Every so often, a manga series comes along that revolutionizes the medium. One such manga is the classic horror series Berserk, written and drawn by the legendary manga-ka Kentaro Miura. From its dark blood-drenched fight scenes to the tender moments in which characters bond, this philosophically rich comic continues to find new ways to impact its readers.
The series debuted in 1988 and is still running, despite Miura's notoriously long hiatuses. It also has been adapted into anime 3 times, the best example of which is the 1997 series following the "Golden Age" story arc. While it is a fairly faithful adaptation, the studio still made some major changes.
10 The Count
Berserk has an unusual plot structure in that both the manga and anime begin with the protagonist, Guts, as a one-eyed, one-armed man who hunts demonic apostes with his massive sword, then jump more than a decade back in time to Guts's childhood, following the long painful journey of his life to the present. The anime opens with Guts beating up the thugs of a local nobleman who turns out to be a snake apostle, then facing off against the apostle in a harrowing fight scene.
This is also how the manga begins, but whereas the anime goes back to Guts's early teens in the next episode, the manga follows him for three volumes as he fights an even deadlier apostle, the Count. It makes sense to cut him and he still gets a cameo at the end, but the confrontation with the Count is
9 Donovan
Guts did not have an easy childhood. His mother was hanged while pregnant and her corpse gave birth while a mercenary band was passing. The lover of the mercenary captain was suffering from the trauma of a miscarriage so adopted the corpse-born babe. She died a few years later, leaving the young Guts to be raised by an abusive adoptive father. All of this is in the anime, but the most traumatic event from his childhood was cut.
One of the mercenaries, Donovan, took notice of the nine-year-old Guts and paid his adoptive father for a night with the boy. This event haunted him long into his adult life.
8 Black Ram Iron Lance Knights
The Black Ram Iron Lance Knights are a pretty straightforward heavy cavalry unit, albeit a particularly effective one. This Chuder army unit devastated the forces of Midland until they were stopped by the Band of the Hawk.
In the anime, they do not wield conventional lances, but instead have double-ended lances. Whether this is because double-ended lances or cooler looking or because someone figured it was unrealistic for a soldiers to wield top-heavy lances if they were made of iron, the result is actually a pretty cool change and makes for a fantastic battle sequence.
7 Adon
General Adon is a bit of a comic relief villain, an incompetent loud-mouthed braggart from an old noble family who only became a general because of his class. He has three major appearances in the manga, and in each of these he expresses violently sexist views while fighting Casca, the only woman among the Hawks' commanders.
In the anime, he is given some additional episodes to help make him a bigger character and allow other characters to grow as they work together while fighting him.
6 The Bridge
The leader of the Hawks, Griffith, is a brilliant and charismatic young man whose ambition and strategic genius gain him success, even as he inspires others to love and serve him. His battle plans regularly catch the enemy off guard, gaining him respect among the Kingdom of Midland and even earning him a knighthood.
The anime series added a major battle that turned the tide of the entire war. This fight involved Griffith taking a castle that overlooked a bridge fording a major river. Through the war, Chuder had launched almost every offensive from this fortress. By including this detail, the anime helps show a major turning point for both the war and the characters.
5 General Boscogn
The most important Chuder military commander is General Boscogn. His army unit, the Holy Purple Rhino Knights, have broken every opposing army unit to engage them, while Boscogn himself is a man every bit as strong and skilled in combat as Guts (no small feat, since Guts killed a hundred men in a single battle shortly before meeting Boscogn).
In the anime, Boscogn is made an every deadlier foe, as he sees through a trap that Griffith is trying to spring. This cunning makes him an even better strategist Griffith is, as he sees through Griffith's genius plans in an instant. However, Boscogn is overruled by his superior, Lord Gennon, who orders the armies of Chuder to charge straight into Griffith's trap.
4 Silat
The assassin Silat is one of the most interesting characters introduced to the series. He comes from the Kushan Empire, a country inspired by Vedic cultures, and he fights with a number of Indian and Indonesian weapons, such as chakrams, many-bladed urumi, and a pair of katars.
Guts first encounters Silat during a major martial arts competition which is thrown to try and recruit strong fighters to attack the Band of the Hawk, who have become fugitives living on the run. Guts defeats him, but it's a surprisingly close fight in which Silat nearly spills Guts's guts. The two cross blades again when Silat leads a night raid on the Hawks. In this second fight, the assassin wields a pair of urumi whip-swords, keeping Guts on the run with ten steel ribbons slicing the air around him. Unfortunately, he was written out of both of these scenes in the original 90s anime.
3 Kushans
The Kushans do not play a major role during the events of the series until much later on when they invade Midland and easily take the country. However, there's a group of Kushan assassins from the Bakiraka Clan who were hired by the King of Midland to stop the Hawks who tried to free Griffith from prison.
These assassins use different weapons, striking from the shadows with javelins, blow darts, and close-quarters weapons, only to be cut down, one after another, by the Hawks. Like Silat, these Bakiraka make no appearance in the anime.
2 Wyald
Wyald is an apostle who is leads the Black Dog Knights, a group of violent criminals press ganged into military service as shock troops. The group quickly becomes notorious for their war crimes which spread psychological terror throughout the Chuder ranks.
When the Hawks free Griffith from his imprisonment and slay the Bakiraka assassins, Midland sends Wyald and his Black Dog Knights after them. Wyald leads his men in pursuit on horseback, carrying the impaled bodies of people they massacred as battle standards. When the Hawks engage him, he transforms into his giant apostele form, towering over them and teaching them the meaning of fear. Sadly, this entire sequence is only shown in the manga.
1 Love in the Royal Family
One of the major relationships of the series is between Griffith and Charlotte, the Princess of Midland. While Griffith is in love with Guts, he seduces the princess as a way to gain power. After Griffith takes Charlotte's virginity, her father the king tries to force himself on Charlotte.
This is one of two examples of the royal family keeping their love in the family. The king's brother, Julius, apparently had a torrid affair with his sister-in-law, the queen. While there is no shortage of scandalous adult content in Berserk, this look at the way royals are in bed with one another seems like a topic too taboo for most TV audiences at the time.