The other side of the coin to what you express here, is many readers believe the series has become almost shounen at this point...which I could care less about as long as I'm still enthralled by it. The most interesting thing about recent events is obviously Guts losing his human side to the armor, and he finally depending on others again. It seemed unlikely after he was burned by Griffith.
I completely agree with you on that. Though many people may claim that they believe that Berserk is on the verge of shounen, it doesn't change Berserk in my mind whatsoever. I've been a fan of the series for several years now, and my reading up to vol.33/ch.292 has only increased my love of the series. It may be true that for the purposes of making the series more identifiable with a younger Japanese audience that Miura and Studio Gaga may have decided to change the vernacular of the "party" to include more comedic or iconic-type characters to somewhat lighten the mood of the series -- which if it was done it that regard then they were a success. However, at the same time, that shouldn't imply that Berserk has in any way lost it's mature edge, because all of these iconic-type characters have well fleshed out backgrounds, and some of them -- Schierke, Farnese and Serpico specifically have backgrounds and passions that only make Berserk deeper.
I completely agree with you here, but I've come to terms with this type of thing happening in long-running series. Especially one that isn't weekly like nearly all popular shounen manga are. The frequent and long breaks don't help either, but I find that going back an rereading a series is almost always necessary when reading it chapter to chapter for so long as many fans do.
That Is unfortunately one of the only things that saddens me about this series, that It's stuck with frequent breaks and inconsistent releases. It's a shame really, but we have to give Miura credit where credits due, and understand as fans that a manga of this quality takes time, and him rushing chapters will only degrade the story and the art, which is something that really would lower it to a shounen-type. ^o^
You're right about this segmentation that occurs. The anime adaptation of manga are almost always a little less intense. When an anime is produced without the manga ending first, sometimes animators cut corners and flesh out smaller things in order to make a series viable in episodic form. This is why the bulk of the anime was all about the Golden Age.
That's very true, the failings of many an anime stem from this overeagerness to adapt a manga into anime form. It's sad, because many of of my favorite series (Berserk, Gantz, Hellsing and Samurai Deeper Kyo to name a few) have had this same problem, only to see much more success from the continuation of the manga series than any attention the anime versions may have inspired. Let's hope that Berserk will at least receive Hellsing-like attention and have high quality OVA's to re segment or revision the anime format to better suit the visual and story style of Berserk.
I myself miss Judeau immensely, as I found him to be one of the more interesting characters who's personality was never fleshed out before he was killed. I have to applaud Miura for risking so much, and maybe too much for some readers in the events of the Eclipse.
Yes, Judeau was a very interesting character who sadly never received any where near the background detail that many later characters received. However, I believe this is due more to the fact the Golden Age was really an arch that was used to flesh out the "Black Swordsman" persona, using the people that Gatsu related with and respected as a sort of sacrifice, as after the Band of the Hawk was decimated and Gatsu found himself virtually alone, it was the memory of those friends that made him stronger. Even characteristically Gatsu changed himself as an almost homage to his fallen comrades -- Adding throwing knives to his arsenal, becoming sullen and adapting a very Pippin like "man of action, less of words" attitude -- these are things that he picked up from his comrades, and they have made him growing character, which has only made the series better.
There's an interesting thing going on recently that it's obvious to everyone but Guts' party, Griffith will be a hero. When he gets into that position eventually, it'll be interesting to see if history repeats itself. We do know that Guts wants revenge, but he and his party will have to go up against insane odds to get to Griffith.
This is true, but Gatsu and crew have proven time and again that they improve to match these escalating insane odds and in the end ironically I believe that Gatsu really will be perceived as a "Demon" who ends the life of the "Savior of the world", Griffith.
Although at the same time we can try to perceive where the series Is going, I'm truly wondering how far Miura intends to take Berserk. I mean, he's been fleshing this series out since he was 22 (or possibly younger, since we don't know when he exactly started to think of making the series), and 20 years later, now 42 Is still working on the series. As he and Studio Gaga have claimed, Berserk has no end in sight, which only makes me wonder how many twists and turns the series is going to have before it actually ends.
