Berserk (manga)

AUTHOR: Miura, Kentaro

ARTIST: Kentaro Miura (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Hakusensha (Japanese); Dark Horse Comics (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Beruseruku, 1990-

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1990- (English translation, 2003- )

Publication History

A forty-eight-page prototype of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk debuted in 1988. In November, 1990, the first volume of the manga was published in Jets Comics, an imprint of Hakusensha. After Volumes 2-4 (1991-1992), Hakusensha began serializing Berserk through its Young Animal division. As of September, 2011, Miura had completed thirty-six volumes, and the series continues to appear in individual volumes of eight to ten episodes each, published twice a year in Jets Comics collection. Young Animal releases episodes every two weeks, on the second and fourth Fridays of every month.

Plot

By the age of twenty, Guts has lost an eye and an arm, been branded for sacrifice, forced into the Interstice (a zone between the human world and the astral world), and rescued. He is known as the Black Swordsman, and possesses Godot’s specially forged armor and the magnificent sword Dragon Slayer. Guts leaves Godot’s Cave, inadvertently rescues the elf Puck, and defeats the Snake Tyrant. He then launches an epic quest.

In Misty Valley, Guts is challenged by the Apostle Rochine, a teenaged warrior who intends to free children from the adult world by terrorizing the village in which they live. Guts defeats Rochine but is then challenged to battle by Farnese, the leader of the Holy See’s Holy Iron Chain Knights (H.I.C.K.s), who capture and imprison Guts. Guts escapes and flees to Godot’s Cave, where he reequips himself with tools, and then departs to find and save his lover, Casca, whom he suspects is imprisoned by Femto. Guts invades Casca’s prison, the Tower of Retribution; the Tower topples as Guts defeats Mozgus, the Holy See chief inquisitor.

En route to Elfhelm, Puck’s former hometown, Guts (joined by Casca and Puck) faces his second of many challenges with the Beast of Darkness—the powerful, inner culmination of all of his hatred and anger. The Beast of Darkness appears often, especially when Guts has donned the Berserker Armor, a malevolent energy that threatens to take over his body and mind. Resisting but not ignoring the Beast, Guts forges on, adding to his Band of the Hawk three runaways, including Isidro, Farnese, and Schierke. With the addition of more energies and equipment, Guts moves on, reaching Enoch Village, where he and his band encounter the Trolls of Qliphoth. As Schierke wipes out the Troll horde with floods by evoking the water elemental (Windinu), Guts battles with Slan, the sole female God Hand. By the time the band reaches the safety of the tree mansion of Flora, Guts appears too vulnerable to defeat the Apostle army and its leader Grunbeld.

Bestowed with the Berserker Armor again, Guts defeats the Apostle army, and, with Flora’s assistance, he and his band escape safely. Arriving at the ocean shoreline outside Vritannis, Guts encounters the Skull Knight; Casca adopts a child the band has found on the beach; and the Beast makes another appearance, as Guts fights the serpentine beast Makara. Schierke goes into Vritannis, and Farnese visits her home and her father, the wealthy overlord Federico Vandimion.

Attempting to escape Vritannis, and confronting several Makara, Guts enables the Beast of Darkness to take over. In the process, he inadvertently conjures the astrally projected Schierke, who has summoned the Blaze Rod to manifest as the Dragon Slayer, which results in the annihilation of the Kushan emperor’s elemental power. Guts and his team arrive at the Sea Horse, and the Band of the Hawk sets off for Puck’s homeland, Elfhelm. In the interim, the Beast speaks to Guts, threatening to eventually return.

Volumes

• Berserk, Volume 1 (2003). Collects “Black Swordsman,” “The Brand,” and “The Guardians of Desire,” chapter 1. Introduces Guts. The volume features the hero’s first nemesis and foreshadows his destiny to perpetually fight evil and exact revenge.

• Berserk, Volume 2 (2004). Collects “The Guardians of Desire,” chapters 2 and 3. Features the first appearance of the Beast of Darkness and introduces Puck.

• Berserk, Volume 3 (2004). Collects “The Guardians of Desire,” chapter 4-6, and “The Golden Age,” chapter 1. Features the conclusion of the battle with the Count and introduces the egg-shaped Behelit, the talismanic entity of great demonic power.

• Berserk, Volume 4 (2004). Collects “The Golden Age,” chapters 2-6. Explores Guts’s psychological makeup.

• Berserk, Volume 5 (2004). Collects “The Golden Age,” chapters 7 and 8; “Sword Wind”; “Nosferatu Zodd,” episodes 1-4; and “Master of the Sword,” chapter 1. Guts seeks revenge against God Hand demon Griffith. Introduces the good-versus-evil construct with the appearance of Nosferatu Zodd.

• Berserk, Volume 6 (2005). Collects “Master of the Sword,” chapter 2; “Assassin,” chapters 1-4; “Precious Thing,” “Departure for the Front,” and “Engagement” episodes; and “Casca,” chapters 1 and 2. Features elements of medieval kingly favoritism, princess flirtation, and dual jealousies of the feudal-era kind.

• Berserk, Volume 7 (2005). Collects “Casca,” chapter 3; “Prepared for Death,” chapters 1-3; “Survival” and “Campfire of Dreams” episodes; and “The Battle for Doldrey” chapters 1-4. Features the culmination of a century-long feudal rivalry and focuses on Guts and his sword.

• Berserk, Volume 8 (2005). Collects “The Battle for Doldrey,” chapters 5 and 6; “Triumphant Return” and “Moment of Glory” episodes; “Tombstone of Flame,” chapters 1 and 2; “One Snowy Mist” episode; and “The Morning Departure,” chapters 1-3. Features courtly, political competition and power battles.

• Berserk, Volume 9 (2005). Collects “Knight of the Skeleton,” “Start of the Everlasting Night,” “The Fallen Hawk,” “Demise of a Dream,” “Arms Tournament,” “The Fugitives,” “The Fighter,” “Comrades in Arms,” and “Confession” episodes, as well as “Wounds,” chapters 1 and 2. Demonstrates the consequences of romantic involvement with royal offspring and includes the deus ex machina rescue of Griffith by Guts.

• Berserk, Volume 10 (2006). Collects “Sparks from a Sword Tip”; “Infiltrating Windham,” chapters 1 and 2; “Festival’s Eve,” chapters 1 and 2; “Thousand-Year Fifedom,” “Reunion in the Abyss,” and “A Way Through”; “Bakiraka,” chapters 1 and 2; and “Flower of the Stone Castle.” Features a strengthening of the bonds between Guts and Casca.

• Berserk, Volume 11 (2006). Collects “Devil Dogs,” chapters 1-4; Roar of the Wild Beast” and “Forest of Tragedy”; “Mortal Combat,” chapters 1 and 2; “Armor to the Heart,” “The Flying One,” and “The Immortal Once Again.” Introduces Wyald of the Knights of the Black Dog.

• Berserk, Volume 12 (2006). Collects “Requiem of the Wind,” “The Warriors of Twilight,” “Back Alley Boy,” “Eclipse,” “The Promised Time,” “Advent,” “The Inhuman Host,” “The Castle,” “Parting,” and “The Feast” episodes. Emphasizes themes of camaraderie and what makes for a strong team. Introduces Guts’s temptation to stray to the dark side.

• Berserk, Volume 13 (2006). Collects “Storm of Death,” chapters 1 and 2; “God of the Abyss,” “Lifeblood,” “Quickening,” “Birth,” “Afterglow of the Right Eye,” “Escape,” “Awakening to a Nightmare,” “The Sprint,” and “Vow of Retaliation” episodes. Features the misuse of the Behelit by Griffith, the summoning of the God Hand demon lords, and the fire walk through Hell.

• Berserk, Volume 14 (2006). Collects “Demon Infant,” “Armament,” “He Who Hunts Dragons,” “The Black Swordsman, Once More,” “The Elves of Misty Valley,” “Jill,” “By Air,” “Elf Bugs,” and “Berserk: The Prototype.” Emphasizes the original vendetta undertaken by the Black Swordsman.

• Berserk, Volume 15 (2007). Collects “Queen,” “Elf Fire,” “Red-Eyed Peekaf,” “The Recollected Girl,” “The World of Winged Things,” “Cocoons,” and “Pursuers”; “Guardians,” chapters 1 and 2; and “The Misty Valley,” chapters 1 and 2. Features a side trek into a deceptively quaint country village.

• Berserk, Volume 16 (2007). Collects “Monster,” “Sky Demon,” “A Bloody Night Sky,” “The Space Between Demon and Man,” “Firefly,” “The Way Home,” “Blue Sky Elf,” Conviction Arc: Binding ChainChapter,“The Beast of Darkness,” “The Hollow Idol,” and “The Holy Iron Chain Knights,” parts 1 and 2. Introduces a version of Puck’s genotype that perhaps explains the elf’s dark side.

• Berserk, Volume 17 (2007). Collects Conviction Arc: Chapter of the Birth Ceremony,“The Unseen,” “Night of Miracles,” “Past and Future,” “Morning of Truth,” “Cracks in the Blade,” “A Feeble Flame,” and “To Holy Ground,” parts 1 and 2. Features an enchainment of the hero by the Knights of the Holy Iron Chain.

• Berserk, Volume 18 (2007). Collects “Kushan Scouts,” parts 1 and 2; “Tower of the Shadow,” parts 1 and 2; “Children of the Shadow,” “Fierce Believer,” “Bowels of the Holy Ground,” and “The Witch”; “Spirit Road,” parts 1 and 2; and “Pillar of Flame.” Features the death of Midland’s king.

• Berserk, Volume 19 (2007). Collects “The Black Swordsman on Holy Ground,” “Straying,” “Ambition Boy,” “Den of Evil,” “The Reunion,” “Ambush,” “The Cliff,” “Captives,” “The Iron Maiden,” and “Blood Flow of the Dead,” parts 1 and 2. Spotlights Casca as she succumbs to pagan culture. The plot ventures into the realm of witchcraft.

• Berserk, Volume 20 (2007). Collects “The Spider’s Thread,” “Those Who Dance at the Summit, Those Who Creep in the Depths,” “Hell’s Angels,” “One Unknown in the Depth of the Depths,” “The Threatened,” “Omens,” “Martyrdom,” “Collapse,” and “Shadows of Idea,” parts 1-3. Features Casca’s capture and imprisonment in the Tower of Conviction.

• Berserk, Volume 21 (2008). Collects “Leaping Fish”; “Bestial Priest,” parts 1 and 2; “Those Who Cling, Those Who Struggle”; “Tidal Wave of Darkness,” parts 1 and 2; and “Resonance,” “The Sky Falls,” “Daybreak,” “The Arrival,” and “Determination and Departure.” Refines, retools, and reinforces Guts’s primary goal.

• Berserk, Volume 22 (2008). Collects Hawk of the Millennium Empire Arc: The Holy Evil War Chapter; “The Rent World,” “Reunion of the Hill of Swords,” “The Beast Swordsman vs. the Black Swordsman,” “Unchanged,” “Prologue to the War,” and “Fierce Kushan Attack”; “War Cry of the Wind,” parts 1 and 2; and “Of Snow and Flame,” parts 1 and 2. Features Griffith’s return and his perverted version of Midland as his personal kingdom.

• Berserk, Volume 23 (2008). Collects Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: The Holy Evil War Chapter; “Winter Journey,” parts 1 and 2; “Scattered Time,” “Fangs of Ego,” “Wilderness Reunion,” “The War Demons,” “Banner of the Flying Sword,” “Wings of Light and Darkness,” “The Night of Falling Stars,” and “Like a Baby.” Casca accelerates into madness.

• Berserk, Volume 24 (2008). Collects Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: The Holy Evil War Chapter, “Trolls,” “The Witch,” “The Astral World,” “Magic Stone,” “Elementals,” “Enoch Village,” “Ambition and Reflection,” “Troll Raid,” and “Mansion of the Spirit Tree,” parts 1 and 2. Features a population of militant, predatory Trolls.

• Berserk, Volume 25 (2008). Collects Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: The Holy Evil War Chapter; “Magic Sword,” “Mirror of Sin,” “Magic,” “The Arcana of Invocation,” “Raging Torrent,” “Shaman,” “Qliphoth,” “Taint,” and “Evil Horde,” parts 1 and 2. Introduces Schierke, who is childlike in her zeal but mature in her powers.

• Berserk, Volume 26 (2008). Collects Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: The Holy Evil War Chapter; “Retribution,” “Redemption,” “Vicinity of the Netherworld,” “Whore Princess of the Uterine Sea,” “Companions,” and “Claw Marks”; “The Blaze,” parts 1 and 2; and “The Berserker Armor,” parts 1 and 2. Features Slan of the God Hand, who appears from the entrails of slain Trolls.

• Berserk, Volume 27 (2009). Collects Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: The Holy Evil War Chapter, “Fire Dragon,” “The Depths of Hellfire,” “Departure of Flame,” “Demon City,” “Dread Emperor,” “The Daka,” “Demon Knights,” “Demon God,” “The Sleeping Princess Awakens,” Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: Falconia Chapter, and “The Sound of the Sea.” Features the appearance of Grunbeld, who, in dragon form, poses a threat to Guts.

• Berserk, Volume 28 (2009). Collects Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc: Falconia Chapter, “Proclaimed Omens,” “The Boy in the Moonlight,” “Familiars,” “Supernatural Fog,” “Sea Beast (Makara),” “The Roar of the Sea,” “Superhuman (Jnanin),” “Navy Yard,” “City of Humans,” and “The Kite and the Owl of the Wharf.” Casca bonds with and adopts an abandoned child. Guts struggles against the Kushan-possessed Makara.

• Berserk, Volume 29 (2009). Collects “Bloodshed,” “Warrior,” “A Meager Supper,” “Homing,” “In the Garden,” “The White Lily of the Field,” “Mother,” “The Ball,” and “The Colonnade Chamber.” Features battles against new foes. Schierke and Isidro battle pirate slavers to secure the band’s passage out of Vritannis.

• Berserk, Volume 30 (2009). Collects “Duel,” “Suzerain of the Religious Domain,” “Enchanted Tiger,” “Intrusion,” “The Rusted Birdcage,” “A Proclamation of War,” “Demon Beast Invasion,” “Divine Revelation,” and “City of Demon Beasts,” parts 1 and 2. Farnese sacrifices her freedom so the Band of the Hawk can move on.

• Berserk, Volume 31 (2009). Collects “Broiling Bay,” “Blaze Rod,” “Sword Beast,” “Paramarisha Sen’an’I (Wizard General),” “Eastern Magic,” “The Coiler,” “Bursting Flame,” “Thunder Emperor,” “Attack of the Demon Army,” and “Cloud Cluster.” Guts must choose between leaving Farnese and summoning the strength to control the Berserker Armor to fight off the Kushan clan.

• Berserk, Volume 32 (2009). Collects “Human Bullet,” “Setting Sail,” “The Flight,” “The Torn Battlefield,” “Wind Coil,” “The Midland Regular Army,” “Hero,” “On Board,” and “Massive Invasion,” parts 1 and 2. Features the reappearance of Griffith as Femto, demonic lord of the God Hand.

• Berserk, Volume 33 (2010). Collects “Bubbles of Futility,” “A Howl from the Darkness,” “Dream of Foresight,” “Fog of Death,” “Silent Darkness,” “Exodus,” “Shiva,” “The Heavens Shook,” and “Naval Battle,” parts 1 and 2. Includes Guts’s quest to reach Puck’s homeland, to get the help of Elfhelm’s king to restore Casca’s sanity, and find the demonic Griffith.

• Berserk, Volume 34 (2010). Collects “Giant God of Blindness,” “Demonic Release,” “Inhuman Battlefield,” “The Medium of the Hawk,” “Chaos,” “The Flight,” “Black Lighting,” “Fissure,” “Creation,” and “Fantasia” episodes. The new Band of the Hawk, led by Griffith, is compelled to reveal its true beastly identities.

• Berserk, Volume 35 (2011). Collects “Falconia,” “Solitary Island,” “Girl of the Roaring Torrent,” “Denizens of the Sinister Sea,” “Human Tentacles,” “The Tentacled Ship,” and “Ghost Ship,” parts 1-3. Guts and his entourage find a deceptively safe haven.

Characters

Guts, a.k.a. the Black Swordsman, is the tall, muscular, battle-scarred protagonist and hero of the series. He is marked by the God Hand with the Brand of Sacrifice, an actual laceration on his neck that functions as a demon beacon. With an eye missing and an arm severed at the elbow (replaced by a mechanical prosthetic equipped with a magnetic grip), he is a renegade bent on revenge and an eternal malcontent fated to suffer continual loss. As his name implies, he is a proud and wily warrior.

Griffith, a.k.a Femto, is the mutable and spiritually morphing antagonist. He begins as the proud and capable mercenary leader responsible for founding the first Band of the Hawk. With a name implying strength (in Welsh “griffith” means “strong chief”), he begins as a competent fighter for the king of Midland and gains Guts’s sword-fighting support. He is, however, overly confident, exaggeratedly powerful, and self-serving, and his ulterior motive is to rule over a great kingdom. He begins not to gain but to lose power, and so he reincarnates as Femto, a God Hand demon. As Femto, he rapes Casca, defeats his comrade Guts in a vengeful battle, and abuses his power.

Casca, the only female to lead the Band of the Hawk, has a dark past and a foreboding future. Sold by her parents to a nobleman who immediately sexually abuses her, she seeks vengeance as a swordswoman, ranking in sword-fighting skill behind only Guts and Griffith. She becomes Griffith’s lieutenant and Guts’s lover and takes command of the Band when Griffith is captured. She endures being raped by Femto, being marked by an Eclipse, and giving birth to a baby. She goes mad.

Puck is a cross between a pixie, fairy, and elf. Though diminutive, he has a strong personality. He is smart-mouthed, frisky, and often silly. He is rescued by Guts and becomes immediately attached to him.

The God Hand is the collective foil to the Band of the Hawk. The five angels/demons are assigned the task of showing the purpose behind human suffering. The God Hand is summoned by Behelit.

Artistic Style

Miura’s art is a familiar 1980’s manga style. Set up to be read right to left and top to bottom, the individual panels are in a montage format, overlapping according to importance. Sparse dialogue, generous pencil and ink shading, and economical use of panels on the page contribute to the overall ominous tone. A calculated gradation of black juxtaposed with a sudden explosion of white combine with a mature level of detail and clean lines to create movement and action.

Early installments of Berserk used densely packed panels to convey action and violence. Later volumes, however, spotlight the developed central characters; thus, a longtime nemesis posing a great threat and a main character in victorious battle mode receive large spaces and are depicted in close-ups, with head shots, or with dark space extending across the larger portion of page space. In general, landscape is relegated to the background, and minor characters are marginalized or diminished in size. Only on occasion does a supporting character command an entire panel.

The dialogue bubbles, captions, and sound effects are unobtrusive. Background commentary is offset with diminished and slightly differing fonts from the foreground dialogue font, a traditional WildWords font that gives definition to primary dialogue and gives voice to primary characters.

Themes

Taking cues from a great number of literary, historical, and popular-culture sources, Berserk is a manga with ample intertextuality. Also, the series delivers a generous selection of major, and universal, themes. Good versus evil, duality, and the dark side of human nature are all themes present in Berserk. The series’ hero is also an antihero: He is purportedly good and fighting against evil, but he is compelled to tap into dark sources for power and strength. The Behelit symbolizes this evil, superhuman, and immortal force, while the Beast of Darkness represents the propensity for human ambition for power gained through malevolent action.

The duality of the characters is illustrated by the inking, which demonstrates the light-dark division. The Shadow Creatures and Creatures of Light further the theme. The conflicting, constantly changing dynamic between Guts and Griffith demonstrates the challenge of dual and then dueling egos. The story traces a tortured hero who is perpetually troubled by his destiny, which he attempts to defy at every turn. Guts’s duality is echoed by the presence of masks and masking, the alternating of the setting between human and astral worlds, and the Interstice, where all action plays out. This duality frames the other prominent themes of the manga, including alienation and vengeance.

Impact

Miura’s Berserk series has resonated with readers all over the world, especially in Asia, Europe, and the United States. The critical acclaim has ranged from respect to reverence. The manga’s tankobon are sought after by fans of the manga, and the merchandise, which includes a unique 3D “hack and slash” Sega Dreamcast video game version, has remained popular.

Television Series

Berserk. Directed by Naohito Takahashi. OLM-Animation Studio/VAP, 1997-1998. Berserk aired on Japanese television under the Japanese title Kenpû denki beruseruku from 1997 to 1998. The twenty-five episodes cover Volumes 1-13 of the manga.

Further Reading

Shiono, Etrouji. Evil Blade (2005- ).

Yoshida, Akimi. Banana Fish (1996-1997).

Yukimura, Makoto. Vinland Saga (2005- ).

Bibliography

“Berserk: Book 1.” Review of Berserk, by Kentaro Miura. Publisher’s Weekly 251, no. 10 (2004): 52.

“Best Sellers: Graphic Novels.” Library Journal 1 (October, 2004): 126.

Gravett, Paul. Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics. New York: Collins Design, 2004.