What is the universe of Berserk materials?

Can you all please help me figure out exactly how much Berserk material is available that actually contains storyline (like, not t-shirts & stationary)?

I've seen a lot of the answers on this site, but I'm having trouble piecing things together. I just finished the 6-disc anime, and this is the first place I've come to learn more. It looks like maybe there is nothing else to watch on my tv, but there is a lot of written stuff. I see references to double digit volumes everywhere, and in some places I see numbers in the hundreds, and terms like volume, series, episode, and so on. So, I'm confused as to whether there is one massive string of paper material or if there are different versions, etc. I also wonder how the paper stuff relates, chronologically, to the anime. From what I've learned here it looks as though it begins before and continues after the anime, but I'm sure I'll find that out on my own after I learn what else I need to get to be caught up on the whole story.

Thank you!  :)
 

Headless_Death

u/QuartetGhent
So far twenty-seven volumes are available in Japan, while five are available here in the US (soon to be 28 and 6). While a good solution for those that live in the US would be sasuga books for the Japanese versions, Aclimate Solution also sells translations for the volumes.

To your other concern, the difference between volume, episode, chapter, and arc:

Volume: A publication in paperback book form, that contains ten to eleven episodes.
Episode: 1 single publication of the series in the magazine Young Animal. It is also the single sections of each volume.
Chapter: This is a measurement of the story, currently the manga is in the Chapter of Falconia inside the arc of Millennium Falcon.
Arc: An arc is a complete section of the story, divided into such arcs as The Black Swordsman arc, Golden Age arc, Retribution arc, among a couple others.

So around 29 volumes so far (including the pre-publication), and 249 episodes.

EDIT: Forgot to add that on top of the story of the manga, there is additional story in both the dreamcast Berserk game "Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage", and the PS2 game (still not released in the US, and may never be. :'(). Sword of the berserk adds the Chapter of the oblivion herbs, while the PS2 adds a chapter on Charles.

Edit from admin: Small corrections (feel free to use the Spell Check tool).
 

BiQ_

" ... "
There are currently (3rd Jan 2005) 27 volumes of Manga published in Japan. Volume 28 is going to be published on february 28th. These volumes are obviously Japanese. In English language, Dark Horse has so far published volumes up to 5. Volume 6 is supposedly going to be released by Dark Horse at Jan 19th, 2005.

The anime is 25 episodes long, and currently there is no more of it. Rumours of the 2nd season of Berserk anime have been running amok since the anime ended, and it hasn't yet actualized. Recently the rumours have spiked up again, but I don't think it's now any more substantial than the last time(s).

The general consensus of this board (and, indeed, the whole Berserk community) seems to be that the Manga is The Definitive Canon Berserk Storyline. Everything you need to know about Berserk storyline is in the Manga. Anime shows only a fragment of this same storyline, and even that fragment has not been shown perfectly faithfully. The part of manga storyline that is shown in anime is roughly in volumes 3-13 (approximatively 1/4 of the original storyline taking place in this part is missing in the anime).

Two different video games have also been made. One for Sega Dreamcast and other for Sony Playstation 2. Both of these games include some storyline material, even if the main focus (gameplay-wise) of those games is sword-swinging.

The Dreamcast game storyline is supposed to fit into a specific part of the story (a gap in volume 22, episode 184, IIRC), but PS2 game essentially storyline retells/rewrites the story in volumes 22-26 and should IMHO be considered as a "alternate reality" storyline. The Dreamcast game has been adapted to the English language and released in USA, but the PS2 game has not (at least, not yet ... here's hoping it will...  :) ) been released outside of Japan/Korea.

edit: I believe in yesterday...  :p
 
Ok now- how many of you all have gone and tracked down a dreamcast just to play this game? ;D

Thanks for the help! And my new questions are..

These 5(6) volumes available here, do they correspond to the first 5 that are in Japanese? What I'm getting at is, if I want to experience Berserk completely, would you recommend that I just seek these out and start from the beginning, or would it be better to go for the japanese translations (or is the a better way)?

And that leads me to my next question- did you mean that all 27 volumes in Japanese were translated and are available, or are the 5 volumes actually the ones that have been translated?

Volume: A publication in paperback book form, that contains ten to eleven chapters.
Episode: 1 single publication of the series in the magazine Young Animal. It is also the single sections of each volume.
Chapter: This is a measurement of the story, currently the manga is in the Chapter of Falconia inside the arc of Millennium Falcon.
Arc: An arc is a complete section of the story, divided into such arcs as The Black Swordsman arc, Golden Age arc, Retribution arc, among a couple others.

So around 29 volumes so far (including the pre-publication), and 249 episodes.

So, Arc->Volume->Chapter->Episode? With 27 Volumes containing ~10 episodes working out to be 249? Is that right? I just dont want to miss anything. 8)
 

BiQ_

" ... "
el_guapo said:
Ok now- how many of you all have gone and tracked down a dreamcast just to play this game?  ;D

Not me. Although the release of the PS2 game was the final straw for me to get a Playstation 2 with modchip... before they manage to make modchips illegal here, too.

Thanks for the help! And my new questions are..

These 5(6) volumes available here, do they correspond to the first 5 that are in Japanese? What I'm getting at is, if I want to experience Berserk completely, would you recommend that I just seek these out and start from the beginning, or would it be better to go for the japanese translations (or is the a better way)?

And that leads me to my next question- did you mean that all 27 volumes in Japanese were translated and are available, or are the 5 volumes actually the ones that have been translated?

The volumes 1-5 by Dark Horse are (content-wise) the same as the volumes 1-5 in Japan. Dark Horse seems to be putting out 4 volumes per year. This means that those who decide to read berserk only from DH publications have to wait few years to get to the point in story where Japanese volumes are now. And by that time, Japanese Berserk has gone forward even further.

Dark Horse volumes are in original format (reads right-to-left) and they claim to do it without any censorship. So far they have managed this, and after volume 4 we can quite safely assume that they will continue being faithful for the original work.

I would suggest that reading Berserk from the beginning to the end is the best way to do it, regardless of if you have seen the anime or not. If you don't want to wait for DH, the right way to do it is to buy the Japanese manga and read it from there. Translations are available here:
http://www.skullknight.net/manga/

places to buy, other places probably exist as well:

http://www.sasugabooks.com/
http://www.archonia.com/
http://www.aclimatesolution.com/

Berserk has also been published in some European countries, at least in German, French and Italian. I have no information about the details of those publications. (how far they are, if they are flipped or not, etc.)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
el_guapo said:
So, Arc->Volume->Chapter->Episode? With 27 Volumes containing ~10 episodes working out to be 249? Is that right? I just dont want to miss anything. 8)

No, the story is divided in arcs, chapters, and episodes. Each volume contains approximatively 10 episodes. It doesn't really relate.

And episode 249 is the last pre-published one, it'll be released in volume 29.
 
Ahhhh...

"Volume: A publication in paperback book form, that contains ten to eleven chapters."

... is what threw me off.

Thank you all for your help- I'm holding volume one right now.  8)
 
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