Berserk Volume 37: Gets Better as it Goes On

The opening chapters, thankfully, seem to be fully concluding the Boat arc and all of us who struggled to make it this far are rewarded with this kind of art.

Every time this arc makes you almost pass out from sleepiness, I thank Miura for drawing this. It’s like a good dose of medicine for the disappointing story we were afforded. Though, things seem to not be going well for our crew as Schierke awakes, to everyone’s joy then eventual horror. Guts is in that armor alone. Thankfully, Miura’s addition of mermaid had real plot importance as they are the ones to help pick Guts up. Additionally, the Moonlight boy seems to staring at Guts very intently. The only other person who stares like that is Griffith.

We see Guts being helped by Farnese’s magic and you can feel the love she gives to him. But this is soon interrupted by Casca, who is looking for the long-gone Moonlight boy. In these quick moments, you can see Farnese’s struggle. She loves Guts, but hates to see him love Casca, who she also loves. But this leads her to accidentally hurt him, saying he would only make Casca more annoyed with his presence, to which Guts agrees. Always in Berserk when there is a love triangle there is someone carrying the small end of the stick, and here that’s Farnese. She feels like an outsider to their love and a burden, but can’t help herself and it’s not like she’s un-welcome company. Later, we cut to Guts further haunted by the failure of restoring Casca, and as a way to cope, he looks out his window to see the Moonlight boy, fading into the moonlight for Guts, and shooting off like a fairy or star.

Berserk then takes things back in time to show a younger Guts, who after being betrayed, is left to his jail and within his solitude he finds an elf. This now takes on a different meaning. It helps to build a bridge on Puck and Guts relationship, and shows Guts connection to the elf world. The elf ends up greatly healing and rehabilitating him, so when’s he’s forced to fight an expected death, he wins. But during the battle he loses Chitch, leading to her demise. It helps to reiterate Guts philosophy, things past and things change, but never forget what you had. And don’t loose yourself to what you could’ve had, always aim for a better tomorrow.

Miura switches the narrative, yet again, to take us to what Rickert has been doing: surviving. And he meets with someone of the past, Laban, who helps to introduce him to Griffith’s Kingdom. His dream. It’s crazy how captivating this volume got.