Berserk Manga
BERSERK: MY NEVER ENDING QUEST TO MAKE EVERYONE READ AND WATCH BERSERK
INTRO
The purpose of this post is to give all who read it the knowledge they need to get Berserk manga. What is Berserk manga? Well it's only the best manga on the planet! Yes it is! Shut up! It's the best dammit! WANT ME TO CUT IT OFF!?!?!?
Anyway....... for those of you who have seen the anime, you know that the ending leaves just the tinniest little cliffhanger (freakin hell!). For those of you who haven't seen the anime, well, think of the word cliffhanger, multiply that by infiniti, take it to the depths of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I am talking about. Yeah.
BACKGROUND
The anime covers volume 1 and 4 through about 13, skipping 2 and 3. It also leaves out a main character. I don't know why, it just does. The manga is also much more...... hardcore than the anime. I don't mean porno hardcore, I mean intense, awesome, cool, violent, enthralling, kickass hardcore!
If you haven't seen the anime but think you might, watch it before you read the manga. The anime is awesome, but the manga is better. Also, since the anime doesn't cover the whole story, it's better to watch it first and then get everything you missed with the manga. When I read the manga, I remember the characters’ voices and the music….. it’s just better to watch the anime first, trust me.
Berserk started in the late 80s and it's been going strong ever since. It's up to volume 32 now. The anime was done in 1997, but it was quite violent so it was on late and didn’t get a lot of viewers, which I believe is why it wasn’t continued. But those who watch it all become hardcore fans.
(Oh, and don’t have doubts about it because it wasn’t continued. For your information, Cowboy Bebop was “canceled” half way through the season in Japan. I don’t know the circumstances through which the rest was made, if it was on TV or straight to video, but that’s what happened, and we all know how good the Cowboy Bebop anime was.)
STORY
What is Berserk about? Well, it’s hard to say. The setting is Europe in the dark ages. You know, horses, armor, swords, castles, kings, nobles, knights, war, the intolerance of religion (as in religios people being intolerant, big issue later in the mange, after the anime), witchcraft (totally new and unique take on the idea on witchcraft and religion, very fascinating and cool stuff), duty, comrades in arms, betrayal, revenge, evil, demons and magic (very sparse until after the anime in the timeline). The story takes place over decades. Truly epic.
I don’t really want to say too much about the characters. The story is so excellent and so unpredictable, I’d prefer everyone to see it with a blank slate to enjoy it to the fullest.
MMV (MANGA MUSIC VIDEO)
Here's a great MMV by Sir Lagsalot using scenes from the Berserk manga. He did an amazing editing job on this. It's one of the best fan music videos I've ever seen.
AMV (ANIME MUSIC VIDEO)
Here's an AMV also by Sir Lagsalot. It's just as amazing. If you have a good stereo or headphones then crank em up because this music sounds best when it's loud. Also, if you have not seen the anime yet (which I again encourage you to do before reading the manga), then I suggest that you do not watch this video more than a few times. It has spoilers in it, however they are so quick and out of context that I really doubt they will hurt your viewing of the anime in any way as long as you don't watch the video again and again, memorizing everything.
OKAY, WHERE DO I GET IT!?
Before I give you the goods, one thing is very important. Even if you’ve seen the anime, read the manga from the beginning. It is NOT the same. Remember what I said about a whole main character being left out? Yeah.
The first three volumes can no longer be found as torrents. So, since I'm just so nice, you can download them directly from my website. These virst three volumes are not as high quality as the rest, both in the scanlation and the original quality. The later volumes have a much heavier, meatier, more detailed look and feel. Oh, and yes, they are all read right-to-left.
For the most part, The Hawks wait until entire volumes are published and then scanlate and release the entire thing. One of the torrents includes all of 4-26, so it is large and you should start the download while you are still reading 1-3 so that they will be ready for you. Also, and this is very important, use something like WinRAR that lets you select many zip files at once and right click and tell them all to be unpacked into their own directories. This must be done because they do not all follow the same naming scheme. As a result, if you unpack all of a volume into a sing directory, many of the chapters will be out of order. Also, check to make sure nothing is missing, that includes volumes and chapters. I remember something was missing when I first got it, although that may have been fixed. Another important thing: For the individual volumes 27-30, download the low quality versions. Trust me. They are not low quality. They just call them that because they are lower than the high quality versions which are extremely high resolution, uncompressed images. They are a pain to read because only like a fifth of any page will fit on your screen at once. The low quality versions are still bigger than your screen and use a high quality setting jpg compression.
IMAGES
Well I thought I’d include some images as well. They are in relatively chronological order (relatively chronological, heh).
INTRO
The purpose of this post is to give all who read it the knowledge they need to get Berserk manga. What is Berserk manga? Well it's only the best manga on the planet! Yes it is! Shut up! It's the best dammit! WANT ME TO CUT IT OFF!?!?!?
Anyway....... for those of you who have seen the anime, you know that the ending leaves just the tinniest little cliffhanger (freakin hell!). For those of you who haven't seen the anime, well, think of the word cliffhanger, multiply that by infiniti, take it to the depths of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I am talking about. Yeah.
BACKGROUND
The anime covers volume 1 and 4 through about 13, skipping 2 and 3. It also leaves out a main character. I don't know why, it just does. The manga is also much more...... hardcore than the anime. I don't mean porno hardcore, I mean intense, awesome, cool, violent, enthralling, kickass hardcore!
If you haven't seen the anime but think you might, watch it before you read the manga. The anime is awesome, but the manga is better. Also, since the anime doesn't cover the whole story, it's better to watch it first and then get everything you missed with the manga. When I read the manga, I remember the characters’ voices and the music….. it’s just better to watch the anime first, trust me.
Berserk started in the late 80s and it's been going strong ever since. It's up to volume 32 now. The anime was done in 1997, but it was quite violent so it was on late and didn’t get a lot of viewers, which I believe is why it wasn’t continued. But those who watch it all become hardcore fans.
(Oh, and don’t have doubts about it because it wasn’t continued. For your information, Cowboy Bebop was “canceled” half way through the season in Japan. I don’t know the circumstances through which the rest was made, if it was on TV or straight to video, but that’s what happened, and we all know how good the Cowboy Bebop anime was.)
STORY
What is Berserk about? Well, it’s hard to say. The setting is Europe in the dark ages. You know, horses, armor, swords, castles, kings, nobles, knights, war, the intolerance of religion (as in religios people being intolerant, big issue later in the mange, after the anime), witchcraft (totally new and unique take on the idea on witchcraft and religion, very fascinating and cool stuff), duty, comrades in arms, betrayal, revenge, evil, demons and magic (very sparse until after the anime in the timeline). The story takes place over decades. Truly epic.
I don’t really want to say too much about the characters. The story is so excellent and so unpredictable, I’d prefer everyone to see it with a blank slate to enjoy it to the fullest.
MMV (MANGA MUSIC VIDEO)
Here's a great MMV by Sir Lagsalot using scenes from the Berserk manga. He did an amazing editing job on this. It's one of the best fan music videos I've ever seen.
- Berserk - Dark Tranquillity - The Wonders At Your Feet
AMV (ANIME MUSIC VIDEO)
Here's an AMV also by Sir Lagsalot. It's just as amazing. If you have a good stereo or headphones then crank em up because this music sounds best when it's loud. Also, if you have not seen the anime yet (which I again encourage you to do before reading the manga), then I suggest that you do not watch this video more than a few times. It has spoilers in it, however they are so quick and out of context that I really doubt they will hurt your viewing of the anime in any way as long as you don't watch the video again and again, memorizing everything.
- Berserk - Gatts - Cloud Connected
- Berserk - Otaku Productions - Hakura - Sentence
OKAY, WHERE DO I GET IT!?
Before I give you the goods, one thing is very important. Even if you’ve seen the anime, read the manga from the beginning. It is NOT the same. Remember what I said about a whole main character being left out? Yeah.
The first three volumes can no longer be found as torrents. So, since I'm just so nice, you can download them directly from my website. These virst three volumes are not as high quality as the rest, both in the scanlation and the original quality. The later volumes have a much heavier, meatier, more detailed look and feel. Oh, and yes, they are all read right-to-left.
For the most part, The Hawks wait until entire volumes are published and then scanlate and release the entire thing. One of the torrents includes all of 4-26, so it is large and you should start the download while you are still reading 1-3 so that they will be ready for you. Also, and this is very important, use something like WinRAR that lets you select many zip files at once and right click and tell them all to be unpacked into their own directories. This must be done because they do not all follow the same naming scheme. As a result, if you unpack all of a volume into a sing directory, many of the chapters will be out of order. Also, check to make sure nothing is missing, that includes volumes and chapters. I remember something was missing when I first got it, although that may have been fixed. Another important thing: For the individual volumes 27-30, download the low quality versions. Trust me. They are not low quality. They just call them that because they are lower than the high quality versions which are extremely high resolution, uncompressed images. They are a pain to read because only like a fifth of any page will fit on your screen at once. The low quality versions are still bigger than your screen and use a high quality setting jpg compression.
- Volumes 30+
IMAGES
Well I thought I’d include some images as well. They are in relatively chronological order (relatively chronological, heh).
