Berserk

Reviewed by Marcio Guastavino
July 18, 2006

Author: Kentaro Miura Artist: Kentaro Miura Publisher: Dark Horse Manga, Digital Manga Publishing Website: Click Here Review Rating: 10 out of 10

Guts (Gatts in Japan ) is a wandering mercenary whose past has seen and done almost everything. He has literally been to hell and back, and he is now engraved with the mark of sacrifice. Guts must battle demons in order to free himself from his curse. Although the series starts off with Guts pursuing a demon, it eventually goes back and tells the story of his origins and how he came to do battle with the undead and other horrific monsters from hell. From childhood Guts has been holding a sword and improved his skills with every battle that he gets into. After finishing a mercenary job, he is taken in by the Band of the Hawk, led by a mysterious man named Griffith . With Guts at his side, Griffith and his Band of the Hawk continue to do mercenary jobs, gaining recognition in the battlefield. The story progresses through many wars and skirmishes as you learn more about Guts and his group composed of some of the youngest warriors put together. Being such a young group, there are certain points of comic relief. The manga's art and witty dialogue portray this well. When compared with the anime, the manga does more than enough to cover up loose ends in the Berserk story and add more character development.

The amount of detail that is put into every page is magnificent. The anger that Guts feels while pummelling enemy after enemy is shown so beautifully through each page. Reading this manga and looking at each drawing, it almost feels like you're not even reading, but watching a movie. While the story centers on Guts and Griffith , every other character has his or her own unique part in the story. I found nothing wrong with this great series and I hope they can finish it up here in the U.S. (seeing as Japan is up to thirty volumes).

I wouldn't allow a child to read this manga; it contains too much blood, gore, violence, and some sexual content. As an adult reader I would recommend the series as it was quite addictive and the story lines were developed enough to have me catching the next volumes. The price is standard for manga and it is well worth it.