This is a review of the current volumes of the manga adaptation of Berserk of Gluttony at the moment of publication. While the series is ongoing, only the content from the first 8 volumes will be evaluated, so there will be spoilers.
Publisher Summary
Fate Graphite has never tasted true power. Born into a world with two kinds of people—those with superior skills and those without—he’s been shunned his entire life. Fate’s skill is Gluttony, a curse that leaves him constantly hungry…until he awakens its terrible potential. When he kills someone, he can devour their skills and feed his insatiable appetite. How many lives will it take for Fate’s Gluttony to finally be satisfied?
Background
Berserk of Gluttony was my first foray into consuming a manga adaptation of a Light Novel. The premise of the story seemed like it would satisfy my fantasy craving.
Licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment, this series is published by Micro Magazine in Japan. With a currently airing anime (at the time of writing), Berserk of Gluttony has the chance of satisfying fantasy fans.
Story
The story starts out as a less edgy revenge power fantasy. Fate Graphite was born with the skill of Gluttony which keeps him in a constant state of hunger. It's useless for everything else which gives him a hard life since the world revolves around the quality of the skill you're born with. That is until his skill's true potential is unleashed and when he kills someone or something, he can devour their skills and stats!
The series has Fate doing a balancing act trying to satisfy his hunger through killing without giving in and going on a murder spree. I like that they gave the skill a drawback. It's adds a sense of tension with the reader on what will happen with Fate as they continue reading. The story doesnt treat this topic as a one-and-done plot point: it's brought up multiple times throughout the story.
What I like is that the series doesn't go full edgy revenge-porn ala Kingdom of Ruin or Redo fo Healer. There are genuinely good people in the world while there are others thatt are cruel. Not everyone is "bad".
There's an interesting twist later on where Fate has to decide whether or not to sacrifice Roxy due to her death providing a better life for the entire region. It's one knight who's death can provide everyone (man and monster) a better life. Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? That's something Fate has to grapple with.
General Thoughts
The series is a quick, simple read. You can get through a volume in a few minutes. Many concepts will be presented but they're simplistic in style to make way for the next battle.
I felt like the series took different aspects and tropes from various isekais and Dungeon & Dragons for world building. For example, Fate's gluttony skill and how it works is very similar to Rimery's skill from Reincarnated as a Slime. There's also his sword Greed who could remind readers of the sword from Reincarnated as a Sword (but with more attitude).
The series speedruns power scaling. What actually made me laugh was the concept of Domain of E and everyone's stats going into scientific notation. Once the story reaches that point, it becomes like Who's Line is it Anyway where the points don't matter.
Characters
I felt like there wasn't much depth to the leads. Fate is the standard "rags to riches with hidden misunderstood power or skill". You've seen it with other isekais and fantasy series. As a character, Fate gets a little better as the story progresses but it's too late.
Roxy Hart is the "prim & proper", chivalrous girl who stands for justice and honor and will uphold it to the best of her ability. Like Fate, you've seen it before. The story doesnt add unique twist or spin on this archetype so you wont really find anything interesting about her.
Myne is the wild brat with extensive lore knowledge (think Milim from Slime or Kishirika from Mushoku Tensei). I enjoyed the interactions between Fate & Myne. Their banter brought levity to the mood of the story and provides the reader some breathing room before the next tense moment.
One of the characters I thought was done well was Aaron. He had the most development of the cast and had an engaging backstory. He's charming in a swash-buckling kind of way. While losing both his family and estate, he never lets it get to him. He's protective of his town and still sees the good in people.
Final Thoughts
If you're enjoying the anime and want to continue with the manga adaptation, then you'll be happy with this. It doesn't deviate much (if at all) so you will be right at home.
However, if you haven't consumed anything regarding the series, I would recommend either getting the volumes on sale or just skipping this series altogether. It doesn't do anything unique or innovative. You will find things that will have you make callbacks to different, more popular series . Most of the characters are generally bland and the power scaling is thrown out the window early on, removing the gravitas from many of the fights and providing no tension to the reader.
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