It’s been a long, long while since I made a manga recommendation. I made quite a few when I first started blogging, but as work and other distractions took over, I found I had less time to blog. It’s a pity, because in the years since I last made my recommendations, I’ve read many books/manga, played many video games, and watched many movies that I love very much. Writing about them seems a great way to get back into the habit of blogging, now I have a new site and all.

You can see my previous recommendations on my “Other Writings” page. This recommendation is for something that is definitely R-rated, the dark fantasy manga Berserk.

Berserk (Kentarou Miura)
(35+ Volumes)

Berserk is a very dark fantasy manga, and not at all for children. It’s got an anime series that stopped at around volume 13, and the English-language version is currently being published by Dark Horse. However, if you’re not over the age of 18, you seriously should not be looking at anything from Berserk – I’m not kidding about it. Not only is it not for under-18s, it’s not for anybody who is faint of heart.

Plot
Berserk is a dark story about a cursed man named Guts, a mercenary doomed to battle demons (both real and personal) on a nightly basis. He lives in a medievil world of warring nations, religious fanatics and demons who feed off human hatred and lust. He himself became cursed when he joined the mercenary band called the Hawks, led by their charismatic leader Griffith; a young man of low birth who aspires to lordship and kinghood. A series of extraordinary and unfortunate events led to Griffith’s downfall, and Griffith, in return for immortal power, decides to sacrifice his entire mercenary band to the God Hand, a group of powerful demonic creatures. Guts and Casca, the woman he loves, were the only survivors of the grisly event, but in turn they were both marked by a scar that will bleed nightly and cause demons to hunt them down.

To evade them, Guts becomes the “Black Swordsman”. Taking a mad Casca with him, he criss-crosses the world, trying to hunt down and kill Griffith. He fends off fearsome demons on a nightly basis, and gains a group of fairly powerful companions in his quest. Meanwhile, the war between the Kingdom of Midlands and the Kushan Empire continues to rage, as Griffith returns in human form as a Conqueror of the World.

Why I Recommend this Story
If Heaven and Hell were at war, and Satan was winning, you’ll get Berserk. If you took the stuff of your worst early-morning nightmares and gave it form on paper, you’ll get Berserk. It pulls no punches on the grittiness front, and you simply won’t find a darker fantasy manga, or a better-drawn one. It’s also wall-to-wall with violence and rape, and for once, I have to say that all this actually adds to the story, rather than detract from it. Yes, people. Berserk is a story that needs to be told with flying heads, limbs, torsos; fountains of blood and emotional anguish… because that’s the kind of story it is. And to his credit, Miura never shies away from the horror and the essential ugliness (yet also beauty) of the world Guts exists in.

Despite the great art, where Berserk makes its greatest impact is in the story and characterisations. Its story of revenge and redemption has a horrifying kind of fascination to it – the kind where you can’t help but feel that Fate has a vice-like grip on Guts; and that him, Casca and Griffith are destined to act out the plans of a higher power. Whether the power is good or evil, no one can say. I can say that the relationship between Guts, Griffith and Casca in the first 14 volumes was engaging and well-written, and truly gut-wrenching when you see the outcome. The relationship between Guts and the group of companions he gains later on is also interesting to watch as it develops, as some of the characters change radically in their outlooks and motivations. Possibly the only issue I have with Berserk is that some of the rape scenes aren’t necessary. They don’t add to the plot, they don’t detract from it either, but I’ll rather not see it in there sometimes, that’s all.

Overall, if you’re into dark fantasy, you can’t do any better than this series. It’s well-written, well-drawn, and always true to its spirit, no matter how terrifying or shocking that may be. It also explores themes of religious fanaticism, of love and forgiveness, of the cruelty of the class system, ideas of good and evil… and so on. It may not have any answers to them, but it explores them effectively, and takes them to its logical conclusion. Berserk is, after all, a very morally ambiguous universe, and who knows if Griffith comes again as a dark lord, or as a force for good? Given it’s 35 volume and counting, it’s impossible to predict where this could lead.

Is Berserk misogynistic because of the rape scenes in it?
This is a genuinely interesting question. In the second-last paragraph, I mentioned rape scenes that don’t add to the plot, and could easily be taken out if the author-artist wanted it to. This is a touchy subject, because while Berserk features rape for a reason – so do a whole lot of other stories in other mediums. It’s not uncommon to use rape of womenfolk as a kind of plot device, a motivating factor in stories for the hero to then go on a rampage (thus giving us a story). Sometimes it’s done well, sometimes it’s accused of misogyny. So what makes rape as a plot device acceptable, and when is it not acceptable?

I had a debate with Yunyu, and we both agreed that the graphic rape in Berserk is not misogynistic. In the story, there was a very graphic rape scene of Casca, and various other rape scenes, but our verdict was based on how Casca was treated before and most importantly, after the rape, not so much during it. Could the graphic rape be toned down? Well, sure, but the overall graphic violence could also be toned down as well – and then Berserk will be a completely different story.

What the deciding factor for us was, was that Casca wasn’t raped and then thrown away like a plot device after the hero gains his revenge motivations. There are some that will argue that because Casca was a strong warrior-woman before the rape, yet a mad and useless character after it, the character change reeks of misogyny. Yet if it truly did, you would never see Casca again after her rape – but you do. Not only do you see Casca, but she’s around 24/7 with Guts; she accompanies him on his journey even though she’s a huge burden, and at no point is she treated as inconsequential. Say what you like about Casca’s madness, but she’s an important character in her own right, and continues to be, even after Guts is joined by other strong female characters like Schierke and Pharness.

I guess that’s what gives Berserk a pass in my book, even though I find it annoying that only the women are graphically raped. I should also mention that while Casca is a rape victim… so is Guts and Griffith. Guts was raped as a child, and Griffith sells his body at one point to raise money for his mercenary band, so all three main characters are rape victims. Guts’ rape affected him deeply, so from that perspective, Casca’s madness and her being around as a constant reminder is probably the author’s way of showing that rape has permanent effects, and is not to be taken lightly. And in this story, it isn’t.

Perhaps that’s where Berserk differs the most from other stories that use rape as a plot device. Other stories have women characters raped, and once they’ve served their purpose, they disappear from the story as if that’s their sole purpose for existing. Berserk doesn’t do that, and despite being much more graphic, successfully manages to show that rape has life-long consequences, and doesn’t shy away from the reality of dealing with that kind of trauma. For that reason, I would argue that Berserk isn’t misogynist in its depictions of violence to women.