Overall: If I hadn’t already seen the show, I’d stop reading the manga right here, and I completely understand why other people would also chose to stop right here. The common folk exist to be brutally murdered, and the villains are complete monsters (both literally and figuratively), who exist solely to be brutally slain by Guts without any motivation to them. Guts is lacking of any sympathetic traits at this point in the series. 3/6.Įmotional Response: In spite of the characterization earlier, I really don’t care about any of these characters. The other common people are written fairly well, and the villains are complete monsters who we want to see killed. However, if you’re coming in cold, Guts will seem like an unsympathetic psychotic villain protagonist, created by a 13-year-old wanna-be Neitzchean Anarchist, who understands neither Neitzche nor anarchism. 4/6.Ĭharacterization: If you’ve seen the TV show, as I have (see the link to the TV show review above), Guts character at the start makes sense, based on what’s happened to him in the past. Story: This volume is extremely episodic – surprisingly so, considering what comes later in the series. There are several pages in the US release that look like they were originally in color, but which translated poorly to black & white. 3/6.Īrtwork: The art generally looks good.

At this point, the most original aspect of the setting is the Behelits, and those aren’t explained yet. Originality: This feels like a world heavily influenced by swords & sorcery novels, and black metal. This manga has lots of sex, lots of violence, and lots of gore, and plenty of disturbing imagery.

If you’ve seen the anime though, you know that this character is something of a deconstruction of that – and that he’s a character who has been broken again and again by the world. If you haven’t though, he comes across like a character created by an Internet Tough Guy, to appeal to Internet Tough Guys. If you’ve seen the anime, you’ll know why Guts acts the way he does here. Guts’ hand cannon is even based on a real weapon! Low Points Similarly, the weapons and armor are designed very well (and are actually somewhat realistic). The fight scenes are incredibly well done and feel epic. In a world threatened and menaced by demonic forces, the Black Swordsman, Guts, traveles the land, hunting the demonic Acolytes, while searching for their dark masters, the God Hand. Published by Dark Horse Comics (US), Hakusensha (Japan)Īvailable from & The Premise

Manga Monday is back, and this week I’m taking a look at the first volume of a manga whose anime I reviewed several years ago – Berserk.

Vol 1 berserk