Berserk

Episodes 4-5

Say, fellow Berserk fan! Are you interested in seeing an intensely awkward, poorly illustrated version of all that stuff that happened in the Golden Age Arc, along with snippets of the cut material from Guts's first two years as the Black Swordsman? Well, have I got an episode for you!

Yeah, the less said about Berserk episode 4, the better. I'm going into this show manga-blind, but even I could tell this was a messy cobbler of recap material masquerading as character development, when Guts gets a prophetic dream about Casca being burned at the stake for heresy and rushes back to Godo's cottage to make sure she's okay. (This dream is delivered by what I think is the weird aborted fetus Casca pushed out after Griffith raped her, but since this was cut for time from this 2016 series, and I've only heard about it secondhand, I could be wrong. Even if it's not the demon-baby and some other force instead: yes, non-manga-readers, that's a thing that really happens. Berserk is not a happy story.) It turns out Guts's nightmare wasn't just some demonic trick, because Casca ran off into the woods one month ago and hasn't been seen since. Erica is too young and weak to go looking for her, and Rickert (who was spared from the Eclipse and has been living with Godo since then, for non-manga readers who need a heads-up) can't go looking for her because Godo is on death's door from old age and needs looking after.

On the very small plus side, if you were going to smush a wad of character-development-based-catchup-recap into the show, this is certainly the place to do it. Godo's cottage is the only safe haven Guts has in the world, and when Godo inevitably passes away, even that will be taken from him. The God Hand's brand has made him forcibly nocturnal, but this may be one of the only nights Guts won't have to spend fighting for his life, leaving him alone with his darkest thoughts. (Even if we don't have literal demons hunting us every night, haven't we all been there?) Unfortunately for the audience, this means a truckload of truly poignant deconstruction of Guts's character getting abruptly crammed into too little time, alongside Underwhelming Depiction of the Eclipse #3,621.

It's presented clumsily, but there's still a ton of depth to be mined from the State of Guts monologue we get from Godo and the Black Swordsman himself. "Grizzled lone wolf living only for revenge" is a tired cliché, so you really have to sit up and take notice when a story manages to do something powerful with the idea. When Godo gives his requisite anti-vengeance spiel to Guts, this would normally be where the audience is expected to nod and agree that of course revenge is bad, and Guts's life would be so much better if he just let go of his vendetta. But the horror of Berserk's world and Guts's life story makes it extremely difficult to agree with those tidy platitudes. Guts's hopelessly grim assessment of himself as a man who was given nothing, fought for the few blessings he had, got them ripped away from him, and now he's only living on borrowed time is completely accurate. Journeying across Midland to kill every last Apostle on his way up to exterminating Griffith is probably the noblest and most effective use of the few precious years he has left, and nothing about any of that is fair. Sadly, the very thing that's best for the world at large is bad for the few surviving people he cares about. In order to pursue vengeance, he has to abandon Casca, Rickert, and Erica. No amount of promising that he'll return when things are safe ever seems to make up for the terrible things that happen when he leaves, and nothing exemplifies that more than the horrible consequences of the first time he ever left the Band of the Hawk. Guts is eternally being punished for letting down his walls and making connections with others, and Berserk manages to convey this in a way that feels both believable and horrific.

Anyway, after Guts rushes through processing all this pathos, he picks up his big ole screw-off sword, and everything to follow is plot plot plot! Wouldn't you know it, Guts's prophesied destination just so happens to be the site of an ongoing inquisition being performed by a thoroughly insane cleric named Mozgus, escorted by a thoroughly humiliated Lady Farnese and her division of holy knights. After wandering into the wilderness, Casca was "adopted" by a compassionate prostitute named Luca who services traveling soldiers with her fellow ladies of the evening, to keep themselves alive in a border town stricken by poverty and famine in the ongoing war against the Middle Eastern-coded nation of Kushan. To keep the poor from rebelling, inquisitions like Mozgus's are performed to unite the peasants against the sinful and reward the virtuous by offering them sanctuary and showing them the prosperity that the holy knights live under. Unfortunately, this seems to be backfiring during the throes of wartime, which is fine by the rabidly sadistic Mozgus. That just means more defenseless heretics for him to mutilate, and to Farnese's displeasure, the cleric wants her to assist in his unholy purges.

Whew! So that's a lot of information to hash out in about thirty minutes' worth of two episodes, but apart from the ever-hideous production work, it works out pretty well! Okay, it works out "well" if you have a strong stomach for all the jaw-dropping abominations you get to see as part of Mozgus's inquisition. I have to reiterate that I'm glad I'm digesting this story only once a week. There's only so many emaciated dying babies and men left to die with their shattered limbs wrapped around the spokes of a wagon wheel that you can digest in one sitting. It's really saying something that the greatest moments of affection and levity in Berserk so far have come from an impoverished prostitute, but Luca turns out to be the hooker with a heart of gold this dirge needed. She took Casca under her wing even though she wasn't able to work, and she divides all her profits amongst the other working girls instead of holding out false hope for one of the rich nobles she attracts to spirit her away to luxury as his mistress. She's clearly weathered the most cutthroat circumstances and still come out with mercy and generosity to share with others, which is extremely rare in Midland.

Puck has also fast become a breath of fresh air in this story, as his former acquaintance, the young thief Isidoro, returns to travel alongside Guts for safety (after nearly getting slaughtered by Kushan warriors near the border). The scene where Puck finds a playful way to catch Isidoro trying to steal Guts's sword made me laugh despite the garbage animation, so despite his annoying moments, I'm glad to have this useless little pixie along for the ride.

We end this avalanche of story information with one of the most iconic post-Golden-Age images in the Berserk franchise, as the undead souls of heretics sacrificed on the breaking wheel come rolling down the hill to tear Guts and Isidoro into pieces. Guts's response of "well this is different" is darkly funny, but it's to Berserk's credit that this potentially silly idea comes off as nightmarish and memorable instead. Since I haven't read the manga and refuse to spoil myself, I don't know when Guts's "Berserker Armor" (?) that gives the series its name is going to make an appearance, but we already saw a glimpse of the demon dog that sleeps within him in episode 4, so I hope it's soon! Berserk's demon designs, including that hell-dog, are one of the most captivating things about the franchise, and if its first cameo is any indication, it looks like the Berserk-dog will be one of the few blessed things in this crappy-looking show that stays traditionally animated.

Rating: C+

Berserk is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Jake has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.