Berserk 34
Posted: November 23, 2010 Filed under: Berserk Leave a comment »Kentaro Miura – Dark Horse – 2010 – 34+ volumes
What.
So, I didn’t really read this. Noone did, I think, because it contains almost no words or dialogue. With the exception of a short speech from Sonia, some confused babbling from Ganishka, and a little narration about his background, there are no words. Only pictures. Many that take up both pages.
Miura’s art is certainly something to behold. This is another climax in the story. It is not nearly as powerful as the scene where the first Band of the Hawk was slaughtered, but the fact it is portrayed as a wordless battle between gargantuan, writhing, horrible nightmare creatures is interesting. Dialogue is not needed for this climax that the story has worked through over ten volumes to reach. There is something to be said about art that fantastic, and a major decision that can be conveyed in that way.
On the other hand, this volume doesn’t have any damn words in it.
I mean, it’s not lazy, not at all. The art is meticulous. I don’t eve want to think about how long some of that took to draw, and that’s even on some of the more mundane spreads, like landscapes. The monster fights make me break out into a cold sweat when I think about their creation. But man. I could’ve gone for some Guts, or something in this volume. He appeared on all of two pages.
But the final sequence, where fantasy and reality merge, where all the good and the bad mix and come forth and humanity has to deal with it, that was kind of worth it. Especially since it was introduced with a scene where an enormous multi-headed serpent chows down on a unicorn.
Berserk really is something. Here’s hoping the next story arc tries to wrap things out in a bit more timely and less abstract fashion.
