Jesus Christ! I think I have seen enough today....
May you have peace and strength my friend.
Yeah continuation is eff'ed up but what you wrote above really struck me way harder.
Episode 380
- Thread starter Aazealh
- Start date
His death was so unbelievably anti-climatic that I almost didn't catch that he died.
I mean, it being a shadow clone doesn't feel like that much of a stretch at this point...
If this is how the continuation handles important death scenes, ... uff. Tbh, it didn't feel like death for Rakshas. Even last episode they, again, let Rakshas say his head (vitals) aren't necessarily where they seem to be. Only for this episode to reveal it was his "neck" all this time? And a one-shot by Silat? To me, considering how they built up all this shadow business with Rakshas, it feels like he's going to possess Guts next episode. Why that'd make him stronger than being in his (even for an apostle) unusual apostle form? Who knows, probably no one.
Apart from that, the glances Farnese and Roderick gave each other probably mean that they'll marry next episode (if Rakshas is indeed dead). I think this was their full characterisation build-up.
Also, Erika and Rickert were well drawn, they look pretty close to Miura's drawing imo.
Regarding the colour page, it looks great, like the last one! The green hue is probably just artistic freedom than anything else (perhaps the fireflies that only exist on the colour page), but I like it from a visual-only perspective.
Apart from that, the glances Farnese and Roderick gave each other probably mean that they'll marry next episode (if Rakshas is indeed dead). I think this was their full characterisation build-up.
Also, Erika and Rickert were well drawn, they look pretty close to Miura's drawing imo.
Regarding the colour page, it looks great, like the last one! The green hue is probably just artistic freedom than anything else (perhaps the fireflies that only exist on the colour page), but I like it from a visual-only perspective.
It's been mentioned in passing here, but I am also struck by how poorly they treated the stakes in this series of episodes. Rakshas explodes onto the scene in a surprising way while Guts is incapacitated and can't help and the magic users other than Daiba aren't present. He's in the middle of the halls of leadership. Rakshas is an exiled Bakiraka and the Kushan empire is his homeland. There should be real danger and dread here, and it's an opportunity to fill in some of his backstory.
Characters should die, even if it's a just horde of nameless council people and the new Emperor. Rakshas is one of Griffith's main captains, so this should be a difficult fight, and rematch for Silat. It should last several episodes.
Instead he's disarmed by nearly naked minions, he kills maybe half a dozen people, and we learn nothing new about him other than the confusing fact that he 'died' before and that this resurrection is random and unplanned. And that he can apparently create a mini-astral wind to summon trolls and possess giant elephants. He barely has a fight with Silat or anyone else, and 'dies' in an unceremonious fashion.
I'm crossing my fingers that he's not fully dead yet, and that there's some type of fake out, but if this is it, what a series of wasted opportunities.
Characters should die, even if it's a just horde of nameless council people and the new Emperor. Rakshas is one of Griffith's main captains, so this should be a difficult fight, and rematch for Silat. It should last several episodes.
Instead he's disarmed by nearly naked minions, he kills maybe half a dozen people, and we learn nothing new about him other than the confusing fact that he 'died' before and that this resurrection is random and unplanned. And that he can apparently create a mini-astral wind to summon trolls and possess giant elephants. He barely has a fight with Silat or anyone else, and 'dies' in an unceremonious fashion.
I'm crossing my fingers that he's not fully dead yet, and that there's some type of fake out, but if this is it, what a series of wasted opportunities.
Beelzebud
[...] Into the abyss will I run [...]
I have to agree, I think the art are pretty good for most of the recent episodes, some faces are off many times and that's the main issue regarding "art" of the continuation.
But they are only good if look at them individually without looking at the context, because they seem to use the wrong expressions every single time even for background characters, to say nothing of the main ones, and miss a lot of details that should have been caught during a simple work review (cough cough jail without lock cough cough)
Saying that just to agree with Puella: The art is not even half the importance of a manga. It's clear that the continuation team have good drawers but not a single good mangaka. Big difference.
Possession... what? What would be the basis for that? He's an apostle, so he won't turn into a specter. The soul will (should) get claimed by the vortex and leave behind the original body (hah, don't count on it).
I think people are simply reading more than is there in the scene, because of how sloppy the paneling is. This team doesn't do subtlety, and they don't compress action. They stretch action out. Here's my reading of that sequence, starting after Rakshas turns into goo in Guts' cell:
The mask falls and we get a sound effect panel, Silat is breathing heavily because he just ran there. Then he directs his attention to Guts, demanding to know why he didn't do anything. Silat gets unduly upset in the process (it's not like Guts was a close personal friend of Silat's...). Then the Tapasa arrive and they immediately restrain Silat, on Daiba's orders (is that how the hierarchy works now?), whether this is because Daiba was fearful that Guts was going to eat Silat's head, or Silat was going to kill Guts is irrelevant, because it's just a way for the sequence to end, like when Roderick cant open his own door without a lock on the Sea Horse, so he turns around and ignores it.
This scene to me is more similar to Isidro's reaction to Guts in ep. 375 than Roderick's in 370, and it's even more exaggerated.
Well Im certainly not trying to say that Silat screaming at Guts is just like the scene where Roderick couldn't get his door open. I was speaking about the odd way that Studio Gaga has tended to end their scenes. It often feels like they aren't sure what to do, so they make some nonsensical thing happen.
As for Silat screaming at Guts, well it's senseless. Silat and Guts aren't close friends. He really has no reason to care THIS MUCH about Guts' apathy. They were rivals briefly, 5-6 years ago, and I do tend to think that Silat admires Guts, but this reaction is absolutely unhinged.
Beelzebud
[...] Into the abyss will I run [...]
Maybe Guts will DRINK Rakshas goo?
Before reading any new episode I always read the last few ones to refresh on the plot and savor the moment (as horrendous as it may be during this trying times). When moving from 379 to 380 I was hoping we'd finally see Guts come back to his senses because of Rakshas, but they start it out with this lackluster "fight" in the city - man I took one hell of a sigh right here and there.
When Rakshas was approaching guts and the text "at last, my angel of death..." was appearing I was so confused at first: My immediate thought was that it was Rakshas talking, because WHY IN THE WORLD THE EMBODIMENT OF STRUGGLE WILL MAKE A DEATH WISH. this goes against everything this story is about, everything Guts is about. I was 100% sure that this episode will be the one Studio Gaga will finally end this SBDST saga (Sad Boys Doing Sad things, a play on CGDCT).
It hurts to read, I feel so bad for Miura sensei. Man WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! I'm legitimately curious: where's Berserk's editor? how can he let such things happen with their IP? Surely he worked with Miura sensei for at least a few years - How can he accept what they are doing to the story? :/
When Rakshas was approaching guts and the text "at last, my angel of death..." was appearing I was so confused at first: My immediate thought was that it was Rakshas talking, because WHY IN THE WORLD THE EMBODIMENT OF STRUGGLE WILL MAKE A DEATH WISH. this goes against everything this story is about, everything Guts is about. I was 100% sure that this episode will be the one Studio Gaga will finally end this SBDST saga (Sad Boys Doing Sad things, a play on CGDCT).
It hurts to read, I feel so bad for Miura sensei. Man WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! I'm legitimately curious: where's Berserk's editor? how can he let such things happen with their IP? Surely he worked with Miura sensei for at least a few years - How can he accept what they are doing to the story? :/
Honestly, I really get the vibe that's exactly what they plan on doing next episode. I know it doesn't make sense (and I hope that came across in my earlier comment) but I think it's their way of surprising the reader and using something that happened earlier in the series: Guts being possessed by evil creatures. It wouldn't be the first time merging different concepts in Berserk in the continuation - here with my guess on what they plan on spectres and apostles or earlier the merge of Bakiraka and Kushans. Nothing about Rakshas' depiction made sense so far which is why I wouldn't put it past them to do this, too.
Also, even for the continuation's "writing style", it didn't feel like a proper ending for Rakshas, which is why I don't (want to) believe he's dead. His mask is still in pretty good shape lying there in the pool of blood so I think in the next episode he'll emerge from there again. If the mask would lie there, broken in many pieces, then it'd feel more like they want to convey he's dead. To me, this feels like either the "not quite dead" or the "finger twitch revival" tv tropes.
It's true that since it wouldn't make any sense, it means it's something the Continuation team might do! That being said, faking his death feels too sophisticated for them. Which is why I'd say the most likely possibility is that it's done and over with, gone with a whimper. It makes for maximum lameness, and that's another key characteristic of the Continuation. And really, the whole "shadow" bullshit might have just been so Kurosaki could make a pun about "Shadows Die Twice". I wouldn't put it past him.
Wait until they also add a Land of Shadow reference from Elden Ring's DLC, and then it will ALL make sense! Trust me!
puella
Berserk forever
Skimming the episode briefly, I noticed Daiba used the word "Falcon of Light". "Light" is a positive word for Griffith. In the manga, Griffith's supporters use it, like Grunbeld saying to Guts he'd fight him "as an apostle of the Falcon of Light...". Characters opposing Griffith wouldn't use it. They just call him the Falcon.
I'd already noticed this problem with the Continuation in episode 368, where Skullknight said "tonight, a vivid light came to this land." He would never say anything like that. These kinds of mistakes in the dialogue that mischaracterize the speaker are ubiquitous in the Continuation. Really, I don't understand why they ended up adding more dialogue over time. Given their abilities, the less there is, the better.
I'd already noticed this problem with the Continuation in episode 368, where Skullknight said "tonight, a vivid light came to this land." He would never say anything like that. These kinds of mistakes in the dialogue that mischaracterize the speaker are ubiquitous in the Continuation. Really, I don't understand why they ended up adding more dialogue over time. Given their abilities, the less there is, the better.
This pannel is so dramatic I was worried they were going to break Silat's arms.
Absolutely! These images on pages of episodes are not the same characters at all, so they talk so much out of character. They have been replaced by some random Shonen-ish characters in soul.
As @Walter and @Aazealh also noticed that current team is deathly afraid of making main cast talk or act because they know whatever they will make those characters do will come out so outlandish that it will be hard to hide. It is quite simple. They do not know the "subject matter" here even half way decently. And their fears are not unfounded. Each time any of the character talks or acts, its a complete mess to say the very least. If they could, they would have published episodes with just blank pages or random imagery. Initially they kind of tried it even.
This episode was the latest addition in which they took the biggest risk by making Guts think or talk and it completely broke his character so thoroughly that it is not even funny!
This episode is just sh*t. Guts...my poor Guts....where is my old Guts...?
He ceased to exist on May 6, 2021. But at the same time, he will live forever in Berserk volumes 1 through 41.
TheItCrow
Knight without Title
Hideaki Sugimoto is livestreaming right now and one viewer asked "Who'd win, Guts or Goku" and he replied with "Guts [...] he is a phoenix".
It's of course completely useless banter, but man this hits different after this episode. The timing is too comedic.
It's of course completely useless banter, but man this hits different after this episode. The timing is too comedic.
Glad people are asking the big questions.
Rakshas is not dead. He is there for a reason, he's not just going to randomly die in front of guts. Puck also seems to be heading to Guts' cell. Perhaps Rakshas will kill Puck and purposfully/accidentally unleash the full beast of darkness, having Guts kill him and going on a massive rampage. Shierke would then have to rush back to "deactivate" him. But she's gone, and this time it will be an even bigger problem. Maybe they need Casca to deactivate him, perhaps even "astral projected" through Shierke, with her reminding him of things other than his sword lol. It seems like they really want to hammer home that Guts always relied on his sword, and it finally didn't do anything, and thus he broke. Of course the obvious answer is that he needs to rely on his friends instead. And that's something that Griffith never had or will have, friends, by his own definition. And that's why he will lose. I could even see like a scene where we see young Griffith trying to reach that kingdom/castle in the sky, but finds it to be void of people, and a castle without people is meaningless or powerless or something.
Was checking some of the colored page info… and got to the episode’s title
影は二度死ぬ, which translates to: Shadows Die Twice…
Did they just steal Sekiro’s subtitle?
So the influence game somehow went full circle now?
影は二度死ぬ, which translates to: Shadows Die Twice…
Did they just steal Sekiro’s subtitle?
So the influence game somehow went full circle now?
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The Continuation team has killed Rakshas twice already, and both times it was stupid and lame. Even if he's revived yet again, there's no reason to believe the third time will be any different.
Guts isn't wearing the berserk's armor right now, so what you're saying doesn't make any sense.
Guts has been relying on his friends since volume 23. He relied on them to heal Casca's mind in the Corridor of Dreams. Nothing new here.
Griffith currently lives in a giant city built in his image, filled with all of mankind, where everybody worships him. I don't think loneliness is going to be his undoing.
Yes.
We talked about it in the chat a few days ago. It’s pretty offensive in my opinion. I understand Kurosaki is a fan of From Soft games. And that’s fine. But for it to bleed into Berserk’s episode titles? It’s shameful.