Berserk Volume 15: Elves Can be Scary Too

I am starting to miss Golden Age already. Not to say the Lost Children arc is bad, but it is to state this filler is underwhelming.

We kick it off with Guts looking at what is supposedly the ring-leader of these human-eating elves, and you can see Guts is ready to hack and slash through all of them. Meanwhile, this ring-leader who is named Rosine is ready to humor her next prey and as they gear up a couple things are revealed. One is that these elves are children and Rosine is Jill’s old friend. When Jill is able to alert Rosine of this, she flees and we see Guts fall face first onto the ground. This is a really excellent moment to show that Guts not thinking and going straight to battle has it’s downsides and shows how he was probably weak when deciding to take Rosine on, which reflects Guts mindset after the Eclipse. Death is a matter of time for him and it’s as if accomplishing his dream of killing Griffith really is just a dream.

We see the towns people rile against Guts with bashful hypocrisy. As Guts reiterates, none of them tried to help, rather they sit and watch and patronize like children. Guts realizing the danger he is in, threatens to kill Jill in order to escape the situation. What’s fascinating is how this situation settles, with Guts throwing everyone away, and trying to be alone again. He feels sympathy for the act, and so pushes everyone away, even if they know why he did it. To the world, he is a villain, whereas to us, he is a struggler. Compared to the towns people who watch evil and do nothing about it, Guts is someone who fights evil by becoming evil. The towns people can be compared to German families who watched what was happening and did nothing about it. They hear screams, never acted, and one day might throw hands at everyone except themselves. With Guts, he is someone who fights, and while rough in his solutions, still struggles on. Additionally, Guts leaving everyone when he makes hard decisions could be used as a way to avoid emotional attachment. In that way, he is avoiding Griffith maintaining control over him. As the threat of hurting those he loves is what made Griffith the man he loathes today. But in return he is only letting Griffith win, tainting his life all in the name of him.

We see Guts brand bleed, causing him to see his son, destroyed by Griffith. Then, the elf children murdered by Guts appear which causes Guts to snap, killing any that get in his line of vision. Similar to the Eclipse, Guts, when pushed to his breaking point, reacts with rage as a way to cope with the unimaginable. In his life, cutting things down solves everything so cutting anything you don’t wanna imagine seems logical. When one of the children cries out to him, he only slashes them, becoming the demon of the story. This could be from all Guts has seen. Seeing every horrific demon and event imaginable really messes with a person. And to defeat the evil that plagues his world, he must become that evil in return. In reality, it just reflects the process of being all alone. As shown later, what Guts needs is community and running from it due to the hardships is no way to live, since it almost guarantees failure.

Once Jill notices Guts, we see her stand in his way causing him to stop swinging his sword, allowing the ghosts behind him to burn him and knock them to the ground. When Jill and Guts are awake and adjusted to their surroundings, she tells the story of Peekaf the Outcast. Essentially, it’s a be careful what you wish for, as Peekaf feeling he doesn’t belong runs away to fit in, but upon realizing how much others cared about him, attempts to return but it is too late. This tale is central to Rosine’s character as she practically called herself Peekaf, and seemingly mirrored her life off of him as a way to cope with her situation.

Guts soon makes it clear to Jill that if she keeps tagging along, he will not hesitate the next time she gets in the way. While this may or may not be true, it’s a good rouse to avoid putting her in danger and another way Guts can try and handle things on his own. As Guts sees it, from his life in Golden Age to now, he’s created too many tortured souls already and lives with too many mistakes to have any more guilt on his sleeve. Recall the child he killed for Griffith, and how likely he forgot about it then as a way to respect Griffith further. Now, it’s all that likely torments him. Children themselves play the role of guilt in Guts life, from Casca mirroring his younger self to that kid mentioned before, they all suffer and he puts them on his shoulders to carry.

When Jill is on her own, we see Rosine arrive in an attempt to take Jill with her. Before they can get flying far though, Guts comes in ready to strike and Jill sees the reality of these elfs. As Rosine puts it, the elf world is magical and carefree, away from the hardships of the real world, an escapism for the underprivileged youth. In reality, it is a lure, that I don’t think even Rosine notices since it’s as if she’s forced herself to believe she is happy as the reality is too much to handle. If you can recall Pleasure Island from the Disney classic Pinocchio, you wouldn’t be too far off. When Guts hits Rosine, we see her transform into a bug like state, shattering the dream to Jill’s displeasure. She may know they are scary force, as she has seen her village, but like Rosine, she wants to believe the elves may be magical. This tragic naivety causes Jill to stay with Rosine, long enough for Rosine to recommend she become one of them.

What I can appreciate about Lost Children is that it is it’s own coming-of-age story, from immaturity to maturity, a stage lost in Golden Age. Whereas Golden Age signifies young adulthood, and grappling with your past to make your future, Lost Children is that not so long ago past. Jill is having the past haunt her, and this could all make this arc being placed here a lot more clever. It’s the reader have to reconcile with the past, like the characters, to move towards a better future. In that way, it helps the reader to adjust to the newer arcs as a whole. Yet, it makes reading it quite a chore.

At the present, Guts is busy plowing through terrifying morphed human-bug creatures as Jill and Rosine fly off to their Neverland. It wouldn’t be improper to call this a twisted Peter Pan now that I think about it. Finally, Farnese appears again to state her motivation of tracking down Guts once and for all, and it’s so magical seeing how far she will grow as a character. If anyone tried this volume, then read volume forty, I would be curious to see their reaction.

Going to Puck, we see him follow a couple other elf’s as Rosine and Jill gaze at this Neverland. But it’s clear where Miura is taking it. As things are not as they appear, and the elf’s end up killing each other, with the bodies of civilians quietly placed in the background. If it isn’t clear yet, this is not a Eutopia as once believed and as Jill and Puck try to get away, they are hit with another bombshell: disgusting cocoons. And as Jill is about to become an elf, she is saved by Guts who rampaged his way in the nick of time. Jill considers as she sees Guts, why he looks like the monster here, rather than the human-eating Rosine. I would’ve preferred if Miura tried different methods rather than tirelessly and repeatedly telling us how Guts looks like the monster compared to the actual monsters from now on. It’s a fascinating idea, but one he relies too heavily on. The paneling was spot on this volume, with the way Miura directs our eyes to the spine-tingling horrors. The action, on the other hand, could’ve been less indulgent, but I still enjoyed it regardless. Especially, any time we get to awe at Miura’s art skills when he is drawing Guts sword.