The Beauty of Berserk (1997)

"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law?  Is it like the hand of God hovering above?  Atleast it is true that man has no control; even over his own will."

These are the lines that starts every episode of the 1997 anime, Berserk.  This manga adaption is one which has received many praises for its storytelling, original soundtrack, beautifully haunting sceneries and in-depth characters.  I love Berserk, it is one of the best stories I have ever watched and it's impact cannot be overstated.  I highly recommend you actually watch the anime before you read this blog post, because the story is best experienced spoiler free (if you are going to watch it please read the sensitive topics Berserk has in it before watching it).  So lets get started with this gigantic blog post. 

***From here on out the blog post will contain spoilers for Berserk***

The Golden Age Arch

The anime adaptation of Berserk takes place during the Golden Age arch of the manga.  It begins with our main charater, Guts.  Guts is a travelling mercenary and he doesn't belong to any particular group, until he stumbles apon The Band of the Hawk.  Here, he challenges their leader, Griffith, to a sword fight and Guts loses.  Before I go on, I need to explain Griffith to you.  Griffith is a feminine looking man with beautiful long white hair.  But don't let looks deceive you, because he is a grand swordsman and works fast and efficiently with his light sword.  Anyways, after sparing Guts he lets him heal and invites him to join The Band of the Hawk.  Guts decides to join them and through the next three years he works his way up and is now a commander under Griffith.  Let me first introduce you to some of the characters he meets in the Band: firstly, there is Casca, the only female in the group.  She joined the band and started following Griffith after he saved her from being assaulted.  She later on becomes Gut's love interest in the show.  Then there is Judeau, Rickerd, Pippin and Corkus.  

Now, I will be skipping a lot of plot points in this blog post, but I want to focus on episode 6 for a moment.  In episode 6, we learn of this beast (later known as an Apostle) called Nosferatu Zodd.  This was a bit of a turning point in the show, because it showed that there were higher powers at play.  Zodd could have killed Guts and Griffith, but he chose not to, because he knew the destiny of Griffith and Guts.  I am going to skip some plot points again and go on to episode 10, to show you one of the reasons I love the show so much.  In the scene Griffith is talking to princess Charlotte about why people wage wars.  Griffith explains to her that some men have a dream.  And they are willing to consume hundreds or thousands of other dreams to achieve theirs.  He says that they are martyr to their own god, their dream.  He also states that he hates someone who doesn't have any dreams.  When Guts arrives to where Griffith is, he overhears him say that the only person he considers a friend is someone who is equal to him.  Someone who also follows their own destiny and not the ones of others.  This is one of the main reasons for Guts deciding to leave the Band of the Hawk.  

Griffith may look like he has a heart of gold, but the cracks of his psyche starts to show when he asks Guts to assasinate a man.  In that scene you start to see how far Griffith will go to achieve his own dream to own and rule a kingdom.  In one episode, we even see a flashback of Casca finding out that Griffith slept with a rich man for money to feed and buy new weapons for The Band of the Hawk.  Not because he cares for them, but because they are needed to achieve his ultimate goal.  One scene describes Griffith perfectly.  It is a scene where on a starry night Casca and Guts sits on a small hill which overlooks the band's camp.  There, Guts basically says that everyone in the camp is a flame that is fueling the bonfire that is Griffith, and he is merely a visitor taking comfort in the flame.

Ultimately, Guts decides to leave The Band of the Hawk to find his own destiny so that he may be seen as an equal by Griffith.  He wanted to forge his own path in the world and not solely follow him.  Before leaving, Griffith challenges him to a dual.  This is where another beautiful scene takes place with quite a bit of symbolism, because Guts's sword is facing up towards the light of the sun while Griffith's sword is pointing to the ground- a stark piece of symbolism of what is to come.  Griffith ultimately loses the dual as Guts breaks his sword.  After leaving, Guts goes to live with the legendary blacksmith Godo, who can make any weapon you ask of him.  Griffith, in a move that isn't very inline with his character, goes and spends the night with Princess Charlotte.  The next day the king arrested him for treason, because he slept with his daughter.  For the next year Griffith was subjected to hellish torture in one of the kings dungeons.  Just so that I make it clear, Princess Charlotte was 17 years old AND the king already disliked Griffith before this whole event even took place, so it wasn't surprising that this lapse in Griffith's judgement would cost him everything.  

One day after almost a year since Guts left, he somehow heard that a woman (Casca) was running The Band of the Hawk and he wanted to know why she was running it now and return to his old friends.  There, he found out about Griffith.  The group decided that now that Guts is back they need to go rescue Griffith.  They also acquired more info about where Griffith was being held when Guts returned.  Satisfyingly, they kill Griffith's torturer and free him.  Griffith is a shell of his former self, he can't speak, because his tongue was cut out.  His skin sits tight over his ribs and all the beauty he once had is gone.  His arms and legs are all bandaged and his face is scarred and bleak.  They finally escape the castle and return to the new camp.  Griffith, barely clinging onto life, is put into the back of one of their horse carraiges.  At the camp Griffith takes one of the horse wagons and rides it (as well as he can in his state) in an attempt to end his own life.  While all this is happening there is an eclipse that is about to start.  After falling out of the wagon, he breaks one of his feeble arms and tries to impale himself onto one of the sharp stones- unsuccessfully so.  There, in the middle of nowhere in a small body of water, he finds an item that is about to change their lives forever. 

The Eclipse

One important thing I have failed to mention up until now is Griffith's behelit.  A behelit is a small egg-shaped necklace that has facial features randomly arranged on it.  We first see this item in a scene at the beginning of the show where Griffith and Guts are talking and Griffith shows him his behelit.  He has the crimson behelit, one that promises it's owner to become king someday.  He says that a merchant gave it to him and that he has had it ever since.  It is also said that the behelit will always make it's way back to it's owner.  While he was being tortured, his behelit was thrown down the drain and made it's way to this very lake.  After finding it in the water, Griffith unknowingly triggered the eclipse.  The behelit's facial features arranged itself and let out a agonizing cry while dripping tears of blood.  In an instant the band was transported to a horrific realm that is made up of giant human faces as the ground and sky.  

Suddenly, horrific monsters called "apostles" appear, but they stand still in the distance, waiting for permission to attack.  Unknowingly, Guts and Griffith stood on a massive red hand, known as the Godhand.  The Godhand consists of 4 main members: Void, Slan, Ubik and Conrat.  They give Griffith the opportunity to become one of them, because he possesed the crimson behelit.  The hand rises up, and Griffith is enclosed inside it.  Guts sadly falls off with the other members (and doesn't die).  Inside the hand, Griffith decides to become one of them and he betrays his former members.  All of the members of The Band of the Hawk is killed, except for Guts, Casca and Rickert, who was away from the group when the eclipse happened.  It is a heartbreaking scene to see all these characters you got so used to seeing die in such gruesome ways.  

This next part will have a mention of a sensitive topic to some, so readers discretion is advised.  After his transformation, Griffith (now called Femto) flies down with his newly acquired wings and lands infront of Guts, who is held in place by a beast who has his arm in their mouth.  There is no way to sugercoat it, so I'll just say it directly.  Griffith rapes Casca, his most loyal follower.  And that is where our story ends.  With Guts shedding a tear onto his face that is contorted with rage before his eye is stabbed out by a monster.  The anime ends at a really, really bleak place and because I am only focusing on the anime I am also going to stop here.

Final thoughts

  I think most people who have watched Berserk can remember the moment they watched the eclipse like it was yesterday.  The rage, sadness and hopelessness you feel is something very little shows can do.  That is why Berserk is such a great show.  It makes you feel emotions most shows can't.  Like it's music and scenes can range from beautiful to blood-pumping excitement.  The story is one of the human spirit, to be good and fight against an evil that most likely will win.  To never give up.  To keep going when all seems lost.  I love Berserk, and many other people do to.  It's influence cannot be overstated.  Just to give one example, one boss in Elden Ring, Miquella, shares a striking resemblance to Griffith's.  There are many other examples of Berserk references in different FromSoftware games.  

Berserk also tackles some mature topics, but it does so with lots of respect and maturity.  Berserk is an  amazing anime and manga, so it pains for me to say this, but I don't think we will ever see the ending of it.  On 6 May 2021, Kentaru Muira (the writer of the manga), passed away.  His work will forever be remembered and praised, but it is sad that we will never see Guts get his revenge.  

One interesting thing I have noticed about Berserk is that it really played with our ideas of what characters are truely good and which are truely evil, because in any normal story Guts, the dark silent swordsman, would look like the villain while Griffith, the beautiful mercenary with shining white armour, would look like the hero.  I remember when my mom and I watched Vinland Saga, I immediatly told her that I am very suspicious of Kanute, because of how much he resembled Griffith's look.  

The anime's soundtrack is so well crafted that it really furthers the emotions every scene wants you to feel.  From the heartbreaking song "Gats" to the adrenaline pumping beats of "Forces", the music always delivers.  If you want to hear more about the music of Berserk, feel free to go watch Internet Pitstop's video about the topic.  

I feel like that is all I wanted to write about Berserk 1997.  Once again, I will encourage you to go watch the anime for yourself, because this post is no substitute for the real story.  If you enjoyed it maybe consider following so that you get notified when I post a new one.  Thanks for reading!