Berserk

My first review ever, despite being on this site for the better part of a decade.

I speed-read this entire manga over the course of three weeks. It had always been on my to-read list, but I put it off because I was afraid of how dark it would be. Kentaro Miura's death finally pushed me to pick it up.

I don't have much to say, but my heart mourns that the epic battle between Guts and Griffith will never reach a conclusion.

Rest in peace, Kentaro Miura. Thank you for giving the world a modern masterpiece. You are gone but will never be forgotten. Thank you, and a job well done.

Okay, I see a sacred cow, and I have to fire up the barbecue once more. There was a time when I could say I loved Berserk, and would unquestioningly give it a 10/10, but now is not that time. Maybe I grew up, or something, I don’t know. God, I’m so disappointed upon reading it again now, I barely know where to begin. Berserk is difficult to talk about due to its complexity and length, but I’ll do my best. Berserk’s Golden Age arc has been done to death in reviews, and it’s amazing. We all know it. No need to say more. The homoerotic subtext between Guts and Griffith is *chef’s kiss*. And we all know how it comes crashing down, due to miscommunications that are brilliantly baked into pretty much every character’s fatal flaws during that arc. If I had to fault it on anything, I’d say Casca’s scene during the eclipse was handled poorly in the manga, but more on that later. For now, I’m here to talk about the absolute slog that is everything that comes after. The problems I see in Berserk are deep and structural, and have to do with Guts as a character. He’s almost purely reactionary because, up to a point, he has no personal investment in the plot beyond ‘Casca in danger, me smash,’ or ‘impaling Griffith’s supple body on his ‘raw heap of iron’ which is totally not his dick, we promise.’ His interactions with others are limited. The man barely speaks, barely thinks about anything beyond the humanoid sack of potatoes that is Casca, or the man he hasn’t talked to for years and hasn’t made any moves towards doing so. He doesn’t interact with either of his primary motivations past a certain point. His only other interactions basically amount to ‘Hey Guts, don’t do the stupid thing and overuse spooky armor,’ and then Guts saying ‘I won’t’ before promptly using spooky armor in the next boring shonen fight scene. Tell me how that is good writing, please. I hate to say it, but that’s really freaking boring over the course of over a hundred chapters. Those chapters often go something like: Alas, dickwolves have appeared and are menacing AREA OF THE WEEKville! Watch as Guts and company near-effortlessly mow down an array of dickwolves, but not before they menace poor, mentally ill Casca and tear off all her clothes with their dickpaws! Repeat. In the distance, Griffith accomplishes something significant to the setting, like repelling an entire continent’s worth of demonic Kushans, using a quarter of the page count. It’s as if Miura didn’t know what he wanted to do with Guts and company after Casca’s mind was fixed, so he dragged out their half of the story to an almost absurd degree, and I’d chalk up a good three-quarters of the dragging to the incessant battle scenes. But PushMe, I hear you cry! Battle scenes are awesome! Er, not when they lack stakes, emotional investment, and eat up an absurd amount of page count for their trouble. They don’t have any technical elements that might make a fight interesting, and the seemingly only allowed failure state is ‘Guts dies/Girl is raped.’ It’s never a case of ‘we need to run the fuck away,’ leading to a desperate fighting retreat using actual tactics, because then we wouldn’t get ten more awesome panels of the Dragonslayer effortlessly bisecting dickwolves. Any fight tension is displaced solely onto whether the armor will eat Guts’ soul or not. Quiet moments that might be genuinely poignant (and were, in the Golden Age) are interrupted every other chapter by these near-pointless fights, as if the mangaka believes his audience will lose interest if the manga goes ten pages without seeing Guts screaming and covered in blood. He is, in some ways, like a parody of action movie tropes, his introspective, needy side subsumed into scowls and really cringeworthy one-liners. He harpoons any sense of atmosphere a scene may have, either by the dad jokes he utters when he opens his mouth or by everyone suddenly pausing to admire his sword/technique/sweet ass. Whoever happens to be nearby will form an impromptu peanut gallery to remark at length on the oft-mentioned ‘heap of raw iron,’ with Isidro at the helm, which gets repetitive fast and usually eats up a page or so per fight scene for its trouble. It doesn’t make the fight seem any more impressive for its effortlessness, either. We know Guts = Strong, and considering how slow Berserk is to update, wasting precious pages to reiterate this or have him engage in fights that don’t further anyone’s character is a general waste of everyone’s time. I feel that he needs actual emotional investment in the plot at large, something more than his revenge quest vs his companions. That was compelling back in Lost Children, at his lowest point, where whether or not he accepted Puck or let Jill in felt like it meant something deep and personal to his character arc. It was pretty obvious that if something didn’t change, if he didn’t let them in, he’d die forgotten in a ditch as a bitter shell of himself—a ‘Gambino was right’ ending, so to speak. By the time of the Fantasia arc, that theme is feeling pretty worn out. He exists only to protect his friends, which is a very well-worn path for shonen protagonists to travel (see also: Bleach, Naruto). And we all know by now how boring shonen protagonists who fall into this trap are. It’s characterization that began with him leaving the Hawks and sticks around for an uncomfortably long time without significant development. He’s too busy swinging his sword around like an angry Beyblade to notice. And to me, that’s just not compelling, in the long term, as it lacks the brevity and poignancy we got with his internal struggles during Lost Children. For the record, this was a problem as early as the latter half of Conviction, where Guts is trying to save Casca from dickmen/fire. His investment here is his guilt over leaving her alone for two years. That’s interesting. Guts fighting with the beast of darkness over whether to abandon her was interesting. How does it play into the events of Conviction? It basically doesn’t. Instead, we have Guts effortlessly killing stuff, Guts killing Mozgus and co. with some effort, and the themes don’t really add up at all. Guts’ motivations in the scattered plot of Conviction do not matter one iota, and my investment in his fights literally hinges on me caring deeply, intimately for potato girl’s safety. It’s like... meaningless noise, past a certain point. There’s no great ideological or personal conflict, and Guts doesn’t have any meaningful internal conflict to make me care about his great and epic, ten-page struggle with ‘Masked Torturer #3, now with a side of wings.’ It’s the same storytelling mistakes, over and over again. Ultimately, Luca the fearless prostitute shines as the most interesting character in the whole arc because her conflict with Nina is ideological and neatly self-contained, with both having clear viewpoints and a depth of character often lacking in members of the RPG party to this day. Luca doesn’t need a slab of iron to save someone from a mob, and she doesn’t need 200 chapters to give someone she disagrees with a stern talking to. Strong contender for best-written female character in Berserk, in my opinion. Speaking of women... something I never see brought up in discussions of Berserk is the way Casca’s rape is portrayed in the manga. It’s just... not horrifying, at least not to me. It reads, literally, like porn. The angles and focus of the panels are exploitative of Casca’s body, with little focus on her face or the emotions that lead to her becoming a potato. If you disagree, please, compare the way Casca is portrayed to Guts’ rape by Donovan, or the way Ganishka is portrayed as he stands menacingly over Charlotte’s bed, or even the 1997 anime’s version of the scene. Miura knew how to portray rape in a scary, realistic way, from the perspective of the victim. He just decided Casca was too hot not to draw like a pornstar for twenty odd pages. Really, it never quite ends, as Casca is drawn naked in poses clearly meant to be alluring with worrying regularity, when she’s a goddamn rape victim, so traumatized she’s lost the ability to speak. Her trauma also fluctuates in intensity. At one moment she can kill three armored bandits while butt-naked, and in another she can barely run on flat ground without tripping over her own feet, so that she can drown the scene in Damsel In Distress tropes. Miura’s inconsistency in his writing of these characters makes it hard for me to take the plot involving curing her of her brief porn career at all seriously. Or any other of the many times Casca (specifically) is threatened with rape. Combined with my above problem with Guts’ later characterization, it severely undermines my ability to enjoy either of them as characters because ‘woman in danger, man save, you care’ stopped being a compelling plot point by itself some five decades before I was born. Griffith, for all the hatred he gets from fans for his role in Casca’s disastrous career as a pornstar, is a breath of fresh air in comparison. He’s about the same now as he was on rebirth, which isn’t great, but Griffith has goals and he accomplishes them quickly, without fifty chapters of screwing around, which is more than can be said of anyone (bar maybe Farnese) in Guts’ party. He tried to talk to Guts about what happened, and Guts wasn’t in the mood, so now he’s off doing his own thing and loving life. Griffith has uninterrupted quiet moments. Griffith’s ultimate goals are nebulous, but he’s efficient, and achieves small things towards that ultimate goal without taking up pages upon pages to messily bisect dickwolves we don’t care about. Griffith is proactive, where Guts is almost purely reactive. Griffith vs Ganishka is, to me, a more satisfying section of the manga than anything Guts achieves in the same arc, and is over in roughly a quarter of the page count. The entire world changes as a result. Guts gets on a boat. Eventually. After acquiring spooky armor, to make him fight good, for... reasons. To summarize, in my opinion, Guts is the least interesting character that the manga could focus on at the point where the plot has found itself, with seemingly little ability or interest in interacting with the setting, and yet so much time is spent focusing on him that it feels bloated and glacially paced. The result is... not exactly fun for me to read anymore, now that I’m not wowed by him killing lots of stuff with no effort or personal investment. God, I’m tired. The point of this rambling, sleep-deprived tirade is that Berserk had an amazing opening, then spirals down into a deep, deep pit of mediocrity, from which it has yet to emerge. The story almost feels stretched to the breaking point, perhaps a mirror for the burnt-out author, with no resolution in sight. What happens on the page is frequently surface-level, seemingly for the purpose of not advancing the plot while appearing to be doing something, anything, to convince its diehard audience that the manga is not dead. Guts gets stronger, Griffith builds his kingdom, Skull Knight is cryptic, and as a long-time reader, it feels as if the wheels are spinning fruitlessly. The Golden Age was tightly written, plotted, and the tension was palpable that something horrible was about to happen. That was a long time ago, and I have to be honest with myself that Berserk likely isn’t ever going to return to that level of quality. I just want these two guys, who haven’t talked to one another since the Hill of Swords, to finally talk out their problems that began with Guts leaving and finally bury this zombie of a franchise. And maybe kiss. Just... end it already, Miura. We all know you want to. Only the dead can know peace from this Elfhell. Edit: Miura, I gave you hell in this review, but I am genuinely sad we likely won’t see an end to your work, right when it seemed like things were actually picking up on Guts’ story, and we might have actually got confirmation that Griffith = Moonlight Boy, even though that does seem to be the obvious outcome. If there is an afterlife, hopefully, you’re resting on some amazing thighs around about now, like you’d probably want.

This manga features a dark medieval fantasy setting, centering around a swordsman named Gatts, who wields a massive sword, and an ambitious mercenary commander named Griffith. The story begins in the middle, with Gatts alone and embarking on a few quick adventures before he encounters and attempts to kill a creature he calls Griffith. The manga then rewinds for at least a hundred chapters (possibly 200) to delve into the backstory. It then progresses past the opening chapters to continue the adventure. This manga is absolutely amazing—an epic journey worthy of its hundreds of chapters. It holds nothing back, featuring over-the-top violence, horrific demons, sex, nudity, rape, human sacrifice, religion, growth, camaraderie, and plenty of death. While it may not be something I want to read with someone looking over my shoulder, it's something I wanted to read almost any other time. My only complaint is that the manga isn't anywhere close to being finished yet. I know One Piece is the most popular manga (I've read quite a bit of One Piece and plan to continue reading it this summer). If you can handle its unfiltered darkness, I would recommend reading this first. 10/10.

STORY - It's truly godlike; I don't think I've ever seen a better story, and the pacing is fantastic.

ART - Every page feels like gallery art, especially in the later chapters. From the start, Miura was an outstanding artist, and over time he became godlike.

CHARACTER - The character development here is exceptional. Each character has their own philosophical perspective on the story, and the psychological aspects are brilliantly written. Every character feels alive and human, with Guts and his slowly growing inner darkness being particularly remarkable.

ENJOYMENT - This is the best medium for me, even outside of the normal scale of enjoyment. I would rate it 12/10.

OVERALL - 10/10

Berserk is a manga that starts off incredibly strong, but after a certain arc, it takes a sharp decline in quality. The unique atmosphere established at the beginning is completely lost.

Guts was initially a man broken in mind and spirit, having lost everything. He was merciless and brutal, yet compelling. However, he then becomes part of an annoying JRPG-style team. I don't want to spoil anything or mention the names of the team members, but they are truly irritating. Each one of them should be locked away in a labor camp so they can no longer ruin readers' enjoyment. I really don’t want to name them, but I’m struggling to hold back from warning others.

The artwork is excellent, and the story was initially engaging. Unfortunately, in recent chapters, it seems to go nowhere and is riddled with plot holes. I enjoyed this manga in the past, but after a certain point, I simply can't continue reading it. I recommend reading up to volume 27; beyond this, everything falls apart disastrously. I hope my review helps many people, and thank you for taking the time to read it.

As everyone can say, the Golden Age is a model for all manga and anime for many decades to come. It's a fact that this part is a ball of emotion and intensity that cannot leave the reader indifferent, and it established the manga as one of the greatest classics.

It's unfortunate that the quality drops in the subsequent parts. Berserk remains Berserk, but when I see all the new characters, some secondary plots, and the writing, today's Berserk follows the standards of modern manga/anime. I miss our trio, with their incredible synergy.

Of all the elements, only Guts remains, whose aura has never been so impressive and melancholic.

Words can't fully express the sadness and emotions I'm feeling right now. I was left speechless when I heard the news, and it's been incredibly difficult to summarize all the experiences I've had with this pinnacle of fiction.

Starting Berserk was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I have never encountered a more complex plot that so masterfully blends dark, fantasy, thriller, action, betrayal, and tragedy into a single manga. The dynamic relationships between Guts, Casca, and Griffith are some of the finest written narratives, and all the side characters contribute significantly to both the adventure and the plot. There's no need to even mention the art style because no one—literally no one—can match this level of amazing detail and pen work. It's an unbeatable display of what art can be.

Thank you, Miura-sensei, for creating a masterpiece that has changed everyone's lives. Thank you for your dedication, hard work, and time spent crafting this manga. I can feel your passion and soul in every line, dot, and pen stroke within each panel.

Rest in peace, legend. You are the greatest mangaka to ever grace this industry. Thank you for leaving us with a legacy that will forever be remembered.

This story is set in a fantastic world inspired by the Inquisition of the European Modern Age. It tells us about Guts, a rough swordsman who carries a massive iron sword and wears black cloaks, earning him the title of the Black Swordsman. Throughout the narrative, his tragic past is revealed: he was born from a corpse. He was later adopted by a prostitute living with a band of mercenaries. After her death, he was raised and trained by the band's leader, Gambino. Guts develops a strong bond with his sword due to his upbringing centered around killing.

After being raped by a member of the mercenaries, Guts develops a deep disgust for human touch and a harsh personality that stays with him throughout the story. After killing his mentor, whom he considered a father figure, he runs away. Following two years with a mysterious group of mercenaries, Guts meets Griffith, his best friend and the person for whom he would fight most of his life. Griffith recruits Guts into the Band of the Falcon. Here, Guts meets Casca, the woman he loves and would give his life for.

After growing fond of the band, Guts decides to leave. Griffith opposes him in an unempathetic way, leading to a sword duel reminiscent of their first encounter. This time, thanks to Guts' rigorous training while Griffith pursued his ambitions, Guts wins. The scene showcases the results of Guts' training and reveals Casca's true feelings. Griffith is devastated and makes a rash decision, losing all his progress. When Guts, Casca, and the rest of the Band rescue him, the Eclipse begins—an event where Griffith sacrifices everything to fulfill his ambitions. Only Guts and Casca survive, saved by the enigmatic Skull Knight.

Casca is subsequently raped by Griffith in front of Guts, causing her to go into shock and lose her memory. Guts loses his left arm and right eye, displaying great weakness. From this point, he distances himself from his beloved to seek revenge. This work is magnificent, with countless more points to narrate, but I have briefly explained Guts' childhood above. The development of Guts is sublime, as are Griffith’s goals, actions, and emotions. Griffith’s entire persona, including his relationships with Guts and Casca, is incredible. Casca shows the real weaknesses of the protagonist, his empty ambitions, and his regrets, along with her own significant character development and relationship with Guts.

After the Golden Age, many say the work declines, but it doesn't just decline; it falls significantly. However, it still has compelling arcs like the Condemnation arc.

DRAWING: 10

STORY: 10

CHARACTERS: 10

Berserk is widely regarded as one of the greatest manga series ever, and every anime fan knows it. However, after reading it, I found myself intrigued because it turned out to be much different from what I expected. There is no grand philosophical message; instead, it features extremely potent character writing paired with a fantastically compelling adventure.

I believe it’s this exceptional character writing that allows Berserk to reach incredible heights. It strikes an insane balance between complexity and simplicity. The characters are multi-layered, often saying one thing and doing another, leaving readers to piece together their profiles. This is further enhanced by each character's ties to the many different themes of the setting, all while paralleling each other. This results in an excellent story to unravel. The best example of this dynamic is Guts and Griffith: light and dark, shadow and light, fate and god, anger and indifference, human versus ethereal, self-sacrifice versus the sacrifice of others—just to name a few. It’s remarkable how many parallels and themes are explored through just these two characters, and it’s all these dynamics that elevate Berserk to GOAT status. These themes expand as more characters are introduced, each growing naturally and satisfyingly.

All this said, Berserk is a fantastic manga, but it does have its faults. I feel that Berserk stumbles a bit after the Golden Age arc and loses some steam. But then again, the Golden Age arc is arguably one of the best arcs of all time, so that’s understandable. What I can’t excuse is that damned boat arc. Why did they spend so much time on that boat? It’s made worse by the lack of character focus in that entire arc, focusing instead on whatever plot was at hand. It felt like a waste of time, and the story wouldn’t change much if it were deleted entirely. Additionally, some characters got left behind, particularly Puck, who I thought would become an important character to Guts. Instead of becoming his first real friend, he was reduced to comic relief, which was disappointing.

Overall, Berserk shines through its use of some of the best-written characters ever to breathe life into an epic adventure. Its dynamics are strikingly human and perfectly illustrate the story's main themes. In a way, we are all like Guts, fighting against the decisions of others that dictate our lives. Keep pushing forward, struggler, and seek peace in chaos.

“In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. Man takes up the sword in order to shield the small wound in his heart sustained in a far-off time beyond remembrance. Man wields the sword so that he may die smiling in some far-off time beyond perception.”

In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will.

William Tecumseh Sherman once said that war is hell. And Hell, when regarded in a biblical sense—which seems fitting for Berserk, given its numerous biblical allusions—supposedly lasts forever. Does this mean war is eternal? Is war an eternal hell?

Berserk is fundamentally a two-pronged fantasy epic: revenge and redemption. Our protagonist, Guts, constantly finds himself cornered into choosing between these two paths, all while otherworldly beings repeatedly tell him that his struggles are predestined. Yet, the foreseen future remains clouded and uncertain, both for Guts and the reader. One of the most brilliant aspects of Kentaro Miura's storytelling is how, regardless of the path Guts chooses—and he does vacillate frequently, especially in the first half of the manga—readers can both agree and disagree with his decisions. When he flies into blind rages, killing the monsters he despises and destroying his own body in the process, we may dislike him for not following the righteous path, but we understand his justified indignation, especially after learning about his traumatic past and why he hates the Apostles and the God Hand. Conversely, when he chooses the morally righteous, often equally difficult path, we acknowledge it as the more ethically sound choice, but secretly wish he would tear apart whatever beast stands before him, one of many things that took everything he loved away from him.

This manga is lengthy—at 340 chapters as of this writing—and shows no signs of stopping soon, with its incomplete story, long waits between chapters, and frequent, extended hiatuses. It progresses in arcs, typically culminating in Guts defeating the primary villain, and each arc contributes significantly to the overarching narrative. Critics of Berserk often complain about how information is introduced, suggesting it could be presented more concisely. However, I find the subtle foreshadowing combined with the explosive revelations to be compelling. The story has a clear direction with a mysterious and distant end; even though the current part of the manga has been criticized as the worst so far, it is evident what it means for the Berserk universe and where the story will go from here.

Berserk is hailed by many as the greatest manga to date. While I wouldn't fully agree with that statement at the moment (though if it ever ends, I might reconsider), the reasons beyond a solid story for that communal thought are easy to understand. Berserk undoubtedly has the best art of any manga. Trust me and the community when we say that Berserk and Kentaro Miura are the pinnacle of manga visuals alone. If you don't believe me, just search "Berserk best panels" online. Truly, Miura's dedication to extreme detail consistently produces stunning and beautiful artwork. This alone might justify the irregular release schedule: anyone familiar with mangaka knows they often work under harsh conditions, with many authors working from deadline to deadline on little to no sleep. Many have the resolve to become mangaka, but none come close to putting as much exhaustive detail into their works as Kentaro Miura.

Perhaps one of Miura's greatest achievements is the exploration and distinction of good and evil. Several characters in Berserk are undeniably evil, as those who have read it or watched the anime or seen snippets of various characters will attest. However, many characters embody desires or ideological viewpoints that are more ambiguous. Guts, our protagonist, is obviously one of these, for reasons previously outlined. Others abound, too. Some perform questionable actions out of sheer selfishness, while others see their deeds as just or at least justified. Many of these characters die, but those who survive undergo some of the greatest character development I've seen in any work of literature, alongside a raging philosophical debate akin to that of Watchmen.

Berserk is not without its problems, though these issues may be few and far between. Occasionally, I agree with criticisms regarding vague storytelling and unnecessary plot elements. However, these are often resolved later when the purpose of certain actions or developments is fully revealed—a prospect I look forward to as the current arc concludes. One criticism I definitely agree with, and often point out myself, is the rise of poor humor, particularly chibi comedy. I can tolerate it in small doses, but some characters are becoming too chibi too often, which is annoying and adds nothing to the story or art. These moments are blemishes on what is otherwise a masterpiece.

To get this out of the way: Berserk is a seinen manga that deals with very mature themes unabashedly. Rape, murder, theft—all those evils of the world—are brought to the forefront with Miura's relentless penmanship. That means gore, sex, rape, loss, insanity—all depicted in graphic detail. If you're squeamish or conservative about such content, don't bother picking up the first volume. I personally have no complaints about Miura's depictions of violence, but many people do, and they need to understand that this is simply what you'll experience in the brutal world of Berserk.

Overall, Berserk is one of my favorite manga of all time (although I haven't read too much manga to begin with), though it isn't my absolute favorite, mainly due to its incomplete story, inconsistent release schedule, and, in recent chapters, an increase in dumb chibi comedy that I find unsuitable for the type of manga it is.

Do I recommend Berserk? Hell yes. The art is absurdly good, the story thus far is compelling, the characters are diverse, interesting, and dynamic, and it offers excellent philosophical conundrums, questions, and systems. Just know what you're getting into: graphic imagery and a long wait for the finish line.

As a lover of medieval-style narratives, I began searching for manga with such settings ever since I was introduced to the world of manga and anime. Many people recommended Berserk, praising it as a masterpiece, and it wasn't long before I understood why.

Firstly, Berserk is one of the few manga, if not the only one, where secondary characters' pasts, relationships, and stories are introduced without distracting from the main plot or shifting focus away from the central characters. This enriches the drama and makes the cast more interesting and realistic. Despite the vast amount of information presented, it never feels overwhelming. Honestly, I've never seen an anime or manga achieve such detail with so little effort, keeping readers engaged without inducing boredom.

The main characters are Guts and Griffith, who are direct opposites in philosophy and style. They start as good friends with a strong bond but eventually, one will betray the other. The villains in Berserk are not your typical clichéd bad guys bent on world destruction; each has their own motives and backstory, making them more than just obstacles for the protagonists to overcome.

The story walks a fine line between being complex yet easy to understand and chaotic, but it never crosses over into either extreme. Characters may occasionally deviate from their original goals within each arc, but you'll never lose sight of their intentions. Berserk's magic lies in its ability to evoke intense emotions, leaving you enraged and angry at certain points while also grappling with themes of morality, dreams, and duty as the story unfolds.

When it comes to the artwork, no single word can suffice to describe its brilliance. Battle scenes are fluid, realistic, and full of energy, making it easy to follow what's happening during duels. Castle sieges and battlefields are depicted with hundreds of soldiers in just a few frames, yet they never become too chaotic to understand. Notably, the facial expressions of the characters are incredibly telling—you can always discern a character's emotions by looking at their face, and even if you're unsure about someone's motives, a glance at their expression will confirm or deny your suspicions.

However, keep in mind that Berserk is not your average warrior-style manga. It features high levels of gore and violence, along with elements of sex, rape, and nudity, making it a mature read. But isn't that reflective of how medieval times truly were? There's no need to glorify these aspects, but there's also no need to create illusions that knights in shining armor were all kind-hearted heroes. Berserk definitely captures this realism.

To date, Berserk remains my favorite medieval-themed manga, and I doubt any other manga will surpass it anytime soon. I strongly recommend it, confident that you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Story: 10
Art: 9
Character: 9
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 10