Berserk

Drakengard and Nier are inspired by it, even more so then the Soulsborne games.

Re Zero's later arcs are also influenced by the series too, especially arcs 4 onward, as well as the What If story where Subaru becomes a villain.

edited 24th Apr '17 11:13:55 AM by Demongodofchaos2

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I'm actually a bit taken aback by just how influential Berserk has actually been in japanese pop culture. I would have thought a series that was this unflinchingly dark and sometimes even nihilistic could have some modest success, but it's become quite popular and has influenced stuff even outside its own demographic in a way that basically no other work in that age range has done outside of Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and a handful of other series.

Speaking for myself it was honestly a big part of my late adolescence, I got into it around the time the previews for the first Golden Age movie were coming out and I decided to read the manga. It was honestly of the most memorable experiences I've had with basically any work of fiction, I read the whole manga in a feverish haze and I don't remember anything in a story ever making me as upset as the Eclipse did when I finally got to it.

I'm a bit more critical of certain aspects of the series now but whatever faults it may have it'll always have a special place in my heart. I would still say Guts is one of the best main characters in the medium. It's rare for a protagonist in anime and manga to be THE most compelling character and the reason to read the story, but Guts is one of the few exceptions where that's the case.

So I skipped straight to the Eclipse.

Pippin's corpse shows up.

And then I recognize the apostle responsible.

And this cursed Ear Worm comes forth unbidden

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Why would you skip to the eclipse.

why.

WHY?

And this GIF◊ is a fine example of why Berserk 2016 is disgraceful.

Oh, this thing is awful!

I didn't mean to skip there, I wanted to get to the Lost Children arc. But when I opened the page on the band getting massacred, I couldn't look away. The Apostles have such awesome, horrific, raw designs. Each one of them is a work of art.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Berserk itself was Influenced by Devil Man and Violence Jack in terms of tone.

If Masaaki Yuasa's Devilman anime coming out next year is a success and the Berserk CG anime remains a flop (It flopped massively in japan, the only reason the second season exists is due to being planned out already) He should do a Berserk adaptation.

edited 24th Apr '17 3:54:31 PM by Demongodofchaos2

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I want to see what Yuaasa's Devilman looks like in motion. He's a great animator and he directed one of my top 3 favorite anime of all time but I don't know that he's suited for something like Berserk which has a very strong aesthetic identity that is different from the loose, kinetic animation stye he's famous for.

Honestly, Berserk should have had Madhouse or Bones working on some high quality OVA's or something, like Hellsing Ultimate. That's what the series has always deserved.

edited 24th Apr '17 4:12:36 PM by Draghinazzo

Devilman sounds hype. Always looking forward to more devilman.

Seriously this series does, to me at lest, feel like a more action-packed medieval version of Event Horizon. Especially with Griffith, who shares similarities with William Weir. It would have been amusing to have had him give a speech like this shortly before he turns evil:

I cannot avail myself of this video.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

more like Berserk is Warhammer, of which Warhammer40k inspired Event Horizon in the first place.

edited 25th Apr '17 6:58:53 AM by Demongodofchaos2

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Except here the Chaos Gods are Lawful Evil and obey a higher power born, not of the turmoil of humanity, but of their wish to have something to blame for their misery.

I wonder what the Godheart's relationship is with with the Midgardian religions, both the Vatican and the Pagan.

I mean, both here are bloodthrsty and fucked up, but with different approaches, from druids making girls walk around a tree with one end of their gut nailed to a side, to bishop Mozgus the Spanish Inquisitor. What's up with that?

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Just finished Lost Children, then skipped forward to today.

To save Casca, they have to delve deeper.

BWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOAAAAAAAAANG!

edited 25th Apr '17 12:24:48 PM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Korean scans for the next chapter are out.

Basically Guts and Serpico have a bro moment and it turns out what Schierke and Farnese have to do is see a bunch of Caska's distorted memories and get the doll pieces back to heal Caska, or at least that's the implication. What they saw in this chapter was the bonfire of dreams and golden age Guts for a moment.

Next chapter is 26th of May if I'm reading it right.

edited 26th Apr '17 4:07:09 PM by Draghinazzo

Hoooboy looks like we're going to find out eventually just what Casca was feeling during the femto thing, not this issue of course but it seems to be heading there...I can't help but feel when that point comes there's going to be a backdraft like we've never seen before depending on what happens. I can see some people outright swearing this series off forever and possible death threats to Miura lol. Just imagine if after all these years the Pro-Griffers were vindicated.

Let's hope it never gets to that point.

edited 28th Apr '17 6:21:10 AM by Vertigo_High

Getting raped by a bunch of monsters then by the guy you had a crush on for years but whom you recently moved on from, in front of the man you're dating now, who lost an arm and an eye trying to save you and was forced to witness it all? I expect mixed feelings, but I expect them to be 90% bad. The 10% good only makes the whole feel worse.

edited 28th Apr '17 6:41:30 AM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

How could any of that be good?

Yeah... I know Casca had some feelings for Griffith, but wouldn't that just make his actions even more of a betrayal of her along with everything else?

Casca wanted to get closer to Griffith, so it would be easy for her to blame the Eclipse (in which she... got closer to Griffith) on her own selfish wish, even if that doesn't make sense.

edited 28th Apr '17 7:11:32 PM by Prime32

That's still not a good feeling.

I want Casca to sodomize Griffith with Guts' Dragonslayer. On a more serious note, do you think Griffith has a further plan with Falconia or is he just content with ruling over mankind as a king. That was his goal from the beginning, and I feel the only thing on his mind is how to make sure Falconia survives and eliminate any potential threat to him.

I also want to know what the consequences for merging the physical and astral world will be for the Godhand. I feel this is a risky gambit. Also wonder what might happen if the Ganishka tree is removed

I think he wants to remove the other Godhand from power and become God, usurping the Idea of Evil and not stopping until he's dead or there's nothing left to conquer

edited 1st May '17 11:48:36 PM by RJ-19-CLOVIS-93

Guts, at the very least, thinks Griffith isn't finished and will aim for still higher power, whatever that position is.

Griffith doesn't rule all of humanity yet... just Midland (oops, Falconia) and maybe Kushan as well.

Re:Zero's later arcs are also influenced by the series too, especially arcs 4 onward, as well as the What If story where Subaru becomes a villain.

I haven't played the first two so I'd be interested to learn about where the connection is. How many arcs did the Re:Zero anime go up to? Sounds like I'd have to read the novels to confirm any Berserk influence. On the other hand I've grown very skeptical of the Soulsborne connection lately, as well as any comparison where we don't have actual Word of God saying Berserk was an inspiration. See what I wrote under God Never Said That:

• Many fans of both Berserk and Demon's Souls/Dark Souls looked at a certain interview where he mentioned having Berserk on his shelf and blew it out of proportion, ignoring the fact that in the same interview he mostly attributes inspiration to his collection of Western Tabletop RPGs and Fantasy Literature, significantly basing the Souls series on the earlier FromSoftware game series King's Field and the Fighting Fantasy game books. He does say◊ in the interview that when Art Designer Masanori Waragai showed him his Catarina armor design, he felt reminded of Bazuso from Berserk and thought that old design was appropriate for Siegmeyer's character concept, but that's it. Despite Fanon being that so many characters, monsters, settings, and props are obvious Berserk references, the only one Miyazaki has actually talked about is more a case of coincidence than inspiration.

In other words, it's not that I doubt that any of the items or backstory were in some way nods to *Berserk*, but a lot of the things people point to as *Berserk* references have been around longer than *Berserk*, or could have come from some other source.

For example, if we're looking at this collage◊, lots of those things are potential coincidences. It's not as though *Berserk* invented the Iron Maiden or cages for hanging people's corpses outside prison gates, those are from actual history (albeit the Iron Maiden is a 19th century forgery). Salamanders are also from mythology, rolled-up balls of corpses are generic, evil babies have probably been in horror films for many decades, and I highly doubt that the game would copy the designs of obscure Apostles and creatures from Qliphoth. The Dragon Bone Smasher is getting a little warmer, but works featuring giant swords started coming out a couple years after Berserk, so the BFS has already become a public domain prop not specifically associated with Berserk.

As another example, look at this collage◊ of Army of Darkness comparisons. I think it's just a bunch of coincidences that have been cherry-picked, another victim of the Sharpshooter Fallacy.

edited 7th May '17 5:43:59 PM by TheBigBopper

In regards to Drakengard and Nier, Yoko Taro confirmed explicitly in an interview that Caim is inspired by Guts in terms of personality and ruthlessness (And goes even further in some ways. Sure, Guts is brutal, but even he Wouldn't Hurt a Child if he had no reason to. Caim brutally massacres a squad of Child Soldiers that served the empire, with the implication that unlike the rest of the empire, they aren't affected by the Red eye virus.)

You can also find a Portrait of The Skull Knight in the Castle.

edited 7th May '17 5:33:15 PM by Demongodofchaos2

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Oh sweet relief, actual Word of God! It seems to me like that's pretty rare for "Berserk references". I've somewhat updated my last post, however. What do you think of all those counterarguments regarding Souls?