Berserk 23

The beginning of this volume was the most satisfaction I’ve gotten out of this series in a while.  I was vaguely dissatisfied with the Tower of Conviction section mostly because it went on slightly too long.  It’s hard to be dissatisfied with anything in this series, since the Tower of Conviction plot was still better than most other action series, but I think I would prefer to read about Guts traveling, which is exactly what happens next.

The first half or two-thirds of this volume is simply Guts, Puck, and Casca traveling in order to get Casca to a safe place.  Casca is still out of it, so the only companion Guts has is Puck, who does well in his role as a real character this volume rather than comic relief.  Guts constantly deals with the pressure of having twice as many monsters to slay (having two sacrifices together increases monster appearances), plus having to watch over Casca.  He does well at first other than not sleeping, but then the monsters prey on his doubts about his relationship with Casca in her new state, things get ugly, and he finds himself rather depressed.  The best part about this section is that it humanizes Guts in a way the series hasn’t done in a long while.  You see him going through the motions of daily life more than you see him fighting monsters, and the way he cares for Casca is quite touching.  He’s not just a monster-slaying demon, he’s a guy who just has bad luck and also wants to slay a Cenobite.  We also see him with his armor off for the first time in a long time.  I forget he actually only has one arm.

There’s a big section that deals with the power Griffith is gathering around him, too, and looks at how he uses his invincible (and possibly undead) warriors in battle.  He is worshipped as some sort of God by the citizens of Midland, and I have to say his new role is really creepy.  Rather than being humanized like Guts is earlier in the volume, he’s portrayed as something other.  He’s definitely not human anymore, and I don’t know that he does a single thing to indicate that he is.

Guts gets a little traveling party here.  Again, I’m definitely not a fan of Farnese and Serpico, and I guess I’m waiting to see how they come in handy later.  Farnese is especially useless, but I can see that’s sort of the point.  I do like Isidro, though.  He actually works pretty well as Puck’s buddy, even though I still don’t like the humor, and seeing Guts train him on how to use a sword is touching in its way, too.  It’s always nice to see Guts interacting with other people.

If you’ve gotten this far down, how about a little story?  I read about half this volume, then decided to go to bed.  I walked from the living room to the bathroom to remove my contacts on my way to the bedroom.  I set the book on the bathroom counter, where it promptly fell directly into the toilet.  I stared at it a long time, because I did not believe this had actually happened.  I then threw it in the freezer and forgot about it, because I heard this saves wet books sometimes.  It does save them from getting moldy (the ice flakes off and keeps the damp out), but it did not save it from being ruined.  I had to go out and buy another copy at retail price because I dropped my volume of Berserk in the fucking toilet.  The wet copy is still in the freezer.  I don’t really want to touch it again.