Berserk

Young Animal 2024 issue #21 preview

The latest episodes the whole world has been waiting for! 2 issues in a row!

Taken hostage by the Kushan, Guts' brand starts to tingle

Episode 377 will feature a color page.

I'm really interested in trying to get more information about Void, and one angle I haven't read much about is this: does the amount of people sacrificed, and their strength, influence the power of the resultant godhand member?

There definitely seems to be some kind of correlation between sacrifices and power, since Slan states in chapter 82: "It's ironic though. The stronger his life force and the greater his anguish, the more they become precious bread for the new life of darkness". From this we can at least deduct that a strong sacrifice makes the new member stronger than a weak sacrifice.

Now the question is: shouldn't this mean that Void is much, much more powerful than Griffith currently is? After all, he sacrificed not just a band of mercenaries (who have some very strong members, albeit only few due to the year before), but an entire kingdom. I do think the average sacrifice was much weaker for Void (as they were most likely not warriors, but intellectuals), though it's difficult to say since we know very little about his eclipse. But nonetheless I definitely think there is some correlation here.

This of course leads to some interesting possibilities for what Griffith is currently up to. Is he planning to somehow ascend further by making another, much bigger sacrifice? Do the godhand members have a hierarchy which he is trying to climb (almost certainly)? Could he be trying to surpass the Idea of Evil itself?

I'm re-reading the manga right now. During the Eclipse, we see the brand placed on a number of hawks, each in a different place (link to the panel):

• Casca gets it on the left side of her chest, roughly over her heart

• Guts, of course, has it on his neck

• Judeau gets his on the palm of his left hand

• Pippin has it on his forearm

• Corkus gets his on his forehead (just like the bodies below the tower of rebirth)

I can make an argument for each of them to have gotten it on whatever they most rely on, except for Guts, I can't make a concrete argument why it's his neck.

But what I'm really interested in is this: can we learn anything about the bodies from Gaiserics kingdom from this? It might be that the population of his city wasn't made up of fighters and physical people at the time it was sacrificed, but of thinkers, or at least people who rely more on wit and cunning than on strength (positive or negative). This would make sense considering the technological and social advancements they seem to have made.

What do you guys think?