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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 16:00 |
 The final volume of Berserk is here, although unusually it's not the end of the story - for that, you need to go back to volume one. What it is the end of is Griffith's climb to power, and faced with a life with a ruined body or a deal with darkness that will see him rise to almost limitless power, guess which option he chooses...
22 - Infiltration
To free Griffith, Guts and his colleagues first need to get inside the castle dungeon where he's being held. The sewer tunnels beneath the castle provide a means of entry, and the rescue attempt is soon underway. Helped by servants sent by Princess Charlotte, they make their way to Griffith's cell, where they're shocked by the shell of a human that they find. Outside the castle, a unit of the Band of the Hawk wait for the return of their leader, but in a surprise attack by a band of powerful demons, they're wiped out in a matter of moments...
23 - Eve of the Feast
Guts and the others have escaped the castle with Griffith, with the help of some other members of the Band who had been waiting to deal with the inevitable pursuers. It's a hollow victory, though - having endured years of torture, Griffith's body appears ruined beyond any hope of repair, and the surviving members of the Band soon begin to wonder if they have any future. Looking for a way to continue, they turn to Guts, hoping he'll agree to become their new leader. But Griffith himself hasn't given up hope of regaining his former glory, even if that means he has to make a deal with the devil...
24 - The Great Eclipse
As the eclipse begins, Griffith's Egg of the King awakens, and the earth and sky transform into a million blood-red heads - leaving the members of the Band of the Hand terrified, until Caska takes control and orders the band to regroup. To the demons around them, the eclipse is a rare chance for them to feast on the men of the earth while waiting for their Lord to awaken, as a myriad of strange and unsettling creatures begin to appear. When those creatures declare Griffith to be their kinsman and King, though, the rest of the Band of the Hawk begin to realise that they have a serious problem on their hands: the Egg of the King will allow Griffith to become a Demon himself, but the cost will be the sacrifice of those around him...
25 - Time of Eternity
Guts is still determined to "save" Griffith from becoming a Demon, despite it being Griffith's own choice - but the barrier protecting Griffith while he undergoes his transformation is strong enough to break even Guts' blade. Completing the transformation requires human sacrifice, and below the altar, the army of demons are already unleashing slaughter on the members of the Band of the Hawk, who are powerless to defend themselves. With Guts soon the last man standing, will anyone be able to stop the onslaught..?
This is right up there with the final episodes of Evangelion as one of the strangest endings I've ever seen to an anime series. It's also a real case of Guts and the Band putting their necks on the line for no thanks at all - Griffith has always had ambitions of rising to rule the land, and while before his internment he was happy to do that by playing the political game, his long period of torture in the king's dungeon has twisted his mind to the point where a deal with the devil doesn't seem so bad, and the loyalty that his men have shown him is meaningless. A kick in the teeth? You betcha - but one that, in their role as sacrifice to Griffith's elevation to demonhood, his men won't feel for too long.
Come the eclipse, the series descends quickly into the surreal and ultra-violent - this volume thoroughly earns its 18 certificate, with gore flowing so quickly that you soon become desensitised to it, and Caska's status as lone female bringing her a particularly unfortunate end. The level of general unpleasantness is doubly surprising when you remember that this is a TV series, and that these episodes aired as you see them - quite remarkable.
Violence and gore on its own doesn't make for a good story, though, and sadly there's precious little real story here. What there is could be summed up in one sentence: that Griffith is offered unlimited power, paid for by the lives of his loyal men, and accepts the offer. That's it - very little is seen of Griffith himself, it's just a morbid focus on the deaths of the Band of the Hawk and Guts' efforts to make some sort of difference against overwhelming odds, but while he emerges as the sole survivor of the slaughter, he can't change the course of events, and as the series ends wanders off into a bleak future. That's where episode 1 fits into the story, of course - we've come full circle to discovering what triggered the events of that first story, and while that's quite a neat story-telling trick I do wish there was more to this volume than there is.
Of course, knowing how Guts' story would end should have made it fairly obvious that this stage in the story would come, and it's certainly a brave way to end the series - you'll either love it or hate it, but it should certainly be a talking point, and the disc scores a few extra point because of that. Overall, there's very little like Berserk currenly on the market, and while it lacks the visual polish of a modern series there's still enough to keep the attention - even if in parts you can't help but shake your head in disbelief. Well worth a look.
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