Berserk

Editor’s Note: This entry includes spoilers and graphic content

About

Berserk is a manga and anime series created by Kentaro Miura and published by the Japanese magazine Young Animal. The story is set in a medieval Europe-inspired land, following the adventures of the protagonist Guts, a orphaned mercenary who wields a giant broadsword known as the “Dragonslayer.”

Plot

In the series, the mercenary Guts hunts enemies with demonic powers granted by an artifact known as the “Behelit,” which allows humans to make deals with archdemons belonging to a group known as “The God Hand.” After serving as Raid Leader of the mercenary unit “Band of the Hawk,” Guts and his companion Casca travel in search of their ex-leader Griffith.

History

In 1988, the first Berserk manga titled Berserk: The Prototype was released while Kentaro Miura was a university student. On November 26th, 1990, the first volume of the official series was released by the manga company Hakusensha, followed by two more volume in the next two years. In 1992, Berserk began serialization in the seinen manga magazine Young Animal.^[2]

In 1997, the manga was adapted into a 25 episode anime series by the animation studio OML Inc,^[3] running from October 7th to March 31st, 1998. In 2012, Studio 4ºC^[4] released a series of films known as the “Golden Age Saga” as an adaptation of the manga series.

Online Presence

Berserk has gained a significant online following on sites like like Tumblr,^[6] 4chan’s /a/ (anime and manga) board,^[10] DeviantART^[7] and My Anime List.^[5] On October 20th, 2000, the Berserk fansite SkullKnight.net^[12] was launched. In March 2007, Guts won the SaiGar tournament as the most masculine “gar” character in anime and manga. On April 25th, 2008, YouTuber MMAOmegaRED uploaded a clip from a Berserk episode in witch Guts kills 100 soldiers (shown below, left).

On May 30th, the Berserk Wiki^[8] was created, accumulating upwards of 725 pages over the next seven years. On May 19th, 2010, the /r/Berserk^[14] subreddit was launched for discussions about the anime and manga series. On October 27th, 2011, a page for Berserk was created on TV Tropes.^[13]

Berserk Outtakes

Berserk Outtakes are humorous dubbed videos of the 1997 anime adaptation narrating the condensed version, in a similar style as the Abridged Series of videos. On February 28th, 2007, YouTuber lance43 uploaded a video titled “Berserk Outtakes – Griffiths Greatest Singing Moments,” containing several dubbed clips of the character Griffith singing various songs (shown below, left). On September 9th, 2008, YouTuber jessietheh uploaded an edited clip from Berserk, featuring dubbed dialogue taken from a scene in the 1994 comedy film Clerks (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Miura’s Breaks

Berserk author Kentaro Miura is known for publishing the series on a irregular schedule, with the longest wait time between chapters 334 and 335 reaching 67 weeks.^[1] Fans of the series began joking that Miura was spending his time playing videogames like THE iDOLM@STER, rather than working on the manga series (shown below, left). In chapter 286 of the manga, Guts and his party board a ship with a noble man named Roderick. Due to the erratic publishing schedule and development of the character Griffith’s side story, Guts and his party remained on the boat for seven years (until the chapter 342), becoming an in-joke among fans (shown below, right).

That Thing Was Too Big to Be Called a Sword / Dragonslayer

“That Thing Was Too Big to Be Called a Sword” is an expression associated with Guts’ enormous broadsword “Dragonslayer,” which has inspired image macros using variations of the catchphrase as a phrasal template (shown below, left). The sword has also been featured in crossover art and is often included in Guts cosplays.

Bagserk

Bagserk is a series of manga panels with edited dialogue containing references to “bags,” typically portraying the bags as something extremely valuable or poke fun at Guts for wearing a purse.

Griffith Did Nothing Wrong

“Griffith Did Nothing Wrong” is an expression often used to excuse the actions of the character Griffith for sacrificing his friends to The God Hand.

Rape Horse

“Rape Horse” is a nickname given to a demon-possessed horse who tries to have intercourse with the character Farnese de Vandimion. It’s often used in reference to the many rape scenes in the manga series.

Search Interest

External Links