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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | You're right, we are mortal and fragile. But even if we are tortured or wounded, we'll fight to survive. You should feel the pain we feel and understand. I am the messenger that will deliver to you that pain and understanding. | „ |
| ~ Guts to Snake Baron |
| “ | DON'T PRAY! If you pray, your hands will close together. You won't be able to fight! | „ |
| ~ Guts to Farnese. |
| “ | Screw you. I'm purebred human, right down to the bone. Don't mistake me for one of you freaks. | „ |
| ~ Guts to Ganishka |
Guts is the main protagonist of the manga and anime series, Berserk. He is a mercenary who eventually joins a group called the Band of the Hawk led by Griffith. While a member of this mercenary group, he grows to care for them and finds a purpose after being inspired by Griffith. However, after being betrayed by his best friend, Griffith who became Femto, and watching the Band of the Hawk be devoured by the Apostles monsters, he begins hunting them and attempts to get revenge on him.
In Japanese, he has been voiced by Nobutoshi Canna and Hiroaki Iwanaga, the latter of which voices him currently. In English, he has been voiced by Marc Diraison in the 1997 anime and the animated movies, Michael Bell in Sword of Berserk, and Kaiji Tang in the 2017 anime.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- It is quite well known that he is perhaps one of the most tragic and sympathetic characters in the world of anime and manga, even fiction. He has went through unimaginable inhuman things which made some of readers faint during reading manga and his indomitable sheer will that keeps him going no matter what life throws him made Guts perhaps one of the most respected, inspiring, and well-liked characters in anime and manga.
- Generally, he has survived by his own wits and intellect alone in an inhumanly harsh and cruel environment, even having been hunted by horrific demons for years and surviving regardless.
- Marc Diraison has a charismatic and emotive performance in the 1997 anime and "Golden Age Arc" film series, which can expertly switch between calm and philosophical and berserker rage at a moment's notice.
- He has an iconic design, with spiked hair, large, muscular build and flowing cape, as well as the angular and jet-black Berserker armour.
- The previously-mentioned musculature, chiseled jawline, badass baritone and angst make him a prime example of a Mr. Fanservice.
- His fighting style alone conveys the magnitude of his badassery, with his famously unwieldy and massive sword that he wield as a downright mobility tool with inhuman speed, using the sheer weight and force of the thing as more or less a pogo stick.
- Despite his inhuman rage and character design, he is far from a brainless 90s action hero, demonstrating numerous moments of philosophical contemplation and kindness, as well as being a ruthless and intelligent schemer on and off the battlefield.
- Having been bred for combat from an early age, he has been an efficient and powerful fighter from age 9.
- After being sold out by his adopted father to a pedophile and molested, he led the man into an isolated area before killing him and rejoining the battle, knowing that the man's death would be written off as caused by an enemy.
- After being forced to kill his father in self-defense, he survived from ages 12 to 15 wandering between mercenary groups.
- He killed the undefeated Bazuso with relative ease in combat at 15, which attracts the attention of Griffith and leads him to induct Guts into The Band Of The Hawk.
- He lmost defeated Griffith when he made Guts fight to either join the group or be left to go free.
- With his intelligence and combat ability, he quickly ascended to be tied with Casca as second-in command of the Band Of The Hawk, and managed to attract the sincere emotional attachment of Griffith, a man who was bred from before birth by The Idea of Evil to be near-sociopathic.
- He grew to care increasingly deeply for his comrades, overcoming his emotional damage and trauma from his childhood.
- He held his own during combat with Nosferatu Zodd, escaping despite death being a near-certainty.
- After being ambushed, he single-handedly cut down a hundred men.
- He led the Siege of Doldrey alongside Casca and Griffith and proved pivotal to taking the castle with his raiding party, succeeding with few casualties despite the Band of the Hawk being outnumbered 6 to 1.
- Taking the words of Griffith into account, he decided to leave the Band Of The Hawk, defeating Griffith in combat.
- He joined a rescue mission for Griffith upon hearing of his capture, raiding the castle containing him and killing the torturer.
- He bested Wyald, and saved Casca from being raped and murdered by him.
- He Managed to fend off the onslaught of the Apostles during the Eclipse. While he was unable to save his comrades during the slaughter, he tried as hard as he possibly could despite being a human against a horde of demons with inhuman strenght.
- He cut off his own arm in an attempt to save Casca from Femto. Despite failing, this goes to demonstrate the lengths he is willing to go to protect people he loves.
- After the Eclipse, he spent two years hunting down and slaughtering many apostles, using a combination of traps, combat prowess and determination to kill them.
- He advanced sexually on an female apostle to lure her into a position where he can kill her with ease in vengeance for her killing Corkus.
- He managed to fight off Rosine, using a child to lure and find her location, and deliberately setting himself on fire before dousing himself with the fake elf children's blood and then killing her after a protracted battle that nearly kills him.
- After being kidnapped by Farnese following his wounding during the battle, he refused to confess and instead mocked her for her religious convictions.
- Upon learning of Casca being endangered in the Tower of Conviction, he rushed to rescue her, survived the death and chaos in the midst of the pseudo-eclipse.
- When presented with an opportunity to go after Griffith, he relented and focused on protecting Casca instead.
- He resisted the intent of the manifested Slan to use the Behelit while in Qliphoth, and destroyed the form with the Dragon Slayer.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- He demonstrates an extremely sadistic, vengeful and bloodthirsty streak when facing and fighting his enemies, especially apostles. While the some of the people he has killed were indeed awful people and the apostles he has slain were horrific monsters, Gut's level of sadism towards them goes to an excessive point. Furthermore being a former mercenary, many of the thousands of men within combat that he has ruthlessly killed were presumably innocent people forced into a bad situation for survival who wanted to return to their families. Nevertheless he does continue killing people like the Kushans by splitting them in half with his blade. In regards to the Apostles, not all of them are pure evil (especially Rosine who despite her horrific actions was ultimately a severely traumatised young girl who desired an escape from her abusive surroundings), howevr that doesn't stop Guts from mercilessly slaughtering them.
- He demonstrates a cruel and dismissive attitude to the majority of people throughout the series. While this is a result of his severe emotional trauma, it still reflects poorly upon him. This has been reduced with time, but he is still generally aloof at best towards those he doesn't know well. When he retrieved Farnese at her family's elegant party, he was even prepared to abandon the guests at the party despite knowing that dangerous tiger monsters were attacking.
- He performed an assassination mission to kill Julius (though in this case Julius had attempted to have Griffith killed so it's somewhat justified), then killed Julius' son, Adonis. Though the death of Adonis was done by impulse, he was ready to kill the witness entering the door without even checking who it was.
- Guts had no problems killing the thieves hired by Griffith and the royal conspirators as part of Griffith's dirty work, nor did he have any problem with Griffith having a child kidnapped and use as a hostage. When Griffith wondered if what he was doing was immoral and if he was cruel for having Guts do this dangerous work, Guts commented that all of these crimes were simply part of the path of Griffith's dream and it was pointless to question it. This answer would have major negative consequences, since it was basically implying to Griffith that he could do whatever he wants to achieve his dream. The God Hand would use this memory to help manipulate Griffith and convince him it was okay to sacrifice the Band of the Hawk.
- After the Eclipse, Guts chose to leave Casca and go on a quest to hunt down the Apostles and kill Femto despite knowing Casca had gone insane and would need protection from the evil spirits that haunted her.
- He was extremely rude towards Puck, referring to him as a bug and constantly deriding him as a weakling and showing no gratitude for healing him.
- He allowed an entire village to be attacked and slaughtered by the Snake Baron and his forces, showing no concern over endangering their lives.
- He endangered a priest and his daughter by going on a ride with them despite knowing the consequences of being near him, even internally saying it didn't matter what happened to them.
- When Vargas saved Guts from a group of soldiers and gave him a guide to the castle to kill The Count, Guts showed no gratitude, mocking him for his appearance despite going through similar pain and mutilation himself and physically confronting him when he learned that he had a Behelit. He later demanded the Behelit, and told Puck that he would've taken it by force had Vargas not complied.
- He used Theresia, the young daughter of The Count, as a human shield and to deliver the final blow to The Count. He then took The Count's head to show Theresia and torture the Count, threatening to kill Puck if he interfered.
- He offered Theresia a knife to kill herself if the pain was too much for her, and encouraged her to take revenge against him, though this was done as his way of giving Theresia a purpose to live the only way he knew how.
- When he arrived at a village attacked by ravenous elves, Guts used a young child as bait to lure the elves into a location where he could eliminate all of them.
- He used Jill as a hostage to get himself out of the village. Then, when Jill is captured by Rosine, he used her as a hostage again during the fight to gain an advantage over Rosine to kill her. This demonstrates that he is a ruthless pragmatist.
- He nearly succumbed to strangling and killing Casca under the influence of the dark sidehis personality, The Beast of Darkness, though he snapped out of it and is utterly horrified afterwards.
Trivia[]
- Guts and Serpico are the only Magnificent Baddies in Berserk canon so far, though The Skull Knight, Nosferatu Zodd, Silat, Sir Locus and Grunbeld are likely to count.
External Links[]
- Guts at the Heroes wiki
- Guts at the Berserk wiki
- Guts at the Inconsistently Admirable wiki
- Guts at the Seinen Heroes wiki
- Guts at the Wikipedia