Wow! It’s been a really really long time since I’ve read Berserk.
I first watched the anime back in High School. The anime was awesome! Gory, tons of action, swords, human vs monsters, hot girls getting naked, everything a guy could ever want in an anime. When I finally got to the ending, I found it a bit disappointing, only to find out the manga hasn’t finished. The ending the anime directors chose was actually a good stopping point. Now over 7 years later, the manga is still not complete. According to Wikipedia: Miura first began work on what was to become Berserk in 1988 with a 48-page prototype, which won a prize at the Comi Manga School where he was enrolled at the time. The following year, the first volume of the manga was released. Three more volumes appeared until Berserk was serialized by Young Animal in 1992, and new episodes are still being released in the semi-monthly (every second and fourth Friday of the month) magazine. Volumes are released biannually in Japan by Jets Comics, and contain 8-11 episodes depending on the release. That’s 17 years already and it’s still one of the most popular mangas in Japan. However, they only release about 1 volume per year. I remember reaching chapter 23 back in college some time and had to WAIT an entire year for 24 to come out and another entire year for 25. Though I had stopped at 24 because I got lazy, though I still collected the mangas.
Today, while driving home, I was reminiscing over the anime and manga, I finally busted out volumes 25-29 and read all of them tonight. The story’s finally starting to get interesting again. After the anime, the story was basically about Gattz (aka Guts or Gatsu) fighting off demons and trying to find Caska (the woman he loved). But now that he got his Demon Armor Nemesis, things are looking pretty sweet! Though it seems all the woman in his party likes him including the little witch and Farnese, but if you watched the anime or earlier chapters of the manga, you’d know that Gattz only loves one woman, and that woman is Caska.
Things are starting to boil now that Griffith has entered the picture. There was a flash of Gattz old comrades and memories started pouring in like crazy:
Spoilers:
I really didn’t want to spoil this for anyone, but I sorted to get this off my chest cause it’s been boiling like crazy inside me. Griffith was the leader of the Band of the Hawk. Gattz was an orphan I believe, but that doesn’t really matter anymore. He was alone, but a strong young boy. Griffith saw that and took him and trained him. Griffith was the leader of a mercenary band, but he loved his soldiers and treated him with respected and valued their lifes highly. Gattz was so strong, he became the raiding commander and led the Band of Hawk to many victories. If you say Griffith is the brain, the Gattz is the muscle. He can take on 100s and 1000s of men with his sword. Later on, he even took on the demons (huge monsters) themselves and fought evenly with them.
Remember Final Fantasy VII Cloud’s sword? I’m pretty sure the idea was probably somehow related to Gattz sword. I believe Gattz was the first anime to deal with such a big sword for a swordsman. Sasuke from Rurouni Kenshin also had a big sword. I used to be part of this Kenshin mailing list and one of the topics I clearly remembered was if the best fighters from all the different aniems were put to fight against one another, who would be the top 10 ranking? Vash the Stampede from Trigun was somewhere in there, but Kenshin and Gattz were both ranked #1. People started discussing who would win based on the “physics” of the anime realm. Before, as a major fan of Kenshin, I could undeniably say that Kenshin would win no matter who the opponent is. But with the 2nd OAV (Reflection) and the recent chapters of Berserk and the introduction of the Nemesis and actually thinking it thoroughly, I’m no longer too sure Kenshin would win. I’m actually wavering and leaning toward Gattz now.
Anyway to continue with the spoilers, somehow later Griffith got injured and became paralyzed or severly burned. This wasn’t the life he wanted. He had already been recognized by the King of Midland and the princess was madly in love with him. Being paralyzed would ruin his dream. Gattz and Caska were both loyal servants of Griffith and it pained them to see him like this. This is the point where the story goe completely haywired and where the anime actually ends. Griffith had a charm, a Behelit which represents the Egg of a King. I think it might’ve been a necklace, but my memory is a little fuzzy. Anyway, Griffith attempts to suicide and somehow the Behelit got activated and asks him if he would want this all to change and make him beautiful and strong again. He could become an Apostle (Hand of God) himself, but it required a major sacrifice, his entire army. In return, he would become a God, a being so powerful, and lead the ethereal beings as his own army. Griffith agrees to sacrifice his entire army. At first the army didn’t understand what was going on, but when only the strongest remained, they knew exactly was going on. Gattz had many loyal teammates and they held back the demons by sacrificing their lives while telling their captain Gattz to escape. It was a very touching scene. On the other hand, Gattz is fighting furiously back trying to save them. If I recall correctly, there were teammates that were actually dragging Gattz away while the others tried to hold the demons back. But there was nothing they could do, the entire army was marked. Gattz and Caska managed to escape somehow, but because of the cursed mark on their body, they were hunted day and night by demons.
Zooming back to the current time, Gattz finally puts his trusts into other people, feeling as he’s finally part of a team again and when the flashed the picture of Gattz old teammates, it was reminscing because it was very touching how his companions sacrificed their lives to protect their captain.
If you want to give this manga a try, visit The Hawks. The torrents can be found in the downloads. However, it seems they’re missing Chapter 1-3. The manga is actually licensed in America by Dark Horse. You can also check out the anime which has been licensed in the USA by Media Blasters, the same company that licensed Rurouni Kenshin the TV Series. I do have to warn you, there comic should be rated NC17. The amount of voilence, gore, and nudity exceeds anything I’ve ever seen.