The Godhand Revealed!
Creators:
Artist/Writer: Kentaro Miura
What They Say:
Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, finishes his desperate battle with the monstrous Count, but the Count’s dying pleas activate the Behelit, summoning the five God Hands, demon lords of immeasurable power. Guts’ journey so far has been a long road of pain and death, but it’s a walk in the park compared to fighting his way out of Hell itself! Created by Kenturo Miura, Berserk is exactly what its title advertises; a savage, gruesome, and often humorous roller-coaster ride, inspiring the internationally popular anime series.
The Review:
Guts was left clinging for dear life at the hands of the count when we last left him, and interference from Puck and the arrival of the Count’s daughter Theresia, freed from her ‘cage’ of a room gives Guts enough time to rally and plan an offensive. The Count manages to land a severe blow and cripple Guts’ arm, and the fight seems dire until the combo of his arm cannon rocket and a desperate last attack using nothing but his freakin’ teeth to hold his sword up and swing it turns the fight, finally, in Guts’ favor. The Count lays mortally wounded, and as Guts tortures him in front of Theresia, and his dying cries for help awaken the Behelit and The Count, Theresia, Puck, and Guts are pulled into a world that looks like it’s out of a M.C. Escher painting, with stairs that lead to nowhere and go upside down or back up when they go down. And before them, is the Godhand. 5 demons of immense power.
And it is here we learn that Guts has, at the very least partial knowledge of one of the demons, and he looks upon a man in chitinous armor that has beautiful eyes, and shouts the name Griffith, which he does not, at least immediately, respond to. He is also, apparently, the one who ‘gifted’ Guts with the brand he carries on his neck.
Guts with all his might and despite all his wounds attempts to attack Griffith but is thrown back by mere force, and the Godhand note that the laws of fate have deemed Guts as a sacrifice, but it is not the time for him to be taken. Theresia is shown the horrible truth about her mother, that the Count found her amidst an orgy of people worshipping a demon, and his cries of despair summoned the Godhand, whom turned the Count into a demon by taking her mother as a sacrifice. They offer him the same bargain again, only this time with his daughter as the price. The Count, for all his twisted and evil machinations, cannot bear to sacrifice Theresia, and is instead pulled into a swirling vortex of souls that surrounds the strange dimension that is made clear to be Hell itself. With that out of the way, The Godhand depart, leaving Guts and Theresia to have a moment when she swears, upon her life, that she will kill Guts, believing him to be the source of all the evil and trouble that she has experienced in such a short time. Puck catches a glimpse of Guts shedding tears over this, before the chapter ends, and the story takes us to a different place…
Kento Miura returns to the origins of Guts, and his birth from a woman who was already dead, and takes the readers through his early years living with a mercenary group. The life is hard and Guts has nobody to really call a friend, but he adapts to the life well and near the end of the chapter we see him take his first steps on the battlefield as solider, under the tutelage of the harsh but appears-to-car Gambino. In true Berserk fashion, it ends on a cliffhanger, as a large man assaults Guts in his tent after the battle, intent on what we do not know, but the images leave little to the imagination…
In Summary:
Berserk is a tragic story of hatred, violence, and innocence lost. In the previous volume, we see Theresia as a sweet and naïve girl, and by the end of this one, she has learned the horrible truth of her parents, watched her father be devoured literally by Hell, and almost commit suicide in despair before swearing vengeance on Guts. The remorse that Guts shows at the end of this whole encounter juxtaposes his unending hatred of demons, particularly the one that is, or used to be Griffith, and his seemingly absolute lack of care for the lives of others, with the notion that he does actually realize what he’s doing, that he does under emotions, and even more deep, experiences them on some level.
Miura then turns the story and takes us back to the origins of the series leading character, and it will go on for a number of chapters. When Guts is young, he is made to be a warrior, but it is clear from his reactions and mannerisms that he is still a child – one living a harsh life no doubt – but he still is a child. And we see, easily, that he does attempt to at least trust or build some level of friendship with his mercenary group, but he is clearly still not wise to the evils of the world. Being born from a mother who was already dead marks him as a bad omen many suspect, and seeing as how we already know at least in part where his life leads, this is not far from the case.
Still, the fact that Kentaro Miura manages to pack so much emotion, both good and bad, next to so much violence and gore I believe is a testament to his writing and his artwork. The Godhand are beautifully illustrated and chill the reader to the bone upon their arrival, and this volume improves on the last one in terms of framing and action angles. He also manages to do something very important for the readers – and that is continue to make Guts human. Time after time we see him resort to underhanded use of other people, and he blatantly shows his disregard for the well-being of others. Yet, he still allows Puck to travel with him, and his tears and signs of sadness at Theresia’s threats of vengeance tell us that while he does hate demons, and while he is willing to do almost anything to take his vengeance upon them – he is still a flawed, human, mortal soul. And it means we can still root for him. We still see the dim light in his heart, and it isn’t gone – at least not yet. Guts relation with Gambino and the horrifying cliffhanger of the volume leave us wondering how much, if at all, Gambino cares about Guts, and what will become of the naive but tough young mercenary that was Guts when he was younger.
Content Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 14th, 2004
MSRP: $14.99
