I watched the anime but man does this first volume strike hard. Story starts with introduction of Guts, lone wolf mercenary, wielding a slab of steel that resemble iron plank but called by anyone else - Guts' sword (if you ever played Final Fantasy, yes, it is that type of sword).

Guts is ruthless and bent on hunting daemons that have spread across the country. For that he seems not to care who dies and, very much like any action hero from James Bond to Takeshi Kovacs, being his acquaintance is sure ticket to the other side.

Setting is medieval-like Europe with knights in armor, broadswords, maces, armed horses and castles like those that can be found in Germany's rural landscape today. For some reason all the lords of the area have made pact with unholy forces and became something otherworldly, something daemonic that started hunting their people for pleasure.

This is revenge horror story to the core, people die in the most gruesome way only to be used by daemonic forces as tools. Entire setting is very much like Warhammer universe, rather bleak and in constant war.

This is mature manga and truly not for those that get easily offended or are faint-hearted.
Recommended to all fans of fantasy stories like Warhammer. ( )

When one of the greatest artists to ever put drawings onto paper dreams up the best dark fantasy story of all time, this is what you get.
The absolute peak of manga as an art form. ( )

Berserk is over 30 volumes (comic books) long and going. They are all awesome. ( )

Thankfully I was a lot more naieve when I first read this series; I've already read the first 15 volumes and know just how thought-provoking, emotionally-impactful, and just utterly intense the later volumes get. However, after planning on re-reading this series, I realized that first volume wasn't as great as I remembered.

For one, Guts isn't when Guts later became in this. The Guts I know, 15 volumes in, is COMPLETELY fucked in the head! Filled with history, vengeful, sadistic, tortured, cursed, a man-turned-monster. But here, here we don't see that: the Guts here smirks, sneers, makes comebacks, and laughs sardonically at others. The Guts I know can't show those emotions, because those emotions are for PUSSIES!!! The Guts I know is either stoically cold, or batshit insane; There is no middle-road emotion for Guts, the supporting cast is what's meant to show character and keep the story entertaining, not him.

And the last thing is that there isn't any of that deep, philosophical junk that hits me so good! I'll admit there was one good part that went:

Guts: "If you're always worried about crushing the ants beneath you, you won't be able to walk (pg. 160)."
Puck [looking around an army of cleaved, skeleton corpses]: "This is the world Guts lives in (pg. 165)."

That was pretty deep, but again, Guts is a pussy in this so it didn't hit me as hard as it could've knowing what later volumes had in store.

In short, this was more of a brutal-fantasy and preparation for upcoming stories than anything the author was going to later come up with: couldn't say it was great, but I'm delighted to be reading this series again ( )

Introduction of Guts, Puck, demons and the behelit. ( )