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4.35 AVERAGE
4.35 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have so many questions!!!
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Berserk, vol. 11 covers mostly unnecessary conflict with tasteless nudity and attempted rape. The action is visceral and detailed as always, which is awesome, but the plot barely moves forward with this volume. Volume 11 could be skipped without missing much.
"...Berserk is a roaring manga dragster, a grand epic of red line action, white-knuckle horror, and black-hearted humour that has spawned a fervent legion of acolytes driving a host of horrified nonbelievers in their wake. The bell tolls for thee, puny mortal!"
-Berserk Volume 11 blurb
CW: rape
Welp, it's been exactly one review since I said that Miura's maturation as an artist was fully complete, and then he hits me with Wyald. I had to google him, and I'm not surprised to find that he's a controversial figure in fandom. I get that you want Guts to come face to face not just with a monster, but something that represents the raging, festering id of Midland, but...did you have to go quite that hard???
So here's the thing. I don't think that Volume 11 represents a regression of Miura's storytelling to the face-value edginess of Volumes 1 & 2. The arc of the story is still strong, and the major battle beats still work well. At this point, Miura has engendered enough of my trust in his writing abilities that I can't just dismiss any of his work point-blank. I have to believe that he did this with meaning. And there are definitely arguments to made as to why the battle in this volume unfolds the way it does, but I think a lot of those points revolve around 'raising the stakes' or 'keeping it real', and I don't think that renders Wyald's depiction as entirely necessary. The destruction of the village people already makes a beeline for the most disturbing image of the Volume, but hey, it's Berserk - I know it's as subtle as a Ferrari to the face, so I get horrified and am ready to move on. The almost-rape of Casca, though? That's icky. It's too big of an traumatic storytelling device to chuck in there for quick tension without feeling cheap, and it results in some of the more 'male gazy' images in the series so far, with badass Guts wielding his sword in front of Casca's breasts.
To be clear: this doesn't really bother me as much as it has others. I'm used to Berserk pushing the envelope, so I don't register this as some sort of tonal betrayal or anything. And whilst it's extra cheap that Casca never mentions her encounter afterwards, I'm looking on the bright side of "well, I guess we're all just going to pretend that didn't happen, because there wasn't really a need for it to anyway." I only bring any of it up because I honestly think you're doing Volume 11 a disservice by not discussing these elements. They are the front-and-centre attraction of Wyald's attack; the impact he has on the narrative. It's not a bug of the volume, but a feature, and you gotta talk about it. Did you not get the bothered by any of it? Cool. I'm not that fussed either, and am excited to see what Berserk has in store for its much-fabled Volume 12. But I'm not going to just go "cool artwork" and leave it at that (though the artwork is exceptional as always). There's more at play here than just that, and it's all clearly here for a reason. You gotta talk about that, even if you find it all a little unconvincing.
Anyway, time to find out just why the internet hates Griffith so much. I'm ready coach, let's do this.
tense
Gatsu contro i suoi demoni... letteralmente.
E ci mostra quanto sia dannatamente migliorato in questo anno passato lontano dai Falchi.
E poi la condizione misera di Griffith, il ritorno di Zodd, l'avvicinarsi dell'Eclissi.
E ci mostra quanto sia dannatamente migliorato in questo anno passato lontano dai Falchi.
E poi la condizione misera di Griffith, il ritorno di Zodd, l'avvicinarsi dell'Eclissi.
dark
Once more we have really great scenes (e.g. Guts cheerfully helping Griffith into his armor while Griffith has that look upon his face) contrasted with scenes where the story takes a break to become a very gory hentai. Putting my rant about this under a spoiler tag so people don't have to read it if they don't want to.
It's extra noticeable now that I'm older and have read equally violent and tragic stories that have decided to not sexualize the violence against its female characters. It'd be one thing if the demons and awful people ripped the clothes off and tried to rape all humans, and if there was an equal variety of body shapes and face variations across all the characters. As things stand, watching Casca have all her clothes ripped off in strategic places while the rest of her comrades are smashed to pieces starts to feel like I've flipped over to a porn channel mid battle.
The women do suffer in Berserk, but they suffer in such a breasting-boobily way that it honestly takes me out of the story. I don't think I was meant to laugh when the black dog knights show up with what's basically Barbie dolls speared on their swords, but I sure did.
The women do suffer in Berserk, but they suffer in such a breasting-boobily way that it honestly takes me out of the story. I don't think I was meant to laugh when the black dog knights show up with what's basically Barbie dolls speared on their swords, but I sure did.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated