Berserk (manga)

Berserk
Cover of the first manga volume
ベルセルク
(Beruseruku)
Genre Adventure,[1] dark fantasy[2]
Manga
Written by Kentaro Miura
Published by Hakusensha
English publisher
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Monthly Animal House (1989–92)
Young Animal (1992–present)
Original run August 25, 1989 – present
Volumes 40
Anime television series

Anime film series

Berserk (Japanese: ベルセルク, Hepburn: Beruseruku) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired dark fantasy world, the story centers on the characters of Guts, a lone mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the "Band of the Hawk". Themes of isolation, camaraderie, and the question of whether humanity is fundamentally good or evil pervades the story, as it explores both the best and worst of human nature. Both the manga and anime adaptations are known for their use of graphic violence and sexual content.

Miura premiered a prototype of Berserk in 1988. The actual series began the following year in the now-defunct magazine Monthly Animal House, which was replaced in 1992 by the semimonthly magazine Young Animal, where Berserk continues to be serialized intermittently. The series was adapted into a twenty-five episode anime TV series covering the series' Golden Age arc by Oriental Light and Magic from October 7, 1997, to March 31, 1998. A trilogy of films, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc, was released beginning in 2012. A second anime TV adaptation was broadcast in 2016 and 2017 for a total of twenty-four episodes.

Plot

Guts (ガッツ, Gattsu) is a wandering mercenary who has known war and death since he was born from a hanged corpse and saved by his adopted mother, who died from the plague when he was only three years old. He was raised and trained as a mercenary by his adopted father, Gambino, but Gambino blamed Guts for his wife's death, selling access to the boy to a rapist amongst the mercenaries and later, attempts to murder Guts in a drunken rage. Guts flees after killing his adoptive father in self-defense, eventually growing into a young mercenary who earned a fearsome reputation while fighting. Guts eventually catches 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 his forces upon defeating him in battle. Guts quickly rises through the ranks of the mercenary group, eventually becoming the Hawks' renowned raid leader and Griffith's deadliest subordinate. They are hired by the kingdom of Midland to help win the Hundred Year War against the Tudor empire. During this time, Guts bonds with the Band of the Hawk and 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.

In time, as the Hawks play a vital role in ending Midland's Hundred Year War with the nation of Tudor, eventually becoming ordained knights by the king of Midland. Guts gradually develops a relationship with Griffith's unit commander, Casca, the Hawks' only female member. Casca and Guts are initially hostile toward one another, but eventually start to fall in love after Guts saves Casca's life and successfully fights against one hundred men by himself to save her. After having overheard Griffith say that he can only consider someone a true friend if they have their own dream, Guts tries to leave the Hawks as the war ends and Griffith defeats his political enemies. Griffith refuses to let Guts leave the Band of the Hawk, claiming that he owns him. The two duel in single combat and Guts wins in a single blow. Unable to cope with to losing Guts, Griffith ruins his fortunes when found seducing the King's daughter, Charlotte. He ends up imprisoned to be tortured endlessly while the Hawks are marked for death. During Griffith's captivity, his torturer throws his behelit away. Guts spends the next year of his life training to become a better swordsman, but returns to the Band of the Hawk when he learns of Griffith's and the Band's fates. He reunites and starts a romantic relationship with Casca 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.

Though the group successfully escapes past the border with Griffith, it becomes clear that Griffith's injuries are too great and he would never again be able to physically move on his own or fulfill his dream of ruling a kingdom. Through preordained events, the despairing Griffith regains his behelit and unknowingly activates it during a solar eclipse. This transports the Hawks to another plane where they are "branded" with a symbol on their body and encounter archdemons 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 realize his dream, Griffith sacrifices his soldiers to the God Hand's "apostles"—humans like Nosferatu Zodd who have become powerful demons by sacrificing their loved ones and humanity for power. While Griffith has visions from the God Hand showing him that he was always destined to come to the Eclipse, Guts and Casca desperately fight for their lives while witnessing the brutal slaughter of their comrades. Eventually all of the Band of the Hawk are slaughtered and devoured by the demons. However, with Casca being the only woman present, she is gang raped by the demons. Griffith finally emerges reborn as the God Hand's fifth and final member, "Femto". Griffith's first act upon his ascension, later revealed to be a means of regaining his corporeal body, is to rape Casca in front of Guts. Guts loses his right eye and cuts off his own left forearm to escape captivity in a rage-filled attempt to kill Griffith and save Casca before losing consciousness.

Guts and Casca are saved from death and brought back into the physical world at the last minute through the intervention of the mysterious and powerful Skull Knight, whom Guts had met on his travels. However, the damage is done, as 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 specters and other 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 Crimson Behelit's activation. Guts takes an enormous sword from Godo known as Dragonslayer, and a prosthetic left arm that contains a hidden cannon built by Rickert, and begins hunting down apostles in search of revenge against Griffith. During this time, Guts begins seeing a ethereal deformed baby that appears before him.

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's physical form being restored through the unborn baby that Guts and Casca had conceived before it was mutilated by Griffith's influence in Casca's rape.

Puck suggests that Casca's mind might be restored if they take her to the Elven realm of Elfhelm. Guts, desperate to save his loved one, heads there for sanctuary with the help of his new companions. They are soon joined by the witch Schierke who teaches Farnese magic and negates the effects of the brand on Guts and Casca. Griffith creates a second Band of the Hawk with Zodd and other demonic Apostles among its ranks to battle the invading Kushan army. The war between Griffith and the Kushan emperor, Ganishka, a rogue apostle, climaxes with the emperor's destruction and the overlapping of the mortal realm and the supernatural.

Now unopposed, Griffith finally obtains his own kingdom by establishing his rule over Midland with the endorsement of the Pope and Princess Charlotte, creating the city of Falconia to provide the Midlanders with refuge from the ever-increasing attacks of mythical beasts, unaware that their new ruler is actually one of them. At the same time, Guts and his party take a ship toward Elfhelm. Following a dramatic battle with the Sea God, Guts's party reaches Elfhelm, on the island of Skellig. The elf king, Danann, helps Farnese and Schierke travel into Casca's mind and restore her to her former self.

Griffith wages war on other demon factions.

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 chapters are still being released in the semiweekly magazine. Bound volumes are still published biannually in Japan by Hakusensha (Jets Comics collection); as of September 2018, 40 tankōbon of the manga have been published in Japan. [3] The manga was published on an irregular schedule from late 2006 until July 2015. From then to December 2015 it was published monthly before returning to an irregular schedule. It returned to a monthly schedule starting in June 2016.[4]

In North America and the United Kingdom, the manga is translated and co-published between Dark Horse Comics and Digital Manga Publishing, which has released 39 volumes so far, the first on October 22, 2003. Berserk is the best selling product (Not just manga) in Dark Horse's history, with over two million copies sold as of September, 2018. [5] [6] In September of 2018, Dark Horse Comics announced a "deluxe edition" of the Berserk manga, featuring hard covers and larger prints to be released in 2019. [7]

Novel

A text tie-in to Berserk was announced for June 23, 2017.[8]

Adaptations

First series (1997–1998)

Produced by Oriental Light and Magic and directed by Naohito Takahashi, the 25-episode anime television series adaptation Berserk: Kenpū Denki (剣風伝奇ベルセルク, Kenpū Denki Beruseruku, lit., "Berserk: Sword-Wind Tales") first aired from October 7, 1997 to March 31, 1998. The series begins with the Black Swordsman arc, continuing through the Golden Age arc. Though the manga storyline remains largely intact, several 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, each of which was made with the approval of 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.

Film series (2012–2013)

In September 2010, a wraparound jacket band on volume 35 of the Berserk manga announced a new anime project,[9] which was later revealed to be a series of films.[10] The first two films, Berserk: Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King and Berserk: Golden Age Arc II - The Battle for Doldrey, were released in Japan in February and June 2012. Berserk: Golden Age Arc III - The Advent was released on February 1, 2013 in Japan.[11][12]

The first two movies are substantially a retelling of the 1997 TV series. The third movie features new footage beyond the TV series storyline based on the manga. The movies are primarily animated using CGI although rendered with a flat two-dimensional effect which matches the TV series visual style.

The voice cast features Hiroaki Iwanaga as Guts (replacing Nobutoshi Canna from the original anime), Takahiro Sakurai as Griffith (replacing Toshiyuki Morikawa), and Toa Yukinari as Casca (replacing Yūko Miyamura).[13][14] The English voice cast features Marc Diraison as Guts, Kevin T. Collins as Griffith, and Carrie Keranen as Casca, all reprising their roles from the original anime.

Second series (2016–2017)

The Japanese magazine Young Animal announced on December 22, 2015 that a second televised anime adaptation of the Berserk manga would be produced and broadcast on Japanese television network WOWOW and MBS starting in July 2016. The first promotional video for the new series was revealed at NBC's winter Comiket, which featured Guts in his Black Swordsmen attire fighting off dozens of demonic skeletons with his characteristic sword Dragon Slayer. The new series was controversially primarily animated using CGI rather than the previous series' traditional animated style. It commences with the "Conviction" story arc, starting around chapter 115 of the manga, and introduces Puck, Isidro, Farnese and Serpico as characters.[15][16] The second season, covering the "Falcon of the Millennium Empire" arc, began on April 7, 2017.

Music

Susumu Hirasawa participated in the soundtracks for all adaptations of the manga, using an eclectic selection of instruments. He received the offer to compose music for the series due to Miura being a fan of his works and listening to them while he works on Berserk, that also led to Miura almost never requesting a specific composition to Hirasawa. Hirasawa has said that Berserk does not feel like a self-restrained story, and that composing for the series is similar to the sensation of unlocking one of his inner restraints, leading to compositions on a "Berserk style".[17] Hirasawa has made five songs with lyrics for the series, the last two of them were written in a language Hirasawa created by mixing elements of Thai, German and Latin together.[18] Besides Hirasawa, the video games and film trilogy feature work by composers Masaya Imoto, Hiromi Murakami, Shinya Chikamori, Hiroshi Watanabe, Yasushi Hasegawa, Tomoyo Nishimoto and Shirō Sagisu; the anime and the film trilogy feature theme songs by Penpals, Silver Fins, AI and CHEMISTRY.

Video games

Two video games based on Berserk have been developed by Yuke's. The first game, Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage (ベルセルク 千年帝国の鷹篇 喪失花の章, Beruseruku Sennen Teikoku No Taka Hen Wasurebana no Shō, Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Lost Flowers), was released for the Dreamcast in Japan by ASCII Corporation in late 1999.[19] It was localized in western regions early the following year by Eidos Interactive.[20] The second game, Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Shō (ベルセルク 千年帝国の鷹篇 聖魔戦記の章, Beruseruku Sennen Teikoku No Taka Hen Seima Senki no Shō, Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Record of the Holy Demon War), was published by Sammy Corporation exclusively in Japan on the PlayStation 2 in 2004.[21] A Berserk-themed spinoff of Omega Force's Dynasty Warriors series, titled Berserk and the Band of the Hawk (ベルセルク無双, Berserk Musou) was released on October 27, 2016 in Japan, and later in the U.S. on February 21, 2017 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and PC via Steam.

Other merchandise

In addition to video games and game guidebooks, Berserk has spurred on a range of different merchandise, from lighters to keyrings to Kubrick. Statues and action figures are produced by Art of War. A Berserk trading card game was released by Konami in Japan.[22] A figure of Guts was released by Max Factory in its Figma line in January 2012.

Reception

As of July 2015, the manga has sold 27 million volumes in Japan and 8 million overseas.[23] As of January 2016, reported 40 million volumes have been sold worldwide.[24] In September 2018, it was reported that Berserk is publisher Dark Horse Comics's best selling product of all-time with over 2 million copies sold. This means Berserk outsells all other Dark Horse comic and manga series, making it a huge success. [25][26] Berserk's manga volumes have topped Japanese manga charts, with volume 40 debuting as the best selling manga for the week of its release. [27]

The 1988 Prototype chapter won a prize at the Comi Manga School Miura attended and the main series won the Tezuka Osamu Award for Excellence at the sixth installment of Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2002.[28]

Precedents

In an interview with Yukari Fujimoto, Miura mentioned these as influences: Violence Jack, Guin Saga, Pygmalio, Ranpo, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Fujihiko Hosono[29]

  • Violence Jack and especially Guin Saga for atmosphere.
  • Ranpo (1978–87) as reference for his backgrounds.
  • The Snow Queen (Guin Saga spin-off) and Pygmalio (1978–90) for Guts' sword size by mixing the two precedents.
  • Fist of the North Star for having an attractive muscular male character who is powerful and can defeat many opponents.

Berserk has inspired a number of video games, notably the Dynasty Warriors series and the Souls series.[30]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Berserk Volume 1 TPB". Dark Horse Comics. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Dark Horse Opens Pre-orders for Berserk Volume 38". Anime News Network. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
  3. ↑ https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4592144406/
  4. ↑ "Berserk Manga Returns on June 24 As Monthly Series". Anime News Network. June 9, 2016. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  5. ↑ https://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/2783/behemoth-manga-berserk-receive-deluxe-editions-dar
  6. ↑ http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2017/05/21-1/feature-interview-with-dark-horses-michael-gombos-on-berserk-and-more
  7. ↑ https://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/2783/behemoth-manga-berserk-receive-deluxe-editions-dar
  8. ↑ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-04-29/berserk-1st-novel-version-confirmed-with-grunbeld-story/.115458
  9. ↑ "New Berserk Anime Project Launching (Updated)". Anime News Network. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  10. ↑ "Berserk's Golden Age Arc to Be Made Into 3 Anime Films". Anime News Network. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  11. ↑ "1st Berserk Anime Film's Title Revealed". Anime News Network. 7 July 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  12. ↑ "Berserk Anime's 2nd, 3rd Films to Open in 2012". Anime News Network. 21 November 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  13. ↑ "Berserk Film Slated for Next January". Anime News Network. 5 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  14. ↑ "2012 Berserk Film Trilogy's Main Cast, Staff Listed". Anime News Network. 24 August 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  15. ↑ http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-12-29/new-berserk-anime-1st-video-teases-2016-date/.97045
  16. ↑ http://nerdist.com/berserk-returns-to-anime-in-2016/
  17. ↑ "自分の中にある規制の鍵をひとつ開ける、という感覚に近い" [It's similar to the sensation of unlocking one of the restraints I’ve built up within myself]. Berserk: Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King (pamphlet) (in Japanese). Studio 4°C. 2012.
  18. ↑ "サイン / Sain / Sign". Hirasawa Lyrics. Archived from the original on 2015-07-22.
  19. ↑ Williamson, Colin (December 21, 1999). "Berserk (Import)". IGN. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  20. ↑ White, Matt (January 18, 2000). "Berserk Gets A US Release Date". IGN. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  21. ↑ IGN staff (October 11, 2004). "Now Playing In Japan". IGN. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Berserk Trading Card Game". BoardGameGeek. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  23. ↑ "Berserk Manga Has 27 Million Copies in Print in Japan, 8 Million Overseas". Anime News Network. 2015-07-24. Retrieved 2015-07-24.
  24. ↑ "ＴＶアニメ「ベルセルク」7月スタート発表　WOWOW先行、MBS"アニメイズム"で放送". animeanime.jp. 2016-02-04. Retrieved 2016-02-04.
  25. ↑ https://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/2783/behemoth-manga-berserk-receive-deluxe-editions-dar
  26. ↑ http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2017/05/21-1/feature-interview-with-dark-horses-michael-gombos-on-berserk-and-more
  27. ↑ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-10-03/japanese-comic-ranking-september-24-30/.137655
  28. ↑ 第6回 マンガ優秀賞 三浦建太郎　『ベルセルク』 (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved July 18, 2010.
  29. ↑ "Berserk artist Kentaro Miura interview: "I actually don't think I could let such a long grim story end with a grim ending"". manga brog. 2015-12-14. Retrieved 2017-03-24.
  30. ↑ "You can now play as Berserk's Guts in Dark Souls". PC Gamer. July 21, 2017.
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