Berserk: 10 Times Kentaro Miura's Classic Manga Made Us Cry | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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Kentaro Miura, the creator of Berserk, recently passed away, leaving a rift that cannot be filled. It's impossible to express quite what he and his work meant to those whom he affected. Indeed, Berserk, the series he is best known for, debuted in 1989, and fans followed the story for decades on an emotional journey that lasted to the present.

The series is among the best-selling — and bloodiest — manga of all time. Its scarred, thick-muscled protagonist, Guts, swings a huge sword, hewing through enemies in the series' infamously gruesome battle sequences. Even many of the quieter moments are filled with the horrors of war and the cruelties of feudal life. But fans are quick to point out that Berserk is unlike other macabre seinen series. Beyond the thrill of battle, the series is filled with quiet moments of joy between characters, as well as some truly heartbreaking scenes, many of which brought fans to tears.

Please be warned: there will be discussions of graphic content and violence (including violence against children).

10 Guts's Father Gambino Tried To Kill Him

Guts was adopted at birth by the leader of a mercenary company named Gambino. As a small child, Guts revered his adoptive father and would do anything to make Gambino proud, but Gambino answered this reverence with scorn.

Time and again, Gambino showed a stunning capacity for cruelty. Eventually, the old mercenary captain drunkenly attacked Guts and tried to murder him. Still only a child, Guts defended himself and killed the only father he had ever known. He fled into the night, pursued by Gambino's men and now utterly alone in the world.

9 The Revelation Of Griffith's And Casca's Pasts

When Guts joined another mercenary group, the Band of the Hawk, he became best friends with the Hawks' leader, Griffith. Meanwhile, Griffith's top captain, Casca, despised Guts.

This all changed when Guts and Casca were stranded in a cave together after both had been injured and separated from their units. While recovering from a fever, Casca told Guts about all the hardships she had survived and the things Griffith had done to secure a future for the Hawks. All of Casca's stubborn grit and Griffith's mystique were stripped away. Both were revealed as survivors of childhood traumas, their strength having emerged out of horrific struggles. It was a painful and heartbreaking revelation.

8 Guts Quits The Band Of The Hawk

Guts is a loner by nature, but he has found solace in the company of others. After Gambino's betrayal, he became isolated and hostile toward anyone who got close to him, but he learned to love and trust again when he joined the Hawks. Then he set out to pursue his own dreams.

After a heartfelt goodbye with his friend Judeau, Guts found several other Hawks waiting for him, including Casca and Griffith. Unfortunately, Griffith wouldn't let him leave. The two were best friends and Griffith had come to rely wholly upon Guts's skill; he even harbored unspoken romantic feelings for him. Griffith drew his sword, saying Guts could only leave if he bested Griffith in a fight. Guts did, leaving his friend heartbroken and kneeling in the snow.

7 Griffith’s Torture Broke His Body And Spirit

Few characters are as charismatic, brilliant, and compelling as Griffith. For years, he seemed capable of achieving anything. That's why it's so difficult to read through Griffith's torture.

After Guts left the Hawks, Griffith seduced Princess Charlotte, heir to the throne of Midland, and was brutally punished for it. In a series filled with gore and violent atrocities, there's something particularly horrible about seeing someone like Griffith, who seemed beyond such hardships, broken down with whips and hooks and hot irons. But there is a gap between the start of the torture and its aftermath. The final revelation of what he was reduced to after a year of such cruelties is truly shocking.

6 The Eclipse Destroyed Everything And Everyone

The Eclipse was the moment when everything changed for the worse. Griffith made a deal with the four angels of the God Hand to sacrifice every member of the Band of the Hawk so he could join them and gain his own kingdom — and dominion over the world.

Demonic Apostles were unleashed, goring the Hawks to death. One by one, they were killed. Mercilessly. Agonizingly. Screaming to the last. All of the characters who fans had come to know and love — who Guts had come to care for — died in a single moment. Only Guts and Casca survived.

5 Judeau's Confession Of His Secret Love For Casca

Berserk Judeau confesses love to Casca during the Eclipse

The death of Guts's friend Judeau was hardest to bear. In many ways, Judeau was a lot like Griffith: handsome, charismatic, brilliant, and incredibly skilled in battle. During the Eclipse, he pulled Casca onto a horse in a desperate attempt to save her. After Griffith's torture and subsequent betrayal, Casca was the Hawks' new leader, and if she survived, then a part of them would endure. But their horse was devoured by an Apostle and he was mortally injured protecting her.

With his last throwing knife, Judeau hit an Apostle in the eye and Casca finished it off with her sword as he lay on the ground. She told him he had killed it, a reassuring lie. She hoisted him up, trying to carry him to safety. He smiled, agreed, and his eyes began to close. His last thoughts were of the love he never confessed to her, which he tried — but failed — to voice as he died.

4 The Aftermath Of The Eclipse

Guts and Casca survived the Eclipse due to the intervention of a mysterious figure known as the Skull Knight. Guts lost his right eye, his left arm, and his sanity. Casca suffered even worse, both in the damage done to her body and to her mind. The trauma rendered her unable to even speak.

Seeing these two strong-willed nigh-indomitable leaders try to recover and make sense of the pain and horror of what they survived is a truly harrowing experience. The tragedy of their helplessness is compounded by the knowledge of all they had been prior to the Eclipse.

3 The Lost Children Arc's Small Moments Led to Major Heartbreak

The Lost Children arc is part of the longer Conviction arc of Berserk. In it, Guts, now called the Black Swordsman and waging a crusade to kill all Apostles, fights against a fairy-like Apostle named Rosine.

Rosine has been kidnapping children and turning them into murderous elfen creatures. There are numerous heartbreaking moments throughout the arc, many of which revolve around the friendship Rosine had with another girl, Jill, who is still human. Jill's father, a drunken brutish veteran wounded in war, also lends emotional weight to the story. These small moments add up, worsened by Guts's lost humanity, and are enough to bring many to tears.

2 The Tower Of Conviction Repeated The Eclipse

The Eclipse was the single most awful moment in Guts's life, which itself was a string of grueling hardships. Then the horrors of the Eclipse were recreated at the Tower of Conviction. Starving refugees, cannibalism, religious persecution, the sadistic tortures of the Holy See's Inquisitors, and different types of monsters all coalesced around the Tower.

Meanwhile, the villainous Father Mozgus used his influence to commit horrible atrocities while convincing others of his morality, causing man-made evils to take on supernatural dimensions. There is a single moment where Guts learns that this is about to be a repeat of the Eclipse, and the horror on his face speaks volumes.

1 Lady Farnese’s Engagement Cost Her Too Much

One of the many characters who undergoes a dramatic transformation in the series is Lady Farnese, a noblewoman who joined the Holy See and became an Inquisitor. Farnese feigned devotion, but in reality, she delighted into the sadomasochism of self-flagellation and burning "heretics." But she grew and changed, leaving that life behind and joining Guts on his journeys, where she cared for Casca and started studying magic under the witch Schierke.

She had finally found fulfillment, but was willing to give it all up to help Guts and his friends. She approached her rich father and offered to be married off if he would provide aid to her companions. After all of her personal growth, this sacrifice was difficult to witness. Thankfully, this storyline proved to have a happier resolution than most.

NEXT: Berserk: 10 Best Fights In The 90s Anime, Ranked

Next Attack On Titan: 10 Times Levi Went Too Far

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About The Author

Theo Kogod (478 Articles Published)

Theo Kogod is a freelance writer, educator, researcher, and activist. He helped found the magazine 3 Feet Left as its Resident Writer while working as an English teacher in Japan. Since then, he's written for various online publications, including CBR, Screen Rant, The Gamer, and The Comics Vault. His published fiction includes the prose superhero story "Typical Heroes" released by Diabolical Plots and the sci-fi story "Antediluvian" in the anthology A Flash of Silver-Green. He currently lives in North Carolina with his spouse, two adorable cats, and an ever-growing book-hoard. You can find him on Twitter at @TKogod. You can also watch his videos on YouTube under the name Theo Kogod, where he posts sporadically.