Kentaro Miura

Guts, the Black Swordsman, is marked with the Brand, which draws the forces of evil to him, but, with a gigantic sword and an elf companion, Guts battles the damned with a vengeance.

Berserk Volume 16

Created by Kentaro Miura, Berserk is manga mayhem to the extreme - violent, horrifying, and mercilessly funny - and the wellspring for the internationally popular anime series. Not for the squeamish or the easily offended, Berserk asks for no quarter - and offers none! His name is Guts, the Black Swordsman, a feared warrior spoken of only in whispers. Bearer of a gigantic sword, an iron hand, and the scars of countless battles and tortures, his flesh is also indelibly marked with The Brand, an unholy symbol that draws the forces of darkness to him and dooms him as their sacrifice. But Guts won't take his fate lying down; he'll cut a crimson swath of carnage through the ranks of the damned - and anyone else foolish enough to oppose him! Accompanied by Puck the Elf, more an annoyance than a companion, Guts relentlessly follows a dark, bloodstained path that leads only to death...or vengeance.

Berserk Volume 1

Wynter

Sep 17, 2018: Seinen is my favourite manga genre, so the legendary Berserk is right up my alley. The protagonist is intolerable in that typical manga cool, badass guy way, but I am intrigued by the world and the little elf character. I can’t imagine how much effort the author put into some panels, though. The battle scenes, especially the one against the undead soldiers, are exceptionally detailed and beautifully composed. There isn’t much for plot development yet, so I’m giving the first volume an average rating. As always, mature content.

The evil Count uses his dark powers to transform a defeated guard captain into an inhuman horror to combat Guts, the Black Swordsman. Puck, Guts’ pint-sized fairy sidekick, is captured when he attempts to stop an old doctor’s execution, and he is given as a gift to the count’s daughter, a sweet girl in a gilded cage, imprisoned by her father in her own room. Guts, determined to make mincemeat of the Count, assaults the castle and carves a swath of blood-soaked destruction through the Count’s minions. Face-to-face with the Black Swordsman at last, the Count reveals his true form, and even Guts’ super-sized sword may not be big enough to contend with this demonic monstrosity!

Berserk Volume 2

Sep 17, 2018: Guts (still a terrible name) is still being a jackass, but there are glimpses of interesting character development. Is it possible for him to become more sympathetic? Super quick read, I find.

From creator Kentaro Miura comes Berserk, a sprawling adult fantasy epic of horror, humor, and fierce imagination and the inspiration for the wildly popular anime. To cure the afflicted Casca, Guts and company battle Elf Island's magical defenses and finally reach Elfhelm, where the elven ruler opens the Corridor of Dreams, projecting Schierke and Farnese into the forbidding wasteland of Casca's mind. But horrors lurk there, some more foul than any in the material world!

Berserk Volume 39

Ken Yuen

It feels like I've waited 20 years for this storyline to start. It's pretty good. The art is amazing too! So many things going on in each scene. A lot of detail and background.

Pretty amazing character moments too.

"Berserk's setting is inspired by medieval Europe. It centers around the life of Guts, an orphaned mercenary warrior, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the Band of the Hawk. As he ages, Guts changes from a solitary boy into a man who realizes the value of camaraderie. The story contains elements of both fantasy and horror, as it explores both the best and worst of human nature"--Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserk_(manga).

Berserk Volume 40

Two steps forward, one step back? I was really enjoying this chapter, and it's amazing because it's main plot related. But the resolution is ambiguous, so time to wait for the next volume~

The dark fantasy's start. It's weird coming back to this story and seeing where Guts begins versus where he is later on. At this point, Puck basically acts as his conscience which is a weird dynamic. RIP Kentaro Miura, your work has been an inspiration for so many things.

Guts continues his dark quest for revenge. It's an ugly world full of ugly monsters and heroes, but you can sympathize with the characters Guts meets.

Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, finishes his desperate battle with the monstrous Count, cutting and blasting him to gory scraps when the presence of the Count's daughter makes the monster hesitate. But Guts won't even have the time to clean his gigantic sword when the Count's dying pleas activate the Behelit, summoning the five God Hands, demon lords of immeasurable power. Guts' journey so far has been a long road of pain and death, but that's a walk in the park compared to fighting his way out of Hell itself!

Berserk Volume 16

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