“Berserk” is originally a manga that started back in 1989 which is only two years after the debut of anime’s memelord, Jojo Bizarre Adventure (don’t expect me to talk about Jojo for at least a couple of years) and spawned two anime adaptions with the first one being in 1997 and ending in 1998 and the second series still ongoing since 2016 and yes, that is considered recent. In this review, I will only be talking about the manga and the second series since I only want to talk about these because the manga is the original source material and I think the second series does have more to cover. Also, I am completely aware of all the other stuff that falls under the Berserk umbrella but I will not be covering them here. Maybe at a later date but for now, I want to focus on the manga and its second outing as an anime.
“Berserk” follows Guts, a mercenary since birth who has been marked as a sacrifice by the “Godhand”, a group of demonic gods, and we follow him as he slays chasing demons with his arsenal of weapons, including his massive sword “Dragon Slayer”, in absolutely utter gore-ious fashion (yes, I’m bring back the puns) and gains the infamous title of “The Black Swordsman”. On the way, he ends up getting new allies and eventually the pseudo name sake of the series, “The Berserker Armor” as he fights his old friend, Griffin who has joined the group of demonic overlords known as the “Godhand” and if that didn’t sell you on Berserk, I don’t blame you. When summarised, the plot seems simple but in reality, the plot is just more than a guy slaying demons with a massive sword. This manga might as well have defined a genre in how dark it can be from demonic sex orgies, religious crusades and oceans worth of blood being spilt. This is a horror manga for a reason and although the imagery isn’t exactly scary, it’s full of dark and creepy imagery and the series is more representative of “Gore Horror” (although some could say it’s more seated in the monster subgenre of horror) which comprises of 80s Slasher movies or if we were to use anime references because we are good little weebs, Hellsing except with a lot less of whatever Hellsing was doing. It’s just brooding with a dark, gloomy atmosphere and love it just so much. If you ask me, Berserk is more then just demon guts being splattered across the floor because there is much more like when Griffin reveals his new Band Of Hawks turns out to be demons in front of all his human followers which includes the pope of the series’ religion, they aren’t exactly shocked but being subdued by the idea that Griffin is their equivalent of Jesus Christ, they see the demons as the servants of their saviour and accept the demons as their friends and I love this because it can mean so much in the context of the series and to a degree, our real world. There is so much other philosophical sub text to cover in this series and it’s just hard to touch on when I’m so pressed for time so let’s just say there’s two themes of religion being used as a farce for evil and the nature of beauty in violence which the latter was the subject of a video on this YouTube channel called “Wisecrack” so I suggest watching that if you want to get into this series and want a deeper understanding of the series’ deeper messages but let’s move onto the technical sides of things.
Visually speaking, the manga probably one of the greatest looking mangas to exist which I can’t say about the anime but we will get to that. The manga might as well be an art book in manga form since the manga uses the limited colouring mangas have of black and white and use it effectively. While some mangas do benefit from colour, I feel like colouring this would do injustice for the material since Berserk is at its best when it comes to the many spreads where we can see how many points come from this. These spreads is the reason why the topic of “Beauty In Violence” is a underlying theme, they are the reason why the world depicted is terrifying and they are the reason why Guts looks like a badass. The spreads also takes the rough yet gore-gious art style and runs with it which is just wonderful in every way and I will use Berserk for now on to tell people who say manga isn’t art is that they are wrong and that anime not only just hot anime girls doing erotic stuff. Manga and anime do have their more edgy counterparts and Berserk is representative. Yes, this series does still have erotic scenes but it’s usually because it’s representative of the nature on demonhood and I think they add to the world building of the series. The only real complaint I have about the art style is how smooth the later chapters look. Earlier chapters had this subtle roughness in how it’s drawn and now with the more later chapters, everything looks far more clean, which is ironic considering it’s Berserk we are talking about but with the far more smoother look does make it feel like it has lost some of its charm but it’s a barely noticeable thing if you are reading the series from the very start and since I already started with the complaints early, I might as well roll out the remaining complaints.
Let’s start with the massive prologue. The prologue known as “The Golden Age Arc” is about 94 chapters long since it covers all the backstory you need to know. We get to know the conditions of Guts’ upbringing, the relationship he had with Griffin, how Griffin turned into a demon god and why Guts fights these hell spawned demons. Unfortunately, as much as I love how they did that instead of using rather intrusive flashbacks during numerous chapters to serve as padding out in chapters, the prologue takes forever and is without a doubt, the most boring point of Berserk for me. The Golden Age Arc is disappointing because it feels like Guts isn’t at his peak of awesomeness and performance during this arc since he hasn’t gotten his arsenal of weaponry and his unique brand of berserk (Hahahaha) isn’t in this arc until the last chapter where we see him slay his first demon with Dragon Slayer. What also doesn’t help is the fact that this is following up after another prologue which is pretty much just set up for the world and the character of Guts which does a much better job then the actual prologue at being a prologue. For me, the first prologue should of been the actual one and the series carry on from there since I feel like Guts should of been a lone wanderer type who just wandered town to town, killing demons as he got closer to killing Griffin so we wouldn’t have this whole Scooby gang which just seemed just to be there for character development but only one of them only really helps him which is the witch who makes sure that the Berserker Armour doesn’t fullly consume Guts but yet again, I feel like Guts’ sheer force of will should of done the job without some magical plot device. The only other one who I think serves her purpose is Guts’ love interest since that’s just more motivation for him to go out of his way to kill Griffin but that’s all she is, motivation. She does nothing else but be a motivation and occasional handicap and although the latest chapter is following her and may lead into making her into a more useful character (at the time of me writing this, of course) but she still feels useless.
I am quickly tacking on the anime section but this is mainly going to divulge into more complaints. So the new anime series starts off at the “Convection Arc” which happens right after the “Golden Age Arc” and there’s our first problem. This new anime acts like the viewer has been reading the manga or at least watched the original anime because there is no flashbacks. It’s just straight out of the source material and it expects you to know what’s going on. What I also hate about the anime is the art style or rather, lack of one. This incarnation of the anime is done in CGI like RWBY and just like RWBY, it’s a piece of crap. I hate it when anime does CGI because they usually don’t have the budget like other animation companies to make it look nice so it’s usually just really stiff and lifeless in terms of animation. The only benefit that CGI has for anime is adding more depth to the fight scenes which is the only praise I will give to both this and RWBY when I eventually want to die from outraged fans.
You should know what goes down by now. This is the part where I talk personally about how I feel about the overall series but I have really injected that into my other paragraphs so there isn’t much. If my “Hellsing” and “Drifters” review hasn’t got the fact that gore makes me a very happy weeb, let me say it again for you. I love gore and Berserk is just that but now also soaked in some horror elements which makes Berserk my ideal dark fantasy manga. There isn’t much else to add apart from that so overall, Berserk is without its flaws but I still think it’s a stand out amongst both manga and anime as proof that the anime culture doesn’t just revolve around hentai and harems. I’m giving the manga 8/10 even though it’s so tempting to give it a 9 or even a perfect 10 but that’s would just be my inner weeb talking then. The anime is getting a solid 5/10 for the horrible animation but since it’s the closest we are going to get to a Berserk anime in this generation and it’s still the same Berserk story without any needless stuff attached so I guess it’s passable.
That’s my thoughts on Berserk so just go watch or read it, I don’t know anymore. I should really stop relying on manga reviews to fill up the weekly slot so next week, maybe I will talk about either movies or a game, depending on what one I finish first or maybe I’ll just get around to uploading those old reviews I keep mentioning and for the next manga review which might be a while, I might be talking about a certain pirate with the series that seems like it never wants to end but next week is Steven Universe because I felt like it and for anything after the Saints Row reviews, might be a movie review if I can find anything interesting but I will admit, “Black Panther” is lining itself up for a ran- I meant review. I mean, the movie has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes so maybe it’s time I pull out all the stops and just see if this movie is really worth that 97% or maybe it’s just the fandom culture hyping nothing again like they always do.
“Berserk” follows Guts, a mercenary since birth who has been marked as a sacrifice by the “Godhand”, a group of demonic gods, and we follow him as he slays chasing demons with his arsenal of weapons, including his massive sword “Dragon Slayer”, in absolutely utter gore-ious fashion (yes, I’m bring back the puns) and gains the infamous title of “The Black Swordsman”. On the way, he ends up getting new allies and eventually the pseudo name sake of the series, “The Berserker Armor” as he fights his old friend, Griffin who has joined the group of demonic overlords known as the “Godhand” and if that didn’t sell you on Berserk, I don’t blame you. When summarised, the plot seems simple but in reality, the plot is just more than a guy slaying demons with a massive sword. This manga might as well have defined a genre in how dark it can be from demonic sex orgies, religious crusades and oceans worth of blood being spilt. This is a horror manga for a reason and although the imagery isn’t exactly scary, it’s full of dark and creepy imagery and the series is more representative of “Gore Horror” (although some could say it’s more seated in the monster subgenre of horror) which comprises of 80s Slasher movies or if we were to use anime references because we are good little weebs, Hellsing except with a lot less of whatever Hellsing was doing. It’s just brooding with a dark, gloomy atmosphere and love it just so much. If you ask me, Berserk is more then just demon guts being splattered across the floor because there is much more like when Griffin reveals his new Band Of Hawks turns out to be demons in front of all his human followers which includes the pope of the series’ religion, they aren’t exactly shocked but being subdued by the idea that Griffin is their equivalent of Jesus Christ, they see the demons as the servants of their saviour and accept the demons as their friends and I love this because it can mean so much in the context of the series and to a degree, our real world. There is so much other philosophical sub text to cover in this series and it’s just hard to touch on when I’m so pressed for time so let’s just say there’s two themes of religion being used as a farce for evil and the nature of beauty in violence which the latter was the subject of a video on this YouTube channel called “Wisecrack” so I suggest watching that if you want to get into this series and want a deeper understanding of the series’ deeper messages but let’s move onto the technical sides of things.
I am quickly tacking on the anime section but this is mainly going to divulge into more complaints. So the new anime series starts off at the “Convection Arc” which happens right after the “Golden Age Arc” and there’s our first problem. This new anime acts like the viewer has been reading the manga or at least watched the original anime because there is no flashbacks. It’s just straight out of the source material and it expects you to know what’s going on. What I also hate about the anime is the art style or rather, lack of one. This incarnation of the anime is done in CGI like RWBY and just like RWBY, it’s a piece of crap. I hate it when anime does CGI because they usually don’t have the budget like other animation companies to make it look nice so it’s usually just really stiff and lifeless in terms of animation. The only benefit that CGI has for anime is adding more depth to the fight scenes which is the only praise I will give to both this and RWBY when I eventually want to die from outraged fans.
You should know what goes down by now. This is the part where I talk personally about how I feel about the overall series but I have really injected that into my other paragraphs so there isn’t much. If my “Hellsing” and “Drifters” review hasn’t got the fact that gore makes me a very happy weeb, let me say it again for you. I love gore and Berserk is just that but now also soaked in some horror elements which makes Berserk my ideal dark fantasy manga. There isn’t much else to add apart from that so overall, Berserk is without its flaws but I still think it’s a stand out amongst both manga and anime as proof that the anime culture doesn’t just revolve around hentai and harems. I’m giving the manga 8/10 even though it’s so tempting to give it a 9 or even a perfect 10 but that’s would just be my inner weeb talking then. The anime is getting a solid 5/10 for the horrible animation but since it’s the closest we are going to get to a Berserk anime in this generation and it’s still the same Berserk story without any needless stuff attached so I guess it’s passable.
That’s my thoughts on Berserk so just go watch or read it, I don’t know anymore. I should really stop relying on manga reviews to fill up the weekly slot so next week, maybe I will talk about either movies or a game, depending on what one I finish first or maybe I’ll just get around to uploading those old reviews I keep mentioning and for the next manga review which might be a while, I might be talking about a certain pirate with the series that seems like it never wants to end but next week is Steven Universe because I felt like it and for anything after the Saints Row reviews, might be a movie review if I can find anything interesting but I will admit, “Black Panther” is lining itself up for a ran- I meant review. I mean, the movie has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes so maybe it’s time I pull out all the stops and just see if this movie is really worth that 97% or maybe it’s just the fandom culture hyping nothing again like they always do.
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