Berserk vol. 36

With this current arc, still giving off “H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’” vibes, I was prepared to be frustrated if not utterly let down by the fact that it’s essentially a distraction from the main arc.  Yet, after reading through this volume I still came away satisfied.  That’s partly because the wickedly intense fantasy action that is the title’s stock-in-trade is delivered as strong as ever here.  From the opening which depicts Guts’ latest rampage in the Berserker armor to the ship battle between his comrades and the tentacle pirates, the action comes fast and furious without a dull moment in the volume.  Most noteworthy is mangaka Kentaro Miura’s depiction of the old god of the sea that is behind all of this.  We never see the creature in full, but Miura gives it a frightening sense of scale just by showing us parts of it — the gigantic mouth full of fangs, or its spherical body crashing through the island.  It’s fantastic stuff that shows us the artist is still working at the top of his game.

The other key to this volume’s success is the characterization.  While Guts remains as driven as ever, it’s still fun to see the utter ease he has with treating tween witch Schierke as a true comrade-in-arms as her spectral self accompanies him into the bowels of the god.  More surprising is Farnesse’s continued evolution into a full-fledged mage as she casts her first major protective spell in this volume.  The arc her character has taken, from unlikeable religion-crazed noble to trustworthy pagan magic user, is all the more impressive for how natural it seems in retrospect.  Then there’s newcomer Isma who gets her chance to shine at the end when she undergoes a transformation of her own.  Her realization, when it hits, is a genuinely funny moment in a series not normally known for them.

If every volume continues to be this good, then the “once a year” rate at which this title is now serialized may not be as bad as I initially feared.  I only hope that this continues to be the rate at which new volumes are released as Miura seems to be taking his time with putting out new chapters in magazines.  (Yes, I know that the link is talking about three new chapters, but it also mentions that the series is “returning.”  Why was it gone in the first place?  Was Miura hung up on playing the newest version of “Idolm@ster” or something?)  Jason Thompson recently remarked that he hopes to be alive to see the series reach completion.  I certainly hope the same, though I’m disappointed that we actually have to hope this in the first place.