Berserk: The tower of rebirth Guts and the remnants of the hawks descend to the lowest chamber of the prison in search of their incarcerated leader Griffith, as they press on we catch glimpses of something wretched waiting in the darkness, a shriveled hand, a familiar eye staring madly from behind a visor. The group open the door expectantly and at first there appears to be nothing there, but Guts makes out a body in the room and finally we see the emaciated body of the once proud Griffith, tortured into madness. An iron mask shaped like his old helmet bolted into place as a twisted reminder of his former glory, Guts and Judeau remove the visor and the camera cuts away. What they see stuns them to silence while our minds are left to imagine exactly what disfigurement he has undergone, all we know is that his tongue has been cut off and his wrist tendons slashed so that he may never again fight or command an army. Griffith reaches out weakly to his old comrade and in a chilling moment of foreshadowing attempts to loosely throttle him, the man who caused his downfall.
This scene is made all the more chilling by the foreshadowing present, at the bottom of the tower we see a pile of corpses marked with the brand, the remainders of an earlier eclipse. The manga expands on this scene as the torturer describes how the last year has been spent, peeling off his skin and tearing his fingernails away to maximize his pain while keeping him alive. When the hawks regroup later we truly get the feeling of despair, all hope has been lost and they can never go back.
Berserk: Epilogue Following the harrowing events of the eclipse we watch as he tools up to hunt for vengeance, the gigantic dragon slayer hung on his back. The scene is made all the more powerful by the silence as the blacksmith Goto quietly warns Guts "Don't get yourself killed". A powerful, if slightly unsatisfactory end to the series.
Berserk: Sprint A chapter of the manga left out of the TV series, following the eclipse Guts comes to in the cave behind Goto's shack where he has been recuperating. Finding Caska insane and terrified of him after the events of the eclipse and realizing that they and Rickert are the only surviving members of the hawks he dashes off into the forest, running as memories of his comrades and his time in the hawks play in his head, the sting of betrayal still fresh.
Berserk: The Eclipse In a series full of outstanding moments (Just look at how many of my entries are Berserk oriented
) this is the one most people remember. The hawks fight for survival against the horrors of the eclipse, one by one they are picked off, dying tragic deaths. Griffith agrees to the terms of the sacrifice and rises to become a demon king, sacrificing the Hawks so that he may have another chance at becoming king.
Then there's the finale, the climax of the climax as Guts races to save Caska from the demons Griffith emerges reborn as a winged demon, Guts stares in disbelief at his former friend as he begins to rape Caska! Guts' arm is trapped, bitten by a demon. In desperation he strikes at the beast until... his sword breaks! He pauses, looking for a way out, and then, in a moment of sheer badassness (badassosity? Badassitude?) he begins hacking away at his own arm and charges at Griffith! forced to the ground by several more demons he lets forth a scream of pure hatred and anguish as a claw pierces his right eye. And then... The end. That's it. The cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers. To find out what happens next you have to read the ongoing manga. Dammit!
Tekkaman Blade: Evil's confession. Blade has emerged victorious from his battle with his twin brother Evil. (yes, i know...) Evil falls to the ground defeated and reverts to his human form before reminiscing about the past and urging his brother to defeat the aliens once and for all.
