Berserk

[Y]

PFFFFFFFFT!

I actually prefer the later High Fantasy stuff that comes after the series to all the boring feudal stuff and the depressing demon crap in the first part of the series.

You crazy. The tight plotting and air of foreboding in the volumes leading up to the Eclipse leads to the best character arcs. Berserk up to that point stands almost as a rebuttal to what it eventually turns into. Guts getting a team of generic RPG cliches and heading to Fairy World is so at odds with the "realistic", dread-filled depiction of the fantastical in the Golden Age that it feels like a different (worse) series.