Pseuds need to stick to sucking off evangelion, lain, steins;gate, technolyze, etc. if they know what's best for them.
While I do acknowledge that Berserk is not as tightly-written or well structured as it could have possibly been when viewed as a whole, it is not really a strong argument to say that it wouldn't be good if it were a novel. Manga and novels cannot be properly compared because of the several fundamental differences in the ways that they convey stories.
The primary distinction between the two is that novels use much more narration and carefully written prose to tell stories with their words. As a result, even the best manga won't be able to compete with books of a similar caliber in terms of depth as a story. But, at the same time, manga gives you what novels cannot: visuals. Character illustrations, facial expressions, and artistic style, in addition to being extremely descriptive and more quickly comprehensible, have the power to evoke strong feelings in a way that words alone cannot.
This is where Berserk excels. Berserk is seinen battle manga du jour, but it is so while being elevated to legend and permanently cemented into history by its Godly artwork and unmatched visual storytelling. Both of which were carved out of nothing but the blood, sweat, and tears of a humble ricecel who had devoted his entire life to painstakingly illustrating the fundamental and horrifying questions on the human condition he simply could not express in any other way.
Berserk has every good quality one could ask for in a story; no shortage of jaw-dropping artwork and endlessly inspired narrative visualization that only gets more impressive as the manga progresses, labyrinthine character motivations that can be studied for ages, and an arc which incapsulates human nature to such a heinously raw degree as to be honestly life-changing. Is it really not enough for it to be considered great if it's already the best of the best at what graphic novels as a medium could ever hope to achieve?
ZETTABHAI NOOOOOOOO
Last edited:
I'll agree that it's strengths as a manga lies within its "visual storytelling" but that doesn't assuage my problem. It's got the foundation to be a decent novel and has some literary merit to it. So to dismiss the narrative loose ends and shortcomings due to it's good visuals doesn't do anything for me. Just because it's a manga doesn't mean its to be reprimanded from criticism for it's storytelling flaws, especially when its trying to be a novel-like. It's not like Im comparing apples to oranges. It needs to be held to the same standards as any story.
And to say berserk has endlessly inspired narrative visualization is kind of ridiculous.
When the majority of the storyline is endless meandering with puddle deep character devlopment (yes, i said that) and gauche violence draped under a terrible narrative structure. To be drawn more into the visuals and not the narrative substance is shallow.
Words cannot describe how wrong this is.
Novels are visual experiences. Through the prose you are able to mentally construct all of what you listed with more creativity and emotional depth by virtue of complex language, literary devices, and the writers style. Mangas even with their artistry are still limited to the artist's interpretation; limited to a blank outline; while the imagination and it's mental constructs from words are endless. Which inadvertently makes mangas a visually static medium and therefore shouldn't be listed as a strength.
Books offer more style, visuals, and emotional depth for a reader than a manga ever could.
Last edited:
I never really said the story itself was immune to criticism, I was trying to make the point that you're holding Berserk to too high of a standard. One could definitely make the arguement that Berserk isn't as good after the Golden Age arc, and I'm not such a blind fanboy that I wouldn't agree, but I can't see how you could outright say the series isn't a high quality one all around. In my eyes, it's provided one of the greatest narrative arcs I will probably ever have the pleasure of witnessing. I knew the story would never be able to follow it up after that, but it didn't really matter because everything after the Golden Age arc was still as good as it needed to be in comparison to a lieral masterpiece, and that's all that really matters. As I said before, I can agree that the narrative isn't as well-strucutred as it could have been, which I believe is it's one biggest flaw.
But to call the characters shallow in realization is plain disrespectful. Berserk's narrative structure isn't terrible, it's merely good enough when compared to its other hercules strengths. On top of that, the manga was always about the characters first and foremost, and it very clearly succeeds in that department. The depth of its human characters and the mature complexity in their realistic portrayal strongly reenforces the downright Shakespearian study on the human condition which Berserk sets out to be, and the challenging subject matters it proceeds to candidly discuss and ruthlessly depict are nothing short of awe-inspiring. Although I admittedly don't have as much characters as you to draw on due to you being invested into more different kinds of fiction than I am, I can at least say that Guts is the most thoughtfully enigmatic protagonist I can think of besides Motoko Kusanagi, and the never-ending emotional agony he experiences—while sometimes a little more shocking than it is meaningful—represents themes of trauma that are nothing if not maturely handled.
Griffith, an orphan from the slums who dared to dream of ruling his own freed nation and who, in turn, fought his way up the brutal social and military ladder of the medieval aristocracy in which he found himself, even going so far as to sell his body to progress his standing without having to put his comrades through even more bloodshed, only to reach a point where the only way forward was to sacrifice those devotees of his who had helped him get so far, a point at which he was too ambitious and too far along his goal to stick his nose up at the immorality of the choice to be made, is a deeper, more valuable villain than most fictional antagonists in history by way of the timeless moral and ethical commentary carried by his means to an end which was downright despicable, but one which is still developed from enough human emotion to be terrifyingly empathetic and unforgettably compelling.
Okay, I'll be honest, I was reaching a bit when I said manga was "extremely descriptive", as if books don't obviously detail descriptions far more precisely, extensively, and evocatively. However, I think this is just where we see things differently in this regard. Since your mind's eye is entirely shaped by your own experiences and how the words incite them, novels make for a more personal reading experience in some ways, but getting to see the distinct art style and how the characters look as the way the author personally envisioned them also has its own unique merit if the author in question is a master at the craft.
I believe Kentaro Miura was a genius at manga illustration and visual storytelling in general in much the same way Shakespeare became the world's foremost poet and the unchallenged epitome of literary genius. The way novels and comics tell stories is quite different, but both have value. I can't say that one is firmly better than the other, but since I'm more used to manga and I never engage in bookreading, you're right that I probably have more of an innate bias towards manga.
Last edited:
the red pill self-improovers ruined berserk
Didnt griffin had gay sex
The moral of the story is that rape makes you stronger.
I mainly meant it as a joke tbf. I have little hope for this forum
you’re now officially terminated from the .is kool kids klub bub
I showed Berserk to a friend and he said he didn't like the dialogue. And it was the normie friendly adaptation, he would have dropped it if he saw the Donovan scene kek.
Really? I downloaded a couple episodes because normies call it the greatest anime of all time .
Damn I guess I'll delete those episodes.
I don't know what Berserk is
I am sorry
I am sorry
Blud did you rob the library of congress to find this novel you copied and pasted?
Similar threads
Buried Alive 2.0
Users who are viewing this thread
