Initiating other people to the series

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Good work, agent. But as to your termination of services with SKnet, you'll be back :void:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
My girlfriend is on her second read through. She liked it the first time and is having an even better time reading it again.
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
I got one of my friend too to read it. She read until volume three so far because of school so she borrowed a few volumes for when she'll be done! :guts:
 

Sammoniac

You taffers!
I've convinced 7 people to read Berserk since 2 years ago when I first read the manga. Most of them devoured through the thing in less than two weeks. I myself am on my second read. Even better than the first read. I practically analyze the manga and look at every possible detail, now that I know that this series is so awesome and that episodes take a long time to come out (better take my time hehe). It also helps me for my own ongoing project.

Most people admit that its the best manga they have read, and keep up to date with the series. I'm trying to initiate other people too, even though my social life ain't that huge :badbone:

Sadly, none of the people I got to read Berserk were women. I'm working on one to even things out ;)
 

turkitage

ターク
Sammoniac said:
I've convinced 7 people to read Berserk since 2 years ago when I first read the manga.

Wow, that's actually a lot of people you got into Berserk. Nice job! :ubik: I don't even think I know that many people in real life that likes anime or manga in general.
 

Gobolatula

praise be to grail!
I'm proud to have gotten my brother into Berserk. Now, every time he comes home from school, he asks, "Is there any more Berserk?" Unfortunately, he's referring to the Dark Horse Books. I tried showing him my Japanese volume 35 and referring him to the translations here, but he's not that patient. Oh well.
 
I convinced three friends, two of them when I was in high school, the other one is a dude I met through another friend that was more into naruto, ecchi and comedy stuff (after reading Berserk he switched to seinen), they all ended loving it and buying all the volumes themselves, and we had a very good time discussing about it. Now we're still good friends, but we hardly see each other, they're still into Berserk, reading the episodes as they are tranlsated.
 
I've gotten several friends to start reading Berserk. My room mate in college loved it and burned through it in a few weeks, and one of my best friends has seen the anime but he's more of a gamer and hasn't had time to take in the manga. Whenever someone comes over and looks at my library I constantly point out Vagabond and Berserk and say that I'd let them take a gander.

I'm always trying to get people to read it, or at least look into it.
 

Sammoniac

You taffers!
In my experience, people usually get hooked at the beginning of the Golden Age (it was the same for me). They find out that Guts isn't just a troubled bad ass guy that fights huge monsters, and that his past is explained in depth in a realistic manner. Miura did an excellent job with the Golden Age, the genius of his writing really started to stand out in those volumes. People find out that his work is well documented, and the character development plays a big role in the series. Also, the slow introduction of fantastic elements work as a charm and prepare the reader for what is to come.

Others are interested when they have a glimpse of the outstanding artwork of the series, or find out that its been ongoing since the 1990s.

2 or 3 years ago, I was at work and wanted to read my first manga (I worked in a shitty call center so I had to find some enjoyment :ganishka: ). I did several searches on the web to know what is the BEST manga ever. I also wanted cool artwork. Several websites sited Berserk as being far superior to most of the other shonen/seinen series. So I started reading the manga scans. 1 year after, I had the entire collection of Dark Horse books sitting on my shelf at home :guts:
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
After recently suggesting to a friend of mine that she read the first book, our conversation is as follows...

Her: Oh wow! I LOVE THIS! This is great!

me: Oh well I'm glad you like it. I knew you would.

her: Yea the main character guy is so baddass! He's just like Sonosuke from Kenshin! Even has the same sword!

me: Uhh well, actually you see Guts is...

her: Is that really his name? Guts? I wish he had a cooler name but other than that I LOVE IT!

me: ... :mozgus:
 
Boring post incoming...

I ain't even got anyone around that reads manga at all, some anime/naruto/bleach junkies here and there but not too many even in that cliché category.

The closest I've come would be this trench-coat metal freak that I went to high school with, but we rarely see each other anymore. I met him a while back though. I remember he'd always bring up Berserk as what I thought was purely a conversation starter since he knew I was into it big time and he'd seen the anime so he was at least a little familiar with it. But this time he finally told me like it was a given fact that he definitely reads the episodes as they are translated. Sadly I haven't seen him since then. Gotta get in touch with him again dammit, He's a pretty chill dude btw...

Then I recently met a guy at work who's into comics, Marvel stuff mostly to my knowledge. At first he seemed like a very shallow reader but then I got him into some of the deeper Batman stuff, so a little hope started to grow I guess. He'd already seen a bit of the 97 anime though and I could immediately tell he didn't like it at all. Then he watched Egg of the king and again I could tell he wasn't too impressed, still he liked it a lot more than the old series. Even though I wouldn't exactly recommend it -for obvious reasons- it'll be interesting to see what he thinks of the second movie, I mean, hes a bit more appreciative when it comes to action scenes and such so it might not be a bad way to go about it.

You should've seen the expression on his face when I told him that theres two more movies coming AND that these are only the prologue to the story :iva: Now that I think about it, I don't even know how much he knows about Berserk beyond the Golden Age :???: Well, as of right now I'm relying on the third movie to finally get him to read the manga (that might not be the wisest plan eh? :iva:)

Much like the tactic Ramen4ever described, I've been very passive about forcing it on him ever since we brought it up (made that mistake with an old friend and he practically got tired of my shit the first week and resulted in him never wanting to hear the word Berserk again)
What puts him off the most I think is the non-color factor. I remember the good ol' blackN'white felt totally outlandish before I caught a glimpse of Berserk too, so I cant really blame him, and thus I feel a bit clueless on how to tackle this issue.
 
I introduced two people to the TV series. One of them really enjoyed the Anime and
started reading the manga. He closely follows the release of each new episode.
The other guy casually watches Anime but whenever we see each other I bring him up to speed on what has happened.
 
Oburi said:
After recently suggesting to a friend of mine that she read the first book, our conversation is as follows...

Her: Oh wow! I LOVE THIS! This is great!

me: Oh well I'm glad you like it. I knew you would.

her: Yea the main character guy is so baddass! He's just like Sonosuke from Kenshin! Even has the same sword!

me: Uhh well, actually you see Guts is...

her: Is that really his name? Guts? I wish he had a cooler name but other than that I LOVE IT!

me: ... :mozgus:

That reminds me of some people I've met at anime/manga gatherings. I haven't been to too many conventions because of my work schedule but the ones I have I'm surprised I never see any Berserk related cosplay. Could just be my luck as the majority I've talked to only like either Naruto, Bleach or one of the more popular Shonen series. Either that or like you said, I've had people say to me "oh it's like Kenshin or Cloud from FF7".

On another note, two of my co workers are avid American comic book fans so I figured they might like the Berserk manga. One read the first volume and another the first three; and both said they didn't understand what was going on. I tried to tell them that a lot of unanswered questions come together later on and that the first three books are more or less a flashback, but they weren't satisfied. Ah well, maybe I just suck at trying to convince people.
 
Took me one year, but i made it. Finally got my best friend to read it, and what can i say, he loves it.
I'm actually a new reader myself, just discovered Berserk one year ago. And since then i had been constantly nagging him to start reading it too, always talking in superlatives about it and how weak all the other stuff we know was in comparison.
I think what helped me was the fact that the manga series we are both reading together for 4-5 years now (and which is the only one he reads) has been constantly declining in terms of quality over the past year, down to a point were it's no more fun at all. So he had no other options left then to start reading Berserk. And i was really surprised, i had given him the first few volumes and 3 days later i called him on the phone, thought we could maybe talk about volume 1 or maybe 2, and he was already half way through the golden age arc. Was nice to see how reading Berserk even influenced his way of thinking, about himself and about other people and their feelings. I think on that day he must have just read the chapter were Guts talks to Casca on the hill above the camp, after the hundred men fight. He said it was the first time, that he just sat down for 10-20 minutes and really thought about the philosophy of a manga and it's elements in comparison to the world

Well, I'm just glad. My good deed for 2013 is done

btw: the spellcheck of SK.net doesn't know the words manga and Casca :ganishka:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rendarg said:
Took me one year, but i made it. Finally got my best friend to read it, and what can i say, he loves it.
I'm actually a new reader myself, just discovered Berserk one year ago. And since then i had been constantly nagging him to start reading it too, always talking in superlatives about it and how weak all the other stuff we know was in comparison.
I think what helped me was the fact that the manga series we are both reading together for 4-5 years now (and which is the only one he reads) has been constantly declining in terms of quality over the past year, down to a point were it's no more fun at all. So he had no other options left then to start reading Berserk. And i was really surprised, i had given him the first few volumes and 3 days later i called him on the phone, thought we could maybe talk about volume 1 or maybe 2, and he was already half way through the golden age arc. Was nice to see how reading Berserk even influenced his way of thinking, about himself and about other people and their feelings. I think on that day he must have just read the chapter were Guts talks to Casca on the hill above the camp, after the hundred men fight. He said it was the first time, that he just sat down for 10-20 minutes and really thought about the philosophy of a manga and it's elements in comparison to the world
Cool story! Glad you and your friend were able to find the series and appreciate it. It's becoming increasingly difficult for newer fans to find the earlier volumes, which is a real shame...

btw: the spellcheck of SK.net doesn't know the words manga and Casca :ganishka:
It's actually reading from a dictionary file that's built into the server, and it's not something that's modifiable unfortunately.
 
Walter said:
It's becoming increasingly difficult for newer fans to find the earlier volumes, which is a real shame...
Especially since i want the english version from Dark Horse. Would be easier for me to get the german version here, but i had one of the chapters... in one scene they literally said "Guts you stupid stupid dumbo!"... while in the english version it was something like "Guts you selfish bastard!" I was like "wtf, what is this, the children's version?" I just have to admit, when it comes to swearing, your language is just awesome.
Walter said:
It's actually reading from a dictionary file that's built into the server, and it's not something that's modifiable unfortunately.
Ah alright, i thought it was maybe just some textfile on the server, that one of the admins can access. Well, it's still funny

ps: aaawww there is the "noseman" from Qiploth in the background of the textframe, when you write something! This place is so awesome ^_^
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rendarg said:
Ah alright, i thought it was maybe just some textfile on the server, that one of the admins can access. Well, it's still funny
It is, but SKnet is run on a shared server, not dedicated (we really don't need that much bandwidth...), so I don't have the ability to change it.

ps: aaawww there is the "noseman" from Qiploth in the background of the textframe, when you write something! This place is so awesome ^_^
The Schnoz has been an SKnet favorite since he first appeared :schnoz:
 
Behold, brothers and sisters, for i have recruited two new followers for the Berserk community. They just bought the first 6 volumes.
But... i played down the violence factor a lot, when talking about it... and i mean, a lot.... so i still have to see how it works out *cough*
 
Interesting time for this thread to come back to life! One of my best friends at Uni randomly told me he had started it last week and if he could borrow the hard copies! We had been watching some anime and he said that my figures had actually been what inspired him to start it. He's never read another manga series before and loves it. He is really into medieval/fantasy setting (even delving into DnD) and we talk about it in great detail every time we get together now.

Last night at the on campus bar he came up to me and said "so how about that new chapter??" and I literally wanted to punch him or something haha. Not only for the fact that they are EPISODES (even told him about my long history with saying it wrong and my custom forum shame title) but I had warned him before there are long breaks between releases. Now I had to really drive home the fact it isn't even a laughing matter anymore......He has to never ask if it’s out yet again and I’ll let him know!!! :judo:
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
Walter said:
He went through the entire series in a week...? :magni:

I did that about ten years ago (when it was a little easier to do), so I know this man's pain. The most recent episode out was the last episode of Volume 24, which ends with Serpico about to use the sylphs on the trolls. I was reading by volume at that point, so I had to wait quite a while for the next episode.
 
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