Episode 374

[Judo]

Well, aside from the nonsensical events, out of character behaviour and redundant dialogue, there is at least one positive thing I can say about this episode: They seem to have improved a bit on their visual storytelling. In past episodes, I often struggled to understand what was going on on the pages. This time the only two panels that seemed weirdly out of place to me were the ones with the chains breaking, then being taut again.

 

[blodvind]

I agree with @Aazealh. Nothing happens until the last two pages. :/

I disliked the "5 minutes before..." approach of this episode. I think Miura would take it right away after the last one. Maybe I was too impatient to know what happened with Guts but it was just so booooooriiiiing. :/

First page, that's ok. Second page same context... okkk. By the third page, I was already sick of seeing the same thing...

If Mori said they would wrap it up quick, why spread it out like this? It is so frustrating.

I hope the translations give more intel. :)

Well, aside from the nonsensical events, out of character behaviour and redundant dialogue, there is at least one positive thing I can say about this episode: They seem to have improved a bit on their visual storytelling. In past episodes, I often struggled to understand what was going on on the pages. This time the only two panels that seemed weirdly out of place to me were the ones with the chains breaking, then being taut again.

Is it not that the chains breaking symbolize the awakening of the beast of darkness?

 

[hsvfan-jan]

This is so depressing to read... Just dreadful. There's no joy for me to read the new episodes anymore, and, despite how bad previous episodes under Mori's "command" have been - this is probably the worst.

I get that they didn't really know how to finish the battle on Elfhelm and almost nothing of it made sense. But to have every character be SO BORING and totally out of character? I feel at this point they should maybe try to move on without using dialogue. That'd do the series less harm

They seem to have improved a bit on their visual storytelling. In past episodes, I often struggled to understand what was going on on the pages. This time the only two panels that seemed weirdly out of place to me were the ones with the chains breaking, then being taut again.

I really struggled to understand how first we see the Kushan with the chains, ready to chain Guts. It's not even clear if they want to chain him or suffocate him with it. Next panel, the chains are broken or dissolve even (all the small particles make it look that way to me)? And in the third panel, the chains are suddenly super tight.

I assume the second panel is the beast's chains braking free but what about the third? It doesn't really make sense to me.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I really struggled to understand how first we see the Kushan with the chains, ready to chain Guts. It's not even clear if they want to chain him or suffocate him with it. Next panel, the chains are broken or dissolve even (all the small particles make it look that way to me)? And in the third panel, the chains are suddenly super tight.
I assume the second panel is the beast's chains braking free but what about the third? It doesn't really make sense to me.

I agree, I think the transition makes no sense and I was super confused as to which chains were actually doing and belonging to what...

 

[Walter]

I agree, I think the transition makes no sense and I was super confused as to which chains were actually doing and belonging to what...

After trying to puzzle it out myself, I half-seriously think it might be that the figurative broken chains are being reformed now that Guts is captured

But the way that scene ends feels like rising action, not defeat, you know? However one interprets it, it's not clearly executed.

 

[TheItCrOw]

After trying to puzzle it out myself, I half-seriously think it might be that the figurative broken chains are being reformed now that Guts is captured

But the way that scene ends feels like rising action, not defeat, you know? However one interprets it, it's not clearly executed.

So the bottom right panel of this scene is... the BOD? Or is it Guts cloak? Who knows, really

 

[blodvind]

I half-seriously think it might be that the figurative broken chains are being reformed now that Guts is captured

This seems like a lot of mental gymnastics.

For some reason, in that panel of Guts walking, I gut the feeling it was something heroic and hopeful. I was expecting feeling dread. Idk how much it is my own interpretation and how much, the execution of the artwork.

 

[Aazealh]

Forgot to mention it earlier but they've got two new recruits credited for this episode, so there are now 7 people working at Studio Gaga.

After trying to puzzle it out myself, I half-seriously think it might be that the figurative broken chains are being reformed now that Guts is captured

Yeah it's pretty much what it looks like on its face: chains breaking and then being unbroken. Also kinda sorta goes with the title, I guess? Another interpretation is the chains show the Kushans pulling Guts out of the room as a prisoner. Either way it's unnecessarily confusing as you say.

 

[Maco_2000]

I agree with @Aazealh. Nothing happens until the last two pages. :/

I disliked the "5 minutes before..." approach of this episode. I think Miura would take it right away after the last one. Maybe I was too impatient to know what happened with Guts but it was just so booooooriiiiing. :/

First page, that's ok. Second page same context... okkk. By the third page, I was already sick of seeing the same thing...

If Mori said they would wrap it up quick, why spread it out like this? It is so frustrating.

I hope the translations give more intel. :)


Is it not that the chains breaking symbolize the awakening of the beast of darkness?

That whole 5 minutes before approach is something they like to do quite a bit from the looks of it. Their first episode of the berserk continuation took the same approach. Miura already drew Casca sprinting through their house in Elfhelm and finding Guts and the boy transforming, there really was no need to draw that same sequence again. Casca looked more disgruntled than frantic in their version of that scene.

 

[A.C]

What I find strange is that they went through all the island calamity so fast, especially episode 369 where we barely had enough pages to process the island's major collapse and flooding or the fleeing of the magic users (most of it crammed together on one page with a big drawing of Puck on top obscuring a lot of it) yet since leaving the island climax we get pages and pages of unnecessary detail and a much slower pace, along with more dialogue to boot.

Initial impression was that Studio Gaga would accelerate the story for almost every episode from then on as they get further and further away from Miura's last episode and recent information for pending episodes, but instead the pacing has slowed down considerably even though they must have less information to work with.

Could this suggest that the island really was meant to disappear fast (even if not quite that fast), or could it be that Studio Gaga received complaints from readers or concerns from the Young Animal editor that they needed to add more details to retain the original episode length of around 20 pages, or maintain the illusion of Berserk's previous pace? Or is it a natural change happening as the team gradually gets accustomed to drawing out the continuation their own way or that, having less to work with, they feel compelled to add more pictures and dialogue to add up for empty space?

I wonder if they will have made some additional pages or fixed some of the art in previous episodes for Volume 42 and whether that has affected the decision to hold off on publishing more episodes this summer. We shouldn't have had to wait 4 months to get basically the same episode all over again from a different angle in a continuation simply meant to wrap up what's left of the story.

I also think, given what we now know about the team's competence and lack of consistency with Miura's style, that the ending of Elf island chapter was never going to end the current arc, only start a new chapter, and they used the term "Arc" incorrectly like much else in this continuation. But since Elf island collapse was most likely not the end of an arc, then it also does not make sense for the island collapse to be as big of a climax as the Arc-ending climax of Albion's collapse, for example.

 

[blodvind]

Their first episode of the berserk continuation took the same approach.

Yes; though, in that case, I can understand. Taking it after Miura for the first time must have been f**king scary.

or maintain the illusion of Berserk's previous pace?

I also got this impression. They fail because what Miura drew was always interesting and exciting even if the pace was slow.

But since Elf island collapse was most likely not the end of an arc, then it also does not make sense for the island collapse to be as big of a climax as the Arc-ending climax of Albion's collapse, for example.

I think the collapse did mean to be a huge milestone that drived the story forward but it has not been well executed.

 

[Vitris]

I really don't understand why Mori chose to spend a quarter of the episode on the "interaction" between Guts and the Kushans, that's way too many pages for something like that. He could've used half of those pages to at least show us how Roderick's crew got defeated, since we go from them fighting the Kushans to then having everyone tied up without knowing how it happened or how no one actually died. It would've also been nice to know how Serpico and Isidro got caught.
How is Schierke's ritual still uninterrupted? Didn't she need everyone to be focused to help her? It might just be me, but it looks like people are focused on something entirely different than her ritual.
Also, why in the hell is Puck just chilling in front of Serpico and Isidro while they're tied up? It's one thing to have him not saying a word, as I'm now accustomed to see characters do this type of thing in every kind of situation, but this is just... I can't even find the right word to describe how I feel looking at that panel.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I've just realized that none of the Kushans' ships have masts. Having what appears to be a galley-style ship in the middle of the freaking ocean with no mast is not something that could possibly work on open sea. These are not lifeboats!

 

[Keratos]

I've just realized that none of the Kushans' ships have masts. Having what appears to be a galley-style ship in the middle of the freaking ocean with no mast is not something that could possibly work on open sea. These are not lifeboats!

I'm pretty sure they didn't go all the way from land to there in these small boats.
Silat is standing on a large ship on the 2nd to last page, so they probably got there in a big fleet of ships and then got on the smaller boats to hide in the mist or whatever.

 

[TheItCrOw]

I'm pretty sure they didn't go all the way from land to there in these small boats.
Silat is standing on a large ship on the 2nd to last page, so they probably got there in a big fleet of ships and then got on the smaller boats to hide in the mist or whatever.

Well that must be one heck of a fleet cause I see at least 10 of those "smaller" boats approaching the Seahorse...

 

[Goat]

90% of the episode is filler content.

 

[scaler26]

Other than the many glaring issues already discussed, I haven't seen anyone mention that the Kushan "dialogue" seems to be completely nonsensical according to machine translation. Obviously these things aren't perfect, but there's a lot about... horses? Looking into it, the words spoken appear to be copy and pasted at random from episode 194 "Wings of Light and Darkness", volume 23, in which a Kushan war slave is teaching a soldier from Griffith's army how to shoot a crossbow on horseback. It would be in line with their rash reuse of Flora's talisman for Guts' brand or the alchemy symbol for air in Schierke's ritual last episode because they looked "magical enough". Can someone more knowledgeable in Sanskrit or Hindi than me check this out?

 

[Aazealh]

Well that must be one heck of a fleet cause I see at least 10 of those "smaller" boats approaching the Seahorse...

Yes, the amount of soldiers involved (Walter said he counted about 500 of them) and the associated logistics are disproportionate for the task at hand. That's because the team approached this only as a way to add tension for a bit, without thinking about what it would imply for the story and characters. It's been their template since this project started.

Other than the many glaring issues already discussed, I haven't seen anyone mention that the Kushan "dialogue" seems to be completely nonsensical

I didn't expect it to make sense, to be honest. It did look even from just a glance like the same strings of characters had been copy-pasted. Would not be surprised at all to learn that they just took it from episode 194 without thinking. Anyway, given the level of the actual dialogue from the main characters, I'm in favor of more fake gibberish.

 

[blodvind]

Other than the many glaring issues already discussed, I haven't seen anyone mention that the Kushan "dialogue" seems to be completely nonsensical according to machine translation. Obviously these things aren't perfect, but there's a lot about... horses? Looking into it, the words spoken appear to be copy and pasted at random from episode 194 "Wings of Light and Darkness", volume 23, in which a Kushan war slave is teaching a soldier from Griffith's army how to shoot a crossbow on horseback. It would be in line with their rash reuse of Flora's talisman for Guts' brand or the alchemy symbol for air in Schierke's ritual last episode because they looked "magical enough". Can someone more knowledgeable in Sanskrit or Hindi than me check this out?

Yes; I saw someone who is fluent in Hindi mentioning this on reddit. No idea myself but I'll definitely ask my friends who speak the language.

 

[Vitris]

Other than the many glaring issues already discussed, I haven't seen anyone mention that the Kushan "dialogue" seems to be completely nonsensical according to machine translation. Obviously these things aren't perfect, but there's a lot about... horses? Looking into it, the words spoken appear to be copy and pasted at random from episode 194 "Wings of Light and Darkness", volume 23, in which a Kushan war slave is teaching a soldier from Griffith's army how to shoot a crossbow on horseback.

They should've just removed their dialogues altogether, it would've been more consistent with the whole "eeriness" of the scene. But they've also had months to call an actual translator and have proper dialogues, and I doubt that we'll see any changes in the tankobon.

 

[Nothingwillbewong]

The only thing I can say is personally, the sting of how terrible these are has dulled. But I really wish they'd just stop.

The dialogue is embarrassing, I can't believe a year back I was telling them to take more risks with dialogue... Yikes.
Guts looks like Buzz Lightyear when Andy comes in the room. Is it supposed to be anything other than pathetic to see him struggle to move slightly and are we supposed to believe he went from that to decimating all those kushans? There is no point in pointing out the bad in this episode (special shout-out to the inclusion of the useless and cowardly wizards). It's everything. Well, the style and technical ability of the artists is commendable but the paneling, storytelling, characters, writing is unequivocally terrible.

It still stings a little but hopefully soon enough we can all compartmentalize this very, very separated with Berserk despite it's title.

 

[Walter]

Yes, the amount of soldiers involved (Walter said he counted about 500 of them)

Just some quick and dirty math I couldn't resist doing, because they show one close-up shot of one boat, which has 14 rows of 3 rowers each. Then we see 13 (or more) boats, which is 546 rowers, not counting additional soldiers. I don't know the technical term for these particular boats, but they resemble triremes.

They should've just removed their dialogues altogether

The dialogue is embarrassing, I can't believe a year back I was telling them to take more risks with dialogue... Yikes.

Indeed, the first few episodes of the continuation had no dialogue. Then it progressively became minimal dialogue. And now we have pages upon pages of filler dialogue (paraphrasing: "I think these guys might be Kushan..." "Kushan?! Those guys from Vritannis?!").

It feels like they've changed their position on when to use dialogue and how much to use. Or perhaps the lines of Guts and Griffith would be deemed too consequential to ad lib, but for lesser characters (sorry, Roderick), they don't mind making it up as they go, because it makes this more closely resemble a proper episodic series.

 

[Vitris]

Indeed, the first few episodes of the continuation had no dialogue. Then it progressively became minimal dialogue. And now we have pages upon pages of filler dialogue

Looking at this progression, maybe the day will come when we'll see actual interesting dialogue, but that day seems so far away.
The thing that worries me the most now is seeing how Rickert and Guts will interact. For the first time, we'll actually have to see Guts speak. I don't know what to expect from a conversation between the two, since Mori said that Guts won't utter a word that Miura didn't explicitly tell him.
I also don't understand how someone like Rickert would look at that ship and not think that maybe Guts is with those people for a reason. Is he really going to take Guts away from the party without asking any questions? It would be insanely comical if we see him kidnap Guts and then just leave. But we still have to see what happened with Guts and the Kushans, so I guess we just have to wait.

 

[Aazealh]

Looking at this progression, maybe the day will come when we'll see actual interesting dialogue, but that day seems so far away.

I can guarantee you that will not happen. The most we can expect is a few lines of dialogue at the very end that would echo how Miura first envisioned the ending 27 years ago. But even then, personally I'm not getting my hopes up. This version of the story they're telling already feels so far away from what Miura would have done...

The thing that worries me the most now is seeing how Rickert and Guts will interact. For the first time, we'll actually have to see Guts speak. I don't know what to expect from a conversation between the two, since Mori said that Guts won't utter a word that Miura didn't explicitly tell him.

Unfortunately I think your worries are very warranted, especially since Mori didn't really say that (here's his message when the continuation was announced).

 

[Vitris]

I can guarantee you that will not happen.

I know, sadly. I was just joking.

Also, does anybody else think that the sorcerers will somehow "get their magic back" in the future? I don't really see the reason why Mori would just have all these characters just hanging around with no powers whatsoever, other than making his job easier. Because if they do get their powers back, I don't understand why Griffith would just let them live. Maybe Griffith knows that they are not that powerful, but if that's the case then it's not conveied very well.