Speaker 1: Meaning a man like this man letting butterfly, flapping his wing,
big down in the forest, man and gonna cause the
tree fall, letting five thousand miles away. Man, nobody seen
nobody else. You don't need no man. You and you
got bacted like that. Man, go blackly dang on the panela.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 3: Man, you don't matter man anyway.
Speaker 4: All right, remis welcome to the Jay Burden Show for
the first time ever.
Speaker 3: No thanks for having me on this so first time
that I've ever been here.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit of context, guys. Uh, it's been
a while since I've gone through this and due to
some fileshare issues, Uh, I had remiss on about two
weeks ago to record the next series in Berserk. We
were kind of offset. So we decided did to do
what I had prepared for, went through it, and then
this is earlier in the narrative, so you will be
listening to it first, but chronologically the next segment is
going to be uh, you know, out afterwards, recorded first
released second, So a lot of the kind of the
rooms is we're going over that will be in the
second part. Uh, So don't feel like this is super jumble,
just some context there, but yeah, man, I'm glad to
have you back on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate you having me. I love having I
love having this discussion, and also you know you're a
great host. Thanks. I think it's I think it's I
think it's funny. I did I kind of like referenced
this episode in the past, you know what I mean,
Like when we Yeah, you know what I mean, as
much as I could, I was like trying to like
bake in some sort of like time shenanigans. It's like, yeah,
I'll I'll discuss the things that I said last time,
this time from the from the past, right. Yeah. I
think especially this this part of this story is very
close right to my heart, right, So I love talking
about it. I love the discussion, and I think it's
it's pertinent, you know these days, people people like this
and these kinds of pains are are lessons for a reason,
you know. So that's why I always say read fucking preserve. Yeah,
one hundred percent. So just a couple of things. Obviously,
somewhat similarly to the other episodes, I will be showing
select panels this this this book is fairly graphic, right,
so there's certain things I can't show every time I
put these up, I include a link to where you
can read them all for free.
Speaker 4: I recommend it. And yeah, the audience has been champing
for this one, so let's get straight into it. So
obviously we're through Black Swordsman, which was sort of a
you know, a one shot. Everything from now on takes
place in chronological order in the narrative, and right off
the bat we are introduced to the birth of Guts.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: So what we see is, and this is something I
probably can't show, it's a little bit graphic. Is a
mercenary company, right, all on horseback riding past this tree,
just covered in corpses, right hanging from the tree, and
one of the camp followers runs up a woman and
sees that there's been a baby born from one of
these bodies, right, a pregnant woman, hung baby, still alive.
We get a little bit of context there that effectively
this woman is sort of you know, one of the
camp followers. She has a relationship with, you know, a
character will track for the next couple episodes, and yep,
no shock, right, this is Guts.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: What's interesting, you know, is he is technically saved, right
as part of this mercenary band, but again more foreshadowing,
one of the kind of nameless goons in the background says,
you know, picking up a kid at a place like this,
it's a bad omen right, he's cursed. Is something that
will you know, continue to be relevant. So it moves
forward a little bit. We see kind of Guts as
a young man witnessing the horrors of war, and this
woman who has sort of taken care of him dies
horribly of the plague, again rendered in somewhat excruciating detail. Right,
so quickly, you know, Guts moves into a role you know,
as you know, it's sort of a guy in this
mercenary company. It's like a squire, you know, yeah, exactly
a squire. And we see him somewhat incidentally kill his
first man at or witness his first I guess, killing
at you know, six or seven.
Speaker 3: Right, it's not a child. He a child. I cannot
be stressed enough. All of the things that happened here
are happening to a child. This is a little little boy, right, Yeah,
it's a it's a it's a it's a really really
brutal introduction to the world that he lives in. Right,
This is not the kind of thing that a little
kid is obviously uh want to see. But this is
his life. And I think, I think the very fact
that this kid comes out like the name, guts all
of it. Right, it's all so emblematic. Right, this kid
is born from death. He has been surrounded by his
whole life, basically from from from birth to to where
he is in the story. Now, it's endless suffering, endless
amounts of of the of the just the dark parts
of reality. Right, this is no there's there is no
he doesn't get a filter, he doesn't get you know,
I mean, so many children, right, at least especially in
our our era, right our time, it probably it sort
of prides itself on separating children like almost like keeping
them in a walled garden, right, And this story does
not give this child this luxury, right, he does not
have that. He he doesn't have any like you know,
we're skimming a bit, right, and that's that's that's good.
But the nature of the relationship that he has to
the people who saved him is even that it's like
it's there's there's almost no closeness, there's no warmth, the
only warmth he ever really experienced. As a child, was
with this woman who chose to pick him up in
the first place. But she dies, really and she dies traumatically,
and he watches it, you know what I mean. He
sits there with her, which I think is a beautiful
aspect of him. He is a deeply empathetic person already
as a child. Right, he sits with this woman as
she's dying, holds her, holds her. Right. Everyone's telling him,
don't touch her, you could get sick, and he just doesn't.
It doesn't even register for him, right. I love that
aspect of Guts as a character. Really, it really shows
you early what kind of person he really is, right
he he he care Like if he feels a debt
to you, he will be there, right, he will be
there to foreshadow early and there he is the eponymous Gambino,
our guy, the dad, this kid's father figure. Like look
at this, right, corpse is thrown upon him. He freaks
out a little bit, and the first reaction that Gambino
has is hitting him in the face with the with
his with the butt of his spear and going, you're
trying to get me killed, right, Like this guy has
no mercy, right, complete complete, like completely callous psycho person. Right,
no mercy for a child. He doesn't give a fuck,
and that's got his life, that's his upbringing, right, this
is his this is his reality is bloodshed, combat, war,
and that's all he's ever known and no real closeness,
no real warmth. Go ahead, sir, and we get some
more sort of autistic artistic excuse me flexing from your
throughout this whole arc. Uh.
Speaker 4: The art continues to get better and better, and a
lot of the sieges in this are exceptionally well drawn,
Like this isn't even a full spread, right, this is
just one panel at the top, and it is very
very well drawn. So again, right, we see Guts pulling
a tooth out. Obviously he's in bad shape, and we
skip forward to Guts training, right, training, as we find out,
with real sorts, you know, even his his you know,
the other mercenaries are basically saying like, what are you doing?
Speaker 3: Like he's said, you know, you're a fucking psycho. Yeah
that's a six year old. What are you? What are
you doing?
Speaker 4: And it is not gentle training beating this poor kid? Yes, uh,
And again that idea that you know, he's got to
earn his keep and he is a mercenary and attitude
we will see you know, guts carry forward. So again
we're starting to see you know guts and this is
foreshadowing for later using an adult sized sword as a kid,
the same proportions, right, that he will carry over the
rest of the career, that stubbornness and that that need
to prove himself absolutely, And again we see guts able
to mark Gambino, right, he's he's got heart to him
and so he you know, hits him on the chin and.
Speaker 3: And this is the measure of Gambino as a human
being right here. This is who he is. He is
he's trying to see like like he gives he gives
this fucking bullshit, you know what I mean, like like
like a facade of I'm trying to train him. Nah
this this guy just likes hurting people, right, and he
likes feeling strong, and he likes uh and he and
he cannot take being insulted or disrespected in any way right,
in a minor way, exactly as soon as this kid
lands something which even though it's drawing blood from you, bro,
you're a mercenary, like what you can't take that? Are you?
Kidding me, Right, even though he draws blood from from him,
this should be a moment of like, damn kid, you're
actually like, holy shit, right, but no, it's an immediate,
immediate censure. Right. And not only that he gives he
marks him for the rest of his life. And this,
this is this is Guts his iconic scar across the nose, right,
Like this is like part of his face.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: This is where he gets it right here from his dad,
quote unquote. Right, this is what this kid grew up with.
This is what he had to look forward to. Once
you see this, everything about black Stordesman starts to make
a little bit more sense. Right, You're like, oh, okay,
all right, this kid didn't really have much of a shot.
I'm surprised he's alive. Is basically how this goes at
this point, right, But yeah, this is a moment. This
is a really pivotal moment. Right here cuts the bridge
of his nose, gives him the scar, and he learns.
He learns in that moment, right, And I think, I
think if I if I'm correct, not long after that
is when you see Guts go to sleep with the
so or holding the blade, right, Because that's all he has.
It's the only thing in his life that won't that
that isn't betraying him, that doesn't hurt him for the
things that he does that doesn't that doesn't. And look,
anybody out there has that has undergone abuse from a
parent's right, I I am lucky enough that or you know,
I am. I had a sort of normal childhood, right uh,
And many of us out there did. But there are
people who had parents like this man that that were
that were essentially antagonists in their lives that did not
provide any form of real nurturing structure anything like that.
Imagine what kind of fucking piece of shit you have
to be to try to compete with your kid as
a child. Right, These people exist by the thousand. So
this shot, this right here is like this is so heartbreaking, right,
Like cold blade is the only thing that this kid
has that is just brutal. Right, that's all he can trust,
That's all he can rely on. And that's the reason
that he is the way he is. Right. He learns
very very early, I don't have anybody but my ability
to see myself in the you know, safe in the world.
I can't rely on anybody else for that and that
is yeah, very hard not not very far in the future. Yes,
and this is another another shot like this one right
here we will see repeated over and over again. Right.
Speaker 4: Mirror is very good about doing callbacks to you know,
kind of these iconic moments. You will see Guts in
this pose again and again. I mean really even going
up to you know, issues that have come out in
the last year. Rh So, yeah, I just wanted to
show that because that's that's sort of an iconic image.
Will keep seeing going forward a little bit, we see
another sort of characterization of Guts, which is how he trs.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: This will be echoed actually in the same recording. You're
gonna be listening to you several issues ahead of this.
But we see that Guts is dedicated to training, right,
he is becoming you know, strong and disciplined with this
massive sword. Right, and we get a little bit of
an insight where he's thinking about it and he says,
when I'm swinging this sword, I don't have to think
about anything.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: The idea he can throw himself into combat and not
have to you know, think about the you know, his
negative experience is something that the pain continue to do exactly.
Uh so Gambino shows up right basically, you know, yeah,
personally feels some fucking shame the first time that he
actually shows that he's not just purely a piece of garbage.
Speaker 3: There's some form of redeeming. But at the same time,
who knows, Like I personally, I feel like he was
probably shamed into doing this by the other mercenaries, you
know what I mean, Like, I feel like he definitely
didn't want to do this, and that's why he doesn't
treat it with any form of kindness or warmth. He's
just like, take this shit, you know what I mean,
I be glad that I did it, you know what
I mean? Like, that's that's the way he responds to this, right.
He genuinely does not feel any obligation through this child whatsoever.
Speaker 4: And we get kind of a touching moment where you
can see that Guts is like he's starts smiling, right,
It's one of the very few moments we see him smile.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Is again something is as simple as being given a
little bit of medicine for you know, these wounds that
his father has given him. Back to another siege scene. Again,
the art is just so good right. This is an
amazing panel of kind of like late medieval warfare. You
see the very crude cannons right as they're attacking this keep.
But right, this is a little bit further ahead. You
see you know, Gambino leaning his men into this kind
of breach in the wall, and somewhat later Guts, right,
he has joined the mercenary company. Uh, so basically they're
charging up into the gap.
Speaker 3: Again.
Speaker 4: Just great art if you're a nerd for you know,
medieval arms and armor. There's a lot to pick out here, right,
and even you know, very minor characters in the back
are drawn in a lot of detail.
Speaker 3: Loving care, loving care on everything on screen or on pana.
Speaker 4: And we see something that is is echoed later, right,
which is, you know, Guts sort of ability to fight
guys much larger than him. So he's fighting full grown
men in full armor instead of his kind of you know,
scrappy uh, you know, his kind of scrappy get up,
and we see Guts kill his first man, right, and
shortly afterwards, right again recurring recurring bit, uh, after he
kills this guy a much bigger, a bigger guy yeah,
shows up and just starts beating him. And Gambido comes
to his rescue and we get a lesson, right, he says,
you know, this isn't practice. After you've killed someone, move on,
watch your back, right. So an interesting characterization moment there.
We see Guts disturbed by the fact that he is,
you know, he's killed someone, and not only is Gambino
telling him to tough it up, but that was not
an honorable thing. He snuck up behind this guy and
stabbed him in the back. So getting more characterization of
Gambino as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Gambino is the he is the archetypal practical cell sword.
He's there to kill people for money. He doesn't care.
But he's on a knight's He's not you know, you know,
I mean honor and chivalry. None of that means anything
to him. He is there for the paycheck and the
and his work is killing people. It's as simple as that.
He doesn't care how he does it. The most important
thing to him is making sure that he survives and
killing whatever guy's in front of him so that he
can get paid. It's as simple as that, right, And
he instills these kinds of values in as much as
he can. Like he he tries to make sure that
this kid. There is a sense in which Gambino is
like deep tough love. He's like this, you know, it's
it's by no means would you want a person to
treat you like this? Right, But it doesn't change the
fact that Gambino is actually, to a degree, trying to
prepare this child for the kind of life that he's
going to have to live. Listen, being a mercenary a
self sort is not an easy fucking life at all.
So he's like, why why the hell am I bringing
this kid into this? Like that was his whole point
to begin with with with uh with the woman which
I I don't remember her name now, I think it's
Hi Shu.
Speaker 4: I'm not miss if I'm not mistaken, so uh.
Speaker 3: Something like that. I think it's yeah, it's sort of
a sea or something, you know. Regardless she he is like,
why am I gonna have another mouse? Feed?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: This is not a life for a child. Man, We're
a mercenary, ban you're gonna bring a baby like what
are you crazy? Right to and to a degree, he's right, right,
And then she dies and he has to take care
of this kid, right, So he's like, I knew that
this was going to happen, and that's why he's so
resentful of Guts, That's why he treats him so poorly. Right,
you can understand this character right again, Mirror is very good.
He doesn't like even when they seem like cartoon villains,
they're not right there. There's something going on under the
hood there. So Gambino is interesting, but it doesn't change
the fact that he's effectively a piece of shit to
this kid. Right, It makes no real difference to Guts' experience,
but that is what his concern is is, kid, you
have to be able to survive or else you're just meat.
Like what's the point? Right, And you see it. You
see it in Guts. Look at look at his Look
at his demeanor, like that's ten year old. Look at
the next Yeah, the next scene right is after the
battle will kill you. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4: The mercenaries are having their their plunder, you know, divide
it up. You know, we see obviously the mercenary is
sort of carrousing and drinking, and you know, Gambino shared
some of the spoils, right, basically says like all right,
like you're you're part of this and we see this.
You know he's he could a faint smile from Guts, right,
he obviously very proud of, you know, his reward. And
we get there looking is one of the most infamous
panels in the history of manga, is this guy. Yeah,
so we're gonna have to talk around this, right, Uh,
We're gonna have to talk around this. And in the
next part you hear us mentioning that that Guts does
not like to be touched.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: Basically what happens is, uh, while you know, Guts is
in his room, that figure Donovan uh comes in and
you know, forces himself upon you know, Guts as a child.
Speaker 3: Right. It's uh. I don't want to say it's tastefully done,
but it is horribly graphic. I think it's a taste
It is pretty much you can get depicting that, right.
A lot of people complain about the depictions of of
of Uh. I don't know what terms are best to
use here. I'm gonna's sexual assault. Well, yes, sexual sexual assault.
Right that it's a lot of people and they're mostly women,
and women are gay. It complain about the depictions of
sexual violence in Braserk. At no point in Berzerk does
he glorify these acts? Does he make them seem like
they're a sick thing that you should want to do.
It is always pure victimization of innocence, right, especially this
main character, who is also a child by the way,
there he is, that's that right after that's yeah what happens.
Had been meaning on that walk for a long time,
but yes, that's what happens. And not only that. The
most important aspect of this not just that this happens
to him. Donovan makes it. Donovan says explicit to Guts,
Gambino sold you, yeah, like for three means yeah, why you?
Why are you fighting me? You? I paid for this?
Right that breaks this child. It's not the act, it's
the knowledge that it was sanctioned by the person that
this kid relies upon and sees as a father. That
is what breaks this kid. He he It takes a
long time for Guts to be able to be normal
after this. And I wouldn't even say that he's normal.
They would agree, right, yeah, I would say relatively fine,
Like he can accept people putting their hand on him,
you know what I mean? It takes him forever, But
this is why.
Speaker 4: So obviously you see again, you know guts after the
after the crime, you know, just completely you know, mentally broken.
And it comes back to you know, Gambino, right, he
goes to confront him. He has his sword in hand,
looking at him, and apparently Gambino denies, like at least
plays dump right, kind of casting doubt on this, you know,
and he believes, at least for now, Gambino had no
knowledge of it, right, obviously upset, but seemingly he was
going to confront his father, you know, bring some kind
of justice. But at least for now, the assumption is
that's not the case. So fast forward a little bit, right,
we see, you know, the mercenary company on the move
and you know, obviously Donovan over gots his shoulder kind
of you know, leering at him, and then you know,
the charge is off. Right, So there's sort of this
chaotic battle scene skipping through it again, very well illustrated.
But as they go to chase some uh, you know,
some of the stragglers, right, some people fleeing. You know,
Donovan is is just mashing these guys with the giant axe.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he gets hit
with a crossbow and guts the standing behind him right, obviously,
with just murder in his eyes, just looking for revenge.
He shoots him, puts him out right and as he's
he's got, you know, a bolt in the guy's face,
he's dying, his sword over top of him. He basically says,
like all rights, who sold me out? He got to
tell me? And he kills right nothing, just cold blooded
again something we will see from Guts, you know, manys.
Speaker 3: This is where the black Swordsman is born is in
these moments. This is where this kid learns one. He
realizes what one. He can't do anything about what happened
to him. All he can do is feel the pain
and the anger and the rage. Right, the the the
pressure that is built internally upon a person that has
this kind of saying happened to them? Right, You don't
you can't keep that internal. It will break out, and
the way in which it manifests for this child is
his rage and this stays with him. Right. The reason
that I love this arc so much is because this
establishes how Guts responds to the world trying to destroy him.
It's one way. He picks up a sword and he
fights it. He goes for it, and he will kill you.
Like right here, he has shown if you have wronged me,
there is no moral system, there's no laws, that none
of that is going to mean anything to me. I'm
going to come for you. Right, Guts has already established it.
He is willing to act outside of sociality. He is
willing to be outside of what is considered moral to
get the justice that he that he that he that
he believes is correct, and any person would agree with him. Right, Like,
nobody watches that and goes man, Donovan really should have
gone through a trial. Nobody, nobody cares. Right, but that
that willingness to go outside of the rules, right, all
of that, that, all of this is building into the
person that we see him as in the Black Sides
of an arc. Right, But there is yet more, there
is yet more to be inflicted upon this boy, because,
as I've said many times, so many people, Guts had
a hard life. Right.
Speaker 4: So, moving slightly forward, the battle continues and Gambino is crippled.
He loses a leg I think due to an explosion
or you know, the gate kind of falls over on him.
And there's an interesting moment where you know, Gambino is
you know, on his back in bed, you know, he's
missing a leg and looking over him, right, Guts is
seeing you know, this man who's you know, at one
time the most powerful figure in his life, now an invalid. Right,
he reflects on you know, Donovan beating him, giving him
the cut across the bridge of his nose. But he
sees that he's helpless, or he sees that he's delirious.
He's he's calling out for help, and he decides to
help him. So we skip, you know, two years forward, right,
we see now Guts has become a full fledged mercenary,
you know, riding a horse still again, right, very young,
but at this point he's an accomplished killer. And after
the battle he returns back to Gambino, who is you know,
an invalid now, you know, back at camp. Sort of
reversal of situations where now Gambino, right, is a dead
weight on Guts.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, he is fully transitioned to being deadbeat dad, even right,
even with the dog, even with the dogs so brutal,
it is so brutal, I killed the animal. Like, look
at him, he's so earnest. He just wants his dad
to care, to feel like, wow, great job, you did something.
Be proud of me man, like, what the hell? Right?
And you know that he wants that. He craves it
because you've seen the one time that that happened. Gambino
like gave him a little compliment, right, Guts was excited.
He loves that vallet he Why would a child want
not want to feel validation? Right, it all tracks, it's
all perfectly. He's a kid, right, But this guy doesn't
give a shit. He's in his own world now. He
is fully deadbeat, right, he is the Only thing that
matters to him is his own victimization, is his own
like now I can't be a strong man anymore. Now
I can't be the guy I used to be. That's
all that matters to Gambino. He doesn't care about Guts.
He doesn't care about what Guts us for him. He
doesn't care about the fact that Guts is literally providing
for him. To him, it's like that that's just what
you should do. This guy is the biggest scumbag dad
of all I think in all manga, this guy is
the scumbag dad. I don't think it gets worse than him. Well,
and we see him right even as an invalid using
his crutches to you know, slap Guts upside the head,
turn wine quick enough, exactly get me drunk faster, right, right,
So going forward, we see this interaction where he's kind
of Gambino is sort of sparring with the other mercenaries
again trying to you know, sort of you know, re
establish his authority, and back in the the kind of
treasure room, right, we see Guts is furious he's been
given a large reward for killing the enemy general. Obviously
he's mad that he's you know about the interaction with
his father, so is he. He kind of spikes the
you know, the the gold on the ground, buries his
sword in the you know, in the support to the tent,
and you know, that's the end of it. But it
goes back to his tent later kind of in it
shot very similarly to both Guts falling sleep with the
sword earlier and also the scene with Donovan and towering
over top of him in the middle of the night.
After this interaction, we see Gambino right with his sword out,
You're seemingly going to kill his dutiful adopted son. So
he just right look at again, you're well said, right,
sharp teeth, blank eyes, you know, this sort of just
motivated by murderous rage, and almost without saying anything, he
swings for right. He's just going for it. Guts is
obviously disturbed by this. His first thought is he's drunk,
and oh, yeah, She'shu. That is the name I had
that correct, And he's furious with him, you know, basically saying, like.
Speaker 4: You you cursed me. You know you were you know, unlucky. Right,
That idea of being cursed something that will carry through
with him. He tells him, you know, on that day
eleven years ago, you should have died, like over and
over again. Still seemingly this was just a ruse because
you know, while Guts is looking, you know, desponded, gamp
Beato just swings for him, and finally Guts decides to
fight back.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: He pulls out a sword and starts defending himself, and
we get the final confirmation. Right, Gambino admits he sold
him for three silver coins. Right again, this is a
very disturbing moment, and he says, I was sick of you.
I wanted wanted rid of you, I wanted you gone.
Speaker 3: You killed, he says, you killed she. He blames this
kid for everything, like this is any I feel like
anyone who had an alcoholic dad or something, right Like,
I was fortunate enough I didn't have to deal with
that kind of thing. But that was a pretty normal guy.
But I have heard absolute horror stor some people that
I know very well, right that this is exactly the
kind of thing that would happen. Guy barges into your
room in the middle of the nights, he's fucked up,
and he just starts dumping all of his problems on
you and saying they're because of you. Things like this
are hyper common in these kinds of relationships with with
extremely dysfunctional people like this, right, Like, this is a
you know, despite this being in a in a fantasy
you know, uh manga that takes place in medieval times,
these are real interactions between people. This is these are
real interpersonal relationships that children have been hurt like this
so many times. Right, this is why Berserk has this reputation.
The people that have read it, that have given it
the time, that have that have not just looked at
it as some sort of like torture porn, like a
like in the most shallow sense that can look at
these He's doing so much in these panels. There's so
much to all the reactions, to the to the to
the to the facial you know, responses, this is this,
these are he writes them like the real humans, right,
And that's the mark of a good author, right, and
a mark of a good storyteller. This scene, it's so devastating,
like all of this kid's worst anxieties are being confirmed
by the only person that he didn't want them to
be confirmed by while he's trying to kill him. And
it's like he can't be more candid. He's drunk, you
know what I mean. It's not like he's lying. He's
saying exactly what he feels, right, And it's the first
time that Gambino's really being honest with this kid, and
he just uses it to destroy him emotionally so he
can kill him. And the result is.
Speaker 4: The result is guts kills Gambino. Again, the high contrast
style we see you know at these sort of moments, right,
the black background, the white foreground, you know, all the
shading in between, just excellently illustrated. But he is, you know,
he's a patricide. He has killed his father despite everything else. Again,
very very dramatic scene. Way to end.
Speaker 3: Uh you know that volume. Uh the action picks up
almost immediately afterwards. Uh, Guts is forced to beat a retreat. Right,
He's obviously, you know, horrified as the band, the mercenary band,
turns on him. They assume that he murdered him and
he has to just run. And again, any person, and
especially any man, you know, like this. You know women,
women do enjoy berserk, but I berserk is like it
is a story for males. This is about in many ways,
so much of what makes it what it is about
what it is to be male, you know what I mean,
And and how our position in the world is sort
of dictated and for us right in many ways, and
for much of the history of man. Right now, everybody
is a soldier, right, I'm not trying to imply that
all males soldiers and that's how it worked. But at
the drop of the hat, you would be expected to
be do you know what I'm saying? Like that is
our role, that is our job is to potentially die
for the greater hole. So this the nature of these things,
how Guts respond to them, and not just him, but
many of the other characters. Right, there's a reason that
this story is so it touches so close to so
many guys that read this, right, they feel it. They
imagine being this kid. Man, they put themselves in the
position of that show. They remember what they were as children,
and they look at this and imagine themselves in this position. Man,
imagine being hunted by a bunch of dudes, you know,
for a thing you didn't even your dad's trying to
kill you. You defend yourself and then these guys are trying
to murder you on top of that. Like, this is
just horror, horror, horror story. This whole kid's this kid's
whole life. It's just like.
Speaker 1: That.
Speaker 3: I remember that series of series of unfortunate events. They
could have could have been that could have been the
English title of Bersers, genuinely, because that is life gets
his life, right, It's just it's just one bad thing
into another, right, and this kid just surviving it, surviving
it as best he can. Yeah, certainly.
Speaker 4: So he's on the run again. We see that that,
you know, repetition, the idea that he is cursed. So
the Mercenary band catches up to him, right, he's unable
to escape. They shoot him, and you know, in very
theatric form, he tumbles into a river. Right when he
regains consciousness, we get just a very beautiful shot right
of him laying on his back, an arrow, you know,
poking up through his chest that oh yeah, there it is. Yeah, yeah,
the stars you know, over top of him. But right,
the piece doesn't last, right. He he gets up, obviously,
he sees the you know, the beautiful sky and as
he's sort of stumbling along with this sword again, uh,
something we will see often repeated. He's sort of wondering,
what's the point of even living anymore? Right, what's the
point of living in a world where there's only bad things?
But despite that, right, despite the fact that he lives,
you know, a horrible life. He's no nothing but kind
of violence and betrayal. When the wolves come around, he
can't stop fighting, right, despite the fact that his life
is horrible.
Speaker 3: He literally says it's over, and he's he's and he
just automatically reacts. Right. I love this. I love this.
This is that you know, indomitable human spirit meme. This
is But Gutsy is that character he he can't just
go down, you know what I mean? He had there's
something in him that goes nah, not fuck that.
Speaker 4: Well and tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty
sure this section is heavily referenced in gene Row, Like
the visuals are very similar.
Speaker 3: Well forgot, I think so. I think so. It's been
such a long time since I watched in Row that
I can't remember. Who knows if he even was deliberate
or not, but these are very similar since Yeah, super
influential in the right time too, exactly. Yeah, by the way,
everybody out there, if you haven't seen General the Wolf Frigid,
go watch General the Wolf brigad. It is fucking sick.
Speaker 4: In three years, renis when we're done with this, I
want to bring you on to do a review of that.
I love that, and almost no one else will talk
to me about it. It's actually yeah, no gedious version
of my podcast intro.
Speaker 3: It pulled a lot from Genro Fucking Rules, General fucking Rules.
It is absolutely amazing. Beautiful work again, beautiful work. A
lot of the stuff that was coming out late eighties
early nineties of Japan was just fucking fantastic. They really
really cared. A lot of love soul went into that stuff,
both from animation, storytelling, you know, the manga themselves. Right,
the drawings, the drafts, work, all of it is. These
are all monumental works. In my opinion, this is like
a true a movement A time friend, I was like
a It laid up such a powerful foundation for what
we're in now. Think about the amount of big sword guys, right, Like,
think about all of that. Right, we live in a
world that was in many ways, like the the flavor
of the water was helped to be created by these stories, right,
these aesthetic languages. Four years later, what a beautiful times good.
It's such a spread, bro. I know, I know, I
should stop doing this because it's it's probably repetitive to hear,
you know, two guys on a podcast say this art's
really good. But man, the art's really good. Like, what
do you say? Uh, that's part of the story of
what Berserk is. It's mirror's drawings. He is like, if
Berserk was drawn and written by a lesser artist, I
don't think it would have that same cultural impact that
it does. It was the esthetic sensibilities of Kantaro Mura
that led it to where it was. It's not just
the choices that he made, it's the it's the the
fidelity with which he can, he can realize these things.
It's the way he frames, it's the way he panels.
That is part of the the The entire Monk is
a visual feast. You can literally spend more time just
looking at the images than reading the dialogue and the plot.
It's there's that much packed in and that's part of
the reason. Also why there was this This mouk was
done monthly, and part of the reason why it took
so long in some places to get finished is because
he's doing this ship, you know what I mean. It's yeah,
it's like, yeah, if this took three months to make,
I wouldn't be surprised. But he was putting these out monthly,
so yeah, that tells you also what the workload must
be like O.
Speaker 4: Well, and it's like obviously it's it's grim, but he
did actually work himself to death.
Speaker 3: Yeah. He literally died at his at his desk, his
his his aortic uh uh artery, so one of the
main arteries into the heart, it's it split bin and
he bled out and died. That's that's how that's how
my boy died. Absolutely brutal, can't stand it, really really
heartbreaking man, And he died he also died like a
few days before. My birthday was really brutal for me.
I was, I was so upset. Holy shit.
Speaker 4: Let's continue though, returning to the narrative, he's able to
fend off the wolves. Right, He's he's injured, he's already
been shot, passes out and is picked up by another
one of these traveling mercenary bands. So four years later, right,
we see this this siege again. Man, even the background
characters are just so well done. And as you know,
the gate busts down, right, this this army is surging in.
Speaker 3: We see we got a classic berserk moment. Just a
big ass guy, big ass guy shows up.
Speaker 4: It's just a goon, right, And as he's standing in
the line, right, the leader, the sort of noble it was,
ordering his men forward.
Speaker 3: They won't do it, and he.
Speaker 4: Basically calls it to the crowd. It's like, all right,
who's gonna who's gonna take care of this? They have
anoy a Troy moment, right, like, call forth your champion, right, yeah,
Guts doesn't even say nothing, he just shrides forward. And
he's obviously young. He is still a young person. He's
not a kid anymore. Let's keep in mind everything up
to this point. He was eleven, right, he was eleven
years old when he killed Gambino and have to run away.
Speaker 3: He's so he's fifteen here, yeah, plus or minus? Yeah, yeah,
that is insane. Right, And this kid is obviously, like
just to look at him, right, this is a hard person.
This is a this is and this kid is ruthless.
There's no mercy in the eyes, there's no hesitation. He
looks like he knows exactly what he is doing. Everybody
counts him out right, he's I love this when he
goes when he starts negotiating the price, yes, guy, oh
my god, so disrespectful.
Speaker 4: Well, and and this is a you know, again the
sort of great line art we see. But he, you know,
is successfully able to kill this man. I actually think
that the transition between the last volume and this one
is significant the improvement in the artwork. And the artwork
was already really really good. But he even this sequence
just here is already better than every combat sequence that
he's done previous to this. Right, The the implication of
speed and power that he's putting here.
Speaker 3: There are a couple of uh, just briefly there there
are they made three berserk movies. All right, most of
the animated berserk stuff is passable or terrible. Everything made
recently is genuinely so bad that do not watch it.
It actually ruins it in many ways. The twenty sixteen
stuff's awful, Yeah, absolutely terrible, absolutely terrible. But there were
three films that were made. They're based on this arc
of the Golden Age. Right. They don't show the I
don't think they show the like the stuff when he's
a little kid, but it starts basically from here, right,
This fight and the whole band of the Hawk, all
of that. They're pretty great in some ways. There are
problems with them, obviously, but they're pretty great in some ways.
And one of the ways that I really really enjoyed
that film is the way in which they depict this fight,
because they make Guts seem completely psychotic. If you were, like,
if you were to fight somebody who could move like
that with that kind of weapons, He's putting you into
pieces in seconds. Like it's like, as I've said before,
it's like fighting an industrial machine rather than a person.
He's hitting you harder than you think he should be
able to hit you, and he's doing it too many times.
Look at this guy. This guy's massive, and he's like,
what is going on? This is a this is a
fifteen year old He outweighs him, probably by two hundred pounds,
and he's getting pushed back. Right, this kid is nassy.
He is insanely strong, and he's very very good at swordsmanship.
He's not just swinging around a big sword, a big
heavy sword and hitting people hard. He can swing it
with the speed of a lesser weapon. He is not
just good, he's excellent. Right, he is extremely dangerous already,
and he's fifteen years old. Right. Yeah, so he works
this dude, and there it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's an iconic absolustration.
Speaker 3: Right. They already sort of foreshadowing the eye, right, though
only the one eye right.
Speaker 4: One hundred percent. So the battle continues, right, he he
kills this champion.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: Then afterwards we see an interesting again continuing the kind
of mirror between you know, Griffith and Guts that's sort
of at the beginning of this. After the battle is over, right,
this this nobleman who offered him the money, right, basically
comes back afterwards and says like, all right, like you
did a really good job. Not only are you getting
a cash reward, but if you want, I'll promote you
to a squire, right, offer you a chance at minor nobility,
and Gus just leaves. Right, He's just completely uninterested. Basically
sounds gay pretty much.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: We see we actually see him strike this noble when
he puts his hand on him for absolutely obvious reasons.
But nonetheless, you know, he leaves. There's a shot where
we see during the battle, right, Griffith is there too,
and he's noticed Gut. Ye he watches the fight. He
watches the fight between Guts and bus Buzz. Yeah, I
for those wondering, much like you know, dark soils or
any other you know, Japanese property with Western tones. Uh,
there's a whole lot of fake words that sound like
English words to Japanese people. So I'm just gonna have
to get used to it, especially hundred.
Speaker 3: Just embrace, just embrace the names. Allow it, allow it.
Speaker 4: So next we see Guts, you know, walking away by
himself and Griffin's Griffith's band notices him. Right, Griffith is
just passed out. A couple of the guys race.
Speaker 3: He usually laying in the grass like a like a
little cool guy, you know, what I mean, just hanging
out right, and and we're a couple. He's hippie maxing,
you know what I mean, he's just chilling.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's grounding.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: But basically a couple of the mercenaries decide to go
after right, like, oh, he's probably got a bunch of
money on him, so you armed men bear down on him,
gus horsemen without on horseback, without skipping a beat, he
just cuts the first guy down right just again, yeah,
just completely Bisex one of the first unnamed goons. Again
another another great panel here, and obviously, you know, the
men start to surround him, right, he's fending them off.
He cuts another guy's arm off, but they call back
for help right too. Cosca, who will become a character,
will see much more from her. But basically, these couple
guys have gotten into a situation where they can't handle it,
so they're calling for more help. So she, you know,
armors up, goes in guts is still you know, staring
down you know the rest of the guys, but Costca
shoots him just out of a crossbow bull to Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: Which is you know, it's sort of dirty pool. But
neither here nor there.
Speaker 4: The point is you know that the fight continues. Guts
Is is you know, wounded but still going, and him
and Costca go at it. She's on horseback, he's not.
They're trading blows again. Art Is is very very good here,
and you know, he knocks her helmet off. He gets
the advantage.
Speaker 3: And you can tell she's good because she can she
can actually perry him, right, she can't. She immediately know
that he's way stronger than she thought he would be,
and she's like, what holy shit, But she can still
keep him from just destroying her, right, So she has
that skill. And then he gets surprised that the fact
that she's a girl. He's like, what the hell? Right,
she's a woman. I would have never expected that, right
and right? Yeah, which you know something, you know people
like to do the whole irm coscas a girl? How come?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And it's like, guy, listen, blades are blades. They are
force equalizers. Right. If you know how to use a
sword and fight with the sword, you being thirty percent
stronger whatever really isn't that big of a deal. And
the way swords fighting works, you can block a heavier,
stronger blow relatively easily because it's It's about physical structure.
It's physics. It's not a like, oh I hold my
arm out out there and if I'm strong enough, I
can block your blow. It's you're trying to push through
my entire body. It's a grap you know what I mean?
If you know how to do it, somebody being strong
doesn't make a difference. It's about technique, right, So she can,
you know, to a degree? She she like, it's not
insane to imagine that a woman would be able to
kill people with a fucking weapon, right, It's not. It's
not impossible. Well, and to be fair, she is exceptional, Like, yes, exactly,
she's not. This isn't considered like normal. Coska is a
exceptional person by every means that there's no other women
fighters in the band. Right, obviously put her there because
it was cool to have a woman in the story.
But I like Casca. I like Coska as a character.
I think she's interesting in her own right. Her own
little conflict that's going on in her head is interesting.
Her dynamic with Griffith and Guts is interesting. And her
position in the band I also think is interesting because
she's sort of like a manager administrator, right, She's the
one who is She's like the disciplinarian where Griffiths runs
the show, right, she Costka is always the person who's
reprimanding people. Right, She's the one telling Corcus not to
go after Guts in the first place. She's the one
who is like, he's gonna do something to you, and
then it happens. She's the one that comes to bail
them out. She's like mom, right, and so yeah, you're
completely correct. But as as the you know, the fight
wraps up, Griffith basically throws a spear into it. He
breaks up the fight again. Just a super cool image,
very very ominous. Yes, his his design is so masterful.
I love his Like the helmet is stull iconic. Right,
this is such a perfectly rendered character. And then I
think right after that, right, he takes a helmet off
and issue he reveals his luscious locks in his full
mane of He basically like you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Right yet, because the two of them fight first, Right,
he enters the fight and he actually wounds Guts, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because Gut swings at him hard and he just
catches it in a great moment. Right, He's just like, yep,
you're not bigger kid, stimmer down. You know what I mean, kids,
slimmer down. There's there's other people who are strong out there. Guy,
you know what, I'm a great moment.
Speaker 4: Another great moment. Right, Guts is wounded, but he uses
his sword to pick back up.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: He's again this is an image or oppose. We see
Guts and often right using his sword to kind of
pull himself off as he's wounded. Uh So Griffith is
obviously impressed right by you know, Guts his abilities and
as as Gut's basically leans back to swing for him,
he passes out right. And then that is that moment
where we see Griffith take off his helmet and he's
this sort of legalist like angelic figure. Right, he's a
white chrbic.
Speaker 3: Yes, he's cherubic. He's he's he's like almost like like
in a like a beauty in the sense that a
child is beautiful, right, not in like a lustful or
like desirous way. It's just a purely in no way sensual. Yeah,
exactly right. He's like like a like a like in
ethereal beauty, a thing that is beautiful regardless of all
the context that it's in it simply is beautiful, like
a like a like a flower or something like that,
which is so the opposite of Yes, you know what
I'm saying. They are, They are. They couldn't be more different.
Guts is, Guts is grunting and and grit and pain
and bleeding and fucking scars, and Griffith is untouched, completely calm,
all white, never even fucking says anything, just pure like cold,
rational serenity. Right, Like he's like Galadrial, you know, he
has this distance that gives him a sense of no
almost like regions, like like like he feels he feels real,
he feels above them. Yeah, and there's the.
Speaker 4: Dream, right, So Guts is he's unconscious, right, and this
is this is fever dream, right, having this nightmare of
a figure chasing a you know, a naked, younger version
of himself. You don't have to be a rocket scientist
to figure out what's going on there. And what we
see is, you know, he's swinging at this figure. You know,
his sword is is cutting through him. And you know,
as this happens, he sees Gambino over his shoulder on
this pile of bones, and he's you know, asking like, Gambino,
save me. The sword isn't working, and he tells him
to look at the sword and it's transformed into his
severed leg and he says, you know, I'm dead. You
killed me and it hurt. And there's this sort of
very grim image of Gambino with his his still talking
with his neck. Halfway through uh again, we see more
and more of this kind of surreal element. You know,
the dog is transformed into the plague stricken vision of
his adopted mother and you know, as the the monster
bears down on him, right with the face of Donovan,
he sees, you know, Gambido and his adopted mother skeletons
right saying over and over again, you should have died. So,
you know, just again a very grim scene.
Speaker 3: Man, it's so heartbreaking how much guilt he carries for this.
He imagine, feeling guilty for killing fucking Gambino. Bro right,
Like that is the like I something I think is
so important about Guts, right, something to keep in mind.
Guts is a deeply empathetic and sensitive person. He know,
like he's not just because he is hard on the outside, right,
because he because he understands I have to shield myself
from the world right, his truth, the core of him
is the one that feels guilty for killing a man
who could not have abused him. More, he feels guilt
for the fact that this woman they took him in
and then died, even though he had nothing to do
with him. He feels guilty for being this cursed child,
despite the fact that there's no real evidence that's the case.
It's just the hearsay, the happenstance, the way of the world,
and the way people will see him as a result. Right,
It's like how being a bastard was or being a
fucking albinos In some parts of the world, you know
what I mean, they're like, ah, that's fucked up and weird, right,
And now all of a sudden, you have a terrible
life as a result of something you have no control over,
a complete coin flip. You had nothing to do with it,
nothing to do with your personality or who you are.
It's just that makes me fucking feel fucked up. So
that's the way it is now, right, this kid has
to bear that burden, right, And you see, despite his
facade or sort of demeanor, the way he carries himself,
this still weighs very heavily upon him. He feels it
right every second, seemingly there's a reason that he doesn't
let people touch him. So yeah, this is the you know,
and again Mirror is not He's not like Miri is
is and Berserk is full of subtlety, right, but he's
not always relying upon that, sometimes just showing you obviously
this is the case. And to be fair, also this
was written in like the early nineties, so this was
subtle for them, you know what I mean now by
the standards of the medium, especially right exactly the medium
and the time, you know, this is this is like,
this is like you know, this is this is the
most progressive, you know, like it's very like, wow, he's
really showing it, you know. But yeah, no, nowadays, right,
we look at this and it's like, yeah, no, it's
clear what is happening here? Right, So guts after, you know,
we see this vision, uh, we see these sort of
vague images of him in bed with a woman, don't
know quite who. He wakes up, he is in the
Mercenary band. He sees, you know, Griffith, which he obviously remembers,
and then Cosca talking and Cosca just walks up to
him and smacks him right, says, you know, I wish
you die. He's obviously in a lot of pain, and
it's confirmed that, you know, Griffith told Costa like, hey,
hop in bed with Guts. He's lost a lot of blood.
You need to keep him alive, so, you know, insinuating
why she's a little mad at him, and also sort
of laying the grounds for their romance later. But as
you know, he walks up to Griffith, Griffith hands him
his sword, you know, saying like, oh wow, this is
really incredible. Two of them start talking. You know, we
get some more characterization of the other kind of members
of this crew. Right, I'm skipping over for the sake
of time. This is interesting. But basically he says, you know,
like we were in the same battle together. And the
two of them stand on top of the hill and
you know, griff that ask him like, well, why didn't
you kill me? And Griffith says something we will hear
him say many times, because I want you. Of course,
Guts is like, dude, that's pretty gay. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 4: Kind of funny, right, but Griffith decides, no, like I
saw you know how you fight. I saw that, you know,
the way that you sort of deliberately gamble on your
own life, and it's like, oh, that's really impressive.
Speaker 3: I love that. I love this aspect Griffith. He understands
who he's looking at so well, and it really shows
who this kind of who this guy really is. He's
a person who understands other human beings. And not only that,
but he has a respect for a certain type of
human beings. He's Nietzsche in this way, right. He respects
the will, He respects a person who will walk the
tightrope because that is the kind of life that he
lives and the kind of life that he wants to
continue to live.
Speaker 2: Uh uh.
Speaker 3: And not just that, but Griffith is also a pragmatic person.
Why does he want guts Because guts is fucking useful,
That's why. Because he can use guts and both in
a possessive way and in a in a in a
sort of let more more familiar way. Because I don't
think Griffith, especially in the in the early parts of this,
I don't think Griffith is just a manipulative psycho. That's
not as simple as that. Griffith is a very interesting character.
There's a reason that so many people identify with Griffith
and Guts, right, but Griffith in particular, because Griffith has
a like. Griffith has a dream. We all have that, right,
I think. I think any one of us that isn't
just you know, some sort of like Shudra like fucking Highlich.
We all have dreams. We all have uh an ambition
or desire that we that we that we want to
strive for. And Griffith exemplifies that extremely well, and he
is willing to cooperate with other people to make that happen.
He understands that he can't necessarily do it alone, and
he will stand on the shoulders of others to do it,
but he will do it right. And once he sees guns,
he realizes that this guy, this guy is going to
be a pivotal part of this. He has this like
foresight to understand what he's looking at. So Griffith is
a deeply ambitious person. He's a deeply he's a person
who looks to the future. And he's young. Clearly, they're
all like the same age ish, right, they're all young people.
But Griffith is not like the rest of them, and
that's why he runs the show. That's why he's the hawk, right.
He has a mind that is operating at another level
compared to the people around him. And not just that
he is ambitious and all of that stuff, but he's
also skilled. He has the ability to back up his will.
He's not just guy who has a lot of talk.
He will walk the walk as well. And that is
what this last little duel is. It is the solidification
that Griffith is not just words. Griffith is for real
and Guts learns that as well. Right, he is willing.
This fight is fantastic. I love it, right, the saber
versus the big sword. Right, it's sick. You're muted, you're muted.
Speaker 4: Incredibly professionally professional podcaster. You're correct. This is very well drawn.
We see obviously the visual contrast, also the fighting style contrast.
You know, gust is using these huge aggressive swings where
Griffith with his sabers very deftly parrying, you know. And
Griffith makes him an offer, basically says like, hey, do
you do you want to be one of my guys
and gout says no, right, very similar to the offer
given him by the nobleman. Uh so the two of them,
you fight it out. Right, Guts essentially says, if.
Speaker 3: You beat me, I'll do whatever you want. I don't
really care, right, and then he gets absolutely styled.
Speaker 4: On in an iconic moment. Right, and this is something
that will be again. You'll see this image repeated again
and again. He makes a crazy aggressive swing and Griffith
jumps on top of the sword, right, pinning it down,
and he's completely at his mercy. Right, sword at the
throat basically says like, yeah, you'll do anything to win,
even sacrifice, you know, your own life. I really like that.
But guess what I got you? And what Gods does
is he bites down on the sword.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: He's again willing to sacrifice his own body to a
truly psychotic degree to win. And what he does is,
you know, he basically uses the sword trapped in his
teeth the other one to like launch Griffith over.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and now it's a fistfight, right, it's ugly.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Then he makes it dirty. Yeah, he makes it,
which is great, Right, it's great. It's the emblematic of, again,
the kind of person that Guts is. If I can't
beat you, fuck that I'm gonna beat you. I don't care. Right,
I will make it happen. I will figure it out.
I will turn it into a different thing. Right and again,
beautiful characterization. Right you expect. Oh, Griffith doesn't have it,
have it? Right? He now? Now he's on the back foot.
Now guts has got him because he made it ugly.
This pretty boy doesn't have it. And that is not
the case. That is not that spits his own blood
in his face. Right, Griffith picks up, and then we
get this, We get this first glimpse. We get this
first glimpse. Look at his face. That is rapture. That
is like like nirvonic joy. And why because Griffith in
that moment, it's not a oh, it's a reveal of
Griffith's evil. It's not so simple. That is what Griffith
looks like when he knows he is going to win,
when he knows he's going to get what he wants.
That's the face he makes because he knows that it's checkmate.
As soon as this happens, it initiates the sequence of
grappling that leads to the the yeah, he dislocates in
the arm. Right, gets him perfect, and it's like the
Griffith has this moment of like ecstasy, like yes, yes,
I get it. And that really what it shows is
the only time that Griffiths will like like crack the
perfect facade is when he's getting what he wants. And
he shows that like that like glee, almost like childlike
glee of like yes, I'm getting what I desire right now.
Speaker 4: And in a moment that's a little more sinister, right,
we see that kind of angelic visage, slightly twisted. Right,
he looks him dead in the eye and says like
you're mine now, like you're you're one of my band.
Speaker 3: Uh. And so.
Speaker 4: Time sort of continues on. Right, guts Is is injured.
Obviously he's had his uh you know, his arm completely
and totally uh you know, dislocated. We get some more
kind of commentary, you know, where the other members of
the Band of the Hawk are kind of going back
and forth. We also see that at least currently, Costca
and Guts do not get along at all, but nonetheless, right,
they're prepared for a battle. Uh you know, everyone is
you know on side, right, Guts and Costa everyone, Uh,
I'm skipping over a little bit because we have a
little bit of a time constraint, but this is still
very you know, good characterization.
Speaker 3: And ultimately what we're doing here is we're moving through it. Right.
But everyone, you must read this, if you have any
right interest or desire, you must read these things, all
of the subtle moments, all the little things that the
interpersonal relationships between the band members, all of that stuff
is deeply pivotal because these are the relationships that are
going to define the rest of Guts's life. These are
the people that he will come to know as friends
and comrades. These are the people that he will be
willing to for the first time, put his life on
the line for because every other time in guts his life,
the only time that he really risked his life was
for his own sake, right, for his own life or
of his own survival. But these people, these are true comrades. Right.
In Japanese, there's friend, the word friend tomodachi, right, which
is like a friend or acquaintance person that you know, right.
But na kama is like comrade, it's like brother. It
means a close bond of true life, like this is
a this is a this is we are we are brothers.
You know what I'm saying, Like this, we we we
we have the same goals, we have the same enemies,
we have the same uh uh uh uh loves and hate.
We are we are, we are as one line. Right,
that is what that word means. And that's why when
he finally attributes that to these people, to the Band
of the Hawk, right, this is a completely different world
from the world he grew up in, a world where
he was it was essentially dog eat dog and at
his most vulnerable right now, when he finally has the
strength to be on his own, he learns two I
guess the best way to put it is like he
learns once it's like it's like the Band of the
Hawk teachers. And once he has the strength to live
on his own, to survive on his own, he learns
that he doesn't have to do you know what I'm saying.
He learns that you don't have to go to sleep
expecting people are gonna come kill you, you don't have
to sleep with a blade, you don't have to do
these things. You can live a life in which the
people around you are your are people that you can
trust to have your back. And that's what he learns
with the band. Right. That's why this, this part of
the story is so so so important to this guy
because before his life was nothing but suffering. His life
was nothing but pain. His life was nothing but hoping
that the people around you aren't going to betray you
or kill you or try to fucking uh you know,
send the Donovan after you. Right, this is the is
the other side. It's the it's the it's the heel, right,
it's the it's the moment in which a person can
heal finally from from their wounds. And that's why this
is so important. That's why I love it so much.
It's why everyone loves the Golden Age so much, because
you get to see your boy having a nice life
for a little bit, you know.
Speaker 4: Well, and you're completely correct, And we're also in this
next scene getting some characterization Griffith.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Effectively, we learned that he is a very capable commander. Right,
he launches this audacious surprise attack, right, taking these horses
up a river, and it's just full route right again,
very well drawn. Right, this is one of many kind
of iconic cavalry charges. But nonetheless, right, the bend of
the hawk is just you know, laying waste to them
and to me.
Speaker 3: Griffith is like he's like Alexander, you know what I mean.
He has that same aura, that same everyone gets swept
up in it, right, and and the and the acumen,
the ability. It's not just that he has a legend.
He actually is that guy. You know. Yeah, that's what
I think. That's the best real world parallel for the
characterization of Griffin Griffith at this point. Well, and you know,
as the the volume concludes, this will lead us into
our last discussion. Uh we see there's a counter attack
right this the siege has started, you know, the general
has launched out, you know, some cavalry to uh you know,
to to route this uh surprise attack. And uh yeah,
that's where we pick up at our next discussion.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, Rinus, welcome to Jay Burns Show.
Speaker 3: How you doing that? Not bad? You know, I've been
u I've been anticipating this one. This is an exciting
one for me. I love this ship, you know what
I mean, Big.
Speaker 4: Sword Guys, I've been anticipating. This is a nice way
to say your ship it scheduling and we should have
done this a month and a half ago, yet made
it that way.
Speaker 3: But but but I've I've definitely like it's not even that.
It's like it's like, you know, we got together to
do this, right, we were recommended, uh sort of uh
to to link up, right, because I've wanted to talk
about this, this one for for forever, right, Like I
think they're you know, everybody knows. Everybody knows this by now,
I think, right, I think I think berserk is it
has sort of reached a level of cultural saturation all anime. Right,
There's been a huge wave of this. It's been kind
of very interesting to see the rise of this medium
in the West as as a kid who like, man,
you know, I was there was a time frame where
you would be made fun of if you watch Japanese
cartoons even though everybody was still children, you know what
I mean, it didn't even make sense. It was like
that's childish. It's like, dude, we're eleven years old, what
are you? What are you talking about? Right? So, you know,
I was a DBZ watcher and even like Sailor Moon
back in the day, right, So to watch the rise
of it, to watch become sort of like a firmly
implanted within the cultural zeitgeist and become almost like overburnt,
Like oversaturated is crazy, right, but berserk is is something
that I think is kind of like a It's like
an old weathered rock that things you know, like orbit
run or slash around. Right, the water's rise and fall,
but this thing stays there, and it's been there for
a reason. And I think this arc, in particular, the
Golden Age is is the foundation of that mountain, right
Like this, this, this is where Mirror shows that he
isn't just writing something that is essentially a kind of
like a rip off of Fists of the North Star,
you know, and instead we're making something that's really considered
and willing to go places that most of these things
are not are not willing to go. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean I think I come at this slightly
differently because you know, I when I was growing up,
anime was sort of starting it like cultural ascendency, like
it had very much become.
Speaker 3: Something Okay, Okay, yeah, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like
a decade older than you, right, so just slightly but
same same for me, it was even even less than
what you're saying, right, Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
It was a it was a rise, but it at
our time, it was like almost nobody, almost nobody watched this,
like only little kids watch this shit. Other than that,
it was like considered like very you know what I mean,
but sorry, go ahead, go ahead, no no.
Speaker 4: And so it was interesting because when I grew up,
it was it was sort of part of the like
mainstream alt identity, you know, where you were like just
a little bit out of you know, mainstream culture for
whatever that works, but still very much an acceptable normal
thing to do, right, safe edgy, as the kids would say.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 4: And what's interesting is that certain aspects of you know,
Japanese culture can or cannot be a similar into that.
You know, for instance, like on the video game side,
you see things like dead or Alive, which is just
like absolutely hated by the kind of like Reddit mod
crowd because bio squarely and except normans, normies cannot stand
the kino. Yeah, and and Berserkers. Berserk is in sort
of a similar position. And so you'll you'll see this
dialogue come up from time to time talking about the
prevalence of you know, there's a lot of adult material
in this right, there's a lot of sexual assault, there's
a lot of you know violence, there's a death, yeah,
one hundred percent, Like that's to be perfectly blunt about it. Yes,
and look like this isn't like a if you even
have to say it, it's not like a pro thing.
Speaker 3: But no, it handles it horrifically. It's like it's like
it's like, I don't think anything handles as well as berserk.
And that's crazy because of the way that I understand
exactly what you're talking. There's a discourse and a perception
around berserk that it's essentially like like it's like it
revels in degrading and destroying the female characters, and it
revels in especially Cosca. You know what I mean, I don't.
I don't agree with that even upon reread write as
a as Like when I first read this, I was
like nineteen right, or actually I was probably seventeen right.
You know, at the time, I was into anime. I
liked anime a lot, right like I and I was
more into manga even because I early on I read
like the some kid at my school brought a shown
and jump once in eighth grade and that like that
one event, like you know what I mean, Like I
read through it and I was like, holy shit, Like
in it was like Naruto, Bleach, you you hacker show fuck.
It was just it was like all killer, no filler. Right,
So I was like, this is this stuff is way
cooler than the stuff that I most of the stuff
that I've seen, Right, it was sort of very shocking
for young me. Right. So, growing up, I rabbit towards
the manga side. I read Berserk, I read or sorry,
I read Bleach, I read Nards so as they were
coming out, but I had never read anything like Berserk
at the time. Right. It was so much more you know,
for lack of better words, it was so much more mature.
It was so much more it was considered, it was
more even, it was it was more elaborate artistically. It
was just it was just it felt like an evolution
right of the medium, despite the fact that it came out,
you know, it started in the eighties, right, Mirrors just.
Speaker 4: Honestly, like, I'm not really a fan of of anime
or manga, It's not really my thing. But to me,
I sort of view this in the same realm as
like you know, Akira or something like that, where it
almost transcends the medium, Like this is and even the
kind of guy who reads manga is in you know,
kind of derogatorily referred to as a weepad. It's really
good before we jump into it, because I want to
get into the you know, the segment we're reading. Two things. One, dude,
I have never started a series and gotten more people
chimping out at me to continue it now. Part of
that is because there was a big gap between episode
one and episode two of this series, right. The other
part is people really are interested in this topic. So
I'm excited about that. But I got a message after
the last one came out from a buddy of mine.
He lives here locally, and you know, he's listened to
the show every once in a while, and so I
got this message at like ten am on a Sunday, says,
I'll have you know, I read all of Berserk. It's
a bit much, but damn it was really good. And
I think that's about the best review I could get,
right someone as it gets Yeah, a bit much is
a way to put it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And so the last the last section I did right,
the Black Swordsman arc is both functions as sort of
a you know, a primer, right, you meet the character,
but also it's an earlier, less developed version of absolutely.
Absolutely it's sort of the it was sort of the
pitch deck, if you.
Speaker 3: You know. In preparation for this, I reread everything up
to the up to basically when Zod goes, all right, boy,
it's time to show you what the fuck is up
right and the black Swordsman. Man, it's insane. That arc
is like it's like a it's a completely different thing,
like especially like the first like three or four chapters.
It's like this feels like a different manga, like it.
Clearly he didn't really know what Brijik was at the time, right.
He just wanted to make like a thing about a
cool guy who fucking kicks people's asses and slashes them
in half with a giant fucking sword, right, because that rules,
and at the time, to be fair, right, to be
fair to him. Right. It's so funny how he's the
water that people are swimming in and they don't even
really realize it, right, And not to say that Mirror
is some sort of like you know, uh, visionary innovator.
That is not his skill. His skill is like it
is fine tune, like like uh, those skills it's not
necessarily about like, Wow, he's made something that has changed
all of fiction, like you know, something like a like
a like a token. He's not doing that, right. What
what Mirror was doing, especially at the beginning, was he
clearly clearly really liked Fist of the north Star, right,
because Berserk is essentially what if Ken Schiro was an asshole?
This is the north Stars. Whole thing is that is
that the main character is like he's like he's the
ultimate moral guy, right, Like he's like a shit night
and shining armor always says the right thing, and he's
like pretty much invincible, right, whereas you know in in Berserk, right,
despite the fact that you know, Guts is also like
a sort of wandering a wandering form of justice. He
is his own moral compass, right, and he doesn't follow
like a like a sort of like a social ethic. Right.
He's he's very antisocial and he's absolutely effective and super brutal, right,
So he has that Canhiro power, but he doesn't have
that Canhiro ethical framework. In many ways, I've I've heard
I I personally have not read the og Devilman because
that's what this stuff is like inspired by just so
everybody understands, right, uh uh. Devil Devilman cry Baby is
a recently made Netflix show that is Devil Man like
a sort of like a reboot, but the og Devilman
is like I'm talking about these are these are things
like the way that Astro Boy is part of Japanese
you know, like cultural framework. Devil Man is the same thing.
It is. It is like an og uh comic book
series that everybody knows. So Mirror is a big fan
of that, and Devilman also has a sort of Griffith
like character. But those were his inspirations and you can
see that, especially in the in the Black Swordsman arc
that he kind of just wanted to make something like
fits of the North Star. But Golden Age. That's where
this really like comes alive, right, you see hints of
it at the end of the Black Swordsman arc. Obviously,
the last chapters of Black Swordsmen are like explicitly like
he okay, he figured out what he wants to do
with this, right, you see femto right, you see the
God hand, right, all of that stuff with that last
apostle is really interesting. But then it's like, okay, how
do we get here? Right, and he gives it to you,
and it starts in a way that you know, this
is spectacular. I think this is such a good way
to start with. This character is right, like this kid
is literally born from a corpse, right, he's he We'll
get into that. We'll get into that.
Speaker 4: You trying to avoid any any direct spoilers for the
guys kind of reading along with us.
Speaker 3: Oh if you, if you are watching this and you
have not read Berserk, what I would suggest is for
you to stop and go read it at least read
up to where we are talking, which is let me
just let me just make sure I'm correct here.
Speaker 4: Well, dude, what I've done is I've just included the
link to a pirate site where you can see it
all on your computer for free. Like right, the first thing,
like everyone like the physical stuff's great, Everyone should.
Speaker 3: Read manga online for free. And then once you've decided, wow,
this is a work that is beautiful and I really
want to contribute to this person's coffers, then by their
stuff if you want. I don't care. I've read. I
can't even thousands and thousands of chapters of things that
I was not allowed and I don't give a shit, right.
This is this is the way. The only reason that
manga is and an anime are the culturals like guess
that they are these days is because of these websites.
It's not because everybody was out buying fucking anime DVDs.
That's not what people do. They go to anime pirate
or they go to pirated anime websites, or they go
to pirate mango websites and they read them and then
if they love it, they buy it, or they fucking
go to Japan. They turn people into fucking like cultists. Man,
It's it's like, it's it's worth. That's why they allow
it to happen, in my opinion, because I don't think
that these companies would have the hardest time going for
these these kinds of these kind of websites regardless, I think, yeah,
you should probably go read because I'm going to do
my best to not these spoilery. But it's difficult to
really talk about the meat of this thing without revealing
a lot of aspects of this because a lot of
it is like it's in many ways Bzurk is a maximalist, right,
But there's so much of the really good stuff is
really understated, you know, even just looks things like that
right in this in this some dish. But yeah, this
kid is clearly in the Black Swordsman Arc. Gots has
some issues with other people, right. He really despises being touched,
can't stand it. It doesn't matter who's touching him either, right,
he is he doesn't really have very much value for
human life at all. He is willing to kill innocence.
Only really one death hurts him in the whole thing,
and that's the little girl and her and her and
her like old man Dad, he's like traveling and you
know he gets attacked by because of the brand, right,
he gets attacked and these two people get sort of
caught in the crossfire, right, and he he ends up
destroying this child's body that gets possessed and it does
damage him. He cries about it, I believe, which you
never see up to that point, right, he never really
shows that aspect of himself. It's important to.
Speaker 4: Say, and we've said this before, that that chronologically we're
we're stepping back, right, the blast words and Arc occurs
after this, so we're getting more context, but also in
real time, right, this was done later, so we start
off just right in the middle of a battle. And
in the first episode, you remember that I said there's
a lot of amazing art and great kind of historical
arms and armor. This panel is a great example of that, right,
just this massive battle. Obviously this is sort of paying
homage to the historical one hundred Years War, right, this
conflict where there are lots of mercenaries running around. Guts
himself is the is you know, is a part of
you know, one of these bands. Uh So the battle
is again rendered in in gory detail, and then there's
this this troop of you know, armed armored knights that
come in and instead of right, you know, fighting that
with a you know, an actual force, Guts rides out himself, right,
and again we see the sort of like very you know,
dutifully rendered you know, gore as he kind of cuts
them through. Again, a great kind of double spread of
him going into it. I'm not going to go through
and scroll through the entire thing, but I will show
kind of choice panels that are particularly relevant or interesting
as we go through it, and a lot.
Speaker 3: Of they're the like prototypical of Mirror's style and what
to expect of this manga. The the big cleave is
basically the guts, bread and butter, like he's he What
I love about him as a character is that he's
clearly unbelievably skilled, right he but he fights in the
most brute force way. I love that about him. He's
not gonna go like he doesn't care about going for
the gaps in your armor. He doesn't care about trying
to sort of like beat you with footwork and then
you know, get outside of your guard. He just cuts
through it and no one expects that. No one expects
the he's able to do that. It's considered like superhuman
in the universe, which I appreciate. Right, Guts is considered
like imagine seeing somebody do that, man, imagine watching somebody
cleave with a sword through plate armor that doesn't even
make like like what is that's like magic shit? Like
what is going on with that? What is that guy taking? Right?
So he is a force? Right this this chapter right
what I appreciated, But I just realized that sort of
like the the format of this like properly right. This
chapter in particular, I love this because it's it's sort
of the first time that he gets the first time
that you see guts in a in a in a
position of of responsibility to a degree, right, this is
a a reveal of him after a time has passed.
I do also love the aspect that he's fighting these
sort of like something that Japanese authors do a lot,
and I think it's it's kind of there's a lot
of soul in this. It's sort of it reminds me
a lot of like a you know, like sort of
like nineteen fifties like greaser sort of sort of like
like like street gang called like oh, we're like street sharks,
you know what I mean, like that that kind of
ship like snapping at each other. Right. Yeah. The Japs
have this thing too with with with you know this
this this uh, this unit that they're that the Band
of the Hawk is fighting against. Right, they're called like
the like black Iron Rams heavy cavalry, right, Like they
have like a ton of these. It's like, yeah, tons
of them across the Munket, there are tons of them.
I love this. I love this part of It's very typical,
especially of Japanese stuff at this time frame in the
net because I think this this part was being written
in the nineties. Yeah, most of the Golden ages written
in the nineties, I believe he was. He was he
was fast burning in the nineties, but it's still done significantly.
But yeah, I love that he's fighting sort of like this,
like they all have there's you know, special ram helmets
and right, they're like they're like they're like a gang. Right.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: It reminds me of like, you know, also like Japanese
biker gangs all of that, righting the sort of like
connection to the culture, right, I love that. I love
that he chose to do.
Speaker 4: This, and honestly, man, like it's again, this is fantasy.
Although it's interesting at this point is that we we
see Guts witness something magical or supernatural for the first
time in the.
Speaker 3: Sense this is the first time that that really happens.
You know, yes, and you know that that whole thing
of having your your mercenary crew with a cool name
and a banner and something you do, Yeah, it happened.
It's yeah, exactly, It's like it's the desire, right that.
I cannot tell you how much I devoured this arc
when I read it the first time, right at seventeen
years old, I was like, this is like, this is
the coolest thing ever imagine just fuck and just you know,
getting after it with your bros. Right that this is
sick and you like your main guy is the coolest
guy ever, right, and we we have to talk about Griffith, right,
Oh yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: So we're we're introduced to Griffith because he the leader
of you know, Guts Mercenary Company rides in on horseback
to save him. Right again, this kind of double panel
you see, to basically back him up as he's kind
of you know, weighed down with you know, all of
these like armored knights. And again this is just the introduction.
He is a major character, and in fact, he is
referenced in the kind of closing of this segment.
Speaker 3: To be to be to be to be clear, this
is not the introduction of Guts in the or sorry
of Griffith and the Golden Age. This is this is
post time skip. This is right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
was just reading this earlier today because just to like
keep it in my mind. Right, this is post time skip.
So there is the entire remember how their first meeting, right, yeah,
Guts is not meeting Griffith. We are as the audience,
is what I meant to say, no, because there's a
whole section in which in which, like, okay, there's a battle,
Guts beats a guy, Griffith sees him do this, then
Guts leaves with the money. Griffith's boys watch him leave,
right and they it's Corcus, you know, the like the
like he's like the designated like oh.
Speaker 4: See in my and maybe this is just the site
I'm looking at it that is later I might be
looking at a mixed up version. So that's entire that's
definitely the part you're talking.
Speaker 3: About that Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, but
you no, No, this is this is the Golden Age
is done and chronologically from the time that like literally
from the time that in which Gambino finds Guts. It's
almost immediately it starts there, brother, yeah, it starts there.
Speaker 4: Well, this is incredibly professional podcasting.
Speaker 3: It's okay, it's it's okay because all of this, all
of this sort of works. The chapters we're talking about
are are are still doing everything that is like they're
like they're almost like the prototypical aspect of it, but
there's aspects at the beginning that that that must be discussed, right, Like,
like all of gots his childhood and all of that stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly, I'm annoyed because I'm looking through the files
ahead and those are right after this.
Speaker 3: So here's what we'll do.
Speaker 4: Uh on again, We'll go through that because that is
much needed backstory. And that's also why you're probably used
what I was talking about.
Speaker 3: I was a little confused first, but it's all good.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah again, guys, professional podcaster here who uh can't
use files in order. But that said, we will cover that,
right yeah. Uh so, yes, So this is the you know,
Griffith kind of rides in to save him here. We
see a scene afterwards where Cosca you know, another character
will become you know, referenced much more as we go
into this later it okay, yeah, she basically dresses him out.
We learn from some of the background characters that the
two of them have a rival, or have a rivalry rather,
they can't stand each other. They're kind of vying for,
you know, their their position under Griffith, you know that
the charismatic leader here, and then we move to actually
a pretty interesting scene. So I'm going over this not
because it's you know, unimportant, but just because you know,
we'll refer back to this a little bit later and
get you know, it'll make sense later, right when we
go through the kind of rest of this, you know,
immediate chapter. Is there anything else you want to cover?
We can, like I said, refer back to this later.
Speaker 3: Remas well. No, that all of the interactions in this chapter,
in particular, especially the one that you're showing, which, by
the way, I love that you're showing this. You're showing
the actual panels because the amount of people to talk
about this stuff completely with nothing or they just talk
about like the anime or something. I think, the degree
to which it is important to see me or as drawings,
it cannot be overstated. That is the soul of this
of what berserk is. Berserk is he remember right this
man wrote Andrew. Basically everything how how manga works is
a little bit more complicated, right. There are other people
in the in the place doing all like that, you know,
all the shading work, all of like the inking, all
of that stuff is done handled by different people. But
the line work, the designs, the the the the uh
what's it called?
Speaker 2: The uh.
Speaker 3: Movies do it too, The storyboarding, right, like the blocking
even right figuring out where people are standing. All of
that stuff. This guy is a fucking master like he
he has such a beautiful understanding of quote unquote the
camera right the eye of the viewer, right where things are,
his master's space. All of that stuff is ridiculous, and
he really starts to flex it in my opinion, in
this part of this arc after the time skip right,
like in this area, this is where he's solidifying designs.
This is where he's figuring out how he wants to
make things look in the future. Uh. This arc is
like the the the It's where the the cement sets.
You know. I love Griffith's design. First of all, the
hawk is such a cool idea, right, him being this
blonde or so not even he's not even blonde. His
hair is white. Right, It's more than that, he like
he looks like an elf for Christ's sake, right, he
he doesn't even look like a person. And all of
his boys, uh, you know, like almost like revere him
the way that they talk about not just Griffith, but
also Guts. At this point, right, you know, after when
when Cosco is sort of like a dressing him down,
you can see that Guts has established himself within the
band of the Hawk, right. He he he has now become,
you know, the captain of the Raiders, right, he has
a bunch of guys under his command, and he still
does reckless things, but he but he like his guys
don't even care. They think he's awesome, right, they like,
I think it's cool that he does one v ones. Right,
They're like, that's sick. We would will go after you anyway, right.
But Casco has problems with that, right, And and the
friction is there, and I love that, right, the the
the her feeling that he's sort of replacing her, all
of the stuff, like all of the fact that all
of these characters are clearly people who are right, if
you're a mercenary in a band of guys, right, you've
you've probably had a pretty interesting or hard life or both. Right,
something has brought you to this place that's not like normal. Right.
A lot of these guys are outcasts. They don't have
anybody to go back to or any place to go
back to. So this is their place, right. So that
that conflict between people who don't know where else to
go and feel like their place is being sort of usurped.
That's that's that's that that provides her interesting character character work, right,
And thankfully, Mirror understands understatement. He understands not making everything
be necessarily be said. He understands allowing characters to not
like Guts doesn't necessarily say everything he's feeling, right, He
most of the time he's conveying all of the things
that this guy thinks through looks. You know, so you
have to be able to do that well, and you
see a lot of that coming out here. I love
this stuff. I love I love these chapters in particular. Uh,
it's sort of a coming out for the character. Right,
you've seen because again, right, chronologically we're a little bit
far and at this point you've seen a lot be
overcome from guns, right, Like he seems sort of like
he's more maturing more as a person as a man. Right.
She gets upset with him cuscom Right, She gets upset
with him about like saying like you don't you don't
care about your comrades, you don't care about anybody else, Right,
you just go in and he's like, no, like that's
he that's what he takes issue with. Rights, we're saying
that to him.
Speaker 4: Well, and we get an interesting contrast in this next scene, right,
Guts and Griffith have their conversation, and then we see
the difference in how the two of them are basically
celebrating this victory.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: So again we see this this very good you know
architectural drawing. EUA plays a lot with perspective. We noticed
this earlier in the Black Swordsman arc. But again, right,
the the other mercenary captains are here. You know, Griffith
is being knighted, right, he is sort of getting this title,
and we see the people, you know, his warriors, you know, reacting.
The question again is where's Guts.
Speaker 3: Gus is just working out right. They strapped some kind
of crude you know, wooden weights to his sword, and
he's outside, just completely uninterested in the kind of status,
the desire for glory that we see driving grivit. So again,
these two are foils for each other, you know, of
them are the thrust of the drama of this piece.
They again, it is it is their relationship that defines
the state of the world. Literally, everything about what happens.
These decisions, these choices, these ambitions, these resentments, everything that
takes place between these two characters defines everything that happens
it's it's beautiful the subtlety of all of it as well,
Like especially okay, okay, I know we're trying to not
do spoilers, but we have to talk about the way
that these two actually come together and nature of how
that defines their relationship. Right, there's a lot like a
lot of people talk about Berserk, and the way that
they talk about Griffith and Guts is like, you know,
they have this very crude sort of like it's gay
and it's like listen, dude, just shut the fuck up, right,
like get out of here, Like you can do that
if you want, but that's that's not what's happening here. Right,
Griffith is a Griffith is the kind of person that
has a single desire, right, He has a single goal.
He has a as he calls it, a dream. He
wants something from the world for whatever reason, which you
you know, do see and find out what what why.
Griffith you know, pursues what he pursues in the way
that he pursues it. Right. But in initially when they
first meet, Griffith has seen Guts in action in combat, right,
and this kid is already like he is clearly like
this is like meeting Guts would be like meeting a
very scary street dog, right, he is hard, like meeting
a kid, Like could you imagine meeting a child like them?
You know what I mean? It's like it's scary, Like
that's like that it's scary. And it's also it's not
scary because it's not like the necessarily this kid's gonna
you know what I mean. But it's there's a sense
of like, especially if you're your own kids, right, I don't,
but everyone who does, right, Any you look at a child, right,
any any child that's like hard and that has hard
eyes and that looks at you the way that Guts
looks at people when he's a child, Right, it's like,
what the fuck happened to this kid? Right? There's something
clearly here, But whatever it is, it fuels this violence, right.
And the reason for that is myriad, But to put it,
to put it simply, it's violence is the only thing
that is ever Actually, violence is the only friend that
Guts has, right. His sword is his only friend. It's
it's the only thing he can really trust. It's the
only thing that he knows won't betray him. It's the
only thing that he knows he can depend on. Right
is the blade. That's why he's so good with it.
That's why even here right while Griffith is being knighted,
he's honing his ability to use it. Right, that's all
he that's his only real instrument in this world to
act upon it, to stop it from acting upon him, right,
which has very much happened to him. So when he
meets Griffith, who has seen him fight, sees him like
again cut through some dude's armer with the fucking sword,
which is insane, Right, Griffith season fight and Griffith understands
the value of this, being able to bring violence to
bear like that season is a tool, right, goes I
could use that. They meet because Griffith, Griffith's men jump him,
He kills a couple of them. The fight starts to
go bad. Costco goes over to try to stop him,
Guts almost kills Cosca. Griffith saves her and shows one
why he is the guy that he is. He is
an expert swordsman. Like as much as we are going
to talk about Griffith's faults right right now, in these panels,
you were just you were just contrasting the you know
the focuses, right, Griffith is here to get knighted. He is.
He wants the accolades because of where they because of
where they will take him in his mind, right, but
he earned them with like Griffith isn't just snaking his
way through, right, he is actually real. When he fights Gots,
he beats him. And that's the proposition. If I beat
you in this sword fight, I will own you. You
will be mine. It's literally the language that he describes
that he uses. Right, you will be mine. And he
loses the fight, right, got is the fight? So that
that relationship right, because not only does he lose the fight,
then he's then he is introduced into an embraced by
this band of warriors. Right. And again, as I said
at the beginning, it's manner bund right. This is the
This is the desire of all young mentor would agree,
is to be embraced by a group of their peers. Right.
You want the others to respect you and to value you. Right.
I think this is human universal right. And he never
experienced this up until this point. The only way that
he experienced any form of value was you know, it
was all backhanded. It all came with abuse, right, So
finally he meets these people who treat him well for
what he can do, and even after hurting him, embrace him. Right,
only then does he learn sort of like to become
dedicated to others. Right. And now at this point, even
in this panel, right, the juxtaposition of them so true, right,
Griffith or Guts, he never stops honing himself. Griffith is
now concerned with pageantry, knighthood, social the social dynamic if
you if you, if you can you scroll back up
for a sec like, uh, or I think yeah, okay.
So so while he's been knighted, right, while that's happening
the whole time, other nobles who were there before him, right,
guys who are already knights, these guys are all talking shit, right,
They're all like, I can't believe this. Right, So this
is now the domain that Griffith has to concern himself with.
These are the sparrings that he has to go through.
These are the knife fights that he has to deal with,
whereas Guts remains sort of the the earth. Right, He's like,
it's like one goes to the sky, the other one
goes to the earth. Right, They are. They are truly
like a Yin and Yang situation, the two of them, well.
Speaker 4: And you get that visually, right, the visual contrast between
you know, Guts training he's sweaty and gross, and then
Griffith right in his finery, Guts is he is wielding
his sword. Griffith is kissing one Yes, assuming his new
role as a knight. Yes, And that is very deliberate
mirror Drew.
Speaker 3: He doesn't Guts isn't ugly. I wouldn't call him ugly, right,
there's a there's a reason that so many Zoomers, you know,
want to be this character, right, But it's the reason
that so many people in general have wanted to be
this character of Ron Zoomers. But like you know what
I mean, he's like a gym icon. Now, like guys,
guys go to the gym and they get the brand
of sacrifice tattooed on them, you know what I mean.
It's it's it's funny how that's like how become part
of the culture, right, enduring pain. But it's not only
in that, right, It's it's the character. It's not that
he's ugly, it's that he's a he's they're juxtapost right,
his hair is he's dark. His skin even is is
like like he looks more canned always than Griffith. Right,
He's he's rougher. He looks like a person who's has
slept outside many, many, many times. And Griffith doesn't. Griffith
looks like a princess in from a castle, right, but
he is rough. That's the weird part about Griffith. And
that's the part that always like again, just like just
like Guts' strength is acknowledged in universe to sort of
be monstrous, It's like, what the fuck is that Griffith
is also considered like it's like people are like it's
like he's not even real, you know what I mean.
He seems like unreal. He's like a he's like a
character out of myst It's like a like an Arthurian
legend or something. Right. Uh. And to that point, something
that I also want to bring up. Sorry, go ahead,
go ahead, because I won't forget no, no, not at all.
Speaker 4: But that's something we will see reference to a multitude
of times. Right, Griffith is is pretty almost like a girl,
and you know not to say that, you know, Guts
is deliberately hideous, like there are hideous, like grotesque and
hideous people in this we say that in the Black
Swordsman arc. But he's rough, he has been effectively scarred
by war, and he's covered in marks, and he doesn't
take care of himself in nearly the same way Griffith doesn't.
Speaker 3: There's that at all.
Speaker 4: Doesn't care exactly in the same way that he doesn't
care about uh like, doesn't care about status at all.
He literally doesn't care about anything except getting better at
swinging the sword. That's like his whole the whole focus
of his life.
Speaker 3: Is like, I'm going to do that. And part of
that is because he feels that debt, right he feels
the debt to Griffith and the band for what they've
given him, which is like a place, a family, a home,
people to care about, people that care about me, people
to depend on me, closeness with others, right, that that
that desire of his because it's not that like. Some
of the most heartbreaking panels in Berserk are the stuff
of when he's a kid, like the one where he
falls asleep while holding the fucking sword. It's like that
is so painful, Like this kid desires closeness so much,
so much, right, and he's not getting it from anybody
around him, because nobody is there for him for that,
for that purpose that he will choose cold and sharp steel, right, anything, Right,
it's the only thing that's that's here for me. Right.
To go from that to being somebody who has friendships,
has close bonds, that is a tremendous change, right, Like
this is like it's like any I don't know anybody
who has ever taken in an animal, not necessarily a
heavily abused one, but you too, right, those people too, right.
They The amount of time and efforts and care that
it takes to open that kind of pain up right
is really really difficult. But when you do, it's immensely,
immensely gratifying and satisfying to sort of like see this
animal learn to trust again. Right, Guts is a similar
creature he was. He's like a very abused and straight dog, right,
And these people gave him a home, these people gave
him something, so he his way of giving back is
I don't have anything but my ability to use this weapon.
So I'm going to become unbelievably proficient with it. I
will push myself as beyond what's possible. And meanwhile, this
is what Griffith is concerned with. Griffith's eyes are always
on the horizon. Griffith is always looking to the future.
Griffith is holding what he himself is called the egg
of the King already, right, we know what this thing is,
we do, yeah.
Speaker 4: And it's important to remember that, you know, we will
we will learn more about Griffith as is sort of
you know, foreshadowed at the start of uh, you know
this at the end of excuse me, this segment we're
going through. So next chapter, right, it opens on this
shot of Griffith with the bailot around his neck. Of course,
as people who have read the Black Swordsman arc, we
understand the significance of that, right, there's some heavily foreshadowing
going on. What happens next is that, you know, Griffith
and his company are on a hill overlooking a siege
and they're talking about Zod, this soldier, you know that,
this sort of mythical man. And you know, as the
action kind of goes on, we see this keep where
the door has been busted in and there are other
mercenaries standing around and they're saying, we've sent fifty men
in None of them have come back out, and again, right,
the the gore is is significant in this, so as
we go through.
Speaker 3: It, he hasn't just guts. Guts himself notes this. Then
when he goes in, man, it's not like this is
not like, oh, a bunch of guys got killed with
weapons in here, This is like, what the fuck? These
people got pulped like they're like destroyed. They're not just killed,
They're like, what is happened? It's like they got killed
by machinery or something, you know what I mean. It's
like coming into an industrial accident. And we see the
exact same dynamic right now as we've we've seen earlier.
Guts wants to go in, right despite the fact that
these you know, fifty men have been killed, and we
see right one of the survivors stumbling out, and it
again it's graphic, completely completely hacked. Is one of his
arms in half of his side is missing, right, You
see his I was gonna say guts, but that's a
stupid pun in this context. You see his intestines, right, yeah,
one hundred percent, And the last time he says he them,
he truly guts from right there, he guts across the room.
So true, so true.
Speaker 4: But of course right guts, being our hero, he goes in.
Right again, this is we've seen this established so yet
again as you said, right, these guys are not killed
like the other bodies we see, you know, stabbed with
with spears or arrows. They are completely and totally mangled. Right,
and again we see this dramatic perspective that Mura loves
to use.
Speaker 3: Handful shot man.
Speaker 4: Oh great, and look like I'm a sucker for all
the medieval architecture, which is is great in this just
a you know, another example again kind of the focus
on the horror. There is a lot of horror in Berserk.
This gets covered.
Speaker 3: I would say it's undoubtedly a horror manga at least
as a side genre. Like that is that is that
he is definitely taking from that, and I mean like
old horror like like obviously it's it's it's graphic, but
he's more working in a like this feels like like Dracula,
Like this feels like Franken, you know what I mean.
This doesn't feel like, yes, it's graphic violence, but it's
also like there's a majesty. There's a good use of
shadow and darkness. There's there's a understanding of of of
like uh of of how to build into you know,
a visual, visually terrifying thing. Right. That's that's that's his style.
He's the best at this. Another thing, you know, I
did want to say earlier, Right, this is something that
I think is is also a huge part of why
Berserk is so popular, uh in the West, is because
it is invariably Western in many ways. Obviously it's a manga,
but like the entire thing takes takes place in sudo Europe.
All the designs are European designs, right, It's it's uh,
you know, people love dark Souls, right, and Dark Souls
has a very similar aesthetic language that Berserk does obviously, right,
it's very uh visually inspired by it, right, even even
the enemies things like that. Right. I love that Miura
made that choice to to and it's so lovingly represented
as well. Like you can tell that he enjoys drawing
the armor, drawing the the buildings, drawing the spears, drawing
the formations, the the you know, the sweeping fields, the
green right that that those those aspects of sort of
a pre industrial uh Europe, right, you know, almost like
like a ghibli type of thing. Right, I think that
that sort of same uh uh itch is sort of
being scratched a little bit. Except this is includes like
hyper violence and stuff and and horror, right especially.
Speaker 4: And obviously there's a lot pulling from Lovecraft, this idea
of you know, a cosmic horror that we got into,
you know, speaking about the God Hand earlier in the
last episode, right, the idea of incomprehensible powers past your
understanding that are malicious, right and want to kill you?
Speaker 3: Yes, and yes forty almost forty k like right, the
God Hand and sort of the way that this is
operating is almost like it's almost like that. It's a
like it's, oh yeah, there's things beyond the veil and
they are malevolent, right, oh yeah, this is a world
where hell is very real. And of course, right, he
rounds the corner and sees God. Yes again lovingly rendered
just the absolute horror of this ostensible man sick, right,
you see him just completely jacked to. I love that
he's naked too. I love that, like every aspect of
this is so like he is He is knan you
know what I mean. He is not like this is
not a thing like the other people that you have
been seeing up to this point. Never mind the fact
that he's an apostle. Beyond that, right, this is PRIMORTI.
This is a primordial Like this dude doesn't he's not
bothering wearing armor. He's he's not bothering with any of that.
Look at that, Look at his fingers in that guy's head, right,
like beyond even the apostle aspect, though yes, the fingers
in the head is apossibly right, it's just the fact that,
like this is a zod immediately shows like almost like
the chronmagnu and brow sing right like he he establishes
him as like an almost primeval man immediately all the
hit the subtle like everything. His whole body's cross hatched, right,
and that gives the impression that he's covered in hair.
But it's like very fine, you know what I mean,
You know, he feels bestial everything. With such an excellent
introduction of this character, I love him.
Speaker 4: And straight away it's just charges him right, just full
steam ahead.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: He throws the bodies of these two of his compatriots
at him, of course, which is you know, just avage.
And you know, the two of them start to have
a fight again, we see Guts slammed into a pillar.
Right again, a recurring motif in these the.
Speaker 3: Overwhelming strength immediately immediately established. Right, and again thing I
was going to I was going to mention, Okay, something
that I think is very interesting the you know on
the way in right, you were showing, you know, on
the way in that shot of the of the of
the of the hallway, of all the mangled bodies. The
only person up to this point that we've seen who
is able to make this human bodies turn into this
kind of thing is Guts, Right, his fights, That's what
people look like after the fights. Right, So it kind
of subtenly establishes that, like you are now walking into
a place in which the order of battle is now
to your level, right, you are that he can do
what you can do, right, And he even kind of
his his face suddenly mirrors go Guts is right. They
have very similar facial physiognomy. It's just that Zons is
like monsterified, right, it's like exaggerated. But they have that
same sort of brow that even their hair is similar, right,
same facial sort of shape and stuff. I think Zod
is clearly led to me. He's always been a mirror
of of Guts. Right, He's like, what if what if
Guts was a monster? He would be Zod?
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, and I mean to that to that point, right,
we see very quickly that that Zod recognizes there's something
different about Guts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the tactical tactical shade on his penis you never
see has just a massive hok. Yeah, it's like he's
but he's hiding it though he's a He's a grower,
not a shower.
Speaker 4: And again you see the kind of characterization by weapons,
which is something constantly done in this Sod basically just
has a machety rough giant blade just sign for hacking
people apart.
Speaker 3: And it goes around shields. It's it's pure offense because
you're a giant dude. Again, as we see from this
again we'll ring the bell. You hear me say, perspective, uh,
the forced perspective of this. Right, this guy is farther
away and yet towering over him, you know, with this
this pile of the whole line, you know what I mean,
he's the whole room mirror is a master of this.
And you see strike well boy right recognizes this isn't
just a normal guy and he goes in. It's just like,
look at the violence, the the implication of speed, the weight, everything,
how unprepared Guts is even though he's swinging.
Speaker 4: And you see that in the difference in the lines right,
the line work where Guts is largely stationary. He's still
obviously moving his sword. But compare the line weight on
his sword twas in the blade versus like all of
just bearing down on him.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, pure violence. There is only like Zod reminds
me any any any any Baki enjoyers out there, you know, uh,
big ups to you. He reminds me of Hanma Yujito
from from Baki. That that that that ogre bestial nature. Right,
that speed, that that that overwhelming power of every movement,
every action. He's there's no wasted nothing, he just goes
for it. I love the shining eyes too, right. He
doesn't even bother with the face in that panel, but
he gives you the eyes right, such such such perfect
little little choices, I I cannot like. I will gush
over literally everything in the Monga love. I love reserve it,
so so well done. I also don't want to read this.
I didn't want to read this because this is this
is what it starts like. This, This this part of
the arc. This is what it starts with. Right, And
we were just talking about love crafting powers, right and
Zod in this world is the destiny of mankind controlled
by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the
hand of God hovering above? At least it is true
that man has no control even over his own will.
Man takes up the sword in order to shield the
small wound in his heart, sustained in a far off
time beyond remembrance. Man wields that sword so that he
may die smiling in some far off time beyond perception. Right,
the I love the the the understanding of the blade
as the will of how sort of one's willingness to
do battle, to fight, to potentially die, to throw themselves
into danger. Right is where they will find who they are. Right,
Guts live by this creed. He lives by this this logic,
and you find in this fight, so does mister Zod. Yes.
Speaker 4: And that's what's what's interesting about this.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to show this segment of it, not
because it's there's anything wrong with it. It's great, But
the fight scene as it progresses. Guts is holding his
own and he's not being hacked to pieces, and Zod
noticed this. This he says, you know, no man has
been able to halt my sword for fifty years. So
the two of them get pushed apart, and Zod, who
is despite being this hulking beast, is clearly very intelligent
because he says, oh, he betting this all. He calls
him specifically, and I love this. In Japanese subaroshi, he
calls him splendid, superb. That's how he refers to Guts.
Speaker 3: I love that. He's like, Wow, this guy fucking rules.
He hasn't died in four slashes.
Speaker 4: Amazing well, and to that point, right as they're push
a part by kind of the tides to the fight,
he Zod looks at him and says, I know what
you're gonna do. You're betting this soul on one last strike.
That's all you've got left. And what's in an interesting moment,
because this is very prototypically Guts, right, he doesn't. He
makes a tactical move. He goes for his sword. He
breaks God's sword and cuts into his flesh. Right goes
through his forearms and we see several things. One, Zod
is not human at all because as gut sword is
through his forearms and into his chest, he pulls it out.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: It kind of a classic movie shot, right, And we
see this, this sort of menace build and this has
a lot of parallels to the to the fight with
the with the Snake barn Right. We're initially somewhat human ish,
but all of a sudden we realize there's a whole
lot more to Zod than we would have initially thought.
Speaker 3: We love this because this is the first time that
Guts sees this, and the first time that Guts is
confronted with the truth of his world.
Speaker 4: Yes, because before this and all the other battles, which
have been very well done, it's all been human. It's
guys with swords, guys with spears, cannons at least some,
And all of a sudden we see this reveal of
something that is not human at all.
Speaker 3: Yes, and up until this point, right, this guy, we
were just talking about it. This guy has been been
able to take solace right in the fact his world
has been ended before you understand, this is a child
who has gone through horrible, horrible experiences, and he fought
for his humanity back with the blade, and now he's
being confronted with the thing that it seems that the
blades sim does not have an answer for. And this
is like, this is world shattering, right, how do you
deal with this? Okay, now there's a monster in front
of me, right what Oh and by the way, he's
like kind of pissed off because I just got him
really bad.
Speaker 4: Well, he's a little bad about it. And again Miura
playing with perspective. Right, look at how tiny guts massive
sword is in his hand. Compare that to even a
few panels ago where we see him in more human form,
where it's filling up his palm. All of a sudden,
it's like you're you grabbing a pencil, just.
Speaker 3: Superb, it's nothing. Now he's literally power scaling him visually,
you know what I mean. It's like you have just
been outclassed. You have been revealed to in fact, have
been a lightweight after all, and you are in the
heavyweight section. Now here is what the heavyweights look like.
Other thing, this is the opening that amazing Mirror is
so good at. And swapping right is swapping the color right,
this is white lines on black background. Again, very stylistic
something we will say often used to highlight certain things.
But we get again the great perspective of Zod, you know,
bearing down on our hero. You know, we.
Speaker 4: See him actually scared, right, that's beginning to which is
very atypical from Guts. We know that he almost has
no fear, and Zod is saying, dude, this is awesome.
I haven't been angry and forever. He's just loving it.
He's just having the best time. He's like, dude, don't
disappoint me.
Speaker 3: I love that. I love that. He's like, it has
been so long since I've been able to have fun.
If you and just lose now, it's gonna suck, dude,
give me some.
Speaker 4: And so Zod continues the attack. Right, he just batters, Guts,
no mercy, what's none at all?
Speaker 3: Love that? No mercy. He's like, no, no, no, it's a fight.
We're fighting, right, it's to fight you, is to honor you.
And we see Gods sort of very reasonably, sort of
questioning insanity. Right, He's like, this can't be real, but nonetheless, right,
Zod is bearing down on him, and we see the
momentum has changed, like Gots is swinging at him. Right,
but it bounces off, it just hits his horn and
he again gets backhanded through another one of these columns,
and as as Zod bears down on him right saying,
I won't show you mercy. Is this all you've got? Like,
I guess it's fine for human backwards, Yeah, and he
lifts him up and it's gonna tear him limb from
limb yet again, half again, trying to turn you into
meet like all those other guys.
Speaker 4: But yet again Griffith shows up right, the band of
the Hawk is there. They begin, you know, shooting their
arrows at him. We see again the very feminine, we
might say, but he's pretty. He's pretty beautiful Griffith obviously
again contrasted to Guts. It's been bashed through like.
Speaker 3: Number literally prettier than Cosca, yes, like notice, and it's
not because Cusca's ugly. It's because griff mirror draws him
as like the prettiest person in the room at all times. Basically,
he's like an elf. It's a cereal and I love,
I just love that he's that. Griffith doesn't panic though.
You can see for the first time basically ever, this
guy losing his cool to a degree. Right, He's like,
oh shit, he's sweating, you know what I mean. He's like,
oh fuck, and then they fire at him. It does nothing,
and he's like okay, and I love this moment. He
just like spurgs out super hard. It's like, how dare
you fuck with my one V one? I write a
great time and all of you came here and you
ruined it. This This dude, Zod is just so key though. Dude,
he's so based well and you see him just laying
waste nic just he just starts killing everyone, dude, no mercy,
mashing him up like it's like it's like watching a
kid destroy by a sand castle. Right, He's just he's
just he's just wrecking them all. It's like they're all
hearing your plant like nothing, like they're just they're in cloth.
Speaker 4: Step us again, another just great panel. Yeah, so we
obviously Guts is throughout the whole thing telling them to
run away, but Griffith says, no, I'm going in. So
he goes in, you know, sort of it picks him
up off the ground and then Zod is bearing down
on Guts and Griffiths. Yeah, this is what I this
is what I want to stress about this part of
the story. This is what makes the Golden Age so good.
You in the Black Swords and arc You know, Griffith
is femto, you know, he's femto, right, So you are
expecting Griffith to be just this manipulative fuck the entire time.
Speaker 3: But he's not. He is perfectly capable of being manipulative.
He is to some degree, you know, if you want
to use like libtarded language, right, Like he's some sort
of like like a psychopath or like a narcissist or something.
I don't I don't know necessarily he might be a narcissist,
but because like in you know, psychopathy, it can't feel
or whatever that I don't know, right, whatever, But and
he clearly cares about people, right, But does he care
about them more as objects for his use or not? Honestly, bro,
this doesn't seem this part right, This doesn't seem like, Wow,
need to use that guy as my tool so hard. No.
I feel like a person who doesn't care about another
person beyond tool will not risk their life for them
like this, Like in this circumstance, it's one thing to
be in a battle, it's another thing to have a
fucking monster from myths, bearn down upon you. Right, that's
a different level of I'm willing to go in there. Right.
So Griffith shows himself to actually have been a real
comrade to these people he cares about. There's a reason
that they that that everyone follows Griffith the way that
they do. It's because he was actually that guy. You know.
He he has his ambitions, but he will also do this,
you know, And I think that contrast in Griffith's character
is part of what makes him so interesting.
Speaker 4: Well, again we get the great visual like weapon contrast,
which is something throughout this entire series. You have the
giant you know, guts either sword again but still huge,
and then you know the very elegant kind of yeah
cavalry saber.
Speaker 3: Exactly beautiful, beautiful and he uses it so effectively.
Speaker 4: And that line, your heart's still beating where are you going?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Just absolutely where are you going? Your heart's still beating? Absolutely?
That is a that is a that isn't That is
a great way to chill the bones man. Where are
you going? Your heart's still beating? Dog talking about you're
not dead yet? Yeah, Like, I don't think you've understood
what's happening to you? Love this, love this, This is
unbelievably good, worth this pana, right.
Speaker 4: Because you see the two of them, these kind of
like simple mortal.
Speaker 3: This is what I'm talking about when I say like that,
this is where he really starts like flexing his muscles,
you know what I'm saying, Like Miora shows in this
arc and in this series of chapters, right, how good
he really is. And then from then on it's literally
just gets better and better and better and better until
he died. Yes exactly, yeah, right, so the fight is
still going on. We see the both the incredible size
and power of this man or this apostle. Right, yeah, yeah,
I have portraits of words, but we see you know,
guts and you know, splitting up trying to take this
guy down. They are wounding him, right, he is taking
hits from you know, now Griffith and goth to gust together, Yeah,
to such a point, yes, that they take his arm off.
Yeah that that Griffith actually wounds him, cuts his arm off, right,
So both of them have shown to be actually capable
of wounding this creature.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and again the fight continues. I'm going to move
through this.
Speaker 3: We see.
Speaker 4: You know, Griffith is also getting battered by Zod.
Speaker 3: Is what he is for the first time ever put
in a position of actual danger, danger for real when
he's knocked over. Yeah, and then the bail it.
Speaker 4: Comes out and Zod, looking over all of a sudden
realizes what what is going on here?
Speaker 3: Can we just can we just can we just talk
about the fact that Zod picks up his severed arm
and begins to be cuts me. Yeah, just sit back on. Yeah,
he's so keen though, man, holy fucking loved man, he's
just villain monologuing while reattaching. I again, he's just having
the time, is like, you're just talking and he's so
like I love. Also, one of the sort of subversive
aspects of him is how eloquent he is, Like he's
speaking in like an old and and proper almost like
regal way, right, I love that aspect of He's this
big brute that will beat the fuck out of you,
but he's also like hyper eloquent and very very dignified
when he speaks, and then he sees it and and
again right we we we see that he is despite
being this kind of like hulking figure, you know, earlier
in the in the fight when he correctly We're not correctly,
but he makes a very good guess at what guts
next move is. But of course he realizes what this
is the egg of the King, not just a bayletpecial one. Yes, yes,
he mentions the god man, the god hand rather the
crimson balet is something that felix him with the Crimson balets. Yeah,
and then he stays laughing.
Speaker 4: Yep, and he's just at this point completely done.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: He physically reaches up, breaks a hole in the roof
and he tells Guts like, we're done for now. Our
battle's on hold. I wonder if I'll ever meet you again.
Speaker 3: Next time I see you, it's on site. Yeah.
Speaker 4: But as he goes out, you know, he warns Guts,
he says, look, if you can be said to be
a true friend of this man when his ambition collapses,
then take heat, warning us about the capacity for betray
And again, what an awesome panel, Yes, absolutely incredible, And
again for the the the closing to this chapter, the exit,
Zod sprouts wings and flies away.
Speaker 3: Exactly right, you just you just fucking bounces. He's like, later,
I love it.
Speaker 4: The panel was so funny too, You're just like, all right,
just fucking leaves right, while foreshadowing portray you watch out
your boy. You better watch out for your boy. Also
I'm coming back. Yeah, so yeah, this is this is
such a great section. Golden Age is really when this
series comes into its own, uh in in you know,
Black Swordsman's very good, but it is a prototype of
something great. It's worth going back to. But if that's
all there was of Berserk, people might remember it for
the art, you know, people might remember it for a
few other things.
Speaker 3: But I would go farther. I would say that the
Black Swordsman arc is, especially at this point, like generic.
The only purpose of reading it is to give yourself
the context required for this arc and the rest of
the story. It's not that it's bad, because it's not.
It's completely serviceable, and especially for its time, it was
very good, especially art wise, right, but at this point,
right somebody reading it, I don't think there will be
some things that might surprise you a little bit, like
if you hadn't read it right and never had any
exposure to Berserk. And it's not Again, it's not bad,
but this arc is what elevates Berserk to something else
beyond what it was before, because this puts one from
a visual standpoint. As I've said many times throughout this, right,
it just just keeps getting better from here. And Berzerk
is one of the best looking manga ever, right, and
for many, many, many years it just straight up was
basically the best looking manga right. Nowadays, there are a
lot of amazing, amazing, amazing artists out there who do
incredible work. It's not necessarily that they look better than
It's not a competition per se, but it's like hyper
high quality art is not something that is like impossible
to find right outside of this right in the same
way that it sort of was for its time, and
it has inspired so much stuff over the years with
its you know, the way that it handled it's setting,
its character designs and costume designs, armor designs, weapon designs,
even you know, buildings, just the monsters everything, right, people
have been sort of whether you know, the outright copying
or being so clearly inspired by it for so long.
Like I don't think that there's I think there's a
good reason that like for example, a cloud Strife from
Final Fantasy seven has a giant fucking sword. I think
there's a good you know what I mean, there's a
lot of characters out there that they are what they
are because of the because of the influence of this
and Black Swordsman. Yeah, I think it establishes like the
designs and a lot of those things, but it doesn't
have that same soul and heart that comes in everything
basically after this up to up to me year's death.
And just to be clear also, I have not read
a single chapter of Berserk since Mira died because it's
I don't it's not. It's not. Even if you're working
from his his notes and and you're his very good friend.
He told you the story and all of that stuff.
That's cool. What you're drawing is not what he necessarily
would have drawn. It's not ever going to look the
way he would it would have came out of his mind.
To me, it's like a it's like a fan finishing
the thing, even though they are also a big mangca.
It just doesn't. It doesn't hit the same. It feels
wrong to read personally. For me, personally, it doesn't. It
does like it just doesn't feel It almost feels like filler,
except I know that it's supposed to be. It's like
or or like like you know how the Game of
Thrones show not in the same like it's ship now way,
but like you understand that after a certain point in
the Game of Thrones show that they don't have the
books to really take from, so they're working from like
a skeleton. Right, it's the same kind of feeling. So
I haven't seen past that. I haven't looked past that.
But like up to the point, literally Mirror was drawing
some of the best stuff he's ever drawn just before
he died. So yeah, the series never gets worse looking
it's and it starts here. It starts here. This is
where it really pops off. And even in this chapter, right,
this odd chapter, like some of these odd panels as
you saw, are just incredible, right and now narratively, right,
this moment is really important for many many reasons. Right one,
it establishes the whole like you know, bail it the king.
Holy shit, like they knew even beforehand, right, like this
was like it's almost like this kid was destined to
do this, right, Like what is going on exactly in
this story? Like what what? What is Griffith? Right? Who
you know was he chosen for this right, Like, how
how does this work? But uh, yeah that that I
love that fight. I love that fight really really important
for the character also to encounter like a wall that
he can't surmount, right, to feel the true nature of
the world, the fact that there are supernatural problems, and like,
how are you going to solve that? Bro? Like, what's
your answer going to be to that? And to know
because we read the Black Sportsman arc right to know
that his answer was I'm just going to get a
bigger sword and kill them harder. Is like that what
a what a great solution to that problem? Yeah? Well,
and honestly, man like.
Speaker 4: This we might have different feelings about the continuation after
his death because I agree with you on the front
of the art, But as far as finishing the story,
I am glad for it to be eventually finished one day,
and I have at least some level of confidence in
the You know, the guy who funny enough was the
basis for the character of Griffith, right, you know, heading
it up. Well, see, there's not really enough of it
yet to say confidently one way or the other.
Speaker 3: At least no, no, it's not even it's it's it's
not even any real disrespect to him or anything like that.
It just feels like it like it's just like even
looking at the characters, everything feels wrong. Like while I'm
look it feels like Uncanny Valley. Yeah, yeah, but it's like, yeah,
it's almost but not perfectly right exactly exactly. And I
am I agree with you there about the story because
I do want to know what Mirror's intention was and
where he intended for the story to go, and and
and and what was going to happen. I do I
I I am glad that that sort of even though
he sadly did not get to finish it, it will
be finished, you know, and that that work will get finished, right.
Like it's almost like if the Sistine Chapel had never
been finished, right type saying, It's like you would hope
that somebody a friend would want to finish it for
the person who had been doing you know, for Michelangelo, right,
that that kind of thing. So yeah, I'm with you
on that, but it's it's like I just haven't done.
So there's almost a part of me that like almost
wants it to be done and then I'll go and
just just do it right and just read all of it. Yeah, yeah, right,
because it might be another thirty years at this pace. Seriously, man,
he was on that boat for so goddamn long, bro,
Holy shit, I was concurrent before the boat, so.
Speaker 4: Cheese man, Yeah, I was. I definitely caught up on
the boat, which again doesn't really narrow it down at all. Right,
that's like a decade.
Speaker 3: You if you were on the boat, you were on
the boat, and you have you were a comrade of mine, Okay,
because that's weird. It doesn't matter when you got on
the boat. You were there and that boat situation was
fucking crazy, dude, that is insane.
Speaker 4: Well, dude, we'll have to be back because this was
a ton of fun. There's so much more to cover. Uh, well,
we'll definitely do this again. Is there anywhere people can
find you, man, or anything you want to promote?
Speaker 3: I got BAEd. I've been banned from Twitter so many times.
I'm probably coming back, but you know what I mean, Like,
I also don't like care about like that. You know
what I mean, don't? Yeah, you know what I mean.
So it's no big deal. Doing it for the love
of the game. Absolutely absolutely for me. It's about the things, right,
I think the things have great and powerful significance, right,
I think you know, uh, Berserk is like primordials. It's
like it's a you know, it's it's it's talking to
something inside so many of us. And you know, the
the symbol and the the symbol of Guts as the sufferer,
right is a powerful one in our time and we
are a time that is uh you know, it's it's hungry,
it's it's starving for for meaning and myth and symbol right,
ones that that that have real power. Because so much feels,
especially now right with the whole like fucking ai slop bullshit, right,
everything so much feels like like ephemeral, like smoke. Right,
So when you find something that feels like it's rooted,
deeply rooted, uh, it, you know, it's it's worth holding onto,
I think, and it's worth celebrating, right, And I think
Brazik is one of those things. What's That's why it
has the appeal that it has. That's why Guts has
the appeal that he has. That's why the story and
this especially this part of the story, has the appeal
that it has. We all want comrades, you know, we
all want brothers in arms who would fight with us,
who would die for us, who we would die for.
We all wish to have a goal in mind, many people,
and that's something that this touches on. Many people wish
to be led. And I don't necessarily think that that
is a like a vice. I don't think that's a
sin to wish to be led. Life is difficult and frightening,
and it's okay to look to others for some guidance, right,
But you know, some people do not wish to be led.
They want they have an ambition, they have a desire,
and they wish to get there. Right. So some people
are willing to help others with their ambition, and that's
cool and that's great, right, But what we want and
what we desire and having people willing to help us
make it happen because we as guts learns through all
of this. You know, like you cannot do it alone, right,
You cannot do it alone as much as you would
like to. You can't. Even in the Blacks Swordsmanark, right,
like the black Storts of Ark is like about that,
almost like him like trying to do everything by himself
and it almost going catastrophically almost every time, Like he
barely survives all of that, right, super injured. This arc
shows you what he what he's missing, what he had
and what he's missing, and it's something that many of
us desire. And you know, towards the end, no spoiler, right,
you understand why Guts, why Guts was has the mentality
that he has in the Black Swordsman arc, why his
mind is the way that it is. Because when something
like this, when when that kind of safeguard for your
soul is taken from you in the way that it is,
then I think you are well within your rights to
have that kind of response, the kind of response that
he takes. Well, dude, this has been a ton of fun. Man.
Speaker 4: Like I said, we're playing in another one. We're gonna
keep doing these. There won't be another six week gap.
What I'm probably gonna do and you guys know this,
the listeners, Uh, I'll probably have a rotating cast of characters.
I've got a couple of people interested in covering different segments.
Obviously Remiss will return. Actually all right, I'm on, I'm
undecided yet. If it's gonna be one big one or
two smaller ones. The point is you can stop jumping
out for Zerk is back. You're welcome again, man, this
was a ton of fun. Dude, Thank you so much
for coming.
Speaker 3: Out, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 4: Thanks everyone know, keep your head up. I can't last forever.
Speaker 2: Good Night
Speaker 1: Thro the Bagariate, Devinment Gangarian devient problem