An hommage to Berserk: the manga embodiment of dark fantasy

Berserk is the 8000-page, 40 volume story of a dark cursed hero as powerful as he is tormented. Above all, Berserk is a tale of incredible depth that combines originality, violence and timeless writing. Its author, Kentaro Miura, has entirely devoted himself to bringing this story to life. But as you know, Miura has recently passed away, leaving his hero, Guts, as well as millions of readers behind as orphans.
Dear reader, let us pay a final tribute to this exceptional author together.

The Essence of Dark Fantasy

A true fresco of medieval and epic dark fantasy, Berserk follows Guts, lone warrior determined to take control of his destiny. Guts wanders tirelessly with one goal in mind: revenge. Accompanied by his only longtime friend, loneliness, he resists against his sad fate, his constant pursuit by demonic hordes due to a cursed mark on his body. This epic apocalyptic tale is more than a manga: Berserk is the epitome of dark fantasy in the manga universe. With a single pencil line, Miura draws the canvas of a twilight universe as vast as it is suffocating. Using the revenge of his hero as a backdrop, Miura depicts a sad and violent warrior that embodies the darkness at the heart of Berserk. A true antihero without heart, emotions or scruples, Guts is a lonely dog ​​brimming with anger and hatred for a world he loathes.

This lonely life will take a whole new direction when he meets Puck, a little Pisky elf. Accompanied by his new companion, Guts embarks on a whole new, redemptive journey.
Berserk’s narrative embraces all the codes of dark fantasy, such as castles, armor, swords, bloody combat and duels, but also that of mad kings, sadistic inquisitors and enlightened popes. But it is above all the presence of the fantastical that will allow the reader to fully immerse themselves in the saga. Berserk is a mythological canvas teeming with details, from demons with a thousand and one faces, gigantic god-like monsters, fallen and corrupt knights. Miura has given free reign to his sense of excess.

Through Guts, who also treads this excesive line between extreme rage and humanity, and the extremes moments of the manga that sear the readers’ retinas like a hot iron, Miura shows us the fragility of human values regarding ​death.

Miura’s Inspirations

The story :

Volume 3 marks the start of the series’ first true story arc. This arc narrating the birth, childhood and adolescence of Guts is based on the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, in the 14th-15th century. Berserk‘s Golden Age arc follows Guts as he fights in the notorious Falcon mercenary troop, led by his best friend Griffith. They are engaged in a war that has lasted for more than a century, waged between the fictitious nations of Midland and Chuder, which, due to lack of manpower, turn to hiring mercenaries. The weaponry used is also inspired by that used during the Hundred Years’ War (plate armor, swords, cannons, crossbows and heavy lance cavalry)

A little later in the series, a nebulous invader appears: the Kushan Empire, inspired by Indian religion and culture. Weapons like the katar and urumi are used, while war elephants are the core of the Empire’s heavy cavalry. Hindu religious concepts such as Pishacha, Sadhu, and Kundalini are adapted also adapted into the writing. Indeed, Miura clearly refers to the Kushan Empirem, which ruled, in its heyday, from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and even the Ganges Valley in India.

The Inquisition and its atrocities are also central to the plot. An athetist himself, Miura is unafraid to place this period of Catholic Churchdom in a very unappealing light. This aspect of medieval Europe is best represented through the character of Inquisitor Mozgus. The inquisition he is a part of targets people whose religious traditions, sexual practices, or jobs were deemed inappropriate and punishable by death. Mozgus, and through him, the Inquisition, is characterized by his blind and fanatic faith. He “takes care” of people whose physical deformities make them a nuisance to society, while remorselessly torturing countless others without regret. This character, inherently detesable and yet historically accurate, was a prime antagonist against our hero, Guts. Moreover, this aversion towards religion and dogma is displayed in a chapter written by Miura that would never be published in a bound version of Berserk. Entitled The Lost Chapter (an unpublished 83rd chapter) is 20 pages long, slotting between volumes 12 and 13 of the series. It highlights a spiritual encounter between Griffith and the divine supernatural. Deemed too revealing, according to Miura, the chapter will never ‘officially’ by published.

Cinema, Art and Literature

Directly inspired by horror, science fiction or dark fantasy films, Kentaro Miura has drawn heavily from cinema. Hellraiser gave the author the idea of ​​invoking sadistic and suprarational divine beings, who fall under a parallel dimension and manage to interfere in our world thanks to a key object. This is a a cube in Hellraiser‘s universe and the Beherit in Berserk.
Griffith’s costume is inspired by Brian de Palma’s film Phantom of the Paradise.

In presenting religious themes, Miura was also inspired by Le nom de la rose, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Note also the symbol of Eschers stairs, present in the Annaud’s film and in Miura’s manga.

A confirmed cinephile, Miura drew inspiration from other forms of art as well, notably MC Escher and Hieronymus Bosch. MC Escher with his famous labyrinth that becomes the playing field for evil and sadistic divine beings called God Hands in Berserk. Hieronymus Bosch will also influence the direction and the writing of the manga througn his psychedelic paintings populated by the most incredible creatures. Miura even went so far as to recreate the Hell from Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, with God Hand Ubik seated around a table as if he had always been the passive, discreet and silent witness in Bosch’s work.

The names of some of Berserk‘s characters originate from literature. The names of the four God Hand, for example, are inspired by different novels: Void takes its name from the excellent Destination Void by Frank Herbert; Conrad is inspired by the novel …And Call Me Conrad by Roger Zelanzny, ; Slan is from A.E.’s novel Slan. Van Vogt; and finally Ubik is a nod to science fiction master Philip K. Dick, directly inspired by the novel of the same name.

Devilman by Go Nagai was also an obvious inspiration for Berserk. A similarly bleak work, Devilman highlights the cruelty that can exists within the souls of humans. Similarly, Akira’s demonic transformation in Devilman (as well as this manga’s use of demons altogether), is undoubtedly echoed in the terrible events of Berserk volume 12 . Akira and Guts, protagonists of both works, lose faith in the humanity and are permanently involved in a tumultuous personal struggle of maintaining some sort of humanity within themselves. In order to protect this vulnerable part of themselves, in order to fight these demons that will stand in their way, and in some capacity find answers within their demonic side. Indeed, Nagai and Miura share more than a few narrative similarities, and Devilman is undoubtedly one of Berserk‘s most important influences.

What happens now?

If, like me, you are a fan of the series, you must probably be wondering what will become of the unfinished Berserk. What turning point will the adventure take? What will the future hold for the series? One would think that the series might end at its current chapter, that the death of its author would de facto sign the end of his most prominent work. This would be justifiable. But I would like to believe that Miura, in an inherent benevolence, had thought of his millions of readers, and might have leaked his manga ending to a loved one, an editor, or one of his assistants. This glimmer of hope came on the very day of the public announcement of the mangaka’s death, where one of his assistants tweeted in his personal account these few words: “Yes, I will do my best.”

These few words had the effect of an explosion in the community. This unofficial glimmer of hope is all fans are asking for: an end to the show.
And for those who doubt the skills and relevance of the author’s assistants to resume the series, I invite you to take a look at the latest project set up and supervised by Kentarô Miura and written by his assistants: Duranki. This Berserk-like start to a manga is fully drawn by the master’s assistants. I sincerely hope that this initiative will continue and that one day we may see the end of the beloved Berserk.

A mix of emotions overwhelms me as I write this column. Berserk is an incredible manga drawn by a master mangaka, an even more incredible man. I cannot describe to what extent this work will have succeeded, as for many readers, in marking me and the person I have become. Berserk was one of the first manga that I read, and today it represents my first steps into the world of manga. It is with melancholy and nostalgia that I try to think of what this man whom I admire so much could have felt, sitting at his desk, writing such a dense, dark and vast story. A story he made rich and complex enough to spend a lifetime writing.
It is with great sadness and deep respect that I bow my head today. I bow, Kentaro Miura, to your work, to your passion, to your genius. Miura-sama, you probably take the outcome of your work with you, but above all you leave with the admiration of millions of devotees.

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