Episode 375
- Thread starter Walter
- Start date
No, it's not possible. The idea that the Kushan empire would somehow still be standing right now is ridiculous. The idea that the Bakiraka of all people would manage to take control of it is also ridiculous. And as a reminder, last time we saw Silat, he said they were going back to their secret hideout, not to the Kushan empire. He was talking about the place their clan used as a base of operations after their exile, while living in Western countries. And that's clearly not where we are right now. No matter the reason, this is another huge departure from the story that definitely isn't going in the direction Miura had planned.
The transition took place in episode 373, after we cut away to Casca in Falconia. When it opens, we see that the moon is at a crescent, same as now. If we refer to the phases of the moon, it means 10 days have passed. But the problem, as you pointed out, is that it's not reflected by the narrative. Everything looks about the same as it was before: they're all dejected, Guts is still lying down in his room wearing the armor, and no one's giving a shit. It feels like maybe a day has passed. Anyway, what matters is that even if it had been a month and a half, it still wouldn't be enough time for the Sea Horse to reach where it currently is. The only way it could be there is by being magically displaced. This is another one of those things that just won't get explained. They're there because they need to be.
Unfortunately the people doing the continuation don't understand how it works either, which might explain your confusion.
I'll talk about it in my big post if I have the motivation to make one, but much like Azan, they've basically been trampling Magnifico's character because he's secondary enough that they feel comfortable doing whatever they want with him. In this case, they're giving him an exaggerated reaction to Guts' condition simply so that he can make a funny face (which looks like his O face, great job guys
). Would he actually be so crestfallen that Guts was in that state? No, not the way Miura created him. But who cares! Funny faces!
guuuuuuuuts
Excited for the next chapter!
It looks like Magnifico is literally rolling his eyes in contempt.I'll talk about it in my big post if I have the motivation to make one, but much like Azan, they've basically been trampling Magnifico's character because he's secondary enough that they feel comfortable doing whatever they want with him. In this case, they're giving him an exaggerated reaction to Guts' condition simply so that he can make a funny face (which looks like his O face, great job guys
Only three things happen in this episode: Guts is humiliated (again), Rickert sets the group free, and we're told they are now in "Kushan lands", far away from where they where before.
Relishing the humiliation
I've seen people dismayed by the drawn out scene of Guts being dragged and falling (once again) on his face in front of everybody. My take on that is the team is going for some sort of "humiliation porn", if that makes sense. Showing Guts being as pathetic as possible in the most over-the-top ways they can think of. I assume the point is to provoke a strong emotional reaction in the reader and make it as memorable an ordeal as possible. However, it fails precisely because it is so repetitive and over-the-top, as it becomes embarrassing at best and straight-up comical at worst.
In this sequence, Isidro feels like a self-insert character who the reader is meant to emphasize with, crying and wailing that Guts should get up and swing his sword. His own powerlessness only reinforces the humiliation. Needless to say, this doesn't feel true to his character to me. I could talk about how Isidro is plucky and brash, but the truth is he wouldn't have let himself get captured like that in the first place, nor would he have left Guts to rot alone for over a week. Similarly, Guts being down in the dumps wouldn't look like that either, which is why this entire scenario is baffling to begin with.
There is truth to the notion that sometimes "less is more", as is plain to see if we compare this to moments in Berserk (you know, the real one) where Guts is downcast, like the Eclipse's aftermath, in the cave in volume 17, or when Casca runs off in volume 23. They're a lot more subdued and yet much more powerful, because we're privy to his thoughts and doubts and they feel very real. Anyway, this farce is meant to pave the way for an eventual "triumphant return" of Guts as a badass, which I'm going to predict will be just as ineffective and unwarranted.
Guts' condition doesn't make sense
By the way, Guts' affliction doesn't make a lot of sense. He's having trouble walking and essentially falls unconscious after a little bit of effort (he actually looks like he's sleeping peacefully at the end
). I guess it's supposed to be some sort of depression, but it's more like a neuromotor disorder. Depression is not having the drive to get out of bed in the morning; here he can barely stay awake at all and is unable to stand on his own two feet.
If anything, this kind of ailment feels like the extreme end of the debilitating effects related to continuous use of the berserk's armor. The problem is Guts wasn't anywhere close to that level. In episode 364, literally the last one penned by Miura, we saw Guts losing hold of his sword without the armor, underlining that he couldn't quite fight without it at the time. But here he is using the armor and yet can't move his own body. This just doesn't make sense and directly contradicts established facts of the story, like... the very way the armor works.
The armor is always dulling his senses while being ready to fire him up at the tiniest sign of aggressivity. When you think about it, it's pretty much the perfect implement to counteract the feelings of a depressed warrior. Moreover, if Guts was "broken" mentally by his ineptitude against Griffith, the Beast of Darkness should have been broken as well. However it's repeatedly shown as triumphant or threatening. So, long story short, his condition doesn't make any sense. I don't expect any particular explanation for it in the future, I assume it'll go away as quickly and inexplicably as it came to be.
Dragging Guts out like that doesn't make sense
The way they're pulling Guts out of his room makes absolutely no sense. They found him prostrated on the floor and incapable of even moving his arm. What anyone would do in this situation is tie him up and then either carry him or drag him out. Instead they're propping him up and have him walk out in the open. But because you can't just pull a guy up with a rope if he doesn't want to, they're literally surrounding him and holding him straight by pulling on him from every direction. It's hard to overemphasize how stupid this is. On page 7 you have a guy behind him that looks like he's pulling back with everything he's got, which makes you wonder how Guts can even move forward at all. I guess the guys up front are pulling even harder.
And then some Kushan guy actually pulls a chain looped around his ankle, which causes him to fall down face first. The way it's drawn, it looks like the guy's doing it on purpose and out of malice, which doesn't make sense. The only reason you'd have a chain around his ankle would be to force him to move his foot forward, which seems to be the idea on page 7? But then the guy stays back and pulls from behind. Very smart. Given the other Kushans' reaction, it wasn't planned, and anyway if they wanted him on the floor, they could have just dragged him down to begin with. This is all just to show Guts falling on his face in front of everybody. That is the entire point of the scene.
Amusingly, we see that these geniuses have also wrapped the Dragon Slayer in chains and are painfully dragging it on the floor. There looks to be about six of them pulling on it. Now I know it's a huge sword, too big and heavy to be wielded by a normal person. But it doesn't weigh a literal ton. In volume 17, when Guts gets captured by the Holy Iron Chain Knights, two men are shown lifting and carrying it back to camp. In volume 32, Magnifico and Isidro drag it to the rowboat while he's unconscious. That makes sense: what's hard is to wield it effectively as a weapon, not merely to lift it. By contrast, the exaggerated depiction in episode 375 just looks embarrassing.
Why is Rickert there again?
After Isidro's outburst, Rickert goes to check on the man lying on his face and realizes it's Guts. I don't know about you, but that's a little puzzling to me. At the end of episode 374, we see Rickert among the men who are pulling Guts forward. Did he not see him at that time? Did he not recognize him? I find that hard to believe. Of course, once again, it's only done that way because Guts needed to be humiliated before everyone was liberated. But it doesn't make sense. You'd think Rickert would have immediately recognized him in that room, if only because of the Dragon Slayer.
Once he recognizes Guts, Rickert tells the Kushans to free everyone, which leads to a panel of them pulling out knives while grimacing that clearly looks like they're going to slit their throats. This sort of switcharoo ("villain" pulls out a knife, then unties the prisoner) is classic action movie material and can work great in some contexts... but not here, given that it's Rickert giving the order. The reader can't possibly believe he's telling the Kushans to kill them, so it just looks ridiculous. At least we get a good look at the cool damascus steel daggers these low ranking soldiers all have (I don't think we've seen weapons like that in the series before).
By the way, why is Rickert there at all? And why is he in a position to give orders? Silat is staying far back, with all four Tapasa, but Rickert is somehow overseeing this boarding operation? Even though they acted on a vague divination from Daiba and didn't know what to expect? Oh and when did Rickert learn to speak the Kushan language? Did he just pick it up in a month? Maybe he's getting a live translation through an earpiece in that panel where he holds his ear like he's a member of the secret service.
Daiba the Great
At least we know why the Kushans took control of the ship: because Daiba had conveniently foretold that they'd find something there, and that's why they brought up chains too. Daiba hasn't shown such powers before, and it's not at all clear why or how he divined such information. That will likely never be explained, as it's just a convenient excuse to explain why the Sea Horse was boarded in such a very specific manner.
What's strange is that, besides not making a lot of sense, it's not even necessary. Given how close the Sea Horse is to the shore (can be reached by rowboats), they didn't need an excuse to have it be boarded. Rickert could just have been put in charge because it's a western ship. Azan could have told the invaders entering the room to not do it as the guy inside's too dangerous, and as a result of that they could have tied him up and dragged him out. To be clear, this would still be bad storytelling, but it would at least be a lot less convoluted.
Daiba is also shown being all mysterious and knowing more than he lets on. This is made clear by the amount of times he goes "hyo hyo hyo", which he does more in this one episode than in the entire series before that. Will this lead to anything of consequence? Hard to say, but I must reiterate how ridiculous it is to have him play such a role while the Great Gurus have been turned into useless background characters.
On a side note, when they fight in volume 31, Daiba refers to Guts as a "warrior of Durga". The team wanted to do a callback to that, but they just put "Durga" as furigana on the kanji for "berserk", which isn't the same thing at all. It's like they only half-remembered the reference and didn't care to check. There's a whole bunch of mistakes and oddities like this in the text that are just exhausting to parse through. Similarly, I found it odd that he calls him the Black Swordsman (as does Silat). Where would they have even heard the name?
Destroying the characters' integrity
Anyway, Rickert freeing the group completes this utterly useless surprise attack sequence. Did it serve any purpose? Well, it did show that our main characters are all a bunch of incompetent, sniveling losers. Without Guts, they're totally worthless! Just like Miura intended.
I touched on it earlier with Isidro, but this is something I feel I need to stress. While this was likely just meant to quickly bring the characters into a new setting while reuniting them with Rickert and the Bakiraka, the way they've all been portrayed is devastating for their integrity. Like, you can't have Serpico and Isidro get captured and slapped around by random grunts, and expect them to look badass 5 episodes down the road. These are incompatible states. The damage done to these characters is permanent, as far as the continuation is concerned.
And that's to say nothing of the magicians and everyone else, but I don't want to repeat myself from the previous threads. What I will say though, is that while it's the least of our problems given how they're treating Guts and the others, they're really trampling the smaller characters like Magnifico or Azan. I know Magnifico's mostly a comic relief character at this point, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a definite personality and style. Unfortunately, the way they've been portraying him isn't really anything like what Miura did. He's just become "random goofy dude".
Case in point: why is he so crestfallen here? It's not like he's always been rooting for Guts. If anything he should be trying to leverage his wealth and/or filiation to get out of that situation, or maybe complaining about how he's being treated and wondering what sort of amenities the Kushans might have. That's the sort of stuff his character would do. Instead he just has an exaggerated reaction to Guts' condition because that's all he is now: a guy who makes funny faces. It's worth mentioning that they felt the need to add a little halo with wings flying off. A nonsensical depiction for his soul, I guess? Probably to clarify what's happening, since at first glance he looks like he's getting the world's best blowjob.
Oh, and what about Puck? His depiction is inane. He's shown stonefaced as he overlooks Guts and Rickert, totally emotionless and unempathetic with Isidro's outburst or the situation in general. I can't think of a take that be would least like his character. It's like the team doesn't understand him at all.
Brave new world
The main reveal from this episode is that the Sea Horse is now in "Kushan lands", far away from Falconia. Daiba speaks of a thousand leagues, but it simply means they're on the other side of the world. This isn't something that can be explained in any way other than them being magically transported there. They were in the middle of "the western sea", which is the Berserk equivalent of the Atlantic ocean. They sailed for at least a month and a half from Vritannis to get there. We don't know exactly where the Kushan empire is located, except that it's far east of Midland.
Even allowing for months of travel, which would probably not be possible due to supplies being limited, they couldn't have sailed that far without encountering land. More realistically, if we just take the crescent moon as an indication, it's been about 10 days since the island crumbled. Pragmatically, it appears the mysterious mist that surrounded the ship also displaced it to faraway lands. How? Why? We'll never know. It just did, all the while preventing the crew from realizing they were right next to a big coastal city.
This is, again, something that could have been done differently, while sticking to the framework Miura had established. For example, just have them try to use "an ancient merrow portal" to travel through the World Tree and get to Casca, but something goes wrong and they're thrown off course! There, done. And don't tell me they wouldn't want to just make things up, because they've been doing just that.
The Bakiraka aren't where they should be
So anyway, they're in "Kushan lands", and Silat is apparently in charge. We're only vaguely told that the situation is unstable, but it's not hard to guess where this might be going: the Bakiraka are taking charge and they've managed to preserve the Kushan nation and its military might in this new world. That's pretty shocking, because it goes directly against what had been set up in the story and in multiple ways.
In episode 339, Silat tells Rickert he plans to return to the Bakiraka's hidden village, which is situated in an impregnable location, so much so that even evil mountain spirits (he uses the same word than for "Schnoz") can't easily get in. This is the place they survived in for centuries while working as assassins in Western countries, after they were exiled from the Kushan empire. As he describes it, we see a depiction of a slender peak and a mountain pass, and it looks both very isolated and like it'd be a nightmare to assault. That place is clearly unrelated to the city we see in episode 375.
The expectation was that they would hole up there while continuing to spy on Falconia's moves. They would have eventually been reunited with Guts' group, far down the line... But not like this. Here, Silat is commanding naval troops in a coastal city, and they're somewhere in the Kushan empire, very far away. No matter how you look at it, this just cannot be reconciled with what Miura had established. It doesn't fit. Could Mori and the team have just been grossly mistaken about what he meant? I find it hard to believe. I think they just changed it, like they made Falconia a seaside city.
The Kushan empire shouldn't exist anymore
That also goes for the Kushan empire subsisting in any serious form. Ganishka invaded Midland because he wanted to contest Griffith's right to become, well, the master of the world. As a mighty emperor himself, he refused to just yield his position without a fight. But he knew what he was up against, and I don't see how anyone could possibly believe that he somehow took anything less than all his forces to the fight. In the first place, the reason he could steamroll Midland and then take on the entire Holy See alliance is because he brought on the full might of his empire.
Even without considering Fantasia, given what we know of the Kushan empire and its disparate factions, Ganishka's spectacular fall would have most likely left the empire in shambles, and brought on a breakup followed by years of in-fighting. But that none of that matters, because Fantasia occurred. The world was upended. It wasn't a local phenomenon, contained to Midland. We saw the Great Wave of the Astral World cover the globe, and we're told by the Great Gurus that the world was changed. Not just a region. There is no reason to believe any nation still exists outside of Falconia.
We are repeatedly told that it is the only safe place for humans in the world. That includes Kushans. Silat tells Rickert he considered working for Griffith like the other Kushans, but he didn't want to follow another non-human being. And we are told at the beginning of volume 41 that the Band of the Falcon assimilated Ganishka's surviving troops, which is used as proof that they can assimilate other refugees.
Oh, and what about the idea of the Bakiraka taking control of the empire? Well the Bakiraka were exiled from the empire centuries ago, as Silat comments on in volume 27. And before that, they were of the lowest caste, with a social standing "no better than that of slaves", according to the general Silat reports to in Shet. So they're not exactly a clan that could rally others to their cause, even in extreme circumstances like these. While they're gifted warriors, they also don't have large numbers, which makes this notion even less plausible.
What's next?
The big question remains how Guts will recover. It might be as simple as Schierke conveniently coming out of her trance to tell him Casca's been longing for him in Falconia. Will they be addressing the armor? They might not feel the need to. It's unclear to me whether this new city will play any serious role in the story, mostly because it doesn't feel like something Miura had planned.
Thinking back to Griffith's mysterious "east" comment, maybe we should expect a bunch of apostles to barge in there, providing an opportunity for a fight (and to get rid of them). I would not be surprised if we saw a painfully unimaginative repeat of the Grunbeld/Guts battle, and why not of the Rakshas/Bakiraka battle too. Then maybe they'll march on Falconia? Or sail there, rather, since it's got a shiny new harbor.
Relishing the humiliation
I've seen people dismayed by the drawn out scene of Guts being dragged and falling (once again) on his face in front of everybody. My take on that is the team is going for some sort of "humiliation porn", if that makes sense. Showing Guts being as pathetic as possible in the most over-the-top ways they can think of. I assume the point is to provoke a strong emotional reaction in the reader and make it as memorable an ordeal as possible. However, it fails precisely because it is so repetitive and over-the-top, as it becomes embarrassing at best and straight-up comical at worst.
In this sequence, Isidro feels like a self-insert character who the reader is meant to emphasize with, crying and wailing that Guts should get up and swing his sword. His own powerlessness only reinforces the humiliation. Needless to say, this doesn't feel true to his character to me. I could talk about how Isidro is plucky and brash, but the truth is he wouldn't have let himself get captured like that in the first place, nor would he have left Guts to rot alone for over a week. Similarly, Guts being down in the dumps wouldn't look like that either, which is why this entire scenario is baffling to begin with.
There is truth to the notion that sometimes "less is more", as is plain to see if we compare this to moments in Berserk (you know, the real one) where Guts is downcast, like the Eclipse's aftermath, in the cave in volume 17, or when Casca runs off in volume 23. They're a lot more subdued and yet much more powerful, because we're privy to his thoughts and doubts and they feel very real. Anyway, this farce is meant to pave the way for an eventual "triumphant return" of Guts as a badass, which I'm going to predict will be just as ineffective and unwarranted.
Guts' condition doesn't make sense
By the way, Guts' affliction doesn't make a lot of sense. He's having trouble walking and essentially falls unconscious after a little bit of effort (he actually looks like he's sleeping peacefully at the end
If anything, this kind of ailment feels like the extreme end of the debilitating effects related to continuous use of the berserk's armor. The problem is Guts wasn't anywhere close to that level. In episode 364, literally the last one penned by Miura, we saw Guts losing hold of his sword without the armor, underlining that he couldn't quite fight without it at the time. But here he is using the armor and yet can't move his own body. This just doesn't make sense and directly contradicts established facts of the story, like... the very way the armor works.
The armor is always dulling his senses while being ready to fire him up at the tiniest sign of aggressivity. When you think about it, it's pretty much the perfect implement to counteract the feelings of a depressed warrior. Moreover, if Guts was "broken" mentally by his ineptitude against Griffith, the Beast of Darkness should have been broken as well. However it's repeatedly shown as triumphant or threatening. So, long story short, his condition doesn't make any sense. I don't expect any particular explanation for it in the future, I assume it'll go away as quickly and inexplicably as it came to be.
Dragging Guts out like that doesn't make sense
The way they're pulling Guts out of his room makes absolutely no sense. They found him prostrated on the floor and incapable of even moving his arm. What anyone would do in this situation is tie him up and then either carry him or drag him out. Instead they're propping him up and have him walk out in the open. But because you can't just pull a guy up with a rope if he doesn't want to, they're literally surrounding him and holding him straight by pulling on him from every direction. It's hard to overemphasize how stupid this is. On page 7 you have a guy behind him that looks like he's pulling back with everything he's got, which makes you wonder how Guts can even move forward at all. I guess the guys up front are pulling even harder.
And then some Kushan guy actually pulls a chain looped around his ankle, which causes him to fall down face first. The way it's drawn, it looks like the guy's doing it on purpose and out of malice, which doesn't make sense. The only reason you'd have a chain around his ankle would be to force him to move his foot forward, which seems to be the idea on page 7? But then the guy stays back and pulls from behind. Very smart. Given the other Kushans' reaction, it wasn't planned, and anyway if they wanted him on the floor, they could have just dragged him down to begin with. This is all just to show Guts falling on his face in front of everybody. That is the entire point of the scene.
Amusingly, we see that these geniuses have also wrapped the Dragon Slayer in chains and are painfully dragging it on the floor. There looks to be about six of them pulling on it. Now I know it's a huge sword, too big and heavy to be wielded by a normal person. But it doesn't weigh a literal ton. In volume 17, when Guts gets captured by the Holy Iron Chain Knights, two men are shown lifting and carrying it back to camp. In volume 32, Magnifico and Isidro drag it to the rowboat while he's unconscious. That makes sense: what's hard is to wield it effectively as a weapon, not merely to lift it. By contrast, the exaggerated depiction in episode 375 just looks embarrassing.
Why is Rickert there again?
After Isidro's outburst, Rickert goes to check on the man lying on his face and realizes it's Guts. I don't know about you, but that's a little puzzling to me. At the end of episode 374, we see Rickert among the men who are pulling Guts forward. Did he not see him at that time? Did he not recognize him? I find that hard to believe. Of course, once again, it's only done that way because Guts needed to be humiliated before everyone was liberated. But it doesn't make sense. You'd think Rickert would have immediately recognized him in that room, if only because of the Dragon Slayer.
Once he recognizes Guts, Rickert tells the Kushans to free everyone, which leads to a panel of them pulling out knives while grimacing that clearly looks like they're going to slit their throats. This sort of switcharoo ("villain" pulls out a knife, then unties the prisoner) is classic action movie material and can work great in some contexts... but not here, given that it's Rickert giving the order. The reader can't possibly believe he's telling the Kushans to kill them, so it just looks ridiculous. At least we get a good look at the cool damascus steel daggers these low ranking soldiers all have (I don't think we've seen weapons like that in the series before).
By the way, why is Rickert there at all? And why is he in a position to give orders? Silat is staying far back, with all four Tapasa, but Rickert is somehow overseeing this boarding operation? Even though they acted on a vague divination from Daiba and didn't know what to expect? Oh and when did Rickert learn to speak the Kushan language? Did he just pick it up in a month? Maybe he's getting a live translation through an earpiece in that panel where he holds his ear like he's a member of the secret service.
Daiba the Great
At least we know why the Kushans took control of the ship: because Daiba had conveniently foretold that they'd find something there, and that's why they brought up chains too. Daiba hasn't shown such powers before, and it's not at all clear why or how he divined such information. That will likely never be explained, as it's just a convenient excuse to explain why the Sea Horse was boarded in such a very specific manner.
What's strange is that, besides not making a lot of sense, it's not even necessary. Given how close the Sea Horse is to the shore (can be reached by rowboats), they didn't need an excuse to have it be boarded. Rickert could just have been put in charge because it's a western ship. Azan could have told the invaders entering the room to not do it as the guy inside's too dangerous, and as a result of that they could have tied him up and dragged him out. To be clear, this would still be bad storytelling, but it would at least be a lot less convoluted.
Daiba is also shown being all mysterious and knowing more than he lets on. This is made clear by the amount of times he goes "hyo hyo hyo", which he does more in this one episode than in the entire series before that. Will this lead to anything of consequence? Hard to say, but I must reiterate how ridiculous it is to have him play such a role while the Great Gurus have been turned into useless background characters.
On a side note, when they fight in volume 31, Daiba refers to Guts as a "warrior of Durga". The team wanted to do a callback to that, but they just put "Durga" as furigana on the kanji for "berserk", which isn't the same thing at all. It's like they only half-remembered the reference and didn't care to check. There's a whole bunch of mistakes and oddities like this in the text that are just exhausting to parse through. Similarly, I found it odd that he calls him the Black Swordsman (as does Silat). Where would they have even heard the name?
Destroying the characters' integrity
Anyway, Rickert freeing the group completes this utterly useless surprise attack sequence. Did it serve any purpose? Well, it did show that our main characters are all a bunch of incompetent, sniveling losers. Without Guts, they're totally worthless! Just like Miura intended.
And that's to say nothing of the magicians and everyone else, but I don't want to repeat myself from the previous threads. What I will say though, is that while it's the least of our problems given how they're treating Guts and the others, they're really trampling the smaller characters like Magnifico or Azan. I know Magnifico's mostly a comic relief character at this point, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a definite personality and style. Unfortunately, the way they've been portraying him isn't really anything like what Miura did. He's just become "random goofy dude".
Case in point: why is he so crestfallen here? It's not like he's always been rooting for Guts. If anything he should be trying to leverage his wealth and/or filiation to get out of that situation, or maybe complaining about how he's being treated and wondering what sort of amenities the Kushans might have. That's the sort of stuff his character would do. Instead he just has an exaggerated reaction to Guts' condition because that's all he is now: a guy who makes funny faces. It's worth mentioning that they felt the need to add a little halo with wings flying off. A nonsensical depiction for his soul, I guess? Probably to clarify what's happening, since at first glance he looks like he's getting the world's best blowjob.
Oh, and what about Puck? His depiction is inane. He's shown stonefaced as he overlooks Guts and Rickert, totally emotionless and unempathetic with Isidro's outburst or the situation in general. I can't think of a take that be would least like his character. It's like the team doesn't understand him at all.
Brave new world
The main reveal from this episode is that the Sea Horse is now in "Kushan lands", far away from Falconia. Daiba speaks of a thousand leagues, but it simply means they're on the other side of the world. This isn't something that can be explained in any way other than them being magically transported there. They were in the middle of "the western sea", which is the Berserk equivalent of the Atlantic ocean. They sailed for at least a month and a half from Vritannis to get there. We don't know exactly where the Kushan empire is located, except that it's far east of Midland.
Even allowing for months of travel, which would probably not be possible due to supplies being limited, they couldn't have sailed that far without encountering land. More realistically, if we just take the crescent moon as an indication, it's been about 10 days since the island crumbled. Pragmatically, it appears the mysterious mist that surrounded the ship also displaced it to faraway lands. How? Why? We'll never know. It just did, all the while preventing the crew from realizing they were right next to a big coastal city.
This is, again, something that could have been done differently, while sticking to the framework Miura had established. For example, just have them try to use "an ancient merrow portal" to travel through the World Tree and get to Casca, but something goes wrong and they're thrown off course! There, done. And don't tell me they wouldn't want to just make things up, because they've been doing just that.
The Bakiraka aren't where they should be
So anyway, they're in "Kushan lands", and Silat is apparently in charge. We're only vaguely told that the situation is unstable, but it's not hard to guess where this might be going: the Bakiraka are taking charge and they've managed to preserve the Kushan nation and its military might in this new world. That's pretty shocking, because it goes directly against what had been set up in the story and in multiple ways.
In episode 339, Silat tells Rickert he plans to return to the Bakiraka's hidden village, which is situated in an impregnable location, so much so that even evil mountain spirits (he uses the same word than for "Schnoz") can't easily get in. This is the place they survived in for centuries while working as assassins in Western countries, after they were exiled from the Kushan empire. As he describes it, we see a depiction of a slender peak and a mountain pass, and it looks both very isolated and like it'd be a nightmare to assault. That place is clearly unrelated to the city we see in episode 375.
The expectation was that they would hole up there while continuing to spy on Falconia's moves. They would have eventually been reunited with Guts' group, far down the line... But not like this. Here, Silat is commanding naval troops in a coastal city, and they're somewhere in the Kushan empire, very far away. No matter how you look at it, this just cannot be reconciled with what Miura had established. It doesn't fit. Could Mori and the team have just been grossly mistaken about what he meant? I find it hard to believe. I think they just changed it, like they made Falconia a seaside city.
The Kushan empire shouldn't exist anymore
That also goes for the Kushan empire subsisting in any serious form. Ganishka invaded Midland because he wanted to contest Griffith's right to become, well, the master of the world. As a mighty emperor himself, he refused to just yield his position without a fight. But he knew what he was up against, and I don't see how anyone could possibly believe that he somehow took anything less than all his forces to the fight. In the first place, the reason he could steamroll Midland and then take on the entire Holy See alliance is because he brought on the full might of his empire.
Even without considering Fantasia, given what we know of the Kushan empire and its disparate factions, Ganishka's spectacular fall would have most likely left the empire in shambles, and brought on a breakup followed by years of in-fighting. But that none of that matters, because Fantasia occurred. The world was upended. It wasn't a local phenomenon, contained to Midland. We saw the Great Wave of the Astral World cover the globe, and we're told by the Great Gurus that the world was changed. Not just a region. There is no reason to believe any nation still exists outside of Falconia.
We are repeatedly told that it is the only safe place for humans in the world. That includes Kushans. Silat tells Rickert he considered working for Griffith like the other Kushans, but he didn't want to follow another non-human being. And we are told at the beginning of volume 41 that the Band of the Falcon assimilated Ganishka's surviving troops, which is used as proof that they can assimilate other refugees.
Oh, and what about the idea of the Bakiraka taking control of the empire? Well the Bakiraka were exiled from the empire centuries ago, as Silat comments on in volume 27. And before that, they were of the lowest caste, with a social standing "no better than that of slaves", according to the general Silat reports to in Shet. So they're not exactly a clan that could rally others to their cause, even in extreme circumstances like these. While they're gifted warriors, they also don't have large numbers, which makes this notion even less plausible.
What's next?
The big question remains how Guts will recover. It might be as simple as Schierke conveniently coming out of her trance to tell him Casca's been longing for him in Falconia. Will they be addressing the armor? They might not feel the need to. It's unclear to me whether this new city will play any serious role in the story, mostly because it doesn't feel like something Miura had planned.
Thinking back to Griffith's mysterious "east" comment, maybe we should expect a bunch of apostles to barge in there, providing an opportunity for a fight (and to get rid of them). I would not be surprised if we saw a painfully unimaginative repeat of the Grunbeld/Guts battle, and why not of the Rakshas/Bakiraka battle too. Then maybe they'll march on Falconia? Or sail there, rather, since it's got a shiny new harbor.
It was always a Christian Church before it became a mosque. My point is this building should have been used as a reference for buildings dedicated to the religion of the Holy See, not as a refuge for the Bakiraka or Kushan exiles. Or whoever these people are. I may have misread things incorrectly, but I imagined that the Bakiraka clan lived in a series of villages in some hard to reach mountaneous area. Perhaps they had a shrine or even a temple there... like in Tibet.
Although I guess it wouldn't make sense for them to be in Tibet.
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I'm pretty confident that Rickert wasn't among the first men on the ship but on some other ship. As the Kushan also used chains to pull their ships close to the Sea horse.
You're wrong, look again. In episode 374 we see the men taking out chains to put them on Guts, then a shot of his feet as he walks, then immediately we see Rickert standing among them as they pull said chains. There's no doubt as to what's going on: they're dragging Guts forward. And just to be clear, these chains are pulled horizontally, while the little boats surrounding the Sea Horse have chains linked to big crossbows at their prow that go up at an angle because it's much taller than them.
guuuuuuuuts
Excited for the next chapter!
Most powerful part of Gut's entrance is the entrance itself if he doesn't appear. You are waiting for him to do something on the page, but this also means he cannot have been showing lying on the ground to begin with, because that is the reveal. Or, if he was shown previously it was to increase reader apprehension over whether he is being consumed by the beast in a manner that makes his eventual entrance threatening to both the enemies and his friends. Every entrance (panel shown) becomes an exit into the next moment. So, you either stay in that moment or move on, but nothing in-between. If Guts falls, then every reaction is seeing him fall. If someone is staring off into space or doing something else it kills the moment as absurdism.... "my wife is giving birth, but only 10 minutes remain in this basketball game on tv."
The Knife
Specificity is the key here in switching from comedy to thriller. If Rickert gives the order, only one soldier pulls their knife and then takes a step forward to cut the rope. This looks badass, because it feels innate, while all three guys pulling a knife is three stooges level confusion. The audience will experience each moment as "What did he say, what is he cutting, ah-ha he saved him."
Neutrality
In comedy never want to be neutral. Neutrality (think the dolls people pose for drawing reference) has a quality which causes you to not be seen. It is a device in performance that makes you uninteresting, so you fade into the background. Example, killing someone with a neutral face is extremely boring. Killing someone with euphoria or sadness or anger is interesting. The intention should always drive the action. Snapping to a close up on a neutral character is a mistake, because it again drops that heightened moment of tension. Quick note, neutrality is great when you want to isolate a thing: the puppeteer moves a majestic ship across the stage.
The Fall
Falling is very classic, back to Vaudeville. I have only seen one person ever do a face plant onstage, and he was taught by his parents as professional clowns. It is a move that absolutely takes the cake over all moments on-stage. The main reason being it is extremely painful. Face planting straight on, as Guts did, will break your nose. Full on blood streaming from the face. By turning your face slightly to the side you avoid the nose, but force is taken to the cheek bone, ear, and eye socket. No matter how relaxed or practiced, it is very violent. What I mean is that such a fall is very much like being slapped in the face, plus you are striking a surface like the hard wood deck. It would hurt really, really bad.
Interesting that it isn't seen in performances as far as I know, but I can tell you when someone falls on their face audience members start calling 911, because it does not look rehearsed.
Rule of 3's
One more: the rule of 3's is that any gag repeated becomes funny. And, it can become funny again as it comes back around. So fall, fall, fall = laugh. This is why you will laugh when your car refuses to start yet again.
Anyways, can say more if people are curious and want to know more about such things. Cheers.
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The current state of Berserk (more specifically, the continuation) is just so depressing. If you told me a few years ago that I wouldn’t get excited about new Berserk chapters and that I’d feel nothing as I read them, I would have called you insane. Berserk ended with Miura, so why are they trying to sell us this illusion that Berserk as a manga series is still alive and well?
Seeing Magnifico’s face in that one panel was hilarious to me, not because it’s a funny gag but because it’s such a dramatic attempt at making the situation feel dire.
I’m just extra pissed off this chapter because I was so excited to see Miura’s portrayal of the final stages of the story, especially Guts reuniting with Rickert and them going to the Bakiraka hideout. But hey, I’m sure Miura told Mori that Rickert would become some stoic badass who would show no emotion when reuniting with an old friend of his, and that Silat was lying about the Bakiraka hideout being their next base of operations.
Pretty much. These chapters are such a far cry from the days where every page was brimming with meaningful interactions, lore implications, foreshadowing, character development, and world building. Now we have absolutely none of that. Mori’s team has reduced Berserk to another manga where the whole appeal is “watching things happen,” if you get what I mean.
Seeing Magnifico’s face in that one panel was hilarious to me, not because it’s a funny gag but because it’s such a dramatic attempt at making the situation feel dire.
I’m just extra pissed off this chapter because I was so excited to see Miura’s portrayal of the final stages of the story, especially Guts reuniting with Rickert and them going to the Bakiraka hideout. But hey, I’m sure Miura told Mori that Rickert would become some stoic badass who would show no emotion when reuniting with an old friend of his, and that Silat was lying about the Bakiraka hideout being their next base of operations.
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At the end we see a bright sunrise emerging, which seems to signal the end of dramatic tension for a bit. I don't imagine we're going to see much happening within the next few episodes. Or it will cut to Griffith's perspective.
No doubt the place Guts' party has arrived at and Griffith's plans for "the East" will converge, since the Beast of Darkness is just biding its time for the next encounter with Griffith, and Miura did say something about Guts and Griffith facing off several times before the end.
I think we can also conclude, if they are going to have BoD emerge during the next Griffith encounter, that Guts managed to repress him during the first fight through his will, even though they failed at conveying it through the art. Otherwise it makes no sense for the killer instinct in Guts to still subconsciously think it's got a shot.
Is there some visual or thematic relation between Hanarr restraining the Berserker armor in episode 362 and the Kushans restraining Guts in these episodes? Will they attempt to keep him in chains for safety measures up until the point the armor goes berserk again?
Miura said we could expect very surprising developments after the Elf Island story, I guess the Island disappearing and Guts losing his spirit matches that, so we can check that off the list.
He also said the God Hand would start to appear more and more. So far none of that. I don't know how the God Hand would even appear outside of an occultation ceremony or briefly seeing them in their respective domains again?
In the Great Berserk Exhibition interview Miura also said that he would like to put more emphasis on Skull Knight's story for a bit. So far nothing is leaning in that direction either. But maybe a flashback arc to mirror the Golden Age Arc will start here towards the end of the story, before the climax, except there does not seem to be enough time for that if this is the last arc and supposedly the rest of Berserk will take less than 10 years to finish. But maybe Mori and Studio Gaga will trunk it down to a few episodes, or skip it entirely.
Not sure what other way the story could've provided enough information about Skull Knight's past even in the hands of Miura, apart from having Skull Knight do a story time with Guts and party around a campfire, which in terms of drama seems uninteresting. And right now Skull Knight is nowhere to be seen. Another possibility might've been to have the God Hand members either tell or show it to us during an encounter, but that would require the activation of the Behelit at this point, and of the two dangerous items surrounding Guts at the moment (the behelit and the berserker armor) it seems they are going the berserker armor route for the drama (not surprisingly). The Beherit is clearly part of some end game thing at this point.
But, in context of the story's dramatic thrust, what exactly can we expect to happen with the Beast of Darkness? Either it will realize the same futility as the rest of Guts, or it will succeed at inflicting damage on Griffith somehow (which would be surprising). Or it will merely accomplish the death or serious injury of one or more of Guts' allies. I can't think of a fourth way the BoD plot would work out...
No doubt the place Guts' party has arrived at and Griffith's plans for "the East" will converge, since the Beast of Darkness is just biding its time for the next encounter with Griffith, and Miura did say something about Guts and Griffith facing off several times before the end.
I think we can also conclude, if they are going to have BoD emerge during the next Griffith encounter, that Guts managed to repress him during the first fight through his will, even though they failed at conveying it through the art. Otherwise it makes no sense for the killer instinct in Guts to still subconsciously think it's got a shot.
Is there some visual or thematic relation between Hanarr restraining the Berserker armor in episode 362 and the Kushans restraining Guts in these episodes? Will they attempt to keep him in chains for safety measures up until the point the armor goes berserk again?
Miura said we could expect very surprising developments after the Elf Island story, I guess the Island disappearing and Guts losing his spirit matches that, so we can check that off the list.
He also said the God Hand would start to appear more and more. So far none of that. I don't know how the God Hand would even appear outside of an occultation ceremony or briefly seeing them in their respective domains again?
In the Great Berserk Exhibition interview Miura also said that he would like to put more emphasis on Skull Knight's story for a bit. So far nothing is leaning in that direction either. But maybe a flashback arc to mirror the Golden Age Arc will start here towards the end of the story, before the climax, except there does not seem to be enough time for that if this is the last arc and supposedly the rest of Berserk will take less than 10 years to finish. But maybe Mori and Studio Gaga will trunk it down to a few episodes, or skip it entirely.
Not sure what other way the story could've provided enough information about Skull Knight's past even in the hands of Miura, apart from having Skull Knight do a story time with Guts and party around a campfire, which in terms of drama seems uninteresting. And right now Skull Knight is nowhere to be seen. Another possibility might've been to have the God Hand members either tell or show it to us during an encounter, but that would require the activation of the Behelit at this point, and of the two dangerous items surrounding Guts at the moment (the behelit and the berserker armor) it seems they are going the berserker armor route for the drama (not surprisingly). The Beherit is clearly part of some end game thing at this point.
But, in context of the story's dramatic thrust, what exactly can we expect to happen with the Beast of Darkness? Either it will realize the same futility as the rest of Guts, or it will succeed at inflicting damage on Griffith somehow (which would be surprising). Or it will merely accomplish the death or serious injury of one or more of Guts' allies. I can't think of a fourth way the BoD plot would work out...
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I think the island’s destruction was premature, and that it was an avenue for them to simplify (truncate) the story on the island. Because right up until Miura’s last episode, things were being hinted at about what happened on the island in the past (Hanarr, Flora, Volvaba, Gedflynn’s father, Lady Medium…). But instead of capitalizing on that, we got nothing. It sunk, along with the possibilities for revelations about that time from Danan, who would have been an ideal person to relay them.
Sure, but he’s made such assurances before and they didn’t quite materialize. His “soon” and our “soon” are very different.
While I agree that something felt off about how quickly and abruptly we left things behind that were set up on the island, I have a hard time imagining Skull Knight's past being told while the island is slowly being destroyed around them. Recall that Griffith already made his appearance in Miura's last "manuscript"/episode, which would seal the fate of the island right there.
That presumes the gnawers needed to exist, when truly they could have been a fabrication meant to wipe away Elfhelm. After all, can we really substantiate the claim that the island’s magic users have lost their power because the island is gone? We can’t. That’s a fabrication, based on the rules Miura left for how magic worked. It’s applied knowledge, not some unseen medium of power emanating from a tree (to test this out: Did Schierke’s power emanate from Flora’s tree? It was destroyed. So why is she able to use magic afterward? Answer: The tree had nothing to do with it.) And if that was an insert, how can we trust the authenticity of Elfhelm being destroyed here? It feels premature given what feels like giant missing pieces of its development. It doesn’t feel right, and it probably isn’t right.
Like Mori said, this wasn’t going to be perfect, but he would only write scenarios that he knew about. He didn’t have complete information. So, this is why I tend to believe Elfhelm was wiped from the map simply because those astral creatures and magic users were a variable that Mori didn’t have complete information on, and thus didn’t know how to navigate.
Once you start down that path, you can squint and start to see how differently things could have turned out on the island, in particular for a scenario in which the gurus weren't simply nullified.
I see. But that introduces a bunch of other problems, such as what Guts' state would have been like after the fight with Griffith. Would he have lost his spirit while still remaining on the island? Would he care about anything else the inhabitants had to say after his defeat? Would he even have faught Griffith? What would have motivated the group to leave? Just to save Casca? Would Guts be depressed due to losing Casca yet not go after her, or would he go after her and thus still retain some motivation and energy and thus not yet coming across as defeated? How then would they happen upon Rickert if they would be travelling towards Falconia in a quest for Casca? It seems whichever way you go it would have been a completely different scenario resembling nothing like the current one. And rather than writing what he knew, the current result would seem more like Mori making something up that in the end will reach something resembling the little he remembered of the end.
To keep it positive, the art in the last two episodes have been much better and more consistent than in the previous continuation episodes.
Griffith
With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Well, I enjoyed this on a very superficial level, which is exactly how I read it. It was just nice seeing some things we anticipated be depicted in some visual form, like Rickert and Daiba with Silat, and them coming in contact with Guts' crew, as hamfisted and nonsensical as the details are (it's really like some extended universe fanfic at this point). Makes me long for the potential of these simple images accompanying a summary book again, because as much as this conveniently extrapolated plotting makes little sense (Rickert's just some conscript in Emperor Silat's new Kushaaarn army now; at least Daiba is prospering =), the real problems start when the characters speak. Perhaps rendering Guts a broken mute is actually the least humiliating way they could depict him, because I don't think I'll be able to gloss over and tolerate it so well when he starts speaking completely out of character again. Maybe I just won't care enough anymore to mind by then. 
Welp, that's my semi-positive review.
Welp, that's my semi-positive review.
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I do not know, man. You speak very confidently about Berserk. I know you're a fan but not the ultimate fan. Maybe you should try to believe that Miura's best friend and his team know a little more than you? I mean, I'm 40 years old. I have known about Berserk since I was in Japan in the mid-90s. Berserk was a manga with many ups and downs and with many breaks, perhaps not even Miura knew the story step by step. Maybe the ending does. So, dunking hard against Miura's team seems cynical from you.
I would say I'm late to the thread, but this new episode left me disappointed in the characters action, the way the contuation just ignore want Miura was building up too. For the past couple of episodes I keep wish Schierke would come back to her body or have Farnese enter her Astral form to at least search for her seen she her body was carried around the ship.
The humiliating of Guts has gone to far. I could bare it for the past episode, but in just a letdown to have him seem to be on his feet in the last episode. I think Guts fell on his face more times that Mozgus now
Thats just my thoughts. You guys did all that needs to be said about the episode as always good stuff.
The humiliating of Guts has gone to far. I could bare it for the past episode, but in just a letdown to have him seem to be on his feet in the last episode. I think Guts fell on his face more times that Mozgus now
Thats just my thoughts. You guys did all that needs to be said about the episode as always good stuff.
Indeed, you do not know. If you think I'm wrong about something, reply to this post and point out the mistakes. You can also do it for each episode in their own thread. Unless you can do that, don't try and tell me what I should or shouldn't do. Because I'm not making wild guesses here, I'm straightforwardly talking about facts from the story. Unlike you. Don't take this the wrong way, but posts like yours bring nothing to the table.
It's still kinda extreme to suggest that this continuation is "nothing like what" Miura would have done. It's a given that this will have significant differences from what Miura would have done, but to argue that that there can be no claim of similarity I think unfairly maligns the character/memory abilities of Mori and Miura's team, and it really can't be argued that any of us could possibly know more about Miura and Berserk than those individuals do.
Judo
Midlands finest
Despite all the nagging I am still somehow grateful that they are doing the continuation at all. Considering the shoes they had to fill it is quite obvious that the endeavor was doomed to fail from the beginning.
I just take some key plot points as a spark of imagination as to how Miura would have done it and don't take the rest very seriously. As stated many times on this forum, a different form of storytelling would have been a better choice than just continuing the Manga as it is.
Having blind faith in Mori and Studio Gaga is a pretty bold request when you look at what they have done so far with the detailed world building and character development that Miura created.
I just take some key plot points as a spark of imagination as to how Miura would have done it and don't take the rest very seriously. As stated many times on this forum, a different form of storytelling would have been a better choice than just continuing the Manga as it is.
Having blind faith in Mori and Studio Gaga is a pretty bold request when you look at what they have done so far with the detailed world building and character development that Miura created.