Episode 380

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BERSERK Episode 380 will be published in Young Animal #5, slated to be released on Friday, February 28 in Japan.

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This episode is part of the new serialization of Berserk that is being done without Kentarou Miura. It's based on some of the material he left behind as well as what he had told his close ones of the story over the years. Kouji Mori, his best friend and a fellow mangaka, writes and supervises the series while his former assistants draw it under the banner of Studio Gaga.

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Berserk Continuation Episode Summaries:

365: Griffith's presence is felt across the island. Casca runs toward Griffith but begins bleeding and triggering (random) memories.
366: Guts swings at Griffith but cannot land a hit. Schierke detects a maelstrom of power around Griffith. Zodd lands on the island.
367: Danan senses something dark rising from beneath the island. Griffith grabs Casca. The cherry tree loses its blossoms, and the island begins to break apart.
368: Gnawers emerge from the cracks, devouring the island. Roderick prepares the ship to depart. Guts despairs at the loss of Casca.
369: The island begins to sink. The elves vanish (except for Puck and Ivalera).
370: On the Sea Horse, Molda rallies Farnese to help heal the injured. Roderick is worried about Guts. In the ship's hold, Guts despairs his failure.
371: Schierke peeks in Guts' mind but is repelled by the Beast's jaws. Griffith arrives in Falconia with Casca.
372: Casca explores Falconia in a subdued state. Fleeting memories of her past provoke a failed escape attempt. Griffith sends his forces east.
373: Skellig's magicians have lost their powers. Schierke needs everyone for a spell to try to locate Casca. During this, Kushans attack. The Beast taunts Guts.
374: Kushans, led by Silat, take over the Seahorse and bloodlessly capture everyone. They approach Guts with caution. Rickert is with the Kushans.
375: Silat captured the Sea Horse following a prophecy from Daiba. The passengers and crew are taken captive toward the Kushan capital.
376: Guts is locked in a cell. The powerless magic users are given over to Daiba. Silat announces a campaign against Falconia.
377: Silat attends a council with all the Kushan leaders and asks for control of their combined military. Rakshas bursts out from one of the participants.
378: Rakshas sends a shockwave that causes monsters to appear all over the city. Silat lunges at him to engage in battle.
379: Silat telepathically reassures the Kushan people. The monsters are dealt with. Rakshas flees and winds up in front of Guts.
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This episode could have been 3 pages. Instead we get 20 pages of padding around what amounts to a single point of progress: Silat kills Rakshas, who then dissolves into black goop. No flashback, no corpse reveal, no vortex of souls to reclaim the apostle form. An inexplicably ignominious end for one of the senior apostles in Berserk. I really shouldn't be disappointed, given everything we've been through already with this, but somehow I am.
 
I really hope they would at the very very least do an explanation or even a retcon for why Guts wanted to die, because this would the worst misinterpretation of Guts we had until now imo.
It really contradicts his whole character this time, if the latest episodes weren't bad enough
 
Nosferatugatsu16 said:
There goes our only hope of learning more about the Bakiraka... well i doubt they even knew anything about rakshas Past
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They clearly know nothing about Rakshas nor the Bakiraka.

blood and puck said:
Is this the most pathetic version of Guts we have ever seen in the story?
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Guts was never pathetic until the Continuation started. Within the Continuation though, it's a tough contest. Falling face first on the deck of the Sea Horse after being dragged out by Kushans is a strong contender. What's sure is that it's a grievous insult to the character, the series itself, Kentarou Miura's legacy, and Berserk fans overall.
 
I honestly thought this was one of the better chapters of the continuation. :sweatdrop: Raksha's death felt a little unearned, but I'm not necessarily upset that Guts isn't the one to do the deed. Kinda happy Silat is getting his time to shine, it was long overdue imo. Tbh I felt as if the dialogue was lacking in this Chapter more than previous chapters.

Also, I don't find it hard to believe that Guts would welcome death considering everything that's happened since Chapter 365. I mean, for crying out loud he allowed him & his crew to be captured just a few chapters ago by the Kushans, a known enemy. The dude literally has no hope left, every other time he had a setback in the past, he had the hope of being with Casca to keep him going. This time he has no such hope. It makes sense that he's giving up. Doesn't mean it ain't hard to see, it really is tough to stomach. I'd like to imagine Isidro pretty much conveyed how we all feel a few chapters ago on that Boat.
 
TheHungHorse said:
but I'm not necessarily upset that Guts isn't the one to do the deed.
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Noone is upset about that.

TheHungHorse said:
I mean, for crying out loud he allowed him & his crew to be captured just a few chapters ago by the Kushans, a known enemy.
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Because he back then also acted out of character and in the most pathetic way possible. Falling on his face 3 times just cements it.

TheHungHorse said:
This time he has no such hope.
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What's so different now? And also, the continuation communicated pretty clearly that this isn't about Casca.

Guts has always fought. Even when he was just a child and had just killed Gambino, his father-role, was hunted out of the mercenary camp, lying in the dark, severely wounded, no home, surrounded by wolves, "ready to give up" - he fought. It's his natural reflex, his DNA, it's like auto-pilot for him. SK gave him the name "struggler" for a reason. He was born from the hanged corpse of his mother - I mean, that's the whole theme of the story!
 
TheHungHorse said:
I honestly thought this was one of the better chapters of the continuation.
:sweatdrop:
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Curious: What makes this one stand out to you?

TheHungHorse said:
Raksha's death felt a little unearned, but I'm not necessarily upset that Guts isn't the one to do the deed. Kinda happy Silat is getting his time to shine, it was long overdue imo.
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Silat has been in the spotlight for the past 6 episodes, and he didn't even do anything very special in this one. The writers merely afforded him a killing blow, even though the same tactics have been used over and over in the past to no avail. I grant you that killing a major apostle SHOULD have been a big deal. It's a huge accomplishment—only Guts and SK (that we know of) have done so. But this sure didn't feel major.

TheHungHorse said:
Also, I don't find it hard to believe that Guts would welcome death considering everything that's happened since Chapter 365. I mean, for crying out loud he allowed him & his crew to be captured just a few chapters ago by the Kushans, a known enemy. The dude literally has no hope left, every other time he had a setback in the past, he had the hope of being with Casca to keep him going. This time he has no such hope. It makes sense that he's giving up. Doesn't mean it ain't hard to see, it really is tough to stomach. I'd like to imagine Isidro pretty much conveyed how we all feel a few chapters ago on that Boat.
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Your rationalizations aren't adding up for me.

Casca is still alive. But Guts is acting like she's dead and beyond reach (in fact, he hasn't even thought of or mentioned her since this whole ordeal began). When really, all that happened is that he couldn't stop Griffith from taking her. It doesn't mean she's gone for good.

Granted, Guts would feel defeated here. But the reaction they've saddled him with has been completely overblown—to the extent that it's incongruous with the attitudes he expressed after his previous defeats. Two obvious ones: He already knew he couldn't easily hit Femto (Volume 3), and he'd already endured the death of his friends and the betrayal at the Eclipse. But each time he got back up and fought on, because there was still an enemy to fight. This time is no different. But like making Schierke arbitrarily comatose for 7 episodes, it was convenient to also make Guts comatose, and so here we are.
 
TheItCrow said:
Guts has always fought. Even when he was just a child and had just killed Gambino, his father-role, was hunted out of the mercenary camp, lying in the dark, severely wounded, no home, surrounded by wolves, "ready to give up" - he fought. It's his natural reflex, his DNA, it's like auto-pilot for him.
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I thought they'd go for something like that, like coming face-to-face with certain death finally rekindles Guts's survival instinct, and he realizes there's nothing to do but struggle even if it's hopeless. Or, the beast awakens and protects him (which isn't how it's supposed to work, but that's never stopped the team before). It seemed like a confrontation contrived for just that purpose.

I wasn't expecting them to beat the man down even more and make him look more pathetic than ever, which is kinda incredible since he was already looking completely pathetic and gormless.
 
blood and puck said:
Is this the most pathetic version of Guts we have ever seen in the story?
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I remember when Elfhelm was being destroyed and everyone was evacuating onto the ships. Four dudes had to carry an awake Guts onto the ship. He was so downtrodden that he simply refused to walk or run and made some random dudes carry him. Hilarious.

My thoughts on the episode: here’s the thing with Guts’ situation. Guts being depressed for a time is understandable. Yes, Guts ultimately never gives up and it’s in his nature to fight against the odds. But after fighting for so long to protect Casca, traveling to a safe haven for her, all while fending off his desire to pursue Griffith, I can see why he’d be more downtrodden and discouraged than ever when the man himself shows up to undo all of his progress and humiliate him in the process.

But this new continuation handles the concept of a depressed Guts in the worst way possible. Guts can get discouraged, yes, but he would never just do and say nothing for days and weeks, or however long it’s been in-universe. He wouldn’t just stay limp and sweaty for all of that time and allow himself to be thrown around, tied, jailed, etc. Guts hasn’t even spared a single thought for Casca. He wouldn’t accept death, as we saw when those wolves lunged at him at one of the LOWEST points in his life. Especially not when Casca is still out there and needs his help. Especially not now that he has comrades aside from Casca that give him meaning and support. Guts has hit tremendously low points several times before and he’s never accepted death. It’s just ridiculous. Especially now that he has more support than ever before.

If Miura were writing Guts going through this situation, we’d see his thoughts. We’d see him engaging in dialogue with characters around him. We’d see him actually acting in character and not becoming useless to a comedic degree. And SURELY there would have been some progression in his character in the 10+ episodes that have shown him going through this phase. He’d have picked himself back up at some point in those 10+ episodes, fueled by fear for Casca, or fueled by anger and hatred for Griffith, or fueled by resolve and by support from his comrades.

I wonder how much time will pass IRL before we see Guts actually not being a hollow shell? One year, minimum.
 
Well they finally did it. Guts has gone from crying about his sword for the last dozen or so chapters to actively welcoming death because of it. Not because Casca was taken away from him (he hasn't thought of or mentioned that once), but because his Dragon Slayer couldn't cut Griffith.

This is the struggler, who wouldn't give up in the eclipse even after his sword broke. Who ran day and night to the Tower of conviction to save Casca. Who journeyed across the world to Elfhelm to cure her. And now all he can think of is that time his sword didn't work and is borderline suicidal. Worst character arc of the series.

And now it looks like Rakshas hasn't died, but possessed Gut's as indicated in that panel before Silat starts yelling. I'm sure we'll get some type of battle between astral Rakshas and the Beast of Darkness. If anything his Beast should be wrestling control if Guts has given up.

I'm glad Silat gave voice to this and tried to snap him out of it. The Tapasa should have left him alone.

From a meta perspecive this whole arc for Guts, Casca, Griffith and Schierke since Mori has taken over seems to be an excuse to keep the main characters from saying much of anything at all and keeping them out of the spotlight. I wonder how long they can keep this up. You can't continue a series and then keep everyone in stasis.

Guts suiciding over his sword was not on my bingo card.
 
ApostleBob said:
And now it looks like Rakshas hasn't died, but possessed Gut's as indicated in that panel before Silat starts yelling. I'm sure we'll get some type of battle between astral Rakshas and the Beast of Darkness. If anything his Beast should be wrestling control if Guts has given up.
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I don't see this tbh. To me it looks like Guts is sad because Silat didn't let him die.
 
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