Why "Bubbles of Futility" is one of the Best Chapters in Berserk

previously I did a video titled why cracks in the blade is one of the best chapters in berserk and it was one of my favorite videos I've done so far on this channel analyzing a single chapter of wizard allowing me to dive deeper into the details of what mirror incorporates into this manga and provided a slice of why I love this series so much on my latest reread of a series bubbles of futility stuck out in a similar vein of how I felt whilst reading cracks in the blade and almost feels like a part to to the message of that chapter if cracks in the blade was about guts coming to terms with who he became after the Eclipse and how revenge was clouding his judgment of what truly matters to him then bubbles of futility his guts coming to terms of what he has lost and what may remain lost for good as he continues his newfound quest to restore Casca sanity both chapters offer a fema of acceptance cracks in the blade as acceptance that the awful events that the eclipse happened and although is unforgivable guards going on a crazed revenge quest the people who were already dead didn't help himself all those who perished that day Barbossa futility is acceptance that no matter how much got's tries and struggles Casca will never be the same as she once was the chapter begins with guts looking over Casca as they are on board the seahorse insert boat joke here a detour hasn't got much discussion as of late is how the berserker arm is effecting guts physically the mental details are hammered home with a beast of darkness but goddess physical health really starts to degrade when God is on the seahorse and it's all conveyed visually in this chapter God is watching over Casca on the seahorse which is the name of a ship by the way and just for a brief moment he loses his sight due to the effects of abusing the Berserker armor I love the panel by panel realization by guts of his vision loss especially three reaction shot VI if you remove this panel parada can still tell what Gus is experiencing but the core of berserk storytelling is the emotional realizations but the characters have in their moment of turmoil got his eye is wide and his pupils are dilated very different to his usual looks where his remaining eye is a big panel focus let's compare this one to one of my other favorites gots reaction shots from cracks in the blade gods has a crazed look in this panel because he is reminiscing about the horrors of Eclipse oh of course he would but here it's one of realization and sadness and whilst looking at Casca the one he loves he realizes that his sight is beginning to go I love how human reaction by guts is and the little details that Muir incorporates to show this the slap in the face always gets to me like guts is so shocked by his temporary vision loss he's trying to wake himself up in a way like it's a bad dream the sound effect being a heartbeat is also crucial it's the small details which elevator scene from gut is losing his sight from the Berserker armor to guts is losing his sight and he's terrified of a realization it's nice to see Roderick conversing with guts here too he begins to cement himself as a thoughtful and attentive individual noticing that there are some sensitive history with Gus and Casca when he notices guts is keeping a watchful eye on her it's a nice change from the [ __ ] noble archetype that we saw present her above Golden Age arc will abandon Owen aside this stinger is really interesting while Roderick asks what caster is - guts at which point before we see the answer Fani returns to her physical body who was practicing going to a luminous body with sure okay moments before this afraid of the answer herself there's not much to say here it's a nice reminder that actions speak louder than words we don't need to physically see what guts is saying much like Farney who didn't want to know herself because of her ever growing feelings for him because we've seen four out of a series of how much he loves Casca and what she means to him and for how he's put himself through to ensure she's safe and more importantly in his recent mission restoring her sanity but remember those fabled words from school night her wish may not be your wish and that really comes into effect in one of the most emotionally poignant scenes in the series Casca begins climbing up the ship and fearful for her safety guts reaches out to her still fearful of God's due to the events of the early Millennium Falcon arc and I love the mix of terror and anger shown here in Casca's face Casca rejects guts bow she falls guts reaches out to catch her only for him to use his mechanical arm which has no means of proper grip for a realisation of guts using his mechanical arm is beautifully paneled and illustrated by Mira and it's a direct parallel to Gus losing his sight momentarily a few pages ago with similar visual beats life a close-up of his remaining eye once he is realizing what is happening one moment though I'd like to pay attention to in particular is why Casca falls in the first place eres a small panel here which shows four seahorse hitting a rough patch of sea for momentum of his action causes Casca to lose balance it's a small detail they add so much motion to this still medium of manga it gives a real cause and effect of how Casco fell instead of Mira being like she fell because we need a scene of guts being sired again it's a nice type of rough environment helps push the story and he's emotional beats along at first this panel was weirdly hopeful God's gripping Casca's hand is imagery that was present throughout the Golden Age and is followed by moments where the two bonded but the panel was deceptive which seems intentional by Mira and creates a false sense of security for the reader got his mechanical arm is barely visible here which makes her read a Fink this will be just like before in the Golden Age but on closer inspection we can see from mechanical arm peek through underneath this isn't like before but once was an arm got used to help Casca time and time again is now a lump of iron and as we see in the next panel Gutterson pulling up Casca this time this is my favorite panel of a chapter i adore for visual for bandages dangling down and got his mechanical arm being almost fully exposed as Casca slips from his reach he reaffirms the futility of his actions and how much God has physically changed since the last time he reached out to Casca like this another key point as Casca's expression as she falls or lack thereof a complete blank expression signifies fact this is not the same caster as before our memories and dreams she once had have been replaced by a shell who has been scarred by the horrors of Eclipse her only emotions left are simple and childlike be it's a fear of guts or a Sicily bond with Farney less compare this to when she fell near the water form the golden age her expression was one of tiredness and turmoil it was painful for her but she still felt something you could see if complexity of her emotions as she fell putting on a forced smile to try and hide her own struggles this person is now gone for good and God's is starting to realize she may never come back God's diving headfirst embassy has so much speed and weight behind it despite his being a still manga panel his bandages on for mechanical arm are unraveling a such a quick rate that the arm is now fully exposed the unraveled bandages are also pointing upward relative to God's diving downwards Miura even sticks to her little details here where some strands are shorter depending where they of corn be armed like on his thumb here another little detail about this panel is how quickly got a douve into action pardon my pun because Miura displayed a hit spark where'd guts jumped off a mast of a ship it's a blink and you'd miss it sort of detail but combined with my previous point it creates a two-point narrative one per force of God's jumping off a ship is signified by the hit spark and two for speed of diving down is making his bandages unravel a very quick rate I love how Miura continues to give got as a mechanical arm extra way under the water in this pan or when he's reaching out the Casca the arm is suspended at almost a 90 degree but crooked angle like gods cannot move at all and the pressure of it being underwater and how much it would weigh is making a stay in this position which gods comments on very shortly but it's nice to show visually beforehand for attentive readers these next couple of pages of a chapter of a most important of a bunch and where the total name bubbles of futility comes into play gods manages to grab Casca and pushes her up to the lifeboat before he sinks due to the weight of the mechanical arm as he's sinking he begins to reminisce around Casca's relationship of water but nothing ever good comes whenever she stands next to it but what a fill backdrop is due to his vision being nothing but seawater and gods his life is flashing before his very eyes look he got his memories of Casca here do they look familiar it's the same presentation of Casca's own memory bubbles once she's recovered after her dreamscape sequence in recent events of Amanda I think it's purely visual flair here primarily to match her water theme with the bubbles as gods is currently sinking but it's nice to see me Eric to carry this over in Casca's dreamscape where it makes sense to return duties of the entire reason of our sequence was a restoration of Casco sanity and in turn her memories as God says himself the second pager for memory bubbles are bittersweet painful memories of distant days the background has changed to a deep black with a bubble background trailing off to the corner of a page signifying guts losing consciousness God's protecting Casca and finding out her past 400 manslayer the bonfire of dreams when they first proclaimed their love for each other and Casca saints yes to say with griffith visa over memory bubbles and display on this page but notice that four bubbles look less full and four shapes slowly become more abstract as guts fades out of consciousness and this is where the bubbles of utility title comes into play those memory bubbles of Casca a day's long pass for guts and what he wants to return to there were memories of varying emotions but these were what Casca and got shared together and allowed them to bond and grow together through both the bad and the good but it's futile to even to think about a return to those times because at the end it's always be eclipsed that dark days the key event which changed both and Casca no matter how much he made long for those memories of long past it will always return to the eclipsed where the effects can never be reversible for to both physically and mentally but dark moon of the Eclipse position and the center of his visual looks like an eye for the beast of darkness representing the key event fueling guts his darkness which is the catalyst for the Berserker armor and his deep mental struggles but tortured souls of hawks forming for us to be I only adds more weight to this visual and it's yet another horrible reminder of what happened that day not just for Haman Casca but for the rest of her friends made lost to gods fan wakes up in the ship and is surrounded by his party the reader has a vague idea of how much time has passed by saying that Roderick's hair was down presumably still wet when he dived in to save guts another reason why Roderick is still one of the best relatively new characters in the manga as god worries about Casca's well-being after her dive hurricane informs him that she's alive and well as currently receiving a hot bath from Farley she ven excuses everyone to reapply guts his talisman to keep demonic spirits away from his brand in the final heavy-hitting pages of this chapter as sure case reapplying the talisman God's tears as mechanical arm I remembers Casca's slipping from his reach this panel of guts staring of a stub where his arm once was it's one which is somber and sad I love how me your colors her background entirely in black with a white background being only applied around gutters body the focus in this moment isn't anything in the background not the ship not sure okay no external factors at all it's simply a sad individual realizing for the first time in a long while what may have truly lost and that it will never come back God's comments to show a cave at he forgotten but he just used that arm as a lump of iron so he could beat up his enemies remember it doesn't even have a proper grip it's magnetized have a Dragonslayer hence why he couldn't grab casco of that hand but that's beside the point right now he didn't intend for our arm to be a replacement of the traditional sense just another battle weapon in his arsenal for his demon killing quest of a moment where he needed be armed foremost to reach out to his loved one as he did in the golden age well as he puts himself she slipped right through this final panel was not only iconic but is a testament to how incredible this chapter is as God's grips force double his arm once was he ends with this I guess even if you force back what was lost it still won't be the way it was it's not just the arm here but God his physical state as a whole reflects this message despite still being a chiseled beautiful God his scarred body patch of white hair from the effects of a Berserker armor and his missing eyes signify Bay's undergone massive fiscal hardship since be eclipsed and that he can never return before those times however the message of guts his closing words mainly applied to Casca herself but even if she does restore her sanity it's not just a switch where she will be like how she was pre eclipsed the events of that horrific day will affect Casca's mental and physical state like how it did guts and based on the recent events of a manga we know guts his haunting words to be true this chapter also leaves a wiggly hopeful message deep in the darkness gut is right you can't force back what was lost but at the same time you shouldn't but instead learn to move forward as go to help guts realize how to move forward Casca has not only guts but the rest of the party to help her move forward in a healthier way than how gut started out this chapter provided excellent emotional beats and insights on par with cracks endure blade acting as another deep dive into got to psyche and retrospect on his journey so far bubbles of utility acted as a sad reality of acceptance for guts but the past can't be forced back and for he has to be prepared for what Casca may be like when she recovers but for now especially after the latest chapter in boom anga who knows what the future may hold thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Spired

Views: 138,325

Keywords: berserk, grunbeld, book, griffith, casca, anime, manga, The Flame Dragon Knight, Fukami, Miura, Analysis, Farnese, Schierke, Golden Age, Black Swordsman, Puck, Guts, Anime Review, Berserk 2016, Berserk 2017, Review, Video Review, Casca Restore, Skull Knight, Fantasia, Lost Children, Conviction, Femto, Berserk 1997, Godo, Erica, Rickert, Falcon of the Millennium Empire, Void, Ubik, Conrad, Slan, Zodd, Godhand, Silat, Video Essay, Berserker Armor, Band of the Hawk, Eclipse, Kentaro Miura

Id: P5njM1fJZiI

Length: 14min 50sec (890 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020