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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “The evil Count uses his dark powers to transform a defeated guard captain into an inhuman horror to combat Guts, the Black Swordsman. Puck, Guts' pint-sized fairy sidekick, is captured when he attempts to stop an old doctor's execution, and he is given as a gift to the Count’s daughter, a sweet girl in a gilded cage, imprisoned by her father in her own room. Guts, determined to make mincemeat of the Count, assaults the castle and carves a swath of blood-soaked destruction through the Count's minions. Face-to-face with the Black Swordsman at last, the Count reveals his true form, and even Guts' super-sized sword may not be big enough to contend with this demonic monstrosity!” I’ll say this: for an action story that aspires to accomplish little, it accomplishes it very beautifully. The fighting and slashing sequences are especially clear and detailed, and the designs for the horrific creatures are enough to turn one’s stomach slightly. Though the axe man is somewhat derivative of Akira, the Count’s transformation is particularly fantastically gruesome. Despite the meager plot development, it feels like we’ve already reached a minor climax in the saga, which is somewhat satisfying. In these long manga series, we know that the threats keep increasing and getting ever more impressive, so it’s hard to make the early battles seem significant, but this one is pretty ugly and considerable in its own right. Of course, the Guts’ humongous sword that can cut through anything has yet to meet an uncuttable foe, so who really knows how much genuine suspense will come out of this conflict. This really isn’t a huge step up or down from the last volume. There’s more of the good stuff in the art, designs and violence and more bad stuff in the slow pace and shallow characters. The characters at least have interesting agendas, but they haven’t received any real development yet. What Berserk comes to really is a pretty action book that reads fairly quickly. There’s a market for those things, but if they don’t start to deliver a little depth here and there, what’s the point? Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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