In this post I'll be pointing things out as if I expected these episodes to be written with a coherent narrative in mind, but to be clear, I don't think that's how Mori and the assistants are doing things. They seem to be primarily trying to evoke strong emotions and to produce visually striking pages. Which, to be fair, is an important component of a manga. But... It's not what their main objective should be. They are supposed to be conveying Miura's story to us, and they are really consistently messing it up.
Nothing in this episode is from Miura as far as I can tell, so in truth none of it matters with regards to the story. It's just filler between leaving the island and getting to Falconia. Now that we're here, one thing I want to mention is that in his last interviews before passing away, Miura confirmed that he had determined the key moments of the story until the end, but that things were still subject to change. The part he had fully decided on in relative details was the latter half of the story on the Elf Island.
It's noteworthy to me that this one part he explicitly said he had fleshed out was basically skipped in the continuation. A lot of characters (the Great Gurus, Danan, Hanarr, Molda, the Volvaba...) and concepts (Wickermen, Barytes, Daimons, the island's peculiarities...) were introduced with the clear promise that they would play a role in the near future, but ended up being non-factors after Mori & Studio Gaga took over. While they may still play a role in the end game, so far there would be no difference if they had all died.
And now, well we're in the parts that Miura hadn't actually fully decided on yet. The starting point is already, without a doubt, quite different from where he would have taken the characters himself. But beyond that, Mori and team are now having to make things up to fill the (likely numerous) gaps in their knowledge. I would be uneasy with the idea even if it were well-executed, but given what's being produced... It's frankly hard to keep taking this project seriously. It has very little legitimacy left in my eyes.
Anyway, about this episode. The title is clumsy, as has often been the case with Mori. We open with Isidro and Serpico having expository dialogue that does nothing for their characters. Isidro just seems bitter, Serpico seems defeated. It's hard to overstate how surface-level and simplistic the dialogue is. The speech bubbles are also confusingly placed and depicted, something that has become usual. Serpico is shown talking on a panel with Isidro and vice versa, then later on Farnese is talking on a panel showing Schierke. It's little stuff, but with every release some people have been confused by these. Is it a result of the way Mori and the assistants are working? Or is it just poorly done? I can't say, but in any case the result isn't great.
We learn that Schierke is undertaking a ritual to track down Casca. You'd think they could guess where Griffith is, given that Ged talks about Falconia in episode 345. But Ok. We also learn that "everyone" has to be there to watch Schierke do her ritual because reasons. This is an obvious bullshit excuse that's just there to explain why they're taken by surprise when the Kushans launch an attack. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but it's convenient so that's how it is. Great. We also see that there are people on the ship's deck in the first page, but whatever. Details, details, who cares.
Another thing we learn is that many of the magic users from the island are losing their powers... Why? That's not how magic works in Berserk. Magic is a skill that one learns, as we saw when Farnese became a magician. It's not something innate you have inside you and that can be taken away. This is a complete misunderstanding of the very nature of magic in the world of Berserk. Now, we do get told in episode 345 that some magicians lived near forests of spiritual trees and did "deep magic research based on their enormous spiritual power", like Flora, but that doesn't mean they're dependent on said power. There is simply no reason for this to happen.
We also get told that the group wasn't affected because they were "visitors from outside the island". We've talked about this at length in previous threads, but it makes no sense. Puck was born on the island and lived there for probably hundreds of years relative to the outside world. He's still around. Meanwhile, Isma was the first to disappear as someone who came in as part of the group! And the rest of the merrows disappeared as well, despite the fact they didn't even set foot on it at all. Furthermore, like Walter mentioned earlier, Danan tells Schierke, Farnese and Casca that they have been accepted as inhabitants of the island in episode 364. It's literally in the last episode Miura wrote!
Once again, this is only done out of convenience so that Mori can keep things simple. In short, only Schierke can use advanced magic now. The others are watching wordlessly, and will likely be doing that till the end of the story.
Schierke has drawn a talisman on the floor that just so happens to be the same protective talisman Flora carved into the Berserk's armor to protect Guts' ego from its Od. This makes no sense to me, and is basically just the team reusing an existing design because, well, it's there. Same with having the four elements at the four cardinal points, even though she's not calling upon the protection of the four elemental kings. This really shows how simplistic their process is (i.e. let's just copy stuff from past volumes), and cements the fact this whole ritual is just something they made up.
Schierke is facing the wrong way when she exits her body, and the tree's branches are shown becoming thinner towards the point where they converge (presumably the tree trunk) and thicker towards the ship, which makes no sense. Farnese talks about Schierke's consciousness going into "a deeper territory than the ethereal world", which I think shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the terms.
Apparently, Schierke needed a special ritual to know that the Od from the branches is converging towards the tree? Brilliant. But somehow she also seems to know where the tree must be, and (I'm guessing) that Casca is there. It's quite an incredible leap in her reasoning which I can only describe as narrative laziness. I can understand not wanting to expound more than necessary, but then don't show the ritual at all. Just say "Schierke's found out where Casca is... Near the root of the World Tree!" Especially since Ged already told them about Falconia and the tree in episode 345.
Guts has been left to himself and it seems like no one really gives a shit about him anymore at this point. Back when there were more pressing matters as they were taking care of the wounded and getting away from the island, the ship's captain was frantically trying to get to him, but now that it's quieted down, he's been forgotten. However everybody is gathered in one place because Schierke is looking for Casca, whom no one had spared a thought for until now. Funny thing, though: when the Kushans board the ship, we see one of them just open the door to that room with one hand. No indication that they even had to break it. Guess Roderick was pulling instead of pushing?
The Beast of Darkness comes out of the Dragon Slayer like a genie from a bottle or something. This makes no sense as it's something that only exists inside Guts' mind. Showing it like that from a top down perspective only incites confusion (and serves no purpose). Then it gives off an evil laugh... Really? This is completely off from its usual characterization. What it says is also ridiculous. The Beast of Darkness has no power of its own. It's just a psychological construct. The best it can do is like inside the Sea God, when Guts basically squeezed some fighting spirit back into himself to finish off the heart. And it was essentially self-motivation, just depicted in a cool manner.
Of course, what it says here is merely a repeat of their dialogue from when Guts first donned the armor back at Flora's mansion, except poorly executed. Nothing new, no real development. But there remains the incongruity of this situation. Guts was enraged when he saw Griffith, and that rage is precisely what the Beast of Darkness embodies. It's not like he fought while "resisting" the Beast, which is also why it makes no sense that the armor didn't activate.
It's also not like the Beast of Darkness could have possibly made a difference there, and indeed, even using the armor would presumably not have mattered given the way Griffith's power works. Hitting harder doesn't matter when you're missing the target. Lastly, as I had mentioned the last time this came up, given that Guts is now crestfallen and impotent, the Beast should be defanged and have a broken paw. Above all, it represents his rage against Griffith and his fighting spirit, so for it to be empowered is quite literally the opposite of what should be happening. That's really a shocking misunderstanding of the character to me.
The sequence where Guts grabs the sword is also nonsensical. I thought he couldn't even bear to look at the sword anymore or something? But here he grabs it to slash... at what? At the Beast of Darkness? But wasn't the Beast on the sword? And then we see him enraged and with the "Beast eye" on him, so is he embracing the Beast after all? But then he hallucinates that Griffith is standing naked on his sword, barfs, and faints. And the Beast gloats.
Nevermind the fact that Griffith standing on the sword like in volume 4 is a pretty lazy reference. At least it's evocative. But the way it all plays out simply does not make sense with regards to the Beast of Darkness.
The Kushans' surprise attack is completely baffling. Why exactly are Kushan soldiers there? These look like Ganishka's land army. Why are they so far away at sea (presumably in the middle of nowhere) and how did they even get there? My guess: these guys are just there to provide some impetus for action, and because Kushans are a known entity, they're Kushans. Isidro and Serpico will no doubt have a role to play given that everyone else is conveniently incapacitated and/or disarmed. And none of it matters at all since it's just filling a gap between two story points.
I will say, though, that these events are really not doing justice to Miura's characters. He spent a long time building up Roderick's crew as capable people, only for them to end up captured like doofuses here just because it's convenient. And it's even worse for the magic users of Elfhelm, who have been reduced to less than nothing. A fate worse than death, not unlike what this continuation is doing to the series.
Nothing in this episode is from Miura as far as I can tell, so in truth none of it matters with regards to the story. It's just filler between leaving the island and getting to Falconia. Now that we're here, one thing I want to mention is that in his last interviews before passing away, Miura confirmed that he had determined the key moments of the story until the end, but that things were still subject to change. The part he had fully decided on in relative details was the latter half of the story on the Elf Island.
It's noteworthy to me that this one part he explicitly said he had fleshed out was basically skipped in the continuation. A lot of characters (the Great Gurus, Danan, Hanarr, Molda, the Volvaba...) and concepts (Wickermen, Barytes, Daimons, the island's peculiarities...) were introduced with the clear promise that they would play a role in the near future, but ended up being non-factors after Mori & Studio Gaga took over. While they may still play a role in the end game, so far there would be no difference if they had all died.
And now, well we're in the parts that Miura hadn't actually fully decided on yet. The starting point is already, without a doubt, quite different from where he would have taken the characters himself. But beyond that, Mori and team are now having to make things up to fill the (likely numerous) gaps in their knowledge. I would be uneasy with the idea even if it were well-executed, but given what's being produced... It's frankly hard to keep taking this project seriously. It has very little legitimacy left in my eyes.
Anyway, about this episode. The title is clumsy, as has often been the case with Mori. We open with Isidro and Serpico having expository dialogue that does nothing for their characters. Isidro just seems bitter, Serpico seems defeated. It's hard to overstate how surface-level and simplistic the dialogue is. The speech bubbles are also confusingly placed and depicted, something that has become usual. Serpico is shown talking on a panel with Isidro and vice versa, then later on Farnese is talking on a panel showing Schierke. It's little stuff, but with every release some people have been confused by these. Is it a result of the way Mori and the assistants are working? Or is it just poorly done? I can't say, but in any case the result isn't great.
We learn that Schierke is undertaking a ritual to track down Casca. You'd think they could guess where Griffith is, given that Ged talks about Falconia in episode 345. But Ok. We also learn that "everyone" has to be there to watch Schierke do her ritual because reasons. This is an obvious bullshit excuse that's just there to explain why they're taken by surprise when the Kushans launch an attack. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but it's convenient so that's how it is. Great. We also see that there are people on the ship's deck in the first page, but whatever. Details, details, who cares.
Another thing we learn is that many of the magic users from the island are losing their powers... Why? That's not how magic works in Berserk. Magic is a skill that one learns, as we saw when Farnese became a magician. It's not something innate you have inside you and that can be taken away. This is a complete misunderstanding of the very nature of magic in the world of Berserk. Now, we do get told in episode 345 that some magicians lived near forests of spiritual trees and did "deep magic research based on their enormous spiritual power", like Flora, but that doesn't mean they're dependent on said power. There is simply no reason for this to happen.
We also get told that the group wasn't affected because they were "visitors from outside the island". We've talked about this at length in previous threads, but it makes no sense. Puck was born on the island and lived there for probably hundreds of years relative to the outside world. He's still around. Meanwhile, Isma was the first to disappear as someone who came in as part of the group! And the rest of the merrows disappeared as well, despite the fact they didn't even set foot on it at all. Furthermore, like Walter mentioned earlier, Danan tells Schierke, Farnese and Casca that they have been accepted as inhabitants of the island in episode 364. It's literally in the last episode Miura wrote!
Once again, this is only done out of convenience so that Mori can keep things simple. In short, only Schierke can use advanced magic now. The others are watching wordlessly, and will likely be doing that till the end of the story.
Schierke has drawn a talisman on the floor that just so happens to be the same protective talisman Flora carved into the Berserk's armor to protect Guts' ego from its Od. This makes no sense to me, and is basically just the team reusing an existing design because, well, it's there. Same with having the four elements at the four cardinal points, even though she's not calling upon the protection of the four elemental kings. This really shows how simplistic their process is (i.e. let's just copy stuff from past volumes), and cements the fact this whole ritual is just something they made up.
Schierke is facing the wrong way when she exits her body, and the tree's branches are shown becoming thinner towards the point where they converge (presumably the tree trunk) and thicker towards the ship, which makes no sense. Farnese talks about Schierke's consciousness going into "a deeper territory than the ethereal world", which I think shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the terms.
Apparently, Schierke needed a special ritual to know that the Od from the branches is converging towards the tree? Brilliant. But somehow she also seems to know where the tree must be, and (I'm guessing) that Casca is there. It's quite an incredible leap in her reasoning which I can only describe as narrative laziness. I can understand not wanting to expound more than necessary, but then don't show the ritual at all. Just say "Schierke's found out where Casca is... Near the root of the World Tree!" Especially since Ged already told them about Falconia and the tree in episode 345.
Guts has been left to himself and it seems like no one really gives a shit about him anymore at this point. Back when there were more pressing matters as they were taking care of the wounded and getting away from the island, the ship's captain was frantically trying to get to him, but now that it's quieted down, he's been forgotten. However everybody is gathered in one place because Schierke is looking for Casca, whom no one had spared a thought for until now. Funny thing, though: when the Kushans board the ship, we see one of them just open the door to that room with one hand. No indication that they even had to break it. Guess Roderick was pulling instead of pushing?
The Beast of Darkness comes out of the Dragon Slayer like a genie from a bottle or something. This makes no sense as it's something that only exists inside Guts' mind. Showing it like that from a top down perspective only incites confusion (and serves no purpose). Then it gives off an evil laugh... Really? This is completely off from its usual characterization. What it says is also ridiculous. The Beast of Darkness has no power of its own. It's just a psychological construct. The best it can do is like inside the Sea God, when Guts basically squeezed some fighting spirit back into himself to finish off the heart. And it was essentially self-motivation, just depicted in a cool manner.
Of course, what it says here is merely a repeat of their dialogue from when Guts first donned the armor back at Flora's mansion, except poorly executed. Nothing new, no real development. But there remains the incongruity of this situation. Guts was enraged when he saw Griffith, and that rage is precisely what the Beast of Darkness embodies. It's not like he fought while "resisting" the Beast, which is also why it makes no sense that the armor didn't activate.
It's also not like the Beast of Darkness could have possibly made a difference there, and indeed, even using the armor would presumably not have mattered given the way Griffith's power works. Hitting harder doesn't matter when you're missing the target. Lastly, as I had mentioned the last time this came up, given that Guts is now crestfallen and impotent, the Beast should be defanged and have a broken paw. Above all, it represents his rage against Griffith and his fighting spirit, so for it to be empowered is quite literally the opposite of what should be happening. That's really a shocking misunderstanding of the character to me.
The sequence where Guts grabs the sword is also nonsensical. I thought he couldn't even bear to look at the sword anymore or something? But here he grabs it to slash... at what? At the Beast of Darkness? But wasn't the Beast on the sword? And then we see him enraged and with the "Beast eye" on him, so is he embracing the Beast after all? But then he hallucinates that Griffith is standing naked on his sword, barfs, and faints. And the Beast gloats.
The Kushans' surprise attack is completely baffling. Why exactly are Kushan soldiers there? These look like Ganishka's land army. Why are they so far away at sea (presumably in the middle of nowhere) and how did they even get there? My guess: these guys are just there to provide some impetus for action, and because Kushans are a known entity, they're Kushans. Isidro and Serpico will no doubt have a role to play given that everyone else is conveniently incapacitated and/or disarmed. And none of it matters at all since it's just filling a gap between two story points.
I will say, though, that these events are really not doing justice to Miura's characters. He spent a long time building up Roderick's crew as capable people, only for them to end up captured like doofuses here just because it's convenient. And it's even worse for the magic users of Elfhelm, who have been reduced to less than nothing. A fate worse than death, not unlike what this continuation is doing to the series.
)? Either I'm giving Mori & Gaga too much credit or you are! 
I wouldn't be shocked if it were random either though. The only certainty in any case is it won't be handled very well. 
