Berserk 19
Posted: August 8, 2008 Filed under: Berserk 2 Comments »Exposition… mmm. Lots of stuff happening around Casca now, and I just can’t get enough of that bizarre satanic cult. I like that shit hits the fan when she simultaneously summons sacrifice demons and the Holy Knights show up to bust the heretics. Guts briefly joins back up with her with Isidro, a boy we met briefly last volume, in tow. I can’t figure out if I really like or really hate Isidro. On one hand, he’s comic relief, and Puck is already just slightly more than I can handle for that. On the other hand, he makes Puck funnier somehow, which is fine. He reminds me of a young Guts, which is the point of him, I think, and I suspect he’ll be around for awhile.
I just wanted to cry “not fair” when the pair of eyes kept interfering to foil Guts’s escape plan. It would’ve worked if that thing hadn’t constantly fouled things up for them. Is it… like some sort of fetal form of Griffith prior to him being summoned again? I’m not sure how I feel about that. I know how I feel about the Cenobites being summoned, though. I can’t wait for that, it’s just epic beyond belief every time they appear.
Casca finds her way among the holy crowd, and what happens is exactly everything that I could have wished for. Monsters come and basically scare the crap out of all the knights, Mozgus, his torturers, etc. Unfortunately, the fate that befalls the prisoners is not the same for them, which is a real shame. Events move forward about how you would expect for all the things that have come before (mainly that the summoning and/or sacrifice will take place), so it’s no surprise that all the characters take the demons appearing as a sign from God that they’ve been doing the right thing all along. Mozgus in particular is hard to stomach, as he seems the likely catalyst for things. I think his death will be spectacular.
Here’s hoping for the summoning next volume. It’s the last one I have until I find them on sale, and I like the idea of reading five more volumes back to back again, so I probably won’t cheat this time since… 20-25 is about all that’s left of the series right now. Or at least 25 will be available by the time things show up on sale again.
What surprises me most about Berserk is how Miura’s artwork maintains a constant creepiness. I’ve watched horror films and read novels and comics over half my life (I turn 29 today) and there are images in Berserk that creep me the hell out, like the first time you see Mozgus’ torturers or the giant Dung Beetle that rolls a ball of corpses instead of shit or the horribly ugly Rape Trolls that appear in volume 24 or ‘Black Dog’ Wyland’s giant gorilla transformation and his prickly tounge/penis.
Isidro sticks around, but as long as the annoying curly haired prostitute stays away, I can overlook his neverending battles with Puck, whom I never see in normal dimensions anymore. And don’t get too excited about the return of the Godhand (Cenobites), it’s… well, I won’t give it away. Let’s just say that the stories are becoming more fairy tale in execution, with witches and trolls. Oh, and the gathering of Griffith’s Death Squad is amazing. Watch as a massive army is pounded into hamburger meat by five insane warriors.
It’s true, his artwork really is amazing. Whenever the creatures appeared in this volume, I kept thinking back to that really creepy-horrible horse demon that tried to rape Farnese a few volumes back and how at least they weren’t THAT bad. Or any of those monsters from that scene, giving the animals human faces just creeped me out like nothing else so far. Those people being broken on the wheel is something that will haunt my nightmares. I had read something about the wheel not too long before I read this, but I didn’t quite understand how people were tortured on it. Now I know, and I won’t ever forget.
It mentioned in volume 20 that the Godhand were just shadows of themselves this time, but I’m still holding out for an appearance, or at least some sort of speaking part. I like them a lot, and I am really looking forward to when they are dealt with directly. I also kind of wondered about the fantasy elements of the series. I have full faith that I’ll still like it a lot, but… I saw a single panel for a recent chapter in Japan where what looked like a bunch of lionheads in the sky were breathing fire onto a pteradactyl (no characters or anything present). I just hope the transition to that is a gradual one.