3 out of 5

Reviewing Berserk while trying to avoid comparisons to the original version of the anime is difficult.  I’m positive I’m not alone in using the animated version as my entrypoint into its print origins, and the first example we have of something that’s been variously interpreted is generally the one that makes the impact, especially when it’s as good as the Berserk series was.  So I will try to be “fair” and evaluate, as best I can, Dark Horse’s English-ized volume 1 of Berserk on its own terms, but at a high level, I would say that it’s a good thing I know there’s more to this, because the manga starts off in fairly murky territory.  As does the anime, to be fair, but that comes in 23-minute bite sizes, and can be seen as less of an investment than 14.99 trades.  It _also_ had the benefit of knowing where the story would go, which allowed for the seeding in of payoff elements even early on.  While Miura undoubtedly had concepts mapped for Berserk, I suspect not up to the point that the anime series concluded, i.e. there’s not as much bubbling on the surface of the story at the point of what’s in this initial volume.

Which is: Big-sword wielding brawler Guts is slashing his way through demons.  The very beginnings of Berserk philosophy – questioning the purpose of one who has no purpose – rears its head ever-so-slightly, either via clipped observations of Guts’ sword or battles or, more directly, Miura’s reader’s-voice mechanism: Puck, a fairy Guts unwittingly (_very_ unwittingly) befriends who seems addicted to watching the horrors of our lead’s life unfold.  But for the most part, we’re all hack-and-slash and meant to enjoy it, as evidenced by Kentarō’s frequent splash pages of bodies snicker-snacked in half with blood a’flyin’, and a smirking be-caped Guts standing by.  The art is a bit stiff in the first chapter, but the linework gets finer as we move through the pages, along with the story slowly gaining traction.  However, there’s fully a cinematic flair in effect from page one, and Kentarō has a good sense of framing such that the action feels manageable, quite unlike the haphazard camera work that pops up in a lot of manga.

The light narrative lain atop mostly scenes of a guy swinging his sword and causing blood doesn’t come across as the beginning of an epic with volume 1 of Berserk.  Miura’s attempts at comedy relief and commentary from a friendly accompanying pixie don’t add much at this point, but neither is it a bothersome element, just not fully integrated.  The glimmer of Giger-y demons and Part 1 of The Guardians of Desire, which starts to add in some further world-building details, offers promise, though perhaps not enough – nothing that seems truly revolutionary – if you have a ton of other comics on your plate.  I’m definitely thankful I have the earned faith of the anime to keep me reading.

The Dark horse translation is quality; the English reads smoothly and I dig that they didn’t translate every sound effect (which clutters up the page), as the gist can definitely be understood from the context of any given panel.