Berserk

I'm going to try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible. Trust me, it's a series that's best consumed blind and with a mind ready to be blown. It's honestly a series that has blown me away multiple times and shatered my expectations in the best way possible. So having freshly finished it, i wanna air out what i thought about it and share my experiences.

The negatives

Strange place to start, but it will be over quickly as i don't actually have too much to criticise. I will go and say that it's not a perfect series, I personally found that it repeats certain story bits a few too many times for my liking. This is often overshadowed by the plethera of positives sprinkled through each arc, however at certain parts, the tention is completely sucked out when the protagonists do fight after fight of simillar scale and stakes.
_"A large number of seemingly horrifying monsters wiped out by Guts with surprising ease before a big big monster actually puts up a fight"_ can work as a plot point only so many times before it becomes jarringly familiar. It just makes the fights boring to a point. It only slows down the story and makes me wanna flip through to see the actual good parts take place, which to it's credit, theres always a damn good part that takes place after.

Some characters, specifically the female ones, don't get as much time to shine and feel tropey. Granted, yes, not every character can be a magnum opus, but when pretty major character meander or go into directions that feel less interesting then they could/shoul go, it just feels like wasted potential. Like, these characters get terrified and threatened, injured or get ahem "forced" upon, but when it's hard to be invested in them, it means a lot less. Its rare buut it's noticable.

Also, and this isn't a criticism or a flaw with the writing, but due to obvious reasons, the story will never get an ending, which is a real shame, because the way it's managed to stay a masterpiece for decades really suggested, to me at least, that it would've been amazing. But i digress.

Guts and Griffith - The greatest manga characters that I have to explain in the vaugest way possible

God lord, where to start? I could honestly just rant for hours about my favourite scenes and quotes and my interpertations of these two and it wouldn't even get close to doing it justice. It like... can not be described how geniously written these two are. But i'll attempt it anyways:

Guts is my favourite type of protagonists: a one that struggles and claws for everything he strives for. It's a trope in most media that the main character is, in it's story, a character that will never die and that will overcome every conflict presented to it. That's to be expected. Sounds pretty boring when put that way. Why should I be invested if I know how it's going to end? There won't be any surprises for me then. And if this chliche is carelessly broken, then it would probably make for a lousy or awkward story.

But then, think about this, what if you didn't ask "Is this character gonna win or survive?". What if you asked "Whats this character gonna have to sacrifice TO win and survive?". This is how good protagonists get me invested in them and this is how you make a story exciting. This opens up so many good possible outcomes to each story beat. That initial question leads to subsequent questions "How much will this affect him in the future? Both short-term and long-term. How will he be ready for the next fight? How will he recover? Will he recover?" etc.

It's then no exaggeration to say that, in this aspect, Guts is one of the greatest characters. It's through his struggles, his suffering and his motives that the story is driven forward. And boy, we see him struggle, suffer and get motivated a lot. And the initial hook to him, the chain that binds your attention to this character keeps getting shaken as you begin to worry about and question him. His gray morality and the greater-than-life danger he puts himself through to achive the unachivable... to then stop and think if it's even worth it? Is this what you truly want?

And all of these elements worked fantastically on me, because once the protagonist shines, the whole story shines with him and sucks you in to keep reading, to keep looking forward to it and to appreciate each time the story manages to deliver on your expectations.

It also needs to be mentioned how well his character evolves through his journey. With each passing arc he is confronted with something that changes him at the core and alters him, both physically, mentally and often permanently. These developments keep stacking on top of each other, feeding the loop of excitement I talked about earlier. At the end, making his barely recognizable. The same character, but bent into a new, different beast alltogether.

Griffith, on the other hand, is... well it's hard to talk about him for many reasons. Mostly relating to spoilers. But to put it as vauge as possible:

Griffith is both a great foil and comrade to Guts. Their relationships and philosophies, both of which go through ups and downs, calming and clashing, are built to work greatly with one another. Much like Guts, we see what makes Griffith tick, how his own struggles and wishes change and develop him, if anything in a much faster manner and even with a quasi conclusion to it.

Griffith is a character you can understand, maybe even relate to, but never justify. He is definitely built up to be likable and charismatic, both to the writter and the characters in canon. It's what makes the many twists and turns in his character all the more impactful. And his future actions captivate me to this day, at the point where we dont even know if the story will end. Whatever the end to it is, all i will say is, it sure has a LOT riding on it's back.

I gotta stress how I hate how vauge i have to be here, as Griffith really can't be described with any words worth ruining the original work. I'm sure even the least informed perople know of one certain event that happens in the very first saga of the story, the first chapters mini-arc hints as much to it. Best I can do is confirm that, yes, that event is as big of a deal as it's probably hyped up as. It is asbolutely earth-shattering and molds the entire rest of the story and tone of Berserk. And Griffith serves is the spark that triggers both the events before, after it and very much during it.

But maybe I've said to much :)

Guts and Griffith work amazingly with one another. It's got elements of good, typical anime/manga tropes of bffs or rival characters, but with more than enough dark, complex and deep touch of Berserk in it. They are central pillars that hold up this manga in my mind.

What a wonderful world... full of wonderful monsters

I'm not the one to gush about visuals in any media. Even when it's amazing, i don't feel like pointing that out really brings anything to the series itself. It's very detached from what I value in a story and my opinion never depends on how good visuals are. Even in Berserk, i mean the fact that it looks god damn amazing AND is a fantastic story as well is just a coincidence. It speaks of the authors talent, yes, but not really about the quality of the two elements relating to one another. It could've looked like crap and still would've been a masterpiece, in my opinion.

One thing however, a part of visuals that can enchance a story is it's design and world building. Seeing creative character designs and locations in creative ways and the ways it can influence the in-story conflicts is something I love. And Berserk has no shortage of interesting environments it takes palce in.

The monsters, i gotta give a shout out to. The way they are portrayed in grousome detail and they way they are thematically appropriate to their arcs is great. The series never shys away from always going bonkers with the designs and makes the monsters so impactful and intimidating through sheer visuals alone. They move and act in ways that entertained me very much. I loved seeing a location and then imagining how the monsters there were gonna look and behave. It really makes encounters stick to your mind, even when they aren't as exciting and especially when they are exciting. The cherry on top of an epic battle is the storng image it can leave in your mind. And shame too that, most of them only start to show pretty deep in the story.

The landscapes themselves are something thats rather strong in the later half of the story. We start seeing a lot of differing other-worldly places, each one unique that rich with lore. The best way to spend down-time from the action is getting attached to the place where action will take place.

A few of my favourite things

Now i wanna do a quickround of a few things i liked most. The following may be a liiiittle spoilery, so skip this part if you wanna just hear my conclusion at the end.

Fav Main Character: Griffith. While its close between him and Guts, i preffer Griffith for the part he plays in the story. His whole phylosophy on Dreams and A true Friend also had me very fascinated in him. Since he's not the most clear cut and rounded off character, it's really fun to pick apart the more subtle, vauge aspects of his character and themes. He drives so much of the story, from begining to very likely the end. His presence will always be omnipresent even when he's absent from the story directly. And above all... i really like his design, i mean come on look at him. ~~Yes, im very shallow like that.~~

Fav Supporting Character: Serpico. I could also group Fernese together with him, sicne a lot of their arcs bind well together. They compliment eachother very well due to their servant master relationship. Though he shines a lot brighter than Fernese. Mostly because of his strong yet looser, relaxed personality. I enjoyed how mesterious he was at the begining, but then we learn a lot more about him and he still remains as engaging and cool as ever. Besides feminine yet meanacing villains, I enjoy the loyal-servant-type characters.

Fav Minor Villain: The Kushan Emperor (im sure he had a name but pff). Calck it up to recency effect but i found him pretty entertaining. He definitely carried the later arcs he appears in for me. While hes no where near as complex as some other, I do like how he is sorta a 3rd party in the main conflict. As in, he is an enemy of both the protagonistic force and the antagonistic force. Very cool.

Fav Fight: Guts and Shirke VS Daiba. Daiba falls from the same tree his emperor does and his gimick in his fight was very interesting, we got to see a lot of good back and fourth between him and Guts. Definitely a better, deeper mechanical showing of Berserk fights, while still containing the strong parts Berserk is known for. ~~Also, Shirke did the bAcKpAcK wAiFu thing before it was cool ok?~~

Fav Arc: If it wasnt clear from the previous two entries, i really like the Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc, especially the Falconia half. It introduced the most important mechanics in the series as well as delivered on the whole build up from the Conviction Arc. Characters and the world change pretty much the most during this arc. ~~Also shout out to Golden age arc, tho that's probably a boring answer, everyone likes that arc. Oh and god damn, Fantasia shook the entire world of Berserk with what it brought, god was it a long time coming.~~

Fav Pannel, non spoilery one at least: This one

Conclusion

It's a story that won't shy away from shocking and thrilling you the entire way through. It will hit you with disturbing, deep, brutal, sad but still satisfying character arcs, themes, action and art that I personally don't see replicated pretty much anywhere. It has a world you will want to see every detail of and characters you will want to see every second of. It's a masterpiece in almost every way, and I highly reccomend that everyone with a shred of interest to experience it properly for yourself.

Hope you liked my very first review!