Berserk is by far, one of the most overrated manga I have read.

Story wraps you in? Hardly. I would say the opposite. The excessively gratuitously violent scene in the beginning was enough for me to put down the manga the first time. Why? Because it was counting on the shock value to draw in the readers to keep reading. It's the same as the headlines of a newspaper articles. But I'm supposed to be reading a manga, not a newspaper article. The story also wasn't able to keep me reading more and more, because there was, actually, no story until somewhere in the third volume. Again, it was counting on the violence, gore, sex, etc. to keep readers entertained in the meanwhile. I can't say anything about character development, because to be fair, I didn't read enough of it to be able to judge that.

Artwork is great? In my opinion, it isn't. It is a different style that uses a massive amount of contrast between white and black. Shading is done by lines on different points in the grayscale. So, what you get from the combination of these two methods is the artwork of Berserk, an incredibly annoying pixelated effect. It almost felt like the whole thing was done in photoshop, with a couple of filters; there's absolutely no smoothness at all when it comes to artwork. Consequently everything sticks out like a sore thumb.

Character? Ultra-strong, cold, muscle man fighting against all odds with only himself and a small companion? Feels familiar, doesn't it? There's nothing wrong with rehashing old themes, as long as there's a creative twist to it. In the few volumes I have read, though, there has been nothing to lead me to believe that there is.

For those of you who will inevitably say that it takes longer to get in to it, I will have to respond: Why do I have to wait? If the manga was really actually as great as you say it is, there's no reason for me to have to wait. I should want to go further into it.

Clearly, I don't. This is my own personal view on this manga, but I have a distinct feeling it'll get lost in all the fanboy-ness that surrounds it.

... Last updated on April 5th, 2008, 9:58pm

Definitely the best manga I've ever read. The art is simply beautiful, the story wraps you in. The characters all have their own unique thing about them, and development is constant throughout the manga. One prime example is in chapter 294, with Silat speaking about the two sides. I'm trying not to give spoilers.

Honestly, I don't really like how Puck is becoming just comic relief, along with Isidoro. I loved Puck in the beginning... At the beginning of the manga, it was just Guts alone. Now with all these people tagging alone, it is slowly resembling other manga of the same genre. Like what Magnum said, I'd rather just have Guts, Caska and Puck. I felt it's meant to be a dark manga... I don't really mind the other people, I guess. It goes with the plot very well, so it's all good.

Kentaro Miura is a freakin' genius.

... Last updated on March 31st, 2008, 9:00pm

me have been following Berserk for a while and me love how the hero learns to open himself more over the series and now is his greatest challenge me would say by far in getting back his love one and getting rid of the sacrifice mark.... gotta love his new armor too.... poor gats constant battle with his inner demon and the demon who mark him...............

11/10 i would say for art, story and character build up.... A DIE DIE MUST READ MANGA

this manga... what can I say about it ?
it was a great read up until volume 20- and onward, suddanly from a very dark even scary manga it became more like a freaking shounen with comedy and stuff that don't feel right for this manga, IT IS UNNECESSARY, this is meant to be dark and make your blood boil in awe

I hated pukk (the fairy/elf) from the get go, he was just making lame jokes was creating an unwanted atmosphere, but know I have even more to hate, a whole group of people who just decided to follow Guts, how can they even make jokes and laugh while their fighting daemons ?

the author should kill all the other characters except Guts & Caska and continue on, its not even seinnen anymore.

people also say that they didn't like the flashback at the begining of the story... it was better than the stuff thats going on right now

For all the evil jerks who constantly say stuff like how good berserk is, and how bad ubel blatt is, here's wat i gotta say.
Ubel Blatt is a god among insects in manga. Although my review is biased due to the blind rage that anyone would compare a generic manga like this to the best manga ever written. I would say read it if you like a generic revenge guy, but otherwise put it on the bottom of the stack and go read Ubel Blatt. XP. This is for all the jerks who keep on putting stuff like this on the Ubel Blatt part.

What the hell happened... from a dark, very gruelsome and mature read to a crowd pleasing-fan servicing action/adventure? Stop blindly worshipping this one. There are simply too many faults being accumulated way too fast in recent volumes.

... Last updated on February 5th, 2008, 1:48pm

It's amazing. That's all I can say. If you're even slightly into manga, start reading this as soon as possible. I'm not gonna explain why it's great, because there's no point. Everything's as close to perfect as it can get.

my all time favourite.

this was one of the first of many manga's i've read, like most of the first ones i've read, i've quickly discarded them from my top 10, but berserk still stands strong.

the manga has transcended, and it's awesome, definately not for the faint heart, and the best part is that it hasn't ended which allows the mind wonder on different possibilities of how it ends.

... Last updated on January 1st, 2008, 11:05am

I'm a reader of all genres of manga, but most of all, I'm the type that love (non-cliched) romance shoujo. When I saw Berserk, I was questioning all the hype about it. The art was drawn with meticulous detail, very lovely, but it wasn't my type. Normally I hate this kind of art and plain battle and gore, and I decided to try it out, because I seriously did not understand the hype. The first few chapters were okay. I read it months ago and I didn't understand why anyone would like Berserk, but I decided to re-read it and go further to see if it really deserved all the praise it had. I mean- the chapter started off with sex and suddenly a monster. As I delved deeper into the manga, I realized that it was an amazing plot that just draws you in. Sometimes the faces drawn didn't impress me very much, but nonetheless the rest is wonderfully done. This also isn't the sort of tedious manga where fights are filled with useless and silly techniques after techniques which makes battles a chore to read.

Even though I'm not normally into manga like this, Berserk has made me gone a complete 180.

... Last updated on January 27th, 2008, 9:33pm

I don't actually like violence and gore.

But I was looking for something more refreshing than cliché highschool manga and I decided to try Berserk out after hearing good stuff about it.

And boy was I taken on a journey.

Berserk is really, really good. The story is excellent, and you actually care about what happens to the characters (the good guys, anyway; the bad ones you just want to find out how Gatts maims them). The manga ceases to be just panels on a page, but reads like a movie.

I'm not even halfway through whatever's been scanlated, but it's only been two days. I just can't stop reading. The storyline just grips you and sucks you in. The art's really good too; every panel is very detailed. I sometimes can't follow the action scenes too well, but that might be just me. There's enough humour in the story to keep it from being sabotaged by its on sadism and darkness.

I might edit this as I catch up with the chapters, but in the meantime that's all I have to say.