Berserk (manga)

Berserk
The cover of Berserk as published by Hakusensha on December 1, 1990 in Japan
ベルセルク (Beruseruku)
Genre	Action, Horror, Dark fantasy
Manga
Written by	Kentaro Miura
Published by	Hakusensha
English publisher	Dark Horse Comics (North America)
Demographic	Seinen
Imprint	Jets Comics
Magazine	Young Animal
Original run	December 1, 1990 (1990-12-01) – ongoing
Volumes	36
TV anime
Berserk: Kenpū Denki
Directed by	Naohito Takahashi
Written by	Yasuhiro Imagawa
Music by	Penpals Silver Fins Susumu Hirasawa
Studio	OLM
Licensed by	AnimeWorks (North America) Madman Entertainment (AUS & NZ) MVM Films (UK)
Network	Nippon Television, Animax
Original run	October 7, 1997 (1997-10-07) – March 31, 1998 (1998-03-31)
Episodes	25
Video games
Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō
Collectible card game
Berserk Trading Card Game

Berserk (ベルセルク, Beruseruku) is a manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired world, the story centers around the characters of Guts, an orphaned mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the Band of the Hawk (鷹の団, Taka no Dan). Themes of isolation, camaraderie, and the question of whether humanity is fundamentally good or evil pervade the story, as it explores both the best and worst of human nature. Both the manga and anime are noted for their heavy violence.

Miura premiered a prototype of Berserk in 1988. The first volume of the manga was published on November 26, 1990 by Hakusensha in its Jets Comics collection. In 1992, after the publication of three more volumes, Berserk was serialized in Young Animal. The series was adapted into a twenty-five episode anime series covering the series' first story arc by Oriental Light and Magic from October 7, 1997 and March 31, 1998. A series of films is currently being released, beginning with Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler on February 4, 2012, as part of a new effort to adapt the entire manga series.

Plot

For more details on the structure of the series, see List of Berserk chapters.

Black Swordsman (vol. 1-3)

Guts, known throughout the land as the mysterious Black Swordsman, hunts the Apostles and lays waste wherever he goes. Guts arrives in the city of Koka, where he inadvertently rescues the elf Puck. Puck decides to accompany Guts through his journey. Guts fights and kills the Apostle who controlled the town, etching that the Black Swordsman is coming for all Apostles and especially the Godhand next. Guts continues his journey, eventually moving on to another city controlled by an Apostle who is referred to only as The Count. After a declaration of war, Guts is merciless in his battle with the repulsive Count, eventually defeating him and, while the Count lays on the verge of death, Guts begin to mercilessly taunt him, inadvertently activating the Count's Behelit to summon the five members of The Godhand, including his arch-nemesis Femto. The Count is however unwilling to sacrifice his daughter, and Guts, Puck and the Count's daughter are returned to the normal world. Guts then moves on to continue his quest, and Puck follows him.

Golden Age Arc (vol. 3-13)

This arc is a flashback showing Guts' youth and what led him to become the "Black Swordsman". Guts grows up as a young mercenary until his enrollment in the Band of the Hawk. He develops complex relationships with Casca and Griffith, the Band's charismatic leader and holder of the Crimson Behelit, who leads the Band to its rise and subsequent fall within the Midland army. From a conventional medieval European background, the story shifts to fantasy and horror, with the apparition of the Eclipse ceremony that ends with the destruction of the Band, as per Griffith's sacrifice in order to become the fifth member of the Godhand, the Wings of Darkness, Femto. With additional help from an enigmatic, self-proclaimed ally, the Skull Knight, (who had also previously saved Rickert, another member of the Band of the Hawk, when the injured members had stayed behind and were attacked by apostles during the mission to rescue Griffith from torture in Windham's dungeons) only Guts and Casca are able to survive the events of the Eclipse. Slowly recovering and distraught over Griffith's betrayal, Guts vows vengeance on Griffith and commits to his own personal war against the entities known as Apostles that slaughtered the Band of the Hawk.

Retribution Arc (14-21)

The story returns to the present with Guts continues his wandering journey. The Vatican becomes very uneasy about him and begins a manhunt for the "Black Hawk." Guts enters a town that is being attacked by elves. It turns out to be an Apostle named Rosine. Guts defeats the Apostle with the help of a local girl named Jill. He eventually returns to the aid of Casca, whose mind was broken during the Eclipse. In a half-awake dream, Guts receives a grim premonition of Casca through the demon child of their own conception. Guts returns to the place where he left her, only to find out from Rickert, the only other surviving member of the Hawk band, that she had ran away. Through the clues in the premonition his search leads him to the Tower of Worship in Albion. Guts goes die-hard when he finds out the Vatican have Casca and plan on burning her at the stake. In lieu of the rescue, things around them reach a fever pitch. Their very presence had triggered an anomaly culminating in a "rebirth ceremony" creating a mock Eclipse and the surprising return of Griffith to the corporeal world. Midland, suffering under a depression and a subsequent outbreak of disease, the Kushan Empire seizes the opportunity to invade following the death of the King.

Hawk of the Millennium Empire Arc (vol. 22-35)

Escaping the invasion, Guts and Casca begin a journey towards Elfhelm, Puck's homeland, where they hope to reach safehaven from the Curse of the Eclipse-inflicted Brand of Sacrifice. Along their way, newfound companions join them in their struggle. Upon meeting the sorceress Flora, Guts learns the Elfhelm king could possibly cure Casca's derelict mind and is bequeathed the Berserker Armor to help him in his fight against the Apostles. In parallel, the newly born Griffith is engaged in freeing Midland from the Kushan invasion and he leads a new demonic Band of the Hawk to victory against Ganiskha, leader of the Kushan Empire and also a powerful Apostle. In a last-ditch effort to defeat Griffith, Ganishka sacrifices himself and undergoes an untested metamorphosis into a monster that no living man or Apostle could contend with. Griffith, with the unintended help of the SkullKnight and his Sword of Resonance, defeats Ganishka and simultaneously releases powerful energies that transform the world.

Fantasia Arc (vol. 35-ongoing)

Guts finds himself torn by his battle for vengeance, but quickly admits to himself that he will not abandon Casca to fight Griffith. Sailing their way through the seas towards Elfhelm, Guts and his companions face new unknown dangers, along with the constant threat that the cursed Berserker Armor poses to Guts' mind. They stop at one island and meet the young girl Isma. The island has been taken over by an ancient monster called "The Sea God". Guts travels inside the monster and slashes its heart, killing it.

Characters

Main article: List of Berserk characters

Guts

• Guts (ガッツ, Gattsu)
  Guts is the protagonist of the story. He is a tall, muscular man who has a prosthetic left forearm that has a magnetic grip, conceals a cannon, and can be fitted with a small repeating crossbow. He wields a huge sword called Dragon Slayer. Guts is a Byronic hero who is able to struggle against causality, but seemingly unable to overcome it. He bears some resemblance (his prosthetic hand) to Götz von Berlichingen, but Miura stated that he created Guts independently and did not learn about von Berlichingen until after several volumes of the manga had been published.^{[citation needed]}

• Griffith (グリフィス, Gurifisu)
  Griffith, the founder and leader of the mercenary army Band of the Hawk, is the antagonist of the story. Extraordinarily charismatic and handsome, his tactical skill gave him and his army the reputation of invincibility and made him the favored choice of the Midland King, who was locked in a century-old war with the Empire of Chuder. Griffith is willing to sacrifice everything for the dream of his own kingdom, believing that he is destined for things greater than the average man.

• Casca (キャスカ, Kyasuka)
  Casca was the only female soldier in the original Band of the Hawk and is behind only Guts and Griffith in swordsmanship. She has dark skin. Her ambivalent relationships with both Guts and Griffith makes her capricious. Casca joins the Band of the Hawk after Griffith saves her from a sexual assault by a nobleman and, after Griffith is imprisoned, she becomes the leader of the Band of the Hawk and leads the mission to rescue Griffith along with Guts after he returns. The trauma of the Eclipse, especially her rape at Femto's hands, cost Casca her sanity and her relationship with Guts.

Media

Manga

Miura first premiered Berserk in 1988 with a 48-page prototype, which won a prize at the Comi Manga School he was enrolled in at the time. On November 26, 1990, the first volume of the manga was published by Hakusensha in its Jets Comics collection. Three more volumes appeared until Berserk was serialized by Young Animal (Hakusensha) in 1992 and new episodes are still being released in the biweekly magazine (every second and fourth Friday of the month). Volumes consisting of between 8–11 episodes are still published biannually in Japan by Hakusensha (Jets Comics collection). As of October 2010, 34 tankōbon of the manga have been published in Japan.

In America and the United Kingdom, the manga is translated and co-published between Dark Horse Comics and Digital Manga Publishing, which has released 34 volumes so far, the first on October 22, 2003. As with other Dark Horse manga releases like Hellsing or Trigun Maximum, the Japanese reading format, from right to left, is preserved in the English release (sound effects are untranslated in earlier releases, though this started with volume 12) at the author's request.

In Europe, the manga was introduced back in 1996, first in France (by Samourai Editions) and then in Italy a few months later (by Panini Comics, first under the imprints Marvel Manga and then Planet Manga). After Samourai Editions' bankruptcy, the comic series has been published in France by both Dynamic Visions (since 2002) and Glénat (since 2004), the latter edition being a larger format. Since 2001, the manga has also been translated and released in Germany (Panini Comics/Planet Manga) and Spain (MangaLine Ediciones). In the Netherlands, Glénat has been translating and publishing the manga since 2008. Among the other markets that Berserk has been published in are South Korea, where it has been published by Dai Won since 1999, and Brazil, where Panini Comics has published the series in a demi-sized (120 pages) edition since 2005.

As of November 2010, the manga has sold 24 million volumes in Japan and 7 million overseas. The manga has published on an irregular schedule since late 2006.

Anime

Main article: List of Berserk episodes

Produced by OLM, the 25-episode TV anime series adaptation Kenpū Denki Berserk (剣風伝奇ベルセルク) first aired in a post-midnight slot from October 7, 1997 to March 31, 1998. The first thirteen volumes of the manga are covered, including the first arc (Black Swordsman). Though the manga storyline remains largely intact, many changes were made with the modification or elimination of characters, some of the series' most violent and brutal scenes, and material that would have extended the storyline beyond the planned run of the anime series. Themes of friendship and ambition are more developed and emphasized than those of causality and the supernatural, all of which were made with the approval of series creator Kentarō Miura.

In Asia, Vap Video has released thirteen VHS and twelve VCD including two episodes each (a single one in the last VHS and three in the last VCD) from 1998 to 1999 in Japan. The seven discs "DVD-BOX", using Audio-CD cases, was released in Japan in 2001, with the seven volumes being re-released later in individual DVD regular cases in 2003.

Music

Susumu Hirasawa composed the soundtracks for both the anime series and video games. The music genre is rather eclectic, with various instruments such as piano, bagpipes, violin, harp, flute, classic guitar, electric guitar, drums, harpsichord or synthesizer.

Opening theme

• "Tell Me Why", by Penpals

Ending theme

• "Waiting So Long", by Silver Fins

Next episode theme

• "Forces", by Susumu Hirasawa

Film series

Main article: Berserk Golden Age Arc

In September 2010, a wraparound jacket band on volume 35 of the Berserk manga announced a new anime project. The project was later revealed to be a series of films intended to adapt the entire manga, starting with three films adapting the "Golden Age" story arc. The first film, Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler, will be released in February 2012 by Warner Bros. Pictures in Japan. The voice cast features in the lead roles Hiroaki Iwanaga as Guts, Takahiro Sakurai as Griffith, and Toa Yukinari as Casca. The second and third films in the series are set to be released during the year.

Video games

Two video games based on Berserk have been released: Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage and Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō. The former takes place during the Hawk of the Millennium Empire arc (despite being released during the publication of the preceding arc) and was released in America before the manga or anime (hence the changed title), while the latter is set between volumes 22 and 27 (though it was not released in America).

Merchandise

In addition to video games and game guidebooks, Berserk has spurred on a range of different merchandise, from lighters to keyrings to kubrick sets (6 cm Lego alike). Statues and action figures are produced by Art of War. The original soundtrack of the anime series and video games by Susumu Hirasawa are available on CD. A Berserk trading card game was released by Konami and is available in Japan. There will be a figure of Guts released by Max Factory in its Figma line in January 2012.

Reception

The manga has been widely recognized for its excellence in Japan and throughout the world, winning the outstanding award at the sixth installment of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2002.

External links

• (Japanese) Berserk official page
• (Japanese) 映画『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇Ⅰ 覇王の卵』 - Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler official site
• Digital Manga Publishing page for Berserk
• Art of War - Official Berserk merchandise
• Berserk (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Berserk (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Berserk at the Internet Movie Database