Berserk Official Guidebook

Awesome condition, good book.

First the disappointing bits: this was advertised as including “eight pages of color” and, perhaps unreasonably, I imagined that might mean a color story episode. However, the color pages are just more full-page portraits of Guts and his band, like the ones that have been appearing at the front of regular issues of the book. As far as the content, I was hoping for behind-the-scenes and background information that would be new to the reader, but there’s very little of that sort of thing; it’s mainly a compilation of details we’ve already seen in the various episodes of the story. And an annoyance throughout the book is REALLY SMALL PRINT, sometimes on toned or patterned backgrounds, making it even harder to read.

Fun stuff: for most of the major characters there’s a circular graph showing how they rate on stamina, physical strength, sociability, emotional strength, intelligence, and “legerity”, which I had to look up to be sure of the meaning of (“physical or mental quickness; nimbleness; agility”). Not absolutely every character who’s ever appeared in the story gets an entry — most notably missing is Vargas, the old doctor guy who helped Guts against the Slug Count in the first two books (and from whom Guts acquired the Behelit he carries!) — but many, many do, including past “favorite villains” like Mozgus and Wyald. In the section on the Godhand is one of those tidbits of background information of the sort I was hoping for — Femto/Griffith “is the fifth of their number, whom they’ve long desired. With Femto’s birth they are now a complete set of five, but what is their goal in accomplishing this?” Towards the back of the book is a very interesting 12-page interview with Kentaro Miura, in which he frequently displays quite a modest self-deprecating humor about his monumental creation. He confirms that the story is, degree by degree, building towards a showdown between Guts and Griffith — though how this can happen while Griffith is orders of magnitude more powerful than Guts is one of the mysteries I eagerly await an answer to. As another reviewer here said, you’ll spend hours poring over this Guidebook — tiny type and all.

Menciona lo principal del manga es una guía muy completa.

Absolutely chock full of amazing background and detail. Every page is just jam packed. One of the best guidebooks I’ve seen for a manga. Looks like every character no matter how minor, is in here. Just amazing. This is going to fill many hours of joy for me. If you like berserk even a tiny bit, you need this book.

This is more or less what it says on the tin–a guide to the characters, concepts, and events of the Berserk manga, along with some other fun stuff like “what Apostle would you be” games and interviews with Miura. The interviews with Miura are the best part, you can get a decent bit of insight into his inspirations (Fist of the North Star) and creative process. Aside from that, you get overviews with quotes from the important characters like Guts, Griffith, Casca, etc. along with “stat sheets” for them (their strength, intelligence, agility, etc.) It’s pretty cool, but the font size can get small and hard to read at some points in the book. Also, there are questionable translation choices, like “Knight of Skeleton” instead of “Skull Knight.” So if those really grind your gears, give this a 4, but if not, this is easily a 5 star purchase.

Great book for a fan or collector to have.