Cartoonist Kayfabe on Berserk

[SlyapBG]

The guys at Cartoonist Kayfabe, accomplished comic book authors, mind you, pose a question: When does Berserk become great?

Ed and Jim are a good duo and knowledgable about comics, as is to be expected. They also know a lot about manga. In fact, their manga videos are probably more viewed than their regular comic book uploads and they frequently have more good things to say about manga and the industry of Japan than they have of Anglo-American stuff. They also shit on cape shit from time to time, which is always great. So, I was looking forward to them talking about Berserk eventually.

They started with the REVENGE episodes, i.e. the Black Swordsman arc, as it's intended, but it doesn't seem to have awed them. I can sort of understand.
But I dislike how they use the word rabbid when calling out the Berserk fanbase. It's true, it's incredibly annoying, but I like to think it's more normal than fanbases of other manga franchises.

 

[Zephyr42]

Curious that they mention not seeing "the macguffin", but somehow didn't notice the prevalence and significance of the brand. It's on the cover, it's on Guts, Puck asks about it and Guts says "you'll find out soon enough", the snake apostle identifies it by name as the Brand of Sacrifice, etc. Not to mention Guts asking where the five members of the God Hand are. The first volume also ends with the appearance of the Beherit, practically the first thing in the story that actually catches Guts by surprise.

Obviously the brand, the God Hand, and the Beherit themselves aren't exactly the heart and soul of Berserk's story (though they are related), those things which make it what it is, and which make it great. That, instead, is Guts' relationships with Griffith and Casca, and how he changes and grows as a person through those relationships. That those aren't directly a factor at all in the first volume is fair criticism. But I don't think there's really any excuse to read the material that mentions stuff like the brand, the God Hand, and the Beherit, and not start asking "huh, what's all this about?". Especially if, as a first time reader, you are by your own account actively searching for some, any, kind of hint of a central long-term pull.

Why was Guts given this "brand of sacrifice"? Who gave it to him, and why? Was it this "God Hand"? What, if anything, does this "Beherit" have to do with it?

 

[SlyapBG]

Curious that they mention not seeing "the macguffin", but somehow didn't notice the prevalence and significance of the brand. It's on the cover, it's on Guts, Puck asks about it and Guts says "you'll find out soon enough", the snake apostle identifies it by name as the Brand of Sacrifice, etc. Not to mention Guts asking where the five members of the God Hand are. The first volume also ends with the appearance of the Beherit, practically the first thing in the story that actually catches Guts by surprise.

Obviously the brand, the God Hand, and the Beherit themselves aren't exactly the heart and soul of Berserk's story (though they are related), those things which make it what it is, and which make it great. That, instead, is Guts' relationships with Griffith and Casca, and how he changes and grows as a person through those relationships. That those aren't directly a factor at all in the first volume is fair criticism. But I don't think there's really any excuse to read the material that mentions stuff like the brand, the God Hand, and the Beherit, and not start asking "huh, what's all this about?". Especially if, as a first time reader, you are by your own account actively searching for some, any, kind of hint of a central long-term pull.

Why was Guts given this "brand of sacrifice"? Who gave it to him, and why? Was it this "God Hand"? What, if anything, does this "Beherit" have to do with it?

When Jim said that he didn't read all of the volume that made me dissapointed. Come on, man, be prepared. They're usually better with this sort of thing. Not to mention that the narrative purpose of the Monster of the Week format is introducing you to the world and that is completely glossed over.

 

[Cyrus Jong]

"Whatever the MacGuffin is that carries on the comic and makes everybody stoked on it..."

->My Forehead

Guy doesn't know what a MacGuffin even is. Not even five minutes into this video, and I could already tell this was going to be a rough ride.

"The innovation there was there was this game that's a first-person sword game..."

SWORD OF THE BERSERK WAS NOT FIRST-PERSON! Do they even know what that term means?

What this sword cuts through too, 'cause we have several of these kind of things, cut a horse in half, cut a dude in half. I mean that's, it's Faustian in a way with the black blood and, I like that over-the-top cartoony violence.

That cements it. These guys are trying to sound smarter than they really are by throwing words around that they don't understand but remember hearing their high school English teacher say.

Anyway, I really hate how they're approaching this. Coming into any story posing the question "When does it get great?" and seriously expecting people to answer you is all in bad faith. It shows you're not interested in the story or learning why it's so beloved by just diving into it. You're expecting, nay, demanding its fans defend and justify its existence because you jumped into it with prebuilt expectations that were never going to be met (or worse, were already negative). And any answer to that question will always come with the implication that everything that came before the supposed "moment of greatness" stank, when the reality is greatness is about the whole. Heck, it's oftentimes not even immediately obvious when any given work became transcendent for you, and you realized it days, weeks, months, possibly even years after perusing it.

When jumping into a new story, the real question you should be asking is "Am I liking this?" Or any other variant of that. "Do I want answers to these mysteries?" "Do I want to see what happens next?" "Do I want to know more?" "Is this interesting?" If the answer is yes, then that's all you need to know and that's all the author requires of you. It doesn't need to be the greatest thing ever. It doesn't need to be better than or of similar quality to the other stories you read. It doesn't need to be in your top ten at the moment or ever. Just dive into the story, enjoy it for what it is, and decide for yourself when and if it fits your definition of "great." And if you're not enjoying it, then by all means, put it down and find something else to do. Like make more videos on manga in Shonen Jump, which the guys think everything should be more like.

“My experience with comics and people who are super into a comic is that, by and large, they’re idolaters and they share a hive mind popular opinion.”

Oh seriously fuck off. You're expecting Berserk fans to tell you when this manga you're ready to write off gets good, but this statement makes it clear you've already written them off too and were never approaching them, or Berserk itself, from a position of respect. Which goes with my above point about how this video is in bad faith.

 

[Vampire_Hunter_Bob]

If the Berserk fan base is a hive mind, it's interesting how many major disagreements there are.

 

[IncantatioN]

Just reading the title of that video makes me not want to click it. It's got "this's a waste of time" written all over it. I'd rather spend my time to catch up on SkullKast.