BERSERK: A Blind Review - THE CONVICTION ARC

[Music] this arc contains within it not only the best chapter i've read from berserk but perhaps the single greatest chapter or most impactful i've read in my life [Music] while lost children felt like a brief dewiggling of the main story the conviction arc as a whole contains within it not only a fascinating continuation of the story but some harsh truths and tough subject matter the likes of which i've seldom seen explored in this medium and certainly nowhere near as tactfully executed this arc is a special one and i want to do it justice i'm totally not mark and today i want to talk to you all about my experience reading berserk's conviction arc for the very first time [Music] [Music] normally when i tackle the series on my channel i immerse myself into the material wholly and entirely until such time it's finished one piece almost six months of nothing but one piece on my channel jojo's bizarre adventure only jojo for months and months and the same can be said for dragon ball and even hunter hunter but berserk is the first series i've done where after every video i'm forced to take a break for almost a full month between sessions of reading this is for logistical reasons as we can't feasibly make videos using only manga week in and week out but in turn this created for me a relationship with this story that i honestly couldn't have predicted a reaction that with any other manga would have conjured a resentful disaster having to constantly pull myself from material i'm outwardly enjoying like naruto and dragon ball for the express purpose of reacquainting myself with this very dense and emotionally draining series it seems like it would be a recipe for disaster and thus was the mindset i found myself to be in every single time i have to tackle this berserk series and i won't deny this i want to be honest it's a series that over the last few months has forced me to stay off balance as i switch from the comparably softer and easier to understand material to [Music] child murder and complicated thematic and symbolic orchestrations from a master of his craft it's a lot of work but every single time i grumpily pick up these volumes for the purposes of making a video and yet every single time they without exception never allow me to put them down they are some of the best conceived works not only of a manga but art that i've ever been exposed to it's like the movie 51st dates only instead of adam sandler berserk forces me to fall in love with it every single time and so i guess what i'm trying to say is berserk is the 51st dates of manga and on this occasion i was confronted by an arc that reduced me to tears and a chapter that shook my very soul and unlike the previous berserk reviews after finishing this arc i decided to research a bit before i began writing this time apparently the conviction arc is broken up into three separate sections lost children which i covered last week binding chain and finally birth ceremony the latter two will of course receive the vast majority of the focus in this video but through my research i learned that quite a few people don't like lost children which was interesting to me but i think it's understandable allow me to explain my impressions of this divide and where i think they stem from the black swordsman arc i covered in my very first video was unanimously seen as a decent start with stunning visuals despite it being a rather unremarkable start that would eventually build up more steam towards its conclusion similarly through my coverage of the golden age arc i recognized an almost global acknowledgment of the story's masterpiece status amongst manga from both fans of the material to even those that never even read berserk in their lives however lost children was different there was no such unanimous agreements there were those that loved it those that believed it was sort of overrated and those that straight up did not enjoy this section at all and while i stand by my assessment of the story in my last review that being i really really liked it to put it simply i also can see that i believe i know where those sentiments of negativity are stemming from golden age is a much more standard format for a story with a fully conceived narrative that follows the life of one central character primarily and his relationships with other key characters as he grows into the men we see today it's very much a coming of age story not at all unusual because of this we grow a fondness for this experience and once it ends we want to see it continue and unfortunately lost children didn't offer an experience that many were yearning for after golden age despite it being an account that followed the events of golden age and black swordsman arcs respectively miura decided not to tell a story that primarily concerned itself with guts but instead a little girl called jill gutz plays a substantial role but certainly not the central position instead acting more of a supporting character in the central plot thus resulting in lost children feeling a little more like a detour after golden age's epic adventures rather than the continuation a lot of people wanted personally i viewed lost children as a much needed break from the torment that was the conclusion of the golden age arc and i also found it to be a sound thematic continuation of the series for sure however i can absolutely see why this wasn't what a lot of people wanted conviction arc during this portion of the story it became clear relatively quickly that the main storyline that took a break after the golden age was once again picking itself right back up during the events of lost children we were introduced to this impending religious force known as the holy iron chain knights as one of the forces on a mission pursuing and capturing the black swordsmen and boy do they do just that despite the high death toll of their forces a new character by the name of lady farnese and boy do i have a lot to say about this girl she secures one of the few victories over guts in the series much to my amazement there are of course a host of caveats to this chance encounter but it's compelling nevertheless keeping me guessing the entire time as to how guts would escape this exhausting situation and in the end the answer was he couldn't he was too beat up and as a quick aside one aspect of the story that immediately caught my attention was its cast the story goes hard in the character department and it's all for the best let me tell you there's the troubled commander of the holy iron chain knights and religious devotee lady farnese her devout protector and all-around lovable badass in serpico the horrifyingly accurate depiction of all of religion's worst qualities in father mosgas and many many more some of which i'll touch on later for sure i loved every single character in this arc and i mean that without reservation i've no idea what the consensus is with characters like isidro or nina later on who are designed to i think be a bit more divisive but from an entertainment and thematic standpoint i found them to be pitch perfect however it's during this time spent as a prisoner and after escaping that i soon began to recognize perhaps a parallel that miura was trying to illustrate for me lady farnese is one of the few main characters that stood out among the holy iron chain knights with her being the main character of conflict for god's as well as his eventual hostage once he escapes she's complicated and in many ways horrible to our main cast full of contradictions both professionally and emotionally physically and mentally weak yet commander of her forces thanks to her father espouses to the virtues of dignity duty restraint and kindness and yet relentlessly lashes out to others with the smallest infraction oftentimes with resentful or envious motivations confidently religious but hedonistic and confused she's one of the most frustrating characters in the story fundamentally flawed as a person and one that plays a leading role receiving i think the most development by far in this tale and i absolutely hated her for most of it but god damn it she's a brilliant character now the only reason i found it noteworthy to mention her contributions this early in the arc was due to the symbolic or nostalgic nature of them she reminded me in some ways of casca and okay okay i know what you're thinking but hear me out for a second for casca griffith may as well have been her religion she devoted her life to him and when it came down to choosing between him and another she saw it sort of like a sin almost going as far as to kill herself in fact she tried to there are of course a number of key differences between these characters but given that following lady farnace's possession which has very similar undertones and results by the way we're immediately thrown back into contact with kaska's storyline and due to that i couldn't help but feel like this was an intentional comparison being drawn on behalf of miura oh and by the way with this jump to casca's storyline almost linking these two points of view we see a shared dream it's honestly hard to know it's three pages and it depicts forces that make themselves known later on in the story upon his conclusion massive beast death sickness desperation and a white shining falcon in the middle of it all a falcon that is shown as the desire of this portrayed world i'm not sure in retrospective if this was an omen predicting what's in store during this act or the next but lord knows almost all of these come to fruition during this portion of the story or its latter half which oddly enough made me think about the name of this arc conviction is an interesting name for the story and one that i didn't fully appreciate until such time this part of the story rolled around given the state of guts how far gone he is and how the entire world seems to be in some shape or form interested in his capture i saw this arc's title as an indication that he'll be captured and in this story ultimately convicted and while that does happen in some shape or form in this series the tale itself is more concerned with the alternate meaning of the term conviction which is a firmly held belief in something and that brings me nicely to my favorite chapter following guts's first time returning to rickard godot and casca in two years cracks in the blade cracks in the blade sits alongside campfire of dreams as another one of the chapters that stand out in my head is not just brilliantly paneled but intensely profound taking what we thought were known motivations of the main character and turning them completely on their head in campfire of dreams it was his acknowledgement that despite being among friends and there being a home for him there he never felt more alienated from those around him reminding him that he needs to find his own dream his own desires his own convictions and within cracks in the blade we finally get an answer to that question posed during campfire of dreams and with it yet another masterful recontextualization of events from miura just like campfire crax's most pivotal moments center around two people sharing insight having a heart-to-heart one reflecting on lessons he learned in his life and another about to make the same mistake however unlike campfire cracks's subject matter and philosophical profundity casts a much broader net than just within the arc it's presented and in fact caused me to reflect on the broader story and even certain decisions i've made in my life it's a chapter that works frankly as well as it does because those that are reading it need to hear it given most who read this manga are of similar age to that of guts or at least a little bit older and i can say many stories have had that sort of impact on me shining a light on the selfish decision guts made to go out into the world to leave kaska alone and to embrace the hatred in his heart exacting his revenge on the monsters that took everything from him these are traits often glorified in manga however with berserk godot effectively caused guts a coward that couldn't look sorrow in this case kaska in the eye without wavering someone who took the easy way out rather than confront the problems and prioritize the god the herculean figure that guts has been made out to be due to the feats he's enacted on those he's hated now feeds into the narrative that these are all acts of cowardice and it's a brilliant way to look at this particular problem and as a result of that now he's beaten himself to near death and cask has run off somewhere presumably dead yielding massive consequences for this arc and its trajectory moving forward this is exactly the sort of cause and effect i was looking for from this story following the golden age and it's another example of a narrative decision made by miura to further bolster his claim to the title greatest mangaka to have ever lived and i stand by that but honestly i'm struggling to find the words to effectively describe just how steeped in philosophy and carefully curated encounters the first half of this section is taken into the context of the current material all of the criticisms of lost children a story i once described as a fairy tale of sorts echoes the criticisms goto had for guts in the cracks in the blade chapter claiming that he was indulging in a fantasy instead of the reality being there for those that he cared about one of the many markers i think of a great story is its ability to recontextualize prior events and lend greater weight to them via new material one piece does this to great effect and i'm seeing it right here too in berserk time and time again oh hi i didn't see you there i was just relaxing reading some anime and enjoying a nice cup of nature's sweetest beverage when i wake up in the morning and look at my beautiful wife fast asleep in her boyfriend's arms i think to myself i must do everything in my power to provide for them and g fuel gives me the energy to do just that aged in the finest all-american plastic barrels for upwards of 12 weeks to really bring out the subtle tones of aromatic undercurrents in every glass with flavors like strawberry rainbow sherbet blue ice shiny splash and even pewdiepie tastes like a bridge now i'm not legally allowed to say that gfu will make you faster stronger more powerful than you were before but i will heavily imply it g-fuel it's not about the taste it never was it's about the freedom to do as you please and that's why hey what the hell are you doing in my house is that my jacket g-fuel break into your neighbor's home this isn't a joke let's talk about bellits and how they've affected this story while staying in line with the theme of this arc bravery in the face of indulgent fantasy in the black swordsman arc the count exacerbated the situation he was in when he wasn't capable of dealing with the horrible fate that befell his wife in the golden age griffith lost himself in his own fantasy which in turn made his journey that much longer ignoring himself for the sake of one other person that in the end he couldn't control in lost children rosine couldn't deal with her own personal life so she escaped by killing her family and created her own paradise free from the stresses of the real world and the list goes on however in this arc these themes are explored more effectively through lady farnis constantly pretending to herself that the various horrific occurrences haven't happened and that she remains the pure good god-loving girl she wants to be instead of the cold-blooded hedonistic murderer she has been in the past speaking of which let's talk about father mosgas the depiction of father mosgas as the arbiter of god's will is one of the most horrifying depictions i've yet seen from this manga perhaps because he's paraded around as a function of the church and conceived of as a force of good his design i think goes a long way in reaffirming this unsettled approach that i felt with it being far more simple and expressionless than the other more anatomically accurate depictions of the human condition further making him feel more other than any human we've come across so far in the story shifting gears for a moment from evil to innocent comes the character of isidro i have no idea what the prevailing opinion is of this character online but i honestly loved him i thought he offered a reminder that innocence and childishness is still very much alive in this world and in the middle of these horrible events i mean like puck said this story would be too dark if they weren't there with some additional surprising support in the various tents and high stakes action moments in a way he sort of feels like a more standard shonen manga protagonist but i think that coupled with the nature of the story really had me worried for him on more than one occasion further building up the tension in the scenes that he took part in i was certain a brave kid like this wouldn't be long for this world but every single time his attitude and skills lifted him out of the bad situations he found himself in and i was relieved and hyped because of it i also really enjoyed how the aspects of isidro that kept him alive and allowed him to remain in a position of advantage or in fact his readiness to accept reality and warp it to suit him furthermore isidro pretty much like guts fights against the idea of fate or what is established he wants to be the best version of himself and sees guts as someone to aspire to be like i honestly think he's pretty awesome and i'm delighted that moving forward we'll get to see more of him so look okay at this point koska's alive which is great but she's in the heart of one of the worst situations in midland and the center of what will be a dark event unlike anything we've yet seen in the story say for perhaps the eclipse rest in peace everyone so let's see how this one pans out nina orgies and the cults peggy 18. some of the imagery in this is frightening and perhaps not for the reasons you might be thinking when i was in school history was my favorite subject i always treated the lessons like details stories of the past and one of the topics that stunned me the most was the black death a massive plague that wiped out over half of europe which to be honest is the clear inspiration for this plague right here in midland massive amounts of refugees living on top of each other terrible living conditions horrible hygiene widespread poverty and hunger the imagery berserk depicts routinely demonstrates some of the absolute worst in humanity and i think it's a wonderful means of creating those heroic and triumphant moments we remember in this series too which for one reason or another leads us to this hedonistic cultist orgy never thought i'd say that oh kinky with the character of nina and her boy toy to be clear i'd hate nina if not for the fact that she's this way by design i'm not supposed to like her what i do find interesting about her though is similar to lady fairness she has an internal struggle coming to terms with who she is and ought to be ethically and that struggle is interesting given the various strains this story puts her through hashtag she also introduces us to these cultists which let's be perfectly honest creeped me the [ __ ] out cultists that ironically or unironically sought a similar escapism to that of their religion believing counterparts and because of this they see koska as their new idol after witnessing what happens when her brand starts to bleed however this did get me thinking because it seems like contrary to guts to some degree the demonic presences protect kaska rather than attack her and well long story short because of this most humans are turned into zombies and mr goatman is turned into an actual demonic entity the likes of which will haunt my nightmares forever alright but look i know what you're thinking i glanced over something speaking on the poetry and parallels of these two opposing ideas colliding we physically see them collide in the cave as the holy iron chain knights arrive and begin fighting these transformed heretics it's total chaos everyone is here puck flies as fast as he can to get guts isidro snipes zombies with unlimited rock ammo like the absolute legend he is and kaska is more vulnerable now than she ever has been in the middle of absolute chaos and destruction where the worst of the worst both human and demon battle each other the lost hurt and fragile caska is all alone outnumbered by the hordes around her and honestly the way miora keeps distancing both guts and casca is frustrating but at this point it's just overwhelming it's terrifying but in the middle of absolute despair a faint but glimmering light soars through the battlefield seizing my attention momentarily suddenly a familiar silhouette cloaked in black flies across the page both portrayed at the beginning as almost part of the background and slowly thanks to some expert paneling they shift to being the focus of the fight and at the height of the drama a surging black whirlwind breaks through the tension stopping time in its tracks for both sides and confrontation and in an incredible panel we finally see them guts and casca reunited the background is neither chaotic nor war torn just white and the traces of what's happened outside of one of the most intimate panels between two misfortunate souls separated from the rest of the conflict separated from the rest of the world those who struggle against this terrible fate are together once again naturally and regrettably this couldn't last and as casca is soon apprehended and taken away to further destruction much to guts's anger i couldn't help but remark what a scene the panel where they reunite is enough to make you cry miura manages to encapsulate all of the hurt relief and struggle on gotz's single expression contained on this one panel it's a spectacular moment oh yes oh my god this panel is so kino this is more kino than anything serpico vs guts the attempted escape from the chaos was compelling and tense however this was one of the smartest ambushes i've ever seen committed to the pages of a manga i'll keep it brief but this is certainly like one of the best fights i've enjoyed in the series applying knowledge we're already familiar with the dutiful protector of lady farnese combined with precise placement for the battle orchestrates one of the most respectable one-on-one battles a character of his standing has ever attempted against guts and in doing so has immediately catapulted him into the ranks of some of my favorite humans from this series knowing exactly where gutz's weak points are and where his own shortcomings lay placing himself on a narrow ledge obstructing gutz's dominant hand and preventing him from drawing his sword are among just a few of the strategies implemented in this altercation and the best thing about this character is that he doesn't take himself too seriously he's often depicted in a much more humorous manner than i've come to expect from this series as antagonists and i'm honestly a big fan and with him providing the delay the holy iron chain knights needed to whisk kaska away it's the perfect recipe to bring all the main players together for one final showdown saving koska going into the endgame of this raid i was left in a complete tizzy i honestly couldn't predict what was going to happen i just knew that i had to keep reading i'm just so unbelievably invested in these characters and what little can be salvaged of guts and casca's relationship that i honestly felt like the worst was on the horizon for them miura had already demonstrated his ability to drag these characters down to depths i never before anticipated and so he had me primed expecting the very same this time around too so much has gone wrong for guts in this series he's lost almost everything and kaska could be i think perhaps the final nail in the coffin for him which i think went a very long way towards cultivating that love i have for isidro's character kaska is on the stakes ready to be burned alive courtesy of father musgus hate that guy guts is nowhere to be seen and otherwise trying and failing to get there on time and just as i was resigned to yet another person in god's life being taken away from him for reasons he would no doubt blame himself for isidro drops from the heavens and hoists her up into the air when this happened i literally ran straight to my fiance and said you see that kid he's awesome to which she said mark it's 6 a.m i'm trying to sleep we have a great relationship this climax honestly has it all and miura doesn't let us down in the artistic department either not one bit depicting father mosgos as an angelic figure of divinity there to protect the refugees only made me fall in love with this character more than i already have and what's more was that the brilliant touch miura gave to his character once he strips himself down to nothing but pure plates and muscle his primary attack is a bludgeoning barrage of blunt strikes there to represent a heretic stoning he's the judge jury and executioner and miura has done everything to create a final battle between himself and guts to rival many of the battles we've seen in the past it's brilliant honestly i mentioned before how farenese denies the ugly reality of the world she lives in by doing nothing and constantly saying to herself that everything is still the same her entire identity and sanity is built upon her religion by experiencing the true force of the world in its most terrifying form to the most heartbreaking forms by moscow's turning into one of those semi-apostles she finally finds something real in all of this guts standing alone never breaking and always fighting back against this chaotic reality check even in her confusion when she almost drops her torch and begins praying to her already proven non-existent faith lying to herself for the last time it's guts much like he did with jill in the previous arc who helps her find the courage to fight back and take action by not depending and waiting for things to magically resolve by themselves but instead through her own power farnese picks up her torch and for the first time she struggles against this cruel reality and she decides to follow guts and seek the answers to all of her questions by looking at the real world without clinging to false hopes or idols followed by her loyal servant serpico similar to isidro i honestly cannot wait to see where this gang goes together with guts in the future and it's not just this the real story of this arc has been guts trying everything in his power to right the wrongs he's made and reconnect with koska to find her and to protect her in her current state and at numerous instances whether that be the refugee camp the cultist gathering and the rate of the castle there's always been something to prevent him from protecting her stopping him from staying by the side of the one person he loves more than anyone which brings me to the ending and while i absolutely adore this section more than anything i've read in a very long time i mean i think i even like this more than the best parts of the golden age while i was writing this it became abundantly apparent to me that the video was either going to be too short to talk about this ending properly or it was going to be too long to edit in a single week for my editor i really don't like splitting up arcs this much and so we came up with what i think will be a good compromise the next berserk review will be falcon of the millennium empire arc part 1. but in addition to my coverage of that material i will also chat about the ending of this arc in the detail it deserves so next time you're getting a super review and judging by the bit of the arc that i have read i think this is going to flow really well there's been a heavy emphasis on the themes of fate and causality through this story which in some ways sort of conflict with each other and now that the armies are marching griffith is flying away on his big buff zod boy and guts is riding off into the dawn with casca i have no friggin idea where this story is going to take me and the best part is i'm only halfway through this series what does get me excited though is that isidro lady farnese and serpico are following closely behind guts and casca and in a way this sort of makes me feel like they're building towards their very own brand of the hawk 2.0 right now and i love all the characters present for it i really hope the falcon of the millennium empire arc will be as good as conviction has been but there's only one way to find out guys tune in next time when i cover that arc and if you don't want to miss it leave a like and subscribe for more but until then i've been totally not mark i'll see you all next time and thank you so much for watching [Music] yes

Channel: Totally Not Mark

Views: 221,246

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Id: NncNYoIbBHM

Length: 27min 55sec (1675 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2021