What's up everybody? Jared again. Today, we're talking about a show
that's definitely gonna get us demonetized on YouTube; Berserk. Based off the manga of the same name,
Berserk is one of the oldest ongoing series out there. The anime premiered in
1997 before going on in almost 20 year hiatus and has returned with a
controversial new animation style. Since the show is still going, we can't quite decipher the entire message here
So while Guts' quest for revenge against the god hand, Griffith deals with some fairly obvious themes ranging from religion to free will
We're gonna leave that for a future video. Instead,
We're here to talk about the most visually obvious and philosophically subtle aspect of the show.
That's right, Berserk's metric crap-ton of violence.
Welcome to this Wisecrack edition on the philosophy of violence in Berserk. And, as always, spoilers ahead.
Now I know it might seem like the phrase mindless violence was coined to describe Berserk,
But what's going on beneath the surface of its BDSM inspired angels and gruesome deaths, is actually pretty smart.
Berserk is unique,
Not only in how it uses violence to horrify and mesmerize us,
But also to transform us. To understand the violence in Berserk,
We need to consider its genre. While the influences of
Psychological horror, cosmic horror, and even gore porn can be seen in Berserk,
the show specifically rests in horrors monster sub-genre.
According to Aesthetecist Noel Carol, monster horror has two very important implications. 1: horror as a genre
Affords us a critical distance allowing for a safe space for fascination to take root simply put violence in real life is bad
But violence on screen is kosher. 2: the monsters depicted on screen embody what Carole calls
categorical violation. They defy traditional categorizations and
simultaneously attract and repulse for the same reason. It's these two points that make berserk so well preserved.
Why are we okay with witnessing Guts literally slice people in half? Because we view this over-the-top violence from a safe distance.
And why do we find these awful acts of violence so compelling? Because violence in the show, like its subject matter, defies
traditional categorizations.
This blurring of typical categories and the fascination and
repulsion that it generates is Berserk's calling card. These binaries can be distinctions between life
and death; such as when Guts mows down a group of animated skeletons. Or the distinction between man and beast in the Apostles.
But they can also be less literal. For example, Father Mozgus head bulging sadist
extraordinaire claims to be an agent of God,
But is actually serving the demons. He and his ragtag team of torturers even gain wings as if they're literally
angels. Lady Farnese now seeing the truth behind her order realizes what they actually are.
Even Guts, the epicenter of the show's violence, embodies this idea of categorical
violation. He's both a murderer and a hero. An object of religious prophecy and an anti-religious crusader. In the original anime Guts
is branded as a ritual sacrifice for the god hand. A moment that was supposedly preordained.
But Guts managed to defy fate and survive. Guts is simultaneously an object of religious prophecy and a middle finger
against faith. Or as far Dees originally sees him:
And how Guts sees himself:
And much like the man himself, Guts' violence possesses this trademark sense of categorical violation. It repels us
yet attracts us. It's animalistic yet refined.
This is most apparent when Guts puts on the Berserker armor and blurs the line between man and beast. His armor even
Transforming to mirror this change. As guts releases a savage cry in charge as the battlefield you can't help but notice the compelling
choreographed ferocity here. As his opponent Grunbeld notes:
And when Guts delivers the final blow of the first bout, he does so with a grace that is more than anything,
well, beautiful.
While it might seem strange,
according to thinker Joel Black, an act of violence can, in fact, be
beautiful. In his book the aesthetics of murder he writes, "If any human act evokes the aesthetic experience of the sublime,
certainly it is the act of murder. If murder can be experienced aesthetically the murderer can in turn be
regarded as a kind of artist, a performance artist or anti-artist whose specialty is not creation,
but destruction.
Of course we're not giving the thumbs up to murder,
but Black's point is that when performed with the right craft, style, and force violence can have an almost
transcendent effect on its viewers. This idea that something can leave us in awe and
transcend understanding is what philosopher Immanuel Kant referred to as the sublime or the State of Mind
created when a certain experience stops being an object of our judgment and starts controlling it. Starting to sound familiar?
Like monster horror, the sublime has the power to violate the purpose in respect of the judgment and to do
violence to the imagination. It works through a process of categorical violation; breaking down the
divisions between our commonly held beliefs.
So how does the sublime in berserk transform us? By forcing us to reconsider our traditionally held ideas.
Specifically beauty.
Throughout both the new series and the 1997 version
we are bombarded with intensely violent images that are, in their own way, beautiful.
When Griffith and his band of heroes -- or
Monsters -- liberate Vritannis from the invading Kushans, Griffith seer Sonia comments on the aftermath:
Here the senseless death and destruction wrought by Griffiths army overwhelms Sonia,
possessing a beauty that challenges her very idea of what beauty is. Through tapping into the sublime,
violence in Berserk frequently becomes a vehicle for change.
Sonia opening her eyes to the dazzling death brought by Griffith leaves her old life in the village behind and
follows Griffith on his journey to become God King.
But Berserk is very careful to make sure it doesn't depict all violence as evoking this sense of awe. In fact the show
juxtaposes the artful killing of Guts and Griffith with ordinary violence seemingly common to everyday life.
Whether it's the villagers stoning someone to death or a knight whipping a prostitute from the comfort of his horse, these moments are strangely
mundane, petty, and underwhelming. In the end, these figure's institutions lack the skill and artistry to evoke the sublime.
If skill and craftsmanship are the keys to evoking total awe and wonder, then Guts can be viewed as something like a
violent performance artist. So what's the effect of Guts as visceral and bloody art? Does it have a greater purpose?
Or is it just as French writer Theophile Gautier calls: art for art's sake.
While it might be tempting to think it's the latter Guts' acts of violence do have a greater purpose.
Demonstrating the hideous nature of the societal violence and ultimately
disrupting it. Through the distinction between artistic and non artistic acts of violence the show glorifies those that work
against the grain of society. Contrasting them with the drab cruelty of the
institutions themselves. A prime example is Griffith when he's reborn into the world
fulfilling the wishes of the Egg of the Perfect World to upend the world order.
True to this cause Griffith and his army take back for Tanis. In this instance Griffith is working against society.
His upstart rebel army housing the Kushans in one fell swoop.
But once Griffith reinstates the holy seized control of the city he becomes enmeshed in the established power structure.
Typical to the violence perpetrated by
institutions, Griffiths violence afterwards becomes
tasteless and crude. When Guts and company arrive later at the city
they find hundreds of slave traders hanged as enemies of the state. Far from possessing beauty,
this scene is sterile,
methodically organized and revolting Schierke. Unlike Griffith though, Guts' violence is never part of a greater societal system.
Guts fights only for himself, making enemies out of whole armies,
religions, and even godlike beings. In fact, the brand on Guts' neck attracts demons and apostles, continually forcing Guts to abandon society.
In the first episode Guts attempts to reenter society by agreeing to take a carriage ride with a kindly man and his daughter.
Guts falls asleep only for his brand to attract demons who slaughter the father/daughter duo.
Instead, Guts is cursed to live and act on the peripheries of society. His violence becomes a destructive force upon the world
Lady Farnese realizes this when she becomes disillusioned with the Holy See as all hell breaks loose on the battlefield.
Guts' violence invoking the sublime becomes a powerful force that disrupts the status quo and forces people to
renegotiate their core ideals. For Farnese this results in her abandoning her post and even her God.
In tying artistic violence to the individual, and unartistic violence to society, Berserk is challenging us on where we focus our attention.
While we're drawn to be shining brilliance of guts' violence or seemingly blind to the everyday
violence that takes place in the greater world of Berserk. We as viewers live for the battle scenes, the crystallization of violence.
But this ignores the existence of
structural violence, or the idea that certain power structures can prevent less powerful groups of people from meeting their basic needs.
True to form, look who gets screwed over by society in Berserk: Isidro is essentially forced into servitude being the glorified
busboy of a mercenary group.
Casca, essentially a mental invalid, is singled out for death by father Mozgus and almost raped by a strange
fertility cult thing. And Luca and her gaggle of young friends are forced to risk their lives by working as prostitutes at the base camp.
Both servicing military officers while simultaneously
fearing those very officers judgements.
Berserk is challenging our ideas of what peace really is. We like to think that peace begins when the battle stops. When Guts has finished
putting his opponents through the proverbial blender.
But because we can't take our eyes away from his dazzling acts of violence committed by Guts and others,
we're unable to notice or care about all the other acts of violence committed by society.
It's in the luls between battles when Berserk decides to show us the artless and
repulsive violence in the world around them. In these rare moments when we see people stoned to death or mountains of dead bodies or even
a lake of blood and entrails we see the limitations of thinking that piece is simply the absence of war or battle.
But for all those complex,
intellectual ideas we don't blame you if you only remember Berserk as the anime were an anthropomorphic horse licks a semi-naked woman.
And there goes the last of our Youtube Adsense revenue. Thanks for watching guys, peace.