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Berserk is a pretty powerful manga with the core of its appeal being in a visual spectrum to instill emotions

I think the author uses this more to tell the story than any dialogue ever will with the most impactful moments of dialogue being sparse and short in order to deliver more meaning and while I think the writing of Berserk is great its Berserk as a manga that toes the line of manga in a cutthroat manner making the best use of dialogue to give it a form of a story while relying mostly on the visual appeal of the author's art to draw ... in emotions for the reader


The Main Character and the Story of Berserk:

Guts is a survivalist he's not out to be the strongest or stand at a the pinnacle of something like Ippo from Hajime no Ippo


Guts wanders from fight to fight just so he can scrape off and live on the refuse of his work which is killing others even as a child in order to earn pay and even love and a sense of acceptance from his father

Guts to me is a badass due to how he's an active reminder of the many people who go on living despite being brutally raped and being left in a weak and broken state violated emotionally and physically

but at the same time, Berserk doesn't shy away from how Guts makes his fair share of mistakes and actively portrays him in a less than favorable manner which becomes less badass and more visibly horrifying he uses the birthing embryo fluid of a pseudo apostle pod to put out his flames smiling sadistically as inflicting pain and torturing his opponents is the way he can feel empowered after all the violation and betrayal he's experienced in life

but this also seemingly flows into how it twisted him over time the blood the rage and the violence all the time slowly bends the frightened child into that of the current man a man who has to go on with everything on his back and the literal demons chasing

Guts isn't really an admirable character in the straight sense

what makes him admirable is when he tries to be better and take more precautions to keep himself under control even having a group that can keep him restrained and keep the one he cares about protected

even if he tends to dislike company and sticks to himself

but for the most part, he isn't someone I admire more or less rather someone I relate to cause for most of the story he's not an admirable person I guess no one in Berserk is fully

but that's emblematic of how real of a person Guts is that you can't break his character into one or two components and that he's a mixture of all aspects of himself that have congealed for him to be who is and who real people are in real life that you won't necessarily like all the parts that make them up.


I'm not gonna lie when I say that this isn't my favorite manga in any sense of the word but I think its important and it needs to be spread.

Since theirs only one chapter out as of now ill make this very quick

Story: the story seems to be a mix of Attack on Titan, Berserk, and Claymore although it doesn't do so in any bad manner it sets up a pretty cool premise that seems to waste no time in moving the plot of the story which is appreciated and the world seems interesting with that gives some dark gothic fiction vibes like Totsukuni no Shoujo

Art: nothing less than great the creatures called eclipses are really well done very lovecraft like a mix between bloodborne and something from gantz and panels are really ... easy to follow

Character: nothing to write home about but also nothing bad either so far theirs only two main characters as of now but my only gripe would be that one character feels to reminiscent of another in berserk but otherwise no big complaints

Enjoyment: 9/10

Overall: 9/10 cant wait to see what happens next

SHORT REVIEW

Story: The story isn't at all complex and the movie is divided between moments between Kei and Kazuki and the big wigs in the local force that seeks to demolish the capital forces and but honestly a lot of what makes the movie great is the quietness of the film and the psychological tolls on Kazuki after killing a terrorist I'd go as far to say the movie feels almost documentary like mostly due to the setting and themes which gives it this arthouse vibe that probably causes it to go unnoticed. overall the story was good but I'd say its not the strongest ... aspect of the film and says in comparison to its other areas. 7/10

Art: Not much to say on animation its very fluid especially when it comes to the gunfire I haven't watched much anime with guns but this feels by far the most powerful and terrifyingly accurate display of weapons that reduce people to Swiss cheese and by conveying so much force and motion with the bullets impacting bodies 10/10

Sound: like I said about the guns before except this time for sound design the sound design for the guns was on point and actually exceeded what I expected and it honestly felt like each sound they used for the movie was created specifically for one usage 9/10

Character: Kazuki feels very real and a lot of it comes from how he carries himself and the other characters really add to the feel of the "eat or be eaten world" that Jin-Rou presents but I think Kazuki really feels like Guts from berserk either from appearance or how they carry themselves silently but inside is an introspective mess of a person they aren't great but they feel. realistic in the setting they're portrayed into 7/10

Enjoyment: It was such a nice film to watch just laying down on a rainy day 9/10

Overall the other great aspects of the film make up for the simple story

The jaw dropping beautiful art alone of Blue Period attracted me to the series but once I started reading I was dying for new chapters.



The story is about a highschoolers named Yaguchi and how he falls in love with art despite the realistic struggle of becoming an artist and all the excruciating work and depression that comes with simply not being good enough to compete with others , having to take part time jobs in order to cover costs of cram school and painting supplies or the art universities that have such low acceptance rates that illustrate the fear of getting rejected.


If Im completely honest ... I've re-read the series about 3-4 times despite it being so short the story is still so compelling to read since the journey of not only Yaguchis skill in art but also his perception of art changes across the manga an example being that whats normal to you isn't seen as normal to others and that the way people approach a model or subject is completely relative to what you see In the subject matter

Art 10/10 lot of emotion is told from faces and the use of shadows to express the purest of emotions really lets you simply be immersed with the characters

Story 9/10 its a simple story but this actually is a strength since it puts more focus on Yaguchi getting better and better as an artist and dealing with his setbacks

Character 8/10 I love every character shown they all have great back and forth conversations wether its joking and teasing or disagreement which really sells that their high school students

Enjoyment 10/10 would read 3 more times

Overall 10/10 please read

Hunter x Hunter isn't honestly my favorite show mainly because of how i consider the firs arc to be dull in comparison to later arcs but wow after that first arc does it feel like you've jumped into something truly amazing.
the greatest strength to the show is that characters aren't starkly painted in cheap moral identities like "good" or "evil" someone who initially seems good in one scenario may seem evil in another there isn't a massive looming threat in hunter x hunter out to destroy the world rather its like a web of people with interconnected and differing goals that clash and while ... their are moments in the series where two people are allied its mostly so one can use the other and vice versa although the show does have a main protagonists i think its would actually be more accurate so say that its actually divided up into four protagonists with Gon taking up most of that role.
The show can center around Gon but it also centers around the others like Killua and Kurapika and each arc can have one or more be most of the main focus while simultaneously balancing the other important characters of the arc and some would say that a problem of hunter x hunter is that there are so many characters that if you have a particular favorite character that shows up in an arc chances are you wont see him any future arcs down the road but that also opens up another great facet of the show which is the amount of characters that you meet really add to each aspect of the world adding new mystery and intrigue as well as making the world of hxh feel full and if Im honest the characters introduced in each arc have such great character designs and personality that even on my first watch i didn't have much trouble remembering names or faces of characters.

Story (9): each arc was refreshing with the different environments and settings and obstacles that had its own measure of risk and danger the story feels creative its almost a mix of linear and nonlinear since each arc contrasts differently with others

Art(7): The animation was clean and consistent even for some of the more calmer moments in which didn't have to do and could've opted for cheaper animation to save money but they took the took the more painstaking route which deserves high praise and the fight animations are handled flawlessly with different angles that really make you feel immersed in the fight.

Sound(10): The music is amazing and manages to capture not just the light adventurous tones of the show but also darker parts that make you get chills from anticipation it's so varied and one of the best songs on the soundtrack is kingdom of predators which captures the harshness and the brutality during the arc with a bitter somberness to it as well. i cant speak on sound design but impacts of punches and kicks felt nice and solid as well as some of the more inanimate sounds like chains

Character(10): i mostly covered characters so i think ill just skip this portion but to put it shortly the world of hunter x hunter is full of characters with differing goals that can coalesce with some while causing friction with others making the characters that are shown seem selfish and alive this stems not only from main characters but to minor ones. The design for all the characters is very memorable and makes it easy to remember them.

Enjoyment (8): one of the negative aspects i believe is that the show can start out slow and feel hard to get through in the beginning similarly to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 1 where sometimes whats stopping someone from getting into a great show is the beginning portion of it. overall though it was a blast and I've rewatched many portions of the show with friends.

Overall (9): Fantastic show but Im not a fan of the long adventure while enjoyable its just not my preference Im still glad i watched it though.