Summary
- Berserk’s best arcs delve into themes of perseverance and healing from deep traumas.
- The Black Swordsman Arc sets up Guts’ character and poses important questions.
- The Conviction Arc, particularly the Birth Ceremony Chapter, marks a major turning point and emphasizes the importance of found family in Guts’ healing process.
Kentaro Miura’s grim, sprawling, dark-fantasy epic Berserk is a manga that holds little back in the horrors of its world, but some arcs stand above others. After the titanic loss of Miura in 2021, the announcement of Berserk‘s continuing publication to honor his legacy was met with fan elation. Its action is always a cathartic spectacle and punctuates the emotional and psychological journeys of Guts, Casca, and company throughout Berserk‘s gripping storyline, whose best scenes have yet to be adapted in an anime format.
All of Berserk‘s arcs have plenty of engrossing storytelling to offer, but Miura’s writing and pencil work evolved along with it. The likes of the Black Swordsman Arcare excellent and essential storylines for building up the significance behind Guts’ character growth, but Berserk arguably grows further when fleshing out themes of unwavering perseverance and healing from deep traumas.
The legendary Seinen series has seen several adaptations since the manga debuted in 1989. However, very few anime adaptations have satisfied fans due to their inability to capture Miura’s manga’s detail and haunting art style. Anime viewers are unfortunately missing large chunks of Gut’s story because not all of the storyline has been animated. Regardless, those curious about how the best Berserk arcs compare to each other only need to continue reading.
Black Swordsman Arc
Manga Chapters #1 – #8
Berserk‘s first arc opens in raw fashion with the Black Swordsman Arc. At this point, readers are thrown into Guts’ life and the bleak state of the world after the events of the Golden Age. For those who didn’t know any better when the story starts, Guts may as well be another villain that just happens to have a boiling hatred for the demonic Apostles of the God Hand.
The protagonist is presented as an antihero and one-man apocalypse in his own right, completely indifferent at best and hostile at worst to those who cross his path. It’s crucial for setting up and eventually painting the canvas of this human grim reaper’s character. This arc is relentlessly visceral and a cleverly intense way to pose massive questions (what are Guts’ motives? Who are the God Hand? What happened between Guts and Femto?) before leading into the “origin story.”
Fantasia Arc
Manga Chapters #308 – Present
The Fantasia Arc is Berserk‘s current storyline, which continues to expand the supernatural elements of this dark fantasy world. It’s perhaps the arc with the slowest pace in the manga, though, Berserk‘s continuous hiatuses were the biggest culprit behind the story’s pacing. Nonetheless, it’s an emotionally significant arc in Guts and Casca’s journeys of growth and healing. The two along with the rest of the Final Fantasy-like party of characters navigate the aftermath of the Great Roar of the Astral World, which merged the supernatural plane with humanity’s plane of existence.
They aim to travel to Puck’s homeland of Elfhelm to help repair Casca’s deeply traumatized mind, leading to some significant progress between her and Guts. Fantasia is doing the methodical and narrative legwork before Guts and Griffith’s inevitable final confrontation. Berserk is one of the greatest seinen manga for many reasons, one of which being the story’s commitment to sincerely exploring themes of inspiring willpower. Shocking twists litter the arc’s ending and mark the final Berserk chapters that Miura Kentarou worked on. Now, Miura’s trusted team at Studio Gaga is working to complete the Fantasia arc and take Gut’s story to its anticipated conclusion and whatever arc lies in wait.
Conviction Arc – Binding Chain Chapter
Manga Chapters #118 – #125
While the middle subarc — the Binding Chain Chapter — of the greater Conviction Arc is the shortest, it effectively builds upon the stakes of Guts and Puck’s ventures. The Binding Chain Chapter feeds back into the larger story after the more isolated tale that the Lost Children Chapter was, introducing key characters that would come to join Guts in the process.
After being captured by the Holy Iron Chain Knights, the religiously and morally rigid Farnese eventually grows to have her faith justifiably shaken after she’s challenged by Guts to see the organization and many of its devotees as the corrupt and frothingly cultish followers that they are. It’s a good showcase for how Guts starts to inadvertently have a positive — if harsh — effect on those around him, though, this Berserk arc is unfortunately infamous for veering into the gratuitous in places as well. The ending, though, sees Guts finally going to confront his — and Casca’s — traumas rather than running from them.
Conviction Arc – Lost Children Chapter
Manga Chapters #95 – #117
Coming off the back of the Golden Age Arc and more directly after the Black Swordsman Arc, Conviction sees the continued exploits of Guts and his (initially unwanted) traveling companion Puck the elf in a post-Eclipse world. This is the point in Berserk where Miura’s writing starts to take more noticeable steps in advancing Guts’ evolution as a person, but not without some daunting tests along the way.
Conviction Arc – Birth Ceremony Chapter
Manga Chapters #126 – #176
The climax of the overall Conviction Arc — the Birth Ceremony Chapter — came in the form of a bleak spectacle second only to the horrifying events of the Eclipse. Skull Knight warns Guts and co. that an imitation version of the Eclipse was about to take place that would mark the reincarnation of “the Hawk,” which is where Casca has been taken. Farnese continues serving the Holy See under the fanatical Father Mozgus, only with a more battered sense of faith than ever after seeing the crimes against humanity and dark irony behind the religious body firsthand.
The Conviction arc’s punctuated by a pulse-pounding final bout between Guts and the pseudo-Apostle Mozgus, and its closing moments signify a major BC-to-AD-like change in the story and worldbuilding around these characters. Likewise, it starts to emphasize the now-running theme of the importance of the “found family” in Guts’ healing process.
Golden Age Arc
Manga Chapters #9 – #94
In many circles within the fan base, Berserk‘s Golden Age Arc is seen as the pinnacle of the series, and it’s been adapted in some of the best seinen anime. Following up on the Black Swordsman Arc, the Golden Age tells a sweeping origin story and epic tragedy of how Guts, Griffith, and Casca became intertwined in this complex dynamic. It establishes many of the story’s moving pieces, like Guts’ punishing upbringing; Griffith’s rise and fall as Femto; and the Behelit proved the latter’s cruel betrayal of Guts and scarring Casca during the dreaded Eclipse.
So much worldbuilding is done in the Golden Age as well, from the imposing presence and role of the God Hand to the otherworldly entities like the Skull Knight endlessly fighting their influence. It’s the arc that admittedly gets the most gratuitous and difficult to read at times but, after having several arcs follow it, these horrors were at least not in vain and paved the way for a genuine tale of Guts and co.’s lives being pieced back together and their indomitable spirit in the face of fate itself.
Falcon Of The Millennium Empire Arc – Holy Evil War Chapter
Manga Chapters #177 – #235
The start of the Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc is a milestone in Berserk, as Griffith — as Guts and Casca knew him — is reincarnated and presented before them for the first time since the Eclipse. Griffith/Femto is one of the most significant heroes-turned-villain in anime and manga by flipping conventional fantasy tropes with him and Guts.
After the brief reunion, the Holy Evil War Chapter makes important strides in fleshing out the magical worldbuilding and building Guts’ aforementioned JRPG-like party of characters, with most offering something worthwhile to the group as a whole. Shierke is arguably the biggest highlight in this, and it emotionally drives home that Guts is truly no longer alone, is learning to let people in again, and how much Guts didn’t realize he needed a family. Just as importantly, it introduces Guts’ legendary Berserker Armor.
The poorly received 2016 – 2017 Berserk anime adaptation concluded not long after the Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc.
Falcon Of The Millennium Empire Arc – Falconia Chapter
Manga Chapter #236 – #307
The Falcon of the Millennium Empire‘s Falconia Chapter arc has a thrilling clash between multiple forces — including Griffith — and the newly-reincarnated Falcon’s growing influence over the world. It also follows the new world order as the Great Roar merged the Astral World with that of humanity, with the Falcon Griffith working to fulfill his dream of establishing a Roman-scaled Empire of his own.
He amasses many devout Apostle followers, and they eventually come into conflict with Emperor Ganishka — a rogue Apostle. It temporarily aligns Griffith and Guts’ company’s goals as they’re caught in the middle, leading to an exciting alliance between Guts and his Apostle rival Nosferatu Zodd. If it wasn’t clear until now, the evolution of Miura’s artwork has seen a massive improvement since the Black Swordsman story and the climax of the Millennium Falcon Arc is not only the best Berserk arc, but it’s produced some of the best manga panels ever drawn.
Read Berserk through Dark Horse Comics
