BERSERK: Manga Volume 34 Reaction!
Added 2024-08-31 17:00:02 +0000 UTC**FANTASTICAL HEADPHONE WARNINGS**
So...let's talk positives vs. negatives:
Positives - This is definitely Miura's most ambitious and beautifully illustrated volume of possibly the whole series! Lots of wild and creative designs and world-building as the human real and astral realm start to combine!
Negatives - Y'all. I'm just *over* Griffith winning 4D chess against himself. The worst part being the story almost wanting us to overlook Griffith's evil actions and accept that sure...we can have these monsters help humanity and empathize with them! Y'all forgot about the Eclipse, right? Sure!
I know that's not the case, but man...Miura is really dragging us through the mud as an audience...and I'm about over it, y'all. Can we go back to the ship?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Yes I am heated. But I still enjoy the reactions as a hate watcher in some moments. And also, a genuine fan in other moments. In the volume 35 reaction, I still enjoy this sea monster arc. But I want it to be over to get to the Griffith stuff and to get to the Elfhelm stuff. So its significantly different from your preference.
A mere Almond
2024-09-10 03:03:48 +0000 UTCYes, I remember talking about those two moments and how Griffith is definitely the definition of evil. Which is why seeing people so persuaded, so *easily* by him, is so frustrating for me in this volume. I definitely expect there to be - justice, but who are we kidding (it’s BERSERK) - but maybe some more complexity? In the sense that people don’t *immediately* side with Sonia and don’t question any of the world around them. Things fall into place FAR too easily for me narratively. I really don’t want to get too political - I will say, from studying rhetoric, and how I view things personally. You don’t have to “pick sides” in politics - sure, when you vote officially, you have to choose a party ticket. But your donations, your voice, your voice and vote can go to specific people and causes. I’m definitely not a “party supporter” voter, but rather a person/overall picture voter. My point is, I’m looking at Berserk from a writing stand point - I don’t care how close Berserk comes to our real world at this point - that stuff is SO obvious and noticeable and surface level that any reactor can pick up on it. I want to hold Miura to a higher standard and say, “you’re the writer, it’s a fantasy where you can do ANYTHING – so what are you going to do?” Mirroring reality too directly is cliche and expected - subvert those expectations, Miura! Hopefully, he can in the future, but I just found the writing in this volume slightly disappointing in that I predicted some of the events that happened already, and was frustrated in the lack of complexity in that everyone just “followed” Griffith without question; apparently a 15-year-old psychic is all we need. ;) You were a little heated in your comment, and I understand, but hopefully you enjoy the volume reactions to come! Thanks for your support!
Romaniablack
2024-09-01 19:58:46 +0000 UTCI definitely appreciate the effort that went into Miura’s art - it’s incredible in this volume! I can’t argue with that! The artwork in this volume is stellar, and in hindsight, I wish I’d given it more attention in the moment than afterwards when I went back through. Yesss, definitely watching a trainwreck in the making with that whole scene! I definitely expect there to be - justice, but who are we kidding (it’s BERSERK) - but maybe some more complexity? In the sense that people don’t *immediately* side with Sonia and don’t question any of the world around them. Things fall into place FAR too easily for me narratively, I agree. I agree; I hope that the message the priest is giving is just to frustrate us more, haha! But yes, while I definitely believe in all the “grayness,” I do think it’s a fault of Miura’s writing that these apostles in the BoTH 2.0 are so flat and “all style, no substance” at this point - if they’d been more developed like Rosine or The Count, even, I wouldn’t have had as much issue with how they’re painted here. But yes, Griffith is THE manipulator. The Anti-Chris. Hence the frustration, haha! And yeah, Skull Knight, you had ONE job! Haha! Yeah, I’m keeping in the back of my mind that Raksas has witnessed this all, I’m SURE that it will come back against Griffith, but the waiting to see this all unravel is so looooong and frustrating! I figured the reference to Earth being like ours is just like we’ve seen in other anime that do that, too, which is a fun little reference. Ah! Land of the Lustrous has been recommended several times; I’d like to get to it eventually and it’s neat to see references to Disney’s Fantasia as well! Yes, I will reference The Garden of Earthly Delights - that was what I was thinking of!! Someone on Discord noted it, so that will come up in a future reaction and UBIK - I always forget his name! His “world” or “realm” was definitely my favorite of the godhand we saw! That’s great to know the train museum was a hit! Nice! Haha!! Luckily, while this volume was frustration to the max for me, I can say, after struggling forward, that from here on in, I’ve really enjoyed my journey with Berserk from Volume 35 onward, so September should be…a lot of fun, hopefully! Thank you so much for the comment and kind words!
Romaniablack
2024-09-01 19:52:34 +0000 UTC"He who bears light exists in the deepest shadow" That is Griffith talking about himself. Its a metaphorical way to say "I AM THE BIGGEST EVIL IN THE WORLD AND THIS LIGHT IS JUST A FACADE AND MANIPULATION" And that "true light" Griffith was talking about was evil. The facade and manipulation and power of EVIL. Miura gave 2 moments to let the audience know that Griffith's side is evil. 1. This is one of my favorite scenes in Berserk. Griffith is seen surrounded by the souls of those who died in combat. Its a breathtakingly beautiful scene, with the souls giving out a beautiful dim light. And the people flock around Griffith and get an opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones before they pass on to the next world. Its truly beautiful and heartwarming. Except for the fact that Miura makes it clear the souls are going to eternal damnation in Hell. Griffith is sending those souls to hell. There is no crime worse than that. Literally no human alive has experienced something as devastating as being condemned to hell. 2. Griffith approaches Ganishka, who is now essentially a God fueled by evil demonic energy. And Griffith literally admits that he is the ultimate evil. Even the evil of Ganishka pales in comparison to the evil of Griffith. By the own admission of Griffith himself. Me personally, in my opinion, I see nothing in the story supporting the idea that we should support Griffith's side. What is happening is we are witnessing good people justify their support for evil. I really want to avoid being specific, but this one time I will do it. on this one specific issue. Democrats are currently supporting and funding a genocide. Yet liberals are still supporting the democrats. The reasoning is that the republicans also support the genocide. And the republicans are worse in many other ways as well. Funny how real life people are supporting the evil side because the other side is "more evil". Does it remind you of Griffith vs Ganishka? And please remember this genocide example is just one. I have plenty of examples. I can go into how both democrats and republicans are terrible on health care. Terrible on tax policy. Terrible on Education. Terrible on wages. TERRIBLE ON FOREIGN POLICY RELATED TO CHINA, TAIWAN, UKRAINE, RUSSIA, VENEZUELA, CUBA, KOREA, BRAZIL, IRAQ, IRAN, AFGHANISTAN, PALESTINE, LIBYA, VIETNAM, INDIA, PAKISTAN, SYRIA, ETC But hey, the republicans are worse. So we have no choice but to support the democrats. Do you really have the right to be so harsh on the people supporting Griffith and on Berserk and on Miura when you live in the political reality I just described? And is it all a coincidence? Or did Miura have these ideas in mind while writing???? I can see you are getting passionate and emotional from these Berserk scenes. Do you have a similar passionate emotional response to real life USA politics. If not, why?? Speaking for myself, I do have this passionate emotional response in real life. But not while reading Berserk. Because when I read Berserk, my real life emotions are being validated by Miura. ITS NOT OKAY TO SUPPORT DEMONS AND GRIFFITH. AND ITS NOT OKAY TO SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY EITHER. GANISHKA AND THE REPUBLICANS AREN'T A GOOD ENOUGH EXCUSE. I also look at rich people the same way. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Koch brothers, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zukerberg. You name the billionaire, and all I see is Griffith. I am probably a clown for typing all that. It wont be read because of spoilers and being too mean. I am going to go ahead and put on some clown makeup now.
A mere Almond
2024-09-01 19:40:18 +0000 UTCI think most people hold volume 34 in high regard due to the art, the story telling with minimal dialogue and a resolution. The world has changed! What were my immediate thoughts when I first read this volume? I thought those poor people were boned! The gaslighting of them with the help of Sonja is just like watching a train wreck in the making. I can see why you are frustrated. You want some justice in this world and you are not seeing anything that resembles that. Things fall into place too easily. The justification of fighting with the apostles is frustrating because irl, those who are different and “unknown “ are physically harmed. These apostles are not exactly equal to people irl. I would not take the message that is said by the priest as something that Miura is supporting. There is a comment on the YouTube page that does a good job of pointing out that not all of these monsters are as monstrous as others. There is a lot of gray in there. So what is the message? That Griffith is a manipulator and these people are boned! A while ago in another reaction conversation, another person called Skull Knight a fumbler. He sure is! He fucked up big time! I don’t think it would have matered how he came to strike Femto, Femto grabbed the sword strike and directed it down to open up a rip in the world. Could Femto have done this on his own? Sure! He was about to do it anyway when he was interrupted by the blade of actuation. Might as well use that sword strike instead! And what about Raksas? Well, he is a fair weather follower to Griffith … so now he is a witness. 🤔 One thing I want to point out and others will too. When we see the Earth from space, you can see some very recognizable continents! You can see Africa and also the European peninsula of Iberia along with the islands that make up the British isles. One of my favorite chapters in this volume is Back Lighting. The art work is very reminiscent of illustrations by Kay Nielsen. I absolutely love it! Another manga that has that feel is Land of the Lustrous. It just reminds me of him. Kay Nielsen was a Disney animator and did work on the original Fantasia, which is wild! A documentary on him: https://youtu.be/cfJa-5qVpj4?si=gGrnOPNvWf21iHTj The Garden of Earthly Delights is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Yes, this is the painting with the Butt Music! The panel that depicts Ubik is a panel from this triptych. It is absolutely one of my favorite pieces of art and a s a kid, we had an art book about Bosch. I would study it all the time! As an art nerd, I love this volume! The Garden of Earthly Delights: https://youtu.be/-n9zbPmHvJE?si=e3v5JpnL96kSN2GC There is a model of it, it’s sold out though. https://www.museumize.com/products/bosch-tree-man-statue-9h-as-is-attic-no-returns I really appreciate your unvarnished reactions as always and I hope you don’t get weird comments…😅 Btw, the train museum in Temple Texas was just a delight! It was small but we got to go into an engine and it’s surprisingly small in there. The steam engines themselves are beasts! One wheel was taller than I was! What a chunk of iron! Btw, the best chicken fried steak we had as well! I recommend The Old Jody’s! Bring cash! Talley ho to Volume 35! 👁️👁️👁️👁️FEB Spoilers⬇️👁️👁️👁️ Night on Bald Mountain always scared me when I was a child Volume 34: 7!
Moominkomet
2024-09-01 17:06:44 +0000 UTC
