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▪ | RELEASED BY: | DARK HORSE | ||
| ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: |
KENTARO MIURA |
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| ▪ | FORMAT: | JAPANESE / B&W | |||
| ▪ | PAGES: | 248 | |||
| ▪ | RATING: |
M |
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| ▪ | RELEASE DATE: |
01/16/2008 |
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| ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | 05/18/2008 | |||
| ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
From the back cover: “Created by Kentaro Miura, Berserk is a crashing manga leviathan, a perfect storm of impassioned action, impious horror, and improper humour that makes your most twisted nightmares play like treasured childhood memories.”
Wow, Berserk. Berserk is kind of crazy, and that should be taken in a good way. Berserk is “out there” and visually astounding in a lot of very normal and very unique ways – it has a shifting balance that is hard to describe, but it works for this series extremely well. The deep, dark places that this manga travels to both in story and in artistic expression can be as interesting and captivating as they are horrifying. There aren’t too many other stories or manga quite like Berserk – most people that really like it swear by it, and are willing to spend the slightly higher price that this manga sells itself at in comparison to most others on the market these days.
In volume twenty-one of Berserk, Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, is on the rampage – and it's personal. Mozgus, the malefic master Inquisitor of the Holy See, in his murderous campaign against heretics, has captured Guts' former lover Casca and has her at the ready to be burned at the stake in the Tower of Conviction, little knowing that Casca's demonic Mark of Sacrifice is drawing hideous dark powers to the Tower. It'll take everything Guts has and more to defeat Mozgus – who is much, much more than a man – and even if he can, will he be able to save Casca from the hordes of Hell amidst the inquisitor's disintegrating citadel?
So Berserk is a mix of genres for sure – it’s set in a medieval type world, but with all the fantasy elements like demons and monsters and magic. It could be loosely described as fantasy/horror, but really there’s so much more to it, but you’ll just have to read it to understand. Berserk certainly isn’t for everyone though – it earns it’s 18+ rating quite diligently with everything from gory violence, to nudity, to some really frightening visions of death and hell and everything that could possibly be described as “Wow, you can’t talk about that in polite company” etc. Berserk is no holds barred when it comes to expression through violence and the darker side of things, but that doesn’t make it “garbage” by any means – it really does have an amazing story and intricate characters and motivations – it’s just a very “mature” book for mature readers only.
The art is just awesome. You don’t know what “attention to detail” means until you read Berserk – each page is just brimming with details beyond what most of us could imagine. There are some whole chapters where each page is a horrifying and/or beautiful work of art – the visuals skimp on nothing for the most part. The closest thing visually that Berserk could be compared to might be “Claymore,” another very good manga – but really Berserk is on a plain of its own – it’s just that unique in its proficiency. All in all it is very well rounded and features amazing art and intricate story. Being captivated by this series doesn’t seem like it would be a hard thing to do.
IN SUMMARY:
Fantasy fans craving something more mature and willing to delve into the darker side of things will rejoice when the discover Berserk. The series is a fine mix of horror, fantasy, and a number of other things that need to be seen to believe – this manga is truly “out there
