Berserk Manga Review: Conviction Saga (Part 8)

Oh boy, time to go Berserk again!

When we left off, things weren’t looking good for Guts and the gang. Casca has been caught by the Holy See, Nina is trapped in the dungeon, and the only help they have on the way is Guts, Isidro, Puck, and Luca. All the while, a dark gaze preys on everyone below, Father Mozgus carries on being psychotic, and Skull Knight’s warning of another Eclipse-like event hangs like a guillotine overhead.

I’m sure everything will be fine and nothing bad will happen from here on out! My source is denial and terror. Those are always reliable, as real life has proven thousands of times.

Today, we’re covering the following chapters:

• The Iron Maiden
• Blood Flow of the Dead 1-2

‘The Iron Maiden’ opens up with Farnese receiving new orders: get the hell out of there. Not the Holy Iron Chain Knights; her specifically. Her father, the lord Vandimion, has ordered her home, and as he’s the one providing the church and refugees with food and resources – scarce as those are, as we’ve seen in prior chapters – she has no choice but to obey. Her time as the figurehead leader of the knights is at an end.

There’s an interesting scene between Farnese and Serpico after this. Farnese snaps at her companion, believing him to have spied on her activities for her father. She attempts to assert dominance over him, to remind him that she is the master and he is the servant. But even she can tell the gesture doesn’t work, given the sweat on her brow and Serpico’s inscrutable expression.

At the moment, this scene is just a brief dispute between two of our antagonists. But reading it again after learning of their shared backstory (which we’ll get in the next saga) completely recontextualizes this scene! Without even realizing it, we’re put in Farnese’s shoes; Serpico clearly knows something that she, and therefor we, don’t. Knowing what he knows in hindsight makes this scene downright tragic!

Anyways, let’s catch up with everyone’s favorite Berserk character: Nina! How’s she holding up against her torturers?

Oh. One broken nail and she’s already thrown Casca under the chariot. Thanks for nothing, Nina. You’re the worst.

Meeting Father Mozgus in the torture chamber, we finally get to see how Farnese is handling her last run-in with Guts and demons. She’s trying really hard to contextualize what she saw into the logic of her world, but it’s not working. Even Serpico thinks it’s a stretch. But to be fair, how else would anyone react to seeing the mind-bending nightmares Guts deals with every single night?

Thanks to Nina being Nina, Mozgus’ goons drag Casca down to the torture chamber to… be tortured. Mozgus immediately deems her a witch and decides to stick her in the iron maiden (but not before being super creepy, because this is still Berserk). And just in case you don’t understand what an iron maiden is or why it’s really fucking bad, we see another dead woman drop out of the trap before they shove Casca inside. Puck swings in for the rescue, but it’s too late.

And then this happens.

Putting that nightmare fuel aside for now, we get to the next chapters, ‘Blood Flow of the Dead.’ Guts, Luca, and Isidro approach the tower. In case you didn’t think the stakes were high enough, Guts is visibly frightened by the tower itself. He’s not sure what’s going on with it, but whatever it is, it’s bad. A terrifying prospect considering that Guts is… y’know. GUTS.

The next scene is a really fun display of this trio’s chemistry. Luca lures someone down to open a secret entrance into the tower. Her plan is to lure Jerome out and get him to help. Guts being Guts, he just rushes past them into the tower itself while the watcher is distracted. Meanwhile, Isidro is living out his adolescent boy dreams through getting stepped on by Luca. This is just about the only scene we see of this three being a team, albeit a dysfunctional one, and I honestly wish we got more of them!

Hope you enjoyed the fun. Because it is now over. Back to horrifying blood monsters. The dungeon gets consumed, Casca is swallowed up, and all the Holy Iron Chain Knights make a hasty retreat.

Bringing Farnese straight into Guts’ hands.

I love how clearly panicked and desperate both characters are in this interrogation. Guts isn’t fucking around anymore; he shoves his knife straight into Farnese’s mouth; if she doesn’t talk, he’s gonna kill her and be done with it. Farnese, on the other hand, is having a god damn mental breakdown. Just as she had come up with an explanation for the nightmares she keeps seeing, another even more incomprehensible one popped up right in front of her.

There’s an interesting detail here I’ve never noticed before now: to end the interrogation, we get this panel as seen above. At first glance, it’s just a bit of destruction to remind her how strong Guts is. But going back a few panels, we can see that the statue depicts a hooded woman clutching a symbol of faith. It’s not just mindless destruction; it’s a clever, subtle bit of foreshadowing for what’s to come between these two characters. Guts shatters Farnese’s faith figuratively and in this case, literally.

Cutting back to Nina, we see her beating herself up for betraying Casca. Again: Nina is not a likable character. But she is a well-written one. She’s a coward and she knows it, and she hates herself for that. Luckily for her, Luca, Isidro, and a now complacent turncoat Jerome come to her rescue.

But Berserk is still a horror manga. As this page reminds us.

*Quick aside: I love how this scene further humanizes Jerome. Before, when he asked Luca to marry him back in the whore’s tent, it came across as a horny noble being a romantic idiot. But here, we can see that he wasn’t just extending a self-conceited olive branch. He genuinely cares for Luca and understands how awful the Holy See really is, so he has no qualms with abandoning his duty. He even takes Isidro’s bullying on the chin. I love this dude! Shame he hasn’t appeared again after this arc.

Getting back to Guts and Farnese (who decided against running the hell away and sticks with the Black Swordsman; understandable, given he’s the only one capable of combatting demons at this point) head to the dungeon to see what happened. Yeah, the results are horrifying. But silver lining: Puck is alive! And so is Casca!

Remember how when they first met, Farnese couldn’t see Puck? Well, now she can! A small little detail that goes to show how her old world view is collapsing.

Finally, to wrap this segment up, we get a scene with Father Mozgus. Trapped by the blood monsters, he and his men prepare for one last stand. Being the devout lunatic that he is, the Father isn’t afraid.

Perhaps, if he looked behind him, he might have been.

This section is one of my favorite parts of the Conviction arc. It’s a fantastic blend of character development and horror, with just enough comedy to lighten the mood without ruining the tone. And it only gave me, oh, six or so nightmares! Classic Berserk goodness!

The final act of Conviction has begun. Which means we’re in for some of the coolest action scenes and most disturbing horror scenes of the arc! Yay!

It’s also around this point that Berserk gets a little… weird. Even by it’s own standard. Maybe that’s why so many people dislike this arc, or at the very least say it was their least favorite.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.