Slightly Biased Manga

In case you had any doubt as to whether or not Griffith is a total psychopath, this volume will clear all that up. To be fair, he only acts out because there are people in the kingdom’s court who are trying to kill him. But he manages to secretly thwart their attacks, kill all of them in a most “accidental” way, and then kill everyone who knows what he’s done. He doesn’t do this himself, though. He uses other people so his hands won’t get dirty. Griffith does kill one person on the battlefield, and it occurred to me that he’s not often shown slaughtering people in the same way Guts and Casca are, but he’s somehow more terrifying, even with his girly face.

Guts acts on his decision to leave, which bummed me out. He says he needs a goal so that he can return to Griffith and not be someone Griffith can look down on. He leaves without one, which doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. There’s actually a few really nice scenes where various Band of the Hawk generals try to convince him to stay. I like Judeau, who is sort of a lighthearted background character, and he winds up having a nice conversation with Guts about being happy with one’s lot in life. Guts really should be happy, since he’s about to be made a lord and given whatever he wants… but alas, he goes to chase some intangible goal.

I was hoping Griffith would stop him. Part of me feared that Griffith would understand what Guts wanted and just let him go amiably. When the duel commenced, I believed that Guts would be kept against his will since there was no way he could win against Griffith. I was pretty mad, and so was Griffith. Maybe Griffith doesn’t forgive.

There’s a huge battle at the beginning of the volume. I was happy to see Guts get what he deserves as far as near-constant combat goes, his sword finally breaks against something it should. A mystery Nosferatu tosses him an even bigger sword from on top of a cliff to finish what he was doing though, which was either a cop-out or badass, I couldn’t decide.

At one point, Griffith puts a question of morals to Guts, who backs off because he says someone who has killed 100 men shouldn’t make a moral judgment. At this point, I can’t count how many people have been cleaved in half by Guts, and while he has defeated 100 at once single-handedly, there’s also the matter of the guys he slices in half and decapitates in the battles. Hm. Maybe I should go back and take a body count.

I don’t know how I feel about this business with Casca.  It seems to be over for now, which makes me feel relieved.  I really can’t picture her and Guts together.