The Suicide Squad, Few works of fiction can claim to be quite so influential as the iconic dark fantasy manga Berserk, which follows the adventures of a mercenary named Guts as he seeks vengeance against his friend-turned-nemesis Griffith. Running from 1989 to 2021, Berserk has been in the news recently due to the passing of its author, Kentaro Miura, this past May.
Though the future of Berserk remains uncertain for now, many fans have chosen to honor Miura’s legacy by celebrating the series and its impact. And Berserk truly has made an impact on pop culture — Dark Souls, Final Fantasy VII, and Attack on Titan have all been influenced by it in some form, to name only a few examples. Yet despite its influence, Berserk remains one of the few great manga series without faithful anime adaptation.
That’s not to say Berserk has never been adapted into anime at all — it has, multiple times. The first Berserk anime was released in 1997, spanning a single season of twenty-five episodes. The series was directed by Naohito Takahashi and animated by Oriental Light and Magic, a studio otherwise known for the Pokémon anime and the recent sleeper hit Odd Taxi. The first episode of the anime adapts the first chapter of the manga, while the rest of the series covers the Golden Age Arc — the second major storyline of the manga, though it takes place first chronologically.
The ‘97 Berserk anime is generally well-liked by fans for its striking visuals and voice acting, including an exceptionally good English dub for the time. Of particular note is the original score by composer Susumu Hirasawa, whose work has become an inseparable part of the entire franchise’s identity. However, Berserk ‘97 is not without its flaws. Most notably, the anime leaves out significant portions of the manga, including the introductions of major characters like Puck and Skull Knight. Additionally, its animation has aged much less gracefully than Miura’s striking and dynamic art, feeling much duller by comparison.
While not a bad adaptation by any means, the ‘97 Berserk anime is an incomplete translation of Miura’s vision. And due to the omission of multiple key characters, it’s impossible to pick up where the anime leaves off in the manga without lacking important context. However, while it was the first anime adaptation Berserk would receive, it wouldn’t be the last.
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc was released in the form of three CGI movies from 2012 to 2013, directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka and animated by Studio 4°C. As the name implies, the trilogy covers the same arc of the manga as the ‘97 anime, but even more condensed due to each film’s limited run time. The films still boast more impressive animation than the first anime, as well as a memorable score by Shirō Sagisu — the composer for the classic mecha animeNeon Genesis Evangelion. However, their truncated length cuts much of the downtime and character development, preventing the story’s emotional beats from hitting as hard as they did in the manga.
Unfortunately, things didn’t improve from there, because 2016 saw the release of the most controversial Berserk anime yet. Picking up where the film trilogy left off, the ‘16 anime covers material that had yet to be covered by the previous adaptations, yet the way it does so drew much ire from fans of the series. Berserk ‘16 is infamous for its poor CGI animation, which utterly fails to capture the detailed, powerful style of Miura’s art with its ugly character models and clunky movement. Some scenes even look so stiff that they seem more reminiscent of South Park in aesthetic than the series’ actual source material.
The 2016 Berserk remains the most recent anime in the franchise, much to fans’ dismay. With the series left permanently unfinished by Miura’s passing, a truly complete adaptation of the manga may not be possible, but that doesn’t stop its loyal fanbase from wanting one. The question is, with a series so iconic, influential, and beloved as Berserk, why has it never gotten a faithful anime adaptation the way other manga have?
One possible explanation is that Miura’s art style is simply too intimidating for animators to imitate. The manga’s artwork starts out impressive and only gets more intricate with time, which doesn’t make it an ideal art style to adapt when traditional animation requires every scene to be drawn one frame at a time. Granted, CGI animation doesn’t have this problem — but as the 2016 adaptation shows, it has its own drawbacks.
Another possible obstacle for a new Berserk anime is the series’ content. While the manga takes place in a medieval fantasy world with knights, witches, and fairies, it’s much closer in tone to Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings. Miura doesn’t shy away from depicting explicit violence and sexual content in his work, and while he may veer into the realm of shock value at times, much of the graphic content in Berserk exists to serve the themes of the series. Berserk depicts cruel and depraved actions in unflinching detail because it’s a story where the people in power are near-universally cruel and depraved individuals, and Miura wants his characters and readers alike to confront that reality. And though his writing choices may not always be in good taste, his themes ring true in spite of it.
However, neither the art style of Berserk nor its explicit content needs to be a barrier between it and a faithful anime adaptation. As proven by games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, there’s no shortage of artists who want to create work inspired by the manga, and this is just as true in the realm of animation as it is in games. For proof, look no further than Netflix’s Castlevania series, which pays heavy homage to Berserk in its aesthetic and tone.
Like Berserk, Castlevania is a fantasy action series with a dynamic yet detailed art style that features no shortage of bloody violence, while forcing its heroes to confront the worst aspects of humankind — and vampire-kind, in this case. One memorable scene features the character Striga equipping a suit of armor and massive sword directly modeled after those used by Guts, and going on a gorgeously-animated rampage that would make Miura proud. And it’s not just the animators that are fans of the manga — Castlevania producer Adi Shankar has frequently expressed his eagerness to oversee a new adaptation of Berserk.
In theory, a Netflix-produced Berserk anime could be exactly what the fans want. Other anime original to the platform, like 2018’s Devilman Crybaby, have boasted spectacular animation while also having the creative freedom to explore dark themes and other mature content. A new Berserk adaptation with Netflix’s backing could theoretically be the first truly faithful adaptation of the manga, assuming the animators receive the time and money they need to deliver a satisfactory product. But for now, such an anime is only a pipe dream. With no news regarding the future of Berserk on the horizon, fans can only speculate on what the next adaptation of Kentaro Miura’s magnum opus will look like.