←←Previous Topic (Satoshi Kon) Episode One -- The Black Swordsman Or: They Thought They Could Stop A Demon I’m Back In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. Content Warning: I’m going to put a broad one up at the top of this series and then reiterate parts of it as the episodes require. Berserk is a dark series. It is perhaps “the” dark fantasy manga, for all that that phrasing implies, and occasionally uses elements such as (but not exclusively) gore, sexual violence, and derogatory language as part of its story. I would argue that some of it is necessary for the story being told, which I will get to in a moment, although other parts of it, especially earlier in the series, are wholly extraneous and largely for shock value. Mangaka Kentaro Miura has admitted as such in interviews. There’s a reason Wyald has been adapted out of every adaptation of The Golden Age, for example. This is a link to a Reddit post with a timestamp and description of every sexual assault in Berserk (1997). I will be referencing it for the warnings here. Episode One opens with a young girl harassed by a group of armed men in a bar. It is largely through implication but it does set the tone for the entire series, including what happens when Guts makes his appearance. I know this was a lot of reading already, and I apologize for that. I wouldn’t be talking about this show if it wasn’t worth it. By the time I was into Berserk, Kentaro Miura was already dead. It was actually a pair of eulogies that introduced me. I had known of Berserk before this -- it’s difficult not to with something this influential -- but it was these two that convinced me that firstly, someone like me (an Utena-watcher) could enjoy what I always thought was a gorefest and little else; and second, that it was still worth watching despite knowing it would likely end up incomplete. The second point is something we’ll get back to later. It’s important to note here at the start that these are not unique qualities to Berserk. My introduction to Satoshi Kon was Tony Kon and Taylor Ramos’ eulogy retrospective on his editing style, and a tweet by Kon later directed me to then-free access to Millennium Actress. Kon even has leftover work that will likely never be finished. Nobody is going to direct Dream Machine despite how many people might want Studio Madhouse to work on it. But there is something that does make Berserk special, and I would like to broadly outline my thesis here for the rest of the show. I have made a decent amount of hey regarding shows that depict the will to live and love as the cure-all for the systemic oppression the world inflicts upon us. Berserk is one of those. I will not deny that. But also, most if not all of these shows depict this theme as a revelation, something to work to reveal to its audience. Not so here. It is a stated theme in the opening of the manga and the show. Notice the question at the top of the post. To paraphrase it in a way that makes Void look less pretentious, it’s “What do you do when nothing you can do matters?” Hell, one character exclusively refers to our main character Guts as, “The Struggler.” But even if you don’t get that, Berserk has more to offer. It has to. Each new character introduced asks more questions about both the world they exist in and ours as readers. Both Griffith and Casca have arcs running in parallel to Guts, not to mention Rickert’s development throughout the manga or the members of Guts’ party and their growth. These are questions like, “What does it mean to be trusted wholeheartedly by someone else? Does that make you their friend or their leader?” Void continues to ask questions like this at the end of each of these episodes. Yes, they’re broad and nebulous, but they are touched on. Because of the lens I am using to introduce Berserk as a whole -- I’m not covering the 2016 anime lmao -- these may dip into the background from time to time, but I will bring up the other arcs where I can, and I invite anyone reading this blog, if any of this sounds interesting to you, to follow the manga as well. It’s certainly more available to purchase online than a Blu-ray that only this year got out of rights hell, that’s for sure. I’m sure you can find other ways to watch or read Berserk too, but I won’t say what those are. It’s there if you go looking, though. Again, see those content warnings and there is no judgment if it’s not for you, but I do hope you enjoy. One thing to know about the 1997 adaptation of Berserk is how low-budget it is. I don’t mean this as disparagement, just that it is the reason for much of the show’s aesthetic, especially for an episode that isn’t technically part of the arc of the show. Matte paintings paired with camera pans to simulate frenzy, cheating on even basic framing such as hiding mouth movements, and a transformation that takes place entirely off-screen. On the one hand, I respect it for this episode specifically. The Black Swordsman is already probably the worst arc in the series (mostly by being the first, before Miura had figured out what it was even about yet, and it’s still not bad. We’ll get to this later too), and The Golden Age is where people started paying attention, and is also the arc the rest of the show will be adapting. On the other, it is the first episode of the show. First impressions matter, and they didn’t even adapt the good parts of The Black Swordsman. But speaking of first impressions, what do we have to work with? The Black Swordsman is Guts at his lowest point. He is a lone wanderer, going from town to town and fighting both demonic creatures in human form called Apostles and specters haunting him because of a cursed brand on his neck. He is missing his right eye and his left hand, even if he has a nifty brace that doubles as both a repeating crossbow and a cannon. He has a massive hunk of metal strapped to his back, much too big to be called a sword. If you ask a random person to describe an edgelord, the result would likely not be too far from Guts as described here. But what’s important, then, is even with all of this brooding, there are still moments of benevolence. The very first thing Guts does after walking into town is save a girl from a sexual assault. His big nihilistic speech as he wails on the Snake Baron is still one in defense of humanity. In terms of the world, the world of Midland is in ruins. More importantly, it is in ruins because of the supernatural. I have already mentioned the Apostles, each of whom has a magical artifact called a Behelit, but there is also mention in the opening pub scene of a “Lord Griffith,” a name Guts later associates with one of the five monstrous figures of his hallucination. It’s important to point out the magic, I think, because it’s about to become increasingly hard to find. This is one of the main adaptational changes the show makes from the manga. As much supernatural as possible has been excised from the Golden Age. Magic is a violent and disruptive force here, and its return signals the age’s end. Put a pin in that for later too, though. By revealing itself to be an in-medias res opening episode, The Black Swordsman leaves us with a question: How? How did things get to be this way? What connection does Guts have with Griffith to drive him berserk at the mere hallucination of his presence? And who are those other people in the ending credits? Oh, I suppose I’m jumping ahead of Void here to ask it the episode’s way. See you next week, -r Next time: For what do humans come into being? What goals do they set for themselves in life? And why do they meet those destined to become important to them? Everything may rely solely on fate. ←←Previous Topic (Satoshi Kon)

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