Berserk 24
Posted: February 15, 2009 Filed under: Berserk 22 Comments »Oh Berserk. Last volume I thought to myself “Yes! Trolls!” because horrible beasts like trolls fit in with the themes of monster slaying, and it seemed like something good to divert Guts and company while they were on their journey. Even better, we learn this volume that the trolls are sentient, so they’re harassing villiages by stealing their food and killing men and women et al. So slaying trolls then has a purpose, and promises to be very violent.
But then the series goes and starts talking about witches. Witches don’t really seem to fit, not as well as trolls. Were you to ask me what I would rather have traveling with Guts, I would probably say a troll, because that would be really awesome.
But then, after awhile, I am convinced that Berserk should have had witches in it all along. There is a long conversation about the “astral world” and the way magic and spirits work that would have been boring, nonsensical, and long-winded in any other series, but made a lot of sense in Berserk. The Cenobites are explained in the context of the whole spiritual realm, and we are told things we already know about the Behelit, but then we are led to wonder whether or not the Behelit Guts has is actually his (or if it’s Puck’s, for that matter, which would be exceptional since you totally wouldn’t see that coming).
Then we see how magic can be used in battle, how its used in weapons, and how it can be used to ease the call the sacrifice brands have on the night creatures. I like that a lot, too.
I’m not convinced about the size of the party at the moment, though. It just seems like there are too many people traveling with Guts. I do like Schierke, and I wouldn’t mind her and Isidro traveling with Guts since both seem to have goals in mind. I would like for them to drop Casca off somewhere though, and then quietly kill Serpico and Farnese in the night. They just… serve no purpose. But judging by the rest of the series, those two will pull off some epic rescue or some major victory in battle that will make me both love them and make me wish that they would never leave the main party. That just seems to be Berserk’s way: convincing me of things that don’t make good sense.
This is why I love Miura. One thinks of the word troll and conjures a mental image of a pug faced midget under a bridge wearing green tights and a brown cloth hat. Miura thinks of trolls and draws horrible beasts with matted brown fur, elongated snouts with gaping nostrils, skin tags under the chin, and are prone to sexual assault.
I kind of like Farnese. I think she’s supposed to play the part of the anti-Guts. She’s clumsy scared, unsure — she grew up rich and spoiled and now she is traveling with a man who grew up…well, you read Guts’s backstory so I don’t need to tell you. I think traveling with Guts will strengthen her character.
To tell you the truth, I think of trolls and I think of the dolls. The trolls here were pretty beastly. My favorite creature yet was probably that kelpie, though. I mentioned it, but it’s really, really hard to imagine a kelpie as anything but cute. It’s like drawing a unicorn with fangs and two sharp horns for front legs that it impales people with or something. But my second favorite creature is still probably that demon horse that almost rapes Farnese, so a demon unicorn probably wouldn’t be too far off from that, and would probably somehow be more horrible.
Hmm… to be fair, I don’t give Miura much credit for the sexual assault attribute on the trolls only because it seems like all his creatures are prone to this.
That’s actually a really good way of looking at Farnese, I hadn’t thought of her that way. It does give her a little more purpose, though it still seems weird to have the opposites in constant contact like that if there’s not more to it. I guess she also does a good job of lending contrast to those scenes where the priests get mad at Schierke. Hmm.
[...] on vol. 4 of After School Nightmare (A Library Girl’s Familiar Diversions) Connie on vols. 24 and 25 of Berserk (Slightly Biased Manga) Connie on vol. 3 of B.O.D.Y. (Slightly Biased Manga) [...]
If there’s anything you have to give Miura credit for, it’s his sexual assault attributes. I love this series, but by god, Berserk is the absolute rapiest thing I’ve ever read. It kind of fits, I guess, but damn. I mean….man….just off the top of my head I can recall like 20 rape scenes so far….seriously, who in the series HASN’T been raped yet? GUTS was raped, for crying out loud.
Also, if Guts’ past wasn’t a flashback and had actually happened in the beginning, he’d have been the FIRST person raped.
I also loved going back to that first volume and seeing the series open with Guts having sex with a woman who turns into a demon and attacks him. After reading so much farther, it seemed really out-of-character for Guts, but it pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the series.
I think it gets away with all the rape because it’s hard to take it seriously anymore. You see that demon coming, it looks like the stuff nightmares are made of, and it’s well-endowed and all ready to go. That can only happen so many times before you just yawn and say “Oh, really, that troll is raping so hard that she was penetrated all the way through? That’s new. I guess.” You’ve crossed some sort of line when the trolls are in on it, too. But to be fair, those are some pretty heinous trolls.
I actually am more surprised when somebody ISN’T raped at this point. Particularly if they’re a main character, or hot. I can only hope nothing ever happens to Shierke, but I think that’s probably wishful thinking with Berserk’s track record. I mean, one of the story arcs was about a naked 8 year old that kidnapped and zombified children into demon pixies and let them kill and rape each other. In what was essentially Wonderland.
Aww… now I have to picture these things happening to Schierke. I was mentally blowing it off until you pointed out that part with the fairy children cannibalizing each other. I mean… yeah, anything’s fair game after that.
Like I said, I’m actually more surprised that it hasn’t happened yet. It would be an awesome first if Miura decided NOT to do anything….unwholesome to her. So far, she’s gotten away without so much as a scratch, and looking at how Guts is around her, it may actually stay that way. You imagine what he’d do if, for example, Shierke had been in Farnese’s place with that horse thing? He’d have evaporated every living thing but Shierke in a five mile radius with sheer rage.
With any luck, Miura’ll spare her for the most part, as she hasn’t gotten so much as a scratch yet, and Guts seems to have taken a shine to her. Not that he hadn’t taken a shine to Casca…..but you get my point. I’ve been half expecting it ever since they introduced her. Particularly since they introduced her in the same arc and in the same place as the Rape Trolls. (not to be confused with the Rape Pixies or the Rape Horse)(sold separately)
Here’s hoping they throw Farnese in the way if it ever comes to that.
Yeah, Guts seems to be very much a knight in shining armor for Shierke, or at least in the few volumes I’ve seen with her in it. I would like to think that he’ll keep her in sight at all times, especially after learning his lesson, again and again and again, with Casca. She seems likely to stay within range of Guts too, unlike Casca. Of course, sticking around isn’t always safe since the spirits seem to be able to possess Guts and compel him to assault. But, I mean… she’s a little girl. Well, probably not as young as she looks. But she’s got more of a personality than those cannibal faries did! I mean, is the series really that depraved?
…
Yeah.
Huh…that first comment didn’t show up when I posted it….but back to Shierke, it occurs to me that with all the different horrible things that have happened, it’s hard for me to believe that anyone can get away scot-free from all the stuff in this manga forever. I just hope they decided that having that witch die was traumatic enough for her. Hopefully they stick to emotional trauma.
And at least she draws that seal on him so he can sleep and not kill/rape everyone. Jesus, can you imagine what would happen if he got possessed with that armor on?
Um….I think I just referenced something from volume 26……so….yeah….
Hmm. I’m waiting for my copy of volume 30 to show up, then I’m going to tackle the next five volumes in the last Berserk marathon I will ever be able to enjoy, seeing as how he literally releases chapters at giacial speed. Of course, the artwork is insanely detailed, and I’m pretty sure Kentaro Miura can do whatever he damn well pleases at this point, but still. I’m sad it’s still not finished.
Same here, but if you feel like waiting until January 2010 you could at least read 3 more at once, but after that, we’re all screwed for…..about another year, looks like, depending on how fast they translate volume 34. I wish he could draw/write faster….I mean, this manga has been out since I was 5….I totally figured it was already over when I started it. The way the story’s going right now, though, it’ll be another damn 20 years before he finishes it. He has at least two arcs to go minimum before the end can POSSIBLY come, and each arc is like two or three years long.
Yeah. I was pretty bummed when I got into the series and realized that it was nowhere close to being finished. I figured it was on its last legs since it had been running so long and seemed to have a continuous plot, but… guess not. I have no idea how frequent his hiatuses are, but I think the chapters have only been intermittent lately. I checked a recent one a couple months ago, just out of curiosity (I haven’t read ahead since I can’t bring myself to spoil Berserk), and was fascinated by the fact there was, like, no dialogue whatsoever. Just a lot of zooming around some sort of… bio-mass-looking thing. That just isn’t advancing the story at all.
I probably should have waited until January and just not placed an order, but I couldn’t help myself during the last sale. Volume 30 just shipped too, so now I’m looking forward to my last big bite of the series.
I couldn’t resist, and went ahead with somebody’s scanlations when I was done with the last volume, as bad as I feel about it. I’d have much rather waited for them to come out in the U.S. (like 3 years from now), because now I’m in the same damn boat anyway, I want more Berserk and there is none. I’ve already got all the existing volumes, and I’m buying the new ones when they come out, but…..bio mass thing……I honestly can’t think of what that might’ve been. Though I will say, pretty much everything that happens from where you are out is awesome as hell. Aside from about 4 straight chapters that are almost nothing but landscape and armies and stuff, virtually ZERO dialogue.
I’m probably going to wind up doing what I did with Naruto and Bleach, which is not read them for a few years, and wait for a whole bunch of it to come out, so I can read it all at once. Though like I said earlier, that’ll be a damn while, with Miura’s (genius) ass at the helm. I’ll have to wait like three years just for 2 more volumes.
Yeah, it must’ve been one of the dialogue-less landscape chapters. There wasn’t anything really going on, just panel after panel of sweeping up a… beanstalk or something? And then Griffith at the top looking at… something. Can’t remember too clearly. But he seems to love drawing landscapes, backgrounds, and details, so I can’t begrudge him too much.
I do remember seeing a random panel of a chapter that looked like it featured, at least at a small part, tornadoes with lion faces on them, so I’m completely ready to read whatever context those could possibly appear in.
Yeah, it’s kind of easy to wait for Shounen Jump series to accumulate volumes since they come out so frequently. I do that with Houshin Engi, which is great, but would be nearly incomprehensible if I didn’t read several volumes together in order to keep the characters straight. I should do the same thing for Bleach, since I have a hard time keeping all the Soul Reapers and… new people straight for that one, too. I may hold off since I haven’t yet bought the newest volume, and I won’t be jonesing for it since Bleach isn’t really one of my favorites.
Bleach used to be more of a favorite before it was just a fighting manga, interesting as many of the fights are. I still think it’s weird to go back and see how different the first few volumes are.
And yeah, just because I don’t remember that scene doesn’t mean it doesn’t kick ass, seeing as there really aren’t any scenes I can think of that are low on the ass-kick scale. It sounds kind of familiar, so I think I MIGHT know where that was…and if I do, that part is messed up. Not that the entire manga isn’t insanely messed up.
Yeah, I adored Bleach through the first seven volumes, but I never really forgave it the detour through the Soul Society. I like the recent Arrancar stuff okay, but the series has a lot to make up for in my mind since I hated having all those characters thrown around in random fights. I still can’t keep those characters straight sometimes, even with the lineup pared down as much as it is in the recent volumes.
From what I’ve heard about it, they do almost the same thing with the Arrancars, you know, pair everybody off and start fighting. And I mean EVERYBODY.
…
Yeah, I thought it might come to that. It’s probably better than I read several volumes at once, then, because I’m not going to have the patience to go through that one volume at a time and watch Soul Reapers I can’t remember fighting Arrancars I can’t keep straight. I just don’t like Bleach that much.
And yet I keep reading, for some reason.