Beserk question

evil_ash_xero · Post by **evil_ash_xero** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:11 am

I'm almost done with the Beserk anime(i'm on disc 6), and from what I can tell, this is it.

So, at what volume of the mangas should I start reading to follow the rest of the story?

s/m

Ruldra · Post by **Ruldra** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:23 am

Read the mangas from the start. You'll be surprised at how many events and characters were omitted from the anime.

Momijitsuki · Post by **Momijitsuki** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:35 am

Ruldra wrote:Read the mangas from the start. You'll be surprised at how many events and characters were omitted from the anime.

I'd say that applies for a lot of series though. It really is surprising how different the content of both are, so it's like you get double the enjoyment if you happen to like the series.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:10 am

Damn, I was hoping this thread was going to be about the arcade game.

captpain · Post by **captpain** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:13 am

The end of the anime seems to come out of nowhere, but that's (apparently) because the story was chopped up/changed from the manga.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 3:49 am

it290 wrote:Damn, I was hoping this thread was going to be about the arcade game.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 4:18 am

Specineff wrote:
it290 wrote:Damn, I was hoping this thread was going to be about the arcade game.

Chacranajxy · Post by **Chacranajxy** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:54 am

Yeah, this really is something you have to read from the start. The first 3 volumes (I think) are all stuff that happens after the anime (think the first episode's content, but more of it), and there's a ton of shit that gets left out towards the end of the anime. The Band of the Hawk arc runs from volumes 4-13 (again, I think), so it's pretty substantial.

The stuff that happens after is sooooo good. It ain't cheap to legitimately acquire the manga, but it's a cause worth supporting.

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:11 am

you can teach a monkey how to play a certain number of rooms, but you cannot teach a man how to play beserk

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 12:49 pm

Chacranajxy wrote:
The stuff that happens after is sooooo good. It ain't cheap to legitimately acquire the manga, but it's a cause worth supporting.

I stopped reading when they started translating the sound effects. For the life of me, I do not understand the decision to start doing that after what, 12 volumes? When I bought the 13th, it bothered me so much I stopped buying them.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:53 pm

the berserk anime is the biggest cock tease in the world ever. its like what now, 10 12 years since it was aired and . . . nothing. The Pulp is grim and its still being written its a good few books long with no sign of ending just yet.

ForceDevice · Post by **ForceDevice** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 2:52 pm

I always wanted to read Berserk but gave up once I heard the author plans to end it in 40 years.

escadrille · Post by **escadrille** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:36 pm

jpj wrote:you can teach a monkey how to play a certain number of rooms, but you cannot teach a man how to play beserk

The man, if you can call him that because of what he did, broke the spirit of the game.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:44 pm

ForceDevice wrote:I always wanted to read Berserk but gave up once I heard the author plans to end it in 40 years.

well its somehting to pass on to the kids. A tale of vengance and rape , gay rape and demons and rape, supreme hate from his only father figure and rape. . . did I mention the rape?

DONT TOUCH ME! ! ! ! 1!

BIL · Post by **BIL** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:07 pm

Lordstar wrote:
ForceDevice wrote:I always wanted to read Berserk but gave up once I heard the author plans to end it in 40 years.
well its somehting to pass on to the kids. A tale of vengance and rape , gay rape and demons and rape, supreme hate from his only father figure and rape. . . did I mention the rape?

DONT TOUCH ME! ! ! ! 1!

You forgot the burnings-at-the-stake sado-masturbation!

Chacranajxy · Post by **Chacranajxy** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 10:15 pm

Oh yeah, I forgot. There's tons of sex. Consensual and otherwise.

Mostly otherwise

Delicious

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:03 am

It's such a happy, fluffy, feelgood story. I think they're going to have a version on PBS soon starring Elmo.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:40 am

i stopped reading after the 30th book... the story its pretty darn good, but one book every 2 years?... and with the current pace of the manga, the story will end when my great-grandsons start going to college...

i respect this author work, but hes just a teasing bastard (wth a convoluted mind... cuz that story is really disturbing!).

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:12 am

Kaspal wrote:i stopped reading after the 30th book... the story its pretty darn good, but one book every 2 years?... and with the current pace of the manga, the story will end when my great-grandsons start going to college...

Is it really that tough to read a book every 2 years? I can understand stopping reading because the story is getting lame or if he was just going to stop releasing volumes and release a 5000 page book 40 years from now, but if it's still good why stop just because the story is long?

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:36 am

Not because it's so long, but because the releases are so far between. Miura & Co draw no more than a chapter a month, and by the time you see the next release you have quite enough time to forget the previous. It makes for a good incentive to reread the previous chapters, but the wait is getting daunting enough to just drop, or at least postpone it until better times.

One of these days I'll reread Berserk from the start. The first time I did that was back in 2004, and I already seem to forget a lot of the things that happened after the events that took place in the anime.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 9:44 am

Its a pain in the ass looking forward to something thats for sure. I perfer to watch a series in a whole block I dont like waiting week after week for the next episode. same goes for reading, some of us once we pick up a book wont put it down or finish it inside a few nights. im on BECK - mongolian chop squad (pulp) right now and im about 3 books from it finishing up. When i was buying them i baught them in bundles of three and four. I guess i could start berserk. . . but im going to run out eventually and be stuck at a snails pace with the rest of readers.

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:07 pm

Miura said recently that it's at 60% so we can expect it to end at around volume 50 (or 15-20 years from now). I prefer to wait for the volumes, but it's hard to resist flipping through the latest issue of Young Animal when I see it right there in front of me.

The most current episode had like 5 words and took a good 30 seconds to read...can't wait for the next episode 6 weeks from now!

Personally, I don't care for the direction the story has taken the past couple years and would rather re-read volumes 4-15.

If you're waiting for the story to end before you start reading, you're doing yourself a disservice. I've read lots and lots of manga in my time and Berserk's Golden Age Arc (vols 4-14) is far and away the best the medium has to offer.

Kaspal · Post by **Kaspal** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:28 pm

NTSC-J wrote:Miura said recently that it's at 60% so we can expect it to end at around volume 50 (or 15-20 years from now). I prefer to wait for the volumes, but it's hard to resist flipping through the latest issue of Young Animal when I see it right there in front of me.

The most current episode had like 5 words and took a good 30 seconds to read...can't wait for the next episode 6 weeks from now!

Personally, I don't care for the direction the story has taken the past couple years and would rather re-read volumes 4-15.

If you're waiting for the story to end before you start reading, you're doing yourself a disservice. I've read lots and lots of manga in my time and Berserk's Golden Age Arc (vols 4-14) is far and away the best the medium has to offer.

no doubt, but again, waiting A MONTH just for a single manga?... and there are times when its not a month but 2 or more!!... for now ill concentrate on another not so good stories, like Bleach, and in a couple years, return to bersrk, to see how much it ahs advanced...

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:39 pm

Right, it's pretty ridiculous and frustrating for the diehard fans, and in terms of the flow of the story, best to wait until the thing is done. The way manga is paced, 30 pages could cover 5 minutes, so it's best to read a big chunk at a time.

I just want to make sure manga fans are being sure to add the first half of Berserk to their library's in case they haven't already.

BTW, if you're reading "not so good stories like Bleach" in the meantime, I would recommend you read some other badass manga instead while waiting for Miura to finish his opus:

Akira
Hansel and Gretel
SOS
Kanojou no Omoide
Kaba
Domu

All by Katsuhiro Otomo. Akira is of course the obvious choice, but I find that most manga fans aren't even aware of the others I listed and they're all superb. As far as I know, Akira and Domu are the only ones to be translated, but the art in the others is second-to-none and worth your time. Kaba actually has both English and Japanese and is an art book, but probably my favorite of the bunch.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:57 pm

could you link Hansel and Gretel google seems to want to throw a lot of stuff at me which is not anime/manga for some reason

would not know why

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:44 pm

I can't seem to find any of the interior art but here's a picture of the cover in case you run by it:

.

Basically it's an anthology of fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Three Little Pigs, etc. redone with Otomo's dark sense of humor. Very funny stuff and the art is incredible. There's even a story about Jesus that will surely offend. My personal favorite is The Old Man and the Sea.

Very much recommended, although these days I've seen it climbing in price. When I bought it a few years ago it was about $15, but now I see it at $35-40.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 11:33 pm

Akira and Domu are the only ones to be translated, but the art in the others is second-to-none and worth your time. Kaba actually has both English and Japanese and is an art book, but probably my favorite of the bunch.

I wonder why that is. He is one of the few truly excellent writers in manga, IMO, and you'd think more of his stuff would have been translated.

I would personally recommend reading the complete Battle Angel series -- fucking epic.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:05 am

NTSC-J wrote:Very much recommended, although these days I've seen it climbing in price. When I bought it a few years ago it was about $15, but now I see it at $35-40

still not all that bad considering the quality of work. im not bothred by owning lots of shit i would rather pay a little more and have a little of a lot if you get me

next pay day i will look in to it.

CMoon · Post by **CMoon** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:25 am

No recommendation for LW&C to read in the meantime? Maybe everyone has already read it. I'm due to reread it at some point...

I do love a great deal of Berserk, but also picked a place to stop. I don't really need so many 30+ volume mangas in my life.

NTSC-J · Post by **NTSC-J** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:01 pm

I'm not a big fan of Lone Wolf and Cub (or samurai manga in general...Blade of the Immortal, Basilisk, Vagabond, etc). I prefer a sweeping epic narrative rather than the anecdotal tales in LW&C, but I can see why others dig it. Certainly better than any of that Tokyopop shit.

BTW, for those that question if Miura is taking his time or slacking off: he said in a recent interview that he works everyday without holidays from 2PM to 7AM

Still, though...hurry up already.