Episode 374

[Walter]

Episode 374 will be published in Young Animal #19, slated to be released on September 22.

Source: https://twitter.com/MangaMoguraRE/status/1699012667267273181?s=20

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This episode is part of the new serialization of Berserk that is being done without Kentarou Miura. It's based on some of the material he left behind as well as what he had told his close ones of the story over the years. Kouji Mori, his best friend and a fellow mangaka, writes and supervises the series while his former assistants draw it under the banner of Studio Gaga.

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[ApostleBob]

Fingers crossed on a few things:

• Explanation of the sudden appearance of the Kushan that furthers the plot (such as a path to the Bakiraka stronghold with Rickert).
• Guts to stop crying in his cabin about his sword, and to get some new resolve.
• Scherike, Serpico, Isidro, and the gang have something meaningful to do.
• Some action.

 

[Walter]

Explanation of the sudden appearance of the Kushan that furthers the plot (such as a path to the Bakiraka stronghold with Rickert).

It’d be foolish to completely write off this possibility, because there are plenty of ways that it could come about. But on its face, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me to group these two just because they’re both brown-skinned, ya know?

The bakiraka is an independent clan who were exiled from kushan territory. They were only tenuously allied with Ganishka and his forces. Just because they once shared a country (generations ago) isn’t enough to assume they’d naturally work together, or that the appearance of one group foreshadows the other.

I suppose it could be cool if Silat filled the void of leadership for the Kushan survivors. But something about that possibility also irks me: Why should people maintain alliances that depend on the ghosts of nations instead of reforming groups based on survival.

 

[ApostleBob]

It’d be foolish to completely write off this possibility, because there are plenty of ways that it could come about. But on its face, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me to group these two just because they’re both brown-skinned, ya know?

I hear you, I'm just hoping that the appearance of Kushan pirates actually leads to plot developments, and isn't just random (and out of place) bad guys for Guts to take out. At this point, I don't know why Mori (or Miura) would reintroduce the Kushan army. Maybe they're just parts of the fractured army turning to banditry to survive in the new world. But I'm hoping there's more significance.

 

[Griffith]

on its face, it doesn’t make a ton of sense

Confirmed!

Just kidding, but on that note, I just hope whatever they do, or however they do it, works on its own merit and internal logic, whether we think its how Miura would have handled it particularly or not.

Hey everybody! Berserk!? Berserk. Oh, right... "Berserk"*

 

[Goat]

I personally and desperately need to see Guts moving on.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I personally and desperately need to see Guts moving on.

Exactly. If we get another episode of Guts trying to stand up, maybe killing 4 Kushans before pissing himself again, I would be truly devastated. And if Guts is still unable to move, I need Puck or someone else to finally care!

I for myself also need a hint as to why all Kushans have no pupils, but pure white eyes. I am not sure whether Studio Gaga is using it as an artistic freedom or if it has some relevance. I'm trying to remember whether Miura ever drew eyes without pupils if it had no further reason, because as for episode 373, it just looks weird.

Unfortunately, I think the new episode will continue with Rickert, Silat and Daiba. Not that I wouldn't like it, but the conclusion for epsiode 373 for Guts is just unsatisfying.

 

[Aazealh]

At this point, I don't know why Mori (or Miura) would reintroduce the Kushan army. Maybe they're just parts of the fractured army turning to banditry to survive in the new world. But I'm hoping there's more significance.

The truth is there's no reason for them to be there, and personally I really don't think Miura had planned any such development. It doesn't make sense for a random Kushan ship to be in that particular location (the middle of nowhere) at this particular time, and it's also unclear how they would even have survived after the world changed. Miura made it a point to show us what would happen to the average ship right after the advent of Fantasia, with the pirates getting immediately killed.

Anyway, like I said in the previous thread, my guess is they're there to serve as an impetus for Guts to get back on his feet.

I for myself also need a hint as to why all Kushans have no pupils, but pure white eyes. I am not sure whether Studio Gaga is using it as an artistic freedom or if it has some relevance.

It's just an artistic choice to make them look wicked and dangerous.

 

[TheItCrOw]

It's just an artistic choice to make them look wicked and dangerous.

Sadly, I think so as well. Not a fan of it. I find it very confusing and missleading, especially when the Kushans are the main object in the foreground of the panels and not in the background.

 

[Walter]

Maybe they're just parts of the fractured army turning to banditry to survive in the new world.

It sure seems that way! But if that's the case, it doesn't line up with what we saw in v35—the sea monsters eating sea monsters vignette, and of course what the sea god did to the pirates. Random pirates just freely sailing the seas without a special way of dealing with it? Doesn't seem congruent to me, at least not without explanation of some kind. Beyond that, these kushan bandits were also able to sneak aboard the otherwise capable Sea Horse folks and all the magic users without any warning whatsoever. Just kinda... bizarre.

 

[jackson_hurley]

BIzarre but not surprising considering all of the crap from that episode. Like the magic ritual that needs everyone to help?!

Anyways, I'm curious to see where this goes.

 

[MuscleRobo]

I'm just hoping they confirm something with the time dilation on Elfhelm. I suppose the implication is there was none with Griffith returning to Falconia but it seemed so teased! If Griffith is able to come back from the island with barely anytime passing but Rickert is going to be 20 years older I'll be upset.

 

[Aazealh]

I'm just hoping they confirm something with the time dilation on Elfhelm. I suppose the implication is there was none with Griffith returning to Falconia but it seemed so teased! If Griffith is able to come back from the island with barely anytime passing but Rickert is going to be 20 years older I'll be upset.

Keep in mind nothing as specific as "time dilation" is mentioned in the story. When the group arrives there, Isma's mother warns them that "on this island, the flow of time is different from that of the outside world" and also that "a continued stay means severance from the outside world". Then in episode 364, Danan says that "the flow of time is vague on this island" and that "a full moon night in the outside world lasts for at least a few days here".

So as you can see, no clear rules are given for how it works. A common assumption is that it could have been used as a means to accelerate the development of Griffith's empire before the group returned to the continent, but there was never any certainty that this would happen, as I told people at the time. In any case, in the Continuation the group simply didn't stay long enough for that to occur, and whatever extra wrinkle or explanation Miura might have had planned is lost to us.

Now, putting that aside, there is still a key aspect to the island's time flow that tends to be overlooked: it made it possible for all those magicians to be there in modern times, despite (at least for some of them) having been born a thousand years ago. Flora had also managed to subsist a very long time thanks to her tree, but she was dying by the time we met her. I believe those magicians, from the Great Gurus down to the kids, had an important role to play down the line, beyond immediate developments. Unfortunately we're probably not going to see it now.

 

[MuscleRobo]

Those are all very interesting points and I'll be honest I was looking at it in a real "meta" sense. The timing of Rickert leaving and learning about time flow seemed too perfect for setting up a "Time Skip Arc" in my manga/anime brain

 

[blodvind]

I'm sorry for this question but can the magazine be pre-ordered?

 

[jackson_hurley]

On amazon japan you can for the moment.

 

[Walter]

I'm sorry for this question but can the magazine be pre-ordered?

I've added the URL to the original post, but it's here. They're tricky to find, because the one you want with Berserk 374 is published on 9/22, but it's actually labeled as the "10/13" magazine. Whereas the previous issue is the one that's labeled the 9/22 magazine was published on 9/8.

 

[blodvind]

I've added the URL to the original post, but it's here. They're tricky to find, because the one you want with Berserk 374 is published on 9/22, but it's actually labeled as the "10/13" magazine. Whereas the previous issue is the one that's labeled the 9/22 magazine was actually published on 9/8.

Thank you! What about the online release? Can it be pre-ordered? I can find the No.18 Young Animal. I think it is the one published 9/8 but cannot find a link to pre-order the next one.

 

[Walter]

Thank you! What about the online release? Can it be pre-ordered? I can find the No.18 Young Animal. I think it is the one published 9/8 but cannot find a link to pre-order the next one.

I’ll post the URL once it’s known. There’s no rush to preorder the digital though.

 

[Aazealh]

Another doozy from Mori & team. I would never have believed it if someone had told me 2 years ago that I would someday think a "Berserk" episode went on forever, but that's what it felt like here. But then again this isn't really Berserk.

The episode title is another messy one that seems to be: "(Is) the Sleeping Beast of Darkness guarding calmy?"

Something notable: they've finally given us a new chapter title: "Odyssey to the East". On its face it doesn't say much, given that Falconia is eastward from Skellig to begin with, but it presumably ties into what Griffith said previously. No arc title, and the chapter is not added before the episode title. My thoughts: it isn't particularly inspired as a chapter title for what one might expect is the end or near-end of the series.

Anyway, as far as the story is concerned, the only new information we get from this episode is that we know what the Kushans are doing here. Them being with the Bakiraka makes no sense whatsoever, but at least it's easy to understand why Mori put them there: he's basically taking a huge shortcut to have Guts' group reunited with them.

The fact they're depicted as evil aggressors throughout is only done to artificially add dramatic tension and doesn't amount to anything. I imagine it's also why they're not typical Bakiraka members, because that would have given it away. It's all just filler until the last two pages anyway, a retread of what had been shown much more briefly in episode 373.

That's worth lingering on a moment, because I think it really crystallizes the problem with this project: the story develoment is reduced to mere plot points (that are incoherenty chained together) and the character development is nonexistent, but we're given pages upon pages of filler that clearly a lot of effort is put into, despite the fact they bring nothing to the table. It's the opposite of the sharp and dense storytelling that characterized Miura's Berserk. Whereas each small panel used to matter, we can now dismiss 20 pages at once. It's rather depressing.

What's also depressing is what's being done to the characters. Everyone is made slow, clumsy and cowardly just because it's convenient. Serpico jumping over a guardrail is showcased as something impressive (it's not), and both he and Isidro get captured anyway (presumably without a fight). The magicians are powerless and craven, and practically tell the reader that they're now background characters and should not be expected to have any further role in the story. I get it: Mori doesn't know what to do with them, but that's frankly pathetic.

As I remarked in the past, the excuse that they've somehow lost their power goes directly against how magic works in the series. You don't need a staff to practice it nor do you have innate powers that can be taken away. This is just one enormous liberty taken with the story among many others (let's not forget that Wyndham is now a coastal city), but I just can't overlook it because of how stupid it is.

Amazingly, that's not the worst character portrayal or the most incoherent change to the story in this episode. Azan has got to be the one they've done the dirtiest, given that he's reduced to a lazy, cowardly drunkard. Dereliction of duty? That's Azan for you! His thoughts about Guts are completely uncharacteristic too. Same as with any of the other characters, he's just used as a vehicle to explain what's going on in case the reader is stupid. Frankly, why give him any lines at all in this case? And by the way, we're told that the Kushans are breaking the door to enter, but it doesn't actually seem broken at any point.

Roderick and Magnifico's talk is also quite something. It's another attempt at explaining/justifying what's going on that's filled with nonsense. Mori & Studio Gaga don't seem to understand where the Kushan empire is located relative to Elfhelm, nor what the nature of Ganishka's campaign of conquest was. The funny part is Roderick deducing these guys are Kushans like it's a big mystery, as if he had never seen Kushans before.

Random note, but the imagery with the chains when the Kushans come for Guts makes no sense. We see chains breaking, then being taut again, as some guy approaches to chain him up. I get wanting to evoke something thematically but this is just completely arbitrary and useless. Like, did they get the panel order wrong or something? Is Guts regaining control on the Beast? I guess the answer is: "who cares, doesn't matter", like with the rest. The fact we see a shot of his feet that implies he's walking on the last page is also confusing, given that he had to be carried onboard and apparently still couldn't move a finger as the Kushans barged in the room he was in.

I could go on and on, but there isn't much point. Like why are Silat and Rickert here anyway? Why would they want to go grab Guts at this specific time? Don't they have their own problems to deal with? Why are they coming for him specifically within the ship and how did they know where to find him in there? How did they know where the Sea Horse was in the first place? How do they know Guts is somehow dangerous, having chains at the ready to restrain him and so on? How did they get their ships? The Bakiraka aren't a sea faring clan. Why are they attacking and risking fatalities instead of approaching them nicely? The answer to all of the above is likely just: "they needed to be reunited and now they are, so we can move on to the next thing".

 

[Keratos]

I'll say that,
The episode already seemed nonsensical and all over the place before having an English translation. And it somehow got worse after reading the dialogue.
All the dialogue feels like they're trying to fill up space instead of having the characters say something that actually makes sense.
At this point I'd rather them go back to nearly silent episodes like the first 2 they did.

Also, now that we have the Chapter title (Which isn't great. Though I should have expected that because of their equally dull episode titles so far), I wonder, have we moved on from the Fantasia Arc? Or is this Fantasia Arc: Odyssey to the East Chapter? Probably the latter, otherwise we would've gotten a new Arc title too.

 

[Aazealh]

Also, now that we have the Chapter title (Which isn't great. Though I should have expected that because of their equally dull episode titles so far), I wonder, have we moved on from the Fantasia Arc? Or is this Fantasia Arc: Odyssey to the East Chapter? Probably the latter, otherwise we would've gotten a new Arc title too.

They're not using arc titles anymore. Nor chapter titles for that matter. The new chapter is announced separarely on the title page, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's the last we see of it. They don't seem overly concerned with adhering to how things were previously done.

 

[TheItCrOw]

Why are there tennis balls attached to the ballista arrows?



Anyway, I was partially right with my prediction that this episode would be about Silat and his group but I would have never dreamt of Mori just slapping these two story arcs together like this... This is bad

There is no point in asking questions anymore is there?

 

[ApostleBob]

Well, I guess I was right about Rickert and the Bakiraka, though it's a clunky way to bring them in. We'll see if they bother to explain this alliance. It's possible the scattered remnants of the Kushan fled to the still intact Bakiraka stronghold. Maybe Daiba had something to do with it. Maybe they'll just assume that the readers think they are all the same since they are Eastern, which would be really lazy.

Anyway, the last couple of pages should have been the first pages. The majority of this episode is repeated information that we already surmised from last time. Everyone gets surprised and captured, and they break in on depressed Guts. They repeat all of that again here and take much longer to do it. Not only that, but the flow of action is drawn out, and often confusing. As Aaz mentioned, there's a weird set of paneling around breaking chains, and there's also a drawn-out moment about Serpico trying to open a door. It's odd because they are both accelerating plot points in the story, and also drawing them out.

The only new information we get is that the mages apparently no longer have power, which is confusing since Scheirke and Farnese still do. Why even have these characters survive the island in this case rather than fade away? We don't need a dozen former magic users to give exposition.

On a positive note, the art is still quite good, with distinct faces and armor for the Kushan. The pupilless eyes are an odd choice, but maybe we'll discover Daiba is controlling them or something. We've really only seen this before for some Bakiraka, but usually not in close-ups. But although the art is good, the panel sequencing to tell the story is a mess.

All this said, I'm in it for the long haul. I hope we get something interesting next episode now that Rickert and Silat are here.

 

[Walter]

Welp, we got 19 pages of recap, 2 pages of development: The Kushan are led (inexplicably) by Silat. He's filled the vacuum of leadership left by Ganishka. How? We don't know yet. Either way, the result is that the ninja clan of the Kushan are now leading hundreds of refugees around the sea, pillaging ships. Or perhaps there's some yet-to-be-revealed reason that ~500 Kushan happened to be deployed in formation around the Sea Horse. Like they knew it was there and scooped them up... purposefully?

It was already notable even from the last episode that the hijacking of the Sea Horse and the abduction of everyone onboard was completely bloodless. Now we know the reason: It's because these aren't really bad guys, per se.

It's still so bizarre to me that the Kushan are uniformly shown as having white, pupilless eyes. A few stylized depictions, sure I get it. It's a manga. But every single panel? It draws attention to itself. So I was thinking: Maybe they're being controlled? Seems doubtful from the depictions of them nervously entering Guts room. They are still acting like individuals, not drones.

It's possible the scattered remnants of the Kushan fled to the still intact Bakiraka stronghold

Well, it's supposed to be secret, as Silat said back in Falconia (339). It's possible Silat himself recruited them over time. Then they'd naturally use the Bakiraka as a base of operations. But then we're back to the same problem I posed last time: Why would survivors still be segregated by nationalities?

Maybe Daiba had something to do with it. Maybe they'll just assume that the readers think they are all the same since they are Eastern, which would be really lazy.

Given that they never even explained why the elves disappeared, I guess it's true that this doesn't need an explanation either. They all have brown skin, so they're all close friends, right?

The only new information we get is that the mages apparently no longer have power, which is confusing since Scheirke and Farnese still do.

This is "explained" in 373:

Serpico: The witches who have lost their base and most of them are losing their power or so.
Serpico: Fortunately, we’re visitors that came from outside of the island.
Serpico: So we haven’t been affected by the disappearance of the island, I think.

But as @Aazealh already said, it doesn't add up. Magic power isn't something you're born with. It's about knowledge and awareness of the world beyond what you can see with your senses. It's something that you can learn, like we see Farnese do. I think what's really happening is they need to be written conveniently out of the story. They're extras now, not characters. And that goes for the gurus, too.