Well here we are again. Last episode I said I felt like we might just get a most insipid fight and some more artificial urgency, and that’s exactly what we got. Really, the only notable development is that Rakshas has now gone to Guts. The faux trolls are a meaningless distraction, as is everything else.
Before talking about the episode itself, a word on the color illustration. It didn’t merit a two page spread, but there’s no denying Sugimoto is among the most talented artists in that group. He didn’t quite get Serpico and Isidro's likeness right, but I like what he did with Farnese and how her hair melds with the formation of the four cardinal points. Although he seems to be mistaken about the robe of the wind king being the entire spell.
Funny faces galore
The episode opens with pools of black fluid coming from all directions and people running off frantically. We’re treated to some grotesque faces, including one of a guy literally frothing at the mouth. This feels like they’re treating it as a joke.
It’s a common occurrence throughout the episode and isn’t new, they’re been doing exaggerated faces for a while, but I really wish they would tone it down. While I’m sure someone’s having a lot of fun drawing that stuff, these scenes are meant to be serious and dramatic. Drawing it like this makes it look like a parody, it’s as if they’re making fun of Berserk.
The mischaracterization of Puck
Isidro gets shoved by the crowd, like the pushover he is in this alternate universe. He’s clueless too, doesn’t know what’s going on. Really not a nice depiction of his character. He then takes refuge in a backalley to escape the crowd, but “trolls” appear and block off his path.
Puck formally identifies them as trolls based on their “type of Od”, which is really baffling. This is something Schierke might say, but absolutely not Puck. And before that he also tells Isidro there’s no human Od in the backalley. This is completely unfaithful to his character and the way he usually speaks.
The Continuation team is simply using him as a vehicle for exposition here, without any care about what his character is about. Very direspectful. It’s not unique to Puck either, it's been an on-going problem. Another thing is they overuse the nicknames, like yeah we get it, Puck calls Isidro “Doropy”, but he doesn’t typically call out to him every second.
The mistreatment of Isidro
Adding insult to injury is the way Isidro reacts to Puck’s words. Trolls? Oh no, yikes, I’m scared! I’m parodying it here but only barely, and he stays dumbfounded as they attack him. This is the same Isidro that defended Schierke and the hostages in the Qliphoth and defeated the “troll chieftain” when he had only just gotten his weapons. And that was ages ago, he’s gained a lot of experience since then. Would Isidro get overwhelmed in this context? Never. He’d relish the opportunity to see how much better he’s become.
This trampling of Isidro’s character serves to introduce Azan, who saves the day. The interaction between the two of them is poorly handled. I do think Azan and Isidro are a natural pairing and indeed that’s why Miura paired them up on the Sea Horse. Their exchange doesn’t feel right though, and Azan implying that Isidro was trying to run away is just insulting. Worse is Isidro’s weirdly ambiguous denial.
I’m not sure the Continuation team really meant to imply that he was fleeing like a coward, but that’s how it comes across as a result. That’s in part because there’s no explanation of what he was doing out there in the first place. He also talks of being alone, even though he was with Puck. All around terrible. Oh and then as they fight, Puck does a flash of light right next to Isidro’s face (which half-blinds him). Real clever move! *sigh*
Rakshas the elephant tamer
Daiba is still referring to the elephants as “demon beasts”, the same term used to describe the Pishacha created using Ganishka’s magic. I already explained in my episode 378 review why this makes no sense: these were familiars that walked on two legs and used weapons. They were controlled by Kushan acolytes and we were explicitly shown that this whole process relied on Ganishka’s fog.
Here they’re just giant elephants basically (which makes no sense) and Daiba says they’ll be uncontrollable if they start rampaging (no shit, isn’t that the definition of a rampage?). This is a flagrant case of just changing things Miura had clearly established, and for what? Just to have a little action on a few pages. I think this really exemplifies how very little this team cares about staying faithful to Miura’s intent for the story. They will take liberties with anything and everything, and for no particular reason.
By the way, it struck me that the reason they had the elephants go wild is probably because they’re misremembering what happened in volume 32. When Griffith’s forces disrupt Ganishka’s onslaught, we see Rakshas jumping at a bunch of elephants and leaving small darts on them. These are obviously poison darts and that’s what causes the elephants to go crazy and stampede their own troops. But I think the Continuation team has somehow misconstrued it as Rakshas having special mind control powers over elephants, hence what’s happening in the scene. It’s astoundingly stupid.
Daiba’s expanded telepathy
Seeing a few guys panick in a corner, Silat asks Daiba to use his “expanded telepathy” to send his thoughts to the entire city. This is another case of just not showing any respect to the original material. Daiba can use telepathy, we see that in Vritannis. He communicates with Guts’ group, who are in his immediate vicinity. But sending your thoughts to a small group close to you is vastly different from broadcasting someone else’s thoughts to an entire city.
This kind of far ranging telepathy was shown before with Sonia, who’s a medium. But this isn’t something any random magic user should be able to do, it’s a special ability related to her innate powers. Not just that, but she mentions in volume 23 that Griffith’s presence amplifies her powers a lot. And yet even in her case, Miura never showed anything on that scale. I think the fact the Continuation team has Silat talk of Daiba’s “expanded telepathy” is meant to allude that it’s a special skill he developed or something, but it’s just completely unjustified.
All this to prop up Silat as the Kushans’ leader?
Daiba shouldn’t be able to do this, and again, it’s done for no real reason. Rakshas shouldn’t be able to summon pseudo-trolls in the first place, and those “trolls” serve no purpose beyond creating some artificial tension by sending the populace into a panic. It seems the end goal (besides filling up pages) is simply for Silat to appear like a natural leader by calming the people, but that’s pretty much how they’d introduced him anyway, before they decided to backtrack and shoehorn in a council of chieftains presided by a new emperor.
So it’s a strange detour that really just brings us back to where we were when the Kushans captured the Sea Horse. I guess it provides a modicum of rationale for why Silat will end up leading a giant Kushan army, but it’s introduced so many more incoherencies in the process that I can’t see how it could be worth it. This is compounded by the fact it feels quite distanced from Berserk’s actual story. Like some kind of Kushan side story you’d find in a bad fan fiction.
It also seems crudely modeled on the final battle against Ganishka in volume 34. Silat is a stand-in for Griffith as the leader, Daiba replaces Sonia, and Rakshas serves the role of Ganishka, going so far as to spawn minions. Once you see it, it's hard to deny the similarities.
A token appearance of Erika
Silat’s message is used as an opportunity to show Molda, who doesn’t understand who’s talking despite being a witch (which makes no sense), and Erika, who’s inexplicably milling around with random Kushan children. As per usual with the Continuation, her character is paid zero respect to. It feels like she was just added in because the team got feedback that reminded them they’d forgotten about her.
Note that the children (unlike Molda) immediately realize it’s Silat speaking, who they refer to as the “young master”. Are they Bakiraka children specifically? Because calling him that wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Nor in fact do I think it’s necessarily appropriate that Daiba calls him as such either, but I guess that’s more of a nitpick. Still, I encourage anyone curious to go re-read episode 341 and see how they addressed each other. Daiba just called them “Bakiraka”, but Silat showed deference, referring to him as a general. And he asked what was Rickert’s choice, whether to allow Daiba to join them or not. Rickert decided. A very different dynamic from what’s shown here.
The last spell
Anyway, we cut from Silat’s public address to Farnese casting the formation of the four cardinal points. A real question at this point is whether it’s the only spell we’ll ever see again. I guess they might have Schierke summon Flora near the end of the story, but otherwise I think that’s gonna be it.
She says the incantation incorrectly (was it really so hard to check out volume 36 or 25?), and we don’t see her place the four elemental symbols accordingly (Ivalera usually does it but she’s not there). Maybe she did it offscreen? Yeah right, they just forgot about it or didn’t care. Roderick calls out the spell by name, which is another example of a character not behaving as they should. It’s really just an excuse to remind readers of what’s going on (as if that was necessary).
Cool action shots that aren’t cool at all
We’re treated to a page of the Tapasa kicking a couple of “trolls”, which is meant to be a cool action page but, in typical Continuation fashion, actually looks lame because these are weaklings. They actually look weaker than the real trolls from Miura.
We then get another action shot, from Serpico this time, who dices a bunch of them with a single strike. Note that this is only possible during full moons, when the power of the elementals is strengthened. It’s not the case here as far as we know, so this doesn’t make sense. In fact it’s still supposed to be the daytime, the sky’s just cloudy because of Rakshas’ special nonsense power that summoned the “trolls”.
The spell doesn’t work like that
Although, since we’re on that topic, Farnese’ spell seems to have quieted the skies. No trace of that tornado anymore. Now of course, they’re just not drawing the two things at once (tornado and spell) because that’d be tough. But would this actually happen, though? Both times Miura used that spell, the sky was clear. It’s possible bad weather would have an effect on it. We don’t know. The Continuation team doesn’t know either, and so we get results like this. Endless inconsistencies, big and small.
Speaking of the spell, we see that it melts some enemies… But that most of them are actually unaffected. This doesn’t make any sense either. All enemies within the area should feel its effects, like in volume 25. All “trolls” should melt, and presumably Rakshas himself would also be affected. That’s another thing Miura never had the opportunity to depict, how apostles would react to that spell.
They have corporeal bodies, so they might just be slightly bothered, but they would feel it regardless. Same as above: no thought was given to how various things interact which each other, leading to nonsense. Oh and it’s not clear what the point of the spell is, given that it does very little? I guess they think it’s more like a dome, that walls off against enemies but is hollow inside? It’s just absurd.
The mystery of the disappearing Sylph cloak
Last thing before moving on but Serpico’s still not wearing his cloak… In fact, he hasn’t worn it since the Continuation began. This is one of those things that’s just puzzling. Is he meant to have lost it? He’ll never use it again? Or it will just reappear out of nowhere eventually? And why wouldn’t he wear it? I’m really at a loss here. Maybe they just don’t know how to draw it or something. Or didn’t like that he had that ability and decided to get rid of it. To downgrade him.
In fact, I went back to episode 364 because I remembered he wore it in there, and funny thing… When they’re having the picnic, he wears it in some panels but not in others, typically when he’s in the background. I would bet a lot of money that the backgrounds where he’s without the cloak were all drawn after Miura passed away. Really fucking weird. And note that he also doesn’t wear it inside the house at night (beginning of episode 364), which is normal, but otherwise has it in every single panel on the island.
Anyway, that appearance of Serpico and Farnese in this episode is cheesy as hell, and the look on their faces does not fit the situation at all. It’s supposed to be a crisis, not something to laugh at. It’s really just tone-deaf, which his one line in this episode (a joke about “dusting off the room”) only reinforces.
Lazy shounen fare
Urged by Silat, the people start fighting back. They seem to be ordinary people as they have no armor, but somehow they’ve all got weapons. By the way, this whole thing contradicts the explanation for why the Kushan empire still exists depiste Fantasia. At first all these people react as if they’ve never seen monsters in their lives, even soldiers and chieftains. Par for the course at this point, I guess. None of this should be happening since this place shouldn’t even exist.
Silat himself is assaulted by a bunch of “trolls” and stays static until they’re just right on to him. Then he braces his weapons and kills them all in a single wide motion. This is a ridiculous move. It’s meant to look cool but it looks stupid instead. Berserk is a fantasy series so it’s not meant to be truly realistic, but Miura always drew fights in a way that was believable. Here Silat is essentially moving at super speed while the “trolls” are frozen in place, and he kills them in a way that doesn’t seem possible with a single motion. It’s super lazy.
Oh and what’s Rakshas doing during all of that? Nothing. Last episode had concluded with Silat lunging at him, so you would have expected this episode to start with them fighting, but no. He’s just standing there, immobile, until suddenly a monstrously big foot comes down on him, which he escapes in the nick of time. It’s because Daiba has regained control of the elephants! This is apparently surprising to Rakshas. I guess he didn’t expect his elephant-controlling powers to be outdone?
All nonsense, but it’s mostly the size of that foot that caught my attention. This thing would dwarf Grunbeld. It really is a weird and unjustifiable bastardization of what the Pishacha were. On a side note, Daiba starts levitating when he does the telepathy, as if the two were related, and it’s featured here again. It makes it seem like it’s something he does automatically when he uses magic, which isn’t the case.
Nothing is right about Rakshas
Silat strikes Rakshas’ mask while he’s distracted by the elephants (lol) and shatters it. This is similar to what happened in Falconia, but handled very strangely. First off, the angles don’t match between the panels. I know this is minor, but still. He clearly strikes at an angle then swipes his arm at a completely different one. Second, he steps in a black liquid of some sort. One might assume this to be blood, except he thinks to himself it was only a decoy. Then we see Rakshas on the ground, appearing as if his mask is half-submerged in his cloak.
This is very puzzling to me. Rakshas is the cloak, that was the big reveal in Falconia. But it’s a cloak, not a magical liquid power or something. Makes me wonder if the Continuation team doesn’t intend to relate it to the black liquid the “trolls” are coming out of. It does seem to fit their logic at first glance, even though it goes directly against all pre-established facts in the story.
The team also makes sure we never see Rakshas without a mask. This is inexplicable because Miura showed us his maskless face in Falconia. There was never any need for him to have his original mask back, grafted on his ass for some reason. Another very puzzling fact is that Rakshas is running away. In Falconia, he stabs Silat in the liver while he falls for his decoy. Silat is only saved by the fact he’s wearing the Urumin around his waist. Later on, when cornered and defeated, he transformed into his apostle form and immediately turns the table on them.
Why isn’t he doing this here? Why would he run away (while literally screaming)? Rakshas is an oddball, which is why he left after his first mask was broken, but his peculiarities wouldn’t stop him in a serious situation. And he started off with a broken mask here anyway (broken in the wrong places too). Really, there’s no reason for him not to transform here, and in fact when he first emerged, they clearly drew him based on his apostle form. Only to revert it to that weird hybrid form afterwards. There is no valid reason for any of this.
On the nature of darkness
Rakshas seems to become affected by Farnese’s spell once he’s outside (it doesn’t work like that, it works indoors too). He’s got a relatively poorly done “smoke effect” on him. Because he doesn’t like the light, he’s looking for “darkness”. He then senses Guts’ brand and heads down there. This is completely stupid. Rakshas doesn’t feed on darkness or have “darkness powers” or whatever. He just doesn’t like to be seen, so he prefers to stay hidden and operate at night. That’s all. It's related to the kind of character he is (an assassin) and most likely to his backstory as well.
The tragic part is that linking literal darkness (obscurity) with figurative darkness as represented by the brand probably felt like a stroke of genius to these idiots. And I’m afraid to guess what’s next: Rakshas talking to the Beast of Darkness? Because Guts is clearly not going to fight. Heed my warning, ye who reads these lines: thy must brace thyself for what’s to come.
The doorless cell
By the way, a quick note on this last page. The cell has no door. How did Guts get in? How’s he going to get out? Lol. It’s also ridiculously small. Not just inhumane but actually impractical. He hasn’t even got a bucket to relieve himself. And it’s only got a single chain tied to the wall because Guts has only got one wrist, of course. It’s also the only cell in the building apparently, standing at the end of a long, empty corridor (as seen from that top panel, reused from episode 377).
Lastly it’s got a window that leads to ground level, which isn’t exactly very secure. Granted it’s small, but it’s the easiest spot for someone to evade. It all screams that it was designed without thinking beyond the immediate use they have for it. It exists in a vacuum, it’s not part of the wider world and doesn’t say anything about it. In every way it's a bad design.
The last panel has Rakshas’ shadow cast over the ground next to Guts. How does his eyes appear in the shadow though? Are they projecting light onto the ground? It doesn’t make sense. Boy, do I keep repeating those words. I wish I didn’t have to, but the Continuation team really outdoes itself every time. And unfortunately, I dread how their next episode will handle Guts’ reaction to an apostle. It might make us regret the days where they kept him mostly offscreen.
Before talking about the episode itself, a word on the color illustration. It didn’t merit a two page spread, but there’s no denying Sugimoto is among the most talented artists in that group. He didn’t quite get Serpico and Isidro's likeness right, but I like what he did with Farnese and how her hair melds with the formation of the four cardinal points. Although he seems to be mistaken about the robe of the wind king being the entire spell.
Funny faces galore
The episode opens with pools of black fluid coming from all directions and people running off frantically. We’re treated to some grotesque faces, including one of a guy literally frothing at the mouth. This feels like they’re treating it as a joke.
It’s a common occurrence throughout the episode and isn’t new, they’re been doing exaggerated faces for a while, but I really wish they would tone it down. While I’m sure someone’s having a lot of fun drawing that stuff, these scenes are meant to be serious and dramatic. Drawing it like this makes it look like a parody, it’s as if they’re making fun of Berserk.
The mischaracterization of Puck
Isidro gets shoved by the crowd, like the pushover he is in this alternate universe. He’s clueless too, doesn’t know what’s going on. Really not a nice depiction of his character. He then takes refuge in a backalley to escape the crowd, but “trolls” appear and block off his path.
Puck formally identifies them as trolls based on their “type of Od”, which is really baffling. This is something Schierke might say, but absolutely not Puck. And before that he also tells Isidro there’s no human Od in the backalley. This is completely unfaithful to his character and the way he usually speaks.
The Continuation team is simply using him as a vehicle for exposition here, without any care about what his character is about. Very direspectful. It’s not unique to Puck either, it's been an on-going problem. Another thing is they overuse the nicknames, like yeah we get it, Puck calls Isidro “Doropy”, but he doesn’t typically call out to him every second.
The mistreatment of Isidro
Adding insult to injury is the way Isidro reacts to Puck’s words. Trolls? Oh no, yikes, I’m scared! I’m parodying it here but only barely, and he stays dumbfounded as they attack him. This is the same Isidro that defended Schierke and the hostages in the Qliphoth and defeated the “troll chieftain” when he had only just gotten his weapons. And that was ages ago, he’s gained a lot of experience since then. Would Isidro get overwhelmed in this context? Never. He’d relish the opportunity to see how much better he’s become.
This trampling of Isidro’s character serves to introduce Azan, who saves the day. The interaction between the two of them is poorly handled. I do think Azan and Isidro are a natural pairing and indeed that’s why Miura paired them up on the Sea Horse. Their exchange doesn’t feel right though, and Azan implying that Isidro was trying to run away is just insulting. Worse is Isidro’s weirdly ambiguous denial.
I’m not sure the Continuation team really meant to imply that he was fleeing like a coward, but that’s how it comes across as a result. That’s in part because there’s no explanation of what he was doing out there in the first place. He also talks of being alone, even though he was with Puck. All around terrible. Oh and then as they fight, Puck does a flash of light right next to Isidro’s face (which half-blinds him). Real clever move! *sigh*
Rakshas the elephant tamer
Daiba is still referring to the elephants as “demon beasts”, the same term used to describe the Pishacha created using Ganishka’s magic. I already explained in my episode 378 review why this makes no sense: these were familiars that walked on two legs and used weapons. They were controlled by Kushan acolytes and we were explicitly shown that this whole process relied on Ganishka’s fog.
Here they’re just giant elephants basically (which makes no sense) and Daiba says they’ll be uncontrollable if they start rampaging (no shit, isn’t that the definition of a rampage?). This is a flagrant case of just changing things Miura had clearly established, and for what? Just to have a little action on a few pages. I think this really exemplifies how very little this team cares about staying faithful to Miura’s intent for the story. They will take liberties with anything and everything, and for no particular reason.
By the way, it struck me that the reason they had the elephants go wild is probably because they’re misremembering what happened in volume 32. When Griffith’s forces disrupt Ganishka’s onslaught, we see Rakshas jumping at a bunch of elephants and leaving small darts on them. These are obviously poison darts and that’s what causes the elephants to go crazy and stampede their own troops. But I think the Continuation team has somehow misconstrued it as Rakshas having special mind control powers over elephants, hence what’s happening in the scene. It’s astoundingly stupid.
Daiba’s expanded telepathy
Seeing a few guys panick in a corner, Silat asks Daiba to use his “expanded telepathy” to send his thoughts to the entire city. This is another case of just not showing any respect to the original material. Daiba can use telepathy, we see that in Vritannis. He communicates with Guts’ group, who are in his immediate vicinity. But sending your thoughts to a small group close to you is vastly different from broadcasting someone else’s thoughts to an entire city.
This kind of far ranging telepathy was shown before with Sonia, who’s a medium. But this isn’t something any random magic user should be able to do, it’s a special ability related to her innate powers. Not just that, but she mentions in volume 23 that Griffith’s presence amplifies her powers a lot. And yet even in her case, Miura never showed anything on that scale. I think the fact the Continuation team has Silat talk of Daiba’s “expanded telepathy” is meant to allude that it’s a special skill he developed or something, but it’s just completely unjustified.
All this to prop up Silat as the Kushans’ leader?
Daiba shouldn’t be able to do this, and again, it’s done for no real reason. Rakshas shouldn’t be able to summon pseudo-trolls in the first place, and those “trolls” serve no purpose beyond creating some artificial tension by sending the populace into a panic. It seems the end goal (besides filling up pages) is simply for Silat to appear like a natural leader by calming the people, but that’s pretty much how they’d introduced him anyway, before they decided to backtrack and shoehorn in a council of chieftains presided by a new emperor.
So it’s a strange detour that really just brings us back to where we were when the Kushans captured the Sea Horse. I guess it provides a modicum of rationale for why Silat will end up leading a giant Kushan army, but it’s introduced so many more incoherencies in the process that I can’t see how it could be worth it. This is compounded by the fact it feels quite distanced from Berserk’s actual story. Like some kind of Kushan side story you’d find in a bad fan fiction.
It also seems crudely modeled on the final battle against Ganishka in volume 34. Silat is a stand-in for Griffith as the leader, Daiba replaces Sonia, and Rakshas serves the role of Ganishka, going so far as to spawn minions. Once you see it, it's hard to deny the similarities.
A token appearance of Erika
Silat’s message is used as an opportunity to show Molda, who doesn’t understand who’s talking despite being a witch (which makes no sense), and Erika, who’s inexplicably milling around with random Kushan children. As per usual with the Continuation, her character is paid zero respect to. It feels like she was just added in because the team got feedback that reminded them they’d forgotten about her.
Note that the children (unlike Molda) immediately realize it’s Silat speaking, who they refer to as the “young master”. Are they Bakiraka children specifically? Because calling him that wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Nor in fact do I think it’s necessarily appropriate that Daiba calls him as such either, but I guess that’s more of a nitpick. Still, I encourage anyone curious to go re-read episode 341 and see how they addressed each other. Daiba just called them “Bakiraka”, but Silat showed deference, referring to him as a general. And he asked what was Rickert’s choice, whether to allow Daiba to join them or not. Rickert decided. A very different dynamic from what’s shown here.
The last spell
Anyway, we cut from Silat’s public address to Farnese casting the formation of the four cardinal points. A real question at this point is whether it’s the only spell we’ll ever see again. I guess they might have Schierke summon Flora near the end of the story, but otherwise I think that’s gonna be it.
She says the incantation incorrectly (was it really so hard to check out volume 36 or 25?), and we don’t see her place the four elemental symbols accordingly (Ivalera usually does it but she’s not there). Maybe she did it offscreen? Yeah right, they just forgot about it or didn’t care. Roderick calls out the spell by name, which is another example of a character not behaving as they should. It’s really just an excuse to remind readers of what’s going on (as if that was necessary).
Cool action shots that aren’t cool at all
We’re treated to a page of the Tapasa kicking a couple of “trolls”, which is meant to be a cool action page but, in typical Continuation fashion, actually looks lame because these are weaklings. They actually look weaker than the real trolls from Miura.
We then get another action shot, from Serpico this time, who dices a bunch of them with a single strike. Note that this is only possible during full moons, when the power of the elementals is strengthened. It’s not the case here as far as we know, so this doesn’t make sense. In fact it’s still supposed to be the daytime, the sky’s just cloudy because of Rakshas’ special nonsense power that summoned the “trolls”.
The spell doesn’t work like that
Although, since we’re on that topic, Farnese’ spell seems to have quieted the skies. No trace of that tornado anymore. Now of course, they’re just not drawing the two things at once (tornado and spell) because that’d be tough. But would this actually happen, though? Both times Miura used that spell, the sky was clear. It’s possible bad weather would have an effect on it. We don’t know. The Continuation team doesn’t know either, and so we get results like this. Endless inconsistencies, big and small.
Speaking of the spell, we see that it melts some enemies… But that most of them are actually unaffected. This doesn’t make any sense either. All enemies within the area should feel its effects, like in volume 25. All “trolls” should melt, and presumably Rakshas himself would also be affected. That’s another thing Miura never had the opportunity to depict, how apostles would react to that spell.
They have corporeal bodies, so they might just be slightly bothered, but they would feel it regardless. Same as above: no thought was given to how various things interact which each other, leading to nonsense. Oh and it’s not clear what the point of the spell is, given that it does very little? I guess they think it’s more like a dome, that walls off against enemies but is hollow inside? It’s just absurd.
The mystery of the disappearing Sylph cloak
Last thing before moving on but Serpico’s still not wearing his cloak… In fact, he hasn’t worn it since the Continuation began. This is one of those things that’s just puzzling. Is he meant to have lost it? He’ll never use it again? Or it will just reappear out of nowhere eventually? And why wouldn’t he wear it? I’m really at a loss here. Maybe they just don’t know how to draw it or something. Or didn’t like that he had that ability and decided to get rid of it. To downgrade him.
In fact, I went back to episode 364 because I remembered he wore it in there, and funny thing… When they’re having the picnic, he wears it in some panels but not in others, typically when he’s in the background. I would bet a lot of money that the backgrounds where he’s without the cloak were all drawn after Miura passed away. Really fucking weird. And note that he also doesn’t wear it inside the house at night (beginning of episode 364), which is normal, but otherwise has it in every single panel on the island.
Anyway, that appearance of Serpico and Farnese in this episode is cheesy as hell, and the look on their faces does not fit the situation at all. It’s supposed to be a crisis, not something to laugh at. It’s really just tone-deaf, which his one line in this episode (a joke about “dusting off the room”) only reinforces.
Lazy shounen fare
Urged by Silat, the people start fighting back. They seem to be ordinary people as they have no armor, but somehow they’ve all got weapons. By the way, this whole thing contradicts the explanation for why the Kushan empire still exists depiste Fantasia. At first all these people react as if they’ve never seen monsters in their lives, even soldiers and chieftains. Par for the course at this point, I guess. None of this should be happening since this place shouldn’t even exist.
Silat himself is assaulted by a bunch of “trolls” and stays static until they’re just right on to him. Then he braces his weapons and kills them all in a single wide motion. This is a ridiculous move. It’s meant to look cool but it looks stupid instead. Berserk is a fantasy series so it’s not meant to be truly realistic, but Miura always drew fights in a way that was believable. Here Silat is essentially moving at super speed while the “trolls” are frozen in place, and he kills them in a way that doesn’t seem possible with a single motion. It’s super lazy.
Oh and what’s Rakshas doing during all of that? Nothing. Last episode had concluded with Silat lunging at him, so you would have expected this episode to start with them fighting, but no. He’s just standing there, immobile, until suddenly a monstrously big foot comes down on him, which he escapes in the nick of time. It’s because Daiba has regained control of the elephants! This is apparently surprising to Rakshas. I guess he didn’t expect his elephant-controlling powers to be outdone?
All nonsense, but it’s mostly the size of that foot that caught my attention. This thing would dwarf Grunbeld. It really is a weird and unjustifiable bastardization of what the Pishacha were. On a side note, Daiba starts levitating when he does the telepathy, as if the two were related, and it’s featured here again. It makes it seem like it’s something he does automatically when he uses magic, which isn’t the case.
Nothing is right about Rakshas
Silat strikes Rakshas’ mask while he’s distracted by the elephants (lol) and shatters it. This is similar to what happened in Falconia, but handled very strangely. First off, the angles don’t match between the panels. I know this is minor, but still. He clearly strikes at an angle then swipes his arm at a completely different one. Second, he steps in a black liquid of some sort. One might assume this to be blood, except he thinks to himself it was only a decoy. Then we see Rakshas on the ground, appearing as if his mask is half-submerged in his cloak.
This is very puzzling to me. Rakshas is the cloak, that was the big reveal in Falconia. But it’s a cloak, not a magical liquid power or something. Makes me wonder if the Continuation team doesn’t intend to relate it to the black liquid the “trolls” are coming out of. It does seem to fit their logic at first glance, even though it goes directly against all pre-established facts in the story.
The team also makes sure we never see Rakshas without a mask. This is inexplicable because Miura showed us his maskless face in Falconia. There was never any need for him to have his original mask back, grafted on his ass for some reason. Another very puzzling fact is that Rakshas is running away. In Falconia, he stabs Silat in the liver while he falls for his decoy. Silat is only saved by the fact he’s wearing the Urumin around his waist. Later on, when cornered and defeated, he transformed into his apostle form and immediately turns the table on them.
Why isn’t he doing this here? Why would he run away (while literally screaming)? Rakshas is an oddball, which is why he left after his first mask was broken, but his peculiarities wouldn’t stop him in a serious situation. And he started off with a broken mask here anyway (broken in the wrong places too). Really, there’s no reason for him not to transform here, and in fact when he first emerged, they clearly drew him based on his apostle form. Only to revert it to that weird hybrid form afterwards. There is no valid reason for any of this.
On the nature of darkness
Rakshas seems to become affected by Farnese’s spell once he’s outside (it doesn’t work like that, it works indoors too). He’s got a relatively poorly done “smoke effect” on him. Because he doesn’t like the light, he’s looking for “darkness”. He then senses Guts’ brand and heads down there. This is completely stupid. Rakshas doesn’t feed on darkness or have “darkness powers” or whatever. He just doesn’t like to be seen, so he prefers to stay hidden and operate at night. That’s all. It's related to the kind of character he is (an assassin) and most likely to his backstory as well.
The tragic part is that linking literal darkness (obscurity) with figurative darkness as represented by the brand probably felt like a stroke of genius to these idiots. And I’m afraid to guess what’s next: Rakshas talking to the Beast of Darkness? Because Guts is clearly not going to fight. Heed my warning, ye who reads these lines: thy must brace thyself for what’s to come.
The doorless cell
By the way, a quick note on this last page. The cell has no door. How did Guts get in? How’s he going to get out? Lol. It’s also ridiculously small. Not just inhumane but actually impractical. He hasn’t even got a bucket to relieve himself. And it’s only got a single chain tied to the wall because Guts has only got one wrist, of course. It’s also the only cell in the building apparently, standing at the end of a long, empty corridor (as seen from that top panel, reused from episode 377).
Lastly it’s got a window that leads to ground level, which isn’t exactly very secure. Granted it’s small, but it’s the easiest spot for someone to evade. It all screams that it was designed without thinking beyond the immediate use they have for it. It exists in a vacuum, it’s not part of the wider world and doesn’t say anything about it. In every way it's a bad design.
The last panel has Rakshas’ shadow cast over the ground next to Guts. How does his eyes appear in the shadow though? Are they projecting light onto the ground? It doesn’t make sense. Boy, do I keep repeating those words. I wish I didn’t have to, but the Continuation team really outdoes itself every time. And unfortunately, I dread how their next episode will handle Guts’ reaction to an apostle. It might make us regret the days where they kept him mostly offscreen.
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