Honestly, what can I say about this masterpiece that others haven’t? The art for Berserk is not just “good,” it’s legendary. Stylistically, detail-wise, its use in the narrative. And that’s just the art. The first 150 to 225 chapters of Berserk are some of the most riveting, engaging storytelling ever done in fantasy, ever. And the rest of the story easily boasts the best artwork used to depict a story in humanity’s history, period.

Throughout time, text has been the most easily reproducible and distributable form of media. Be it Shakespeare, Dante, Homer, or the Bible, written works have enjoyed the privilege of engaging a mass audience with an identical and discussable experience, something other types of media simply could not compete with.

In the 1900s, this changed. Movies, art, television, animation, games, comics, and so much more were now elevated to the same level of mass producibility as written texts. But sadly, culture lagged behind. When silent films were first starting to gain traction, higher-class people looked down on the media, considering it “low-brow” and drivel for the masses. Today, movies are clearly enjoyed and respected by critics as art like any other. For a time, movie critics derided their peers in television who had to watch slop designed to serve more ads to TV watchers. Then, along came goliath shows such as Breaking Bad, The Wire, Game of Thrones, and even legendary kids shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender. Quite suddenly, television had also validated itself as a serious art form worthy of critical scrutiny, joining the likes of movies and novels.

Berserk to me is manga’s Breaking Bad. Kentaro Miura uses the visual medium to bring to life the story of Guts, a man endlessly struggling against a world that only wishes to crush him and watch him suffer. Through sheer force of will, Guts powers through impossible and increasingly hellish challenges, building up his body to be a killing machine capable of keeping the nightmares spawned by the curse that dominates his life at bay.

(spoilers below, skip to end if don’t want)

While I do consider Berserk as close to one of the best fantasy stories ever written, I also think that its “ending” is one of the biggest cliffhangers in any piece of media, ever. Miura’s unexpected death at the peak of the plot, when its two most iconic characters were about to meet face to face after a buildup of 365 chapters, is nothing short of one of the greatest tragedies at the meta-level of storytelling possibly ever. Although I’m grateful that Miura’s friend Kouji Mori has taken over the series in order to bring the audience some closure on the story of Guts, it’s clear from the first few chapters of the continuation that no one could ever live up to the artistic skill, vision, and narrative drive that Miura had in his final chapters. So many of Miura’s panels could be hung up in a gallery by themselves and be appreciated.

Nothing, however, is free of criticism. I’d say right before he gets the berserker armor to right after they get off the boat (chapters 225-345), the story loses a lot of steam. It’s still interesting, but fights become formulaic, and the art of the story becomes the ultimate focus rather than the actual story itself. I’m going to be honest, I thought Miura had lost it when I was reading through the boat arc. But after the boat arc, when we actually get to Casca’s dream world, that’s when we start revving up the Berserk engine again. Finally, Miura had returned to full form, pumping out intricate, creative panels while simultaneously bringing back the emotion that drove the main characters and kicking them into high gear. Glimpses into the past of Skull Knight and the old Godhand standing over him, ripping away everything he valued in life just as Griffith had done to Guts before. Mmmm, 🤌 perfection.

Then the focus was back to Guts, and it was time for Griffith to rip away any small morsel Guts could get for himself again. Face to face after years. Why did he do it? What would Guts say to him?

Then Miura died. 52 years old, aorta ripped open in his sleep. After dedicating his entire life to Berserk, denying himself friends, breaks, everything, all for Berserk, he dies in his sleep.

(end spoilers)

If you haven’t read Berserk because of some aversion to media you think of as lesser, I’d give it a solid try. If you don’t like it, that’s okay, that’s how it is sometimes. But as humanity enters into an age where visual media can rival the storytelling depth that novels have, it’s my belief that one day people will look back at works at the forefront of humanity’s newest storytelling methods and pick out some as classics worth preserving and studying because they’ll resonate with those people, and they’ll continue to resonate with people as time moves forward. And I think Berserk will be one of those stories.