Anime

Berserk

For many is Berserk the anime by which all other anime is measured. But is that really true?

Let's explore it, shall we?

The entire series is all build up for the perfect climax, where all of human greed, envy, lust, regret, hatred, betrayal come together, and captured in a single moment. And then shockingly, it ends right there, no resolution, no happy or even sad ending.

And it ends at the perfect moment. If forces the viewer to not see this as a story, with arcs and narrative structure, but rather, the entire series is only an exploration of that moment.

That ending is the point of the entire show, and there is no resolution, happy or sad, that distracts from that single moment.

As much as we might want to find salvation or refuge from the endless abyss of human tragedy laid out before us, through some sort of resolution, the show offers you no such mercy. Rather the show leaves you there, at the edge of the abyss, forcing you to stare into its depth.

I could not feel properly for 2 weeks after finishing Berserk. and let me tell you, watching it the second time years later is even better.

The show is not going to be continue though, the producers have run out of money. Yet, the manga is still being continued and it's worth reading, at least the first few arcs are.

It starts suffering from getting too long and too popular. Another aspect that you eed to realize about the manga is that it suffers from very long breaks between chapters once you are caught up.