When you sacrifice, you must cut yourself from humanity...
– Ubik
Ubik is a member of the God Hand. His primary role is manipulating the emotions of those chosen by the beherit into willing a sacrifice.
Quick Answers
What is Ubik's primary role in the God Hand?
What is the physical appearance of Ubik?
How does Ubik manipulate the emotions of prospective apostles or God Hand members?
Who is the smallest member of the God Hand?
Appearance
He has the form of a small floating figure wearing glasses that appear to be fused into his face. He has fin-like tendrils that hang down below him and is always seen floating, never seen stationary or against any surface. He is the smallest of the God Hand. His face constantly bears the same grinning expression with his hands usually clasped together.
Personality
Ubik does most of the talking when the God Hand is present, providing much exposition. His role appears to be to convince the would-be apostle to accept the God Hand's sacrificial bargain by tempting them and convincing them that they cannot move forward without losing something of value. Ubik never outright lies, but will manipulate and twist the truth to push his victims closer to accepting the deal.
Abilities
Manipulator: Ubik appears to be highly manipulative. He is often seen using his silver tongue to coax the emotions of those chosen by the beherit into sacrificing their cherished ones or possessions.[2]
Consciousness evocation: Ubik is capable of materializing a person's consciousness within a given dimensional plane, opening time and space.[3][2]
Transformation: Ubik is able to shift his size to grow to impossible heights or gain a small size.[4] He is also able to conjure puppet-like forms of other beings and hide within them. He demonstrates this when he, alongside Conrad, took the shape of the fortune teller from Griffith's youth to deceive him.[2]
Causal awareness: As a member of the God Hand, Ubik is able to perceive the flow of causality, but only to an extent that barely borders omniscience. This enables him to foresee almost any possibility and influence the course of events to ensure one possibility becomes a reality. He is not omniscient, however, and cannot predict absolutely everything.[5]
Corporealization: He and the rest of the senior God Hand manifest rudimentary bodies from the corpse mounds animated by the malice that permeates the city of Albion during Griffith's Incarnation Ceremony.[6]
Levitation: He floats suspended in air, and when moving he appears to "swim" through the air.[3][4]
Story
Golden Age Arc
Ubik, alongside the other God Hand members, first make themselves known to Griffith while he is imprisoned in the Tower of Rebirth.[7] Once the guest of honor and his sacrifices appear in the Interstice for the Eclipse, the other God Hand reveal themselves. Ubik proceeds to influence Griffith's decision by subjecting him to a vision based on his past. There, in the form of an old woman, Ubik reminds Griffith of the type of person he is to sacrifice anyone to fulfill his dream so Griffith can accept the God Hand's offer to join them.[2]
Black Swordsman Arc
Two years after last seeing Guts, Ubik and the rest of the God Hand appear before him after he fatally wounds the Count and the apostle summons them to be given new life. Against the wishes of the Count, who hid the truth of his wife's death from their daughter, Ubik presents a vision to Theresia, forcing her to witness how her father murdered her mother to become an apostle.
Conviction Arc
During the Incarnation Ceremony at Albion, Ubik and the rest of the senior God Hand members make themselves known to Guts when they manifest rudimentary bodies from the restless spirits running amok in the city.[6]
Millennium Falcon Arc
While the Incarnation Ceremony has gone as planned, with Griffith fully reconstituted, the process separates the remaining God Hand members across different layers of the Astral World.[8]
Fantasia Arc
Following the Great Wave of the Astral World, Ubik is within his own unique domain during the advent of Fantasia.[9]
Portrayal
Japanese Voice Actor(s)
- Chafurin: Berserk (1997 Anime)/Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō/Berserk: The Golden Age Arc
- Kan Tanaka: Berserk Musou
English Voice Actor(s)
Notes
- His name is taken from Philip K. Dick's Ubik.
- Along with Void, before the Great Wave of the Astral World, Ubik is the only God Hand not to appear outside of any apostle-related ceremony.
- Ubik is the only character who has been voiced by the same Japanese voice actor in all animated adaptations of the series (but another voice actor plays him in the video game Berserk Musou).
- Ubik can be seen after the Great Wave inside of the "tree-man", a nod to Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights.
References
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 12, "Promised Time"
- ^ a b c d Berserk :: Volume 12, "The Castle"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 3, "Guardian Angels of Desire (5)"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 12, "Advent"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 13, "Escape"
- ^ a b Berserk :: Volume 20, "Shadow of Idea (2)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 10, "Infiltration of Wyndham (1)"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 26, "Whore Princess of the Uterine Sea"
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 34, "Fantasia"
Appendices
| God Hand
Void · Slan · Ubik · Conrad · Femto · Idea of Evil |
| Apostles
Zodd · Wyald · Unidentified Roaming Apostle · The Count · Borkoff · Rosine · Unidentified Female Apostle · Snake Lord · Egg of the Perfect World · Rakshas · Locus · Grunbeld · Irvine · Ganishka |
| Pseudo-Apostles
Zondark · Elves of Misty Valley · Great Goat · Mozgus · Mozgus' Disciples · Ganishka's Spawn |
| Phenomena
Abyss · Brand of Sacrifice · Sacrificial Ceremony (Eclipse · Incarnation Ceremony) |
| Others
Beherit · Man-Made Beherit · Sea God · Daka · Dead Spirit · Demon Child (in essence) |