Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Berserk, Volume 18 by Kentaro Miura

18 reviews

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love Puck and I love Guts

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

(I read this first in 2016, and then I’m rereading it in 2025
I actually read this in three volumes both times, first paperback and then digitally, but I didn’t want to have this as my most-read author, so I’m recording it here as sets.)

I’d forgotten how emotional this series was, especially in the first arc, the Black Swordsman. The second volume will be all Golden Age, which I’m looking forward to rereading. I love Puck, though, so I look forward to finishing the Golden Arc too to get more of him. 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The beginning of one of the best mangas out there. If you can handle the trigger warnings I encourage you to read the incredible story Miura-sensei was able to give us in his life.

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This is a brutal series, there is no getting around that. No one in this is happy, and everything's awful. Horrid violence is the norm, and war is always going on in a fantasy setting. But it is CAPTIVATING. There's a glint of something more under the surface with Guts, even as he goes to act like he's nothing more than a violent dog off his leash, willing to bite at anything that moves. He and his massive sword are on the hunt for evil, and plans to stomp and slice it out, consequences be damned. Near the end of this collection, in what would be the third volume, we get the beginning of his story, from just after his birth to a child, and it's just as grueling as his adulthood. It doesn't excuse all he does, nor does the story seem to be trying to do that with the backstory. They just try to show why he's the near monster he is now, and we only see the beginning steps of it at that. 

I've considered reading this for years and years and kept away because of the violence, but while that is brutal and crushing and disgusting, it at least feels like it does that in service of showing this awful world that they exist in. But if you feel like it would be a no go for you on that front, absolutely skip out. I think watching more horror movies over the years kinda made me ready for a story with this presentation. Now I finally did and I'm absolutely glad I did. This feels like if it's more than just the violence, it could be an incredible story.

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book is wild.

It's about a stone cold swordsman named Guts with a tragic backstory who is basically cursed to be hunted by demons? And he kills the demons and does badass shit. And there's a lil fairy that follows him around to be the voice of morality which he generally ignores. This is the first installment in a long series so that's just all I know so far.

I picked up this book because I saw the black cover with the red foil letters in plastic wrap at the bookstore and curiousity took over.

I must admit that I was nervous to read this because I'm not particularly interested in sexual violence, especially in graphic novel form. In fact, I've never encountered that topic in graphic novel form so this was new to me. Fortunately, there isn't much of that in this book. At the very very end, we get a glimpse of something bad that happened to our protagonist as a child and I didn't like that. Fortunately, so far, the sexual parts aren't disgustingly explicit. That being said, do not let a kid read this book, for the love of God.

This is a super violent book. We see a lot of demons and people being killed. There's many battle sequences. The body horror with the demonic possession is really cool and frightening.

Our main character is an asshole. He doesn't care about anyone or anything. I do suspect that he will have an epic character arc as the series progresses. He's a great anti-hero though. I found myself liking him regardless of his heartlessness because he is incredibly powerful but still struggles. Not everything is easy for him.

This book reminded me a lot of Between Two Fires by Christopher Buelman. Which is also a great book. Read that too!

I look forward to learning more about the world in which these characters exist. It's so unique and I think this series will be full of surprises. Also the artwork is fantastic.

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