Kentaro Miura (1966–2021)

I can't give anything lower than 4 stars for the volume with: Griffith rescuing Guts in the woods, Griffith and Guts having their water fight where Griffith is entirely naked, Griffith and Guts having one of their first marriage arguments, Griffith getting throwing against a column after trying to rescue Guts three times, and Griffith starting his second love confession. Too much good stuff happens in this volume. I'm still not a fan of the art, though older Guts at least looks better than younger Guts, and Griffith is slightly less fish-like as he ages, but the art style for humans is still quite ugly, and while the detail on battle scenes and cities is spectacular, it's just not something that would appeal to me without the Guts & Griffith relationship. And the way Miura draws characters with dark skin is just not great at all. Miura could draw great crowd shots with lots of unique one-off characters that look amazingly detailed and full of literal and emotional character. But well... there were a lot of flaws on an individual level.

It's very neat to see just how faithful the 1997 anime was to this part of the series, though there were definite art improvements, stylistically, in adaptation.… (mere)

This is maybe more of a 2.5 than a 2, but it's just not a great volume. There are some cute moments, like when Griffith has the leaf in his mouth, and the end of his love confession to Griffith, but it's overtaken by Griffith's weird conversation with the princess by the fountain, a lot of very ugly character art featuring the (former) prince, one of the most prolonged and stupid assassination attempts imaginable, and Griffith being sexist. The assassination thing at least kind of works because Griffith is inexperienced, has no hired assassins or anyone else he can really trust to do it (it doesn't seem like it'd be Casca's thing), and Guts is inexperienced, too. Highly so, given how badly it goes. But it's rather comical in a way that isn't precisely funny? It's more cringe than anything else, like the ugly character art. Miura's style still just doesn't work for me. He can draw very well detailed armor, and write very detailed political intrigue, but all of his living creatures are ugly, whether it's humans, animals, or monsters.

I am annoyed to learn the repeat knight in the 1997 anime was seemingly most expanded for that show. I find him incredibly irritating, and his presence here is still in the show but he's less there. The anime did an otherwise good job adapting this, though, with better art.… (mere)

This is more of a 4.5 than a 5, mostly because of the parts concerning Griffith's backstory. Casca also has a really good backstory, and the exploration of her relationship with Griffith is really good. It's just intercut with some boring bits with Guts being sexist (intentionally at a few points to "help" Casca), a very detailed and well-drawn fight scene that's still kind of boring, and some more politicking. It's good that Griffith has at least one ally though, and many admirers among the jealous.… (mere)