Berserk

So it's now been confirmed that the next chapter is done but the studio is deliberately not releasing it. How bizarre.

The last Miura-penned volume is coming up so maybe they want to time it relative to that somehow?

I have now caught up, including reading the post-Miura chapters.

...man. I expected Falconia to come to Elfheim. I did not expect Griffith himself to arrive in the buff (he didn't even deign to put on his armor, let alone appear as Femto), completely no-sell Guts' attacks, spirit Casca away, and destroy the original inhabitants of the island (I am not sure if they are dead or just banished) all in a single swoop.

I think this is the first time we saw Guts this crushed. Even in the middle of Eclipse he never stopped trying to claw his way out of there, so to see him just... give up like that is utterly dismaying. I proposed some years back that Guts and Griffith will not be interacting in a while, but now the party is slated to go to Falconia ASAP. Wonder if the Kushan pirates are Silat's men or allied with Falconia instead; seems unlikely they're just a third party.

Speaking of those guys, Griffith is going to the east, after Rickert and Silat. The Bakiraka village may very well be the last such "safe place" now that Elfheim got destroyed.

And also, amid all this, of all the things I expected Isidro to emulate Guts with, thirst for revenge was definitely not one of them. That kid will do something stupid to try and avenge Isma.

...so yeah. These last few chapters definitely dashed the "the God Hand can be fought" idea against the rocks, too - which is a problem, because the party does want to rescue Casca, and so will Guts once he gets out of his funk.

Finally some actual news. We're back on the 22nd and the break was to prepare for a brand new arc. Hopefully the boating portions will be shorter this time.

Getting a real "the all is lost moment" feeling from this chapter

Again regarding the Godhand, does the "off to the vortex after death" rule apply to them as well? And do they know? It wouldn't surprise me if Void is aware on some level, he looks like he stopped caring about anything millenia ago.

God, it'll be so satisfying if that's how Femto goes out.

The implication (which personally I find horrific) is that EVERYONE go to the Vortex after death, regardless of their actions in life.

And yes, that includes the Godhand too, and they are aware of it, but then they are immortals and at the top of the power totem by a huge margin, so there is no reason for them to worry about it; unless they displease the Idea of Evil, they should be fine.

The Idea of Evil is probably the one responsible for the existence of the Vortex, before him, souls probably went to oblivion, or reincarnated.

That means that if somehow the Idea of evil is destroyed, the Vortex will disappear,but good luck with that.

Edited by jawal on Sep 17th 2023 at 11:25:57 AM

Bit of a crossover, but "everyone goes to Hell when they die" something that happens in Warhammer 40000?

I think they tend to end up in the Warp yeah but humans mayyyyyybe end up in some realm of the Emperor of Mankind. Unless they were Chaos aligned I guess.

In the 40K universe you don't need to die. The whole universe is Hell. The Chaos Gods live in Megahell.

New chapter is out!

So it is Silat and Rickert. Or did they just infiltrate the ranks of Kushan pirates serving Griffith? Hard to say. The pirates aren't out killing anyone (yet), but if Rickert is disguised among the raiders (rather poorly, he sticks out like a sore thumb) like that...

The few pages of the pirates walking on eggshells around Guts even though he's at his absolute weakest and most hopeless right now - I mean, he's literally just lying flat defenseless there was quite cool though. They know who they're dealing with.

Edited by FergardStratoavis on Sep 22nd 2023 at 10:44:47 AM

On the last page we can see one of the Kushan soldiers whispering something to Rickert, implying he has some role of signifance amongst those present

Also correct me if I’m wrong but Rickert hasn’t ever met any of Gut’s current companions, has he? Maybe Puck? Can’t wait to see how they react to meeting the singular member of the God Slap

Koji Mori gave an interview in the new volume that has some interesting stuff. He expects to finish in under ten years and says the series is now in what he calls a "folding phase," and talks about being hesitant to continue at all at first, while lavishing praise on his team, saying he expects them to all go on to be stars after Berserk wraps up. D'aww.

New chapter is out.

boat journey is over :o

Rickert has single-handedly dealt more damage to the Godhand then the rest of the cast combined and now brought boat arc 2 to an end in a fraction of the time the first one took; is there anything he can't do?

Rickert is the true protagonist of this story.

I just came to say that the Skull Knight has one of the coolest character concepts and designs I have ever seen.

Dresses in full armor, always on horseback, demonic sword, aloof yet heroic, tells Guts about the oncoming Cerebus Syndrome shocking Guts whose lived in an edgy fantasy world for several chapters then peaces out, comes and goes being the apparent Hero of Another Story who can 1v1 one of the biggest threats in the story, and we still have no idea who he really is - some people think "future Guts" is a cliche, but I'd be fine with it. The mystery of who he is, its just so tantalizing.

I may never read all of Berserk, and my efforts to catch up on the anime have always been hit and miss, but I always lurk for info on what Skullbro is up to. That this kind of character exists haunting a Bad Ass like Guts just increases his mystique.

In a dark story like this having this skeletal badass who isn't some monster or demon who regularly goes around and just destroys/counters evil is just addictive to me.

And that voice, oh

"But take heed struggler; struggle, endure, contend. For that alone is the sword of one who defies death,"

Edited by FOFD on Nov 11th 2023 at 2:55:03 PM

Sir Calcium is the best, yes; that said we actually do at this point have his identity as confirmed as it can be without having him spell it out letter-by-letter: King Gaiseric - we still know very little about the fine/personal details of his past, but the evidence is all there, including a certain brief flashback from one of the last chapters Miura completed before his death (chapter 362 specifically, it needs to be seen directly, not read about second hand; the chapter also has no info about what else is happening in the story at the same time - which also really should be seen directly, not spoiled).

As far as catching up on the anime, there’s not exactly anything to catch up on. ‘97 and the movie trilogy are both just Golden Age Arc adaptions, with both omitting different but still really important parts of said arc (I.e. the ‘97 anime cuts out Skull Knight completely). But they both cut out Wyald, which is a very good decision in my opinion. The only other berserk anime is 2016/2017 which starts in the middle of the Conviction arc, and then ends only halfway through the following arc (Millennium Falcon).

In other words, it is functionally impossible to follow the story of Berserk without actually reading the manga or a massive wiki crawl reading chapter-by chapter breakdowns (which I’d be really confused why someone would do that instead of just read the manga)

Edited by TheAirman on Nov 13th 2023 at 5:42:41 AM

It's also hot garbage and not worth watching whatsoever.

The memes are great at least.

Random musing.

Admittedly, I was already putting this on the "Wait until it ends" list, but upon hearing Kentaro Miura's death (RIP) I figured I will never pick this up again.

Then I watched this video by Super Eyepatch Wolf:

You know what, I'm sold. Once I'm done with most of my reading list backlog - including the likes of Slam Dunk and Death Note (yes, yes, it's shameful, I know), I'm going to pick up the manga.

I’m admittedly the type of person who doesn’t care too much about endings, but yeah, Berserk is absolutely worth a read even if someone else didn’t end up continuing it.

For me personally, ending is one of the single most important aspects of ANY kind of series with long, overarching narrative...but in addition to the video linked above, this comment successfully convinced me, like a final nail in the coffin:

I was like, you know what? I like that argument.

Edited by dRoy on Nov 23rd 2023 at 12:17:56 AM

Also, we will be getting SOME type of ending. It isn't going to be perfect considering it's second-hand via Mori, Miura's friend, who knew about his plans for how the manga would end, but at least it will give people some idea of what could have been.

Honestly, I think the Golden Age alone can work as an independent story, even if the ending is depressing, and it is still the best part of the manga.

Incidentally, that is the part adopted by the old anime (well, plus the Black Swordsman's arc at the begening).

Edited by jawal on Nov 23rd 2023 at 1:59:17 PM