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Berserk ( Japanese [en.wikipedia.org]: ベルセルク, Hepburn [en.wikipedia.org]: Beruseruku ) is a Japanese manga [en.wikipedia.org] series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura [en.wikipedia.org]. Set in a medieval [en.wikipedia.org] Europe-inspired dark fantasy [en.wikipedia.org] world, the story centers on the characters of Guts [en.wikipedia.org], a lone mercenary [en.wikipedia.org], and Griffith [en.wikipedia.org], the leader of a mercenary band called the "Band of the Hawk". Miura premiered a prototype of Berserk in 1988. 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 [en.wikipedia.org] , where Berserk continues to be serialized intermittently. Miura died in May 2021, leaving the fate of the manga unclear. [.6] [en.wikipedia.org]

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

As of May 2021, the Berserk manga had over 50 million copies in circulation, including digital versions [en.wikipedia.org], making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.

Contents
1 Plot [en.wikipedia.org]
2 Production [en.wikipedia.org]
3 Themes [en.wikipedia.org]
4 Media [en.wikipedia.org]
4.1 Manga [en.wikipedia.org]
4.2 Novel [en.wikipedia.org]
4.3 Anime [en.wikipedia.org]
4.4 Music [en.wikipedia.org]
4.5 Video games [en.wikipedia.org]
4.6 Other merchandise [en.wikipedia.org]
5 Reception [en.wikipedia.org]
6 Legacy [en.wikipedia.org]
7 See also [en.wikipedia.org]
8 References [en.wikipedia.org]
9 External links [en.wikipedia.org]

Plot

See also: List of Berserk characters [en.wikipedia.org]

Guts [en.wikipedia.org], a baby found beneath his dead hanging mother, is adopted by the mercenary Gambino. Raised as a mercenary, Guts eventually kills Gambino and flees as his adoptive father becomes cruel. Guts earns a fearsome reputation, catching the attention of Griffith, the angelically charismatic leader of the mercenary group, "Band of the Hawk" (鷹の団, Taka no Dan ). Griffith forces Guts into joining the group upon defeating him in battle. Guts quickly rises through the ranks of the band, eventually becoming Griffith's best warrior. During this time, Guts learns of Griffith's mysterious pendant, the Crimson Behelit, along with Griffith's dream to rule a kingdom of his own. When the Hawks encounter a monstrous immortal being known as Nosferatu Zodd, it adds further mystery to the Behelit as Zodd spares Guts and Griffith upon seeing it, warning the former of his impending death should he be a true friend of Griffith's. Eventually, they are hired by the kingdom of Midland and help to win the Hundred Year War against the Tudor empire, being ordained knights by the king of Midland. Meanwhile, Guts gradually develops a romantic relationship with Griffith's unit commander, Casca, the Hawks' only female member. After having overheard Griffith say that he can only consider someone a true friend if they have their own dream, Guts leaves the Hawks after defeating Griffith in single combat. Shaken by Guts' departure, Griffith ruins his fortunes when found seducing the king's daughter, Charlotte. He is imprisoned and tortured, while the Hawks are marked for death. Guts spends his next year training to become a better swordsman, but is warned by a mysterious, seemingly demonic being he calls "the Skull Knight", that his actions have set forth "the Eclipse". He temporarily returns to the Hawks and helps the outlawed remnants of the Hawks rescue Griffith, only to find him horribly mutilated and rendered a mute shadow of his former self.

Through preordained events, the despairing Griffith unknowingly activates his Behelit during a solar eclipse. This transports the Hawks to another plane where they encounter archdemons [en.wikipedia.org] collectively known as the "God Hand" in a ceremony known as the Eclipse. Urged onward by the eldritch beings to become one of them to fulfill his dream, Griffith sacrifices his soldiers to the God Hand's "apostles"—humans like Zodd who have become powerful demons by sacrificing their loved ones and humanity for power—each of the Hawks are "branded" with a symbol on their body identifying them as sacrifices. Almost all of the Band of the Hawk except Guts and Casca are slaughtered by the demons. Griffith finally emerges reborn as the God Hand's fifth and final member, "Femto". Griffith's first act upon his ascension is to rape Casca in front of Guts. Guts loses his right eye and cuts off his own left forearm to escape captivity in an attempt to save Casca before losing consciousness. Guts and Casca are saved from death and brought back into the physical world through the intervention of the Skull Knight. However, Casca is rendered insane from her horrific experiences. Guts learns that the "Brands of Sacrifice" that he and Casca now bear leave him open to be preyed upon by evil supernatural creatures on a nightly basis. Casca is left in the care of the blacksmith Godo and Rickert, the only Band of the Hawk member who escaped sacrifice because he was not present at the Behelit's activation. With a new sword known as Dragonslayer and a prosthetic left arm that contains a hidden cannon, Guts begins hunting down apostles in search of revenge against Griffith. During this time, Guts begins seeing an ethereal deformed infant that appears before him, what was his and Casca's unborn child tainted by Femto's rape.

Two years later, Guts is joined by an elf named Puck and a young thief named Isidro. Casca eventually runs away from Rickert, sending Guts on a mad hunt to find her. Guts is later reunited with Casca as she is about to be burned as a witch in the city of St. Albion. There, along with Puck and Isidro, they encounter Farnese and Serpico of the Holy See Church's Holy Iron Chain Knights. Guts endures a nightmarish ordeal that ends in Griffith being incarnated into a new physical form bei