Berserk

If it's CG, the only studio I trust is ufotable.

Eeh, the VS anime was a bit hit-and-miss to me. Some stellar episodes but also some pretty sloppy ones, animation-wise.

Or Orange, who managed to make a goddamn Beastars anime work against all odds.

Thats most anime, my friend. Not every episode can be the highest quality possible all the time, it would lead to burn out.

Ufotable makes really fucking pretty light shows, but I prefer to see the actual fights themselves, personally. Maybe its just a personal preference thing, but I didn't think that Salter v Hercules was nearly as impressive as people were hyping it up to be, for example.

To each their own, because I emptied all the content in my testicles before the fight passed the halfway point.

Raws are out.

• Farnese has promoted to White Mage class (or at least their clothing)
• Kinda feels like this chapter was a test run for Miura's assistants taking over more major art responsibilities in Berserk proper, style feels very similar to Duranki
• Only Ser Collagen can pull off being a cliffhanger two chapters in row (but at least this time he provides a cryptic musing along the lines of "the end of the journey not necessarily being a beautiful sight".
• Nothing next month, see ya'll next Valentine's Day.

Edited by TheAirman on Apr 22nd 2020 at 10:17:13 AM

Translation is up on Mangadex

• Turns out what Farnese learned in three months beats what years of mage training on the island can do, and Schierke naturally one ups it even more, casually summoning a spirit nobody even knew was watching them. Their ability to do magic without a circle is highly unusual, and the witches admit that practical magic use and training off the island is a whole different beast than what they've become accustomed to - also the students apparently thought it was impossible for adults to learn magic before Farnese.
• more significantly, sounds like we'll be getting something of a lore/info dump regarding daemons; beings of a deeper realm than natural spirits, who were once human, "heroes and sorcerers among them" - one of the witches states explicitly the Flora is among them, with the implication being that Skull Knight is a daemon as well

If it is Miura's assistants helping out more, they're doing a damn fine job of it. The chapters just look better and better.

Anyone read Duranki, BTW?

The art in Duranki is really stunning. Hard to say much about the story since it's just barely started.

Just me or does the Skull Knight looks really sad in that last panel?

I kinda see it.

This isn't really a new observation but I have to wonder where exactly the story goes from here. It's taken so long to get to this point I'm not sure exactly where things will go.

A lot of people have been speculating that Griffith or his forces will invade the island but really, does he have any reason to do that? He seems to have his hands full with ruling Falconia.

He wants all of those magical trees, right? Elf Island seems like the sort of place that would have one.

There's also the fact that Griffith shares a body with Moon Boy.

So my guess is that Guts and company will separate Moon Boy from Femto, taking away whatever renmant of humanity the latter has and setting the stage for the final battle as Femto goes full-on Joffrey on this shit.

I mean, we know Griffith is heading out as moon boy so something's gonna happen.

Griffith have his mind a bit influenced by his Moonboy persona as show on his fight against Guts at the start of Millenion Falcon arc,so is both love and hate at the same time,guy is nearly king,conquest his dream kingdom but can't live knowing his lost toy have a new life.

Maybe that suspicious witch girl is a spy and tell Griffith about Guts and gang.

Edited by LoutishHelminthic on Apr 24th 2020 at 7:52:56 AM

That Griffith seemingly can't control turning into Moonboi is itself pretty huge - it's the first-ever limit we've seen on the Godhand's unfathomable power.

My Opinion, (Caution : this content is a actual opinion)make the God Hand looks unbeatable was a bad decision from Miura,now the conclusion will be inevitably disappointing no matter what, like Game of Throne's Night King.

Edited by LoutishHelminthic on Apr 24th 2020 at 11:27:34 AM

I don't think that we should assume Guts will destroy the entire Godhand or whatever. His beef is with Griffith and there are a lot of ways the story can still deal with that when new things about the Berserk world are still being introduced even now.

One suggestion I've heard for how to beat the Godhand without actually overpowering them that I've heard, and enjoy - the heroes find some way to, essentially, do a reverse World Transformation, permanently cutting the ties between the mortal and mystical realms. This would lock the Godhand off from ever messing with mortals again, but would mean that all good mystical forces (the fairies, the Element Kings, etc.) would have to leave too. A fitting bittersweet ending IMO.

The thing is that we alredy see them leaking on the mortal world after Ganishka's death,only if they find a way to put them back,this actually sounds good, but this also will enfuriates people,I know some fans expect huge shonen esque battle against every single one.

My early theory is that Gut's Behelit will be some sort of Holy Hand Grenade and Schierke will upgrade his power in order to create another astral tree to distroy Griffith's one, another Astral Tree parasiting and distroying another is a thing on this universe,Flora's house was one like explained on volume 39.

Edited by LoutishHelminthic on Apr 24th 2020 at 11:41:40 AM

Ahem

Homeboi Rickert has already singlehandedly dealt more damage to Femto than Guts could ever dream of.

Pimphand > Godhand.

And you know, maybe this is just the shonen fan in me talking but if their ability to edit fate so they always win is removed? I actually think the Godhand should be quite beatable, with great difficulty of course. When you really think about it, Team Good is not exactly what you'd call weak. We've got:

• Guts, of course, with his huge sword the takes in the properties of supernatural entities it kills. You may recall it recently (in-story, anyway, not real life) shanked a supposed god in the heart and was immersed in its blood. That's got to have some payoff, right?
• Skull Knight and his freaky-ass sword, which killed the most powerful non-Godhand villain in the series so far. In one hit. That was aimed at somebody else.
• Schierke and Farnese, who we've just learned are stupid good even by magician standards.
• Serpico, Isidro, and their magic weapons. They exist. ...yeah they probably won't be deciding anything, admittedly, but you never know.
• The mermaids, whose singing seriously wounded the Sea God, a being much stronger than an Apostle.
• Rickert, who's been inventing steampunk-style weaponry capable of seriously injuring, if not outright killing, Apostles; he's now linked up with...
• The Bakiraka, who are very tough in general and might be good recipients of said weapons; and...
• Daiba, who controls summoned beasts as strong as Apostles.
• The Elf Island people, who definitely seem to be very strong magically. Led, of course, by Queen Dagda, who managed the impressive feat of (at long last) undoing a Godhand-induced mindfuck. Granted, she, like Flora, is also the exact sort of character that often dies to avoid overpowering the heroes too much.
• And last but certainly not least, Casca. What can she do now? Who knows. She did get a shiny new outfit magicked up by the Elf Queen, though, and I've read enough manga to know that a significant costume change is often code for being transformed in other respects...
• I'd also imagine the Element Kings, seemingly the closest in power to the Godhand among the good mystical beings, will eventually put in a personal appearance... or at least a more direct one than they have thus far.

Though as I mentioned, if the Godhand's Winds of Destiny, Change! ability can't be shut down even this won't be enough, and we don't know as of yet that it can. I just kinda wanted to challenge the common assumption that the heroes are outright pathetically weak in comparison to the villains.

Edited by HamburgerTime on Apr 25th 2020 at 11:23:37 AM

Mind you, Serpico may not be as outright destructive as Guts (certainly not with Berserker Armor active), but Daiba did freak out and call him a kshatriya as well; his mind is what makes him a threat. Discounting Roderick and Farnese's brother whose name I can't remember, Isidro the only one of the crew who really feels like The Load at this point.

Edited by TheAirman on Apr 25th 2020 at 11:19:26 AM

Sorry for the double post, but Berserk 361 to release on June 26!