How can I convince my friend to watch/read Berserk?

[Fradener]

I got him as far as watching the first episode. He enjoyed it. But he knows that it's unfinished, both the anime and manga. He refuses to watch/read it because he claims it will never be finished. And he hates not being able to see how a story ends (Don't we all?) And he's not a huge fan of manga because of the waiting.

In hindsight I probably should have witheld such information.

[DrPepperPro]

Tell them they're fucking retarded to not read it, and you'll kill them in their sleep if they don't. Between people hating and not being friends with you anymore, and just being scared into reading it, the job will be done. You have to really kill them too, btw.

With a friend of mine, it took about a year of bitching to get him to watch the anime, and he read the manga immediately after (of course, who wouldn't).

[hbi2k]

Just tell him that, no it's not technically "finished," but the end of the anime wraps things up pretty well, the bits in the manga that come after are more like a "sequel." It's like when you watch one James Bond movie, there are plenty more out there if you still want more, but if you don't the end is perfectly satisfying.

With this one bald-faced lie, you will have brought yet another unsuspecting soul into our ranks.

[Fradener]

Just tell him that, no it's not technically "finished," but the end of the anime wraps things up pretty well, the bits in the manga that come after are more like a "sequel." It's like when you watch one James Bond movie, there are plenty more out there if you still want more, but if you don't the end is perfectly satisfying.

With this one bald-faced lie, you will have brought yet another unsuspecting soul into our ranks.

That might have worked but I'm pretty sure I mentioned what kind of ending the anime has and how he'll "have" to read the manga afterward. :/

[lon3vvolf]

I think we're missing the point here.

What I want to know is how you have a friend? Where can I get one of these. Warmachine isnt my friend. He said so.

In all seriousness you need to know your friend to properly describe Berserk to him. For example if your friend is a red-blooded guy who likes action movies and such... you go around telling him how Gats kills hundreds of people/demons and takes shit from no one, except maybe a bit from Caska

If your friend is a girl, and yes I've tried to convince some female friends to read Berserk, let her know of the love triangle that goes on between Gats-Griffith-Caska in the begining and she should eat it up.

If your friend is gay, just show him a pic of Griffith.

Oh yeah, I had a friend who I told to read the manga and she said she wouldn't because you had to read it backwards... I almost Berserked the shit out of the girl.

# edit cuz I want to write some more #
So this new guys gets hired at my work and we stop by a comic book shop, which has manga. We leave and he asks me "Are you into comics and that stuff?"
To which I reply "Not really... theres this one I read about a guy with a giant sword who kills things. You?"
He goes "I read this manga" and I cut him off right after he said MANGA and go
Me: "OMFG YOUR NOT TALKING ABOUT BERSERK ARE YOU?"
Him: "Fuck yeah I am! Guts is the man!"
Me: "You're all right man... you're all right"
How crazy is that? It was the guys 2nd day on the job and I find out hes a big Berserk nut as well!

[Fradener]

In all seriousness you need to know your friend to properly describe Berserk to him.

As I said. He watched the first episode. He liked it. He seemed interested in what tidbits I gave him about the plot.

His entire problem revolves only around its status, i.e., it is not finished and won't be within the next fifteen years.

[Starnum]

Hey, it could be finished in the next fifteen years, you never know. If I had to make a wager, I would say it will be finished at least within the next fifteen years, but that's me.

As for the topic at hand, I just don't keep "friends" who don't watch/read Berserk. In fact it's one of the major prerequisites of the application process to become my friend. Consider me a purist.

Heh, I'm kidding of course...or am I? >.>

Lonewolf, I'm still waiting for you to mail in your paperwork to achieve "friend" status with me. Just get that signed and dated by a notery and send it back to me, and you may be approved for frienship. Then you'll have your first real friend. Only I'll be an online friend, and everyone knows that doesn't count.

[Triko]

If your friend is a girl, and yes I've tried to convince some female friends to read Berserk, let her know of the love triangle that goes on between Gats-Griffith-Caska in the begining and she should eat it up.

And try not to mention the excessive gore and nudity involved, may be a turn off for some girls (not that I'm stereotyping).

IMO, the Anime is the best place to start when introducing Berserk to someone, because it gets right into the Golden Age Arc after only one episode. The first few volumes of the Manga is just some generic Badass with a huge sword going around slaying demons; the telling of Gut's past in the Golden Age is how people identify with the character and become hooked to the series.

[Istvan]

Yep. Start with the anime, and then once they're hooked and desperate to know what happened next, have them turn to the manga. Just like Miura intended.

[Rolos]

OR

he could do it Gutts's style, beating him/her into submission with an oversized weapon of his choosing.

- WATCH and READ BERSERK!
-b-but....I don't want to!
- then you get the BROOM! (insert broom-related violence)
-ow!......stop it!
-BROOM!
-ow ow....ok, ok, I'll watch it, I'll watch it, just stop!
- watch AND read! BROOM!

and so on......


PS: I just pictured that scene in my head......... sniff.....so efficient....if I could just use it on my algebra professor....

[Fradener]

I appreciate the advice, really, but you guys aren't hearing me.

His concern about it not being finished (Or even close to it) is (So far) the only reason he won't watch/read it.

[DrPepperPro]

Tell him its like Lord of the Rings where the main climax already happened and now it's just wrapping up but still taking a hell of a lot of time to do so. Say the end is already known pretty much and the author has said that it will be a happy ending.

Some truths to that, mainly lies, but it might work.

[Triko]

I appreciate the advice, really, but you guys aren't hearing me.

His concern about it not being finished (Or even close to it) is (So far) the only reason he won't watch/read it.

You could, you know, sit down and watch Berserk together.

[DrPepperPro]

You could, you know, sit down and watch Berserk together.

I did that with 3 friends, managed to snag 1 of them for good, 1 has since watched the anime but only read part of the manga and isn't that interested, the last didn't follow up on Berserk at all. I'd say it was a good haul.

[The Herald]

I got a bunch of my friends to watch the anime with me, but unfortunately only two of them read the manga. Well, that's not entirely true, one of my friends has never seen the anime, only read the manga. But the two who have read it are coming the sakuracon with me. Truth is, you can't force em to do it, if they don't want to read it they don't want to read it. All of us here on the forum agree that Berserk is a masterpiece, but a lot of people out there say the same thing about Harry Potter. Y'know, different strokes for different folks.

[hbi2k]

There's always the good old fandom swap. You know, he agrees to watch Berserk, and you agree to watch whatever crap he's been bugging you to watch.

[Vancore]

Tell him that the series has 3 different stories so far, one for the golden age, one for after the eclipse and one for the journey. Besides the 3rd one the other two have endings, the first being him leaving to fight monsters (or the eclipse), the second being the encounter on sword hill... neither really concludes the series as a whole but can be considered endings.

Take Lord of the rings for example, was the first movie the actual ending or did it continue. Would it have been a bad ending had it ended there? Probably, but still enjoyable. Did your friend see it? He did know that the second movie was a good year away when he did cause I'm sure that series wasn't complete yet. Howabout underworld, I know I wouldn't have seen it if I knew they were making two more as that wasn't finished yet either. The Matrix, I actually thought that movie was done after the first but then I heard they had storyboarded that for two more...

More or less your friend probably be a bit more into the series if it was broken up into large sequal chunks like that. That the manga style formula just doesn't work that well for him.

The only thing I could think to tell him is that the ending of the anime is the end and you really don't need to know anything about the manga or that it does continue or what happens next. Its a closed story and there might be a sequel one day based off the continueing manga. In fact the less you talk about the manga the more he may want to watch the anime. A friend of mine watched the anime first and thought it was kick ass so I told him about the manga and how the story continues, I really didn't get the response I thought I would.

I don't know, its just really wierd how some people see endings and sequels. If Berserk came to a end tommarrow (and after this arc) then two years down the road 'Berserk: Griffiths Empire' comes out your friend might be more inticed in reading Berserk because at least that has a ending and isn't a ongoing series.

[fujinsan]

I had a friend once (Well he still is a friend I guess?) and I tried to get him into berserk. It was very difficult even though he loves manga, all in all it took me around the entirety of a year to get him to read it. I asked him when he started reading it how he liked it, he said "top ten for sure." I then asked him "why the fuck weren't you reading it when I first told you about it?" He then replied with an amused look on his face "That's all you were talking about everytime I saw you."

The point being it could actually be you talk about it too much when around him/her, so easy up on the berserk fandom and they shall come.

[Starnum]

That could be true. I try not to go crazy with the fandom on people who aren't down with it. However, most of my closest friends have read Berserk, or at least seen some of the anime, and like it in general. I know some cool anime fans, and everyone knows Berserk is the best manga ever, am I right? As for my associates, they may or may not know about it. I've gotta tell my friends about it, but if they're not down with it, I usually only press on it if its a friend I know that likes anime/manga.

[War Machine]

I had no trouble getting people into it, I was literally lending out the volumes I had and the DVDs to half of the classroom in high school, I sear to god. It was starting to get a little difficult to keep track of them, but they were all pretty cool about it and returned them just fine. Afterwards, I started selling (just charging a little for the trouble) CDs with the whole manga and a few DVD copies of the anime as well. It was all pretty cool, even another friend who didn't know English well enough to understand it and didn't have an interest in anime or manga at all was asking me if I had them in Spanish, but that was all I had. Later I found out they were being finally being sold in Spanish officially in a couple of stores, so I told him that, but it was just before graduation so I don't know if he looked for them or not.

It was very easy to get them into it. I just talked about it, lent them a volume, and soon they were asking for everything else I had.

[Grahf]

I actually think that convincing people to read something that isn't finished is very hard. I have a couple of friends who read manga and I dont' they all read Berserk for that very reason. Perhaps if it had a steady release schedule perhaps they would be willing to but since that also isn't case.....

[Fradener]

There's always the good old fandom swap. You know, he agrees to watch Berserk, and you agree to watch whatever crap he's been bugging you to watch.

In the end it was this. I've gotten him to watch the anime. Or he's agreed to. I don't think he's watched the second episode yet though.

[The Herald]

Then he's seriously missing out, even if Berserk isn't finished yet. Then there are those megalithic animes like Dragonball and Cowboy Bepop that never end just because that's their style. But I don't think that will be the case with Berserk, there are just so many things within it that need to be ended before anything new can be written within the Berserk universe.

[FightClub]

I had a friend who preferred one piece over berserk, would look at it, but never read it. I always tried to get him to read it, he wouldn't. And I'd do the opposite for one piece. Different people have different tastes, not everyone is going to like what you like. Some people are built for berserk, and others one piece.

[Starnum]

...and then there are people like me, who like them both! Berserk is my favorite manga, but One Piece is right up there with it in my books.