpose of contrasting with Guts’s own character design; however, I cannot approve of a foil between the bad, the ugly and uglier. Don't read with a weak stomach.

Characters: So in the beginning, ugly bastard just chops his enemies down, and generally acts like an ass towards everyone he meets, and they, normally monsters and abominations respond in kind. The only other character outside of this pattern is simply “there,” and hangs around Guts for no real reason. An absence of sentient life; the cast is essentially a huge cast of monsters and abominations.

Story: Guts chops up his enemies and acts like a psychopath, which to be fair, correlates with the title, Berserk. Finally, he is shown to have some history, but is pretty irrelevant. Everything that happens is rather generic and painfully boring, and is made even worse by the art and character designs.

Note again; this review is a warning to anyone starting this manga; you're going to be digging through a lot of crap before you get to anything good; expect a godawfully long and boring read through volumes of disgusting, mindless, and and tasteless violence.

Of course, it must be possible for people to get through the beginning, since the ratings are positively skewed. If you are able to stand Guts’s character design for hundreds of chapters. If you are that intent on reading this manga, I recommend "skipping to the good parts" assuming they exist. If you do enjoy the ugly and grotesque, this manga is certainly for you.

What is there left to say about Berserk that hasn't already been expressed over the past two and a half decades? If you're reading it, you know why it is good. Guts' journey is one that is filled with loss and constant hardships. All for the sake of rebelling against the concept of predetermination, which exists within the laws of causality... God, I love saying that. But yeah, I could list the myriad reasons that fuel my love boner for this masterclass of peak fiction. But instead, I'm going to keep it brief and leave you with this...

Ahem:

Schierke best girl, Puck best boi, Golden Age best arc, Skull Knight can impregnate me (the process of which will hopefully result in a Griffith threesome). Oh yeah, and GRIFFITH DID NONTHFBOWUCNSRUNRWN...

First a little bit about me. Berserk is a dark fantasy. I love dark fantasy and honestly find fantasies like Lord of the Rings really boring. However, I don't love Berserk simply because it is a dark fantasy; when you have such an epic, epic story with some of the most memorable, coolest and compelling characters ever, it's more than enough to keep me reading.

First of all, I don't think Berserk is for everybody. Sure it has great characters, narrative, plot, emotion, etc... But it's very, VERY violent. In fact, it's bar none the most violent manga I have ever read. Kentaro Miura is a great artist but man, sometimes he comes up and draws some TRULY MESSED UP AND SCARY CRAP. Berserk has a lot of people getting dismembered and killed very violently including children and the subject of rape is discussed a lot and even outright shown. However, it is all dealt with tastefully because despite how explicit it is, it's used to show how messed up the world of Berserk is and how much suffering the victims are going through. Hell, I think Berserk is one of the few works of fiction out there that have a male rape victim as a character. However, for anyone who can withstand this stuff, there is a lot as these subjects only serve to further the story.

Speaking of story, it is simply outstanding. Like that of Rurouni Kenshin, Berserk has a simple story. It's about a man seeking revenge against his former best friend whilst protecting the woman he loves and meeting up with new friends. When it isn't about that, it's about a complete monster anti-Christ wannabe trying to conquer the world and his own companion’s misadventures and when it isn't about that, it's about how the events of the manga came to be the way they are. There isn't a lot of politics and rubbish about battle strategies and complicated stuff we don't care for, it's all about the motivations of the characters and how and why they try to fulfill them. And when an emotionally challenging conflict crosses their path, you can expect it's going to be either a very sad encounter or a very heartwarming one.

Guts himself is hands down one of the most complex, inspiring and BADASS characters ever made. Since character development plays a HUGE role in the story, seeing Guts change from a guy only caring about swinging his sword to someone who wants a bigger dream to a cruel knight in black armor and again into a man with a dream was a pleasure to read. What I love the most about him though is how he never gives up. He had to pass through ALOT of suffering before he passed 20, a million times more intense than most anime protagonists passed through yet he never gives up, lives life for life itself because life is worth living for, unlike Griffith who throws away others just to fulfill his own dreams and can never have the satisfaction of earning his wishes through hard work.

The rest of the characters range from excellent to good; Griffith is himself a great character and very effective villain. He's one of those villains who are so monstrously evil you can't help but hate them but at the same time, he is still very complex and he did start out likable. Casca is also a great female lead before and after the eclipse. Before it, she was a badass chick who warmed up for Guts and learned that there was more to life outside the mercenary band she lived with. After the eclipse, she serves more as Guts' only reason to live, the chain that holds him from falling off into becoming a downright villain.

Guts companions like Farnese, Schierke, Serpico, Isidoro and everyone's favorite, Puck are also great although Isidoro and Puck unfortunately have been the butt of too many pointless jokes recently. They all pass through some character development and Puck himself is like Casca after the eclipse a morality chain to Guts. It's even referred to in story.

Then we have the artwork. Google Berserk manga and you'll immediately see why everyone loves the artwork. Almost every page is like an Albrecht Durer woodcut with its detail and expressions. It's just beyond brilliant. Pity it takes a very long time to release a chapter because of that...

Now for the bad stuff. Firstly, recently Berserk has been engaging in a lot of comedy and jokes. Even Berserk isn't immune to 'chibbiness' and when 'chibbiness' was used in the early volumes like when Guts playfully spanked Casca (her and Griffith's 'WTF' reaction makes me laugh so much) or Puck's 'chestnut mode' and his short-term memory (chibi godhand, oh my gosh), it was hilarious. But when you have a character like Isidoro acting like a monkey or a serious character like Schierke becoming really super-deformed like a blob monster like in the recent 'Sea God arc', it really distracts from the very serious story and just looks awkward and out of place. I mean, when was Berserk ever meant to be funny? Even Puck has been reduced to nothing but a joke character.


The 'Sea God arc' itself while not bad didn't reach the usual quality of Berserk. Captain Sharkrider was very annoying and out of place and the nature of the mermaids themselves was really clichéd and uninspired. However, there were still a lot of awesome moments in that arc and the business that was happening with Griffith's side of the story more than made up for this lackluster-by-Berserk-standards arc. The first two and a half volumes, or until Guts meets and fights with the Count are rather bland. While cool, they're not really well written and essentially are what you call senseless violence. Also, the art was average.

However, none of these flaws take away from the story or experience. In conclusion, Berserk is a very well done epic with some of the greatest and most memorable characters ever and one heck of an inspiring protagonist. I give it 9 out of ten and not a full 10. Why? Yes it's a masterpiece but it's not finished yet and only the future knows how awesome the ending will be. If it is going to be as awesome is not more than expected, I will certainly bring it to a ten. Right now, Berserk deserves a 9 in my opinion.

Berserk, é difícil escrever sobre a maior experiência que já tive o prazer de desfrutar. Vou tentar ser um pouco breve.
Berserk não se trata apenas de um mangá medieval e violento, trata-se de sentimentos, emoções humanas. Tudo isso sendo escrito e desenhado dá forma mais sublime e bela possível. Miura kentaro foi capaz de transformar tudo aquilo que grotesco, sórdido, sujo e podre, em arte. Em berserk temos personagens muito bem construídos, com suas motivações, traumas, convicções, desejos, ambições e SONHOS. Além de ser uma história muito bem construída, estamos também em universo fantástico, onde o autor nos apresenta criaturas mágicas e espirituais, seres de outras dimensões e com bastante referência a clássicos, por exemplo: HP Lovecraft, mitologias Nórdica, Tolkien, Hellraiser.
Berserk é um mangá que entra não apenas no Hall dos melhores mangás já escritos, ele é uma das melhores obras já feitas na história dá humanidade. E a minha favorita.