Introduction to Berserk

Grail

Feel the funk blast
As for me, I was introduced to Berserk over the summer before I started high school. I had been cleaning out my local Blockbuster's teeny-tiny anime collection at the time, and I happened to see the Berserk DVDs lined up and gave it a try. It was a lot more violence than I had been used to, but I was absolutely enthralled by the characters and the atmosphere. Although, like in Bob's case, my Blockbuster didn't carry the last DVD, so I was stuck spending the next year just thinking about what might've happened until I eventually came upon the manga. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and after reading the first three volumes I remember feeling very nauseous. But I got over that pretty quickly, so I guess the rest is history! :badbone:

I don't have any kind of Berserk stuff besides the manga, though I've had fantasies of making my own Void sock puppet. :void:

As for other series, I enjoyed Koi Kaze, the Claymore anime, Paranoia Agent, Meteor Methuselah, what I've read of Vagabond, and I am currently a new (but very enthusiastic, I like to think) fan of Blame.
 

Billybob

Succumb to the will of the beast
I first got into Berserk after watching Vampire Hunter D:Bloodlust back in 2005. I was searching around for more anime with dark themes and stumbled upon Berserk.

The only place I get Berserk information from is here. It's by far the most reliable place I've been able to find.

I own the DarkHorse releases 1-20, the 6 volumes from Media Blasters, and the original soundtrack.

My other anime and manga likes are Blade of the Immortal, Bastard!!, FullMetal Alchemist, GTO, Trigun, and Death Note. I'm also newly exploring the epic tale that is Vagabond.
 
*Puts 2cents in slot:

1) Like Aaz, I first heard of Berserk from a video game magazine. At the exact moment my friend was playing Playstation, and I was browsing his Gamepro collection (that I later would buy off him.) The article was small, and narrow. One screen shot stood out to me. It was this guy with a huge sword and he was cutting through someone. That one poor guy being cut down was simply skewing so much blood. I couldn't believe they're were making such a bloody game. Being about 16 and a HUGE fan of Final Fantasy 7 from a few years previous, I said out loud "Hey...?" Thinking someone might be insane enough to try and 1up Cloud, I took a closer look. I don't recall what the article said, I believe the section was a preview section for up coming Dreamcast games. Which I bought because I followed the Resident Evil series as closely as possible. RE: Code Veronica had come to the Dreamcast.

It wasn't till about a year later, the Dreamcast was at its height and I would again accidentally come across the DC Berserk game. I had totally forgotten about it. I picked it up and looked on the back, and I thought back to that Gamepro magazine. I bought it. Played it, never beat the last boss. Story-wise, I was pretty lost as well beyond what the game had to offer. I read the back-story bio's and still felt lost. Although at the time I didn't beat the game, I still loved it, then it happened. I came crossed a overpriced Berserk dvd. It was the starter box set. I knew I wanted the DVD, and eventually got it, without the starter set. It was a bit life changing. I had seen other Adult animes things like Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D, and Ghost in the shell. But Berserk seemed somehow different, had such a strong story and although it had so much violence, it was somehow was feeding my emotional side. It really stood out to me. At the time the production didn't bother me. The Berserk anime cliff hanger left me hunger for more, that hunger would haunt me for years. It wasn't till 2006 I would discover the manga. I had never read any manga, and honestly didn't want to at the time. But Berserk brought me to that. Without question one of the best stories I know, by one of the best artist I know.


- I own the Berserk Manga collection, 4 berserk wall scrolls, a hawks flag, 6 small action figures, the complete berserk starter kit 1-6, the berserk 6 disc box set (to lend out) and the remaster berserk 6 disc box set.

-In 2008 I became a fan of Claymore, I own a figure from it, and the entire manga collection. I love Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the shell, Ninja Scroll, and most classics. Recent likes are Elfen Lied, and Wolfs Rain was alright.

-I get all my info from right at sk.net

Although my buddy with the Gamepro doesn't recall hearing or playing the DC game, I got him into the Berserk anime, then manga. As well as 6 family members and many friends. I still get people hooked onto it till this day. Although only one has every registered onto this site after I recommended it. :schierke:
 
The Blackswordsman said:
Who introduced you to berserk?
My step father actually. He had been reading the series for awhile and when he learned I liked to read Manga as well he showed Berserk to me. I love him and hate him for it at the same time because Berserk is the best Manga I have ever read but it has also made it difficult to enjoy other Manga's since I started.

The Blackswordsman said:
What and Who are your sources?
When I first got into the Manga I used scans (( :magni: Wait wait wait, don't murder me yet just read on.)) but after finding this place around 6 months ago I started buying the volumes. I did this so that I could support the series, get good translations so I can better understand everything and so that I would not have to rely on scans to read this amazing manga. I only have 22 of the Volumes so far ((Students budget sadly)) but I'm getting another one every two weeks or so. Give me a bit and I should have them all!

The Blackswordsman said:
What memorabilia from berserk do you have?
None from retailers. Other than the volumes the only Berserk related things I have I make myself. Things like pixel bead art of the character's or Pepakura style made objects.

The Blackswordsman said:
What other manga or anime are you into?
Ahhh this is a hard one. Since getting into Berserk there are only two I really read. The Breaker, a Korean Manga and I have recently gotten into Vagabond from reading posts about it here though I'm not very far into it.

Oh hello by the way. First post after awhile of lurking. Love the pod casts!
 
1) An old high school friend recommended me Hajime no Ippo the anime. I was hooked by the very first episode and then jumped onto the manga. He then recommended me Berserk saying and I quote, "it is the greatest manga of all time." (simple, yet very effective). Since his first recommendation was great, I simply followed his next one. My life changed after that. Greatest manga of all time, more like the greatest piece of literature of all time!

2) At first my sources were scans, but then I bought all Dark Horse volumes. I just had to support this amazing masterpiece.

3) I have the volumes, a Guts Black Swordsman figure, and a red poster of Guts that has a background of him going berserk.

4) My list of favorite manga that I love to read goes as such: 1. Berserk, 2. Vinland Saga, 3. Hajime No Ippo, 4. Real, 5. Battle Angel Alita (and Last Order), 6. Vagabond, 7. Pluto, 8. Monster, 9. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, 10. Full Metal Alchemist. I've recently had the pleasure of reading Ashita no Joe which is simply brilliant. I haven't read it all yet since the scans are not all released in English, but I do believe it could make my top 5.

Favorite Anime: 1. Code Geass R1 & 2, 2. Cowboy Bebop, 3. Full Metal Alchemist, 4. Fighting Spirit (and New Challenger), 5. The King of Pigs, 6. Grave of the Fireflies, 7. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya S1/ The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, 8. Darker Than Black, 9. Death Note, 10. Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.
 

Dar_Klink

Last Guardian when? - CyberKlink 20XX before dying
IronBerserk said:
9. Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
Great taste! There's another manga by that author that ended recently called Kabu no Isaki, it's also pretty good.
 
Hello this is my first post here thanks for accepting my registration so fast.

1) I just came across the dubbed anime a few days ago on youtube watched the whole thing in one go, and i loved it, so i got the Box of War right after.

2) This forum, and some Berserk wiki

3) Since i so wanted to know what happend to Guts and Casca after the eclipse i got Vol.1-36 ( not 31 i could not afford it) from amazon and since i live in Sweden the shipping alone cost me a small fortune ;D

4) besides Berserk only Ginga Nagareboshi Gin
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Snuso said:
Hello this is my first post here thanks for accepting my registration so fast.

1) I just came across the dubbed anime a few days ago on youtube watched the whole thing in one go, and i loved it, so i got the Box of War right after.

2) This forum, and some Berserk wiki

3) Since i so wanted to know what happend to Guts and Casca after the eclipse i got Vol.1-36 ( not 31 i could not afford it) from amazon and since i live in Sweden the shipping alone cost me a small fortune ;D

4) besides Berserk only Ginga Nagareboshi Gin
Welcome! Very pleased to hear that you like the series enough to purchase it. :ubik:
 
Great taste! There's another manga by that author that ended recently called Kabu no Isaki, it's also pretty good.
Thanks :) and really? Kabu no Isaki...will definitely put it on my list and check it out. Thanks again!
 
Well this seems like a good place for my first post.

1) I was actually introduced to Berserk a couple months ago by the news of them possibly making more movies or OVA's after the Golden Age Arc. Thankfully i decided to read the manga before i seen the movies. :magni:

2) SK.net and the DH volumes

3) Just the DH volumes and... the U.S. blu-ray of the completely faithful adaptation of the Golden Age Arc part 1. :schierke:
I plan on getting a lot more Berserk merchandise like the JP volumes of Berserk, especially for the ones that are out of print because i dont like the fact that im spending 30-70$ on one volume and im not even supporting the creator because DH refuses to re-print them.

4) After reading Berserk i'm kinda just done with other anime and manga.
 

Metal_Bear_Rex

⊂( ̄(エ) ̄)⊃
1.) I was first introduced to Berserk back in 2007 when I was in 7th grade through a youtube video series called "AMV Hell." All it was was funny audio from a bunch of different things synced to anime. It was pretty crude and immature and looking back I don't see how I found it as hilarious as I did. Anyway, it had a few scenes with the Berserk anime. The one that stood out to me the most was the first one shown, during the Guts and Griffith well scene where they splash each other with water and a song called "Detachable Penis" was playing because the animation made it appear as if Griffith had no penis. Hilarious, right? My first impression was that this was "Stupid and gay." Oh how wrong my young self was.
Fast forward about three and a half years later to my sophomore year of high-school and I'm browsing through torrents looking for something to watch, I remember hearing about this crazy anime that's totally brutal and awesome. Of course, it was Berserk, and I decide to download and watch it. I was absolutely hooked. After finishing it and seeing such a grueling cliffhanger, I did more research and learned that it was an entire manga series, and that the anime only covered the first 4th of it. After that I downloaded a complete scanlation compilation of the manga and the rest as they say, is history. One of the greatest regrets I have is experiencing the Golden Age from the anime before reading it proper from the manga. :judo:

2.) I had none. Every now and then I'd look up on google if the next episode had come out and I'd read it then. I'd have never really thought that there was a community for Berserk until I saw a discussion in a Berserk thread on a tiny little site called 4chan.org about an itty-bitty fan site called Skullknight.net. I scoped around and realized that you were my people! Though I waited a while before I actually created an account. I'm glad to make this my new Berserk home

3.) After years of having no money, I finally purchased most of the manga volumes recently, now that I am financially able. There was no better feeling than finally holding the actual manga in my hands. In addition, I also have The Black Swordsman Guts, Griffith, and Berserker Armor Guts figmas sitting in front of my volumes. My collection will surely grow in the coming years.

4.) I still read Naruto because it's what I read way back when I was little. I'm so invested in it that I want to see it to it's end, even if it isn't that great these days. Other than that I've read/watched most of the typical mainstream stuff like One Piece, Dragonball, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Yu Yu Hakusho, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Full Metal Alchemist as well as more obscure stuff like Desert Punk, Battle Royale, Vinland Saga, TerraforMars as well as others I can't remember.
I don't really follow anything anywhere near as closely as I do Berserk as I feel there's no point. Nothing will hold a candle to Berserk in my eyes.
 
A thread from 2003, it's still hard for me to realize that this place is almost as old as my whole love for anime/manga. And that i haven't found this and Berserk earlier.

1) I can't really say when i first saw something from Berserk. I believe that i may have been influenced indirectly by some of the artwork ive probably seen over the past decade, since i somehow always had a love for the lone warrior with the oversized sword or axe, always been my character of choice in video games or pen & paper :guts:
The first time i really knew that there was a manga called Berserk could have been 2009 or 2010 i think, but when i heard that it's been released for 20 years and still ongoing, i thought "yeah right, forget it, that's way too much and way too late for me to start reading it"
By that time i was still under the impression, that most manga are usually released weekly... The thing is, it's possible that i wouldn't even be here today, if i wouldn't have become a huge fan of Naruto in 2008. Yeah, sounds weird, but there's a reason for it. At that time, despite having watched anime regulary for 10 years, i had never touched a manga before ("wtf, this crap is all black&white? no colors?").
But the godawful abuse of fillerepisodes, whole filler arcs in the Naruto animation literally forced me into start reading manga in 2008/09. If you have the options of watching 6 months of bad quality fillers, or just get over yourself and read the damn manga to see how the actual story continues, then it's a really easy choice. And suprise surpise, it didn't take long for me to realize how reading a manga is so much closer to the material, how it's the best way to enjoy someones work, since it's the real unfiltered way, how the author wants to deliver his story. And because of this new found love for manga, i suddenly had a much wider array of different authors and stories to enjoy.
And now lets jump to summer 2012. My once fiery love for Naruto was slowly dying, because since the manga had entered the final stage of it's story, it had slowly but steadily thrown away all the elements. that i once enjoyed about it. Anyway, i had a free day and i was bored. I had recently bought Skyrim, so i was looking through some videos of good mods on youtube.
That's when i found a certain video, simply called "Guts in Skyrim". Well, let's have a look. It was a video about the Black Swordsman Armor and Dragonslayer edited into the game, with "Forces" playing in the background of course. I was like "ooh, ooooh its that guy from the fantasy manga. And whats that awesome music? Forces by Susumu Hirasawa, ok lets look for that". The next video i found was an AVM from the anime series with Forces. Thats when i realized there was a television show of Berserk. I immediatly decided i would have to watch this on the next weekend. Anime show was possible, but the manga would be too much (i still thought there would be... i don't know, 1000+ episodes after 20 years).

I realized i still had no idea what Berserk was actually about, besides having a big guy wielding an even bigger sword. So i decided to do a little research, just a short description what this anime/manga was about.
I came upon a Berserk Wiki i think, with a little summary.
I'm sure some people would like to strangle me for what i did and what i'm now going to write.

Just a quick look, i thought, to see what its about... i read the whole thing, 3-4 pages :schnoz:
I spoilered myself before even seeing the first manga or watching an episode.
But surprisingly, something happened that had never happened before in my life. Normally, spoilers are a death sentence for my interest in something, be it a movie or a game. I absolutely hate spoilers, i hate them to the point that i won't even watch something, if i was already told too much about it, even if i know its good. This happenend a lot of times with movies, thanks to one particular friend of mine.
A quick example, i totally love the Mass Effect Series, it's in the top list of games that i have ever played. But i have never even touched the 3rd game. Why? Just because of the single fact that i know that some people didn't like the ending. That's it. I dont even know the ending or any details about the game at all (and no thanks i dont want to know now ^_^), i only know this single fact. And that was enough to completely make me loose my interest. I mean, i have it here since last year, but everytime i think i could maybe play it, it's just "hm... ah, well lets do something else".

None of this happened, when i read about Berserk.
I think, at that moment i couldn't have stopped reading the story anyway, even if i had wanted to. With every detail it became more and more awesome, and terrible, and beautiful. And then the Eclipse. I was actually gawking at my screen, open mouthed, for i don't know, 5-10 minutes, i'm not joking. And this wasn't even the real thing yet, this was just plain text.

This was when i decided, i had to see this with my own eyes. I have to watch it and i have to read this manga, no matter how long it takes (lol i still believed it would have an unbelievable amount of episodes), i don't care if hell freezes, world ends tomorrow or the sun explodes, that won't stop me, i have to see this unbelievable journey with my own eyes.

Yeah, well, and thats it. Thats how i started reading Berserk last year.

2) Source, well, uhm, does google count? Well, to be honest, i just looked for a torrent for the whole thing, was so glad when i found a huge high quality scan pack.

3) Well, i have some of the german volumes available here, but i stopped collecting. It's... bad... just bad. To give you an example, in one scene in the german edition it literally goes "Guts you stupid stupid clown!" while in english its something like "Guts you selfish bastard!" I was like "what the fuck is this, the childrens version?" And sometimes the text bubbles are switched and really messed up, seriously, i see no reason to collect the edition released in my country. Instead i will rather import the Dark Horse version from the US someday.

4) Like Metal_Bear_Rex i still read Naruto. Actually i could just copy his whole sentence. The quality goes up and down but sadly never reaches its former glory, which is really sad since it's actually reaching it's main conclusion and you would expect... well, just something better. I also read... uhm, well, Kimi ni Todoke, started it in 2011, its a .. uhm, shojo, romantic shojo highschool stuff. I thought, hey you know so much shonen stuff, but you know almost nothing about other genre. Oh allright, today lets try and see what a shojo manga is about, i mean, you liked Sailormoon when you watched it with a friend last year, it was actually fun, and so i looked up what was popular at that time in this genre, and yes, it actually is nice. It's weird sometimes, having whole double pages full of sparkles with just the girl saying one lovey-dovey sentence like "does he really like me", but its relaxing, its simple and enjoyable.
Since the beginning of the berserk hiatus i also read Black Lagoon. Had heard of it before, i found it when looking for Seinen manga (i really don't want to read another shonen again, i think i had enough of it now). It started out really cool, but unfortunately i had learn that "Seinen" doesn't necessarily mean, that you will get a deep story or characters. It can also just mean lots of BOOM and shooting. And thats all there is about it. 10 volumes, not the slightest character development. There was a tiny indication of development in the beginning that made me hope, but no, it was never ever mentioned again. And for some reason i can't stand Revy. Which is bad, since she is the female protagonist. Well, she is hot, and like an evil sinister version of 90's Lara Croft. But thats exactly the problem, i stopped counting how many unarmed people she keeps shooting left and right, always with a psychopath smile. I don't know, maybe someone likes this, i don't.
And i also tried Gantz. Well, what can i say. Awesome artwork. Lots of violence, nudity, and what not. Interesting story. And ALIENS!
But the main character is a god damn asshole.
I really wish i could like it. But its a bit of a problem, if in every chapter you just want to punch the main character in the face. :mozgus:
Well, i guess he does change his attitude and personality over time in the manga and really becomes a hero, i mean, there must be a reason why people read it for years now.
But i read almost as much of it as the whole Golden Age arc is long... and he was still an asshole. I don't know, maybe i stopped just right before he starts to change, but i cancelled it. Just didn't enjoy it.

Oh well, before this gets too long, here is a list of some of the anime and manga that i watched and liked over the last 13 years.

AnimeList.jpg


Metal_Bear_Rex said:
until I saw a discussion in a Berserk thread on a tiny little site called 4chan.org about an itty-bitty fan site called Skullknight.net.

I was wondering, was this by chance the "Daily Most Enjoyable Berserk Thread" on /b/ ?
MostEnjoyableDailyBerserkThread.jpg

A guy was posting the whole Berserk manga there about a year ago, about 2-3 episodes per day.

Because i remember i posted a link to the Miura interview from sk.net there once. Was nice sometimes, but the audience, well... i remember one guy couldn't remember the names. When mentioning Casca he said "Hey, where is 'rape girl', what happened to 'rape girl' again?"...
And i learned the hard way to never ever mention that you like Naruto. Took me one week to convince them that i wasn't 12 years afterwards. Hell, i was 10 years older than the OP. He didn't even know what Cowboy Bebop was, had been watching anime for 2-3 years.

Hm, about Naruto
do you remember the time, when Tobi was still Madara... *sigh* good times. Back then i honestly believed, that his revelation of being Madara Uchiha was one of the greatest plot twists in history, the weak clown of Akatsuki being the most powerfull shinobi, an immortal who has planned his revenge on the world for almost 100 years. I really thought he was the greatest super villian of all times, still most of my profiles on old forums use Madara's portrait as an avatar :ganishka:
I believed it until the very end. Ok, Kishimoto did manage to save the whole thing for me later, by making Madara still the real mastermind behind everything. So in some weird way, the main villian i had loved was still the main villain, also he wasn't the same person but... oh well. Lets just say, at this point, or rather, the whole beginning of the "so called" world war, that just lasts a few days, this whole manga started to fell... different. But at least it now looks like i will get my fucking moons eye plan. Thats at least something...


Grail said:
It hit me like a ton of bricks, and after reading the first three volumes I remember feeling very nauseous. But I got over that pretty quickly, so I guess the rest is history! :badbone:

lol i actually warn people about the first three volumes, when introducing them to the manga, telling them that there is a very good reason, why the main character might seems to be a little bit, well, coldblooded and heartless, and why he's so obsessed with his enemies, and that it will all be fully explained later on.
 

Chosen Immortal

Blood & guts & Guts & God-Hand
I first saw berserk in its original anime form on.. youtube. I had been into a handful of anime before hand :daiba: (Eva and Naruto mainly)
However i have a habit of wanting to see the climax of the story before the rest takes place. I had watched the last sceen from End of Evangelion-first. I got into Naruto* from the Valley of the End fight. So of course with Berserk I had to click on that one video of all those weird red stuff and that demon thing doing.. oh :femto:
The eclipse was like a trance, very much the scene that makes Berserk what it is. I saw the rest of the anime as well, but it was and still is lack luster to me. Then with the Golden age films coming out, the first thing that garbed was the soundtrack. Shiro Saigusu who did the music for Eva has me hooked to this day, so i listened to the OST for the films before actually seeing them. The movies themselves were interesting, much like the way that Rebuild of Evangelion is a Reboot in a sence (can you tell i like eva allot? :???:) I had not seen the core materiel of berserk.. yet. Finally as of not even three months ago, i watched Berserk 3: Decent. i knew what was coming. But the way that it was done evoked so many things from myself. Guts standing on the hill, watching the rising sun, after all the hell he'd survived, and it being only a prelude to what is to come. Guts is the MAN :guts:

So Finally, i snatched a complete manga set off ebay for ALLot of $ :puck:$. I'd read a few seinis before.. 20th Century boys.. The World is mine. Berserk is different though, It can appeal to your intellect and the raw gory side. I've been Reading about a volume every 2-3 days. I'm on 28 right now. I was most exited to see my man Guts dawn the berserk armor for the first time (seeing pictures of it all over the web was another thing that got me into it). Now that he has it, the series feels much different than the good old Golden Age.

My collection: all 36 volumes (the 37th in japanese) Guts berserk Armor Figma Figure, the golden age arc movies 1&2- and the two art books released for the films.
All in all, the series stands out among others -for better or worse. Some Otaku's are put off by all the mayhem and violence. To each their own. I'm curious, how many who read berserk actually have the volumes. They aren't easy to come by any more it seems. :judo:
 
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