Well, last time I said I expected Guts to wallow in his misery some more and that’s exactly what we got. Hopefully next episode will progress along at a faster clip instead of treating us to 20 pages of filler content.
Back in action (the action of falling face first into the floor)
For over 15 episodes now Guts has been in such a state that he wouldn’t get up by himself. He’s had to be carried off the island, then Kushans pulled him up and made him walk using chains (I’m still baffled at this stupid idea), and finally he was hypnotized so he would walk to the Stūpa. But once inside? No problem, he’s standing up just fine and tries to walk forward…
But that’s only so he can fall face first into the floor! Just classic Guts stuff, gotta have that regularly otherwise we’d forget how much of a bumbling fool he is. It’s such a core trait of his, he falls down a second time right afterwards, this time apparently because he’s in some sort of magically induced daze, although nothing in particular indicates it on the page.
Eight pages in and that’s what’s happened. Guts took a step, fell down, got on his knees, fell down again, but then somehow positioned himself on his back (for the convenience of hallucinating about stuff on the ceiling which he isn’t supposed to be able to see or even imagine since it’s total darkness inside).
Corridor of Dreams redux
The stupendous Stūpa reveals its mystery at last: it’s a vaguely buddhist-adjacent sensory deprivation tank. There’s nothing in there except a gigantic king lotus leaf for him to lie on, floating in total darkness and silence (well, except sounds would probably reverberate like crazy in such a structure). It’s actually almost comical because the pond is only slightly bigger than the leaf itself.
Now let’s get to the point: they’re just going to have him go on an inner “voyage of the mind” by clumsily reproducing old scenes from Berserk. In short, they’re trying to do their own version of the Corridor of Dreams, but with a “Kushan” theme (meaning: clumsier than ever buddhist references). It’s pretty funny that the Continuation started on Skellig with Danan around, but the best they could think of was to teleport Guts halfway around the world and have Daiba perform a mock ceremony.
It also completely deflates Danan’s (and Elfhelm) legendary status by having a random structure within sight of the Kushan capital be able to do “the same thing”. Besides that, the fact the lotus leaf turns into a clamshell and sinks at the end is also reminiscent of the Eclipse and the whole egg symbolism. I think we can expect them to keep blatantly copying old scenes and visuals without necessarily understanding them or connecting them in a way that makes sense.
Meaningless visuals
Speaking of meaningless visuals lifted wholesale from old scenes, Guts starts by “seeing” dark blobs growing and then forcefully spewing from above, which to me immediately evokes the crumbling tower of Saint Albion’s monastery. This black mass covers him entirely, and then Guts is suddenly underwater, but next to a large unidentified mass. It’s presumably the same black blobs, only it looks different. He’s not on the leaf anymore, and not really covered like he was in the panel before.
After that he sees something shining from afar… a pair of silhouettes that can barely be distinguished. Then the black fluid starts floating up, he’s not covered anymore. Then he has a vision of Griffith and Casca from the Golden Age, floating together randomly and smiling. Then he remembers Griffith abducting Casca on the island, and reaching helplessly. We cut to him reaching up inside the Stūpa while water submerges him. Finally the leaf closes up and takes on a clamshell look.
I’m listing all this so people can see how unconnected each panel is from the preceding and following ones. It’s a succession of arbitrary visuals. As for their inspirations… The blobs rising up? Reminds me of the blood floating off Femto after he emerges in volume 13. Griffith and Casca’s faces shining in the dark? Reminiscent of Griffith’s obsession with Guts in his jail cell. The leaf closing down? Like the hand during the Eclipse. This is nothing new, they were already doing this sort of thing 15 episodes ago, but it shows how uninspired they are.
That aside, a couple of things struck me while reading. The first is about the cut to the water submerging him. Since it’s transitioning from a memory seen from first person perspective, and it shows him doing the same motion, it would normally indicate that it’s actually happening in the real world. But I won’t be surprised if it was all just in his head, despite the implications of how the scene was composed. That’s what happens when you reuse stuff mindlessly.
About that shot of Casca and Griffith
The second is about the memory of Griffith and Casca. On the bright side, hey Guts is FINALLY sparing a thought for Casca. Woohoo. But is he really, though? Because juxtaposing her with Griffith makes absolutely no sense here. When combined with the scene of Griffith leaving with her, it makes it look like Guts has lost both of them. Because of the way it’s depicted, with them smiling and looking down at him, one might even interpret it as them taunting him together… A downright insane idea.
To be clear, I don’t think that’s what the Continuation team intended. It’s just a side effect of imitating a previous scene without understanding its context and meaning (a usual occurrence). But the result is still terrible. Picturing both of them from the Golden Age era, like a fond memory, makes no sense, especially since this isn’t a scene that ever took place. It also manages to negate both Guts’ love for Casca AND his burning hatred for Griffith in one fell swoop. Truly remarkable in that regard.
This is a symptom of the core problem that’s been plaguing this project: they have no idea what they’re doing (despite Mori’s claims to the contrary). They don’t know how to handle Guts, so he has no internal dialogue, and they fundamentally do not understand his character, so they’re reduced to reusing that one image of Griffith leaving. And because they had to add something else this time, they put in that double shot of them.
In the end, it’s completely meaningless. That full page doesn’t signify that Guts is reflecting on losing the love of his life. It doesn’t signify anything at all. It’s busywork, just there to fill space. The same could be said of the entire Continuation project, but I wanted to highlight it here because this is likely a taste of things to come in the next few episodes. More disconnected and meaningless visuals trying to evoke an inner trip to confront Guts’ insecurities, which are – of course – almost guaranteed to be misrepresented as well.
Silat & Daiba are nice guys after all
This would be a good place to end this post, but we do have to talk about Silat and Daiba. Their dialogue is more busywork and serves no real purpose besides hammering that Guts is now on his own and will face his inner issues or whatever. Speaking of, it’s notable that the Beast of Darkness was absent here, but I expect them to feature it soon enough (and I expect it to be absolutely awful).
Anyway, more than their dialogue it’s their very presence and attitude that’s noteworthy. Why are they even here? They were supposedly bringing Guts there to leave him to die, and last episode Silat exploded with uncharacteristic spite before walking away. Now they’re calmly waiting and the mood has 100% switched to “he must fight this battle and come out a new man.” This isn’t a surprise, of course, it was pretty obvious from the beginning that they would pull this kind of a switcheroo.
They depict things one way to artificially add dramatic tension, then drop it completely right afterwards when they move on to something else. They’ve done it again and again, like by having Roderick frantically pound that unlocked door on his own ship as if Guts was going to hang himself, before stopping to care entirely (and seemingly permanently). But it’s still baffling every time they do it because… do they think it’s fine? The individual installments in an episodic story are supposed to connect to each other in ways that make sense.
With friends like these...
Silat and Daiba being featured here (with some soldiers also milling around in the background) also brings attention to the fact Guts’ actual friends are nowhere to be seen. Puck, Isidro and Azan followed them, but are not shown. I fully expect them to still be around, but their absence on the page tells the reader that they don’t care about Guts. It’s even worse for Farnese and Serpico, who didn’t even bother protesting when Guts was basically sentenced to death by exile.
What a shameful disregard for the years Miura spent creating this new group of friends for Guts, people he could count on instead of relying only on himself. But I guess if he had friends, the Continuation team's whole narrative about him only trusting his sword would fall through. This is another reminder that this entire scenario is something they manufactured from scratch and has nothing to do with what Miura intended for the story.
Back in action (the action of falling face first into the floor)
For over 15 episodes now Guts has been in such a state that he wouldn’t get up by himself. He’s had to be carried off the island, then Kushans pulled him up and made him walk using chains (I’m still baffled at this stupid idea), and finally he was hypnotized so he would walk to the Stūpa. But once inside? No problem, he’s standing up just fine and tries to walk forward…
But that’s only so he can fall face first into the floor! Just classic Guts stuff, gotta have that regularly otherwise we’d forget how much of a bumbling fool he is. It’s such a core trait of his, he falls down a second time right afterwards, this time apparently because he’s in some sort of magically induced daze, although nothing in particular indicates it on the page.
Eight pages in and that’s what’s happened. Guts took a step, fell down, got on his knees, fell down again, but then somehow positioned himself on his back (for the convenience of hallucinating about stuff on the ceiling which he isn’t supposed to be able to see or even imagine since it’s total darkness inside).
Corridor of Dreams redux
The stupendous Stūpa reveals its mystery at last: it’s a vaguely buddhist-adjacent sensory deprivation tank. There’s nothing in there except a gigantic king lotus leaf for him to lie on, floating in total darkness and silence (well, except sounds would probably reverberate like crazy in such a structure). It’s actually almost comical because the pond is only slightly bigger than the leaf itself.
Now let’s get to the point: they’re just going to have him go on an inner “voyage of the mind” by clumsily reproducing old scenes from Berserk. In short, they’re trying to do their own version of the Corridor of Dreams, but with a “Kushan” theme (meaning: clumsier than ever buddhist references). It’s pretty funny that the Continuation started on Skellig with Danan around, but the best they could think of was to teleport Guts halfway around the world and have Daiba perform a mock ceremony.
It also completely deflates Danan’s (and Elfhelm) legendary status by having a random structure within sight of the Kushan capital be able to do “the same thing”. Besides that, the fact the lotus leaf turns into a clamshell and sinks at the end is also reminiscent of the Eclipse and the whole egg symbolism. I think we can expect them to keep blatantly copying old scenes and visuals without necessarily understanding them or connecting them in a way that makes sense.
Meaningless visuals
Speaking of meaningless visuals lifted wholesale from old scenes, Guts starts by “seeing” dark blobs growing and then forcefully spewing from above, which to me immediately evokes the crumbling tower of Saint Albion’s monastery. This black mass covers him entirely, and then Guts is suddenly underwater, but next to a large unidentified mass. It’s presumably the same black blobs, only it looks different. He’s not on the leaf anymore, and not really covered like he was in the panel before.
After that he sees something shining from afar… a pair of silhouettes that can barely be distinguished. Then the black fluid starts floating up, he’s not covered anymore. Then he has a vision of Griffith and Casca from the Golden Age, floating together randomly and smiling. Then he remembers Griffith abducting Casca on the island, and reaching helplessly. We cut to him reaching up inside the Stūpa while water submerges him. Finally the leaf closes up and takes on a clamshell look.
I’m listing all this so people can see how unconnected each panel is from the preceding and following ones. It’s a succession of arbitrary visuals. As for their inspirations… The blobs rising up? Reminds me of the blood floating off Femto after he emerges in volume 13. Griffith and Casca’s faces shining in the dark? Reminiscent of Griffith’s obsession with Guts in his jail cell. The leaf closing down? Like the hand during the Eclipse. This is nothing new, they were already doing this sort of thing 15 episodes ago, but it shows how uninspired they are.
That aside, a couple of things struck me while reading. The first is about the cut to the water submerging him. Since it’s transitioning from a memory seen from first person perspective, and it shows him doing the same motion, it would normally indicate that it’s actually happening in the real world. But I won’t be surprised if it was all just in his head, despite the implications of how the scene was composed. That’s what happens when you reuse stuff mindlessly.
About that shot of Casca and Griffith
The second is about the memory of Griffith and Casca. On the bright side, hey Guts is FINALLY sparing a thought for Casca. Woohoo. But is he really, though? Because juxtaposing her with Griffith makes absolutely no sense here. When combined with the scene of Griffith leaving with her, it makes it look like Guts has lost both of them. Because of the way it’s depicted, with them smiling and looking down at him, one might even interpret it as them taunting him together… A downright insane idea.
To be clear, I don’t think that’s what the Continuation team intended. It’s just a side effect of imitating a previous scene without understanding its context and meaning (a usual occurrence). But the result is still terrible. Picturing both of them from the Golden Age era, like a fond memory, makes no sense, especially since this isn’t a scene that ever took place. It also manages to negate both Guts’ love for Casca AND his burning hatred for Griffith in one fell swoop. Truly remarkable in that regard.
This is a symptom of the core problem that’s been plaguing this project: they have no idea what they’re doing (despite Mori’s claims to the contrary). They don’t know how to handle Guts, so he has no internal dialogue, and they fundamentally do not understand his character, so they’re reduced to reusing that one image of Griffith leaving. And because they had to add something else this time, they put in that double shot of them.
In the end, it’s completely meaningless. That full page doesn’t signify that Guts is reflecting on losing the love of his life. It doesn’t signify anything at all. It’s busywork, just there to fill space. The same could be said of the entire Continuation project, but I wanted to highlight it here because this is likely a taste of things to come in the next few episodes. More disconnected and meaningless visuals trying to evoke an inner trip to confront Guts’ insecurities, which are – of course – almost guaranteed to be misrepresented as well.
Silat & Daiba are nice guys after all
This would be a good place to end this post, but we do have to talk about Silat and Daiba. Their dialogue is more busywork and serves no real purpose besides hammering that Guts is now on his own and will face his inner issues or whatever. Speaking of, it’s notable that the Beast of Darkness was absent here, but I expect them to feature it soon enough (and I expect it to be absolutely awful).
Anyway, more than their dialogue it’s their very presence and attitude that’s noteworthy. Why are they even here? They were supposedly bringing Guts there to leave him to die, and last episode Silat exploded with uncharacteristic spite before walking away. Now they’re calmly waiting and the mood has 100% switched to “he must fight this battle and come out a new man.” This isn’t a surprise, of course, it was pretty obvious from the beginning that they would pull this kind of a switcheroo.
They depict things one way to artificially add dramatic tension, then drop it completely right afterwards when they move on to something else. They’ve done it again and again, like by having Roderick frantically pound that unlocked door on his own ship as if Guts was going to hang himself, before stopping to care entirely (and seemingly permanently). But it’s still baffling every time they do it because… do they think it’s fine? The individual installments in an episodic story are supposed to connect to each other in ways that make sense.
With friends like these...
Silat and Daiba being featured here (with some soldiers also milling around in the background) also brings attention to the fact Guts’ actual friends are nowhere to be seen. Puck, Isidro and Azan followed them, but are not shown. I fully expect them to still be around, but their absence on the page tells the reader that they don’t care about Guts. It’s even worse for Farnese and Serpico, who didn’t even bother protesting when Guts was basically sentenced to death by exile.
What a shameful disregard for the years Miura spent creating this new group of friends for Guts, people he could count on instead of relying only on himself. But I guess if he had friends, the Continuation team's whole narrative about him only trusting his sword would fall through. This is another reminder that this entire scenario is something they manufactured from scratch and has nothing to do with what Miura intended for the story.
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