MANGA REVIEW: Matt Lowder Gets Into BESERK

BERSERK Volume 1 + 2 (of 39, Dark Horse Manga, originally 1989 and 1990, this English printing translated 2003 and 2004)

All right, let's talk about manga! There are statistics and data to backup the fact that manga is continuing to take a greater and greater piece of the market. This is true in libraries, bookshops, Amazon sales, in some comic stores. The argument?? More bang for your buck in so far as cost-to-page-count, with very consistent art in story by the same team or in some cases one person.

I was listening to some Podcast recently talking about this very phenomenon. The decline in sales of the classic Western style single issue comic. The stigma in the United States is still, even after all these years, that people who read comics and manga are oddballs. Comics are for children. Meanwhile many countries in Asia and Europe, no one bats an eye. Culturally, those countries have every genre of manga for every age group, most everyone reads 'em, and in their mass-public-transit society, it has been easier to take hold there for 3 decades. These little books are sold everywhere like packs of gum over there.

My own relationship and journey with manga is pretty subdued. I grew up watching Dragonball Z on TV after school. I played some Final Fantasy on PS2 in high school. In college I read my first manga (which were Full Metal Alchemist and then Death Note). But I didn't really take to it. I dodged Pokemon. I wasn't ever a fan of the stuff like Poyo, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service. It just wasn't my joint.

I did however, two years ago, watch the Castlevania animated show on Netflix and I loved it. Brutal horror action. Delicious. And then my brother gave me the first 13 books of this BESERK at 220 pages each. Which have sat in my house for almost two years. Yesterday I read the first two books after listening to the podcast.

What do I think? Have my tastes regarding manga changed from indifference to something more?

I really had fun reading these.

Generally speaking, if you like the epic journey of the hero, the one that feels like a myth, the one that feels like a legend, try this. This book is probably for you if you already enjoy Japanese culture or dark fantasy action and terror. It is very mature. Disturbing, cynical, and hateful. If you like Ronin-style Kirosawa films with a solitary, unlikable, complex protagonist, and if you like dismemberment and very bizarre sickening demons, BERSERK is a 1989 staple I've come to respect greatly. It's mentioned often as a Top 20 most important or influential manga among manga readers. No serious manga reader hasn't heard of it. And it's definitely insane.

Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on the characters of Guts, yes, his name is GUTS, a lone mercenary who is shitty toward everyone, even a little elf pixie that follows him around as comic relief. GUTS is cursed, but how remains a mystery in these first two books. He has a symbol carved into his neck which damns him to hell, makes ghouls and demons aware of his presence... but not before he get revenge with his seven-foot sword. He has one arm, one eye, and on his missing arm he can affix a prosthetic metal arm contraption with rapid fire launching bolts.

BESERK is gory slaughter-fest escapism, which reveals its layers as you read about the town, other characters, the magic, the curses, and the strange "big-bad" that eats women and children who lives in Koka Castle and looks like a disgusting toad man that has tentacles coming out all over the place when he wants. 

Black and gray is done very well, with some pointless use of ellipses and some muddy unreadable action in one particular fight in Volume One, but other that that, it's addicting. It is truly unsettling artwork. 

One last issue I have with the comic is the artistic interpretation of the elf pixie bug. It is clearly a nude prepubescent boy in style, and it is often getting its butt flicked by Guts or is in suggestive poses sticking its butt out and arching its back. Could just be I'm American and overanalyzing. I don't know if that's a Freudian sexuality thing between Japanese audiences versus American audiences, but it is something that has pervaded all kinds of Japanese art in my experience. Some people might be turned off by it.

But I can't wait for Volume Three, and I "don't like manga."

Have you read this? My Hero Academia? Tokyo Ghoul? One Piece? What's hot in manga "now"?

Four out of a possible Five Stars.