Slightly Biased Manga

I bought up through volume 10 of this series on sale, and I was so… caught up in the end of this volume that I read 10 right after.  I may not be clear on some of the details, but the dividing event between the volumes is so clear that there is only Berserk before this and Berserk after, so I’m pretty sure I’ve got things straight.

First and foremost, I loved what I saw of Griffith in this volume.  I was pretty happy to see that he was so shocked and bent out of shape about Guts, because I was not expecting such a violent reaction out of him.  I mean, I remembered that Griffith “owned” Guts, but I thought Griffith was sort of above caring for people unless it directly affected his plans.  And maybe Guts leaving did, but I think Guts made the right call, because he would have just been a warrior unable to fight in a time of peace if he’d stuck around.

I was sort of sad to see Griffith’s self-destructive behavior, though.  Old Griffith would never have been that reckless, and he is indeed paying for it.  We haven’t seen any sex in a long time (not since volume 3), and there’s something both beautiful and repulsive about it in this series.  I suppose that proves beyond a doubt that Griffith is in fact a man, something the degenitaled nude from earlier in the series hadn’t completely convinced me of.

When I saw the torture start, I thought that they would just scar Griffith’s body and gouge his eyes out.  Seriously.  I have no imagination whatsoever, apparently.

A year passes, and after fighting in a tournament, Guts finally hears rumors about the fallen Band of the Hawk and goes to them just as they’re about to mount a rescue for Griffith.  Not before he gets a prophecy, though.  Actually, the prophecy happens at the beginning of the volume, and the Hawks part happens at the very end.

Also, something else happened at the end.  It was shocking, unexpected, and dammit, it just wasn’t in the cards.  Things had sort of been heading in that direction ever since the 100-man melee, but I just didn’t want to believe anything would happen.  They HATED each other.  Apparently not enough, though, and the volume ended on something so beautiful and grotesque that I just had to pick up 10 immediately and read it, even though I hate doing that before I write about stuff here.