How Berserk Teaches The Harsh Truth. 

"There is no paradise to escape to, there is only battlefields" My favorite quote from ALL of Berzerk and maybe even manga - Lost children is gold

I like when Jill says "I think I'll try crying and shouting and biting my way through" cause not only does it show her own method of facing the reality of life, but also reflects what Guts feels deep down. No matter how strong he is, he is essentially doing exactly what Jill is doing, just a helpless person refusing to give up.

Berserk is such a horrifyingly beautiful story. “There is no paradise you can escape to.” As someone who’s lost in their mind a lot, this line hits hard.

I just recently caught up with Berserk and I'm shocked that the Lost Children arc is considered by some to be FILLER. Really shows how some people will go out of their way to underappreciate a story no matter how well-written it is.

Lost children and the whole of the Conviction arc really connected with me and love this part of the story so much. I miss Jill and hope she's doing well away from her father hopefully.

Masked, when she is awakened from her trance by the broken egg, and Guts shows up, its a parallel. Guts was born from a corpse, and he sees the fetus curse. Those are very similar, and To me that is something Miura mastered, he picks these events as metaphors.

Guts did nothing wrong

Also Guts saying stick to Pikaf he actually heard the story and got the meaning of it the moral of the story ,wanting Jill to go back to what she has before she regrets her actions. Just like Guts left and lost everything he had. I LOVE how deep berserk goes. And i do believe Guts meant that he is quite wise for a dog of war.

"no liking berserk doesn't make you a sigma anon" -Nuts from berk

Seeing this; knowing what Guts went through with his "adoptive father"; knowing that Casca was sold off to pedophile nobleman; and hearing interviews about how the author, Miura, went through some abuse by his own dad; a part of me wants to see an ending where the cycle of abuse is broken. Guts and Casca, together and healed, and being the parents they needed when they were young to the next generation. Yes, the world of Berserk is dark. But it is about struggling against it. If there was no belief that something is worth it, then what is the point?

There is at least one place we find paradise: in the love we create with others.

Guts is portrayed as pretty much a slasher villain in parts of this arc. Rosine was perfectly happy living in her little pretend world of fairy tales, and then Guts is thrown in there like a fucking mangrenade. You know you've got a dark protagonist when even the villain, a demon who has children raped and murdered for her amusement, looks at him and goes: "The fuck is wrong with you?"

The lessons that we get from the Lost Children Arc alone are some of the most profound in the whole series and just in manga/fiction in general. In the end you cannot escape life, you must face it no matter how tough and horrifying and brutal it can be. And that lesson is more relevant today than ever. Excellent video as always, Masked Man! :)

Your philosophical videos are the best. My favorite was on “failure”, that video is your best.

Nuts from berk is my inspiration. My favourite quote of his "im going berserk: the golden age arc". Makes me cry to this day.

The funny thing is her village was either raided by the kushan right afterwards or overflown with trolls and other astral monsters later on

Lost Children arc is one of the most underrated arcs across the manga I’ve read imo, alongside Substitute Shinigami and Lost Agent in Bleach, Greed Island in HxH, Baratie arc in One Piece, and others…

"There is no paradise for you to escape to" is my favorite quote of all time

That A Link to the Past text sound gave me flashbacks.

Honestly I feel like the only way we can ever get an animated version of lost children is through fans, since I can’t really see any companies having the balls to adapt the entirety of this arc.🐱

I’ve got to say Masked, After watching you for some years I’m extremely proud of the growth you’ve accomplished. This video format that you’ve come up with for the past several videos is really engaging and it’s good to see you’re still striving to be better. Keep up the great work man, love your stuff.

I’ve never witnessed such awesome editing as this one.

Glad to see more berserk content

Theres no paradise for you to run away to To date probably the one line thats hit me harder than any other I've ever read

These stretch of chapters in berserk are the ones that personally impacted me the most. Not the biggest berserk fan now, but i still love it.

Guts and Jill both undergo a similar character arc during Conviction. Both have left something (Jill has left home, Guts has left Casca). Both are living a delusion (Jill that she can escape to a fantasy world, Guts that he can avenge the horrors of the eclipse by defeating all enemies before him). Both realize the fallacies of their current worldviews and both move on with a conviction to struggle onwards. In Jill's case she knows she can return home and "cry and shout and bite and that might change something." For Guts, he learns from a dying friend in a cabin near a hill of swords that he "escaped to something comfortable" while keeping his sadness from "the one [he] loved." Then not many chapters later, as he reunites with Casca, Guts says he "won't leave her again." For me, Lost Children isn't a detour from the main story or a side quest for Guts. It's a fundamental thematic foundation for the Conviction Arc and by extension the rest of Berserk to this point.

Dude you have touched my heart so many times with your well written and thoughtful insights into the wide sea of art. Sincerely from Mozambique all the respect my guy.🎉

In this arc, guts almost lose his humanity, and beast of darkness appears in the conviction arc.

I just found your channel this week. I’ve read all of Berserk up to the most recent chapter and it’s great to see more and more YTubers like yourself making videos of one of the best mangas ever written.

All the pixelart for this video was breathtaking I loved it all ❤❤❤ Also ty ty ty very much for covering my favorite arc of Berserk in a great refresher I really needed a reminder of its message

This new video game editing style is super cool, I find that it makes the video a lot more engaging! Good stuff masked man!

I mean an arc about kids after Gut’s kid got corrupted by Griffith. Just hits hard.

"The crushing weight of reality" is something modern people are sheltered from, myself included, ive only seen glimpses at it. I think its the cause of the conflict of the Western world at the moment.

I be randomly thinking during the day how great this video is man you outdid yourself. It hit home for me

You did such a great job on this video. The content the delivery. Well done I loved it. Thank you 🙏🏼

I’ve missed you’re work, glad to see you’re up and posting again

Thank you for putting so much work into your videos.

Honestly miura topped the golden age with an arc that most people look to and are Always reminded of when talking about berserk- The op millennium falcon arc and best berserk chapter

your style of video improved amazingly over the years feels good seeing the early berserk videos to current one

Another banger vid with an incredible style. Damn And of course, it's about my fav Berserk arc. Great vid man. Really

Last year was one of my worst years, heartbreak and depression took over and I found comfort in Berserk. Now during this year I’ve been hard at work developing myself physically and mentally still going strong and I’ve come back to Berserk with renewed energy. Berserk will always be a comfort zone for me as strange as that may sound; I’ve taken many lessons from Berserk and it picked me up when I was down. Struggle, Endure, Contend, these are the words that pushed me forward through the pain and now my efforts are bearing fruit and hopefully soon come to fruition. Rest In Peace Miura and thank you for your work

this is such a well-written and well-edited video holy shit awesome job!

Banger video and killer soundtrack choice, it made me enjoy everything way more👍🏻

This is by far the best analyzation of the lost children arc, I look forward to more, I can never get enough of your berserk content🙏

Fantastic video essay borther,my favorite arc for a reason!!!

Just finished this arc yesterday, great impressions on the arc, masked

you making my tear drop again because of berserk. great video btw

I think the lesson is quite the opposite. While they may not be a heaven, a paradise to escape to, you can find or rather make your own paradise. Guts realized all to late that his paradise was with the band of the hawk and later after the eclipse with Casca. He left them both times and it only led to more suffering. I think Miura's lesson is that paradise is in small moments every day, maybe because of your friends or companions, maybe because of the beauty of the place you are in or the mission you've undertaken. If you manage to find beauty in the midst of ugliness, peace in the middle of war and a few good people in a nation of evil, you've found paradise.

great video and amazing editing! lost children has my favorite part of the manga since the moment I read it.

This was an amazing analysis. Thanks for making this

You deserve more credit for your music choices

Fantastic video! One of my favorite parts of the series

Even right on the edge of becoming a monster in human skin after all that's happened and what he's done to this point, Guts' unwavering humanity coming through in the end with his conversation with Jill is one of the best moments I've ever read. After all of the rage, threats, and scare tactics didn't work Guts simply wrapped the scared girl up in his cloak and calmly explained to her that he can't save her even if he wanted to, nobody can because fair or not the world is a cruel place and there will never be some paradise free from suffering. Everything from his demeanor to how Miura drew him softens in comparison to the monstrous panels we saw of him earlier in the arc. Guts in his own way saved Jill both by keeping her away from the hell he is forced to live with every single moment of his life and by giving her hope that maybe if she keeps fighting someday things might change for the better. Lost Children is such a beautiful arc man I love it so much.

Very well done! I thoroughly enjoyed your video!

Daddy finally dropped 🙏

Just wanna say great video and love the pixel art! Keep it up man.

Great video dude, i always adored the way you describe manga and anime. This video is no different!!!! (also, the Zelda music is always a nice touch)

Holy gyat! your video making skills have improved since i last watched you good job man keep it up

Great video. I really liked and felt what you said and expressed in this video

The Lost Children is my favorite arc in all of Berserk, and i think you really hit the nail on the head as to why. Also the Zelda music in the background was so fitting and perfectly complimented the tone, excellent choice

I luv your deep prospective videos nd I hope to see more of them on the other berserk arcs

Incredible video. Ending had me crying.

The image of Guts looking down on Jill as she cries is I think one of the most beautiful and evocative visuals Miura ever drew. It is Guts giving words to the truth of the harsh reality that they both live in, but it is one of the few moments in the arc where Guts looks human and not like a monster. He looks like the Guts we once knew that resides underneath so many layers of callousness and rage due to everything that he's been through. It is the one moment in which he shows humanity to Jill. It is the one moment in which he shows HIMSELF to Jill. For a second, he isnt the blackswordsman, or a slayer of apostles. Hes Guts, a lost child. Just like Jill. His whole life from his birth to now has been a battlefield. Fighting for every breath hes taken. And for the first time in a long time, he shows that to someone. Because he can see Jill needs it. I think to some extent, he needs it too. He cant take her with him because that would resign her to the fate he lives with everyday. And he wouldnt wish that on anyone. But for a brief moment, he allows her to truly see him. Its one of the most tender moments in all the series and part of what makes Guts one of the best characters ever written. Miura understood the human condition and knew how to write about it so well.

Amazing analysis of the lost children's arc! 👍

What a wholeosme video , i love it . More of this content please :333

Stories exist to see us through to the end, to remind us why we live, how being human is the best thing we can ask for, and how to challenge the darkness that will follow us at every step we take. To laugh, to cry, to yell, to pouring your soul out to the universe that created us. It's all there for us.

I think the most depressing thing is that even if Guts dies, he gets to rest but actually doesn't because he is a sacrifice and will end in the vortex of souls to suffer forever again.

Thank you for covering my favorite arc in berserk. It takes a extremely good writer and artist to depict such evil and yet still feel hope for life. Our lives can be very bad with challenges and struggles that are demoralizing, yet we can fight against them and try to make things better.

@TheMaskedMan I love you're Beserk analysis videos! :'D

(Got this analysis from almightylolis analysis video on the conviction arc)Peekof is also a parallel to guts backstory.How guts left the hawks same way how peekaf left cause he thought it wasn’t his real family or were he belongs.But later on comes back with the hawks being in a bad state then later on all dying but he realised late that the hawks were his family similar to how peekaf realised his family were his real family but came back to them all gone

Your music choices in the this video are absolutely kino.

Man, i forgot how dark it actually was, such a detailed analysis of my favourite arc. Well done!

Need more of these berserk videos again

I love the Lost Children Arc. Your thought on why its not adapted as an anime is probably correct, and I can't wait for markreymer's lost children arc animation as well. Thank you for bringing the Lost Children Arc to the spotlight!

I love that you used the Lost Woods track.

I absolutely love Lost Children, it sickens me when I see people call this arc “filler”, and I’ve seen a lot of people say that.

I haven’t read the manga yet. I watched the 1990s anime which was amazing I already bought the first volume and now after the eclipse I’m ready to read. Seeing different memes and edits got me interested in Berserk and wow was I blown away. Gonna try to catch up so I could finish watching ur vid!

Mask, you never cease to amaze me with your Berserk essays, but mixing Berserk with Chrono Trigger's OST was a very, very low move! Now I'll have to re-re-re-read the manga with that OST and perhaps fit some other old JRPG OSTS in the mix to get even deeper feelings!

Hey masked, I really enjoyed a lot of the music used in this video - could you share which tracks you used?

There's a big reason why only really Golden Age been adapting properly EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING After it is too heavy to be animated properly. Miura was really telling a retrospecive of fantasy as a whole with this story.

Liistening to you tell the story of Peekaf reminds me of Good Blood's video on Ocarina of Time. Thank you for the video!

Words cannot express how much I love the lost children arc. It's easily in my top 3 behind conviction and golden age.

god i love berserk

love to see more berserk videos 👏

So glad you saw Allinall's animation. It's an incredible adaptation of the Guts vs Rosine fight

your also hooking me with this OOT music man >.

I love all the Chrono Trigger musical choices. Melding wondrous stories together. Bravo.

Seldom do I come across a story that can make me shiver in paralyzing fear, cry in raving depression, and smile in blissful happiness. Berzerk remains my favorite manga ever, and the original golden age anime my favorite show. At a glance, I thought it was the classic ¨Humanity is the real monster¨ and ¨Everyone is evil¨ but it´s so much more than that. It´s a beautiful tale about morality, humanity, and dealing with an unforgiving world. In most stories, I can look at one area and say ¨it would be sick to be there!¨ I never found myself saying that with Berzerk, because even before the eclipse, it is almost a literal hell. Every character doesn´t actually feel like they are happy; there just trying to get by, doing what it takes to see tomorrow. But even when faced with the most dire and hellish of circumstances, they have to find a way. It´s that fire, the unwillingness to lay down and die, that strikes me the most. This isn´t a happy story with a happy ending: its a pure, unfiltered view of trying to survive in a world that doesn´t give a shit about you. It´s dark, It´s gritty, It´s monstrous. It´s a masterpiece.

Been waiting for this

Best way to follow up your best is with the best seinen in history; Berserk!

You're one of my favourite youtubers

great video 🔥🙏🏼

wow this is really well made

Reminds me of a quote from David Boreanaz's Seal Team: "You have to fight inside the wire just as hard as you do outside". For context, "the wire" here refers to the separation between the characters' civilian lives and their lives as special forces soldiers.

Amazing video

Great video!

I am so glad this arc is talked about more and more. Its by far one of the best arcs in the entire manga.

Awesome video

this man gets it. Subscribed.

20:20 That reaction from Jill is not just because she witnessed an elf being chased while yelling "adult attack!". The elf who is actually yelling "Adult Attack!" is the one who is giving the chasing, and pushes the other elf down. After yelling that out, he stung through the body of the other elf, piercing him from between his legs, in a way which emulates r*p&. Hence why Jill's reaction was gutural. I don't know why that fucking panel of the elf piercing another elf was left out, but I remembered it from the stomach churn it gave me, and this video just brought up again. 10/10 analysis