Episode 340

Title: 暗闘 - The Combat in the Darkness/The Secret Feud (not sure)​

Story:

Rakshas finds Rickert; his new mask still has three eyes, but has some feather-like pattern on each of them. :rakshas:

Rickert shoots Rakshas with his crossbow, but most of the shots are dodged.

One of the shots hits Rakshas' mask. Rickert: "Got it!" (やった!)

Rakshas: "I should've said it before... That's not where my head is."

Rickert says something about the swine apostle guy that he and Guts met back at the blacksmith's.

Rakshas: "I will kill the Falcon by my own hand someday." (私……何時か殺したい鷹をこの手で。Not sure what he means here :???:)

Silat suddenly attacks Rakshas, referring to Rakshas as "The Joyful Murderer"(快楽殺人者).

Silat has a fierce combat with Rakshas and successfully leaves a long scratch on his face.

Rakshas: "As an arrogant son of the chieftain... You're not someone I could take lightly."

Silat: "My arrogance was torn when that guy (Guts) crushed my nose bridge... I've grown a lot after that fight with him."

The two Tapasa guys fire a cannonball at Rakshas. Successfully hit.
The two Tapasa guys fill the fire extinguisher with burning oil and fire it at Rakshas.

Rickert refers to Rakshas as "戦魔". (A name for Griffith's apostle soldiers, though Rakshas still hasn't show his apostle form so far.)

Rakshas grabs a horse to the sky, tears it into half, and uses the horse's blood to douse the flame that covered his body.

As the fire is spreading, Erica goes out of the shelter so as to save the city from fire.

Luca calls Erica to save her from danger, but Erica is already captured and lifted to the sky by Rakshas. :magni:

Rickert: "Ericaaa!!"

Episode #341 will be published in Young Animal #21 (23rd October).
 
Captain Sherlock said:
Thanks for the translation. Does anybody have a link to the manga pages?

Please wait till 25th.

As far as I know, Chinese scanlators got the episode even earlier than me. So it's possible that we'll have the Chinese scans before 25th. :schierke:
 

Squiddot

The Falcon needs you. You don't need him!
Well it looks like we've finally gotten a look at Rakshas' apostle form now, compared to his usual look he looks totally monstrous in that final page. His mask is also a much bigger departure from the original design than i would have guessed, but damn it looks great.

And how long has it been since Miura's last done a brutal horse dismemberment? :ganishka:

Really looking forward to seeing how everything plays out now, Seems like Rickert's departure (if he even makes it that far and doesn't wind up in some Falconia jail cell) isn't going to be nearly as quick and clean as i thought it would.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, new Rakshas mask, new Rakshas look! Collect them all! This one looks almost like a luchador mask :rakshas:

That horse blood thing had me cackling, heheh. What a monster!

Squiddot said:
Well it looks like we've finally gotten a look at Rakshas' apostle form now, compared to his usual look he looks totally monstrous in that final page.

Don't think so. As Nymoath says, "Rickert refers to Rakshas as "戦魔". (A name for Griffith's apostle soldiers, though Rakshas still hasn't show his apostle form so far.)"

Aguirre said:
So the fire extinguisher that Rickert was working with was, in some ways, Chekhov's gun.
Why...? It already served a purpose -- exemplifying the advanced technology that was in the old city.
 
Walter said:
Rickert refers to Rakshas as "戦魔". (A name for Griffith's apostle soldiers, though Rakshas still hasn't show his apostle form so far.)
I'm not really sure about that. It's possible that he is already in his apostle form; it's just hidden under his cloak. :???:

Also, did Dark Horse officially named him "Raksas"? Though I'd still prefer Rakshas, maybe it would be better to stay with the official spellings.
 

Squiddot

The Falcon needs you. You don't need him!
Nymoath said:
I'm not really sure about that. It's possible that he is already in his apostle form; it's just hidden under his cloak. :???:

That's what i'm thinking. His usual human silhouette has changed a lot, his arms have twisted into enormous tentacles, on top of sprouting an extra pair which is something we've never seen before. It's also hard to tell with the dramatic angle on that last page but he looks much taller than usual. His cloak is also more "frilly" and layered, almost like an animal's hide, but I'm willing to chalk that up to him being lit on fire previously.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Nymoath said:
I'm not really sure about that. It's possible that he is already in his apostle form; it's just hidden under his cloak. :???:

Ah, well I was just basing it on what you said, and with your avatar, I presumed you had seen more of the episode which solidified that impression.

BTW Nymoath... is the fire caused by the cannon the Tapasa fire...?

Also, did Dark Horse officially named him "Raksas"? Though I'd still prefer Rakshas, maybe it would be better to stay with the official spellings.

Yep... However, Rakshas is preferred. DH gets several things wrong (Knight of Skeleton for example).

Squiddot said:
his arms have twisted into enormous tentacles, on top of sprouting an extra pair which is something we've never seen before.

Well, while there are more of them, that's within the range of what Rakshas did in the last episode, when he lifted the Tapasa using "just" the cloak. I think this again proves what was implied last time -- he doesn't have a body under there -- it's pretty much just a cloak that he can manipulate into various appendages.

Just from the 2.1 pages that I've seen, his form doesn't appear dramatically different to me, just a bit wilder. For him to show his true apostle form, I would presume it would be a much greater departure from the norm.
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
Wow oh wow. How am I supposed to last my work week with this exciting episode coming!?! Great preview. Thx you very much... Now I just don,t have any comment for I'm too excited. To be honest I think I might prefer the old mask even though the new one is nice.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Thank you for the preview, Nymoath.

The title of the episode is interesting. It's a play on words: the basic meaning is a "fight in the dark", but it actually refers to a longstanding, behind the scene enmity, like what could exist between two opposite political factions. A clear reference to the history between Rakshas and the Bakiraka.

Squiddot said:
Well it looks like we've finally gotten a look at Rakshas' apostle form now, compared to his usual look he looks totally monstrous in that final page. His mask is also a much bigger departure from the original design than i would have guessed, but damn it looks great.

Yeah it seems he's getting serious (at least by the end of the episode). I like the new mask, and it's actually not that different from the previous one. It's more ornamented (in a very Kushan way; it reminds me of Ganishka's grand throne and statues) and lacks the teeth, but the pattern is the same. It also shows I was right about him having a bunch of masks. :rakshas:

Squiddot said:
Really looking forward to seeing how everything plays out now, Seems like Rickert's departure (if he even makes it that far and doesn't wind up in some Falconia jail cell) isn't going to be nearly as quick and clean as i thought it would.

So far things are going pretty much as I expected them to. In this episode Rakshas stopped them from leaving and has now got the upper hand. In the next one I believe Daiba will swoop in and rescue Erika (repaying her for her earlier kindness, in a way) while helping the others overwhelm Rakshas. For example he could use his magic to control the fire, using it against the apostle. I believe a close call with an escape on the Garuda would neatly close this part of the story.

Nymoath said:
I'm not really sure about that. It's possible that he is already in his apostle form; it's just hidden under his cloak. :???:

As was made clear by episode 339, Rakshas isn't hiding under the cloak: he is the cloak. Look at your own pictures: he is basically a monster made up of fabric. Whatever head and organs he has must be distributed within the cloth.
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
Aazealh said:
As was made clear by episode 339, Rakshas isn't hiding under the cloak: he is the cloak. Look at your own pictures: he is basically a monster made up of fabric. Whatever head and organs he has must be distributed within the cloth.

Do you think this statement could be accurate somehow : "Burn the cloak = problem solved"? (Now I'm not saying that it'd be easy to do though)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
jackson_hurley said:
Do you think this statement could be accurate somehow : "Burn the cloak = problem solved"? (Now I'm not saying that it'd be easy to do though)

Destroying the "cloak" one way or another would spell the end of Rakshas since they are one and the same, but that's not saying much.
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
Aazealh said:
Destroying the "cloak" one way or another would spell the end of Rakshas since they are one and the same, but that's not saying much.

Well of course it was simply put. I don't think it'd be as easy as saying it. Maybe this is why they try to set him on fire though? Since we don't have the full episode yet, we don't know how this happens. He already seems hard to wound...
 
Really, really excited to see the "fierce" combat between Silat and Rakshas. I've been waiting to see someone who isn't Guts have a serious fight with an apostle, and Miura has been teasing us for a bit now. :ubik:

I am on the edge of my seat waiting for this release now!

Thanks for posting this.
 
Nymoath said:
Rakshas: "I will kill the Falcon by my own hand someday." (私……何時か殺したい鷹をこの手で。Not sure what he means here :???:)

I'm curious to see the context of that line. Is he joking? Was he being sincere about that desire all this time? (And if so how could he possibly still think that'll happen given Ganishka's failed attempt?) And why would he even bring that up now? I look forward to having those questions answered.
 
Walter said:
BTW Nymoath... is the fire caused by the cannon the Tapasa fire...?

I was not really sure. My Japanese is terrible, the raw pictures I saw are very dim and not clear at all, and I really didn't read it very carefully yesterday. Sorry for leaving a misimpression.

The thing is that I just found that I've made a big mistake in the original post. The Tapasa didn't fire a "cannonball" at Rakshas. What they really did is
filling Rickert's fire extinguisher with burning oil instead of water, and poured it on Rakshas
. So yes, that's a "Chekhov's gun".

Here's a little more of the episode: the "cannon" and the scratch. (I've tried my best to make the pictures clearer, trust me. :judo:)

Skeleton said:
I'm curious to see the context of that line. Is he joking? Was he being sincere about that desire all this time? (And if so how could he possibly still think that'll happen given Ganishka's failed attempt?) And why would he even bring that up now? I look forward to having those questions answered.

I'm not sure what that line really means. Forgive my terrible Japanese. But he has once made that statement before. Didn't he? :???:

Aazealh said:
As was made clear by episode 339, Rakshas isn't hiding under the cloak: he is the cloak. Look at your own pictures: he is basically a monster made up of fabric. Whatever head and organs he has must be distributed within the cloth.

That's very likely to be right I guess. But at least he's got a face somewhere in that cloak. Wonder if he has blood?
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Nymoath said:
The thing is that I just found that I've made a big mistake in the original post. The Tapasa didn't fire a "cannonball" at Rakshas. What they really did is
filling Rickert's fire extinguisher with burning oil instead of water, and poured it on Rakshas
. So yes, that's a "Chekhov's gun".

Ah, I see. Please don't take this the wrong way, but these hints + a few scattered pages is a really painful way for us to experience this episode. I know you're trying to just give us a peek,but it's tough to make sense of everything as it is.

It looks from that latest shot like Rakshas does undergo a transformation in this episode. He shows up looking like his old self, with new mask, until he gets shot with flame. Then he must emerge with those crazy cloak-tentacles, because we then see him dousing himself in horse blood, followed by the whole thing with Erika. In both of those shots, his form looks quite a bit different. But that wasn't clear from earlier.

Here's a little more of the episode: the "cannon" and the scratch. (I've tried my best to make the pictures clearer, trust me. :judo:)

The Tapasa are so badass.

I'm not sure what that line really means. Forgive my terrible Japanese. But he has once made that statement before. Didn't he? :???:

In his introductory scene (Volume 22), he said he wanted to wear Griffith's head.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
jackson_hurley said:
Well of course it was simply put. I don't think it'd be as easy as saying it. Maybe this is why they try to set him on fire though?

Yes, they set him on fire to try to kill him.

Skeleton said:
I'm curious to see the context of that line. Is he joking? Was he being sincere about that desire all this time? (And if so how could he possibly still think that'll happen given Ganishka's failed attempt?) And why would he even bring that up now? I look forward to having those questions answered.

We'll see when we have a proper translation, however, like I mentioned when episode 338 came out, I think it's pretty clear what his motivations are here: he's after Rickert because of the slap. Griffith's head is "his", and he won't allow anyone else to lay their hands on it. Basically, he's sticking to his strange logic regarding why he protects Griffith. This can also be taken as a hint that he was not ordered to go after Rickert by Griffith.

Nymoath said:
The thing is that I just found that I've made a big mistake in the original post. The Tapasa didn't fire a "cannonball" at Rakshas. What they really did is
filling Rickert's fire extinguisher with burning oil instead of water, and poured it on Rakshas
.

Oh, so I was right about the device being used as a flamethrower. :badbone: I shall from now on be referred to as THE PROPHET™.

Nymoath said:
So yes, that's a "Chekhov's gun".

Lol, I get what you're going for here, but really, Chekhov's gun is a narrative principle and it doesn't just refer to an element of a story playing more than one part in it. Berserk does not really follow Chekhov's principle by virtue of its structure and extensiveness, however I could spend a whole day listing instances of elements being introduced early and playing a role later on.

Nymoath said:
That's very likely to be right I guess. But at least he's got a face somewhere in that cloak. Wonder if he has blood?

I think he probably has some organs aside from his head and some blood in there somewhere. But it's mostly just fabric. In that shot of Silat slashing his face (such a badass), you do see some blood erupting.
 
Aazealh said:
We'll see when we have a proper translation, however, like I mentioned when episode 338 came out, I think it's pretty clear what his motivations are here: he's after Rickert because of the slap. Griffith's head is "his", and he won't allow anyone else to lay their hands on it. Basically, he's sticking to his strange logic regarding why he protects Griffith. This can also be taken as a hint that he was not ordered to go after Rickert by Griffith.

That's true, and for the record that's what I'm thinking too. It's just hard to read what he's thinking. The man has an incredible poker face. :carcus:

Aazealh said:
Oh, so I was right about the device being used as a flamethrower. :badbone: I shall from now on be referred to as THE PROPHET™.

Sometimes I wonder if you're really Miura pretending to be someone else. You've denied that allegation in the past. But if Miura really did that he'd deny it too so. . .

Seriously though, I'm sincerely in awe at how in tune you are with how Miura thinks and what direction Berserk is going to go in. I've been dead wrong with every single prediction I've ever made even when it seemed so obvious to me. I applaud your skill, good sir. It's truly incredible.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Skeleton said:
That's true, and for the record that's what I'm thinking too. It's just hard to read what he's thinking. The man has an incredible poker face.

That he certainly does!

Skeleton said:
Seriously though, I'm sincerely in awe at how in tune you are with how Miura thinks and what direction Berserk is going to go in. I've been dead wrong with every single prediction I've ever made even when it seemed so obvious to me. I applaud your skill, good sir. It's truly incredible.

Hehe thanks, I try to be. That being said, I've been wrong quite a few times as well. That's one thing I love about Berserk: Miura's always got some surprises in store for us! :guts:
 

Squiddot

The Falcon needs you. You don't need him!
So twice now Rakshas has pointed out that his face isn't where it's supposed to be and i think i'm starting to get it. The faint ghosty face is his weakness but it's never hidden underneath his mask like an ordinary head, rather it's blended in somewhere on the cloak, nigh impossible to see considering his movements and how well hidden it naturally is. Silat is slicing it in the new pics but we can see from the last page that his mask is still firmly on. Seems like most of the fight is going to be trying to locate the tiny impression of the face on the cloak while avoiding all of Rakshas' blows, a tall order but Silat is showing himself to be a force to be reckoned with who learns what works and what doesn't fast.

I'm thinking while Erika's being suspended up in the air, she might spot the little face on Rakshas' back (has anyone ever managed to get behind him?), triggering the hunt.

Of course, burning him into a little pile would be a much faster way :troll: Tapasa work smart, not hard.
 
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