Berserk

"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law......? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. Man takes up the sword in order to shield the small wound in his heart sustained in a far-off time beyond remembrance. Man wields the sword so that he may die smiling in some far-off time beyond perception."

- -Kentarō Miura, Berserk, Volume 5

Berserk (ベルセルク) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kentarō Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on the characters of Guts, a lone mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the "Band of the Hawk". The series began the following year in the now-defunct magazine Monthly Animal House, which was replaced in 1992 by the bimonthly magazine Young Animal, where Berserk continues to be serialized intermittently.

The manga has been adapted into a twenty-five episode anime television series covering the series' Golden Age arc by Oriental Light and Magic, which aired from October 1997 to March 1998. A trilogy of films, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc, was released beginning in 2012. A second anime television adaptation was broadcast in 2016 and 2017 for a total of twenty-four episodes.

Plot
Guts is a lone warrior who was born from a hanged corpse and raised as a mercenary by adoptive father Gambino, whom he was forced to kill in self defense. Guts' fearsome reputation catches the attention of Griffith, the charismatic leader of a mercenary group known as the Band of the Hawk. Griffith forces Guts to join the group after defeating him in battle, with Guts becoming his best fighter while quickly rising through the band's ranks as they are hired by the Midland Kingdom during its century-long war against the Tudor Empire. Guts would later learn of Griffith's desire to rule a kingdom of his own and his mysterious pendant known as a Behelit, which was instrumental when they were spared by Nosferatu Zodd, a monstrous immortal while leaving Guts with a cryptic warning of a painful demise for being Griffith's friend.

As Griffith begins to mingle with Midland nobility and acquaint himself with the king's daughter Charlotte, Guts began developing feelings for his fellow commander Casca, the Hawks' only female member. But when Guts overhears Griffith confessing to Charlotte that he considers someone with their own dream a friend, Guts decides to leave the group once Midland has won its war. But Guts' departure causes a devastated Griffith to ruin his fortune by seducing Charlotte, resulting in his arrest and torture while the Hawks are branded criminals by the Midland army. Guts spends the next year training to become a better swordsman, but is warned by a mysterious being he names "the Skull Knight" that his actions have instigated an "Eclipse". Guts learns of the Hawks' predicament and rejoins them to rescue Griffith while consummating his feelings for Casca.

The group soon end up on a crossroads upon learning Griffith had been reduced to a crippled mute. While making for Midland's borders, Griffith regaining his Behelit at his moment of despair over his condition during a solar eclipse. The item transports the Hawks to another dimension where they encounter four archdemons collectively known as the "God Hand", who have gathered for an event known as the Eclipse where Griffith will sacrifice his comrades and transcend his humanity to join them as their fifth member. Griffith willingly accepts once reminded of the ambitious man he has always been, with the Hawks branded with a demonic sigil and slaughtered by the God Hand's "apostles"—humans like Zodd who sacrificed their loved ones and humanity for power. Only Guts and Casca survive while Griffith is reborn as the God Hand's fifth and final member "Femto", raping Casca while Guts loses his right eye and left forearm in his attempt to save her before they are rescued by the Skull Knight. However, the ordeal traumatizes Casca, causing her to regress to a childlike state. Guts learns from the Skull Knight that their "Brands of Sacrifice" leave them open to be preyed upon by supernatural creatures. Guts leaves Casca in the care of the blacksmith Godo, his adoptive daughter Erica and Rickert, the youngest member of the Band of the Hawk who survived by not being present at the Eclipse. With a new sword named Dragonslayer and a prosthetic left arm with a built-in cannon and crossbow, Guts begins hunting down apostles in search of revenge on Griffith. During this time, Guts is followed by his unborn child with Casca, deformed into a demonic phantom as a result of Femto's rape (dubbed the Demon Child).

Two years later, after having killed many apostles and earning the nickname of "the Black Swordsman", Guts is joined by an elf named Puck and is also captured by Farnese, captain of the Holy See Church's Holy Iron Chain Knights, and her bodyguard Serpico who were sent after him, believing he is a harbinger of the apocalypse. He manages to escape after saving Farnese from demonic entities before returning to Godo where he learns that Casca has disappeared. Guts' search for her takes him to the city of St. Albion, learning the God Hand arranged for the city, now home to thousands of refugees, as the site for an Incarnation ceremony to give one of their own a physical form. Guts saves Casca from the fanatical Holy See bishop Mozgus as the city descends into nightmarish chaos from the souls of the dead attacking. Joined by Farnese, Serpico and a young thief named Isidro, Guts and Casca survive the ordeal as Griffith reconstitutes through a misshapen apostle desiring to "hatch" a new world who ingested the dying Demon Child prior.

Guts later encounters Griffith and Zodd at Godo's home with his battle with the latter destroying the enchanted mine that kept Casca safe while Griffith realizes some lingering traces of the Demon Child persist within him. Guts decides to take Casca to Puck's homeland of Elfhelm on the island of Skellig to see if there is a means of restoring her mind, allowing Isidro, Farnese and Serpico to follow him as he fears losing control of himself to his dark impulses, embodied as a demonic black dog within his mind. At the same time, Griffith creates a second Band of the Hawk with Zodd and other apostles among its ranks to save Midland from the invading Kushan Empire, led by their rogue apostle emperor, Ganishka.

Guts' group later encounter the witch Flora during an attempt to save a village from marauding trolls, and her apprentice Schierke, who begins to teach Farnese magic and negates the effects of the brand on Guts and Casca. Prior to her death when members of the New Band of the Hawk destroy the tree she made her home it, Flora gives Guts use of a dangerous relic known as the Berserker Armor which increases his physical ability, but increases the risk of being consumed by his inner darkness. While Guts and his party secure a ship to reach Elfhelm in, Griffith's war with Ganishka climaxes when the emperor's destruction following his transition into a god-like abomination causes an overlapping of the mortal realm and the supernatural astral realm. Unopposed and with Charlotte and the Holy See's blessing, Griffith establishes the city of Falconia to provide refuge for Midlanders and the rest of humanity from the numerous mythical creatures that manifested in the realms' overlapping.

At the same time, following a dramatic battle with a supernatural island-sized monster known as the Sea God and recruiting one of the islanders, a merrow girl called Isma, Guts' party reaches Elfhelm. The elf ruler, Danann, helps Farnese and Schierke travel into Casca's mind and restore her to her former self. But despite her recovery, Casca was still traumatized from her ordeal, making it difficult to be around Guts without suffering a flashback. Farnese and Schierke later begin training with the other apprentice witches and wizards living on Skellig, the former taking an interest in the power to heal human souls to help Casca. At the same time, Guts encounters the Skull Knight once again who tells him that his journey is at an end, guiding him to the creator of the Berserker Armor and teaching Guts about his own past with the God Hand. Meanwhile, after defeating an army of giants, Griffith participates in a council with the other nobles of Falconia before departing that evening. Guts is then met by the Moonlight Boy, a mysterious child-looking entity who had appeared before the group beforehand on their journey to Elfhelm. Danann detects no malice from the Boy, and he is allowed to stay, forming a bond akin to mother and son with Casca. The latest chapter ends with the revelation that the Moonlight Boy shares a body with Griffith who appears before Guts and Casca with a single tear rolling down his face.

Creatures

 * Apostle - The demonic beings who, typically having acquired and activated a beherit in a moment of despair, summoned the God Hand and joined the ranks of demonkind in exchange for a precious sacrifice.
 * God Hand - The upper class of the Apostles who possessed the Crimson Beherit. They are the instrument of the God's will in the universe.
 * Dwarf
 * Elf
 * Hárpuia
 * Jǫtunn
 * Ogre
 * Trǫll

Themes
The Golden Age arc, one of the most important episodes in Berserk, has been compared to a Greek tragedy. According to Anne Lauenroth of Anime News Network, Griffith's hamartia lies in how he compartmentalizes his feelings of guilt and shame that would get in the way of his dream and how he deals to repress them. His inner dialogue in his second duel with Guts; "If I can't have him, I don't care", marks the Golden Age arc peripeteia. When Guts comes running to rescue him during the Eclipse, Griffith reaches his moment of anagnorisis, with his thought that Guts is the only one who made Griffith forget his dream.

Gallery

 * Artwork

Notes & Trivia

 * The Eclipse, an event for the new members of the demonic deities known as the God Hand, occurs during a solar eclipse once every 216 years. The 216-year time gap between every Eclipse may be a reference to the Number of the Beast in the Bible, 666, an allusion to the demonic nature of the event. The triple occurrence of 666 translates into 6 cubed, or 216, or double the number 108, a significant number in Buddhism.
 * The influence of Clive Barker's Hellraiser is seen in the description of the God Hands.
 * The Beast of Darkness, a creature which is the manisfestation of Guts' wrath and bloodlust towards Griffith, seems to be based off of Fenrir, the vengeful wolf who would attack the gods during Ragnarök in Norse mythology.
 * The jötnar appear as the giants in the manga.