Take A Pick Tuesday: Berserk
Welcome to the brutal world of Berserk. Having a bad day in a demon infested world, marked with a strange symbol which means you’re haunted everywhere you go? Yeah me too but take heart, the main character in this show has the same problem, in fact he’s got a lot more problems than that. This is an anime that everyone should see or at least try, it’ll be your guess in what you might expect in this show but you’ll find more than you bargained for, usually that's a bad thing but for an anime like this it makes it all the more compelling.
Berserk is an interesting breed as after the first episode, we move backwards and then forward again. Set in a type of medieval era with a sense that the world has ended but is still continuing we follow Gutts, referred to as the Black Swordsman who moves through a demon infested world just like us, many of which are oppressing the people, controlling the monarchies and making life more miserable than it probably was beforehand. The only thorn on their side, an unrelenting opposition, in the form of the black swordsman.
However Guts of course doesn’t hunt these demons for nothing, in fact he doesn’t hunt them for the oppressed people either, he isn't without morals, he's just seen so much and is a complicated complex character. So it does seem askew in the manga in the beginning as opposed to the anime. Yet what are those reasons for this, we don't know quite yet but what we do know is that he’s branded, that what he hunts is also hunting him and no night can come with sleep unless nightmares are alongside them.
No matter how you feel about Gutts, the one thing you have to know is he doesn't quit, doesn’t surrender, defying destiny and continuing to live for others sake. Once they finish the first episode and look back to the past, everything they show you that came before is thought out so well. It starts with him as a mercenary, younger, thinner but the fierceness is eyes is present, something they later explain from when he was a baby to a child. A necessity to survive, although survive for what is the journey will see Gutts undergo.
Berserk is a look into the dark, defying expectations and somehow managing to continue despite the losses one makes. It’s also an intelligent show that mediates on the aspects of ambition, power, love, are these things what you want or do you deny them, what forges your path and why, who do you follow, who do you lead, whose life do you live for, others or your own, what's the value in your life, is it something you never saw before. What do you continue forward for. What do you seek, how far will you go to reach them, What are all the consequences for these feelings, what moves us to continue? Can you change the path anyone else walks, could you see it happening and if it does, is there anything you can do to make it right.
As he manages to defeat Gutts and keep him alive, he asks him to follow him until he is strong enough to do otherwise, become a tool to help Griffin go from leader of a mercenary group, to a noble knight and possibly a king. That would seem unlikely and indeed it does to those that would come to know the Band of The Hawk but soon they'll realize far from impossible. As Gutts slowly becomes a part of The Band of The Hawk, at first without any interest in Griffin's ambitions as opposed to those in the group like Casca, he rises, to help lead on the battlefield, to count the warriors as friends, and respect Griffin. Even if it means he goes toe to toe with Casca one of the other commanders of The Band of The Hawk at every turn, especially when her careful planning in battle has to give way to his headstrong reckless style. Which of course could kill the others and ruin everything they've fought for, instead though it has the opposite effect.
Griffin’s center of attention before Gutts came into the picture was Casca, she’s as fierce as anyone else, her decisions not just in battle as we soon see but in everything, are based on how they will affect Griffin and his reputation and she doesn’t like Gutts reckless attitude and yet would share with him such an important connection that would shift the storyline. Although in a sense her biggest beef with Gutts could be downright jealousy, she worked hard for her place in the Band of The Hawk, owing Griffin her life and her heart has belonged to him since.
Yet Gutts may represent something, perhaps not at first but eventually that could change that, perhaps her eventual insight into another side of him is also the same insight he'll find in himself, changing not just things for himself but Casca and everyone, even Griffin will not be immune to it. and what does that mean for her, someone whose pledged her life to another’s dreams, maybe something as vital as for him?
This show seems like an epic of coming into power, the Band of The Hawk, starts to serve a kingdom, helping the armies of this kingdom to win several conflicts, Griffin doing this allows his status to grow just as he hopes for, becoming a knight, his journey to become king. Even slowly courting the princess. While we see his bond grow with Gutts we also see the secrets on the many dark deals Griffin was forced to make to help alone his climb to power. All those around him like Gutts and Casca are there to assure it to happen, they want it to happen soon. Even if it means that soon he isn't the only committing dark deeds behind the scenes but also Gutts, finding himself doing horrible things for the sole purpose of Griffin's ascent and to protect him from others in court that would see his reputation crumble.
At this point we only get occasional hint to the supernatural/horror underpinnings we saw in the first episode, the strange necklace around Griffin's neck, the strange creature they encounter in the midst of one of their battles. It's warning to Gutts in what following Griffin would mean. Often I've wondered what it would be like as a live action film and how surprised people would be when they saw this particular arc in Berserk. The strange things that are to come, only are intiated when Gutts decides to leave The Band Of The Hawk, realizing he can't continue to live for another's sake/ambition but finally has found a deeper meaning in his own. Despite his love for all of them and even Casca , he feels it's the only path he can choose.
What's the most painful thing to watch, is it some of the back deal things Gutts does for Griffin, like killing a witness that was a child, pretty awful but the show makes their climatic rematch the hardest thing to watch of all. We all knew with the growing strength that Griffin has now, I mean there is a fantastic scene where he stays behind and fights a hundred men, which your sure ok he's gonna die but no, he kills 100 men, you know when you see things like this, that the rematch is going to have to go in Gutt's favor. Such dedication that we've seen throughout the series is what drives the show and its characters,it’s their strength but it can also be their downfall as we now see.
Proving that the show knows how to do everything right, transcending from the major battles that came before, ones that could make Bernard Cornwell proud, to intrigue, the realistic reasoning in the characters, and a lot of longing, what if’s and desire to make sure everything descended to the ground like a meteor.
That should be enough, I mean the series has an infamous cliffhanger that should drive you crazy but only adds to joy of the series, not only that but hindsight really does close out and yet more had come in the form of a trilogy of movies. Also enjoyable it manages to add a whole other element into the retelling of Berserk. Except we want to know what happens next right and that seemed unlikely to some but never doubt anime. In the midst of a hiatus by author Kentaro Miura, creator of Berserk due to working on another project for a while, it seemed like the conclusion of the manga would take just as long.
However while waiting the exciting announcement came that a new series will be made this year for Berserk and all the teasers have involved Gutts in his black swordsman get up which means only that we will be able to go further in the series. How it will all wind up is something will have to look ahead to but the ride going there should be as fantastic as the rest of the series. If you never read the manga, I encourage you to do so, we’re on par with Japan with the same volume number at the moment. You can see where the lush details that look like they belong to a bygone era in painting form, the intricate details in the backgrounds, more European than Japanese and the vivid realistic detail of the characters, gruesome and beautiful, human and awful come from.
Not to mention the creatures, like hell dreamed them up only because it’s reality, the demons are not to be shrugged off, just to give you a sense of the overcoming odds Gutts faces, even for him, it’s a lot. Not to mention characters you’ve never seen in the show and one you’ll see from the start, the fairy Puck!
You see, nothing is a simple as a climb of power, we as humans have our emotions tangled up in everything, in each other, in our hopes and while that can be a beautiful thing and it can also be a devastating thing with consequences beyond our comprehension. That’s something chaotic and is definitely something berserk, in which, the series has earned its name.
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