Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Zoolooman
Mar 30, 2003

Berserk

At a glance, it's not a strange world. Peasants farm, priests pray, kingdoms and empires rise and fall by the sword. People are people. They are happy and they are miserable. The world is vast and daunting, but nothing is unknown--nothing waits in the darkness. Nothing is more powerful, more loving, or more sinister than mankind.

At a glance.

But if you look in the right places; if you follow the rumors and the prophecies; and if you pay a little more attention to your nightmares and listen carefully in the night, you might find something else. Call it God, call it Fate--it doesn't matter. It's a puppeteer pulling the strings of the world, and its monstrous children are very hungry...

---

Kentarou Miura's Berserk is a dark fantasy manga set in a mythic imitation of feudal or medieval Europe. It details the life of Guts--a tragic antihero, an absurd Sisyphean hero, and a Nietzschean ubermensch beyond good and evil. And yes, he's a huge half-crazed butcher of monsters. He struggles to exact revenge and find freedom in a world ruled by a malignant God, and his path is littered with corpses.

Thematically, Berserk pits humanistic free will against nihilistic predestination. The denizens of the setting personify bleak, cruel inevitability. Guts fights to overcome and destroy them--to realize the happy dream of freedom and justice in a world without either.

But in the very beginning, he only fights because he is cursed with the Brand, a strange wound that marks him as a sacrifice to spirits and demons. It draws them to him, and he relishes the opportunity that brings, for he is the Black Swordsman, an infamous wanderer and monster-hunter. Swinging his gigantic sword with an iron fist, he brutally slays both the living and the dead on a bloodthirsty quest to find and destroy the powerful God Hand and their demonic Apostles.

His only company is a good-natured, tenacious elf named Puck. (Think trickster-faerie. Puck is not a classic fantasy elf.) Guts accidentally saved Puck's life, and in turn, Puck has taken a well-meaning interest in Guts's health. But as Puck soon discovers, there is more to Guts than simple blood lust. There is a past and a betrayal--and a story to be told.

But it's a story you should read for yourselves. It occupies volumes 4 through 13. Have fun. :gibs:

What you're getting into...

Berserk is for mature audiences only. It contains extreme violence, strong sexual content, and detailed gore. More specifically, thousands of people die, there is rape and sexual depravity, and the author happily draws intestines pouring out of a bisected corpse. But have no fear, the manga is about more than sex and death. It's a story of war, political intrigue, ambiguous morality, insanity, dark revenge, great dreams, tragic love, and a terrible pantheon of evil spirits.

It's one of the few mangas in which the main character earns, stroke by bloody stroke, the strength and endurance that makes him a monster amongst men and an equal amongst monsters. If you see Guts's seven foot sword and think, "No man can swing that," reading this manga will change your mind. There are no easy victories in Berserk. There are no painless conquests. Everything is earned through strength, willpower, and a little cunning; and it's earned inch by inch. You will not be disappointed by the growth or power of these characters.

And speaking of characters, you can expect the best here. Berserk's writing deftly dances between pulpy action and literary character development. The primary actors are well-rounded complex characters with deep motivations and even deeper relationships. They are supported by a wide cast of similarly excellent secondary characters, giving Berserk a dynamic plot structure and a vast number of interesting and meaningful character conflicts. The story is set in a highly detailed mythos, a wide fictional geography, and a mysterious but important world history. Everything feels rich, alive, and authentic--even the monsters.

But the real treat is in the art. Berserk is beautiful. Page for page, the artist aims for a level of quality that outshines many of his contemporaries.

What next?

I've avoided talking about or showing too much of the actual story because I think you should read it. So what's next is finding a copy to read! Preferably, you should support the English distributor, Dark Horse Comics.

Dark Horse Comics has published the first seventeen volumes of the series (as of June 2007) and releases a new volume every two months. Unlike many manga translators and distributors, Dark Horse aims to keep the original art completely intact, because Berserk's Japanese sound effects are sometimes woven into the art. For this reason, only text is translated on the page, and starting in volume 12, sound effects are translated with notes in the margins.

There are no meaningful differences between the Japanese and American releases, and you don't have to find a scanlation group to read a well-translated, complete copy. For this reason, I highly recommend that you purchase volumes of Berserk whenever they are released, and only download the manga chapters when they are not yet available for sale in America.

I'm looking for more information...

If you want to read more, then read these links. But be warned, spoilers abound, and you really shouldn't spoil this story. I've also included links to two scanlation groups. If you sample the manga and enjoy it, please purchase it.

The ADTRWwiki for Berserk: http://adtrwiki.com/index.php?title=Berserk
The Wikipedia for Berserk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserk_%28manga%29
Band of the Hawks scanlations: http://www.thehawks.org/
Evil Genius scanlations: http://www.evil-genius.us/
SkullKnight encyclopedia and community: http://www.skullknight.net/
The last thread about Berserk (closed and archived): http://archives.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=1129522

Some notes about the Berserk anime.

There is a Berserk anime. It follows the first thirteen volumes of the manga in 25 episodes before ending abruptly. I recommend reading the manga first and watching the anime second--if you watch it at all. It omits vital characters and plot points, making it impossible for the anime to coherently continue after a certain chapter in the story. Furthermore, those characters and plot points were part of the foreshadowing, and without them, the ending of the anime becomes a bizarre, almost ridiculous surprise.

The anime isn't a stinker, but it doesn't measure up to the original manga. There isn't much else to say.

Zoolooman fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Apr 4, 2013

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005


Read the manga and find out!

You can find the Evil Genius scanalations of Berserk here, viewable in your web-browser! The later volumes (and early volumes actually) can be found here. However, PLEASE buy the manga from Dark Horse. Those early volumes ARE in fact liscenced and released (Volumes 1-17).

Zorak fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jun 29, 2007

Heran Bago
Aug 18, 2006



Wonderfull OP aside from mention of the Dreamcast game. :colbert:

I saw the anime a while back and really liked it. The semi-cheap animation and effects just made it all the more loveable.

However the ending was the biggest :wtf: for me out of any anime ever. EVER.

I'd like to see the manga some time, as the art lo9oks quite sexy.


I played the Dreamcast game too, and I'm interested in what fills the gap between the anime and 'Sword of Berserk.' It takes place waaay after the animation and if you hate manga you can see what happens to the chick afterwards.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Heran Bago posted:

Wonderfull OP aside from mention of the Dreamcast game. :colbert:

I saw the anime a while back and really liked it. The semi-cheap animation and effects just made it all the more loveable.

However the ending was the biggest :wtf: for me out of any anime ever. EVER.

I'd like to see the manga some time, as the art lo9oks quite sexy.


I played the Dreamcast game too, and I'm interested in what fills the gap between the anime and 'Sword of Berserk.' It takes place waaay after the animation and if you hate manga you can see what happens to the chick afterwards.

You should go out of your way to find the manga. Sword of the Berserk doesn't actually cover anything canon in the Berserk plot; it's all original material just for the game.

There was a second game as well that was never brought over to the West, called Berserk: Millenium Falcon or something along those lines, for the PS2. It actually covered parts of the manga, while adding an additional arc as well.

To be honest though, none of the other forms of the series come close to the manga. It's like a literary masterpiece, or as close as a manga can come to being a literary masterpiece. I forget why I started reading the manga awhile back... I just found a torrent of the first 29 or so volumes (I'll admit yeah, I originally pirated it). I basically marathoned the entire thing in a fourty eight hour period, and was totally enthralled. I ended up reading it again and again over the course of months because... honestly, it's just spectacular. I think I've read all (~32 now) volumes that exist currently about ten times now.

After seeing how amazing it was after finding a torrent, I basically starting buying the volumes as fast as possible because... this manga just is totally worth it. You can say "oh it's worth a watch/ read" when describing some series, but Berserk is just such a beautifully, masterfully done work that it's honestly completely and utterly worth buying and savouring again and again. It helps that the Dark Horse translation is spot on as well.

I haven't seen the anime, but from what I've heard and the clips I've seen, it comes nothing even miles close to the manga.

abbad0n
Jan 25, 2005
Looks like the new thread was right on time: Chapter 286

Zoolooman
Mar 30, 2003

abbad0n posted:

Looks like the new thread was right on time: Chapter 286

That was awesome. I'm so glad we're finally on the boat. Guts and crew are more pleasant and interesting than mean ol' Griffith. >:|

Dire Penguin
Jun 17, 2006

I haven't even started reading this (I want to) but I just want to throw out that the guy who did almost all the music for the Berserk anime and games was none other than Susumu Hirasawa, the crazy incredible man behind Paranoia Agent's music. If you need something to listen to while you read this, look no further.

Gwynne
Oct 24, 2004
I'm a gnome
edit

Gwynne fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Apr 22, 2016

Save the whales
Aug 31, 2004

by T. Finn
I'm really sad that I can't get my roommate, who watches more anime than I do, to watch the Berserk anime. He says it looks too old-fashioned.

Nice OP by the way. It's good to see people treat Berserk with the respect that it deserves.

DamnGlitch
Sep 2, 2004

Save the whales posted:

I'm really sad that I can't get my roommate, who watches more anime than I do, to watch the Berserk anime. He says it looks too old-fashioned.

Nice OP by the way. It's good to see people treat Berserk with the respect that it deserves.

'old fashion' looks better than cheap cg nearly 1 million percent of the time. This is science.

ZerodotJander
Dec 29, 2004

Chinaman, explain!

DamnGlitch posted:

'old fashion' looks better than cheap cg nearly 1 million percent of the time. This is science.
Quoted for truth.

I stopped reading Berserk after vol 30, since I always waited for the super high quality Band of the Hawk tankobon releases. It's been two years or so though, I guess it's time to start doing it chapter by chapter.

Mr. Deathy
Aug 3, 2003

I wonder how long this boat journey is going to last. I have a sinking feeling we'll be seeing at least one battle on it before they get anywhere near the island.

I'm also hoping that the Elves or whatever can heal Guts' scars, because by the looks of this chapter he got a whole lot more from that last fight. There's a point with scars where you go from "Badass" to "Jesus Christ man you're a loving mess" and I think Guts just crossed it.

Mr. Deathy fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Jun 28, 2007

evilsake
Oct 25, 2004

by Fragmaster

Mr. Deathy posted:

I'm also hoping that the Elves or whatever can heal Guts' scars, because by the looks of this chapter he got a whole lot more from that last fight. There's a point with scars where you go from "Badass" to "Jesus Christ man you're a loving mess" and I think Guts just crossed it.

I like it since it shows how utterly impossible what he's doing is and how it's taking its toll on him. The Skull Knight's been hinted as having gone through exactly what's he's going through and how much is there left of him?

Dandy GO
Sep 27, 2004

flavour country

sakesniper posted:

I like it since it shows how utterly impossible what he's doing is and how it's taking its toll on him. The Skull Knight's been hinted as having gone through exactly what's he's going through and how much is there left of him?


Looking at the last page of 286, is Guts missing a leg?

[edit]
Upon closer inspection, I think his boot hem was just drawn a little strangely.

Dandy GO fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Jun 28, 2007

Lpzie
Nov 20, 2006

Guts still looks toasty from the previous fight. His skin looks like it's gonna peel off at any moment.

Hatter106
Nov 25, 2006

bolshi fight za homosex
So loving glad they're finally on the ocean. :woop:

And reposted from the last thread right before it ended:

I just picked up Dark Horse's release of Volume 17, which gave us our first glimpse of the invading Kushan Army.
The chapters were released in Japan in 1998, which means... the Kushan Invasion plot has been running for nearly a decade now.

That Muira, he doesn't do anything by halves...

Guerilla Medic
Jan 27, 2007
Unconventional treatment
Wait, what. Why does Caska see Farneze going all astral?

And yes, Guts is certainly crossing from cool-scarred to holy-poo poo-Nameless-One-scarred.

Zoolooman
Mar 30, 2003

Guerilla Medic posted:

And yes, Guts is certainly crossing from cool-scarred to holy-poo poo-Nameless-One-scarred.

That's why he wears his armor and his bandages so often. Constant fighting is breaking him. He is slowly falling apart. :[

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Guerilla Medic posted:

Wait, what. Why does Caska see Farneze going all astral?


Well, that could be in part everyone who has the brand lives half in the real realm, and half in the realm of the "spirits". Caska might simply be more observant to the Astral plane then Guts is, maybe in part due to her loss of sanity. Who knows?

quote:

That's why he wears his armor and his bandages so often. Constant fighting is breaking him. He is slowly falling apart. :[

He actually has his mechanical arm somewhat bandaged too. Though that's to stop it from rusting from the sea-air, I think.

I think Guts will probabally heal up a little better given time but let's not forget the Berserker armor literally eats into a person's body in order to support it and keep the body going. That's addition into it just plainly pushing his body over its limits, and not to mention him going way too far too often (the last battle was one abuse after another on his body.)

Gwynne
Oct 24, 2004
I'm a gnome

Guerilla Medic posted:

Wait, what. Why does Caska see Farneze going all astral?

I dont think she is. My guess is that she see's something else, maybe the island they are heading to or something. If you look at the last page, they are above and behind Guts and Caska is below and infront of him looking away from him.

Harlock
Jan 15, 2006

Tap "A" to drink!!!

I can only speak about the Anime version, but it definitely is my favorite anime of all time, despite my namesake. It has a storyline which is very interesting and well supported by the fleshed out characters. Sadly, I can't speak much on the behalf of the Manga, as I don't really bother to read it, although I've heard it's even better. Going to Skullknight's forums every so often to get plot summaries are just enough for me.

I just can't wait for the inevitable Guts/Griffith final showdown, but Miura never seems like he's going to end the drat thing.

Nate RFB
Jan 17, 2005

Clapping Larry

Harlock posted:

Sadly, I can't speak much on the behalf of the Manga, as I don't really bother to read it, although I've heard it's even better. Going to Skullknight's forums every so often to get plot summaries are just enough for me.
The anime is a glorified commercial for the manga. I love the anime myself but the two don't deserve to be in the same sentence. You won't regret checking it out if you liked the anime.

Cowboy
Nov 7, 2004

it was ok until she started peeing on me
If Berserk never ended (the manga), I'd hope Miura would at least release a novel or two to finish the story. Considering Berserk's story is so powerful I think it'd translate fine into a book, even better for those that read the manga (which really would be the target audience).

And someone needs to feed Guts like, 6,000 calories a day, so he plumps back up to what he looked like when he left Caska alone for 2 years.

Nowa
Mar 20, 2006

...a gulliver of dreams.
Zoolooman, thanks for writing a new OP. Simply based on your posts in the old thread and in the Eureka Seven thread, I know this new Berserk thread will be even better than the last.

Yatsuha
Sep 7, 2005

Grandpa's got his groove back
Nice OP Zoolman ^^
I gave up reading the scanlations around volume 27 in favour of reading the Dark Horse versions, I'm sure I'm missing a lot :/

But hey Berserk rocks and it's worth waiting to see it properly done.

Throwing this youtube link out in case anyone hasn't seen the music vid done with manga scenes, though I don't care much for the song choice, its pretty :krad:

immolationsex
Sep 16, 2002
ASK ME ABOUT HOW I ENJOY RUINING STEAK LIKE A GODDAMN BARBARIAN
One more thing for those new to the manga: considering that there are about 30 volumes in circulation right now, with new issues being published at a pretty modest rate, a quick calculation will show that the mister Miura has been going at this for about 300 years. That means the artwork sees significant improvement from the first volumes, thankfully. Don't let the amateurish style in those put you off, the later volumes more than make up for it.

ichiban
Sep 18, 2004

immolationsex posted:

One more thing for those new to the manga: considering that there are about 30 volumes in circulation right now, with new issues being published at a pretty modest rate, a quick calculation will show that the mister Miura has been going at this for about 300 years. That means the artwork sees significant improvement from the first volumes, thankfully. Don't let the amateurish style in those put you off, the later volumes more than make up for it.

Yeah I hear this mentioned a lot and frankly I'm excited to see how good it can get. I'm only up to about volume 6 and even though the anatomy isn't perfect in some places, I still think the art is pretty great. Everything is so brilliantly detailed. If it only gets better from here, then I'm pumped to see it.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

immolationsex posted:

One more thing for those new to the manga: considering that there are about 30 volumes in circulation right now, with new issues being published at a pretty modest rate, a quick calculation will show that the mister Miura has been going at this for about 300 years. That means the artwork sees significant improvement from the first volumes, thankfully. Don't let the amateurish style in those put you off, the later volumes more than make up for it.

Even then it moves from low quality to "HOLY gently caress THIS IS AWESOME" quality pretty fast. The first part of volume one is somewhat iffy, but occasional drawings in it just show entirely Miura's skill even then. I think part of it was him not having developed his "welp, I'm taking four months off to draw individual bits of armor for the upcoming chapters" side of meticulousness.

Maverix0r
Apr 16, 2005

Legend of the West
Oh god, they call him Gatts in the official translation?

Mike Toole
Apr 9, 2001

WE ARE GOING BACK!!

Zorak posted:

Even then it moves from low quality to "HOLY gently caress THIS IS AWESOME" quality pretty fast. The first part of volume one is somewhat iffy, but occasional drawings in it just show entirely Miura's skill even then. I think part of it was him not having developed his "welp, I'm taking four months off to draw individual bits of armor for the upcoming chapters" side of meticulousness.

If you want to see how impressive it gets, look at Zodd's initial appearance after his first transformation, and then at his most recent appearance. He was a pretty scary dude all the time, but in the recent issues he's looked more like a terrifying force of nature than a simple bloodthirsty monster.

I'm greatly enjoying Dark Horse's release and am gratified that they've kept their pace up-- in another year or two, they'll be all caught up with the Japanese run. I am hoping that Miura wraps things up by... oh, I dunno, volume 50. Of course, that will be in 2086 and he'll be a brain in a jar with a robot stylus attached.

Crazed_Capybara_Rider
Oct 22, 2000

When did Dark Horse decide to gently caress the schedule over again? I thought they were doing 1 volume a month, now I see 18 is due out July 28th, and 19 is due out September 26th.

Zorak
Nov 7, 2005

Maverix0r posted:

Oh god, they call him Gatts in the official translation?

http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/profile.php?sku=12-705

No, not really...

Twitch
Apr 15, 2003

by Fluffdaddy

Maverix0r posted:

Oh god, they call him Gatts in the official translation?

Better than the US version of the Dreamcast game calling him Gutsu.

Khobra
Jul 26, 2006

Bwahaha!
I'm glad I saw the anime before reading the manga because it gave me the most :wtf: moment I've ever had while watching something. After seeing the last episode I couldn't stand being ignorant of the inner workings of the Berserk world and just had to read the manga. Even if the anime is just an intro to the manga, it's a drat awesome one.

Does anyone know where to get a copy of the PS2 game at a reasonable price?

Guerilla Medic
Jan 27, 2007
Unconventional treatment
AFter you've watched the anime, be sure to watch the outtakes.
The VA's regulary go crazy midrecording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwBpwcEoa68&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-I3lddxYsc&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTzLsYD5vfc&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAwWvQzMX-Y&mode=related&search=
"Why don't you go along and catch up without me. No wait. That's not gonna work."

Also, the english dub is superior to to original VA's, in my opinion :frogbon:

Guerilla Medic fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jun 29, 2007

Mr. Deathy
Aug 3, 2003

Guerilla Medic posted:

Wait, what. Why does Caska see Farneze going all astral?

And yes, Guts is certainly crossing from cool-scarred to holy-poo poo-Nameless-One-scarred.

Where does she see them in the chapter? If you mean the last page, Farneze and Schierke are both behind Guts and Caska is in front of him.

Caska says "Ahh" and what not a lot over anything remember, she's like an easily excited child. She's probably just looking at the waves or something.

Guerilla Medic
Jan 27, 2007
Unconventional treatment

Mr. Deathy posted:

Where does she see them in the chapter? If you mean the last page, Farneze and Schierke are both behind Guts and Caska is in front of him.

Caska says "Ahh" and what not a lot over anything remember, she's like an easily excited child. She's probably just looking at the waves or something.
Looking at it again, you're right. They are behind her and caska is just :woop: watching at the sea.

Yatsuha
Sep 7, 2005

Grandpa's got his groove back

Guerilla Medic posted:

AFter you've watched the anime, be sure to watch the outtakes.
The VA's regulary go crazy midrecording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwBpwcEoa68&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-I3lddxYsc&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTzLsYD5vfc&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAwWvQzMX-Y&mode=related&search=
"Why don't you go along and catch up without me. No wait. That's not gonna work."

Also, the english dub is superior to to original VA's, in my opinion :frogbon:

It's worth watching to hear Griffith sing, I swear.

Cowboy
Nov 7, 2004

it was ok until she started peeing on me
Gutts doesn't do a very good Arnold impression.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

noface
Jun 19, 2002

Just wanted to point out my intense love for the anime, which doesn't seem to get as much love as it deserves in the OP. It's got a lot of flaws, but despite that it might be my favorite series ever.

The dated look combined with the music and subject matter just resonate with me, and it feels like the anime is more than the sum of it's parts. A lot more.

And yes, the outtakes are hilarious even if you don't want the dub (I prefer the sub, familiarity strikes again).

Edit: And it is a crime against humanity that the PS2 game never made it to the states. That still pisses me off and will probably continue to anger me for years to come. Hit up gametrailers.com and check out some of the trailers, just amazing stuff.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply