Berserk - More than Blood and Guts

It was too big to be called a huge sword, thick, heavy and too rough, in fact, it was like a pile of raw iron. Oh, it's at least intimidating and spanning 40 thick manga volumes comprised of horrific acts of violence and barbarism, it could have been hard to recommend if it weren't as brilliant as it is despite having a strong stomach and a significant investment of time and money. . It is an investment. I can't recommend Kentaro artists Meera's life's work enough Berserk is celebrating his 30th anniversary. This year we spend thirty years exploring a dark, miserable, unforgiving world that has been home to some of the most surprisingly compassionate and deeply human storytelling of the last three decades, although Berserk begins with a demonic sexual predator being torn apart by the prosthetic arm Cannon and his Later one is filled with enough quivering pieces of meat to make a butcher blush.

The secret of Berserk is that beneath the viscera is a genuinely moving story of a man fighting to remain human in an inhuman time fighting to keep those who are important to him safe and close. When those two seem mutually exclusive fighting against the waves of causality itself, our fight is that of a one-armed, one-eyed swordsman who has literally been marked to die alone, relentlessly pursued by demons, and bent on revenge against a mysterious collection of beings. Known as the Hand of God, the initial volumes of Berserk paint life as infinitely bleak, but these chapters actually fall short and do not represent what the series is about because, while Muir has filled the entire saga with moments of misery, despair and unimaginable loss.

berserk

is, at its core, a series built on hope as Berzerk reaches the crescendo of his opening in the media, as all seems lost and hell itself threatens to drag our hero into an increasingly dark reality.

There's a record-breaking freeze-frame moment where the

guts

look like Say yes, that's me, you're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation and the mirror takes us back to where it all began, where the dark fantasy seems a little less dark. and Berserk establishes itself as a story built on characters, not on a massacre that he starts. showcasing a captivating world in which Guts made his name as the black swordsman from his own birth in the coffin to his exploits as a sword-for-hire paved the way to the myriad strange places and heart-wrenching moments of the world we've been known to reflect

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recently. expertly creates a life that feels lived that's the benefit of telling a story over 30 years the exploration of the world the restructuring of its own rules the evolution of a character and the bonds they forge between the most unlikely of allies are feel earned and genuine, the members who make up Zerks' longest-running cast are some of the most fascinating, complex, and ultimately human characters I've connected with in media, while Muir delights in tormenting his cast and send them further down a rabbit hole of unearthly screams.

He sometimes offers moments of beautiful tenderness, whether in the bonds of brotherhood between a group of mercenaries. Bond so deep, a bond built on trust, longing and the sheer magnetism of their egos, that to call it a love triangle is to make this complex relationship one of great injustice, the push and pull of this conflict is the beating heart of Berserk and it is very much further. Watching it unfold is

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electric than even Mirror's best kinetic fight scenes. These beats help the madmen ignore any notion of a perceived demographic, although at first glance it may seem like a fairly numbers-based seinen series.

Muir has stated that he believes in madmen. He often shares elements commonly found in shoujo manga. You can see the subversion not only in the delicate artistry of the

berserk

's most beautiful moments or his approach to telling character-driven stories, but also in his effort to anchor a typical power fantasy with moments of intense vulnerability. He is not a typical action hero, he is traumatized and broken, his actions are often self-destructive and dangerous to those around him and his past is full of moments that contradict what we expect from our protagonists. All this is to say that he is crazy.

A series that often feels obsessed with the many ways the structural integrity of the human body can fall apart is a series that harbors a phenomenally fine-tuned balance, a balance that allows for one of the most beautiful and tenderly handled sex scenes ever. As I've seen in any media there are large pages of some guy's head exploding to this point, it may seem like I've been vouching for the merits of crazy

blood

shed in favor of the heartfelt narrative underneath it all, but I don't know. Make no mistake, I don't want it to be that way. tamer in hopes that more people will read it, you shouldn't read berserk despite its violent and visceral nature.

In fact, if you don't get some kind of sick kick from watching a particularly heinous villain get his

blood

y comeuppance, you will. You won't get very far no matter how much you love the story. Bezerk has some of the best depictions of what happens when someone throws a sword that's bigger than them, and the results are truly magnificent, but these depictions of ultraviolence sing because we care about characters in the middle of it all, fantasy at its best. Baja mocks the plot armor enjoyed by other narratives, and the beautiful, uncompromising graphic nature of the preserved world tethers its characters to the grim fates that potentially await them in the darkest moments of the manga I flipped through. a lightning-fast fight to see if my favorite characters made it out in as few pieces as possible, this desperate AB and flow lends itself to the visceral euphoria of each fight scene depicted with incredible momentum and perspective, stands out far above its peers. the talent extends to many mind-blowing moments that don't actually feature any notable idols; lavish double-page spreads of fantastical sights to behold, but it's in Berrserks' filthiest moments where his clean line art becomes a mess of frantic, possessed scribbles as Muir channels a sense of kinetic rage into an action scene and offers gory thrills that other comics simply can't match.

The careful balancing act means there's weight behind every move of the dragon's lair, not for the sake of spectacle, but because we're genuinely invested in it. The lives that depend on themselves and that is the consummate work of a master storyteller There is simply nothing like Berserk Berserk Being the formidable, ambitious and still unfinished epic that it is, many television series, films and videos have proven difficult to adapt. Games have attempted to bring Berserk to life on screen, and while few of them come close to what makes Berserk so special on the page, everyone has been encouraged by Mira's excellent writing, her confidence in building the world and its surprisingly deep characters.

The 1997 anime adaptation titled The Sword. Wind Romance was the first of many attempts to tackle Berserk and remains one of the few mediums that has come close to replicating Mira's savage art on screen. The 97 anime did a lot of good, a faithful and supposedly catchy version of the most popular Berserk Ark. Aptly titled Golden Age, the Sword Wind romance cuts very little from those 100 chapters, leaves out some of the nastier dealer beats, but presents the rise of the Falcon gang with most of its bloody glory intact, and tells with a great score by Susumu. Hirasawa, who from this point on defined Berserk's music and a surprisingly excellent English voice dub that brings a sense of lightness and warmth to such a dark story that the anime nailed in Hal Berserk, should sound but, most importantly , knew what it should look like in a set of maligned attempts to bring the

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story to life.

The 97 anime stands out to many fans as the only worthwhile adaptation, this is in part due to a team that clearly understood the intrinsic weight and beauty of Mirrors' art that the series seems to take on. manga as a kind of storyboard and sticks to it, extensive religious extensions in its execution are beat for beat, often shot by shot for those creations of the source material strengthened by a vintage painterly color palette and enough animation to bring it to life to the panels. The shots represent Despite this, something intangible is lost in the transition to the screen, not only the limitations of the serialized animation of the time through our maddening of much of its momentum and impact, but the important moments to often fell as they should, these missteps will.

However, it's likely to go unnoticed by uninitiated viewers, and indeed the pacing of the show seems to confirm that it's more for newcomers than for readers already invested in Muir's gory world. Fans familiar with the manga may find some of Sword Wind's romance a little long. In the tooth, its midsection in particular feels a little bloated with too many episodes stretching out moments of silence to fill the runtime. Instead, it's a great entry point into the world of Berserk for those who aren't interested in reading reams of manga, although these non-believers may find themselves. swung once the curtains closed on the 25-episode series, it's an ending that leaves any viewer desperate to find out what happens next to the main players left in the lurch and for a long time this natural push to pick up the manga It was a unique option for viewers. and it's certainly one of the reasons why this first adaptation is mostly from a loved one.

It helped attract many new readers to join the course of voices complaining about the lack of new chapters and helped grow a community that fell in love with the deceptively. The Deep Charms of Berserk It wouldn't be until 2012, 15 years after that original series debuted, that the on-screen adventures of Gust and Company would continue in an effort to reboot Berserk's multimedia presence. Studio 4c stepped up with a new trilogy of films. Released more than a decade after the television series concluded, the decision to take the series back to its roots and retell the Golden Age arc is understandable, if a bit disappointing for fans who were eager to see more guts stories come to life, but in condensing that 9-hour epic that in turn had to cut many great moments from the manga into a film series spanning half its runtime, the Age arc de Oro kills a lot of crazy people, the best storytelling combined with direction that focuses on all the wrong beats of the film. they only serve to confuse newcomers and alienate existing fans, considering the art is all about the slow evolution of its characters and their relationship with each other in order to rush narrative development in favor of another big battle or an extended dance sequence with the removed stinger seems to disagree.

With the intention of the source material saying that Golden Age films are decent enough, its real strength lies in adapting something that the 97 series had trouble with with the movement and physicality of preserving at first glance, the aesthetic The production leaves a lot to be desired. The first film is full of awkward scenes where 2D animation refuses to fit with the team's penchant for 3D visuals, but over the course of the trilogy you can see 4c begin to master this combination, their techniques are controlled and refined and the marriage between old and ancient. The new feels much more comfortable in the trilogy's clothing, resulting in some truly spectacular views.

It's hard to deny that 4c failed to capture the crazy narrative. Wait here, but while the mirrors work, it's incredibly written, it's also a visual masterpiece. Theirs is a series full of iconic elements. instantly recognizable visual touchstone moments that speak to the culmination of narrative threads or emotional crescendos that bring these moments to life is where the film shows itself to shine brighter than most Berserkers adaptations and, while it doesn't make up for its own shortcomings, it certainly helps honor some of the series' best beats, especially with the newfound brutality its cinematic releases provided. Much truer to the original mirror work when it came to bloodshed, the Golden Age trilogy had me grimacing and gritting my teeth and this is what should interact with the madmen's darkest moments.

Elicit is in this way that the trilogy provides a strange alternative to the original run of 97. It succeeds where the production stumbled and vice versa, the editions of thefans like Berserk Redux have brought the two together and, thanks to the consistency of the voice actors, it works well. tell a coherent story, especially considering even the errors of these original projects carried out with each other despite the gap of 15 years three seven hundred ninety thousand three hundred four seven hundred seven hundred ninety-eight thousand three hundred nine seven hundred ninety-eight thousand three hundred sheets, but I honestly recommend watching them both in their entirety, although neither is perfect, together they achieve a sense of justice for one of the best Berserker arcs as the trilogy ends, it reminds us that this is just the beginning, both adaptations barely scratched the surface. of the larger story Berzerk has been telling for 30 years, the Golden Age arc promised more to come and a few years later, for better or worse, we got exactly what is known in the community as berserk 2016 and 2017, This season, computer-animated production was resumed. where the Golden Age movie trilogy ended, finally gave fans a look at the later arcs of physics and the wonderful characters that make up this more modern series, as C changed its animation style and landed on what which was a pretty good aesthetic for the trilogy. close, proving that 3D visuals could be a decent option for the series, it was frustrating to see some good work go to waste and a new studio getting the license to essentially start from scratch. 16 and 17 are not great, sometimes there is all the news unfortunately. ugly filled with disgustingly erratic displays of misdirection that the camera refuses to sit still, presumably to hide the series' litany of sins, but even with its nauseating penchant for panning, it can't hide some of the lazy animation on display, but the biggest crime of the series is that there is a genuinely decent show underneath, only the production is "It's a complete failure and for the most part it's a faithful adaptation of stories that haven't been offered this kind of exposure before, including the making of my favorite panel from the manga.

Thanks again for everything you've done well on top of this. There are many key moments that come to wonderful life, there is great music and stellar voice acting, and the narrative from episode to episode becomes stronger. As always, with the central story of mirrors, once you get over how uneven Twenty-Six and Seventeen are, they can provide some really compelling television, but ultimately, they're too erratic, too messy, and too ugly to forgive. They're hampered at every turn by shockingly bad decisions, from weird editing to some truly awful sound runs, including a sword that clangs whenever it comes into contact with anything, whether it's iron meat or even a simply insane spirit deserving. something better than this.

The fact that I found things so similar in this adaptation speaks perhaps less to the redeeming nature of the show and more to the quality of Mirrors' source material above all, which is why despite enjoying some parts I can't, in good conscience recommend them, not when it is based on a masterpiece that you can go and read instead. Some have called Berserk unadaptable, but looking at the successes and even failures of these previous attempts, I can't. I can't help but think that it is a series perfectly suitable for translating to other media. I think the latter series might have scared off any potential studio that's giving it a chance anytime soon, and besides, the anime seems less inclined than its Western counterparts to reboot an adaptation that's floundering from the ground up.

Instead, we'll probably have to wait for Miura to write enough additional material for a brave studio to try a series that's now filthy with bad blood, but when that as-yet-unnamed studio steps up to the plate, I'll remain cautiously optimistic about what they get. occurs. Crazy is not impossible to adapt, quite the contrary, in fact, it is only right that a spectacular film or television show make part of its wonderful storytelling and dazzling beauty, and all existing attempts have been partially successful. In capturing what makes Berserk special, some much more competently than others, we're simply waiting for the stars to align and all the pieces of a perfect adaptation to fall into place.

Let's hope it doesn't take 216 years to get one like you. could be expected from a series that spawned 40 manga volumes, three anime seasons, and three movies. Berserk is popular, its lasting legacy can be seen in many places, and the extensive medium of video games is no exception to the numerous references found in hillbilly otaku. From Miyazaki's Souls porn series to the licensed Dragon's Dogma tie-in, there is no shortage of nods to intrepid adventures in the world of video games outside of these tributes, however, Berserk has some games of its own, very similar to anime, these are adaptations problematic and imperfect, but each of them are redeemed with some frequency by the developers, a clear love for the source material and some interesting hooks of their own, and fans of the series will find a lot to enjoy if they are willing to grit their teeth and watch beyond some imperfections.

Berserk Guts Rage is a curious game released two decades ago in the winter of 1999. It stands out as a clumsy hack and slash game in a system that was not prepared to deal with them and in an era where the genre was on the verge of to explode. and receiving some much better titles in the process, as such it has aged poorly in terms of its gameplay, but in most other aspects, to this day I am in love with what the madman achieved, like many of the adaptations of which I have spoken. So far, Gus Rage only gets the source material from him and doesn't pamper players who aren't already interested in epic stories.

Miura had already established that this was a game primarily for fans, but it was still compelling enough to attract newcomers. I was one of those newcomers. My first experience with Berserk was thanks to this game. A confusing middle act in a story I desperately wanted to know more about. It calls me to run out and buy volume one of the manga and start 20 years of my life. own devotion and if that's not a sign of a successful canon, I don't know what's going on in an interesting manga blind spot, the kind of madness that's as close to canon as spin-off video games tend to be.

Its concept art and setting designed by Muir himself, the characters, demons and shadowy developments feel genuine and the truth of the dark tone of the Zerk children turning into monsters and being killed without hesitation by guts, bad endings and depressing beats of history stand out compared to the traditional. game development of the time and there's a big focus on storytelling over gameplay, the title itself is easily implemented in about three hours and most of that runtime is dedicated to cinematics detailing a brave chapter of life which would have been just as compelling on the page. as it is in the awesome sword play scenes from crazy developer UQ proved two things, one of them was unfortunately that they aren't particularly good developers, this was a team that locked up a man wielding a sword bigger than him. combat scenes in hallways and added hit detection to walls after all, except the second and more important point was that this was a team of die-hard Berserk fans who not only understood Berserk but loved it as much as we did , they knew what made him special and they worked hard to fit everything a fan would want to see in a Berserk game, everything they wanted to see in a Berserk game, in the cameos of the skeleton knight's epic duels with Nosferatu Zod and the reveal of a new dance, all eliciting appropriate gasps and I'm glad when I was capturing this footage and playing the game for the first time in two decades with the knowledge necessary to truly enjoy its narrative.

It was probably this dedication and outside fandom that secured Yuke the license for that sequel on PlayStation. 2 and they weren't going to make the same mistake twice: Dragonslayer could break through the walls of the holy demon war chapter or just berserk ps/2 was an interesting step for UQ to boast the same passion they showed with Sword of the Berserk in this new title was in almost every way a vast improvement over what had come before and took place directly after the events of its predecessor. The only real sacrifice here is that the original story that underpinned that game is absent, and instead the title rejoins the Berserk canon and does a fairly faithful job of adapting its namesake's arc, the Sacred Demon War, which covers About 6 volumes into the manga, the story is told sparsely but effectively, removing those overbearing scenes to focus on the gameplay and is a great way to relive some of the craziest more.

Modern Moments It's easy to get lost in the game's expansive levels as you roam freely through them with much more skilled combat taking on the hordes of monsters that constantly attack you, the endless fodder respawns get a little off-putting at times, but Satisfying new combos and counters are the heart of the game, new systems make up for this by giving us playable value that feels as sneaky and cunning as its manga incarnation, no matter the odds, there are always in-game options carefully hidden up your sleeve. or the prosthetic arm of Our avatar and I loved having our backs to the wall and turning a fight around.

He was sure he would lose, especially with a well-placed cannon shot. Let me take a moment to praise UQ's understanding of the arm cannon in the manga's guts. multipurpose prosthetic arm, a device that Miyazaki seems to have paid homage to and based an entire game on the recently released sukira is a deafeningly destructive last resort the number of thorny situations this device has brought out of our refreshingly reserved but enormously important lis, of the Similarly, its video game counterpart, Israeli, silenced, countered by a ridiculously long cooldown between shots, this thing packs such a satisfying punch that even bosses lose huge amounts of health with a single blood, honestly, this could be the most telling sign that clubbers resent being willing. to throw off the entire balance of their games just to do justice to this amazing weapon the pacing of the game can be ungainly it's too experience dependent for my taste and it's a safe system that can feel a little unforgiving when you lose an hour of progress at a time. fight you weren't prepared for, but in the end none of that mattered once I got into his rhythm.

I love this game, facing some of the best fights in this series was amazing. Going up against Zod was appropriately terrifying as I defeated an ogre. in the middle of a flood still feels epic today and the appearance of slan, the poor princess of the womb sea, is as disturbing and brilliantly fetid as it is in the corners of the manga, once again understand the golden rule of berserk of that it is a series of moments. and seeing recreations of iconic manga panels during these playable fights was the icing on an already delicious cake. It's a real shame this game never had a localized release in the West, not only is it a great piece of fanservice for a series that doesn't see enough solid adaptations, it's a pretty good game in itself, thankfully there's a fan translation that allows expert players the opportunity to experience this adventure and I highly recommend any Berserk fan to check it out.

Luc wasn't a particularly good developer when I created his crazy titles, but they were a great choice in my opinion, regardless of the fact that passion is very important when it comes to adaptations and a genuine love for the source material can cover up a lot of sins. and deficiencies. For my money, this passion is absent in the third and final Stranger game, and while it might technically be a more accomplished video game, it's a weaker Berserk product. Berserk and the Band of the Hawk is the most recent video game adaptation of Berserk released a couple of years ago for PC and the PlayStation family. of consoles a spin-off of the Warriors series of hack and slash games band of the hawk is what is known as a mousou title that is characterized by large battlefields with multiple objectives and populated by soft enemies that number in the thousands, While this may seem like a natural fit for the Berserk series, which often sees the entrails cut out of large swaths of enemies in its campaign of revenge, this framing struggles to accommodate not only the more personal heart of its source material, but who fails to do justice to the skill, tenacity and effort that Guts exerts in each battle, one of his many aliases in the manga is the Hundred-Man Slayer who gave him an achievement.incredible and a fight that brought Guts closer to death than almost anyone else.

Here's a clip of that Falcon Gang level and Here I am killing over 100 enemies with the press of a single button, this dissonance extends to the entire game and its penchant for ridiculous body cameras while beating up large groups of indistinguishable enemies. and effortlessly climbing thousands of dead provides mindless fun. The visceral punch of the manga is lost and many of its adaptations have allowed almost all sword strikes. It's not a bad game, in fact it's probably the most mechanical sounding of the three, but it does sound a little impersonal and I found myself longing for the great passion and innovative developer adaptations that you've captured in this franchise and also what they've put into it. done to my precious arm cannon.

However, being able to play as part of the Falcon's gang and even with unlikely characters like Zod is a real pleasure and it's nice to swing weapons other than the Dragon Slayer if only for a spell that covers the entirety of Berserk up to volume 32 of The Falcon's manga gang offers an enormous wealth of content and comfortably adapts the largest stretch of Mirrors history to date that uses extended clips from the film trilogy as cut scenes for as long as possible and then continues to render in engine as it surpasses that production from time to time, something caught my eye and somewhat redeemed the title in my eyes, including a rare on-screen adaptation of the often overlooked Black Swordsman arc, placed chronologically for a change , a move that helps streamline its otherwise desperate tone, but as impressively vast as this scope seems on paper, playing it feels like any Musso game, quite repetitive as the hours go by.

Like the countless identical soldiers you'll traverse as you play, this is essentially a copy-and-paste experience, reworked to reflect its properties, and serviced enough for fans to enjoy, but as a game and adaptation. It's a bit flat if you're stuck and desperate for more Falcon-Crazed Gangs it's a no-brainer, but if you're new to this series there are much better ways to interact with it if you've been waiting for something. The timing of starting Berserk now might be the perfect time to do just that, as the manga's fortieth volume threatens to bring closure to one of the series' longest running narrative threads.

There's a sense of resolution, even if the current run of Berserks isn't completed this month. only the return of new chapters of the manga, but also the English release of the first Berserk novel, The Flame Dragon Knight, which promises to tell us more about one of the most interesting villains in the series, but keep in mind that this shame of riches is not typical of being a madman. Muir's commitment to a single project is admirable and his work so far is inspiring, to say the least, but as time has worn down his releases they have been plagued by hiatuses that can last for years;

Some might have us believe this is due to an obsession with a dormant management video game series, but it's much more likely that exhaustion and Berserk's increasingly ambitious scope are the cause of the constant delays in A recent interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro Miura stated that the series is about 75% complete, and while that means it could take another 10 years or more to put an end to this spoiler epic, you can rest assured that it will be worth the wait. As long as Miura is willing to use bail and sacrifice some loved ones in exchange for some extra time if necessary, if the last half hour hasn't given it away.

I love Berserk. I think the manga is one of the best examples. of true art in the medium both in its aesthetics and in its storytelling and, despite its imperfect adaptations, they all come together to form one of my favorite franchises and one that I am always eager to see grow, fortunately it continues to do just that thanks to a way largely to the work of a devoted community, as much as to official releases. Clearly I'm not the only one who has been branded by Mira's masterpiece as crazy and it has deceptively captured the attention and adoration of wrestlers around the world eager to spread the word about it. heartfelt series, studio taka's absolutely stellar motion comic adaptation, for example, breathes life and momentum into Mira's art to create a truly faithful assignment and even finds a way to utilize the 2016 anime with impressive and impactful results.

Thanks elsewhere, remixed editions of huge existing anime libraries. of colorful panels and incredibly impressive huge statues show how Berserk is as much a product of its fans as its creator thirty years ago Kentaro Mira created a masterpiece, a series that is as popular and eagerly awaited today as ever, so I urge anyone who haven't yet immersed themselves in exploring its violent, beautiful and awe-inspiring world, fall in love with characters who may or may not have done anything wrong, look beyond the waves of mayhem and discover that Berserk is much more than blood and guts. Thanks always for watching this was definitely my biggest project to date and I want to thank everyone who collaborated on this, including Studio Taka, for allowing me to share some of his fantastic work.

I also have to thank you enormously. to sukku from the Beyond Ghibli discord, you spent many grueling hours studying manga with me, the entire discord ended up shaping this video, in fact, and everyone has been very supportive of me while I tried harder than anything. I want to thank them and all my subscribers for being so patient waiting for this one to go crazy more than most deserved an extensive retrospective and I hope that if they didn't sell you a series before this you've changed your mind. If you'd like to help support similar retrospectives, like the Evangelion video, which we're very close to funding, you can head over to Patreon and donate money which will also get you some sneak peeks at upcoming projects and a host of other perks.

Otherwise, you can always follow me on Twitter or subscribe here on YouTube to receive notifications about future videos if, instead, you think I should use a ballot to invoke the hand of God and sacrifice my channel for something worthwhile, like a Adi Shankar's crazy adaptation of Castlevania. Fame hit the like button and causality will take care of the rest say it with me I will sacrifice you