fwiw the very beginning, prior to flashback, is indeed really trashy and I didn’t like it either
Tbh just skip straight to the flashback arc
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I did and it’s still pretty bad
Skipped further and it’s now got a lot of comic relief elf again, and a lot more GoT-ish titmongering
On the plus side I now think even less of icyclam
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it is always pretty edgelordy when it’s not being goofy generic shounen so skipping it is probably the right call for you (I spent way too much time seeing if I could find value in it and that flashback arc is the closest it came to being compelling)
I unintentionally did this and was generally going in blind. Really added to the impact of Zod’s first appearance.
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I liked Berserk on the whole, but it’s pretty trashy, and some of the edgy grimdark bloodshit grates on me. In particular how cavalier it is about using rape for drama. Don’t think i could revisit a lot of it nowadays. Also yeah by the time that starts dialing that stuff back it just becomes a goofy drawn-out shonen. I haven’t kept up with it in a long while, i don’t even know how much there is to keep up with. Game of Thrones/ASoIaF is a good comparison point!
Still, has some cool/striking images. I don’t regret reading at least up to the Eclipse.
I actually like the old 1997 anime better than the manga, it’s just the flashback arc (which i agree is the best part) but significantly toned down. And it has cool music
Come to think of it, I stopped reading shortly after the Eclipse arc. That whole flashback seemed like a fully formed enough story to wrap it all up for me.
I’ve never understood why people love The Golden Age arc so much. Guts new party > Guts old party.
Actually, I think I remember the last time it came up every agreed that Farnese is the best character so idk
I guess the characters are more “fun” following the Golden Age but i liked the (melo)drama of that arc and the Eclipse is a fairly stunning climax that i don’t think has been topped.
Also i liked Casca a lot and it frustrates me to no end what Miura does to her character and how.
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Yeah this is kind of relentless in fact and never not skeevily done, wow
Japaaaaaaan
Berserk always seemed to me like every feminist’s nightmare, which is why I’m a bit surprised that there’s some love for it here.
Part of it is nostalgia, I imagine. I’ve got vague memories of watching the 1997 anime and how it ended because uh, that bit is hard to forget.
Gonna speculate that most folks here were exposed to it at a young enough age that they dont really think about the content the way they would if they encountered it as a new thing today
It’s not that they’re more fun so much as more realized. Other than the main three, I don’t remember anyone from that arc. There was a dude with a cute nose and a dude who liked Casca, but maybe those are the same person idk. The latter arcs have characters with a lot of personality and everyone gets their own little character arcs and growth and such even if they just end up dying or walking out of the story or whatever
At this point I think part of it is just with all the hiatuses and meandering pace people are questioning the odds of it ever actually getting an ending at all, let alone a satisfying one.
I like it just as much as back then. Which you may very well take as an indication of my inability to grow up and out of it.
Though I can always make myself feel better imagining that I’ve grown so much as to outgrow my distaste and grow into liking it again.
Oh, we are never going to get an ending, don’t worry about that. Casca should get her mind back within a few issues of the current hiatus ending, though, so that should be cool!
It still has more chances of getting and ending than Bastard!!, though.
OTOH, The Golden Age arc might have the least amount of gross shit in it and since I can never recommend Berserk to anyone I guess I can see the appeal there.
I wasn’t meaning to make a value judgment. I think as this thread indicates, a lot of folks still have good things to say about the comic even if, were they to read it today without any memory of the good things, it’d be effortless to be put off by the gross hypermasculine shit it exudes.
But, given that they know that there’s good stuff in there if they look past the gross shit they can still like it. Going into it cold is much more difficult if one isn’t as inured to the grossness.
I guess this post is just ‘enjoying problematic media 101’. I could probably make the same exact post of how/why I can like HP Lovecraft’s (good) stories and find his racism repugnant.
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