midnight-in-town:

bscully:

skellig-island:

bscully:

I cannot talk much for Goblin Slayer as I have not read/seen it yet, but I think I can talk for Berserk:

You only see those rape scenes on certain occasions. They usually appear as a motif of sexual perversion (Eclipse, heretic’s Cave at tower of conviction, Qliphot, that one kushan Daka factory using human pregnant women) in a doomsday kind of scenario. And it’s mostly done to give the story a push forward, scarring and traumatizing the characters and giving them a motivation or drive.
There surely are some personal reasons why Miura chose this way of story-telling and kept it through most of
the story (but I don’t want to dig into this and I hope he is all well if not I’ll spam him with lovely fan letters and good vibes)

It’s reason why Guts went on his 2 year apostle killing spree:

I also think the things that happened to Farnese while she was taken hostage by Guts, the things she witnessed at Tower of Conviction and Qliphot all together enabled Farnese to become a witch in the first place:

The “Daka Factory” made Silat question whether it is a good idea to follow a a king that lies beyond their understanding (one who resorts to using pregnant women to create hell spawn, I might add):

And later on Silat already makes this point very clear when asked to join the neo band of the hawk:

It’s a (prettyy fucked up) narrative tool, so to say. But also very effective because firstly, it is so shocking and secondly, the timing of these events fit into the overall narrative and development of each character.

Thank you for writing this.

I understand that people are upset with the rape scenes and find them questionable. But at the same time, as questionable as it is, Berserk wouldn’t be the same story without it (and I know this is going to be a controversial thing to say).

Yes, using rape to shock and upset the audience can be a bit of a cheap trick, but that’s kind of the point, to shock and upset both the audience and the characters. Femto/Griffith is considered as villanous as he is because he’s a rapist, as much as people complain that it objectifies Casca*, people wouldn’t hate him as much without it.

Honestly, reading through Berserk every single character who is a rapist has also been depicted as FUCKING EVIL (Wyald, Femto, the trolls, Ganishka, etc.) so it’s not like Miura is glorifying such actions. You could argue until the cows come home about wether or not rape should be depicted and even used as part of some character’s characterization, but IMO at the end of the day Berserk has been mature rated from the start, if you can’t handle sexual content then perhaps you shouldn’t read it.

(* – that’s not to say it isn’t a valid complaint)

Some other works literature, movies or games would only include explicit
scenes merely for shock value or PR (I’ve heard people saying that
Goblin Slayer does just that, but what can I say!)

Berserk has explicit and triggering content, but it makes it meaningful in the way the story is told. E.g. lets just point out how Guts was abused by Donovan and therefore WILL mercilessly beat up or kill anyone crossing his path who dares touching the weak (Though I also have to point out he is not actively pursuing that goal).

This experience of his is used as motivation that is showing throughout the manga in a very strong and effective way. It gives him a depth and also ambiguity – because he is not actively pursuing as goal – that not many protagonists have, at least those I’ve seen/read about.

I mean when the PROTAGONIST literally saves women from rape ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS (Casca/Adon, Casca/Farnese/Women from Enoch in Trollcave) it’s really really unlikely that the author endorses rape in any kind of way. (But I like that he also puts a reminder to not become the very thing you are fighting against *cough* winter journey *cough*)

While I understand people being upset about Berserk’s upsetting imagery (I was too when i first read the explicit parts), I think it’s art to write these things and give them a proper meaning and symbolism; it makes Berserk the masterpiece that it is.

This is so very important. 

I’m sorry if what I’m about to say sounds kinda unrelated to this discussion @bscully, but Berserk has a real notoriety in the manga world and honestly, I thank Sensei for steadily going with the upsetting imagery in spite of this! 

(under the cut, because possibly slightly out of topic)

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