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▪ | RELEASED BY: | VIZ MEDIA | ||
| ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | KENTARO MIURA | |||
| ▪ | FORMAT: | JAPANESE / B&W | |||
| ▪ | PAGES: | 232 | |||
| ▪ | RATING: | 18+ | |||
| ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | 12/02/2009 | |||
| ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | 01/10/2010 | |||
| ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
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. Berserk is a mixed bag to say the least, but that should be taken in a good way, not a bad way. Berserk is “out there” and visually astounding in a lot of very normal and also 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 is sold at in comparison to most others on the market these days. Berserk is the hammer of the manga forge, a white-hot amalgam of bruising action, breathless horror, and brimstone humour that separates the men from the boys, so to speak. It also separates the heads from plenty of shoulders… but I digress.
In volume thirty-two, Guts, the Black Swordsman, joins forces with a most unlikely ally, the fiendish Nosferatu Zodd, in a desperate attempt to defeat the Kushan emperor's malevolent astral form. But Griffith, Guts' former commander and friend reborn as a demonic lord of the Godhand, has plans of his own for the emperor, and for Midland itself. Guts and his companions' only hope is to reach the promised safety of the elf Puck's homeland, Elfhelm, but if Griffith and the emperor turn their attention back to this motley band of travelers, there may be nowhere left for Guts and crew to hide!
Berserk is quite the little manga energizer bunny – it keeps going and going and… you get the picture. What’s great about the fact that it keeps going and going is that it continues to be great! A lot of manga that go beyond more than 15 or so volumes can really start to drag at spots, or be overcome with filler – but not Berserk. This manga is a true epic – it’s supposed to be long, and we wish that it will never end – never have I felt as a reader that the series has dragged or been without purpose and excitement. Thank goodness for series like this – if only there were more of them!
This volume has one of the best (if not THE best) medieval battle sequence I have ever seen done in a manga. Leave it to Berserk to be able to best showcase such a grisly affair, and with so much detail and depth. Literally hundreds of soldiers can appear on some pages, done up in rank upon rank with none of the detail missing. Berserk never ceases to impress with its amazing visuals, but this volume takes the cake. It reminded me a lot of some good epic movies like Brave Heart or The Lord of the Rings – this volume really captured the “hugeness” of a large scale battle, even though it’s all just on paper in a fantasy manga. Again, Berserk is awesome. It’s a plain and simple fact that many readers will be able to agree with whole-heartedly.
The story also continues to be good, and the intermingling of its many characters and their wide variety of emotions and motivations further the plot with every story arc. You can’t have an epic without some great characters and captivating character development, and so of course Berserk brigs both to the table in heaps. You really get to know these characters and get involved in their well-being (which isn’t often very “well” in Berserk, considering the kind of book this can be!), and it’s tense and therefore quite involving. Fantastic story and characters come together with some of the most uniquely professional fantasy art going at the moment to create this fine series with each volume – it never disappoints and never falters. Truth be told, Berserk has never been one of those books for just anyone – not everyone is going to like it or even want to read it – but for the right customer this series will be everything they are looking for. If you’re someone who enjoys fantasy and a bit of horror, or just loves great stories and extremely good art, Berserk may be something you’ll want to check out. Give this modern day classic a chance and you’ll probably be blown away by what it has to offer a reader.
IN SUMMARY:
Berserk is a very special manga – both the art and the story is phenomenal. It fits into somewhat of a strange genre, but it is the absolute best at what it does. Fantasy and horror fans don’t know what they’re missing if they haven’t read some Berserk!
