Newbie Berserk Discussion Thread

[Aetherfukz]

Hey guys.
I just wanted to say that the last chapters are really boring. I must say that Kentaro Miura somehow lost the direction of Berserk.
Just watched an episode of that anime (also read the manga to the latest chapter) and i remembered that the anime's aim was that Griffith wanted to fullfill his dream. The story mainly based on that dream (also on the dream of Gutts) but now i do not know what Griffith's aim is and why there are so many Apostels surround him.
I think to many new characters are getting involved with every new chapter. In my opinion the latest chapter (and so the latest story) somehow lost the spirit of berserk. What do you think?

PS:Sorry for my bad english, i am german.

I completely resent the statement that Miura lost the direction of Berserk. Quite the contrary actually, he said on more than one occasion that he planned out the main points of the story beforehand allready, and he knows where the story is heading to.

Imagine the Lord of the Rings being published right now for the first time, and only Fellowship and Two Towers would have been released up till now.

The aim of the Lord of the Rings was that the ring had to be destroyed. So why do we suddenly have all those new characters in the Two Towers? Who's this Faramir guy anyway and why is he relevant to the story? And why are we in Rohan suddenly, those guys have nothing to do with the main story!? The story should be about Frodo and how he gets the ring destroyed!

--

Most people would find that a rediculous statement however because after all it all made sense, and each and every one of the side characters played his part in the greater story. Berserk is pretty much the same IMHO.

[Istvan]

Well put, Aetherfukz. To extend your analogy, though, I think it would really be as if Tolkein was releasing one page of The Lord of the Rings every month or so. Looking back on things it's obviously a masterwork, with every thread important to the whole, but when your waiting so long for the next little bit of story it often seems to drag and to go off on tangents.

[Starnum]

Oh yeah, no doubt. I totally agree. The story may seem drawn out or as if it's losing direction at times, but if you go back and read it all at once, it's very cohesive.

[angthas3]

ok ok your right:). I just want to have guts and ciasca back like in the old times. i can't wait till she gets healed Hopefully she gets healed uh by the way, what is with the child? Uh, i totally forgot.

[musashidono]

hi i'm new here(obviously). i've been a fan of berserk for 2 years now, and it's without a doubt the best manga i've ever read.nothing comes close to it in terms of story and epicness.
i've been lurking for a while and decided to join.i have a question regarding the raw chapters.do you guys use your own raws or do you get them at rawparadise? since rawparadise was taken down,this could be a problem for all the scanlation teams .maybe i shouldn't ask that , but i'll be glad if someone involved in the scanlation process could answer this question. and btw you guys do a wonderful job .keep up the good work .

[DrPepperPro]

We'll be fine for raws, probably.

[musashidono]

i'm releived.thanks.

[NoNickName]

Hi everyone, I've finally get my own first Dark Horse release of Berserk. Volume 31. It is great and all, but I was surprised that it is in such small paper format I was expecting something around A4 and it is barely A5 Is it normal or do I have some special version? Still awesome Thanks

[DrPepperPro]

That's normal, in fact they seem to be about 2mm bigger than the japanese versions. The magazine chapters are bigger, but have shitty printing quality, and are impossible to find older versions of. Maybe there'll be like a 50th anniversary collectors edition eventually that's larger and has refined translations, if the manga is even done by then that is.

[NoNickName]

Ok, and I'm wondering if it is going to fall apart when I open pages to 180 degrees for actually reading and admiring it? I should rather leave it alone in my bookshelf and read EG on my computer, right?

[tsubaimomo]

Read your Berserk with as much enthusiasm as you please. Enjoy it and don't be held back by what happens to the binding. You'll appreciate them more if they're all worn in and used-looking. That's my advice...

[NoNickName]

Hm hm, yes, but I wouldn't like to search for loose pages across my room
I got it shipped from BigBadToyStore. They have just a few of them. Do you know about other shop which could have it and nicely ship it into the heart of Europe? Well other than ebay.

[Istvan]

Hm hm, yes, but I wouldn't like to search for loose pages across my room
I got it shipped from BigBadToyStore. They have just a few of them. Do you know about other shop which could have it and nicely ship it into the heart of Europe? Well other than ebay.

Have you tried Amazon?

[NoNickName]

Have you tried Amazon?

I haven't. I have some bad references about Amazon, so I'd rather avoid it.

[Rolos]

Dude, Amazon is teh shit, don't just ignore it because someone told you. Give it a try, it's just 10 bucks per volume and the shipment is free if you buy more than 2 at once.

[NoNickName]

Dude, Amazon is teh shit, don't just ignore it because someone told you. Give it a try, it's just 10 bucks per volume and the shipment is free if you buy more than 2 at once.

That sounds goood. Ok, I'll look into that and if even the free shipping is avaiable for me, I'll try it.

[NoNickName]

Dude, Amazon is teh shit, don't just ignore it because someone told you. Give it a try, it's just 10 bucks per volume and the shipment is free if you buy more than 2 at once.

That sounds goood. Ok, I'll look into that and if even the free shipping is avaiable for me, I'll try it.

As I suspected the free shiping thing is only for USA. So I'll see what I'll find, maybe I'll give it a try anyway.

[revealer]

So.. where would you put Guts by his strength right now?
Last time he fought Zodd (at Godo's) they were fighting pretty even, while Zodd was in human form.. Maybe Guts was even a bit better.
After Zodd released his demon it was one-sided from there, although Guts wasn't doing TOO bad (in not getting hurt) until Caska interfered.

Since then, Guts got his new armor, which was to me, a huge power-up, so I guess he should be able to fight on even terms against Zodd, even with his demon released.
What do you guys think?

Also, in what other ways do you expect Guts to get stronger?
Maybe some new items at Elfhelm? Or getting his hand/eye restored?

[Istvan]

So.. where would you put Guts by his strength right now?
Last time he fought Zodd (at Godo's) they were fighting pretty even, while Zodd was in human form.. Maybe Guts was even a bit better.
After Zodd released his demon it was one-sided from there, although Guts wasn't doing TOO bad (in not getting hurt) until Caska interfered.

Since then, Guts got his new armor, which was to me, a huge power-up, so I guess he should be able to fight on even terms against Zodd, even with his demon released.
What do you guys think?

I doubt he's even with Zodd, yet. Although he's definately getting closer. The thing is, Zodd appears to be the strongest of the Apostles under Griffith, and we already saw that Guts with the armor wasn't quite the equal of the dragon Apostle (in the witch's forest) so I doubt he can match up to Zodd. He'd probably put up a very good fight though.

Or getting his hand/eye restored?

No. Too lame, and it would totally devalue the sacrifices and suffering he's had to go through to make it this far.

[revealer]

So.. where would you put Guts by his strength right now?
Last time he fought Zodd (at Godo's) they were fighting pretty even, while Zodd was in human form.. Maybe Guts was even a bit better.
After Zodd released his demon it was one-sided from there, although Guts wasn't doing TOO bad (in not getting hurt) until Caska interfered.

Since then, Guts got his new armor, which was to me, a huge power-up, so I guess he should be able to fight on even terms against Zodd, even with his demon released.
What do you guys think?

I doubt he's even with Zodd, yet. Although he's definately getting closer. The thing is, Zodd appears to be the strongest of the Apostles under Griffith, and we already saw that Guts with the armor wasn't quite the equal of the dragon Apostle (in the witch's forest) so I doubt he can match up to Zodd. He'd probably put up a very good fight though.

Re-watched the battle at the witch.
Well, before he fought the dragon Apostle he was already badly injured by Slan with that ethereal body wound from which he even collapsed a bit before the fight (how many times did you see Guts collapse xD). You can tell the wound is bad cause he couldn't even fight evenly with dragon Apostle untransformed, while he is able to do that with Zodd when in good health.
When he put on the armor he already couldn't even move from the injuries and still he was able to wound the dragon before and after transformation, AND in between that he took out almost a dozen other Apostles.
Also the dragon Apostle (Grunbeld was it?) asked Zodd to let him fight Guts knowing that Guts was able to "exchange blows evenly" with Zodd. So while Zodd may be the strongest, I don't think Grunbeld is very far behind in strength. Even Guts said that he is farly stronger than the average Apostles.

I just realized that Guts didn't get a chance to heal up properly ever since he met with Slan, I sure hope he gets some more rest-up time during the trip to Elfhelm, those burn scars look nasty.

[Istvan]

So.. where would you put Guts by his strength right now?
Last time he fought Zodd (at Godo's) they were fighting pretty even, while Zodd was in human form.. Maybe Guts was even a bit better.
After Zodd released his demon it was one-sided from there, although Guts wasn't doing TOO bad (in not getting hurt) until Caska interfered.

Since then, Guts got his new armor, which was to me, a huge power-up, so I guess he should be able to fight on even terms against Zodd, even with his demon released.
What do you guys think?

I doubt he's even with Zodd, yet. Although he's definately getting closer. The thing is, Zodd appears to be the strongest of the Apostles under Griffith, and we already saw that Guts with the armor wasn't quite the equal of the dragon Apostle (in the witch's forest) so I doubt he can match up to Zodd. He'd probably put up a very good fight though.

Re-watched the battle at the witch.
Well, before he fought the dragon Apostle he was already badly injured by Slan with that ethereal body wound from which he even collapsed a bit before the fight (how many times did you see Guts collapse xD). You can tell the wound is bad cause he couldn't even fight evenly with dragon Apostle untransformed, while he is able to do that with Zodd when in good health.

True enough, but remember that the wound from Slann was an ASTRAL wound, not a physical one. The reason it caused him to collapse was the incredible pain it caused, so once the Berserk armor stopped him from feeling pain that wound shouldn't have been effecting him anymore.

Beyond that, I agree that Grunbeld (that is the dragon Apostle's name, right?) is probably almost as strong as Zodd, and that Guts with the armor was almost a match for Grunbeld, but that still indicates to me that he can't quite match up to Zodd yet.

[DarkOblivion]

I read on another forum that Miura said he's about 40% into his planned story. I'm not sure when this was supposed to have been said, but is there any truth to this?

[Starnum]

Well there's really no way to know for sure. He said that around volume 25 I believe. So he should be well over half way by now. You never really know how long a story is going to last though. Even from the author's perspective it can be difficult. I don't think he's in any rush to finish this story though. So we can probably expect it to continue for another 10 or 20 years, especially if he continues to take lengthy breaks after every few chapters, lol. I know that once he said he'd like to do at least 50 volumes. So we should have at least another 15 or 16 volumes to look forward to.

[DrPepperPro]

It was in april 2009, 60-70% finished. Of course, it's subject to change.

[Starnum]

Damn, I was way off with volume 25, lol. Still, I imagine he's got to be at least 60% - 70% of the way done by now. So it sounds accurate to me. Still, these things are definitely subject to change. *nods*