Berserk Deluxe Volume 10 HC". Dark Horse Comics. Archived from the original on March 9, 2022 . Retrieved March 8, 2021. Berserk Deluxe Volume 8 HC". Dark Horse Comics. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021 . Retrieved March 16, 2021. Berserk Volume 8 TPB". Dark Horse. Archived from the original on August 3, 2013 . Retrieved July 9, 2008.

Berserk Volume 35 TPB". Dark Horse. Archived from the original on September 25, 2011 . Retrieved May 5, 2011. Which is also an issue, since Guts is still the one defeating most of the enemies while everyone else is low level support. Despite the story expanding to include a dozen other characters and themes, it still has the same one guy doing all the work. While Guts was butchering to pieces anyone standing in his way, it was excused because he was getting the spotlight. Now a dozen other characters get some spotlight and are close to worthless in battle. How can you care about all the extra stuff thrown in there when none of them can stand on their own without Guts constantly jumping it to save them?A grimdark epic with compelling protagonists, stomach-churning horror, heartbreaking drama and a lovecraftian sense of metaphysical worldbuilding that's as fascinating as it is terrifying. Berserk has been my favorite manga, fantasy story and perhaps favorite story ever made for over a decade now and I was really sad to hear that the man behind the masterpiece passed away earlier this year.

Guts seems like a simplistic, edgy anti-hero at first glance, but he's so much more than that. Guts is one of the greatest characters the fantasy genre has to offer. Sigmund Freud could probably write a novel-length psychological analysis of this severely troubled and broken man. Guts is more complex than he leads people to believe as well. He's not a sociopathic antihero, he's a man that has no choice but to lie to himself to keep his emotions from crushing his spirit and getting innocent people involved with his deadly affairs. He's cruel and harsh for the greater good. It's the only way he can keep himself from going insane and continue to put up a good fight against terrifying creatures that are far stronger than he is. There's a bit of a joke in the Berserk community that says that no matter how bad your life might be, Guts will always have it worse. It's really not that hard to believe after you've read a bit of the series. His life was one big catastrophe literally from the moment he was born. It’s difficult to review this arc because it was left unfinished after the author’s untimely passing. Don't get me wrong: this is certainly not what you would call material suitable for toddlers. This is some gory, brutal and unremittingly dark story, at the onset of a series famed for its gruesome horrors, cruel fates, and unflinching depiction of the absurd side of life. The events in this first tome are already merciless and harrowing. Nieztschean tragedy indeed. This is also an emotion and a state of spirit I find when reading some works by H.P. Lovecraft. Facing Old Ones or Apostles, the odds are so monstrous, the part played by the characters so seemingly futile and abysmal, that paradoxically, the most resilient form of meaning appears. With H.P. Lovecraft's fiction, if you want to keep a litteral interpretation of them, that is certainly not the case with most of his tales. And yet I still hold that his stories have a curious life-affirmation quality to me. Life appears so ludicrously gratuitous, uncalled for, fragile, in a word impossible, that I am never more conscious that the mere fact of my being alive in such a puzzling universe is quite a wonder. Schierke is a young witch that serves to explain the more magical, fantastical and metaphysical elements of the world of Berserk while aiding Guts’s crew in their journey to fight against the alarming uprising of demonic creatures overrunning the land. Berserk Volume 20 TPB". Dark Horse. Archived from the original on August 3, 2013 . Retrieved July 9, 2008.in Japanese). Hakusensha. Archived from the original on May 22, 2017 . Retrieved December 15, 2009. Guts and his crew set out to Elf Island to restore Casca’s memories before deciding how to settle the score with Griffith once and for all. The arc was tying up loose ends at a very nice pace, answering questions that many readers have been contemplating since the beginning of the series such as the identity of Skull Knight, the origins of the God Hand, Griffith's true motives, how Casca confronts her trauma, the purpose of the Berserker Armor, Guts finding the answer to his life’s purpose, the secret history and lore of the greater universe and much more. in Japanese). Hakusensha. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017 . Retrieved April 6, 2013. Look at that texturing. The choice between this level of beautiful intricacy and computer coloring ain't no choice at all: