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Product Description
Have you got the Guts? Kentaro Miura's Berserk has outraged, horrified, and delighted manga and anime fanatics since 1989, creating an international legion of hardcore devotees and inspiring a plethora of TV series, feature films, and video games. And now the badass champion of adult fantasy manga is presented in an oversized 7" x 10" deluxe hardcover edition, nearly 700 pages amassing the first three Berserk volumes, with following volumes to come to serve up the entire series in handsome bookshelf collections. No Guts, no glory!Top Reviews
An Absolutely Beautiful Deluxe Edition for Longtime Fans and Newcomers Alikeby Austin (5 out of 5 stars)
March 26, 2019
The Berserk manga series by Kentaro Miura is one that speaks for itself. Often known as the "Game of Thrones" of manga, the story is complex and ingenious, the art is godlike, and the content is very adult. It has seen several anime adaptations, each with their own pros and cons, but nothing beats the original manga.
While this series has seen many omnibus (multiple books in one) releases both in Japan and in other languages such as in Europe (I know the German release has one off the top of my head), it has always been a single-book edition in English. With 40 volumes now in Japanese (Dark Horse still has no release date for volume 40 as of this writing), and a retail price of nearly $600 for all the books, Berserk certainly is an expensive and lengthy hobby to get into. An omnibus format is preferable by many collectors such as myself, but if this series had seen a standard 3-in-1 paperback release such as the VizBigs of Dragon Ball Z, Vagabond, etc, I probably would not have double dipped (I already own every single volume). But when Dark Horse announced a deluxe edition of the manga, with leather hardback, in full magazine size, I just had to get it, and I can guarantee you it is worth it.
Now on to the book itself. You can see how this edition is sized compared to the single volumes in the pictures attached, and it is certainly much bigger. The illustrations are much easier to follow, and the sound effects, originally untranslated in the first 11 volumes by Dark Horse, are now translated, which was a welcome addition. The faux leather binding is very nice as well. Collectors will be happy to hear that all three textless, original cover art pieces for the first 3 volumes are included at the back of the book on glossy paper. The manga itself is not glossy paper, but I would say that does not reduce its value at all. No other pages are in color, unfortunately, but that is just how DH was given the materials from the Japanese publisher. It has a ribbon bookmark on the spine, and the spine itself is also sewn and not glued, so you do not have to worry when laying it open on a table. At the end of the book is a one-page background on Kentaro Miura. While this omnibus will save a little bit of horizontal shelf space, it is much taller. My only gripe with the book is that it was printed in China, unlike with the rest of the series which was printed in the USA, but seeing as there are no visible drawbacks or obvious cheap decisions, I will keep my review at a full 5/5. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all my single volumes if I keep getting these Deluxe Editions. Hah!
I received this volume from Amazon for nearly 50% off due to its preorder price, which was very nice. Otherwise, its $50 retail value is probably pretty pricey for many. For those looking to get into Berserk for the first time, this edition will probably not save you any money (although it is very worth it!) It is unfortunate that the book seems to be selling out, and many preorders have been pushed back weeks if not months while Dark Horse prints more. Good for Miura and DH, but not so ideal for the consumers. Hope it gets sorted out soon, Amazon should really place caps on preorders for stock they do not have.
Can't wait to see more of these editions! Will probably take 4 or more years for it to catch up (not to mention Miura's hiatuses), so if you're not that big of a collector and just want to read the series, the single volumes are probably your better option.
A collection worthy edition of the most mainstream niche manga out there
by Red (4 out of 5 stars)
March 26, 2019
GOOD: The 1st Berserk Deluxe volume covers the first 3 standard size volumes of the Manga while having much larger pages and a handsome hard cover with Guts' brand embossed into the front. The paper used is noticeably higher quality compared to the regular books.
BAD: The largely increased page size caused some blow-up issues. Some smaller panels or flawed finer details become much more obvious once resized.
My book arrived slightly damaged from shipping. 3 of the 8 corner covers of the book have bent in, dog-eared impact damage locations and the front of the book has a small but noticeable pen width half-inch indent on the top of the front cover. A single bubble wrap slip case could have mitigated such damage but it came in only a plastic lined Manila envelope. The envelope had been ripped at multiple points and taped over.
Amazing Manga, Shipping Issues
by maou (4 out of 5 stars)
March 26, 2019
One of my favorite manga ever gets a beautiful hardcover edition. I love the quality of the binding and the pages and wish all my favorite manga would be reprinted in this type of format. The larger pages does make some panels appear less than ideal. However, Muira did some future panels in larger format and shrunk them so I can't wait to see the results of those.
As usual, shipping was poorly done with ZERO packing for the book. Several of the corners are dinged and I will likely ask for a replacement.
Berserk, the way it was always meant to be presented.
by Glen Compton (5 out of 5 stars)
March 27, 2019
This book treats one of the greatest mangas of all time with the respect it deserves and presents it in the larger (American comic book sized) format it was always meant to be read in. The sprawling artwork gets the space needed to be properly awe inspiring, and with the cover price for this 3 volume collection only being $5 more than the 3 volumes it contains combined, buying this is a no brainer.
The faux leather bound hardcover makes it look much more appealing in a bookshelf than the regular manga volumes and makes it more presentable as something you might display in a public room of your home. The addition of the ribbon bookmark is also an unexpected nice touch, and is something I always appreciate in hardcover releases.
Seeing the quality put into this release, I have now preordered the next two deluxe volumes and look forward to the announcement of the 4th's release date.
I am VERY excited to reread this all again and collect all of the deluxe versions, and hope that other great mangas receive the same treatment, although I cannot think of any that deserve it as much as Berserk.
Buy this.
by Róghvatr Kummerspeck (5 out of 5 stars)
March 26, 2019
Wow.. I have been waiting for years for this and my patience has been rewarded.
This tome, is massive. It weighs almost 5 lbs, about 700 pages and the quality is impressive. The leather binding feels like leather ( I don't know if it's fake or not), the pages are smooth but have a soft texture to them making it easy to flip through and lastly, the stickers came off the book with NO residue or remnants. I am over the moon with this purchase, for the cost and the quality.
Questionable quality
by Andres (2 out of 5 stars)
March 26, 2019
Great story, but the book came with some stuck pages
A solid upgrade but still not a definitive edition
by Amazon Customer (4 out of 5 stars)
March 27, 2019
Reviewing the content alone this is a 5 star product, Berserk is one of the best series around and if you're new to the series this is a great place to start.
That said the manga has been in print for sometime now and what you're most likely to be interested in is what makes this "Deluxe" edition standout from what might already exist on your shelf. Well to be honest...not as much as I would have hoped. There is nothing in the way of extras, no interviews, designs, creator commentary, etc. and most disappointing in my mind this edition still does not include the color pages in their original form (yep still black and white here). It's still a good product, the binding is solid and the size increase feels substantial which really brings out the art, but if you already own berserk there's nothing here you don't already have. If you're brand new to the series you may consider going the deluxe route, but for long time fans looking to upgrade you're probably better off getting the digital editions if you just want bigger pictures.
Worth every cent, even without the discount.
by Lisa Young (5 out of 5 stars)
May 16, 2019
The book overall is gorgeous. From the foiled lettering to the texture of the cover it's got a very pleasing look and feel to it. If you are a berserk fan definitely jump on this. There's nothing like seeing the pages in this size and detail.
Side note: while I'm fine with this, my book came with a decent dent on the bottom left. It's not bad but still bothers me a bit.
Absolutley gorgeous! Looks like im buying a second set of the whole series.
by Pepe (5 out of 5 stars)
May 14, 2019
Berserk was a masterpiece back in the early 90s and it still is to this day. This book is fantastic, the more detailed panels are beautiful on the 7x10inch pages and I definitely wont be picking up my old soft cover volumes anymore. The hardcover is textured and feels rough just like it should. The cover is simple and completely perfect. Simply stating:
Berserk Deluxe Edition
Kentaro Miura
And in the very middle is that wonderfully horrible Brand of sacrifice. This book is the definition of beauty in simplicity.
This book is exactly what berserk deserves. Its flawless. The jet black with ruby red text is perfectly indicative of what berserk is.
Awesome and great for any longtime fan!
by RRR (5 out of 5 stars)
July 24, 2019
Nice and heavy and the artwork looks great even though it is a bigger book. Compared the first several pages to the English versions online and everything seems to be the same with the translation and no censoring that I saw. Came shipped in a folded box wrapped in plastic. Didn't have any padding but there was no damage and there is less space in this box than some of the other boxes I've received for it to move around. Looks great on your bookshelf but the only thing is I wished they released them quicker. There are 40 volumes right now and they seem to cover 3 volumes per a deluxe book. But based on the release date for 3 and 4 it seems they will release 3 deluxe volumes a year. At that rate we won't catch up until the end of 2022. I know we are used to waiting that long for the latest chapter but seeing as these are already drawn and translated. I don't see why it should take 4 months to enlarge them and produce. But other than that small problem it's still one of the greatest mangas of all time and a masterpiece.
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Details were last updated on Sep 21, 2024 22:51 +08.
