Berserk 25

Guts seems to have derailed the nice classic shoujo manga marathon I had going on.  That’s okay, because I’m pretty sure Guts can derail whatever he wants.

Lots of magic in this volume.  I’m not too sure if I like the mix of magic and Serpico, only because there’s something I vaguely dislike about him anyway.  Schierke doing what she does is pretty awesome though, and when she finally pulls off all her amazing feats, seeing everyone in awe of her is pretty great.  Even Guts is impressed, and it seems like nothing could impress Guts anymore.  He actually calls her “boss” at one point, which I thought was interesting, but may only be referencing the fact that she’s head of this particular troll slaying operation, or maybe he was being a bit of a jerk about her giving him orders after he’d been singlehandedly killing all the trolls up to that point.

Isidro’s role is also an interesting one.  He really, really wants to be the hero, but he’s just too young.  He worships Guts and seems to take pride in everything awesome that he does.  In a fight, Isidro himself does little more than divert attention since he’s too young or small to swing a sword effectively.  It hurts his feelings to see everyone from Guts to Schierke to Serpico help the fight and be of so little use himself.  While the comic relief between him, Puck, and Ivarella is a little much at this point, I like Isidro a lot and I’m looking forward to him being a hero.

And just in case you had missed it after all this talk of magic, next volume looks like it will feature some massive troll slaying in a monster den.  Not that Guts didn’t cut an Ogre in half and do all sorts of slicing and dicing in town in this volume.  Serpico actually got one of the best jabs in.  He was fighting a kelpie, and after piercing upward through its head, it fights him for a little while longer with its eye hanging out of its socket.  It’s kind of gross, but it’s also the ugliest kelpie I’ve ever seen.  Usually they’re a little cuter.

Berserk 24

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.

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.

Berserk 22

Now, to try and simulate an authentic Young Animal experience, let me follow that review of Futari H with Berserk.  I really can’t simulate the experience well until we get the first volume of Detroit Metal City in English (which, by the way, I’m ridiculously excited about), and then you can add that to the list and follow it up with Chica Umino, even though Honey and Clover isn’t quite right for this scenario.

Obviously I love tangents.  What was I talking about again?  Berserk?  Yes.  After taking as long a break as I did from the series, I had forgotten Guts only has one eye.  It’s hard to break the illusion that he’s winking at me on every page, except remembering that it was clawed out in in a vicious demon-rape scene while his arm was being pulled off kind of takes the humor out of that.

Griffith re-appears at the very end of the last volume.  I have to say, this is much different than I had imagined.  I was thinking more along the lines of a hellish demon, but this whole situation is freakishly normal, and absolutely nothing is or can be normal in this series.  Guts comments on this normalcy with one of the best lines in the series: “The instant I saw him, I forgot my urge to kill.  And that can’t be.”  It… it just sums up Guts so well.

Guts, Griffith, and Zodd have a mini-confrontation around the swordsmith’s house where Griffith tries to put things back the way they were and Guts gets angry, exactly like he should since this whole “going back” thing is really, really weird.  Then Guts, Casca, and Puck start on a journey that I suspect will take awhile and will involve some horrible monsters since two sacrifices are traveling together.

Meanwhile, Griffith assembles a superstar team of around four guys that wipe out an army.  Now, violence against humans has been left alone for a few volumes, so seeing people’s heads blow up and guys getting sliced in half is sort of novel and once again very, very awesome.  The better image comes after all this is done, when the scene of the monsters kneeling among the carnage to pledge themselves to Griffith is described as divine.  I can’t adequately describe it here, but it was quite striking in context.

I have to say, as much as I dislike Griffith, I can sort of see where he’s going with this.  The man’s got a dream.  Killing all your friends to get it isn’t admirable in any way, shape, or form, but the man’s got a dream all the same.

I kind of wonder what direction things are going to go from here.  Clearly Griffith will be king of Midland in short order.  I’m not sure why he finds this preferable to being a Cenobite, but since he came back to do it and all, it will probably happen.  Now, will Guts find a safe place for Casca, then return and wipe out all these monsters that have pledged themselves to Griffith in order to take his revenge?  I can see that, but that almost seems too simple.  I do wonder.

There’s also a flashback and history for Farnese and her male companion in the back of the volume.  I was sort of hoping she wasn’t going to stick around since she seems kind of useless, and I have to say that the flashback did nothing to make me like her any more.  She’s actually far more terrible than I originally thought.

Berserk 21

Man, it’s been so long since I’ve read this series. Leaving off at volume 20 killed me since I was expecting a Cenobite summons in this volume. I was rather disappointed with the way things actually played out as far as the demon-to-human world transfer goes, since it doesn’t get anywhere near as intense as things were in volume 13.

I can’t say I was totally disappointed, though.  We do get a perfect depiction of the madness of crowds, and the gigantic mass of people do any number of terrible things as they try to flee the demons.

The final fight between Guts and Father Mozgus was suitably epic and involved a few different transformations and the aforementioned crowd calling for the sacrifice of the demon Guts.  There’s some discussion on religion, but nothing too deep or embarassing, and mostly Guts just trying to get Father Mozgus to stop his zealous ravings and calls for punishment.

And… I wound up liking Isidro a little more than I thought I would.  I’m not sure how I can like Isidro and dislike Puck during his comic bits, but Isidro definitely pulls his weight in the party.  He seems to often do things for Guts in his place, and the way he pulls off a rescue in this volume is actually kind of clever.

Berserk 20

Wow, this was an entire volume of exposition.  I was really, really shocked that nothing much happened here except some really hardcore fights.  I couldn’t actually believe that 200 pages could slip in between the opening of the ceremony and the end of the last volume, but here it is.

A large section of the volume is a fight between Guts and Mozgus and his men.  There’s some really great transformations among Mozgus’s men, mostly with one that has gigantic arms and what looks like a tiny baby head.  That may be what he normally looks like, actually, but it’s still very cool, and I liked watching him fight with Guts.  But these fights are sort of ancillary and not too exciting since the men are just acting as a distraction for Mozgus so that he can get away.  You know Guts has bigger fish to fry, so I didn’t get as much enjoyment out of this section as I should have.  Especially since I was wishing for the summoning all volume.

A big piece of story at the beginning of the volume is dedicated to explaining the eyes that are running around and interfering with everything.  It sort of explains itself to the lead female prostitute, how it was sort of abandonded and then given the powers of the dead apostles so it can do what it’s about to do.  I thought the eyes either belonged to Father Mozgus or Griffith somehow.

There’s some enjoyable interaction between the Skull King and the lead prostitute.  I liked that they both addressed each other so nonchalantly and that the girl took everything he said in and basically dealt with it in an extremely normal way.  They seemed to respect each other, which was kind of weird.  It’s just sort of a weird and great conversation.

I sort of got what I wanted at the end (a peek at the Cenobites), but the summoning seems to be occurring next volume.  Rats.

Berserk 19

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.

Berserk 18

I could not be more pleased with the direction things are taking.  Since it looks like it’s a given that Griffith will reappear, I’m looking forward to another scene like before.  I’d like to think such things just happen whenever the Cenobites appear.

As for what goes on in this volume, I’m definitely liking basically everything about Father Mozgus.  He does some of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen all because he just hates sin and people he percieves to be sinners.  Apparently any sin can justify him hanging you from the ceiling or doing any number of Bosch-like tortures, and the allusions to “Garden of Earthly Delights” pleased me greatly.  His prayer regiment was suitably insane, and the way he endears his torturers to him as well as repelling the Holy See Knights and absolutely everyone else is handled wonderfully.

The leader of the Holy See knights, Farnese, is also getting less and less annoying each time she appeared.  I thought she would appear much later to antagonize Guts, but it looks like she’ll be sticking around, and the more that gets revealed about her, the more twisted she seems.  She’s not too twisted, not in a fanatic way, but she just has quirky traits that are revealed every now and again.  Here, we find out she can masturbate to people being burned at the stake.  I can’t say that’s something I’ve ever seen before.

Casca plays a role again, somewhat minor so far, but she shows up in the camp of refugees and is helped out by a group of prostitutes who have to protect her from being raped against her will.  I like that the girls were willing to accept her as she is.  She also gets to be the center/catalyst for something awesome at the very end of the volume.  I hope it leads to what I think it will, a… summoning.

There’s some devil worship and another orgy scene towards the end.  Once again: I’ve never seen anyone who can draw an orgy as beautifully as Kentaro Miura.

Berserk 17

Told you there’s be more Berserk this weekend.  I’d read the rest of the volumes I have back to back in a marathon again, but I find them easier to write about when taken individually so I can keep the story segments straight.

Hm.  So it turns out that the leader of the Holy See knights can experience pleasure in pain.  Let’s hope she never gets her hands on the Lament Configuration a behelit so she can summon the Cenobites.  It’s not like a character with an affinity for BDSM necessarily means that Kentaro Miura saw Hellraiser before writing the plot to this series, but its just one more similarity.  And the parallels in other areas ARE too much for me to believe there is no connection.

Aside from that, the part with that woman was really great.  Of course, the night creatures came after Guts while he was being held prisoner, and he had to take the leader as a hostage to make a clean escape.  The creatures… get them anyway, and possess the woman.  She… she does things.  Mostly to Guts’ sword.

The focus shifts back out into the entire country after that, where it’s revealed that there’s a horrible plague killing off a lot of the villiages, and things go back to the kingdom that the Band of the Hawks fought for when Griffith was a good guy, before the King went insane.  There’s a… dream most of the survivors are having about a golden hawk saving them.  It coincides with something else in the story, and it makes me wonder how Griffith will play a part in the story, if at all.

Guts has a dream as well, one that causes him to go back to check on Casca.  He’s forced to remember what happened to her after a demon possesses a horse that nearly rapes the leader of the Holy See knights.  He has to come to terms with a few things when he goes back to see her and the people who were keeping her safe, then he has to prevent something he saw in his dreams.  It looks like this will unfold over the next two or three volumes at least.

Also, the leader of the Holy See Knights swears up and down she’s going to destroy Guts since he saw her humiliated (through no fault of his own).  They’re sticking around, and joining them is an Inquisitor who is good at finding heretics.  Really, it seems like his forte might be torture, which is good news for us.  His face is drawn in such a way that it looks like a mask until he gets really angry, then it looks like a hamburger or something.  It’s remarkable.  He’s got people that torture for him, but in what looks like a taste of things to come, we see some people broken on the wheel (a subject I just read a book about, funny enough, and could not picture despite my best efforts – it’s the type of thing you have to see because it doesn’t quite make sense described in words), and at one point, one person gets hit so hard their eyeballs come out of their sockets.

Promising stuff.

Berserk 16

This series really is just too good.  I took too long a break between volumes, I forgot how good the art is and how much I liked the story.  This volume isn’t even all that good compared to some of the other stuff that’s happened, but I still read the entire thing with my mouth hanging open in awe.

This wraps up the story about the valley of lost children… much how you would expect, actually.  There’s lots of fighting, the main insect-elf morphs and has a showdown with Guts which is insane violent, and Puck and the little girl hang around and get in the way.  I’m never quite sure how I feel about Puck, his gags often seem out of place, but sometimes he has some really good moments in the story, two in particular in this volume alone.  But normally he’s just drawn as a caricature yelling at Guts or whatever.

The fight in this volume was great.  It makes you realize just what a grueling trial Guts is going through.  No sleep, no time to heal, just constant fighting, bloody, time and time again.

The Holy See catches up with him.  I’m sort of glad I turned out to be wrong as far as why they were seeking him out, turns out he’s just being pursued since he leaves a trail of corpses wherever he goes.  I can understand that.  They catch him at his weakest moment, and he warns them that holding him hostage is not going to go well for them… and they’re right.  Their leader is kind of annoying, which makes it feel good when Guts takes her down a couple notches as far as calling her a hypocrite, etc.  I wanted to read the next volume RIGHT AWAY, but I thought it would be better if I wrote about this one first.  So yes.  I bought five volumes together this time, expect them all this weekend, because this series is FANTASTIC.