Ask Aaz!

Welcome everyone, to a new thread idea where you can post your questions about all things Berserk to resident expert, Aazealh! I don't think anybody here is more qualified than Aaz to have his own Q&A thread concerning Berserk, not only for his intelligence and knowledge on the subject, but for his careful and conservative application of them to it. Basically, there's nobody better to get some information, thoughts, or perspective from. Anyway, I'll get the ball rolling with the question that's the inspiration for this thread:

Aaz, as mentioned in volume 26, what exactly is the nature of "darkness," specifically in relation to the Qliphoth, elementals, evil, the God Hand, and its overall place in the order of astral world?

Doesn't he already answer everyone's questions?

Yes, he's usually very diligent about answering. However, this allows people to ask questions without a pre-existing thread.

Walter said:

However, this allows people to ask questions without a pre-existing thread.

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Really? Only questions without a pre-existing thread? Can't we use this thread instead of searching?

Anyway, I've been wondering something which I wanted to ask either Aazealh or DirectDK: Does Art of War have a place in Japan where one can just walk into and buy their products? Perhaps I haven't searched properly but I haven't found the answer.

m said:

Really? Only questions without a pre-existing thread? Can't we use this thread instead of searching?

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Did I say only? And please, be courteous and don't shit up this thread before it's even really started.

Walter said:

Did I say only? And please, be courteous and don't shit up this thread before it's even really started.

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You certainly didn't, my mistake. On the other hand, I don't think you would appreciate questions which have been answered in other threads.

I'm sorry if I came across as rude, I would really appreciate it if Aaz answered my question.

Posting in a to-be legendary thread.

And just a simple question ... do the names Guts or Griffith or Casca carry any significance or allusions? Or are they merely just concoctions on Miura's part?

Oh what a wonderful thread idea.

Anyway...

宮本 グリフィス said:

Aaz, as mentioned in volume 26, what exactly is the nature of "darkness," specifically in relation to the Qliphoth, elementals, evil, the God Hand, and its overall place in the order of astral world?

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First off, the word used in Japanese is "闇" and means just that, darkness. No catch. It's not evilness or anything like that but simply the absence of light. Now of course darkness and evilness tend to be associated, but they're not synonymous. For example Femto is called the Wings of Darkness, but is also known as the Falcon of Light (and we know he's evil). So it's not a simple matter of darkness = evil and light = good. And to further complicate things, allow me to quote this line from Femto: "it’s in the darkness that the true light can be found."

As far as the Qliphoth and the astral world are concerned, we can refer to what Schierke explains in episode 215. The astral world is composed of many layers. Within those layers are distinct territories, and the Qliphoth is one of them. We are not told what layer the Qliphoth is in (it might not even have a name), but it was probably not very deep. Anyway, these specific areas each have their own Od, beckoning to similarly aligned creatures. The Qliphoth was a place where creatures with dark minds gathered.

Finally, on the "elemental" side of thing, while she was summoning the Lord of the Rotten Roots Schierke remembered something Flora told her about the principles of all things in the world. Darkness being one of them. There's not much to be said here except that those principles aren't to be confused with the 4 cardinal elements (wind, water, earth, fire). It just means darkness is a part of nature.

m said:

Does Art of War have a place in Japan where one can just walk into and buy their products?

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Yes, they do. Art of War originally started as a very small structure (not that they're very big now either). Click here to see where they are located.

yesmilord said:

And just a simple question ... do the names Guts or Griffith or Casca carry any significance or allusions? Or are they merely just concoctions on Miura's part?

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For "Guts", Miura has stated in an interview that he chose it because he liked the way it sounds, and he felt it was appropriate for a shōnen manga, which Berserk was originally supposed to be. It has been purported in the past that it might be a reference to the English expression "to have guts", as it's related to a Japanese term that was commonly associated with mainstream shōnen manga back in the day. There's no concrete proof of that however. And I don't believe Miura has commented on why he chose the names "Griffith" and "Casca".

Anyway, just so you guys know, I've already answered those questions in the past.

Good thread!

I'd be glad to know the exact translation of the episode 82(I still can't find anything);

Then, I'd like to know the exact meaning of this panel:



In order to avoid to try to explain what in my version of manga he says, I'd glad to know the good translation and meaning(here Guts is thinking to the Griffith's speech, but I'm not sure that the meaning is at open interpretation..In my opinion here Guts should think that Griffith to reach his dream would offer even the most important people to him..but I'm not sure, my translation could be not that good).

And, I really would like to know this labial:



Charlotte says that he swears that he will came back...but this panel, if it has this structure it could be read from a japanese..I'll try to ask to you anyway, maybe you know the labial here.

Want fries with that? A foot massage maybe? Sorry friend but my good will has limits. I won't be your personal translator (please use our Assorted Translations section if you absolutely want to request the integral translation of a particular episode) and no, unfortunately I can't read lips, especially not on drawn characters speaking a foreign language (and that's assuming he's not drawn speaking Midland's fictional language here). You'll have to take Charlotte's word for it just like everyone else.

I don't mind people asking me questions since they were already asking them through other channels anyway, but at least please try to keep it reasonable. I don't get paid for this.

Ok, thanks anyway.

Now I really got it.

Sorry for bothering.

Aazealh said:

Yes, they do. Art of War originally started as a very small structure (not that they're very big now either). Click here to see where they are located.

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Thank you!!! I really appreciate it.

Mr. Aaz,


Is the Dragonslayer in Berserk referred to the same name in the Japan novels?

It's like asking the Skull Knight himself...expect a lot of fancy words and pretend you know what it all means...or else!

My question is: Has it been established where the Tapasa come from and why they follow Silat as their leader anywhere? I also have another question, what was Ganishka hoping to achieve by impregnating Charlotte? Especially considering his backstory...we all know that ended badly with his son in the end. Was he wanting to make things right since he was no longer overcome with fear (or so he thought)?

Now, the only reason I'm bothering answering this is because I spent a good while mulling over this very question several years ago. Why? I don't know, I just did. But the answer ended up being pretty darn simple.

Marik said:

And, I really would like to know this labial:

Charlotte says that he swears that he will came back...but this panel, if it has this structure it could be read from a japanese..I'll try to ask to you anyway, maybe you know the labial here.

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Griffith is saying "kaette kuru", which does exactly mean "I will come back". Charlotte does state that Griffith told her those words. So the labials are more than likely meant to be "ka" "(et)te" "ku" "ru".

And now, back to the Aaz. I do like seeing answers to Good Questions when they pop up.

m said:

Really? Only questions without a pre-existing thread? Can't we use this thread instead of searching?

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Sadly this sounds almost prophetic right now.

Death May Die said:

Is the Dragonslayer in Berserk referred to the same name in the Japan novels?

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What? You mean what its name is in Japanese? It's "ドラゴンころし". Same meaning, and "dragon" is written phonetically from English.

Henry Spencer said:

My question is: Has it been established where the Tapasa come from and why they follow Silat as their leader anywhere?

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They're from his clan, the Bakiraka. That's about all we know. We don't know why he's the leader, but it could simply be by right of birth. The clan originally came from the Kushan empire, but has been expelled a long time ago, before any of them was born. The Tapasa themselves likely gained their impressive abilities through rigorous physical training, like the rest of the clan. They seem to be its elite and so they act both as counselors and bodyguards to Silat.

Henry Spencer said:

I also have another question, what was Ganishka hoping to achieve by impregnating Charlotte?

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Exactly what he says/thinks in the scene. There are two things to be considered. The first is what he tells Charlotte in episode 231:

"You know what I am talking about. To give birth to my child. This is common knowledge in war. If you are a queen of a nation then you should know as well. If you take in my blood, then the nation can rule your nation without further war. You should not be wanting to see more killing of your people."

Then, what he thinks to himself after discovering she is Griffith's lover:

"It was a simple task to take this nation, without a king, over but I was getting bored of war. I had thought it would be a simple entertainment to get my hands on that girl..."

Graywords said:

Griffith is saying "kaette kuru", which does exactly mean "I will come back". Charlotte does state that Griffith told her those words. So the labials are more than likely meant to be "ka" "(et)te" "ku" "ru".

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You mean you think it is what he says. Not that I necessarily disagree here (I do think Charlotte perfectly understood what Griffith meant), but I have tried to equate various sounds with the shape of his lips/mouth myself in the past, and I don't think there's any truly conclusive proof of anything from the images of his lips alone (for example the second picture doesn't really look like a "te" sound to me). Especially if we're going to arbitrarily omit syllables just so it suits our opinion. Besides, that's not the exact words Charlotte uses: she says "もどってくる". And considering how they've always addressed each other in the story, it's probable Griffith would have used a more polite form.

Of course like I said earlier I'm no specialist on the matter, but neither is anyone else here as far as I know. Until an expert in lip-reading asserts it with confidence and without prior knowledge of its likely meaning, I'll settle with simply "taking Charlotte's word for it."

Aaz, do you PERSONALLY feel that Griffith (though he is an inhumane demon now) has any *feelings* for Guts? And I mean, any feelings: disgust, longing, admiration, curiosity, etc...

If so, are these the feelings of Guts/Casca's "demon infant" that fused into Griffith's vessel? Or is there any possibility that Femto still has some "back in the ol' days Griffith" in him?

I know Femto STOPPED himself when about to attack Guts & Casca when being rescued by Skull Knight during the Eclipse, and his "mercy" is revealed to be that Guts is "beneath his notice."

But, my hopeless hope longs for there to be some genuine "humanity" left in Femto, and that it isn't *just* the infant giving him these feelings.

I'm going off on a tangent at this point, but I really wonder what went through Griffith's mind when watching Guts & Zodd teaming up against Ganishka...


Any comments on my ramblings would be much appreciated. Aaz, you're a golden god.

Gobolatula said:

Aaz, do you PERSONALLY feel that Griffith (though he is an inhumane demon now) has any *feelings* for Guts? And I mean, any feelings: disgust, longing, admiration, curiosity, etc...

If so, are these the feelings of Guts/Casca's "demon infant" that fused into Griffith's vessel? Or is there any possibility that Femto still has some "back in the ol' days Griffith" in him?

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What remains of the boy within Griffith definitely cares about his father, in the same way that he cares about his mother. It is clearly illustrated during his fight against Zodd at the Hill of Swords (episode 181). Other than that Griffith/Femto himself doesn't seem to have much emotional attachment, though that doesn't mean he can't wish to somehow keep reminding Guts that he's completely insignificant and powerless.

Gobolatula said:

I know Femto STOPPED himself when about to attack Guts & Casca when being rescued by Skull Knight during the Eclipse, and his "mercy" is revealed to be that Guts is "beneath his notice."

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No, you certainly don't "know" that. We can't really be sure of how things went down and why they did, and it has in fact been discussed again recently in this thread among others: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=10025.0

aaz do you think slan ever visits her followers a la fire goddess subjects in their dreams via succubus or some other mythos the citizens have created in the "pagan" orgies?

Slan_wings said:

aaz do you think slan ever visits her followers a la fire goddess subjects in their dreams via succubus or some other mythos the citizens have created in the "pagan" orgies?

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Your question is a little confusing. We've seen her appear on the site of orgies, and the heretics called her a fire goddess because she appeared in the smoke of their cooking fire. However it has never been hinted that she visited people in their sleep so far. Not that it means she never did it (or won't start doing it now that the world has changed), but at this point there is no evidence of any such thing.

That being said, we have repeatedly seen creatures influencing people's dreams in Berserk: the appropriately named incubi ("incubi" being the plural of "incubus", and an incubus being the male counterpart of a succubus). They have frequently been shown as being the source of nightmares for Guts. But as you can see below, they do not resemble their traditional depiction (male demons having sex with women) at all.

Two part question for you,
Are all apostles able to create quasi-apostles or is it an ability that only certain apostles have? My second question is, are these quasi-apostles' in control of their selves or does the infecting Apostle have control over these infected [possessed a better word?] people?

Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:

Are all apostles able to create quasi-apostles or is it an ability that only certain apostles have?

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We can't be completely sure since we haven't had an explicit confirmation in the manga, but it seems to be limited to certain apostles.

Vampire_Hunter_Bob said:

My second question is, are these quasi-apostles' in control of their selves or does the infecting Apostle have control over these infected [possessed a better word?] people?

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From what we've seen they can have a certain degree of freedom, but are in the end under the apostle's control. When Zondark became too badly injured it became clear he was a mere puppet for the Count (who started speaking directly through him). Rochine's minions had retained their individuality and their memories, but they were totally subjugated to her will. They did whatever she wanted them to and that was it. Remains the unusual case of the beherit-apostle and of his creations (the "goat man" and Mozgus & friends), who seemed to have retained some free will. However it was the apostle's desire to lend them power "benevolently" in the first place (according to him), so this fits with the rest. And putting that aside, in both cases they did nothing but serve his purposes (mainly by interfering with the two branded ones). Note that he used Joachim in a similar way in order to get the girls arrested and brought to the tower, and that without transforming him.

Aazealh said:

You mean you think it is what he says. Not that I necessarily disagree here (I do think Charlotte perfectly understood what Griffith meant), but I have tried to equate various sounds with the shape of his lips/mouth myself in the past, and I don't think there's any truly conclusive proof of anything from the images of his lips alone (for example the second picture doesn't really look like a "te" sound to me). Especially if we're going to arbitrarily omit syllables just so it suits our opinion. Besides, that's not the exact words Charlotte uses: she says "もどってくる". And considering how they've always addressed each other in the story, it's probable Griffith would have used a more polite form.

Of course like I said earlier I'm no specialist on the matter, but neither is anyone else here as far as I know. Until an expert in lip-reading asserts it with confidence and without prior knowledge of its likely meaning, I'll settle with simply "taking Charlotte's word for it."

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You're absolutely right, it was "modotte kuru". That's what I get for trying to go by memory instead of pulling out the volumes here right behind me. Bad Graywords! No cookie.

And yeah, it's always possible he spoke a little bit more than that, like "kanarazu modotte kuru" for example, we'll never know definitively. All we have to do by is what Charlotte told us. It does end up being relatively pointless trying to guess what each frame of his lips is mouthing, but the way I see, it, Miura WANTED people to wonder exactly what he was mouthing there, or he wouldn't have drawn it frame by frame like that. So...

First frame: looks like an "ah" sound.
Second frame: looks like a fricative, "s" or "z", or a plosive like "t" or "d".
Third frame: looks like an "o" sound.
Fourth frame: looks like a schwa (ə) or an "uh" sound, or possibly a Japanese "u" sound, /ɯ/ in linguistics, in which they don't round their mouth so much.

So that could *possibly* indicate something like "kanarazu modotte kuru" (kA/nA/rA, Zu, mOdOtte, kUrU), but that's pure conjecture, and if someone wanted to they could probably make an argument, based on those lips, that he's telling Charlotte that the Idea of Evil is coming up from the depths of hell to devour the world. So yeah, grain of salt, and all that.

Graywords said:

And yeah, it's always possible he spoke a little bit more than that, like "kanarazu modotte kuru" for example, we'll never know definitively.

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Or less. See below.

Graywords said:

Miura WANTED people to wonder exactly what he was mouthing there, or he wouldn't have drawn it frame by frame like that.

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If he wanted people to know exactly what Griffith was saying and drew it frame by frame for that reason, then logic dictates that what he said only had 4 syllables (Not to mention he had no tongue and couldn't move his mouth too well. Coupled with the urgency of the situation it makes it hard to believe he "spoke" a long sentence.). Otherwise it'd be impossible to really know for sure.

Graywords said:

First frame: looks like an "ah" sound.
Second frame: looks like a fricative, "s" or "z", or a plosive like "t" or "d".
Third frame: looks like an "o" sound.
Fourth frame: looks like a schwa (ə) or an "uh" sound, or possibly a Japanese "u" sound, /ɯ/ in linguistics, in which they don't round their mouth so much.

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Haha dude, you're reading the panels the wrong way. It's from right to left, you know? The Japanese way.

Graywords said:

So that could *possibly* indicate something like "kanarazu modotte kuru" (kA/nA/rA, Zu, mOdOtte, kUrU), but that's pure conjecture, and if someone wanted to they could probably make an argument, based on those lips, that he's telling Charlotte that the Idea of Evil is coming up from the depths of hell to devour the world.

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Yeah to be frank at this point it's really just baseless guesses.

Since griffith has followers any chance of seeing slan's followers joing griffith's ranks,since the heretics at albion did say she prophesied griffith's return?