"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control, not even over his own will."
It Got Worse: The Series!The Black Swordsman walks the land, a brooding, blood-stained figure. His name is Guts, and wherever he goes, the demons from Hell follow. Guts bears the cursed brand of sacrifice on the back of his neck, which draws the demons to him — but he is also one the strongest men in the world and owns a very big sword, and when the demons find him, their deaths aren't pretty.Guts is a warrior haunted by his past; namely, the events of his life that ended in the loss of his arm, his eye, and everyone he cared about. He walks the Earth seeking only one thing: vengeance against Griffith, an old friend who betrayed Guts and sacrificed him in aid of his own rebirth. Griffith became the most powerful demon in the world as a result, so Guts' revenge will not be gained easily.Guts loves the challenge, though, since he grew up on battlefields. Born from the womb of a hanged woman, Guts had to fend for himself from the moment he hit the (gallows) ground — he pretty much became a mercenary the moment he learned to walk. He wears fearsome armor, has a cannon where his arm used to be, and carries the Dragon Slaying sword on his back wherever he goes.The Black Swordsman wants revenge, and if he has to cut his way through every demon in Hell to get it...well, that's just a bonus, isn't it?Not to be confused with the classic arcade game, Berserk — also known as Kenpuu Denki (Sword Wind Chronicle) Berserk in Japan — is an ongoing manga series by Kentaro Miura set in the Dung Ages country of Midland. After three volumes establishing the setting, Guts, and Big BadCosmic Horror the Godhand, the story goes into an eleven-volumes-long flashback which reveals the details of Guts' horrific childhood and how he was conscripted into the Band of the Hawk, a mercenary band led by the charismatic idealist Griffith. The group eventually becomes the most successful and celebrated force in Midland — but since this series is far on the "cynical" end of the Sliding Scale, the success doesn't last.Aside from Griffith, the Band of the Hawk arc sets up the other major characters of the series: Casca, an ill-fated female mercenary who eventually becomes Guts' love interest; Nosferatu Zodd, a demonic but honorable Blood Knight who cements the reality of demons to both Guts and Griffith; and the Skull Knight, an enigmatic figure who opposes the Godhand.When Guts and Griffith's luck finally turns, the Band of the Hawk arc ends messily, and the series returns to the present day to show the deep-rooted effects of everything that happened in the previous arc.The series was adapted into a twenty-five episode anime that covered the opening and Band of the Hawk arcs — which means that the anime ends at the single most depressing point of the manga thus far. The manga is still running in Japan (as well as America and every other country where it's allowed). In 2011, a new anime film based on the manga was announced as having entered production — and it is the first part of a project that intends to fully adapt the manga's story. A trailer has been released for the first movie installment, stating a release date of February 4th, 2012.Berserk is definitelynot for children; it is one of the most violent seinen series ever drawn, and it often verges on being pornography (God help if you actually get aroused by it, which some of you will). Any given reader could be left wondering what the unholy fuck is going on inside of Kentaro Miura's head.
Absurdly Sharp Blade: The sword Godo offers to Guts after the Eclipse, capable of cleanly cutting through the blade of another sword and the tip of an anvil in a single swing. A merely ordinary sized sword of exceptional sharpness doesn't suit Guts' style though. It doesn't last a single fight.
Abusive Parents: Gambino goes above and beyond with this. It even gets him killed.
This is also apparent in the Retribution/Peekaf story arc for both Jill and Rosine.
Accidental Murder: And, Guts defended himself from such abusive parent by taking up his sword... and ramming it through Gambino's throat by mistake.
Achey Scars: Coinciding with Allergic To Evil, the closer Guts and Casca come into proximity with a powerful apostle, the more their brands hurt.
Action Girl: Casca, before... stuff happened. Subverted by Farnese, who is initially presented as a Knight Templar warrior, but is just a figurehead for the Holy Iron Chain Knights.
Action Survivor: Mentioned briefly [1], anybody who isn't a fully qualified badass but still manages to survive near-cataclysmic events for more than two volumes is basically this. That's good enough in the Berserkerverse.
Adaptation Explanation Extrication: We all know why Guts doesn't like being touched because he got raped as a child, and it's shown very clearly to us in the manga version with three later scenes showing how much he doesn't enjoy it: first when being tapped on the shoulder by a general, second when he mutters in his sleep when Casca is warming him, and third when Pippin picks him up for the lulz. These same three scenes show up in the anime adaptation too, only it's never explained why Guts hates being touched because the flashback sequence explaining it was omitted from the anime.
Adult Fear: No one is going to sacrifice their loved ones and turn into a demon in RealLife, but this series gives you the unpleasant feeling that even your best friends and family members are just one bad day away from stabbing you in the back. By the way: YOU, dear reader, might do the same as well. However, this is allways a choice you make, as proven by the count who rather goes to hell than sacrifice his daughter to survive.
Aerith and Bob: The Godhand is made up of the demons Femto, Void, Slan, Ubik... and Conrad.
Most of the names are from science-fiction novels. Void is likely from Frank Herbert's Destination:Void; Ubik is a book by Philip K. Dick; Slan is by A.E. Van Vogt and Conrad comes from Roger Zelazny's '...And call me Conrad'. Femto is either a prefix in the metric system for extremely small lengths (multiplied by 0.000000000000001, as a matter of fact) or a technical principle (in which case it is spelled PHEMT).
The names are not radically different. The only reason Conrad seems strange in comparison to the others is because it's a real life name and the rest aren't.
Furthermore, it's a foreign name in Japan, so it doesn't really stick out.
How about this? We have Hawk members Guts, Griffith, Casca, Judeau, Corkus, Pippin, and Rickert. Then we have felled Red Shirt members - Dan and Earl???
In the manga, their names are a bit more "refined" for the period, and are called by "Dante" and "Errol".
Alike and Antithetical Adversaries: Started out as the Heterogeneous Heroes vs. the Homogeneous Villains variety, with the good guys, the original Band of the Hawk, having light-skinned people and dark-skinned people, men and woman, and with older and younger supporters, and the bad guys, the Tudor Empire, being composed of older white men. Later, as more plot schemes and arcs develop and characters undergo more development, it turns into a Heterogeneous Heroes vs. Heterogeneous Villains scenario.
Always Save the Girl: Guts pretty much said that so long as he and Casca survive, he doesn't give two shits about anything else. Most exemplified during the Conviction Arc, where Guts would rather an entire hoard of evil spirits infest St. Albion, killing hundreds of refugees in the process, and a whole mock Eclipse go down than let Mozgus and the citizens burn Casca at the stake as a witch.
Also worth mentioning that if there is even the slightest chance that Casca's sanity might be restored to her, Guts is willing to take the risk each and every time. Has been exhibited canonically and non-canonically.
All Gays Are Pedophiles: : Paedophilia is kinda common in Miura's work to emphasize just how crappy a place Midland is and it's not just homosexuals like Gennon who kept a harem of young boys hostage and had sex with Griffith. Just ask Charlotte. Or even better, ask Guts himself why he Hates Being Touched so much.
All Just a Dream: This is what Corkus convinces himself is going on after his mind snaps during the Eclipse. Unfortunately for him, believing it doesn't make it true.
The fact that a naked woman appears out of nowhere and attempts to seduce him doesn't help convince him otherwise.
Otherwise often heard among people of the Berserk-verse in general, especially those that have no connection to the Astral World.
Anime Anatomy: Played straight initially — Griffith is a Ken doll — and averted later in the story — some pages could easily be mistaken for Hentai — though it's played as much to elicit revulsion than arousal.
Not to mention Puck, who literally shows this trope off every time he appears.
Oddly enough, men have genitalia but no nipples.
Annoying Arrows: Played straight and subverted at the same time: the crossbows frequently used by various soldiers generally instantly pierce the armor of and kill other human beings, and while Guts himself rarely gets hit by them, a single bolt to his hand renders him unable to wield his sword two-handed, giving him a significant disadvantage in that fight. On the other hand, the Apostles are simply so large that the crossbows are simply too small to hit their internal organs, though Guts often shoots out their eyes to great effect.
The Antichrist: Thanks to the prophecy about the white and black hawks and the fact he wants to kill the person the freakin pope declared as The Messiah, this is technically Guts. Due to the violence Inherent in the System, this may or may not be a good thing. Or another way to look at it is that Griffith is the anti-christ since, you know, no one is supposed to know that the anti-christ is the anti-christ. Schierke refers to him as the Hawk of Darkness, and she'd know better than most people.
Arm Cannon: There's one in Guts's left hand, and he can also rig it with a crossbow.
Armor Is Useless: The plate armor all the Mooks wear might as well be tin foil as far as Guts's weapons are concerned, and Guts is just as Made of Iron in or out of armour.
Not necessarily - when fighting the apostle Grunbeld without armor, Guts says something to the effect of absolutely needing armor to survive against an enemy of his power. He also credits it with protecting him against the goat-cult leader.
Not to mention Guts gets some extremely useful armor. Extremely useful in the sense that it makes him stronger. As far as protection is concerned, it does the opposite.
The armor is also extremely useful because it's the only thing keeping the wound inflicted on him by Slan (which hurts the body and soul) from killing him.
Technically it doesn't make him stronger only removes the subconscious limit the minds placed on the body allowing him to push himself way, way beyond his limits. Although for all intents and purposes it makes him stronger.
Artifact of Doom: Behelits, egg-like items that are direct conduits to the Godhand and allow their possessors the opportunity to become demons... for a hefty price. Griffith's Crimson Behelit, the 'Egg of the Conqueror', is the worst of all.
Subverted in that (while its usefulness in combat is handwaved by a magnet in it that lets it help hold a sword) his fake arm is actually just a hunk of metal with some weapons inside it — it's not functional as a limb, and he can't control it or grab things with it. Although it's a looong time between when he gets it and when this is explained...
But when his magic armor is active, he can use it like a normal limb.
Author Existence Failure: What many fans fear will eventually happen due to the series' lax release schedule.
Awesome Moment of Crowning: One could say it happens for Griffith, if onlythe whole thing didn't take place in hell, a crown was involved, and his friends weren't being eaten alive.
Perhaps chapter 307 is more appropriate when Griffith summons his own PALACE
Awkwardly-Placed Bathtub: During their stay in Vritannis, Casca is given a bath by Schierke - in the cramped room that they paid for at an inn with Guts and Isidro still present in the room, veiled by only curtain and Schierke's attempt at tying Isidro to a chair so that he won't peek. Much Hilarity Ensues.
BFS: The Dragon Slayer; originally done as a marketing gimmick, it's actually justified later in the series - it doesn't really have much of an edge, and other characters mock it as being "more a slab of iron than a sword", but Guts swings it fast enough to tear people in half with brute force.)
The ginormous sword comes with an additional advantage: Durability. All the swords Guts used in the golden age arc broke at some point. Usually in the middle of a battle. His last "normal" sword didn't even last thirty seconds because Guts abused it so badly it snapped like a twig.
Not only is the Dragon Slayer ultra durable, but it also double serves as a shield, since the blade is wide enough for Guts to hide his vital spots behind when on the defensive and to also deflect projectiles.
To further elaborate, when Guts was about to go Apostle-Hunting for the first time, he used a giant sword much like he used during his mercenary days, only to discover that despite it's size, the Apostles were simply so large and tough that the sword generally broke before he could kill them. Discovering the Dragonslayer second later, he realized it was one of the few weapons capable of killing them, purely because of it's incredible mass.
Babies Ever After: How Griffith visioned life with Casca if his original plans did not go accordingly right before he activated his crimson behelit via Despair Event Horizon when he saw Casca in love with Guts.
Two, actually, when they were fighting the Bakiraka in the sewers. Those were the good ol' days.
Badass: When your name is Guts and you can survive two years of drawing demons to you like a lightning rod, you earn the title...
And the Skull Knight also qualifies in a big way. He's been in the demonslaying game even longer than Guts has, and it's rumored that he went through the exact same thing Guts did when Void first became a Godhand.
He's also hinted to be the former Emperor of the World. Now that's badass (in its own way).
Heck - any character who survives more than two volumes is a badass by default.
I wouldn't be so quick to say that. That would include Farnese, Puck, Isidro, Corkus, the King, Charlotte...the list goes on. Berserk pretty much demonstrates how it's better to be lucky than skillful (or even useful on a regular basis).
Needless to say, Berserk is just LOADED with badass. The examples listed on this page are just the tip of the iceberg. If this wasn't such a shitty place to live with all of its flaws, the Berserkerverse would just be a World of Badass. Aw, hell - it IS. See below.
Badass Cape: Oh yeah, Guts has one all right, huge, sweeping, black, tattered, and always billowing at just the right times for maximum effect.
Griffith as well, with a neat, well-kept white cape in contrast.
And the Skull Knight's got one too.
Casca could count too. In fact, she, Guts, and Griffith are the only members of the Hawks to wear 'em, which certainly signifies their Badass status among the Hawks.
Badass Grandpa: Azan is well past his prime...and still kicks ass!
Badass Normal: Guts earned the title...and that goes double when it's done without superpowers.)
Most of the original Band of Hawk fall under this trope.
Serpico counts as this: He can stand toe-to-toe with Guts by using superior tactics, which include fighting him in areas where his bulk and oversized weapon are a disadvantage.
To emphasize, Serpico does this same tactic more than once to Guts.
Roderick counts as well: he's not much of a swordsman or a demonslayer, but a superior sea captain. Put him in command of his ship, and he racks up the kills on the high seas.
Bathtub Scene: Post-Eclipse Casca gets a few of these. Cue in the Les Yay with either Farnese or Schierke!
Farnese gets one as well when she returns home for a short time.
Battle Couple: Guts and Casca become this before the Eclipse.
Battle in the Center of the Mind: At one point in the Millennium Falcon arc, Schierke has to go inside Guts's mind using Astral Projection to snap him out of the influence of his inner beast the first time he uses the Berserker Armor.
Beach Episode: Hey, even Guts and his True Companions need a break at the ocean, what with all of the weird shit they go through day after day.
Beauty To Beast: Griffith, he got better though... which, considering it came at the cost of his immortal soul and his sacrificing the lives of those loyal to him, it was hardly typical.
The Bechdel Test: Can you believe it? In such a dark setting, with such manly values and violent surroundings, there ARE indeed times when two named women talk to each other about something else than men. Can be survival (Luca and Nina), feeling out of place among regular people (Sonia and Schierke) or just plain outlook on life as a woman in a Crapsack World (Farnese and Lady Vandimion).
It's funny that Casca, the series' only genuine Action Girl, only talks to a woman once - and it's about a guy. In fact, Casca talks a lot about the guys in her life (but being a chick who is practically One of the Boys, it's somewhat understandable).
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Arguably justified with Griffith, though it's not quite the torture that sends him over the edge, but more the consequences that followed afterwards.
Belligerent Sexual Tension: Guts is a cocksure, ultra-macho, Alpha male Jerk with a Heart of Gold who has been Raised by Dudes and who usually hits before speaking. Casca is a fiery, type-A Tsundere, Alpha female Hot Amazon who had to deal with sexual assault early on in her life and isn't exactly the submissive type. He has a thing for her, but is too maladjusted to convey such feelings. She has a thing for him, but also her pride and dutifulness as a commander. They go for the next best thing.
Berserk Button: Well DUH!! But more seriously, there are two things that cause Guts' instant Unstoppable Rage: a) Meeting a Godhand or post-eclipse Griffith. Period. b) Anyone trying to hurt Casca only has a few seconds left to live. And these seconds will be filled with pain.
Big Bad: The Idea of Evil, the diety that created the Godhand, or Griffith who provides the primary motivation for the story.
Big Bad Duumvirate: The entire Godhand as a group may count being the ringleaders of the majority of Apostles encountered Until its revealed they are being led by The Idea of Evil
Bigger Bad: The Idea of Evil cosmically, it's on the very top of the Berserk-verse as far as evil is concerned, but it has little to do with Guts' quest.
Big Good: Griffith, in spades, though he always seemed to have an absolutely nasty side to him even before The Eclipse. It's just that only Guts ever caught a glimpse of it. Nowadays, however, Griffith is the resident Dark Messiah, having cruelly betrayed Guts and the entire Hawks Band to the Godhand as Femto.
With Griffith "stepping down" from the role, the Skull Knight, the most powerful opposition to the Godhand, now qualifies.
Big Damn Heroes: The Skull Knight pulls this perfectly when he breaks into hell, fights past the Godhand, and rescues Guts and Casca from being eaten.
In general the Skull Knight has turned this skill into an art, for whenever he appears he only ever does two things: either mutter something mysterious and prophetic and vanish, or to rescue someone with a great deal of flair.
Averted twice with Vardas' public execution by the evil Count. Puck tries to talk Guts into doing one of those but he refuses and leaves. Puck then tries to pull it off himself and fails miserably. Justified for Guts who knows well this is clearly a trap meant to pull him into a stupid heroic rescue where he would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Big "Shut Up!": When the Hawks get sent to the Vortex and nearly everybody is panicking - especially Corkus - Casca tells everybody to shut up in order to get them back in line.
Big, Thin, Short Trio: In their own circle, Pippin is the huge guy, Corkus is the skinny guy, and Judeau/Rickert are the short guys. Guts, Griffith, and Casca have their own dynamic.
Black and Grey Morality: In Berserk, most people are either a monster (literally), have been turned into bastards by the horror of their world, or make themselves bastards in order to survive. There are some genuinely nice people around, but you have to look harder for them.
Probably because they're almost inevitably raped and/or torn apart.
In midland, being good is inevitably the mark of being a Red Shirt.
Body Horror: Surprisingly used sparingly. A notable example is Gaston's death during the Eclipse.
Bodyguard Crush: Serpico, for Farnese. Also, every female ever who gets protected by Guts, even if it's just for a little bit. Even if they're, like, eight. Except for Casca.
Also true for Caska aswell, before she went crazy of course. Although its debatable if Caska didn't already have feelings for Guts before he single handedly killed 100 mercenaries to protect her.
Boobs of Steel: Though female anatomy is drawn on a realistic level (but it still doesn't protect them from having the most Clothing Damage done to them), Slan presentably has the largest pair of breast, being the most powerful female character in Berserk. A close second would be Casca, who is the series' only genuine Action Girl.
Bow and Sword in Accord: Guts uses a BFS and crossbow, though he prefers melee and is armoured appropriately.
Breast Plate: Averted — Female warriors in the series usually dress reasonably sensibly, when they're wearing anything at all.
Breather Episode: Their beach chapter doubles as this as the true companions have a rare chance at self-reflection and sharing their feelings as well as eating delicious and improvised seaside cuisine. This lasts for a good few hours before some more monsters come to attack them!
Bridal Carry: Caska gets this treatment from Guts after her fight with Adon.
Bring My Brown Pants: ... And you wouldn't after seeing an Apostle for the first time?
The Skull Knight unintentionally does this to the mountain-sized Eldritch Abomination that was once Ganishka. Ganishka dies, but his death ends up merging alllayers of the world at once, flooding the entire planet with astral creatures in minutes!
With the help of the merrows, Guts was able to pierce the Sea God's heart and kill it. But being stuck inside the monstrosity with many grievous injuries left him in little position to be able to escape it on his own as it began to "collapse" all around him.
Brother-Sister Incest: Serpico is Farnese's half-brother. She isn't aware of this, and she developed feelings for him in their teenage years and even made a very emotionally charged advance on him. Serpico being in the know, he resisted.
Burn the Witch!: Casca gets herself into this predicament when she is suspected of having evil supernatural powers thanks to the brand on her breast that attracts evil it was actually the presence of she and Guts's corrupted child that sparked the accusations both among the pagans who wanted to rape her and the Holy Iron Chain Knights who wanted to torture her, since the child summoned the demons in order to protect her in both situations.
Butt Monkey: The pirates just can't catch a break. Even after they're all transformed into hideous monsters.
CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: It's actually done realistically by Guts on an unconscious Casca. She gurgles up the water and everything.
Call Back: Oh, a lot. Especially with Apostles. During the Eclipse, we see three Apostles from the first three chapters of Berserk - the nameless female demon that has sex with Guts (in disguise, of course), Baron Koka and The Count. Furthermore, the Lost Children arc is focused around Rosine and (to a lesser extent) her two semi-Apostle insect henchmen, who attacked Rickert's camp with the Count just before the Eclipse. And during the sequence where Griffith rescues Charlotte from Ganeshka, we see Borkoff, the Apostle who took Guts's arm.
Canon Discontinuity: Chapter 83, in which Griffith meets The Idea Of Evil, has been removed from all printings by request of the author on the basis that it gave away too much of the plot too soon. In this case, it might be only temporary.
Can Not Spit It Out: During the Eclipse Judeau attempts to confess his love for Casca but is only able to say "I'm glad to see you cry," before dying in her arms, lamenting that she never thought of him as more than a valuable ally.
Card-Carrying Villain: The Godhands have one goal in their eternal lives: making humanity as miserable as possible. They take their job VERY seriously and gleefully go to unimaginable extremes to turn the world of Midland into a living hell.
Even better, the Idea Of Evil itself presents itself to Griffith with its very name when they meet.
Cast Of Snow Flakes: Even incidental background characters, human or otherwise, are given unique and distinct appearances.
Chain of People: Happened in volume 19 on the Tower of Punishment, when Luca falls off a ledge during Mozgus's attack and Nina, then Jerome, then Isidro grab on hold. She still falls, but the Skull Knight saves her.
Charles Atlas Superpower: Guts is powerful enough to carry the Dragon Slayer because he's spent his entire life in battle, and as a result is hellishly strong.
Plus, he learned how to use a sword as a child, using a full size adult sword, which taught him to use larger swords than normal from an early age.
Changeling Fantasy: Subverted with Rosine, who is driven to believe that she is the center of one by parental abuse, then sacrifices her parents to fulfill her dream. By the time Guts fights her, she's been kidnapping children from nearby villages to turn into demonic fairies for a while and is practically insane.
Character Development: Farnese goes from being a clearly unbalanced Knight Templar / Stepford Smiler to a quasi Team Mom while learning magic from Schierke. Also, Schierke herself, after a few adventures, starts seeing just why maybe humanity might be worth saving, after all.
This applies to many characters. Guts has changed throughout throughout the story, from the vicious and cruel Blood Knight that we was in the early portions of the manga, to the more calm, composed, and melancholy warrior (with a Super Powered Evil Side that threatens to surface at times) that he is now. Even some minor characters, such the young girl Jill and the insecure prostitute Nina, develop in their own subplots.
Chekhov's Gun: We already know how important the Behelit is in the manga, but in the anime it is treated in this fashion.
Chest Burster: Nastier monsters such as the trolls of Qliphoth and Ganishka's demonic soldiers are born this way.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The whole reason why The Idea of Evil exists. Also implied in the manga as the reason elves exist, prompting Puck to whip out a banner saying "Cogito Ergo Sum" whenever someone says that they think he's not real.
Arguably EVERY SINGLE supernatural thing on the series is more or less the result of this, as Qliphoth is implied to be formed from human nightmares and the demons are all people transformed of God Hand, which in turn come from The Idea Of Evil. This is what makes the monsters so terrifying; no matter how many you kill, there will always be monsters around thanks to mankind.
Guts also suffered from clothing damage while he was killing apostles during the Eclipse (though not to the extent of which Casca suffered) and when his armor got ripped off by Slan when she manifested in Qliphoth.
Cock Fight: A strange variation. It happens between Guts and Casca over Griffith in the first part of the manga but the object of the fight turns about in an very dark twist during the Eclipse when Griffith rapes Casca in front of Guts.
Coitus Uninterruptus: An important message from the King of Midland asking him to kill the shit out of some people ain't going to stop Wyald from banging one of dozens of women in his room.
Cold-Blooded Torture: This happens a lot. Guts to the Apostles, the Apostles to humans, Mozgus to everyone he encounters (because maybe they might have been having some heretical thoughts at some point in their lives), the King of Midland to Griffith, so on and so forth.
The most vile example is what Casca and Guts went through when Griffith horrifically raped Casca during the Eclipse. Not only is she being horribly violated, but the brand on her chest is causing her excruciating pain during every waking moment, since Casca is most likely the closest any human has ever been to a Godhand. This is also a very cruel form of torture for Guts, since he's being Forced To Watch all this happen to the love of his life by his best friend and he can't do a damn thing about it, even after chopping off his arm to try and save her. And it's made even worse since Griffith is smiling at him while he's doing this. It's no wonder that Casca's mind just shattered after the events and Guts virtually hates the entire world now.
Combat Pragmatist: Take a shot every time Guts uses a child as a hostage or for bait. Better yet, don't—it's dangerous.
Contemptible Cover: Wile it looks pretty awesome, the act of putting volume 13 on the bookstore's counter may still feel a little uncomfortable. Often you will find a "restricted content" sticker covering up naked, blood-drenched Casca.
Conveniently Timed Attack From Behind: How Guts reintroduces himself to the Hawks after the one-year time skip, when he kicks Silas (random mook in the first anime) In the Back when he corners Casca.
Corpse Land: In an early story in the manga, Guts passes through the remains of an old battlefield with a priest and his family on pilgrimage and has to fight demon-possessed skeletons and other undead because of the Brand he bears.
Cosmic Plaything: *FacePalm*. Okay. Where would you like to start? The part where Guts's life sucked even BEFORE he was born and how he narrowly escapes death every twenty-five minutes or how Casca has an invisible blinking sign that says "Rape me!" to all men in a ten mile radius? Why even bother explaining it here? See below.
Costume Porn: Armor, clothing, dresses. If it's worn on the human body, Miura draws it in exquisite detail.
Coup de Grâce: Femto tries to do this to the unconscious Guts and Casca, but Skull Knight swoops in to save the day.
Crapsack World: Oh yeah. Some people manage to survive and better themselves, but for most, it's nightmarish existence topped off by a nightmarish death. To put it simply life in Midland sucks.
If you're a peasant, there is substantial evidence in the manga that you're sole purpose is to be cannon fodder for whatever instance of nightmarish horror is currently roaming around. This is discounting the general misery caused by constant wars between neighboring countries, the in-series equivalent of a demonic version of the crusades and reconstruction of the entire world based on the vision of a spiteful, backstabbing sociopath.
And it's implied that if your nightmarish death is brought about by demons, then you go straight to a great morass of souls surrounding a giant heart. And even if you don't; it's implied everyone goes there when they die, without exception. It isn't really Hell as the Judeo-Christians see it (if it had an analogy, it would be in the Shinto Jikoku, or "land of the dead," which is also a place which everyone goes to when they die), but from what has been shown of it in the manga, it isn't a very pleasant place.
Face it: if you started out as a halfway decent person in this world, you probably won't be going out as one (either because you'll be literally chopped in half by some demon or you'll give up your humanity to become one of those who causes the suffering, either metaphorically or via Behelit).
Yet even with all the horrible things going on, the world itself has stunningly beautifull natural landscapes brimming with life. It has the potential to be a really nice place to live if not for humanity who are so good at ruining everything for themselves.
Crusading Widower: Guts. Though he didn't marry Caska and he wasn't the dad to the Hawks, but this is essentially what he becomes.
Cry Into Chest: Casca does this a lot with Guts, both before and after they become a couple, with tears and without. Princess Charlotte does this with Griffith as well.
Cue the Sun: Normally represents how Guts (and companions) has survived another harrowing night of fighting ghosts and hellspawn.
Cursed with Awesome: Guts is granted the Berserker Armor, which gives him incredible strength and speed, but it deadens the nerves so that the one who wore the armor would just fight and not feel anything. Guts has to wear this, or else he dies due to the injuries he sustained in a fight with Slan.
Cute Mute: Casca, after what happens to her. Poor, poor Casca.
Cut Short: The anime, and frankly, they couldn't have kept it going without giving the censors a set of heart attacks...
Although seeing as how it ended with Guts cutting off his own arm and Casca being raped while Guts is forced to watch as the cost of his eye, its questionable how much worse it could get.
...This is Berserk. It can always get worse.
Dances and Balls: Lots of dancing balls are hosted by aristocrats. Most of them end in incredibly violent ways.
Darker and Edgier: After reading this page, it should be obvious that Berserk is arguably the best example of the trope in manga.
It's even Lampshaded in the American volumes, which bear this text on the back cover:
Berserk is the hammer of the manga forge, a white-hot amalgam of bruising action, breathless horror, and brimstone humor that separates men from boys, wheat from chaff, and heads from shoulders! DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?
Dark is Not Evil: ...But it's not always the case. Some spiritual beings look creepy but are otherwise fairly benign, the aptly named Skull Knight largely devotes his time to fighting the forces of evil, and the Black Swordsman himself, Superpowered Evil Side aside, is the hero of the story.
Dark Messiah: Griffith after he uses the Crimson Behelit to become the fifth member of the Godhand. However to the people of Midland it is Guts. This is not going to end well.
Deadpan Snarker: Everyone seems to have their moments in this doom and gloom world, but Serpico takes the cake.
Deal with the Devil: What essentially happens when a Behelit is activated and the Godhand is summoned.
Death World: The world of Berserk has never been a pleasant place, but ever since the magic came back, it's gotten evenworse! Various spiritual creatures, including dragons, hydras, trolls, and sea monsters have appeared and have since been wreaking havoc on the unprepared populace.
Defeat Means Friendship: Subverted when Guts demands a rematch from Griffith, and then Double Subverted when he's beaten anyway, and is enlisted into the Band Of The Hawk.
If he does qualify for this trope, then it would be the milder variety where he uses sex as a means to manipulate others, be they young princesses or ugly, depraved old men—who happen to be very rich.
Determinator: Guts is essentially the poster boy for the trope. Beat him, burn him, even impale him, he will not let go of that sword. And let's not forget Griffith, who's willing to achieve his childhood dream even if it means everyone close to him being eaten by demons... and becoming one himself.
Deus Angst Machina: After losing all his friends and 15% of his body in the eclypse and having to watch helplessly how Femto raped Casca to the point of madness Guts understandably loses it. Ok, that was pretty bad. This must be the bottomline! Of course the Skullknight promptly arrives to inform Guts about the more unpleasant properties of his brand that will keep him from ever sleeping again and finally it is revealed that Casca was pregnant of Guts child and the embrio was corrupted by Femto into a ghastly demon. And thats just the beginning...
Deus ex Machina: The Skullkight sometimes comes off like this. However, there is a catch: Even the Skullknight is revealed to be an Unwitting Pawn who just plays out his predestined role. So there is no such thing as coincidence in this universe.
Diagonal Cut: Serpico's Wind Sword has this effect.
Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: In chapter 290, after a battle with the pirates, Farnese and Roderick have a heart-to-heart talk about how each person on board have a special role, and Roderick let it slip how she's taking care of Casca, the most important person in Guts's life. He then thinks to himself that that was probably not the best thing to say to her...
Casca also does this in volume 10 during the Griffith rescue operation. She wound up telling Guts that she was more or less jealous of Princess Charlotte and her affection toward Griffith... even though she and Guts had just shared an entire love scene together a few nights previous. You can guess that Guts wasn't too happy at hearing this tidbit and Casca immediately regrets saying it and tries to apologize, but the damage has already been done.
Dirty Business: Guts left the Band of the Hawk partly because he was uncomfortable with being Griffith's personal assassin and having to kill a child.
Dirty Coward: Played with during the Tower of Conviction arc. Nina is definitely a coward, but Luca tells her that because of that, she might be the one who'll fight the hardest to live.
Disturbed Doves: Happens when Griffith appears after being reincarnated in human forms onto earth.
Does Not Like Shoes: The entire Kushan populace. Except Ganishka. Probably only when necessary, though.
Domestic Abuse: Just another wiff of how realistically crappy life in Midland can be, sans monsters. Young Guts, Jill, and Rosine had it bad.
Don't Look At Me: These are pretty much Casca's last words as a sane person while she is being horrifically raped in front of Guts who is being forced to watch anyway. After that, she's a mute.
Bungled Suicide: Griffith tried to do himself in during his Despair Event Horizon by attempting to impale himself through the throat. It didn't work. He missed.
Interrupted Suicide: Casca tried to do herself in during her Freak Out by trying to jump off a cliff. It didn't work. Thanks, Guts.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: All three main characters get these. A lot. They're an unhappy bunch, so you can't really blame them.
Guts gets them when he goes through his Heroic BSOD after assassinating Count Julius and, by accident, his young son. Also, the eye-shine never quite comes back to Guts' eyes after the Eclipse, save for one moment when the Skull Knight tells him of the possibility of Casca being cured at Elfheim.
Casca has these during her time as leader of the Hawks, prominently when she is about to attempt suicide.
And Griffith - poor post-tortured/pre-Eclipse Griffith.
Mice: Casca's home village was marauded by soldiers and bandits so often that they made it a routine to just go up into the nearby mountains for refuge and watch the chaos unfold until it was all done for that week. Add the fact that their crops failed 9 out of 10 times and several people died of starvation during the winter, it was no wonder that they eventually came to the conclusion that, "this is the way life is. Oh well."
Also, the priest from the town is very much a mouse.
E-H
Early Installment Weirdness: Berserk: Prototype, which is included in Volume 14. Its style and general aesthetic is a little more comical and reminiscent of a Shounen, of which the manga was originally envisioned as. It also has several wildly different plot points from the manga.
Earn Your Happy Ending: In the Retribution arc, those that just blindly followed faith and God all died. Those that fought for themselves and were determined to live by their own efforts, for the most part, all survived. As much of a Crapsack World as Berserk is, if you have the resolve to keep fighting in your own way, you have a shot at happiness.
Egg MacGuffin: The Behelits take on the shape of an egg.
The Godhand, although The Idea of Evil might fit better.
Oddly, more powerful Apostles are exceptions. Zodd is a kickass winged beast with feline and bull features, Grunbeld is a crystalline dragon, and Locus is a metallic centaur lancer. Instead of being disgusting and alien, they look awesome. Scary, but awesome.
Griffith, Zodd, Grunbeld and Locus are the Big Bad and his Co Dragons. They are meant to be more awesome than scary.
And then there's Shiva, the name given to whatever the hell Ganishka just turned into... He's so gigantic he makes Midland's capital look like a tiny maquette. Then he starts walking...
And for those of you who like aquatic themes, The Sea God. An actual sentient wacky pirate crew (complete with pirate ship) is among its countless tentacled appendages. And that's just what it's like on the outside. It's insides almost qualify as an Eldritch Location with a ton of nasty creatures calling it home. And it only gets worse once you reach its heart.
Eldritch Location: Being a Layered World, the Berserkerverse has no end to the weird ass locations, but weirdest of them all (or out the places already presented to us) is the Vortex, which is where the Godhand and the Idea of Evil hangout. The whole landscape is made up of faces - which are alive. And of course the waterscape is blood.
Empathic Weapon: The Berserker Armor changes shape to match its wielder, taking on a skull facade for Skull Knight and turning into a face similar to the Hellhound for Guts.
Erotic Asphyxiation: Subverted. In the midst of their lovemaking, Guts strangles Casca after suffering from some post dramatic stress after reliving his childhood rape. Guts most likely does this not out of some twisted eroticism that he developed from his abuse, but because he blamed himself for not being able to defend himself from Donovan, and sought to punish his younger self by killing it. And unfortunately Casca was in his former self's place.
However, later on when Guts kidnaps Farnese as a hostage and she gets possessed by an evil spirit, she puts on a rather, um, revealing display in front of Guts and starts strangling him.
Establishing Character Moment: Guts is formally introduced in a tavern in the castle town of Koka - and by "formally", we of course mean that he brutally maims and cleaves a bunch of the Snake Baron's mooks with little to no effort or qualms. This scene not only presents Guts as a total badass, but also as a ruthless man. It only makes the audience question, "why is he like this?"
Everything Trying to Kill You: Ever since getting branded, this has very much been the case for both Guts and Casca. Every night, ghosts and specters attack them, either directly, or by possessing whatever happens to be nearby: people, animals, corpses, mounds of snow, trees...the list is endless.
Evil Albino: One of Mozgus' torturers is an albino. Notably subverted in that he actually does suffer from the medical complications of albinism rather than simply being a White-Haired Pretty Boy, and that those complications actually led to him following Mozgus. Though certainly not a Heroic Albino, he's much more of a Punch Clock Villain than anything else.
Evolving Weapon: The Dragon Slayer was just a normal BFS, but once Guts started slaying demons with it, it became more effective against them.
Exotic Weapon Supremacy: Averted after Guts easily beats Silat, despite his many exotic weapons.
Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Guts is fighting a regenerating demon (an offspring of the Count who possesed a knight who swore to kill Guts after he got his ass handed to him) whose wounds heal as fast as they're inflicted. The demon taunts him by saying that it can regenerate endlessly as long as its head is intact. Guts chops the demon's head in half and thanks it for telling him. Then the demon's head try to possess Guts. Who reacts by smashing it into a wall with his BFS.
Expy: Guts. Yes. Think about it for a moment: an aloof, jaded and apparently lonely warrior, Covered with Scars, travelling with two kids, one Hypercompetent Sidekick and a former leader woman, driven by his desire of revenge on one side and his longing to retrieve the woman he loves on the other side. Doesn't it sound familiar?
Extreme Doormat: Farnese and Serpico respectively, though in both cases it's subverted. Serpico was seen being walked over by Farnese when they're first introduced, displaying a goofy face, no combat skills, and being a bit of a clutz - until it was revealed that he was merely a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass with some killer instinct. Farnese appears to become more of a doormat when she leveled up in kindness, allowing her father to talk down on her and almost letting her brother manipulate her into marrying his best friend for his own ploys. However, she does certainly have goals and ambition and she doesn't want to be seen as a burden to the rest of the group. Her mother is actually aware of this and fore warns her brother that she can't be easily manipulated.
Eye Catch: Nothing special. Just a black screen showing the title of the anime - but at opposite corners each time. Oooooohh!
Eye Remember: A zigzagged variant. Guts's last memory in his right eye while it got clawed out were the last moments of Casca's horrific rape. He sometimes recalls what the last sight of his right eye was in order to remind himself exactly why he hates Griffith so much.
Eye Scream: Guts gets his right eye clawed out by a demon during the finale. And worse, his remaining eye is repeatedly threatened in several following arcs.
Not to mention the fact that eyes tend to be targeted with disturbing regularity. Arrows go through skulls taking the eyeball with them, heads are crushed causing the eyes to protrude like a real-life version of those squeeze toys, chakrams cut eyes in half, one of Bishop Mozgus' disciples uses red-hot pliers to pull eyeballs out... You get the idea.
It's not terrible in the anime, but in the manga, it happens so ridiculously often that it almost becomes a bit much for some.
Special mention goes to when Ganishka's transformation vaporizes the Kushan animals... Their eyeballs fly away intact as the rest of their bodies disintegrate.
Don't forget about Casca stabbing one of her would-be rapists in the eye with a stick and then the same guy gets his remaining eye gouged by one of Judeau's knives a moment later (only in the anime). Of course, the guy had it coming, but still. * shudder*
Eyes Always Shut: Pippin and Serpico. Not to mention Void, whose eyelids are sewn together.
The few times that Pippin does open his eyes, you know that things just got serious.
Also, Guts partially plays to this trope after losing his right eye.
Roderick's expression during Magnifico's Epic Fail moment.
Fan Disservice: If Volume 13 arouses you, seek psychological help. And that's only the worst example.
Let's not forget the sexual tortures taken straight from the Spanish Inquisition era that were depicted in high detail in...well, most of the Retribution arc.
Fanservice: While the above trope is correct in how much disturbing sex violence there is in the manga, the cultist orgy in volume 18 is almost straight up hentai. And shortly thereafter, a teenage prostitute gets a severe spanking from another prostitute, which would certainly appeal to some.
Volume 9 is pretty notorious for its fanservice as well.
The sex scene between Griffith and Charlotte is fairly pornographic.
The Kushan Empire resembles real life south Asia, specifically India, with some Middle Eastern thrown into the mix.
Griffith's kingdom of Falconia is looking a lot like Rome here.
There's subtle hints to the real-life counterparts of various countries mentioned by Serpico briefly in one chapter, as well as clothing choices and character names hinting at nationality. Midland has been confirmed to be the Berserk world's version of Denmark by Miura, and Chuder's "Holy Empire" seems to relate to the real German Holy Roman Empire. Farnese and Serpico coming from a fantasy version of Italy (port-based, mercentile, money-lending, seat of the Vatician). Surprisingly, most of the courtly dress rarely worn by by the various protagonists is quite accurate to the vaguely 15th century Europe that Berserk seems to take place in.
There's also all of the traces of Scandinavian/Norse mythology about, which makes sense since Denmark is part of Scandinavia. Of course we're talking about the persistence of the berserker imagery.
Fetal Position Rebirth: Happens twice with Griffith once when his body is being reconstructed as Femto, and second when he is being reincarnated into the physical world through the Child's body. Also, Jill is briefly seen in this position when she almost took Rosine's offer.
Find the Cure: Guts's journey to Elfhelm, where Casca's post-eclipse madness may be cured.
Finishing Move Guts kills almost every Apostle with the same move: blast it with the arm cannon and then while it's reeling from that, cleave it with the Dragon Slayer.
Fire-Forged Friends: Almost all of the friendships in this series are like this. Guts and Casca take the cake. Surviving being literally dragged trough hell together tends to leave a mark.
Flanderization - During The Black Swordsman Arc Puck was noticeably less silly.
Flower Motifs: The morning after sleeping with her Griffith leaves Charlotte the pendant she gave him before a major battle and a piece of Lily of the Valley which represents returning happiness.
Foil: Guts and Griffith. They even have distinguishing colors, Griffith is the "Hawk of Light" while Guts is the "Black Swordsman."
Foreshadowing: A lot of it takes place within Berserk, from Chekhov's Guns to prophetic bombshells. One particularly disturbing piece of foreshadowing is presented in volume two, where Vargas's description of how he was Forced To Watch his family get tortured and eaten by the Count and how he was mutilated in the act alluded to how Guts was forced to watch Casca's rape at Femto's hands and how he mutilated himself while trying to save her.
Currently, a popular theory within the fandom is that Puck's persistent interaction with the Behelit is foreshadowing that he will be the next to activate it.
Another interesting one during one of Guts and Griffith's first encounters. Griffith tells Guts that he "wants him", making Guts ask if he's gay, though Griffith meant as a soldier. Later however it's revealed that Griffith developed some pretty strong feelings for Guts, that may have gone beyond simply friendship.
You can take this in another context of foreshadowing where Griffith tells Guts the usual "You belong to me" lecture after their naked water fight, but then he adds that he would determine the place and time of Guts' death. Hmmmmm...
Forceful Kiss: One of the supreme examples of Fan Disservice in the series was when Femto kisses Casca right after he got done molesting her and before he began raping her in front of Guts. As a finale to this heinous act, he forcefully tongue kisses her as he explicitly rapes her from behind, making sure Guts sees EVERY DETAIL of what he's been doing to her.
Forced To Watch: One of the most heinous examples in anime. Guts is forced to watch Casca be brutally raped to the point of insanity by Griffith turned Femto. He tries to reach her by chiseling off his own arm which was trapped in the jaws of a demon only to be dogpiled by more demons and was forced to watch the rape as a demon clawed out his right eye.
Foregone Conclusion: Since so much of the manga is a flashback, you already know that Guts loses an arm and an eye, gets a prosthetic arm and a BFS, gets marked with the symbol of sacrifice, ends up becoming an embittered wanderer who has lost almost everything and, oh yeah, you know that Griffith becomes the Big Bad after sacrificing Guts for power.
Forgotten Fallen Friend: While Casca didn't die and Guts remembers what happened to her very vividly, which drove him to Revenge the most, he forgot about the pain she suffered during the Eclipse and left her for two years to waste away in his own pain and sadness, sometimes forgetting that he wasn't the sole survivor of the Eclipse. This led to his What the Hell, Hero? lecture from Godo and to his My Greatest Failure revelation later.
Functional Magic: Schierke's magic seems to be a cross of Theurgy and Rule Magic, elves and demons have innate talent, and there are magic items like behelits and the cursed armor.
Game Breaking Injury: Guts first encounters the Holy Iron Chain Knights after getting the hell smacked out of him by Rosine. He still manages to kill several of them before getting knocked out.
Gecko Ending: We all know how horribly this was averted in the anime...
Genre Deconstruction: Berserk pretty much takes common fantasy and anime tropes, then makes Guts chop them up into little pieces with his BFS. More specifically, Berserk deconstructs the entire Shōnen genre and bits of the High Fantasy genre, since Berserk itself is the directopposite.
Giant Mook: Many, starting with Bazuso and getting progressively bigger.
God and Satan Are Both Jerks: The pagan cults really aren't any better than the Church, since they seem to be worshipping the Godhand by different names, and of course the Godhand is subservient to the Idea of Evil.
Go-Go Enslavement: When Casca and Nina were captured by the pagans, Nina was stripped naked and intended to be used as a sacrifice, while Casca was dressed in a poncho that barely covered her, and was intended to become the Great Goathead's, er, "bride".
Going Commando: In this world, the concept of underwear does not exist, especially for the ladies. The most anybody wears for undergarments are a tunic top and their leggings (and this only seems to apply to warriors). However, this could be some Truth in Television, since, due to the level of modesty in the era, people didn't talk about their underwear in the Middle Ages much, nor could organic clothing last for centuries, so we have very little to base this on and can only speculate what people wore for underwear back then based on pictures.
Then you have the holy iron chain knights who wear fancy armor but are actually a bunch of sheltered rich boys with no fighting skills whatsoever who make other Mooks look competent.
Go Mad from the Isolation: While being imprisoned in a deep, dark dungeon, his sole human contact being with the deformed little man who is responsible for torturing him for a year Griffith wonders if he will go insane - or if he has already gone off the deep end.
Good People Have Good Sex: Although they had some slight difficulties in the beginning what with Guts having some traumatic flashbacks of his child rape and nearly choked Casca because of it Guts and Casca are really the only two people who have had good sex in this series (really good sex considering that Guts was relieved of his trauma because of he and Casca's moment). All other sex scenes in Berserk have either been squick, rape, or squick AND rape... Though, a close second would be Luca and Jerome, but he did still pay her since she was a prostitute on duty.
Gorn: Kentaro Miura seems to have a penchant for massive head injuries that borders on the erotic...
To say nothing for combining scenes of brutal torture and dismemberment with scenes of brutal rape—two horrible tastes that go even worse together. Sometimes one actually results in the other—and not always in a specific order, either.
Greek Chorus: Sir Owen and Sir Laban fit this role, especially in the Golden Age Arc, always seen together and commenting on Griffith's role in the court, but never actually interacting with the primary characters.
First, and perhaps the biggest example, pre-Eclipse Griffith grows green with envy when he notices that Guts and Casca have become an item, Kubrick Stare and all. It is unclear who he envies more due to his ambiguous sexual orientation. It's possibly both.
Don't forget that even before that, Casca was really jealous of the attention that Guts got from Griffith.
Averted with Judeau. Despite his unrequited crush on Casca, he knows he has no chance whatsoever, noticing the bound she and Guts had formed, even before either of them would realize it. Preferring to lose with honour, he helps a lot in the cementing of Guts and Casca's relationship, even going as far as encouraging Guts to take Casca away with him, by force if necessary.
During the Griffith rescue operation, Casca had the Green-Eyed Monster attitude toward Princess Charlotte for a bit, since she admitted that she was still worshiping Griffith like before, even after she and Guts made love for the first time earlier. She tried reconciling to herself, but ended up saying the wrong thing to Guts about the matter, which succeeded in pissing Guts off even though HE admitted to himself that he couldn't take his mind off Griffith. But don't worry - they made up later.
Then, post-Eclipse, there's the unspoken rivalry between Sonia and Charlotte. Charlotte is Griffith's Meal Ticket, but is too smitten and naïve to realize it. Sonia is a faithful servant to Griffith, gifted with clairvoyance, and as such considers herself the only girl worthy of him. Sonia is very jealous of Charlotte but her nascent and reciprocated bond with Irvine might wash it all out.
There's also the jealousy Farnese feels for Casca for being the object of Guts's affection. Farnese is technically betrothed to Roderick, who is himself quite handsome, but she definitely has a crush on Guts who doesn't see her beyond being Casca's caretaker. Farnese even breaks down in front of Casca, telling her that she's really ungrateful to ignore Guts after all he did for her but Casca being insane and retarded, it doesn't do shit, although Casca seems to understand Farnese's distress.
This might actually have played out for the best or, knowing this series, worst concerning Guts's relationship with Casca in her present state, since it would appear that after her scolding from Farnese, Casca has been slowly warming up to Guts again and was in a room with him alone except for Puck and Evarella and seemingly unafraid of his presence. So, nice job fixing it, load girl.
Finally, there's Schierke's Precocious Crush on Guts but, unlike Farnese, Schierke only has shades of this and knows deep down that she's way too young for Guts (he is more than twice her age). Plus, her Puppy Love moments with Isidro also seem to drop some hints about who she may eventually like.
Happily Adopted: Guts's early childhood is a rather nasty subversion of this trope.
Godo's young daughter Erica.
Harbinger of Impending Doom: A Hawk soldier who got a third of his body bitten off stumbles out of the castle that Guts's party was raiding and warns them of Nosferatu Zodd.
Guts acts as this in the beginning of the manga toward a priest and his daughter who offer him transport, saying that evil spirits are following him and that it would be unwise to be near him. The priest dismisses it, saying that he has "good spirits" on his side (Puck)... Too bad the priest didn't know that this attitude is Inherent in the System.
Harmful to Minors: Guts has had it rough as a kid. On a related note, he is also this himself due to killing a noble's child who witnessed a murder of his.
Hates Being Touched: Guts, quite vocally at the beginning, as a result of being raped as a child.
This trope is applied to post-Eclipse Casca as well, after she gets raped.
Heartbroken Badass: Guts. Big time. Ever since the Eclipse's aftermath, his one true soulmate Casca, due to her unfortunate condition, just can't reciprocate anything he feels for her. And, to make it worse, the Beast's urgings almost got him to rape her. Consequently, Casca now fears Guts and outright refuses to be around him. (But the quest to Elfhelm might change this...)
The Heartless: The Idea Of Evil is basically one giant heartless of humanity itself, as humans needed a reason for suffering and the general crapsackiness of Midland, and well, everywhere else. It sometimes seems as if Apostles also derive some of their power from the suffering they inflict.
Also, the Beast (mentioned below), who doubles as Guts' Enemy Within AND his Super Powered Evil Side, as it was born out of all of the negative emotions that Guts gained after the Eclipse, and it disturbingly lived in harmony with Guts for two years. But when Guts decided to put hate aside for love, that's when things got nasty.
Hell Hound: The Beast. Easily one of the most vicious and evil entities in the series, and that is saying something. The worst part? It's the Super Powered Evil Side Guts is trying so hard to suppress and that tries constantly to goad Guts into killing Casca so it could take full control of Guts's mind and turn him into a being of pure hatred.
Hell On Earth: What happens when someone summons the God Hand and the Eclipse.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Several characters wear them, but they always find their way off their heads halfway through battle. And then everyone just stops wearing them.
Heroic Willpower: Although its cursed, Guts is able to wear the Berserker Armor to its full potential by "full potential" it still increases his endurance by minimizing the amount of pain he feels without being completely taken over by his Super Powered Evil Side, with the help Schierke.
He Who Fights Monsters: Guts, obviously, for quite some time. It got to the point that some of the more sympathetic Apostles (ie, Rosine) are outright terrified of him. The Knights of the Holy Iron Chain are wrong for believing that the Black Swordsman is a mass-murdering psychotic, but their reasons for thinking so are entirely justified.
And Emperor Ganishka. He wants to defeat Griffith and his army of Apostles, and in doing so becomes a titanic monstrosity and sacrifices virtually all of his human soldiers. Somewhat subverted in that he was an Apostle before he waged war on Griffith.
The Skull Knight, though we've never been definitively told his backstory. All that's certain is that he sacrificed his humanity to fight against Apostles and the God Hand.
(The voice cast used is the NYAV Post cast, now working under 4Kids Entertainment. You can tell when you hear that Guts' voice is the same as 4Kids' Roronoa Zoro.)
"So which one of you guys is Goku?"
Princess Misty...I mean, Charlotte, is pretty recognizable too.
I was a Sonic X fan back in Middle School, and I immediatly recognized Adon's voice.
Hidden Depths: Lots of characters, Guts, Casca, Farnse, and even minor character Pippin gets a moment. Probably the biggest would be the manga itself which for the first two volumes seems very much like its just going to be volume after volume of ONLY sex and violence and then...character development, story, questions of morality, and so on enter the picture.
Hidden Elf Village: Elfhelm, the home of the elves, witches, and wizards of the world that is located on the island of Skellig might be a straight example of this, but since we have yet to physically encounter it, Schierke and Flora's home in the spirit tree is the closest thing, as both are on the Interstice, locations that are between the natural and the supernatural worlds that cannot be located by normal humans. Young Schierke displays the typical isolationist tendencies as an inhabitant of such a village.
History Repeats: During the Conviction Arc at the showdown at the Tower of Punishment, Casca is caught by Mozgus and is handed over to the mob to be burned at the stake as a witch. All the while, the sun is getting covered up, the tower is crumbling in an uncanny resemblance of a hand, and Guts is once again struggling and fighting his way through hoards of evil spirits so he can make it to Casca in time to save her. Yep. A mock eclipse is happening, and Guts fears that he won't be able to save Casca again.
Guts: Götz von Berlichingen (1480–1562), a German knight, was the leader of a band of mercenary soldiers and attained the reputation as a Robin Hood figure. In 1504, his right arm was struck by enemy cannon fire and a prosthetic iron arm was developed to replace it. Guts' iron arm, in his original character concept, is very similar to Götz's iron arm kept in the Nüremberg Museum. However, Miura stated in an interview that he created Guts independently and that he did not find out about von Berlichingen until after several volumes of the manga had been published, so this appears coincidental.
Emperor Gaiseric: The Emperor Gaiseric alluded to in volume 10 was based on the actual King Genseric who ruled the Vandals' kingdom in Europe in the 5th century. He was famed as a brilliant general who was seen as a threat even to the Roman Empire. In the manga, Gaiseric is said to have created a vast empire, similar to the Romans, that was destroyed by God's wrath. He banded together his small tribe and brought them great fame as a kingdom that exercised its authority in the Mediterranean region.
It is hinted that Emperor Gaiseric survived his fallen empire in the form of the Skull Knight, a recurring character who aids Guts and stands in opposition to the God Hand.
Emperor Ganishka: The Emperor Ganishka, working as Griffith's enemy in Berserk, was based on King Kanishka, who ruled over the actual Kushan Empire, a vast empire in India and Central Asia during the 2nd century. He was also a profound Buddhist and adorned his empire with its respective figures and promoted it vigorously. Like his real-life counterpart, Ganishka also decorates his palace with famous Buddhist and Hindu figures, but has demonized them to suit his nature.
Mozgus appears to be based on Ivan the Terrible, due to his daily routine of slamming his face into the ground during prayer and his biblical methods of execution.
Homage: The names of the Godhand demons are all references to classic science-fiction books. These books are Destination: Void by Frank Herbet, Slan by A.E. van Vogt, And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelazny, and Ubik by Philip K. Dick.
Miura also makes many visual homages to various paintings, including the works of M.C. Escher and Hieronymus Bosch.
Hope Spot: People think that Mozgus is an angel sent from God. They can only watch him fight Guts who they perceive as evil during a sacrifice and are absolutely convinced that Mozgus will deliver them from evil. Guts then brutally kills him and they all have a few moments of absolute horror before the demons consume them (except a scant few who manage to cluster around his corpse, which protects them).
And ironically, as monstrous as he might have been, Mozgus was doing a decent job of that. He and his disciples were fighting off the demons pretty well, and even after his death, Mozgus' body is consumed in the flames he was able to breathe, and those keep back the demons from killing the few people who huddle around his body thinking him a fallen angel/saint.
The Hope Spot that got all of our hopes up in a very shitty way was when Guts sees Casca in the hands of demons and tries to rescue her, only to have his arm chomped down on by a demon. Then Femto comes along and starts having his way with Casca, so Guts takes a last resort at saving her by chiseling off his own arm in order to free himself from the demon. Seeing that he's mere feet away from Femto and Casca, it seems as though Guts will at least be able to save Casca from what was happening to her already and kill Femto.... it doesn't happen. And we all know what ensues after Guts gets dog-piled by demons moments after freeing himself from one.
In addition, Casca briefly regains her sanity at the end of the non-canon Dreamcast game before she reverts to her child-like state.
Horny Devils: Slan and the demon-chick from the opening pages
Wyald and many other male apostles also qualify when they are in the presence of a human female.
Hot Amazon: Pretty much the reason why Guts chose Casca as his lover, instead of a regular noblewoman who can't fight, since he considers her to be more than just a woman.
How Dare You Die on Me!: When she thinks Guts got pummeled to death by the Apostle Wyald, Casca goes into a tearful rage and starts slapping the shit out of Guts's face.
How We Got Here: Most of the Band of the Hawk Arc is one big Flashback leading up to Guts's current circumstances. Basically what happened before everything literally went to hell.
I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Did anyone else get the idea that Guts was so blinded with rage that he felt little to no pain as he hacked away at his arm?? Aside from that, Guts passes out from the blood lost only after Femto finished raping Casca and left her and Guts to the demons.
I Did What I Had to Do: Griffith's reasoning behind his Face Heel Turn. Guts gave a more sympathetic one when Casca accused him for being the reason for Griffith's and the band's downfall, sincerely feeling sorry for what has happened but not sure what he could have done to correct what has already taken place.
I See Dead People: In Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Sh? Guts sees the ghosts of his comrades from the original Band of the Hawk; Judeau, Corkus, Pippin and later pre-eclipse Casca.
During the first encounter Guts is told that while they find their death's unfortunate the ghosts of Hawks present do not hate Griffith for it. Instead they like to think that because of the nature of their deaths their lives had meaning and it is alright as it was for Griffith's dream.
Right after this because the Guts stating he was fighting to avenge the fallen Hawks the ghosts start to fight him because of his future plans to battle and possibly kill Griffith stating they are still Hawks even after death and Griffith is their leader so they must defend him. Then the player (as Guts) much fight and defeat them all at once. The use of the original VA's doesn't make the conversion or fight any easier. "Watch Here"
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Judeau tries and succeeds to help Guts and Casca start a relationship together despite his own feelings for Casca.
In fact, when he has mere moments to live, one of the last things he says is intended to remind her of Guts and cheer her up a bit.
I Will Protect Her: Half of Guts' motivation is to kill the Godhand; the other half revolves around protecting Casca. Guts protects Casca when she was a capable Action Girl and after he failed to protect her during the Eclipse and vows to do so from now on,especially after he rescues her from Mozgus). As noted above, you hurt Casca, you die. Simple as that.
If I Can't Have You: Griffith's thought of Guts leaving the Band? If he couldn't have him stay, he'd rather kill him in one of several different ways that he contrived in his head.
I'm a Humanitarian: The Apostles. In the first episode of the anime, we first find this out by implication. After the scene where Guts is menaced by the demons, we hear a woman's scream, then immediately segue to the Baron cutting a steak. Given the conversation that follows, we can assume it wasn't beef...
In the manga, it comes right out and says that he's a monster who eats human flesh, and many references are made of the Count's cannibalistic tendencies.
Immune To Fate: Both Guts and the Skull Knight have this ability, for reasons that aren't 100% clear at this point. As far as the story would go, Casca also seems to have it.
That, and the Skull Knight is most decidedly not a human anymore. He shed his mortal body as far back as when the Godhand first came for him, but he didn't do so by becoming an Apostle. And as his dialogue with the witch indicated, Guts is essentially traveling down the same path that he did, starting with his use of the Berserker Armor.
Important Haircut: Farnese, when she tries to convince Guts to let her join him.
When she first joined the Hawks as a child Casca had long hair at the start of the Golden Age Arc (several years later) it is cut super short but grows out slight through out then after the eclipse it has become long again.
In a Single Bound: Serpico's Wind cloak gives him gravity-defying powers.
In a World: The opening narration of the Anime series, each episode.
Naturally, this is parodied by the outtakes: "In a world of tiny red objects, one man held one for a very long, long time."
Indecisive Deconstruction: While Berserk acts as a Deconstructor Fleet for most traditional shonen tropes (despite not, itself, being shonen), it takes a more nuanced approach with the idea of following your dreams. It acknowledges that people need something to strive for in order to become stronger, but at the same time: 1) Not everyone can have what they want, 2) Many people's dreams can actually be quite destructive, and 3) Dreams you had as a child SHOULD be abandoned, as they are usually for childish things that aren't worth the effort it would take, or the sacrifices that would have to be made, to get them (ie Griffith is prepared to sacrifice countless lives because he wants a castle).
Infant Immortality: Brutally averted. In Berserk's World Half Empty, there is no such thing. Children and babies are just as likely to be brutally murdered as their parents and Miura makes it a point to show it to us VERY clearly. Hell, even the main characters' unborn child is not spared from a cruel fate.
Innocent Fanservice Girl: A few examples, though some could qualify as Innocent Fan Disservice Girls. Slan, for example, is always naked, as are some female Apostles, like Rosine.
Since being raped by Femto and taking on an infantile mind, Casca has become this, possessing no sense of shame or modesty whenever unclothed.
And in a rare male example, Griffith, who is quite comfortable being in the nude around others.
Intimate Healing: Casca to Guts - on orders from Griffith, and she sulks about it afterwards - and later Guts to Casca.
Intimate Psychotherapy: When Guts had an emotional breakdown from reliving his childhood rape while making love to Casca, rather roughly at first, and then goes so far as choke her, he at first attempted to walk away and deal with his issues on his own. Casca, however, gave Guts a Cooldown Hug and the two proceed to have sex again, though more gentle this time around. After this, Guts's dark childhood ordeal is not talked about again.
Invisible to Normals: Normal people who are either dedicated followers of the Holy See who only see what they want to believe and/or have most likely never had a mind-shattering supernatural event happen to them can't see elves or any non-threatening preternatural creature that doesn't want to maim, devour, or rape them.
Invulnerable Horses: HA! Horses and any other animal are just as likely to get bumped off in a gruesome fashion just as the humans are. Do you know how many horses have been decapitated in this series? Hell - Wyald once punched a horse in the face to get the upper edge on Guts. You don't know whether to decided if that was bitch move or badass.
Irony: Though there are several cases of irony throughout the series, the most iconic would pertain to the fates of Griffith and Casca. Ever since Griffith first saved her from being raped by a nobleman, Casca was able to successfully evade future sexual assaults either by her own merit or being saved by Guts, and Griffith was the person that Casca looked up to the most. During the Eclipse, Casca ultimately gets raped by none other than Griffith as his very first action as demon lord Femto. Fate has not been kind to this woman.
Also, how Farnese turned from a rampant, Pyro Maniac Knight Templar whose motivation was to burn heretics and accused witches, of which half of the motivation went to her own gratification, to a soft-spoken student of witchcraft who merely wants to be of use to others around her.
It Got Worse: Has pretty much the hallmark of the series in general. The Eclipse was only the beginning. For reference, this is a series that started with the main character's father arranging to have him raped, then trying to murder him, forcing the kid to kill him. And yes, it gets worse from there.
It's Going Down: The Tower of Conviction near the end of the Retribution Arc.
Jerkass Façade: Despite his comparatively noble intentions, Guts often pretends to be a heartless, sociopathic, sadistic Jerkass in order to keep anyone else from being hurt by the Demons that hunt him incessantly.
Arguably, he primarily uses the Jerkass Façade as a psychological-defense mechanism in order to avoid fully facing the horrors that he lives through and the things that he is forced to do in order to survive.
Also arguably he simply is a Jerkass, just also with a bit of Jerk with a Heart of Gold thrown in. He doesn't hesitate to use children as shields or bait when fighting physically more powerful foes, and he butchers anyone who happens to be in his way regardless of whether or not they have perfectly understandable reasons for being there, such as the Knights of the Holy Chain, who were after him largely because he left a path behind him consisting of butchered, unarmed men and women (the bug-creatures once they'd been slain) and barnfulls of burned children (the 'elves' once they were killed).
Jerkass Has a Point: Came from none other than Wyald, the resident villainous moron of the series. After getting a can of whoop-ass siced on him earlier by Guts, Wyald came back, refusing to die much to Guts's chagrin, and decides to plan his final revenge on Hawks by taking Griffith hostage and snatching his Behelit in order to get another chance at life (which is not on his body - for now). The Hawks are desperate to get Griffith back but don't want to risk injuring him. Then Wyald, although backed into a corner due to his injuries and his will to live, gives a cruel Hannibal Lecture to the Hawks by presenting Griffith's frail body to the mass, and telling them that with his amount of bodily mutilation, the Band of the Hawk is over and Griffith will never return to normal. And as much as the Hawks did not want to come to face with the cruel reality - it was true.
Kick the Dog: Gambino does this both literally and figuratively throughout his appearance.
In fact Gambino probably deserves some sort of a freaking achievement award - the man manages to Kick the Dog by petting the dog!
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Of all the people he killed and/or maimed, Guts mostly takes on absolute bastards who totally deserved what they got.
Kid Samurai: Isidro is a simultaneous parody and Deconstruction, who shows that a real-life Kid Samurai would be both incompetent and delusional.
Isidro is actually highly competent for his age, being able to put up a good fight against a pirate captain. However, he fails to acknowledge that he's simply not in the same league as the adversaries his party primarily deals with.
Killed Mid-Sentence: An anonymous captain who criticizes Guts for showing how exhausted he is (he just sprinted up several stories of a spiral staircase, killing nonstop). Just as he's telling Guts that he's already lost by showing weakness, his head is cleaved in two.
Kill It Through Its Stomach: Happens when Guts wears the berserker armor for the first time, when an apostle eats him when he just put on the armor, but Guts rips through its stomach.
Kill It With Fire: Used effectively within the series several times, no matter the situation.
Kill The Cutie: Colette, right at the beginning. Interestingly enough, there a only a few more instances where this happens to mior characters.
The Kingdom: Why, little 'ol Midland, of course, which has been bullied by not only one empire, but TWO over the span of the series, before Griffith came into action. However, this might all change now that Griffith is basically in charge of the place now that Falconia has arisen, bringing on the age of darkness. Fun times.
Subverted: The order itself is a ceremonial guard composed of young nobles whose parents wanted them to have the prestige of military service minus the risk associated with actual warfare. Farnese was all Knight Templar, however, and often ordered them to mete out some brutal punishment to supposed heretics.
La Résistance: The Midland resistance against the Kushan occupation of the capital of Windham was headed by Sir Laban and Minister Foss.
Lady of War: Farnese, though this is subverted when we find out she can't fight. Casca is a straighter example, even though she wasn't from a privileged background.
Large Ham: Adon Coborlwitz, the commander of the Blue Whale Knight Corps (or the Blue Whale Assault Knights in the anime.)
Laughing Mad: With all of the madness that happens in this universe, expect it to happen a lot.
Jill laughs during the climax of the fight between Guts and Rosine, when the slimy, deformed corpse of a child that was undergoing Rosine's apostle spawn transform spilled from its cocoon. Jill remarked that the experience pretty much ruined her childhood.
Law of Inverse Recoil: It's zigzagged a bit, since Guts has a cannon (which shouldn't produce recoil) but since it's attached to his arm as a prosthetic, thus it is not open-ended and is smaller in size, he gets a powerful recoil with each blast. And that recoil has both saved his lifeand done some damage.
Layered World: The Berserk universe in general (until the fusing of the worlds by Griffith).
The Legions of Hell: Demons are everywhere, and their masters are the four known as the Godhand.
Five, actually, depending on the time period.
Or less, taking into the following into account: that the number in the far past isn't clear, that an Eclipse takes place every some 216 years, and that Void is credited as the eldest of the Godhand, we should presume that their number has changed over the years.
Leitmotif: Well, "Guts" of course, though it's actually used whenever something really sentimental and emotional is happening, like when Griffith is talking about what the true meaning of friendship means to him, pretty much whenever Guts talks about dreams and ambition, and probably most remembered as the music that is played during Guts and Casca's love scene.
Light Is Not Good: Griffith has white hair and white armor, he is nicknamed the White Hawk, and nearly everyone loves him. He is the Big Bad. Do the math.
And, as if the church wasn't already bad enough (it is, after all, inspired by the medieval catholic church), Inquisitor Mozgus becomes a angel-like pseudo-apostle covered by white feathers and having a light breath.
Lightning Reveal: Used to re-introduce Guts after the two year Time Skip which opens up the Lost Children Arc.
Lighter and Softer: Never thought you'd see the words "light" and "soft" when mentioning anything Berserk related, huh? Well, all things considered, the first anime series was a lot softer on the gore and the sexual assaults - two things that Miura just looooves to draw for us in all of its horrific detail - to the point where the presence of assaults was cut in half due to the anime cutting most of them out. And, as disturbing as it sounds, Casca's on-screen rape in the last episode was WAAAAAY MORE DOCILEthan how the manga depicted it. We probably aren't going to be so lucky when these new movies come out...
Like a Badass out of Hell: The Skull Knight pulled one of these upon saving Guts and Casca from the Godhand's clutches during the Eclipse.
Like An Old Married Couple: How Guts and Casca start acting toward one another after they affirm their relationship.
Load-Bearing Boss: When Guts destroys Slan's "Trollguts" manifestation in Qlippoth, the entire cave and all it's monstrous inhabitants explode in a welter of chaos.
Locked In The Dungeon: Griffith, for a horrifying year of torture. Guts was also locked in a dungeon at the beginning of the series, but he busted himself out of there.
Long Runner: A direct consequence of the series' Schedule Slip. The first volume was published in 1990.
Lost Love Montage: Every once in awhile, Guts will have flashbacks of the good times he had with Casca before the Eclipse happened, often reminding him of the one time he felt true love in his life, his big mistake of leaving her behind for two years, or how their relationship is fragmented for the time being. *sniff*Poor Guts.
Love at First Punch: The eventual romance between Guts and Casca all began with them sword-fighting to the death. The literal first punch came after Casca was told by Griffith to lay with Guts for two days after he fell ill, and Casca showed her chagrin for the act by punching Guts square in the, er, guts.
Love Dodecahedron: Berserk is less big on that than many other series but Triang Relations show up every now and then, partly due to the fact that Guts is a Chick Magnet. So far: Judeau had a crush on Casca, who had a crush on Griffith, who himself is attracted to Guts who has a thing for Casca. All of which is settled when Casca reciprocates Guts' feelings. After the Eclipse, Farnese and Shierke have a crush on Guts, who loves only Casca but she can't love him back any more due to her mental condition. Farnese herself is courted by Roderick and used to have a flirtatious relationship with Serpico. And on the enemy's side, Griffith is lusted after by Sonia but he is already betrothed to Charlotte, while Sonia has formed a close relationship with Irvine.
Love Epiphany: Casca finally realizes that she is in love with Guts after he left the Band of the Hawk, but still didn't want to accept her feelings due to her pride as a soldier under Griffith, who she fought so long for to earn his love and respect, but finally accepted that for his plan to succeed, he'd have to marry Princess Charlotte and needed Guts' strength the most, leaving her no room to be Griffith's sword or woman.
Love Redeems: Guts and Casca's son had been corrupted by evil, but despite this, the child still loves its parents and comes to their aid multiple times.
Love Triangle: The Guts-Griffith-Casca triangle is the main one of the series, and it can be easily said that this triangle alone is even more complicated than the series' Love Dodecahedron. Of course, this has two centers, as it is implied that the feeling of Griffith for Guts goes beyond being simple true companions.
Ludicrous Gibs: A constant byproduct of Guts' fighting style.
A particularly deserving example is when Guts slashes through a soldier's head, and his jaw, eyeballs, tongue, scalp, and entire undamaged brain fly off in different directions.
Luke, I Am Your Father: Griffith is Guts and Casca's child, remade, when he gains his new body.
Lying on a Hillside: This is the last serene moment that the Band of the Hawk have together.
Made of Evil: The Behelits, Berserk Armor and a couple other things.
Made of Iron: Guts, who can be beaten to a pulp by a monster the size of an elephant and still be on top form the next day. Averted in the case of Griffith, who ends up crippled by torture.
Justified, as elf dust has powerful healing properties. This is lampshaded by the elves when they complain how much they've had to work over such a short time.
Basically, a person's ability to take damage and heal disability free is measured by how important they are to the plot. Griffith needed to be crippled, Guts needs to stay in top form, mooks are unimportant.
The most hard to ignore case of this comes when Guts recovers from a MASSIVE, nearly fatal beating by Wyald fast enough to be in sufficient fighting shape to take on the legions of hell with his bare hands probably only twelve hours later. There was no elf dust involved either.
Although when something weighing at least a hundred pounds is swung into you with the amount of force Guts is (somehow) capable of producing, splattering is understandable.
The Magic Comes Back: Griffith's ascension as Femto and subsequent rebirth into the human world caused it to slowly merge with the supernatural world. It finally becomes a permanent change during the battle with Emperor Ganishka.
Literally, even—after being imprisoned, his helmet never came off again until the Eclipse.
A Man Is Always Eager: Although both he and Casca are the least sex-crazed characters in Berserk, Guts is shown to be a bit less nervous about initiating sex with Casca as this is his first time as well. And afterward, Guts is shown to be very eager about making love to Casca a hundred - no, a THOUSAND - more times.
This of course plays into Guts's Heartbroken Badass status later, as he is not only desperate for Casca's emotional love, but also her physical love and his beast within uses this longing for his own desires.
Manipulative Bastard: Griffith. He WILL emotionally manipulate you one way or another. In fact, at least in the manga, Guts finally realizing that Griffith is using him for his own goals is a key motivation for him to leave the Hawks.
Mars Needs Women: Most male apostles or evil spirits won't hestitate to have their way with any human female in the vacinity.
Mark of the Beast: Inverted in that Griffith was the one who made the Deal with the Devil, but those who are given the mark are to be sacrificed to demons; thus it's called the Mark of Sacrifice. It'll bleed when the individual is near a demon.
Massive Numbered Siblings: In her backstory, Casca mentioned that she was the youngest daughter out of six siblings (and added that it was unusual that none of them had died of starvation up to the point of her being taken away...). Later, it was mentioned that Farnese had five older brothers (not including Serpico), but she suffered from Only Child Syndrome due to her Parental Neglectand has suffer for it. Or rather, others have.
Melancholy Moon: Every once in awhile, we see Guts staring at the moon, lost in his own thoughts... He Schierke also share a moment of heartwarming this way.
Misery Builds Character: Though it isn't explicitly stated, a large portion of the backstory goes into showing why Guts is such a hardened (and therefore exceptional) warrior. Most of his life has been misery heaped on tragedy, forging him into an inhumanly durable person.
Missing Episode: One chapter of the manga ( where during his transformation into a Godhand, Griffith meets the Idea of Evil (A.K.A God) who explains its origins and its goals) that should have been in volume 13 was supposedly pulled by Miura because he felt that it revealed too much about the setting at the time; it was later released as supplemental material.
Mix-and-Match Critters: Most of the Apostles and the qlipoth creatures. We got tigerbullapes, manspermwhaleelephants, froghorses, elephantwhales, and ratmonkeypigs, just to name a few.
Mooks: Thousands and thousands of them, all meeting grisly deaths. The series' kill count is remarkable - one site, that only counts into the high two hundred chapters, lists it as well over a thousand.
Monster of the Week: The early concept was for Berserk to be this kind of series and it follows this system during the Black swordsman arc. It soon abandons it tough.
Moral Event Horizon: Enforced, In-Universe examples occur whenever a Crimson Behelit is activated. As Griffith finds out, you have to be willing to cross it in order to join the Godhand and become a powerful demon yourself.
Morality Pet: Puck, as well as Sonia, the rookies and the refugees that accompany them for the second, demonic Band of the Hawk.
Moral Myopia: Guts is loyal to his friends. If you are a hapless soldier/guard who gets in his way, he won't think twice about slicing you in two. Even if you were just doing your job and not hurting anyone. Guts is also somewhat apathetic about people he doesn't know.
My Greatest Failure: Guts's greatest failure, without a doubt was being unable to save Casca from being raped by Femto. Also, he came to realize how much he screwed up by leaving Casca when the two of them needed each other the most, but instead decided to drown his sorrows in killing Apostles, which didn't help him very much in the end. Now that he has straightened things out the best he could, he's devoted himself to protecting Casca. Remember: hurt Casca? You're dead. Get in the way of Guts trying to protect Casca? You're still dead.
This is more of an Anti-Hero variation, since Guts still profoundly hates the Godhand and Apostles, and even admitted to himself that even though he may have lost the right to avenge the Band of the Hawk he would NEVER FORGIVE GRIFFITH for what he did to Casca.
My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: After facing off with Nosferatu Zodd for the first time, Guts's goals in life became centered around training himself and becoming stronger so that the next time he encountered Zodd or another bigger enemy, he'd win (or, at best, survive). Then, more serious stuff settled into the plot - like the Eclipse - and Guts's eyes were set on one thing and one thing only: Revenge. With that, Guts would get into battles without really caring how much stronger his foe was. Later on, the trope was re-introduced with the appearance of Isidro.
Nice Hat: Irvine, seeing that he's the big hat wearer of the series, but Guts also deserves some special mention, since he wore the coolest looking hat during the victory ball fiasco that made him look all the more badass.
Nice Job Breaking It, HeroGuts assumed that Griffith would eventually get over his leaving. Boy was he wrong.
To make it worse, had Guts stayed a little while longer (or had Casca not gone and told Griffith that he was leaving) then maybe Griffith wouldn't have a massive breakdown and derail everything he worked for and the whole group could have a happy ending. (of course that would have been a boring manga)
In an attempt to kill Griffith, the Skull Knight appears to have broken the entire world!
Nipple and Dimed: A bizarre case. Miura has no qualms with sex and nudity, even the full frontal male one. No problems with showing genitals very clearly, orgies, paedophilia, rape in all its forms and all kinds of explicitly sexual things that few manga writers would dare to show so clearly on panel. So it's pretty strange that no man on his pages is shown to have nipples... when women's are clearly shown at every turn!
No Export for You: Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Seima Senki no Sh? has only been released in Japan and Korea.
No Woman's Land: We understand that in this Crapsack World, everybody has it hard, but it's especially hard if you're a lady, where you're in danger of getting raped by anyone, anything, anytime, just 'bout anywhere. Not only that, but your husband/father/brother are more than likely jerks to you, and may even try to rape you too. If you're a title character, you are not given anymore immunity than the background women - in fact, that just makes you more ample prey. We're sorry, but it's true.
Non-Action Snarker: Evarella. She's pretty judgmental for someone who doesn't do anything.
Not so Different: In the manga, Puck chastises Guts - who at the time is just as vicious as the monsters he hunts for - for being so cruel to Vargas, a kind but revenge-driven man who wants the apostle who mutilated Vargas and forced him to watch as he ate his wife and children dead, saying that they weren't much different and should consider each other allies. Guts laughs it off, but later reconciles to himself that he and Vargas weren't so different after all, since he and Guts shared the same cruel fate when encountering apostles.
Noble Demon: As hard as that might sound in Berserk, but Locus and Irvine (as well as some of the other apostles in the New Band of the Hawks) are pretty nice and friendly.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: A family helps the Band by giving them a place to stay while on the run from the army of Midland after rescuing Griffith, because they believed that he and the Band were innocent of the crime of treason. Then, Wyaldand his Black Dog Knights came along, and, well...
Early on in the manga, a young Guts is shot with an arrow and falls off a cliff, prompting the bowman to proclaim, "He won't survive the fall."
The entire Eclipse, which Guts was not suppose to survive. Zodd is quite surprised that Guts defied his prophecy although Guts, as well as Casca, who also survived, is unconscious at the time due to the severe physical and emotional trauma. They were both saved by the Skull Knight before the apostles could finish the job.
At the end of volume 21 of the manga, after the Tower of Conviction fell after the mock Eclipse the Kushan army comes and Guts and Casca are surrounded while the other surviving party members escape. No one thinks that they could avoid capture. Moments later, to their surprise, they see Guts escaping with Casca (and Puck) on horseback into the horizon, chopping up Kushan soldiers all the way.
Now That's Using Your Teeth: Guts has saved his life more than a few times by chomping on his enemies' weapons. Claims this is the only way to use your mouth in battle. Also:
Cutlass Between The Teeth: Guts uses his teeth in order to use other weapons when he's incapable of using his own two hands, such as when he used his teeth to pull the trigger to his cannon arm when he was incapacitated by the Snake Baron.
Offing the Offspring: First occurs when Gambino tries to kill Guts but this leads to Guts killing him instead. Then Guts tries this on his own tainted child. It is also presented as Emperor Ganishka's rather disproportionate and overall lame Freudian Excuse when his mother tried to kill him so that his half-brother could get the throne (just considering that others have had fates a zillion times worse than this in the Berserkerverse).
First notable moment was when Guts battled Nosferatu Zodd for the first time. He kept his cool for the first moments - until Zodd turns into his apostle form.
Then came the time when Guts was facing off Wyald, his second encounter with an Apostle. He took it a lot better than with his fight with Zodd, but it was one of the few other times that we see Guts tremble with fear.
When the Hawks were transported to the Vortex where the Eclipse ceremony is held (a.k.a. HELL), and the realization of what the God Hand meant by "sacrifice" hit them.
The entire Eclipse ordeal was littered with Oh Crap, one tragic expression after the other.
Of particular note is the the look of absolute, unlimited and all consuming horror on Guts face when he realizes that Femto IS going to rape Casca, right in front of him.
When Farnese found out how the world really worked in volume 17.
Old Hero, New Pals: Guts' new companions. To add a split situation, the same goes for Griffith, only its a brutal inversion for obvious reasons.
Ominous Latin Chanting: Used in "Murder" on the official soundtrack. This track was infamously used during the Eclipse, and that chanting gave the scene all the more terror.
One Curse Limit: Once branded as a sacrifice, no one else can sacrifice you. So, hooray?
...Which is mainly because you aren't supposed to survive being branded.
...And the demons won't stop until you are sacrificed for the first rite.
One-Handed Zweihänder: Guts tends to swing the Dragon Slayer with only his right arm. Of course, his left arm is just a metal prosthesis, so this is standard for him.
Opposing Combat Philosophies: Midland and Tudor had different armies. Tudor seemed to favor brawny Mighty Glacier units that were themed after huge animals, including the Black Rams, Whale Corps, and Holy Purple Rhino Knights. Meanwhile, Midland preferred lightning fast units, most successfully the Band of the Hawk, and designated their best as "white," such as the White Dragons, and White Tigers.
The Other Darrin: The new movies will be replacing Casca's original Japanese voice actress, Yuko Miyamura, with anime neophyte Toa Yukinari. It's probably safe to assume that once the new movies get licensed and dubbed there will be a number of different English voices as well.
Outside Context Villain: One of the main reasons why even weaker Apostles and minor supernatural beings are such a threat to humans.
Out with a Bang: The Female Apostle's modus operandi - she transforms from her human form (a naked woman) mid-coitus and devours her victims. It works on Corkus during the Eclipse*
although he only gets to second base
, but she doesn't get so lucky with Guts later on.
Parents In Distress: Although tainted with evil, the Child does love its parents enough to protect Casca by manipulating the very demons that are out to get her in order to fend off would be assailants, to giving Guts cryptic messages warning him that Casca is in danger. The little guy gives a rather heroic sacrifice by using the last of its strength to protecting Casca at the Tower of Conviction.
If implications are correct the creepy moon child that Casca has adopted as her own - who might be Guts and Casca's child in some form - is continuing his duty by warding off weird evil alligator monsters and bringing back Guts when his inner beast almost gets him.
Casca's parents sold her to a noble as a servant (though he wanted her for services other than cleaning and cooking.)
Farnese and Serpico both share a father who is emotionally and physically distant from both of them (especially so in Serpico's case since he was born out of wedlock). Serpico's mother died under the traumatizing circumstance of her being burned at the stake as a witch by both he and Farnese, and Farnese's mother was always out partying, which was not good for her development.
Isidro is an inversion of the trope, as he left his parents for some reason.
Schierke's birth parents are never mentioned and it as never explained how she came to be under the guardianship of Flora, but now that she's dead Schierke definitely qualifies.
Rosine, like Isidro, is an inversion, but on a more diabolical level, as she sacrificed her parents to the Godhand in order to become an apostle.
Princess Charlotte's birth mother died, her stepmother more or less ignored her (who is also dead), and her father who had previously tried to rape her is now dead.
Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Berserk is fond of doing this for dramatic moments, usually when Guts is doing something particularly Badass.
Peek-A-Bangs: Casca and Serpico both have these from time to time, more so for design purposes since they have the most distinct bangs, but it could also reflect some of their personality traits:
After the Eclipse, Casca is shown having these a lot more when she is in her severe emotionally and psychologically fragmented state.
Perspective Flip: The coming of the Anti Christ is part of the entire lore. Which is Guts. Wait, Something's wrong here. Why is GriffithThe Messiah again? Why is he acting like a Messiah? People see Guts as a child-slayer and demonic conqueror? Oh dear.
Also, it was because Casca was mute that got her the attention of Mozgus. Understandable, since back in the day, people who had any sort of impairment were more than often seen as weird and in alliance with the devil.
Power of Friendship: Camaraderie is probably the second most important theme in the series, with Guts learning to work with comrades and forming bonds with them, and also the after affects of having such bonds broken in very tragic ways, most notably between he and Griffith An important highlight in the Golden Age arc was when Griffith talked to Charlotte about what he defines as a true friend. Guts overhears this and takes it to heart.. Upon forming his new True Companions, Guts remarks to himself that he never thought he'd have comrades again after the events of the Eclipse. Relates to the power of trust below.
Power Of Hate: Yes. Guts had shades of this as well as his standard Unstoppable Rage. When he wasn't slicing away at Apostles, some of which he had no connection to, Guts spent his spare time thinking about that one Apostle in particular that he hates above all else... And Mr. Uber-scary-hellhound-beast helped with that. However, Godo later deconstructs this when he lectured to Guts that hate is where a man goes to when he is really afraid and is overwhelming with sadness. Guts' power of hate was eventually displaced by...
Power of Love: Caused Guts to chisel off an arm with little hesitation in order to save Casca from Femto. That's pretty damn powerful. Not to mention he gave up a two-year vendetta in order to come to her aid and to keep her near him so that he doesn't loose her to anyone or anything again.
Also invoked a couple of times. What's the last and best way to bring Guts back from being drawn over to his Super Powered Evil Side, or from just going on another blinding, roaring rampage of battle? Remind him of his love for Casca.
Power of Trust: Because of Guts traumatic childhood, he rarely trusts people, not even allowing a tap on the shoulder. After joining the Band of the Hawk, and learning the value of camaraderie, he slowly opens up to certain members of the band. However, the events of the Eclipse reverted Guts back to his original mistrustful self, possibly to an even greater degree. Puck the Elf eventually earns Guts's trust so that he becomes his first travel companion. During the Conviction Arc, however, he trusts the hot blooded Isidro enough to save Casca while he fought off monsters, and after that when he and Casca travel together but he almost rapes her when his inner beast got the better of him he allows Isidro, Serpico, and Farnese to come along with him, entrusting them all to help him fight monsters while protecting Casca. He even admitted to himself that under any other circumstance, he would not have let them come with him, but because of the difficulty of fighting demons while protecting someone who was incapable of protecting themselves, Guts was at his rope's end.
Griffith also displayed a Power of Trust moment during Guts's first mission with the Hawks by entrusting him with the task as being the rear guard, even though Guts didn't want to be part of the band and was at a high flight risk at the time. The event began to change Guts's way of thinking toward the Hawks.
Pocket Protector: Used twice- once with Griffith's Crimson Behelit deflecting a crossbow bolt, the other with Mozgus' holy book stopping a sword.
Power Trio: Guts, Griffith, and Casca are the most prominent in several contexts:
In a Star Trek/Freudian sense, Guts was The McCoy or the Id, as he was hot-blooded and more ready to act, Casca was The Spock or the Superego, who always put the plan before any action, and Griffith was The Kirk or the Ego, who settles any argument between the two (but he usually sided with Guts). However, since all three characters underwent massive Character Development, their roles were subjected to change - especially with Griffith.
Pragmatic Adaptation: The anime toned down on the violence as well as the occasional slapstick comedy, and focused more on the emphasis of ambition and friendship (albeit in the negative way) instead of on the series long supernatural plotline in order to give the series a dark, serious, and realistic atmosphere. Some also believe that by omitting Guts's emotional breakdown from being raped as a child and the Skull Knight's presence when he saved Guts from the Eclipse made him look like a stronger person and more likeable to the audience. Despite all this, along with some of the plot holes and lack of explanation for some scenes, the fans were pretty accepting of these changes to the anime.
Don't forget the adorable Collette, who was all shy and helpful and bashful around Guts, and also died horribly the same issue that she was introduced simply for being near him. Does that count as Kill The Cutie?
How could anyone miss younger Casca's obvious fawning over Griffith when he rescued her?
Pretty in Mink: A few furs, especially among the royalty and nobility, given this show's setting. One standout is a dress Charlotte wears with a trim of white fur, but arranged as lines of puff balls.
Primal Fear: No. Berserk doesn't stop at High Octane Nightmare Fuel and Adult Fear. Now we have those fears that everyone can relate to, including the valued reader: a fear of the dark (Guts virtually cannot sleep at night because he has to fight off monsters and evil spirits the whole time), being eaten alive (happens too often with both monsters AND humans), blood and guts (chances are that you will NOT die in one piece), giants (those goddamn scary apostles), monsters and scary beasts (again, those damn apostles - AND just about every supernatural creature is out to get you. It's a surprise that unicorns and fairies haven't been wiped out), bugs (Rosine and her little minions), snakes (um, the Great Goatheads phallis), and probably dozens more. Alas, the one that takes the cake is the sadism and the squick (and for added horror, the humiliation involved). What's the worse thing about being apprehended by the guards and going to a trial that might end with your execution? No, it's not the actual trial (or even the actual execution). It's:
Punch Clock Villain: Many of the human Mooks Guts casually mows down are just doing their jobs. And the Tudor army isn't really more evil then Midlands. In fact, general Boscone can easily be interpreted as a HeroAntagonist.
Rape: Oh God, OH GOD with the rape! If there's one thing that Miura has drilled in our head for damn sure, it's that nobody is safe from rape in this series. Here's how:
Fate Worse than Death: If you're a man who gets cornered by a demon, you'll be killed and eaten. If you're a woman who gets cornered by a demon, you'll be stripped naked and raped, and if you're lucky, they'll kill you afterward rather than keeping you for reproductive purposes. This applies to human situations too - unless you're a pretty and young boy in the eyes of a boy-lover.
Was also gender flipped when Slan had Guts in her clutches when she manifested in Qliphoth, in which she striped off his armor and began to act as if they're having sex.
Murderers Are Rapists: The Tudor soldiers who corner off Casca weren't merely going to kill her and be done with it - they were going to rape her first.
Rape and Revenge: The three main characters have all been sexually abused or assualted at one point in their lives, and they all exacted revenge/justice on their assailant later.
Rape As Backstory: As mentioned above and below, all the main characters have some sort of sexual abuse involved in their backstory.
Rape as Drama: Multiple occurrences throughout the series including child Guts being raped by a mercenary, scarring him for life, the most heinous example happening to Casca.
Rape Discretion Shot: In the anime. We see Femto positioning himself over Casca, but his wing-cape is cover Casca's lower body so we can't actually see the physical rape going on. This is in part with the Lighter and Softer aspect of the anime, since the way that Casca's rape was animated was far more lenient for the viewer than how the manga depicted it.
The Scarpia Ultimatum: At the Battle of Doldrey, General Adon shoots Casca with a poison dart, which hinders her speed during battle. He literally has Casca up against the wall, but says that he would let her go if she becomes his "captive." Since it was implied that he was bargaining for her life and not the lives of her entire company for sex, it's averted.
Sex Slave: What the noble who visited Casca's village really wanted her for. Also, Guts was sold as one for a night.
Rebellious Princess: Deconstructed with Farnese, who becomes one because of her parenting (or lack thereof), and this earns her the social isolation it would earn her in real life medieval Europe.
Recruiting The Criminal: The Black Dog Knights is made up of the worst murderers, rapists and all around scum that Midland has to offer.
Redemption in the Rain: While not redeeming himself per se, Guts has a life-changing epiphany in the rain after the Eclipse, when he gives his famous screw destiny speech and swears to hunt down all of the apostles and kill them.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Guts is the Red Oni, while Griffith is the Blue Oni. Also, Guts and Serpico.
Guts and Griffith's differences are also highlighted by almost every aspect of their appearences and personalities. Guts is a tall, masculine, heavily muscled crew-cut black-haired, brown-eyedgiant of a man who's preferred weapon is a [2], whilst Griffith is a small, thin, effeminate, blue-eyed, White-Haired Pretty Boy who uses a rapier-like saber like a scalpel. Even their personalities are different, with Guts being straightforward, ernest, crude, somewhat thick about non-combat matters, who doesn't think too hard about why he acts, while Griffith is mysterious, charismatic, intelligent, well-read, and introspective. Their only truely shared trait is their incredible mental drive to accomplish their goals; even then, Guts really doesn't want to hurt innocent people at the expense of his goals, but Griffith doesn't mind manipulating people in order to accomplish his.
Redshirt Army: Absolutely every soldier who appears.
Red Right Hand: Nearly all demons are obviously not entirely normal even before they go One-Winged Angel. On occasion this is how Guts gets pointed to one.
First there's the resentment that Farnese feels toward Casca. Even though Casca's state has made Guts' job difficult (in one chapter, Guts nearly drowns when he saves Casca after she fell overboard trying to get away from him), not a day goes by that Guts doesn't think about Casca and their brief time together years before. Guts is still completely devoted to Casca's cause, and most of his major decisions weigh in the well-being of Casca. In fact, this was a major reason why Guts agreed to go and convince Farnese and Serpico to come back with the group, as Farnese is Casca's caretaker and is only really cooperative with her. However, not only does Farnese harbor feelings for Guts, but she feels like a huge liability to the group and strives to master witchcraft in order to be of more use to Guts and earn more of his merit (and perhaps even his romantic recognition). But beyond being Casca's caretaker, Guts doesn't give too much thought to Farnese (not that he hates having her around). For that, Casca has earned a bit of resentment from Farnese.
Then there's the resentment Sonia has toward Princess Charlotte. As we all know, Charlotte is Griffith's Meal Ticket to the throne (yes, even after he became a Nigh InvulnerableGod of Evil, but it's for show) and is now her fiance. Aside from her birthright, there is not much use for Charlotte... and little Sonia agrees with this so much that she even made a sonnet of sorts, describing Princess Charlotte as a useless duck and herself as a kite, a bird that is in much better ranks with a hawk (who is Griffith), since Sonia, who has clairvoyance - and is therefore more in-tuned to the supernatural world that Griffith is a part of - feels much more worthy of Griffith than Charlotte ever can.
Rescue Arc: The latter half of the Conviction/Retribution arc focuses on Guts's quest to rescue and reunite with Casca after she wanders away from the safety of the cave and is captured first by pagans who wanted to initiated her into their cult and then by Holy Iron Chain Knights who want to burn her at the stake as a witch.
Also, the Griffith rescue operation that occurred between volumes 10 and 11.
Rescue Romance: Subverted with Casca's Precocious Crush on Griffith, later turned Hero Worshipper, which started when he saved her from a sexual assault. Played straight with she and Guts, after he aided her during the Blue Whale Knights battle and their relationship grew from there.
Rescue Sex: Guts prevents Casca from committing suicide by falling off a cliff. Moments later, love-making ensues.
Their moment could also constitute as Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex, since the two had just won a victory over a group of soldiers who tried to thwart the Band of the Hawk (not to mention Casca wasn't thinking of suicide anytime afterward).
Revenge Before Reason: This was Guts's big mistake when he set off on his Roaring Rampage of Revenge only a few weeks after the Eclipse, leaving a psychologically traumatized Casca behind with Rickert, Erica, and Godo, despite Rickert's protests that it was more important for Guts to be with Casca and not wandering the world fighting monsters.
Running Gag: Several characters throughout the series have made basically the same comment on how Guts's BFSs, primarily the Dragon Slayer, aren't really swords, but more like big slabs of iron.
Scar Survey: Rare gender-flipped example with Guts inspecting Casca's scars when they are about to make love.
Scenery Gorn: Miura loves to draw frightening places strewn with mangled and decayed corpses and indescribable horrors in intricate detail...
Scenery Porn: ...And the same can be said for many pleasant-looking and beautiful locations
Schizo Tech: Played with regarding Guts' prosthetic arm, which can equip a high-volume repeating crossbow and hides a man-portable gunpowder cannon. However, seeing as both these things actually existed in medieval Europe, the only thing schizo about the arm is the fact that Guts' fake hand is shown gripping his sword - and that's finally been Hand Waved as a magnet.
Shotacon: Donovan, the soldier who Gambino sold Guts to for one night, liked little boys a little too much.
Governor Gennon of Doldrey, whom Griffith had to sleep with in order to get the funds for his growing mercenary band, and who had many young boys attending him.
Schedule Slip: Kentaro Miura's irregular scheduling is legendary.
Security Blanket: Ever since Guts was a small child training as a mercenary, he was often seen sleeping with his BFS. He kept on this tradition into his adult years, saying that he gets restless if he sleeps without it.
Why not go further with adding insult to injury by mentioning how Guts sacrificing his arm to save Casca didn't do shit in the end? Ouch.
However, the ArmCannon has been a crucial tool for Guts ever since, so hacking off his arm may have had it's purpose after all even tough it was definitely not what Guts had planned.
Sexy Discretion Shot: Happens in the anime when Guts and Casca make love. They kiss, Casca has an inner monologue about her Love Epiphany, then a white-out showing Casca being lowered to the ground with no visible top on, and then a Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame of Guts and Casca kissing and embracing each other, which was actually taken from a scene in the manga - though a lot more censored. After another white-out, it just shows Guts and Casca the morning after.
Sex Equals Love: Can be applied to a minimal degree with Guts and Casca after they are reunited after a year and consummate their relationship no more than 24-hours after Guts's return, thus becoming official. They were falling for each other prior to their separation though, but neither of them acted on ituntil it was too late. When they do get together, it's very realistic, since they aren't spouting love sonnets to one another, but the love and affection is there.
Ship Tease: Normally avoided, as most ships tend to "sail" relatively quickly. There's still been oodles of teasing between Guts and Griffith, though. And the relationship between Isidro and Schierke has a lot of elements of Slap-Slap-KissPuppy Love; they just haven't quite gotten to the "Kiss" portion yet.
Shout Out: Miura seems to be an UltraSeven fan. In this panel, pay very close attention to the swordsman◊. Part of that helmet look familiar?
The Godhand seem very much like his take on the Cenobites from "Hellblazer" especially Void's face resembling Chatter's. Also Guts calls his iron arm 'groovy' in volume 14 though that could have been the translator's doing.
This may very well be unintentional, but Griffith's helm, especially as Femto, bears an uncanny resemblance to Winslow's Owl Mask from Phantom of the Paradise.
Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Slides between Level 4 and Level 5, but these women - who are most often crucial to the plot or arc - are usually competent enough to get out of sticky situations on their own, even if they aren't bonefied action girls (and no - Casca did not become the way she is right now because of Chickification). Heck - even Princess Charlotte has her moments! On the other hand, background women are usually complete sluts or are completely useless and are only present to be raped and killed off, which would be at Level 2 and 3.
The manga has become a fair amount lighter than it was in the past. It was oppressively dark back after the Golden Age arc, but more recently it has felt a fair amount lighter. The addition of multiple kids to the gang probably helped. This is not to say the comic is not dark. It still very much is. But not quite as dark as it was.
Gritty: The entire St. Albion area is crawling with pestilence, corruption, and dread and is very dry, dark, and gloomy in composition.
Shiny: Guts and Casca's love scene in the wilderness is beautiful and soft on the eyes, with great detail on natural aspects such as flora, waterscapes, and sunlight.
Small Annoying Creature: Puck, and everyone treats him like one, to boot. Later on, Evarella also applies.
Isidro, too. He's small, he's revoltingly annoying, and he tends to act like an animal (especially after pissing off Schierke).
The Smurfette Principle: Interesting case for this series. While there's a healthy cast of female characters, Casca was the only main female characters for the first fifteen or so volumes, and is still considered one of the three main characters of the story. Not only that, but she was the only female member of the original Band of the Hawk, and still remains the series only genuine Action Girl, albeit she's in remissionfor the time being.
Sneaky Departure: Guts tried this... it didn't work on account of Casca spotting him. But they had a Snow Means Love moment because of it!
Snow Means Death / Snow Means Love: Combined twice. Once when Casca tries to dissuade Guts from leaving the Hawks, right before the Guts vs Griffith showdown. Also when she screams Guts' name upon watching him walking away after defeating Griffith. The second time when Guts fights off snow demons in order to protect post-eclipse Casca. Even before that, Guts makes his vow that he would never leave Casca like he did two year prior again as they leave Godo's house for the last time as it begins to snow.
Soundtrack Dissonance: I don't know about you, but having to hear that same song right after seeing Guts in utter physical and emotional agony from having to watch Casca get raped to insanity is REALLY unsettling.
Spared By Adaptation: Unlike the manga, Collette and her father were not killed off, as they replaced Puck in the tavern scene in the first episode of the anime.
Spell My Name with an S: Oh, lordy. Given how long the series has been going (all the way back into the early 90s), there's been a ton of ways of spelling many of the character names over the years. Gatts vs. Guts vs. Gutsu vs. etc.
Other prominent examples: Farnese/Farneze/Parnesse, Isidro/Ishidoro, Casca/Caska/Kaska, Puck/Pak, Rosine/Roshinu (this one's still very popular). Schierke in particular caused everyone to facepalm when she debuted because nobody was sure what that was supposed to be in English; "Silke" was popular for a while until her name was actually printed later on.
Even more common is Sys/Shisu, with no one ever realizing the latter is simply a romanization of the Japanese pronunciation of her name, much like Rosine/Roshinu.
Notably, several decades after the manga's debut, there's a lot of suspicion that a once-universally accepted translation was in error; with all the recent talk of "Falconia" and Miura's indication that one arc should be called "Millenium Falcon" (for the obvious reference on several levels), many people suspect the proper name of Griffith's mercenary company should be "Band of the Falcon", not "Band of the Hawk". (This was caused by the word for both birds being the same in Japanese.) Two decades of fandom inertia make it basically impossible to correct in the zeitgeist at this point, however, and Band of the Hawk remains as the official translation.
Another famous one is also the Clingy MacGuffin of the story: Behelit/Beherit/Berith. The actual spelling IS Beherit, which is one of the many variants of the pagan idol of Judeo-Christian demonology known as Baal-Berith.
The Squadette: Casca, Farnese, and Sonia are in their respective parties, but only one of them was an actual Action Girl. Guess.
Standard Hero Reward: Would have happened if all had gone according to plan for Griffith the first time.... Later on, it pretty much happens when Griffith defeats Emperor Ganishka with his Apostle army and his dream kingdom, Falconia, becames real, along with having Princess Charlotte's hand in marriage.
Then again, given that Guts himself became insanely strong by killing a bunch of things - and his half-assed tutelage toward Isidro is slowly paying off - this hairball scheme could actually work out. Now, Isidro only has to kill a man...
Justified in that the mechanism is visible (hook on his back, ring on the sword, leather strap with a notch for the end of the blade), and even used for effect (said leather strap looks like a stereotypical pointed devil's tail when the sword is drawn).
The Retribution/Conviction Arc (Volumes 14-21) - with three major parts
Chapter of the Lost Children (14-16)
Chapter of the Binding Chain (16-17)
Chapter of the Birth Ceremony (17-21)
The Millennium Falcon/Hawk of the Millennium Empire Arc (Volumes 22-34) - with two major parts
Chapter of the Holy Demon War (22-27)
Chapter of Falconia (27-34)
The Fantasia Arc: The current arc, which has yet to be released in a volume.
Stuffed into the Fridge: One of the rare cases where the target survives. Casca is raped into insanity, and now has the mental abilities and speech of an infant. She requires constant babysitting, whereas before she was once one of the leaders of the Band of the Hawk. Doesn't count as Chickification because we saw all of this brutalBreak the Cutie happen with all kinds of details, whereas Chickification is an invisible and unjustified shift in the story.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The New Band of the Hawk is strangely similar to the Original Band: Griffith is still the leader but then Sonia is Casca (the only female and infatuated with Griffith except she's not an Action Girl), Mule is Rickert (a naïve kid), Locus is Judeau (the nicest and most considerate of all), Rakshas is Corkus (not seen acting much and rather smug) and Grunbeld is Pippin (although he's more talkative but the war hammer is still there).
Last but not least, Irvine is... Guts. Yes, seriously. Compare their attitudes: Guts was at first aloof, solitary, dismissive and usually avoided his comrades in the Hawks .... just like Irvine is. Irvine has developed a relationship with the band's sole female Sonia which strengthened after he saved her life ... just like Guts and Casca back in the days. Plus his Apostle form is strangely similar to The Beast, Guts' Enemy Within.
Not to mention their inclination to Nice Hats. Suspicious... but tasteful!
Sympathetic P.O.V.: The second Band of the Hawk get this when seen from the POV of their Morality Pet, Sonia, and compared to the Emperor Ganishka, who is even worse than they are in his day-to-day life.
A Taste of the Lash: Used for reasons other than just general punishment... just ask Farnese.
Tears of Blood: The most notable being the activation of a Behelit. Its scrambled facial features rearrange into a normal face, its eyes open and blood streams out.
Guts during the rape of Casca, where his undamaged eye cries normal tears and his ruined eye cries tears of blood (although this isn't tears so much as the punctured eyeball pouring out blood). The same during his recovery as he recalls all of the friends he has lost (actual blood tears this time).
Tear Off Your Face: Another yummy way of dying a gruesome and painful death in the Berserk-verse. Especially seen with the cultists during the Conviction Arc, who rip off the faces of several of the Holy Iron Chain Knights when they got possessed by demons. You have to ask though: would being possessed by demons really stop these people from doing something like this?
That Thing Is Not My Child: Guts immediately rejects the deformed fetus as his own (at first thinking that Casca was impregnated by a demon hellspawn when Femto raped her) even after he found out that it is he and Casca's child.
In situations where there are no Apostles involved, but normal people want to harm (or have harmed) the ones that Guts cares about - you're in for it. Especially if you're Made of Plasticine.
This Is Something He's Got To Do Himself: Guts a couple times. Casca at least once. Casca's "recruitment" in flashback might count as a nasty version. Griffith was never that nice a guy.
This Is Sparta: Barely made it as an example, but damn is it awesome.
This Was His True Form: Apostles and everything that was once human are all into this. Since Apostle-dom is acquired in moments of extreme despair, it is not rare that their original forms are highly weakened/disfigured (e.g. Wyald, Griffith). The trope causes problems for Guts sometimes.
Throw the Book at Them: Mozgus does this once. Being Berserk, this is a large, metal-bound book that crushes the skull of the victim.
He got off easy, considering how Mozgus had the rest of the men executed.
Thrown Down A Well: Although the facility is never named, the Black Dogs Knights, for their atrocious war crimes, were banished and imprisoned to the outskirts of the kingdom.
Time Skip: Lots in the Band of the Hawk arc. Since it covers Guts life up to the Eclipse, it comes with the territory.
For instance, three years between episode 4 and 5.
Took a Level in Badass: Guts takes nothing but levels in badass all his life: as a child, he trains with a sword nearly twice his size that he takes into combat. After Griffith's Face Heel Turn, he is marked as a target for demons and ends up just taking more levels into the epic class of badass by getting a sword the size of his body that is a slab of iron with sharp edges and a mechanical arm that doubles as a cannon.
Too Kinky to Torture: The only thing Guts succeeds in doing when he impales and blows off half of Slan's torso is giving her an orgasm.
Torture Technician: The guy responsible for torturing Griffith; also, Mozgus's retinue.
Total Eclipse of the Plot: The entire finale of the anime and one of the most climactic moments of the manga uses this.
Trauma Conga Line: Dear lord. Sometimes you have to ask yourself: does Miura just hate seeing Guts, Griffith, and Casca happy?
Trauma Induced Amnesia: Thanks to Griffith and what he has done to her Casca was so traumatized by the events that her mind has regressed to the mind of a child, but shows no clear memory of the events that transpired beforehand. The only time that she is shown to remember anything at all is when she is on the verge of being raped, as she has visions of what had happened to her during the dreadful Eclipse.
Tranquil Fury: Very unusual and thus rare coming from the poster child of batshit insane rage-o-hol, but there have come times in Guts's career that he was so pissed off at something that he just had the calmest expression. Be warned: Guts's tranquil fury facade is quite possibly more frightful than is usual Uh-Oh Eyes, and should be taken with the utmost seriousness if you want to live.
Considering he spends large amounts of time pre- (and during the) Eclipse torturing himself over what he's put his soldiers through, that he deliberately destroys all he's built by sleeping with the Princess, and that wonderful scene where claws at his arms until he draws blood as he tells Casca about how he prostituted himself to get money for his army... no, it's probably safe to say that he doesn't. He's in love with his power and status, not himself.
Troubled Fetal Position: In the beginning stages of her insanity, Casca was very paranoid of her surroundings - being especially distrustful of men - and would often huddle into corners or against women for protection. After the time skip, Casca seems to have entered into a more aloof stage of her insanity, not really aware of the dangers that surrounded her.
True Companions: Guts has had two groups: the original Band of the Hawk and his current traveling companions.
Try Not To Die: First said by Casca to Guts when he makes a path for her to escape from the Tudor ambush army. Later said by Isidro to Guts multiple times.
Guts is one too since he couldn't care less about the laws of mortals and Gods. And he only follows his own rules.
Uncanny Valley: Invoked. When he and Guts were up against Rosine's elves for the first time, Puck said that they looked similar to elves such as he, but that there was something "off" about them, and was quite disturbed by their presence. Later revealed that the elves weren't real elves, but rather apostle spawn that were children that Rosine kidnapped.
Unfamiliar Ceiling: After being rescued by the Skull Knight while still unconscious during the Eclipse Guts wakes up in Godo's elf mine.
Unfriendly Fire: After being raped by Donovan, one of Gambino's soldiers, as a kid, Guts murders him during the next battle.
Unstoppable Rage: Guts taps into this during emergencies, and the series is named after it.
The Usual Adversaries: The Apostles. It can't just be a straight shot to Elfheim, can it?!
Skull Knight: " It begins. From this moment until the Eclipse occurs one year from now... you and your friends... right now are walking blindly to your doom!!"
Vicious Cycle: The Eclipse, which happens once every 216 years and marks the birth of a new God Hand.
Another one: People's suffering and need for something to blame for it creates The Idea of Evil -> Idea of Evil creates the Godhand -> Godhand uses Behelits to turn people into demons and new Godhand members -> demons make life even shittier for everyone else -> people's suffering sustains The Idea of Evil...and so on and so forth.
Villainous Rescue: Zodd does this twice, first when Guts is about to get his head handed to him by General Boscone, and then the second time when Wyald is about to rip crippled Griffith in two. Of course, he only does this in order to save the lot for the up and coming Eclipse.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Frequent in the Lost Children Arc. Comes in the, um, smooth and liquid flavor for the most part (a special blood flavor in the case of Guts). Happens a few times during the Black Swordsman Arc too.
Walking the Earth: What Guts does until the "Conviction" arc focuses him.
Was It All a Lie?: While Corkus was busy asking if the Eclipse was All Just a Dream, Casca's inner monologue asked if everything that the Band of the Hawk went through was all just a grand scheme so that Griffith could throw them into hell for God knows whatever reason.
Watching the Sunset: When Guts and his new group reach the ocean outside of Vritinnis, Guts finds a small amount of solace while watching the sunset, which he never really got to enjoy in his life, especially after the Eclipse.
Weapon Jr.: Guts still uses a full sized sword as he grows up...but as an adult he also scales up his weapon and uses a BFS.
Weapon of Choice: Even when offered a magical axe to carry, Guts sticks with the more or less non-magical Dragon Slayer, since it's 'what his hand knows best.' (Of course, Schierke quickly realizes it's the best weapon for him anyway.)
Weapon Stomp: Guts didn't lose his weapon when he fought Griffith that first time, but Griffith attempted to win the fight by jumping up and balancing on Guts' sword, trapping it against the ground.
Weapon Tombstone: The Band of the Hawk are memorialized with an entire Field of Blades, each one forged by Rickert, the only member of the Hawks who wasn't there when the Eclipse went down.
Weirdness Magnet: Guts and Casca, because of the Brand of Sacrifice
The Original Band of Hawks had a tendency to run into the weirdest, strongest, and nastiest monsters, demons, and just plain fucked up people. It happened so often that Corkus lampshaded it here.
Weird Moon: You might have never noticed it, but Miura is as meticulous with the moon as he is with every other detail in the story, and he has captured just about all of the moon phases.
Welcome Back Traitor: Played with and zigzagged. Guts didn't epically betray the Band of the Hawk: he just sort of wanted to do his own thing with his life that could only have been accomplished with his departure, but somecertain individuals didn't want that, and a some veryunfortunate events soon followed. After Guts came back, the Hawks are more or less happy that Guts returned - well, except Corkus for obvious reasons. Casca was more pissed that Guts only decided to come back just then when the situation was already shit-tastic and the effect that his departure had on she and Griffith (but she had already had her Love Epiphany, so she didn't stay mad). Rickert, being the crying kid of the Hawks, was more upset that Guts left and broke up their family but he forgives him.
Wham Episode: The end of the Band of the Hawk arc may or may not qualify because the whole thing was a flashback.
The new movies seem to start at the point where Guts and the hawks meet, without a black swordsman scene. This will certainly ramp up them wham factor a lot for those who watch them uninitiated.
But chapter 307 was a pretty big wham in our face when Femto used the Skull Knight's Sword of Resonance to merge the supernatural world and natural world together, thus ruining the world forever.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: As mentioned in chapter 287 of the manga, Guts always seems to be saving Casca whenever she is near water. Whether this is suppose to mean something has not been explained yet...
What Happened to the Mouse?: The lack of Skull Knight in the anime means that when Rickert's unit is attacked by the Count and Rosine, the scene just ends with him staring at the Count in horror. Rickert's never seen again, even in the beginning when Guts is shown with all his new gear.
What the Hell, Hero?: Guts gets called out on his rather assholish behavior post-Eclipse by Godo, which starts him back down the road to how he used to be. Trust us when we say he's done a lot to deserve said calling-out.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Said squarely by Guts in the non-canonical video game Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage, though it still applies to the main storyline: if you're a monster in any way, shape or form, Guts shows no mercy for you. Bummer.
Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: If you see Guts' eyes look like this, you should run. Fast, far, and never EVER turn your back, because if Griffith isn't in the immediate area, Guts is about to fuck you up if not outright kill you, which is much more likely. If he goes beyond this level and skips straight to Blank White Eyes, you will not survive the hour.
Even Puck, Guts's Morality Pet, knows by now not to mess around with this:
Puck: "Jill, when he looks like that, it's time for us to leave!" Chapter 110
Why Won't You Die?: In a series where the world is filled with juggernaut monsters and a determinator anti-hero who fights them, you'll get this a lot from either side.
Guts: "Amazing! No wonder you're higher than us humans — you don't know how to fucking die!"
Womb Level: Currently, Guts is doing battle inside of a giant sea monster.
Worf Had The Flu: Casca became so disoriented when her time o' month came along in the midst of battling General Adon, and was fatigued for nearly two days because of it; she practically had to be saved and cared for by Guts who she had a rocky relationship with at the time and nearly got raped. But after her cycles passed, Casca wiped the floor with Adon so hard that he was more dumbfounded than usual to finding out that her poor performance from their previous battle was only due to her being on her period.
World of Badass: In this world, it's absolutely essential for four out of five people to have some amount of Badass in them in order to survive. There is badass littered EVERYWHERE in the world of Berserk. Even small, mysterious, silent children have badass in them especially if their implied parents are badasses themselves.!
World of Snark: The predominate source of humor amongst the characters and seems to be the only thing that keeps spirits afloat in this world.
Would Hurt a Child: Apostles consider human as food or toys, or a combination of both. Children? No special treatment. If they are edible, they will be tortured, abused and then eaten.
Guts himself isn't above doing this. Although the first instance of this was rather an accident, he showed no qualms about brutally slaughtering Rosine's demon-elves, even knowing that they were all kids. Not to mention Rosine herself who, for being an Apostle, is still a little girl.
In the "garden" of the Nameless Apostle, we clearly see the cadavers of young children among that of adults, meaning that Mozgus himself wasn't above killing and torturing children. But to some fans, he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist...Sure!
Would Hit a Girl: Justified. Guts has no compunction fighting aggressively with female enemies. To be fair, refusing to fight full force against females like Rosine and Slan would only guarantee him a very painful death. To throw the guy a bone, Guts really isn't the type to backhand women and girls as he pleases - and even sticks up for them on occasion - but he has no reserves at sticking a knife to their throat (or in their mouth in Farnese's case) to get the upper hand in certain situations. However, there is an exception to the rule where...
Wouldn't Hit a Girl: ... Casca is involved. Earlier in the series, Casca attacks Guts after he saves her, and he yells that if she wasn't a woman, he'd slug her. Of course, considering that he was already developing feelings for her, it's just as likely he just said that because he was frustrated and angry with her violent reaction to his (well-meant) Intimate Healing, and to him, insults are the only acceptable way to express hurt feelings. Again, Guts really isn't the type to go around slugging women here and there.
Wile fighting Rosine, Guts is hindered a lot by this sentiment. After all: he is essentially trying to butcher a cute teenage girl...that has the combat abilities of a fighter jet, but still isn't intirely evil. He ends up holding back every time he can land the killing blow, taking in insane ammount of punishment himself. This makes Guts completely give in to his bitter hatred, officially giving birth to the beast of darkness. It never leaves afterwards. Counts as a total deconstruction.
And then there was another time that this happened during Guts' Black Swordsman days, when he hesitated to kill the resurrected corpse of the daughter of the priest that he was traveling with. He took a hit because of it before chopping off her head.
You Can't Go Home Again: Guts couldn't return to his original mercenary band after he killed Gambino, Casca couldn't return to her village after she killed the nobleman who tried to rape her, and the whole Band of the Hawk pretty much got exiled from the Kingdom of Midland after Griffith got arrested. Not to mention that Guts and Casca have to find another safe place to live after Godo's elf mine got destroyed, Schierke's home went up in a blaze after Griffith sent his Apostles to kill Flora and there's a close bet that after that Kushan invasion, Farnese is out of a home too (but she only dropped by anyway).
You Monster!: Another one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot between Guts and apostle.
You Shall Not Pass: A few times. Guts and Pippin singlehandedly facing down the Black Dog Knights to buy the rest of the Griffith rescue squad time to escape, until the bridge blows. Captain Azan of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, in his youth, holding an entire troup of knights at bay until a wounded old man can cross the bridge. And for a villain example, one could say that the first encounter with Nosferatu Zodd invokes this trope, as he massacred at least fifty members of the Raiders in a long hallway while fighting on the side of Chuder, delaying what would have been an easy victory for the Band of the Hawk.
Zany Scheme: Magnifico wants capture the elves on Elfheim and sell them as pets to rich aristocrats on the mainland, and tries to persuade Roderick and Puck into helping him by promising Puck the position of King of the Elves. Not so sure if Puck takes him seriously, though.
So he is basically Gargamel being lost in the Berserk verse?
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