Berserk

WORK IN PROGRESS
WARNING: This entry includes spoilers from the story and graphic content

About

Berserk is a manga and anime series created by Kentaro Miura, and published in Young Animal. The story is set on a medieval fantasy world, and follows the adventures of Guts, a swordman in seek of vengeance.

History

The first version of the manga was a one shot called Berserk: The Prototype, premiered on 1988, while Kentaro Miura was a university student. Although it has some minor differences as the serialized version (Guts’ backstory or brand’s design), it’s pretty similar to the final version. On November 26, 1990, the first volume was released by the company Hakusensha, and 2 years later, after the publication of three more volumes it began the serialization on the seinen manga magazine Young Animal.^[2]

On 1997, the manga was adapted into a 25 episodes anime by the studios OML Inc.^[3], starting on October 7, 1997 and finishing on March 31, 1998. On 2012, Studio 4ºC start releasing a series of movies to adapt the Golden Age Saga, being the last one released on February 1, 2013.

Plot

Berserk follows the life of Guts, a mercenary who hunts Apostles, a group of humans that using an artifact called Behelit, sacrified someone beloved to get demonic powers. The real objective of Guts is Griffith, the leader of the mercenary unit “Band of the Hawk”, where Guts was the Raid Leader. After some events where Guts lefts the Band and Griffith is imprisoned and tortured, Griffith use an special Behelit to sacrifice the Band of the Hawk, he becomes a memeber of the God Hand, the archdemons who give the power to Apostles. Only Guts and Casca, a member of the Hawk and Guts lover, survive. After defeating some Apostles, Guts meets with Casca again, who lost her memories and was almost burned as a witch, and Guts gains some allies.

Online Relevance

During the years, Berserk has garned an international following for its themes, the heavy violence and the detailed art style, often being praised as one of the best works on the manga history. It has some pressence on English-speaking communities like Tumblr,^[6] Reddit,^[9] 4chan’s /a/ Anime and Manga board,^[10] DeviantART^[7] and My Anime List.^[5] In addition, there are some referential hubsites about the series, such as a wiki of the series.^[8]

Sub-memes

Miura’s Breaks

Berserk is specially known for it’s autor breaks. As from 2000, the publishing schedule has been pretty irregular, being 67 weeks the longest wait time between two chapters (334-335)^[1]. This has started the rumours that say Miura spends his time playing videogames (specifically The idolmaster), and has become an in-joke.

The Boat

To arrive to their next objective, Guts and his party ship with Roderick, a noble. The boat was first introduced on the chapter 286 of the manga, released on July 23, 2007. Because of the breaks and the developement of Griffith’s story, the main characters have been on the boat 8 years. For that reason, the boat became one of the main jokes of the breaks.

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

That Thing Was Too Big to Be Called a Sword is a catchphrase used on the series refering to Guts’ oversized sword, the Dragonslayer. The catchphrase is often used as a snowclone.

Also, the sword has become one of the most notable references to Berserk, being featured on crossover fan arts.

Bagserk

Bagserk is a series of manga edits that change the dialogues featuring bags jokes. This edits feature the bags as something extremelly valuable, and make fun of Guts wearing a purse, claiming it’s a “manly bag”.^[11]

Griffith Did Nothing Wrong

Griffith Did Nothing Worng is a catchphrase refered to the Griffith fans, who claim he isn’t evil because of the events of the Eclipse.

Rape Horse

Rape Horse is the fan given name to a demon-possesed horse who tries to have intercourse with Farnese de Vandimion.

Search Interest

External Links