Berserk Volume 1-5 Collection 5 Books Set (Series 1) by Kentaro Miura

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The world seems to be quite a cruel one, and this manga doesn't shy away from very graphic murder scenes. It nicely sets the stage for some grimdark dark fantasy and we get to have a limited exploration of this world and the creatures it holds, from spirits that animate the skeletons of the dead to snake demons. Apart from that, since this is the introductory volume, I didn't really get much depth out of it and haven't developed any relevant sentiments regarding the characters, and I'm mainly intrigued by the medieval-European inspired dark fantasy world, which is something we do see quite commonly in fantasy, but that atmosphere always has its charm and allure for me. I will be reading the next volume of this manga to see if I'm able to get more invested in the story, and I see this as a decent entry into this world. There's something special in this weird little medieval-fairy-tale-Europe-as-imagined-by-20th-century-Japanese that kept me reading. A whiff of Nietzsche and Sartre and Kierkegaard, a promise of complexity and depth hiding behind the simplistic tale of an unlikeable protagonist's journey of revenge, despair and brutality toward self-knowledge. It's cringy, stereotypical and very much rooted in the '90s but there's earnestness and some emotional truth in this ugly, depressing tale that makes me read on. 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. Kentarou Miura ( 三浦建太郎) was born in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, in 1966. He is left-handed. In 1976, at the early age of 10, Miura made his first Manga, entitled "Miuranger", that was published for his classmates in a school publication; the manga ended up spanning 40 volumes. In 1977, Miura created his second manga called Ken e no michi (剣への道 The Way to the Sword), using Indian ink for the first time. When he was in middle school in 1979, Miura's drawing techniques improved greatly as he started using professional drawing techniques. His first dōjinshi was published, with the help of friends, in a magazine in 1982. Sheer curiosity and a thrill of joyful expectation is why. Sometimes, one has to decide it is high time to break the workaday routine, the reading of one book at a time at fixed hours, mostly spent in between the hotel, the laundromat and the convenience store. All the more so perhaps when one is about to leave his current night job, putting and end to one year and one month of the same environment, marred by Covid regulations, minimal income, hotel industry rules and night schedules. A breath of fresh air.

Miura's love for graphic brutality that still looks like something conceived by a bloodthirsty child (those people cut in half!) is more offputting than endearing, and the only remotely likeable character is that of a naked, sexless elf that looks like an offspring of Tinkerbell and a shop mannequin. 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. The Kushan Empire has risen to power and is waging war with the unguarded kingdom of Midland. As if the deadly plague, religious crusades and rampant demon invasions weren’t enough, Emperor Ganishka of the Kushan Empire is making life an even greater hell for anyone that’s in his path of conquest.

NOTE: This is really a review of the entire series. Reviewing every single volume sounds like one of those repetitive, mindless exercises used to break down the ego of a subject prior to brainwashing. Explicit and possibly offensive images and language follow, so don't scroll down if that sort of thing makes you feel twitchy and weird... particularly if you own a semi-auto crossbow.] This is the arc that has the most in common with Game of Thrones, focusing on personal character dramas rather than constant brutal battles, action and lovecraftian horror being thrown at you left and right. While the battles and action sequences in Berserk are amazing, where it truly shines are its quiet moments of vulnerability where we get to see the most raw, heart-wrenching and introspective emotions of the severely damaged cast of protagonists. 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. Overall an explosive arc that’s equally horrifying and beautiful. It has one of the most satisfying reunions and redemption plots of all time.

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? The Fantasia arc marked another major turning point of the series. If Lost Children and Conviction were the age of darkness, this was the beginning of the age of misguided light. Griffith changed the world in truly remarkable ways, both fascinating and terrible.

This is not what I expected from a manga. This belongs to the subgenre 'seinen' which is geared for young adults/adults. The Lost Children arc is often written off as a short filler mini-arc, but I think it serves its purpose more than well in just 3 volumes.

This volume has 3 chapters, and they don't really give much information regarding Guts's motivations. We can see that he's on some form of vendetta, and his vigilante-like behaviour must be coming from a much deeply seated wound. Despite his brutality, we do see that he is the protagonist of the story, after having murdered a group of thugs in a tavern and saved his new fairy friend, even though that little encounter led to The Snake Lord feeling threatened over his domain and unleashing hell (quite literally) in town as a response to Guts's transgression. We can see that Guts is some form of grimdark antihero character. This is the most complex arc of the series as it's split into multiple perspectives which hasn’t really been done up until this point. Guts has reunited with his beloved Casca and her mind is still in shambles from the trauma she experienced during the Eclipse. With a new band of loyal companions at his side, Guts begins to learn how to trust, grow and love as he once did during his time in the Band of the Hawk while struggling to reconcile with his inner darkness and his hatred towards his former friend Griffith.

I will go as far as say the 90s anime adaptation is the best version of them all. Sure, the budget wasn’t the best, but for the material it covered, it was even better than the manga. There are once in a life time stories, and berserk is one of them the potential behind this simple manga, the suspense, the mystery of it all! Mhm, as with most classics it's hard to rate. The art for most part is rather abysmal, compared to newer mangas (most of which were actually heavily influenced by Berserk, so there's that, too). I've seen some later volumes and man, Miura had improved immensely, to absolutely amazing levels of skill. But for now, it's bad, grainy, sketchy and overloaded with tropes. Bloody gory dark fantasy. But don't underestimate this manga. This manga is not only selling gory scenes, but also there are some good promises in setting and characterizations. I don't know how the promises will be delivered, this series is still ongoing. When I write this review the series has been running for around 27 years.

It also shows that Guts still has a human side. Despite how broken and full of hate and bloodlust he is, he still cares for Jill and throws himself in harm's way multiple times to protect her. Considering how tragic and terrifying Guts's childhood was, it's not too surprising that he would have a soft spot for kids that also happen to be suffering from abuse.The Berserk story is a pretty epic one and this first volume doesn't even scratch the surface of where things eventually go - but it's still a fun volume full of violence and carnage. In 1997, Miura supervised the production of 25 anime episodes of Berserk that aired in the same year on NTV. Various art books and supplemental materials by Miura based on Berserk are also released. In 1999, Miura made minor contributions to the Dreamcast video game Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage. 2004 saw the release of yet another video game adaptation entitled Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Record of the Holy Demon War. Since that time, the Berserk manga has spanned 34 tankōbon with no end in sight. The series has also spawned a whole host of merchandise, both official and fan-made, ranging from statues, action figures to key rings, video games, and a trading card game. In 2002, Kentarou Miura received the second place in the Osamu Tezuka Culture Award of Excellence for Berserk.[1]