Berserk Volume 25: This is Not What Berserk Should Be

This volume begins moderately if poorly with the banal troll plot still being the subject of the narrative. As an example, while it’s exciting to see magic used by Serpico, it’s aggravating that it’s being used here. Even the exceptional art can’t save the underwhelming chapters. And, by tremendous art I refer to.

When this can’t save your volume, I don’t now what can. Even more lukewarm is the priest who is intended to mirror the past version of Farnese, but instead is too trite and simplistic. He is Farnese, without the backstory, so without the depth, so not Farnese.

If you, like me, hoped this troll stuff ended half way through at the very least, you would be very mistaken. It pretty much takes up the entire volume, and it’s devastating. While the Millennium Falcon arc is excellent, un-remarkable volumes like this give it a different perception: that it’s not Berserk anyone. For the most part, this arc works as a middle ground: expanding on what has come before and reaching towards the future.

Characters like Farnese and Griffith are polished and refined and new characters are given at an avalanche, opening our eyes to how big Berserk‘s world truly is, while opening us up to the magic of this world. Which works as a good way of self-defense against forces like the God-Hand. In that way, magic is a necessary tool that Berserk did a brilliant job of slowly integrating. The problem is that magic is something that Miura is clearly a big fan of, and his persistent indulgence into it causes major parts of the arc to feel immoderate. This is most evident in volume twenty-five. Entire parts of this volume I would deem ‘unreadable’ if any reader is attempting a re-read. So much of this volume is uncurbed and low-price in it’s execution that I find little to compliment in it’s writing, with the exception of a few notable moments. Aside from mentions of Griffith, how magic is integrated into combat, and the scene in which Farnese tries to protect Casca, there is little charm this volume develops.