Berserk is an eternal classic in anime and manga. The epic saga details the life of an outcast warrior who joins a band with a beautiful and charismatic leader. Part of what makes the series so dark is how it takes traditional fantasy tropes and fairytale concepts and turns them on their head, showing the worst mirror image of those tropes.
An epic tragedy needs to have some key components to keep audiences interested. Guts is more than a stock all-powerful warrior; he's at once likable, foolish, and morally gray. Casca is more than a tsundere lady knight; she's a thoughtful, adept leader. Griffith is the compelling villain who takes the idea of a Chosen One and tramples it under his booted heel.
10 Nightmare Fuel In The Dungeon
Guts and Griffith face off with many horrific creatures in Berserk. Their first historic encounter with a demon (an Apostle) is the behemoth hidden away in a dungeon, Nosferatu Zodd. Zodd gets the jump on the Band of the Falcon and decimates the numbers.
Nosferatu Zodd is the first taste of the supernatural in Berserk, and he nearly kills Guts. He's only stopped by Griffith's secret weapon at the ninth hour. Ancient evils hidden away in dungeons are a common theme in fantasy, especially fantasy stories with a mystery plot. Zodd isn't the ultimate evil hidden away in the dungeon, though — he's just the very tip of the iceberg.
9 One Warrior Versus One Hundred
When Guts goes on a rescue mission to save a sick Casca, the two are ambushed by an army of one hundred. As he often says, it's not in Guts' nature to retreat; defeating the behemoth warrior knight Samson only whets his appetite for battle. He convinces the fevered Casca to leave him, and she runs to get backup.
When Casca retrieves backup and finds Guts again in the forest early that morning, he's asleep against a tree in the middle of a mass of dead warriors. Guts took some heavy injuries, but he managed to slay an army of one hundred warriors by himself, felling one man with each swing of his sword. Guts performs a feat early on in Berserk that, for most knights, would be the culmination of their battle accomplishments.
8 The Chosen One
Griffith likes to go on and on about his dream. He is a charismatic leader who values self-control. Everything he says and does, from the way he rallies his men to the tone of his voice to his style of dress and armor, is a careful, cultivated decision.
The 1997 anime has a gorgeous score, and whenever Griffith speaks, the music takes on an ethereal quality reminiscent of cathedral tunes. The light softens and takes on a dreamlike quality when Griffith talks about his goals. But even from the beginning, something about his tone and dead eyes rings hollow, foreshadowing how he thinks of himself as a Chosen One but becomes an agent of death and doom.
7 The Fairy Companion
Fairy godmothers and companions are beloved fantasy character types. They act as a guide, like Navi in Zelda, or transform pumpkins into carriages, like Cinderella's Fairy Godmother. Puck the bewinged elf comes to Guts when he's the Black Swordsman. In Berserk, Puck acts as a lighthearted counterbalance to the brutal and morose warrior.
Puck isn't the only one of Guts' fairy helpers, either. The flower fairy spirit Chitch visited Guts when he was injured in a prison. Chitch's story is rather tragic as Chitch sacrifices herself as Guts sleeps, giving him the last of her life energy to heal him. Even the sweet fae companions aren't immune to the harsh rules of the Berserk world.
6 The Princess And The Knight In Shining Armor
Soon after Griffith is knighted at court, he sets his sights on the naive, sweet, and impressionable Princess Charlotte. He doesn't court her; he seduces her. Princess Charlotte is the key to inheriting the throne, but Griffith is no noble soldier like the one in "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," who shows his worthiness with kindness and honest deeds.
Princess Charlotte is introverted and insulated; it takes barely any effort for Griffith to persuade her that she's in love with him. Their union doesn't mean a Happily Ever After, as a princess falling for a noble knight would in a fairytale. Their "relationship" spells ruin for everyone.
5 The Impregnable Castle
Doldrey sits on the Midland border, and it's said to be impregnable. The castle is so large that it resembles Gondor's Minas Tirith in The Lord of the Rings. Capturing the castle means turning the tide of any campaign.
Guts, Griffith, and the Band of the Falcon made fools previously of the Tudor leaders, and then they set their sights on Doldrey. Capturing Doldrey means facing off with more legendary warriors — the Purple Rhino Knights. It's another time for Griffith to display his might and ambition despite his youth. As a commoner-turned-knight in Midland court, he has something to prove, and Guts aids him as a faithful dog would.
4 Legendary Swords
Berserk opens with a time skip where Guts oversees the making of a legendary sword, Dragon Slayer. Dragon Slayer weighs a staggering 324 pounds, and Guts trained for years and years to condition his muscles for hefting such a blade. Fantasy is littered with legendary swords that one warrior is destined to obtain and wield, like Excalibur, which King Arthur drew from the stone.
Some of Guts' most contemplative, philosophical beats occur as Guts sits by himself, holding his sword. The Freudian positioning is very much on purpose, but it's more than just a self-aware tongue-in-cheek positioning. It juxtaposes how Guts' strength ultimately can't protect the people he loves and that his true strength is in his heart and in his self-control.
3 The Loyal Battle Buddy
The series opens with a flash-forward where Guts' absolutely abhors Griffith, and he's wracked with disillusionment and temptation. Before that, though, all Guts cared about was Griffith and, eventually, Casca. The three of them always had each other's backs in battle and were like a band of ragtag warriors and found family.
Berserk details how that bond between friends in and out of battle deteriorates. Guts is no innocent; he's spent years slowly chipping away at his humanity in service of his "friend." And just as Guts and Casca realize that they could love each other and that maybe they could bring out the best in each other, any chance of a future is cruelly ripped away by Guts' inner demons and the one person they love most — Griffith.
2 The Joan of Arc Stand-In
Berserk takes place in a medieval-inspired world, and though its fashions are varying levels of anachronisms, it really paints a picture of the Hundred Years' War with its own Joan of Arc-coded character, Casca. Casca's issues as a woman in a role traditionally allotted to men can sometimes be seen as trite, but she's still an inspiring and complex character.
Joan of Arc was burned at the stake officially because she insisted on wearing pants in prison out of self-preservation because her horrific guards treated her worse when she wore a skirt. Despite being a target as a woman, Casca does not relent in her dream of being a true knight. Like Joan of Arc, she is a thoughtful, conscientious leader and an adept warrior.
1 A Deal With The Devil
There are many ways in which the devil can trick a protagonist. In the fairytale "The Girl with No Hands," a farmer accidentally sells his daughter to the devil, and she loses her hands to the demon. Both Guts and Griffith make their own deals with the devil.
By following, befriending, and idolizing Griffith, Guts allies himself with a terrible fate. It's not long before Guts slays an innocent, Adonis, to "protect" Griffith. And where Guts has a slow descent into darkness, Griffith embraces evil with open arms as long as it helps him fulfill his goals. And like the Handless Maiden of the Grimms' fairy tale, Griffith hands over what he loves most to the devil — marking his army with the Brand of Sacrifice.