Berserk Manga Review: Mansion of the Spirit Tree

Alright, what have we got on the docket today? Let’s see… Witches? Monkeys? Golems? Magic? Farnese and Casca in the bath? Passing the chapter 200 mark?!

Say no more, let’s go!

Last time on Berserk: Farnese had another existential crisis, Serpico and Guts reached an understanding, Isidro learned to duel-wield and got turned into a monkey by a little witch girl. Also they fought a troll. Got all that? Good. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Today, we’re covering the following chapters:

• Mansion of the Spirit Tree Parts 1 – 2
• The Astral World
• Magic Stone

We pick up right where we left off. Guts tries to thank Isidro for protecting Casca, but the kid shrugs him off. Guts, however, is completely sincere. He can tell that having the others around is good for Casca; her fear of him still breaks his heart, but at least they can keep her safe. Even if that means protecting her from him.

On the road, they find an injured old man and tend him back to health. This is Morgan, and his village is under attack by the trolls. They emerged on the first night of winter (wait, isn’t that when Griffith came back?) and started ruining their fields, eating their livestock, and kidnapping the village’s women and children. In order to save them, he’s searching the woods for help. For a witch living in a mansion hidden in the forest.

This mansion, specifically.

Both Guts and Casca get a strange reaction from their Brands. Not spirits or an Apostle, but something new. Guts tries to warn Isidro of the potential danger, but the boy is already stumbling face-first into it. The mansion is defended by clay golems, which quickly surround our party.

I really like this fight scene! It’s got all the hallmarks of cool Berserk action scenes; quick pacing, explosive attacks, spectacular paneling, creative choreography, the works. But it’s not nearly as intense or dire as prior fight scenes. The golems are slow and harmless; they’re so cute even the party aren’t worried by them. We get plenty of comedy with Isidro and Puck, and when the golems’ weakness is revealed, we get to see how each of the party’s fighters exploit it in their own unique way. It’s a short but fun scene!

Schierke watches the whole thing from above, confused and concerned. Understandable; a group of weirdos showed up at her front door and seem completely accustomed to magical nonsense as they start hacking up her pets. Before she can cast another spell and continue the fight, however, a voice from within the mansion tells her to stand down and invite the party inside.

Here, we meet the witch Flora, a sweet old lady who already knows everything there is to know about our party. Mainly Guts and Casca. Turns out, she was waiting for those two specifically, and she’s got some very important gifts to impart upon them.

Before that, she brings Morgan forward to address the manner of the trolls. Alas, Flora is too old and weak to help. But Schierke suffers from neither problem. She asks Guts and the others to help her, offering them an invaluable boon for the rest of their journey in payment: a talisman to dampen the Brand’s effects. An offer Guts cannot refuse.

Thanks to the mansion’s magical defenses, Guts and the others can take a night’s reprieve from their journey. That night at dinner, Guts asks Flora how she knew about him. She explains that a friend in the Astral World warned her of their coming and asked her to help them, though she remains vague on just who that is.

This moves into an explanation of magic in the world of Berserk. There are two worlds beyond the physical: the astral world, home of spirits, and the world of idea, from which all things are born. Creatures like elves and trolls came from the astral world, and they used to be common, but when the Holy See came to power, fewer people could see them, and the divide between worlds became stronger. Now, those divisions are fading once again, and magic is bleeding back into the world. It’s much more complicated than that, and there are still mysteries even the magi have yet to unravel. But that, according to Flora, is the very essence of magic.

Later, when the girls are bathing and the others are resting, Guts speaks to Flora in private, asking her how to use the Behelit he got from the Count all the way back in the Black Swordsman arc. Even now, Guts is still brimming with vengeance and rage. Unfortunately, Flora tells him that he cannot activate the Behelit on his own. When the time is right, it will be in the hands of the person it’s meant for. Only then will it activate.

Also Puck named it Betchi and feeds it cheese. Now I can’t stop imagining the Behelit chewing on a block of cheddar. I can’t decide if that’s hilarious or horrifying.

Does… the Behelit poop? Never mind, let’s get back on topic.

Guts just has one more question for Flora: what exactly is the God Hand? While she doesn’t know any specifics, she does know that they were all once human, just like Griffith. That, and as the title implies, they are the hand of god, not themselves gods; something lurks deep in the abyss of the Astral World, guiding their actions. As to what, the witch does not know.

Schierke, having overheard the entire conversation, asks Guts if he really intends to defy fate itself. Guts, being Guts, shrugs and nods as if the answer should be obvious. The little witch’s apprentice thinks he’s a fool; she’s seen Griffith first hand, and she doesn’t believe anyone can fight him.

Flora is unconvinced of that. She believes that his defiance of fate may not be a vain effort, and that his meeting with Schierke is of great significance to them both. How, she does not know yet. But Flora has a request of her disciple: to accompany the Black Swordsman and aid him in his impossible quest.

And that is where we’ll call it for today. We’re getting into the first course of the arc now. The rest of the feast will have to wait for another day.

These chapters are a great testament to Berserk’s incredible pacing. All the party is doing is relaxing and catching their breath, yet after all the hellish battles they go through on a daily basis, that in it of itself feels like a monumental victory! No other series has ever managed that, at least not for me!

This whole section is fantastic. The world is expanding, our characters are developing, and the fight scenes are as badass as ever. It’s great stuff through and through.

The best part? All of this is just the first act. Falcon of the Millennium Empire only gets better and better as it goes on.

Thank God for that, because this is the longest arc of the manga by far.