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And Then it All Went to Hell. Literally.
Apr. 29th, 2010 10:43 amEven though Shawn came home yesterday afternoon, Jon came over as planned and we had pizza and finished up our anime marathon, watching the final fourteen episodes of "Berserk" in which everything goes to hell. Literally.
No, seriously, the last four episodes take a sudden left turn and land our heroes in Hell, surrounded by hungry demons. Previous to that, it's a kind of fraught bromance/buddy/love triangle story that takes place in a European mideaval fantasy land. My head is still reeling, actually. It's not completely out of the blue that the demons show up -- as there are hints of a dark prophecy for Griffith, the fabulously handsome white-haired hero -- but, whoa.
There's a couple of things I want to say about the TV series that probably won't make a lot of sense unless you've seen this and/or are willing to wade through the extensive plot outline at Wikipedia referrenced above. I'll try to set up enough of what's needed, though, so bear with me.
For SF/F feminists -- this TV series is so not for you on so many levels, but the character of "Casca" (spelled with a c in the Wikipedia entry, but our subtitles showed "Caska") has a couple of interesting moments. The first time we're introduced to Caska, she kicks our bada$$ hero's butt. She's portrayed as a sword slinger without equal, with the exception of the (possibly demon-power enhanced) Griffith. No one is physically stronger or more relentlessly brutal than Guts, our bada$$ main point of view hero/antihero, but Caska is, as he says at one point, "extremely reliable in a fight. That's hard to find [in a woman, I believe he says, but the implication is _any_where.]" Yet, Caska is a real woman. At one point, she HAS HER PERIOD.
You can all chime in about how wrong I am about this, but my sense is that there's not a lot fiction involving warrior women that deal with this (in a non-parody sort of way.) Caska's period comes on right before a big battle and she simply can't cope... at least she's "not herself" as someone points out.
The way it's done in the TV series, it's not terribly "real life." She's woozy and feverish, which don't jive with my personal experience of such things (my first thought was that she was pregnant, actually), but it's kind of awesome that it figures into the storyline at all. Okay, so it's used as an excuse for Guts to get all protective and essentially have to rescue her, but, hey. The writer(s) also use it to illuminate that, you know, it sucks to be a woman warrior. You constantly have to deal with threats of rape (which are pretty constant and no doubt played up for the titilation factor, though it's pretty satisfying to see her slaughter almost anyone who tries it on) and then, on top of all that crap, once a month, your body betrays your will.
Though I tend to prefer my warrior women without weakness of any sort, I appreciated that "Berserk" allowed Caska this complexity, at any rate. At least she never had any children to rescue. Granted, she was entirely motivated to become super-warrior by love for Griffith, but, to be fair, in part, so was Guts.
The other thing I wanted to say about the TV series is that the "everything goes to literal hell" ending bothered me a whole lot less than what happens to Griffith in prison. Despite his tendency to wear lavendar capes and ride white horses, he's portrayed as an uber-masculine warrior. (Okay, he's actually pretty overtly metrosexual and we find out he's hustled a bit in his past,) BUT he's the handsome/brilliant (if devious) leader and all that. My American sensiblity is that things should sort of work out for him, or, at least, that his descent into madness/demon prophecy should involve him physically matching his bada$$ counterpart/rival Guts until the bitter end. But, that's not what happens. He's crippled by the torturer. His tongue is cut out and the tendons in his wrists and legs are slit irrepairably, so that he can no longer wield a sword or even walk without assistance.
Gah.
That was just so brutal that when the hell mouth opens up, I was kind of sympathetic with Griffith's choice to sacrific his friends in order to be reborn as the demon lord because it was just HARD to see him as a wasted, corpse-like shadow of his former self.
The whole thing was pretty intense that way, honestly. According to Jon and Wikipedia the manga continues AFTER all this horrible, and, as Jon warned me the day before, this is actually sort of the "happy times." Eek.
This is not going on my "recommend" shelf, but it gave me a lot to think about. Plus, I dreamed in animation for two nights in a row, which is always kind of cool.
No, seriously, the last four episodes take a sudden left turn and land our heroes in Hell, surrounded by hungry demons. Previous to that, it's a kind of fraught bromance/buddy/love triangle story that takes place in a European mideaval fantasy land. My head is still reeling, actually. It's not completely out of the blue that the demons show up -- as there are hints of a dark prophecy for Griffith, the fabulously handsome white-haired hero -- but, whoa.
There's a couple of things I want to say about the TV series that probably won't make a lot of sense unless you've seen this and/or are willing to wade through the extensive plot outline at Wikipedia referrenced above. I'll try to set up enough of what's needed, though, so bear with me.
For SF/F feminists -- this TV series is so not for you on so many levels, but the character of "Casca" (spelled with a c in the Wikipedia entry, but our subtitles showed "Caska") has a couple of interesting moments. The first time we're introduced to Caska, she kicks our bada$$ hero's butt. She's portrayed as a sword slinger without equal, with the exception of the (possibly demon-power enhanced) Griffith. No one is physically stronger or more relentlessly brutal than Guts, our bada$$ main point of view hero/antihero, but Caska is, as he says at one point, "extremely reliable in a fight. That's hard to find [in a woman, I believe he says, but the implication is _any_where.]" Yet, Caska is a real woman. At one point, she HAS HER PERIOD.
You can all chime in about how wrong I am about this, but my sense is that there's not a lot fiction involving warrior women that deal with this (in a non-parody sort of way.) Caska's period comes on right before a big battle and she simply can't cope... at least she's "not herself" as someone points out.
The way it's done in the TV series, it's not terribly "real life." She's woozy and feverish, which don't jive with my personal experience of such things (my first thought was that she was pregnant, actually), but it's kind of awesome that it figures into the storyline at all. Okay, so it's used as an excuse for Guts to get all protective and essentially have to rescue her, but, hey. The writer(s) also use it to illuminate that, you know, it sucks to be a woman warrior. You constantly have to deal with threats of rape (which are pretty constant and no doubt played up for the titilation factor, though it's pretty satisfying to see her slaughter almost anyone who tries it on) and then, on top of all that crap, once a month, your body betrays your will.
Though I tend to prefer my warrior women without weakness of any sort, I appreciated that "Berserk" allowed Caska this complexity, at any rate. At least she never had any children to rescue. Granted, she was entirely motivated to become super-warrior by love for Griffith, but, to be fair, in part, so was Guts.
The other thing I wanted to say about the TV series is that the "everything goes to literal hell" ending bothered me a whole lot less than what happens to Griffith in prison. Despite his tendency to wear lavendar capes and ride white horses, he's portrayed as an uber-masculine warrior. (Okay, he's actually pretty overtly metrosexual and we find out he's hustled a bit in his past,) BUT he's the handsome/brilliant (if devious) leader and all that. My American sensiblity is that things should sort of work out for him, or, at least, that his descent into madness/demon prophecy should involve him physically matching his bada$$ counterpart/rival Guts until the bitter end. But, that's not what happens. He's crippled by the torturer. His tongue is cut out and the tendons in his wrists and legs are slit irrepairably, so that he can no longer wield a sword or even walk without assistance.
Gah.
That was just so brutal that when the hell mouth opens up, I was kind of sympathetic with Griffith's choice to sacrific his friends in order to be reborn as the demon lord because it was just HARD to see him as a wasted, corpse-like shadow of his former self.
The whole thing was pretty intense that way, honestly. According to Jon and Wikipedia the manga continues AFTER all this horrible, and, as Jon warned me the day before, this is actually sort of the "happy times." Eek.
This is not going on my "recommend" shelf, but it gave me a lot to think about. Plus, I dreamed in animation for two nights in a row, which is always kind of cool.