SUMMARY
Berserk’s iconic panels showcase Miura’s industry-leading shading work and dark fantasy themes.
Guts’ rage and the evolution of Griffith’s character drive some of the series’ most memorable moments.
The Apostles and otherworldly elements in Berserk create haunting and beautiful imagery throughout the manga.
Berserk is commonly hailed as among the greatest manga of all time and undoubtedly the most important dark fantasy contribution from the medium. Its creator, Kentaro Miura, contributed a gorgeous yet desolate landscape of kingdoms and hellscapes with fantastical characters boasting legendary detail. The best panels of Berserk exemplify these qualities, showcasing Miura’s industry-leading shading work, depictions of cosmic terror, and darkly surreal imagery.
Berserk began its run in 1989 with the Black Swordsman Arc, and while it boasted impressive art even then, the style and confidence of Miura’s work would evolve over the years. Many fans can easily pick their favorite Berserk panels from the other major arcs of the series either for elite composition, for their significance to the story, or even just for subjective qualities that are difficult to describe aptly.
Miura’s seinen epic is a treat for discerning readers, with Berserk’s best panels providing a haunting glimpse at a world and its people on the brink of ruin.
With numerous Berserk fan anime adaptations, one especially pure take on the manga classic deserves more exposure to viewers.
10 Guts Faces the Sea God in the Fantasia Arc
Chapter #322
Given Berserk’s adversaries are often monstrous by design, the Sea God at Skellig Island is among the greatest in scope. Rivaling the colossal presence of Ganishka’s released form, the Sea God terrorizes and destroys Skellig as it’s awakened, but this doesn’t deter Guts from leaping into the beast’s innards. Each creature’s internal organs are gargantuan, with internal tentacles resembling hydra-like monsters for Guts to fight.
9 Rickert Slaps the Hawk’s Name out of Griffith’s Mouth
Chapter #337
But despite this immeasurable power, when Rickert sees how Griffith makes this crude facsimile of the old mercenary party, he inflicts genuine harm on Griffth, the only human to successfully do so, prompting questions about how Rickert factors into the story’s inevitable conclusion.
Berserk has done an excellent job rendering the hopeless differences between humanity’s strongest warriors and even the deadliest terrors of the Astral World in the face of the reincarnated Griffith. He uses this presence to amass a new Band of the Hawk and even becomes the de facto leader of Falconia, following the Great Roar. But despite this immeasurable power, when Rickert sees how Griffith makes this crude facsimile of the old mercenary party, he inflicts genuine harm on Griffth, the only human to successfully do so, prompting questions about how Rickert factors into the story’s inevitable conclusion.
8 Guts’ Rage Knows No Bounds in the Eclipse
Chapter #86
For those who know, including Miura himself, the Eclipse segment of the Golden Age Arc in Berserk hosts countless brilliant panels, but it is also the most gut-wrenching. The massacre that takes place answers readers’ questions about where so many of them are in later arcs, but when Griffith does the indefensible to Casca, Guts’ rage is the stuff of legend. Much like the wolf analogy, Guts crudely cuts through his arm to break free of his restraints, only to still be forced to watch his lover’s cruel fate unfold as physical scars garnish his trauma.
7 Nosferatu Zodd Casts a Long Shadow
Chapter #177
Zodd is the most iconic of Griffith’s loyal followers, living for hundreds of years past his natural lifespan as a deadly Apostle. His released form is easily the most bestial and iconic, a monstrous winged swordsman whose presence evokes dread in those over whom he flies. In chapter #177, interestingly, one of the characters seen beneath him is Nico, possibly the same Nico featured in the plot of Sword of the Berserk: Guts’ Rage.
6 A Vision of Death Prompts Countless Questions
Chapter #362
In this panel, Guts is glimpsing the possible origins of the Skull Knight, with a vision of the Void, of the current God Hand, along with four unknown other members. Many questions arise: what happened to the other members depicted in the ritual, and whether the Skull Knight killed them?
One of Kentaro Miura’s final chapters in Berserk also yielded one of his most talked-about panels ever, not just for the exceptional detail but for the lore behind the moments depicted. In this panel, Guts is glimpsing the possible origins of the Skull Knight, with a vision of the Void, of the current God Hand, along with four unknown other members. Many questions arise: what happened to the other members depicted in the ritual, and did the Skull Knight kill them?
5 Griffith Makes His Choice
Chapter #73
Griffith abandoning his humanity in Berserk is the final straw and the antithetical development when placed against Guts, showing how the two react to their traumas. Griffith is a broken, maimed, silenced wretch after his torture in the manga, forced into a helmet that mocks his image. Still, having had an audience previously with dark forces, he succumbs to their temptation of unimaginable power. This panel in Berserk shows the moment Griffith fully abandoned the rest of his humanity and initiated the eclipse, prompting his most consequential sacrifice, that of his entire army and his friends.
4 Ganishka’s Terror Spreads Far and Wide
Chapter #297
Wishing to surpass even the God Hand, Ganishka takes on a second, unnatural released Apostle form, dubbing himself Shiva, an appropriate name with enough destructive power and presence to likely be visible from space.
The Apostles in Berserk are often twisted and monstrous visions of a character’s personality, and for Ganishka, this is especially the case with the abomination born from his pursuit of power. Wishing to surpass even the God Hand, Ganishka takes on a second, unnatural released Apostle form unseen in the anime, dubbing himself Shiva, an appropriate name with enough destructive power and presence to likely be visible from space. Wounding Ganishka in this form results in a burst of Astral World energy so great that it causes the Physical and Astral Worlds to mix, altering the universe of Berserk forever.
3 Schierke Sees Inside Guts’ Mind
Chapter #228
Unsurprisingly, throughout Berserk, Guts gives into the influence of the Berserker Armor, with his only chance to be rescued from his indiscriminate rage via Schierke’s astral intervention. In an early instance of this, as Guts fights Grunbeld, Schierke must dive into the Black Swordsman’s psyche, sifting through his most painful memories. The most striking two-page spread comes with a rendition of the Eclipse, with all the most crucial events depicted in gruesome, immaculate detail.
Berserk holds a special place in my heart, but my background in a heavily faith-based community made it difficult to keep reading for a while.
2 Pulling Guts from the Abyss
Chapter #271
Perhaps the most important of Guts’ allies gained since the Eclipse, save for possibly Farnese, Schierke has plenty of iconic moments in the series, bestowing powerful weapons and guiding the team to strange new lands.
Perhaps the most important of Guts’ allies gained since the Eclipse, save for possibly Farnese, Schierke has plenty of iconic moments in the series, bestowing powerful weapons and guiding the team to strange new lands. But her ability to save Guts from losing himself to his rage and suppressing the power of the Mark of Sacrifice makes her indispensable. Plus, this panel from Berserk chapter #271 perfectly depicts the abstract aspects of Guts’ mind as she grasps the Beast of Darkness enveloping Guts, resembling an elegant, ethereal charcoal drawing.
1 Guts and the Eclipse Are Inextricably Linked
Chapter #355
Something is haunting and beautiful to many of Miura’s best Berserk panels, but this depiction of Guts, with his Berserker Armor and Dragonslayer and his back turned to the Eclipse, is hard to forget. Behind him is an impossible swirling backdrop of innumerable faces, gathering at an ominous black terminus in the form of the Eclipse at the center. The cruelest part about the context of this is that it’s a flashback experienced by Casca after she regains her former self, triggered by the site of Guts, a cruel reminder that Casca likely won’t get her happy ending anytime soon.
It’s occasionally hard to believe that such an iconic image, commonly shown as one of the definitive images of Berserk , was released in 2018, nearly thirty years after the series’ debut.
Berserk’s best panels evoke terror and wonder as Miura’s world evolves and outlives its creator. Kept in the loving hands of his successor, Kouji Mori, and Studio Gaga, the series will continue to leave an iconic footprint in the present-day world of manga and beyond. But in the world of Berserk, even in the most hopeless moments featuring bone-chilling displays of brutality, there’s beauty and hope still to be found.