Guts (Berserk)

Guts is a male anime and manga character who features in Berserk.

Biography

The Black Swordsman Guts.

Guts (Japanese: ガッツ, Hepburn: Gattsu) was born from the corpse of a lynched woman who had died underneath a hanging tree and was left there to die alone in a mire of blood and afterbirth. Around this time, a mercenary group led by a man named Gambino happened upon the grisly scene where they presumed the infant to be dead. It was then that the baby started to wail which surprised the mercenaries and led to Shisu immediately going to the child to give him aid. Gambino decided to let the woman keep the infant for herself despite the circumstances surrounding the scene unsettling his cohorts. Around 3 years later, Gut's surrogate mother Shisu contracted the plague and ended up dying as a result. This saw the boy going under Gambino's care who decided to train him to be swordsman when he was 6 years old. Three years later, Guts came to join the mercenary band and looked to their leader as a father figure. They later took part in a skirmish that was Guts first battle where in the night that followed his tent was visited by a mercenary named Donovan who came to ambush and rape the boy. During that time, he revealed to Guts that he had bought the boy for the night from Gambino. In a later skirmish, Guts came to isolate Donovan and killed him where he refused to believe his claims about Gambino in the prior night. After another battle, Gambino came to lose his leg and it was then that his relationship with Guts began to deteriorate beginning with verbal then physical abuse. Guts was subjected to various forms of degradation that eventually culminated in an attempt on his life by Gambino who began to blame the young man as the source for his misfortunes. In that moment, he revealed that he did indeed sell Guts to Donovan and expressed nothing but disgust over the boy's very existence. The revelation was disheartening for Guts who decided to retaliate by killing Gambino who was the closest thing to a father for him. The other members of the mercenary band then attacked him and branded him a father killer forcing Guts to flee the encampment with him being pursued to a dead end. He then decided to jump off a cliff side to escape where after the high fall he was attacked by a pack of wolves located down below. He then fell unconscious where he was found by a child soldier who enlisted him in another mercenary band that had discovered him. As a result of being on the losing side of a battle, Guts and his fellow mercenaries were captured and intended to work as laborers for their captors. On their way to the castle they were to help construct, Guts met a man named Martino, who befriended the injured young mercenary and seemingly aided in his escape. However, Martino used Guts' escape attempt as a decoy to make his own, leaving Guts to be recaptured and imprisoned. In a frigid cell, Guts met the forlorn spirit of a lone flower named Chitch, who nursed him back to health as he prepared for a bout with his captor's son. In the process of healing Guts, Chitch expended all of her remaining petals and ceased to be. Grateful for her aid, Guts decided to take Chitch's remains to a valley of other blooms like her after his escape. Following his eventual defeat of his captor's son and the subsequent storming of the castle by his mercenary band — who had been notified by Martino of the castle's location and potential spoils — Guts fulfilled his resolve to lay Chitch's remains in a valley of radiant flowers. As a mercenary, he once came to find himself on the losing side of a battle leading to himself and his surviving comrades being captured where they were made to serve as laborers by their captors.

During the siege of a military garrison defended by the Band of the Falcon, Guts joined the fray alongside a mercenary band and narrowly defeats an enemy leader named Bazuso, lowering the enemy's morale and allowing for the fort's capture. In his travels, he was attacked by Band of the Falcon mercenaries seeking to claim his reward and exact revenge for his earlier interference. He easily dispatches most of them until he is met by Griffith, who quickly incapacitates the swordsman and has him brought to the band's encampment. Waking several days later, Guts is given by Griffith the option to join the band, though he promptly refuses, instead opting to challenge Griffith to a duel. He stipulates that the White Falcon can lay claim to him in the advent of defeating him in combat. Harboring a vested interest in Guts, Griffith agrees and the two engage in a sensational battle, with the White Falcon ultimately defeating the swordsman and enlisting him as a member of the Band of the Falcon. In three years time, Guts is promoted to the Band of the Falcon's raiders captain and, for their efforts against the Black Ram Iron Lance Knights, the band is formally recruited by Midland in its century-spanning campaign against Tudor. At a later point, amid seizing a Tudor stronghold, the Band of the Falcon finds itself at a standstill while making its final push into the fortress, with roughly fifty of Guts' soldiers being slaughtered by a single enemy burrowed within the inner citadel. Fed up with these results, Guts ventures into the citadel himself, where he meets the monstrous apostle Nosferatu Zodd and engages in battle with the demon. Initially taken aback by his opponent's overwhelming aura and daunted from parrying Zodd's bone-rattling strikes, Guts ultimately gambles his life on one swing, and with it, lands a gashing blow on the apostle. Zodd is only further excited by the injury – having after 300 years finally found a human capable of injuring him – and subsequently assumes his behemoth released form. Petrified by Zodd's transformation and completely outclassed, Guts is thrashed around and nearly crushed by the apostle, before Griffith and Band of the Falcon reinforcements intervene. When Griffith comes to Guts' aid, Zodd blocks the two's path of escape, forcing them to execute a pincer movement on the apostle, in which both of them deal substantial damage to the demon. In retaliation, Zodd tail whips Griffith into a column, though he immediately ceases his onslaught upon sighting Griffith's Crimson Beherit. The beast leaves Guts with a prophecy, warning the swordsman of an inescapable death that shall befall him should Griffith's dream ever collapse, before flying off.

During the Autumn Hunt in Wyndham after their return, the Band of the Falcon acts as the king of Midland's guard in place of General Julius' White Dragon Knights. In midst of the hunt, Griffith is shot by a stray arrow, but avoids injury due to his beherit taking the brunt of the blow. On a night sometime after, Griffith, having deduced Julius as the culprit behind the murder attempt, asks Guts to kill the general in retaliation. The swordsman invades Julius' manor in the dark of night and swiftly eliminates his target. When the door to general's room opens, Guts, assuming it to be a guard, pierces through in advance, killing Julius' son, Adonis. With the guards alerted, a distraught Guts battles his way off the premises and escapes through the Wyndham sewers. Making his way to Primrose Hall, where Griffith is set to be in attendance, Guts rendezvouses first with Casca, and together, they overhear Griffith giving his interpretation of a true friend to Princess Charlotte. With the conclusion of Griffith's monologue, Guts leaves the scene, vexed by the implication that he too, ultimately, is nothing more than an asset to the realization of Griffith's dream.

The Band of the Falcon shortly after sets out to combat the Blue Whale Knights of Tudor. During the engagement, noticing the trouble Casca was having with an enemy commander, Guts intervenes and does battle with the spearman Adon Coborlwitz. Upon candidly defeating his opponent, the raiders captain notices a fainting Casca staggering off a cliff edge and breaks her fall, before he is shot off his horse, and subsequently the cliff, by a desperate Adon. The two mercenaries free fall into the river current below, with Guts pulling them ashore and finding them shelter from the chill rain. Believing Casca to be feverish, he removes her drenched clothes and rewarms her with his body heat while waiting out the rain. When the rain finally ceases, Casca wakes and immediately attacks Guts, flustered by her womanly shortcomings as a soldier. Subduing and tiring her out, Guts asks why she became a mercenary to begin with, to which she explains the reason for her idolization of and devotion to the White Falcon as his sworn sword, as well as the jarring effect Griffith's desire for Guts had on her. Their conversation is interrupted by the movements of Tudor troops near their location; realizing enemy forces will soon home in on the area, they decide to depart after sunset. In the midst of their escape, the two mercenaries are surrounded by a swarm of Adon's troops. Together, they mount a counter offensive, with Guts eventually killing Adon's brother, Samson. Acknowledging Casca's weakened condition, Guts decides to stay behind to buy time for her escape, telling his comrade to return to her metaphorical sword master Griffith. The raiders captain, in an arduous battle, is able to defeat all of the Tudor troops in the forest, single-handedly killing approximately 100 soldiers. After Guts is found and carried to a Band of the Falcon encampment, he reveals to Casca his admiration for her, Griffith, and the rest of the Band of the Falcon's commitment to realizing their collective dreams. Furthermore, he reveals he doesn't feel his place is with their 'campfire of dreams', strongly alluding to his forthcoming departure from the band.

With his injuries nearly completely healed, Guts assembles in front of the fortress of Doldrey alongside the rest of the band – their goal: recapturing the fortress for Midland. Griffith splits the Band of the Falcon's forces into two, one group accompanying him and Guts to lure Tudor's forces toward a river, and the other an infiltration force led by Casca to retake Doldrey itself. When the Band of the Falcon successfully lures the Purple Rhino Knights to the river, Guts engages in a fierce duel with General Boscogn, in which his sword breaks, having been worn from his previous 100 man slaughter. After he is put in peril with only a knife to wield, a large cleaver sword suddenly lands in front of him, which he uses to behead both Boscogn and the general's horse. No sooner after Boscogn's defeat, the victory cries of Casca's unit roar on from inside a recaptured Doldrey, as Band of the Falcon flags wave in celebration. With the loss of both their general and the fortress, the remaining Tudor forces scatter in defeat. The Band of the Falcon receives a profusion of praise from Midland citizens and officials alike upon their triumphant return, and a victory ball is held in celebration. Guts attends the ball, in spite of his aversion to the aristocracy, to see the culmination of the band's achievements, but also in order to help Griffith enact a scheme to do away with political adversaries of the White Falcon; he serves in tying loose ends of the ploy, killing all of Griffith's accomplices to avoid potential complications in the future. One month later, having aided tremendously in the Band of the Falcon's success, Guts finally sets out to leave the band, unable to cling to Griffith's dream any longer. On the morning of his departure, Judeau, Corkus, and a frantic Casca intercept him as he leaves Wyndham, with the latter two taking him to a tavern to query his reasoning. There, Guts reveals he wants to attain a dream of his own, and stand beside Griffith as a man of equal vision. After a fierce reprimand from Corkus and solemn farewell from Judeau, the latter sees him off, before the two are intercepted at the outer wall of the city by Griffith and several other band members. Griffith questions if Guts truly intends to leave the band, to which Guts confirms his intent. Rattled by this affirmation, Griffith draws his sword and demands that Guts duel for his freedom as he did three years prior. Unmoved by this antagonism, Guts draws his sword and clashes with Griffith, breaking the White Falcon's blade in a single swing and leaving his former leader kneeling in defeat. On the night of his departure, at his campfire, Guts was met by a Skull Knight, who warns of an 'Eclipse' set to take place in a year's time – 'A torrent of madness, a tempest of death for which the human body could never atone' – before vanishing into the night.

In search of a purpose of his own, Guts spends his time training in the mountains and frequenting the hut of a blacksmith named Godot. Eventually, he realizes that his sword is an extension of his passion for battle — more precisely, an extension of himself. He resolves to improve his skills with the blade and face increasingly stronger adversaries to further hone his craft. Roughly a year after his departure, Guts, now nineteen, enters a combat tournament hosted by a Midland noble. He offers to fight a foreigner named Silat, proposing he would provide the tourney winner with better competition, to which the man accepts. Evading the rapid strikes of his opponent, Guts overpowers Silat with relative ease and wins the bout. The amazed tournament host offers Guts a job while alluding to the Band of the Falcon's continued activity with Casca as their leader, much to Guts' surprise. Soon after, Guts tracks down the band's location and intervenes in an enemy raid led by Silat, defeating the foreigner once again and forcing him and his forces to withdraw. Guts is met with open arms and informed of Griffith's capture and year-long imprisonment, the band's newfound status as enemies of Midland, Casca's terrific leadership, and the plan to break Griffith free. Afterward, Casca takes Guts to a waterfall, where she expresses her anger over his decision to leave a year prior. Emotionally drained from her year-long leadership of the Band of the Falcon, she attempts to commit suicide by falling off a cliff, but Guts saves and embraces her, leading to the two making love.

Following Guts' return, a rescue team is formed to free Griffith. In three days, they infiltrate Wyndham through the sewers. With the aid of Princess Charlotte, the group makes their way to the ancient Tower of Rebirth, where Griffith is held. After a deep descent to the lowest prison cell beneath the tower, the party is appalled at the sight of a crippled, flayed Griffith — a shell of his former self. Overcome with emotion, Guts hugs his fallen comrade — unaware of Griffith's feeble attempt to choke him — before mercilessly killing the tower jailer responsible for Griffith's ravaged state. Fighting their way through a wave of alerted soldiers, the rescue team re-enters the sewers, thwarts an ambush by Bakiraka assassins sent to kill Griffith, and escapes Wyndham to a farm outside the city. En-route to the Midland border, the group realizes they are being pursued by the dreaded Black Dog Knights. Though their laid traps fail to deter the Dogs, the rescue team eventually rejoins another Band of the Falcon unit and combats their pursuers. Guts clashes with the Black Dogs' apostle leader, Wyald. Excited by his battle with the swordsman, Wyald transforms into his monstrous released form. After a fierce engagement, Guts temporarily incapacitates the beast. Wyald rises again, however, grabbing a defenseless Griffith in retaliation and dealing a critical blow to the band's morale by revealing the full extent of Griffith's grievous injuries. The dying, desperate apostle demands that Griffith summon the God Hand, but was dismayed to find that Griffith is no longer in possession of the Crimson Beherit. In an abrupt intervention, Zodd tore Wyald in two and told Griffith that his beherit will soon return to him before flying off.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Guts was shown to be a tall and muscular who stood 6'4 or even taller with short, spiked, black hair in a crew cut. By modern times, he was missing his left forearm and right eye due to his encounter with the God Hand along with suffered from scars all over his body with the most notable being a lacerated scar on his nose. He also gained a large, horizontal scar across his chest which he received at the hands of Slan of the God Hand in Qliphoth. After donning the Berserker Armor, the suit placed a great deal of stress on his body leading to a small white fringe forming in his hair. In addition, he had a brand placed on him as a sacrifice by the God Hand during the Eclipse with this located on the back right side of his neck with this attracting all sorts of demons and evil spirits to him at night. Typically, he was shown wearing black clothing and a cloak where he hunted Apostles with the use of his giant black sword leading to people referring to him as the Black Swordsman. During his life, he came to develop a number of epithets that included being known as the Branded Swordsman (烙印の剣士) and the Hundred Man Slayer (百人斬り).

Because he is just a normal human, the strength to carry, much less to use and wield a sword of such magnitude with finesse and dexterity makes Guts a grandmaster swordsman of no ordinary level and skill, which shows up in every battle or duels that he partakes, especially when he is engaged with demonic beings. He is also skillful at using many bladed weapons, has knowledge on how the mechanism of complicated firearms work and is also an excellent equestrian. Despite his large frame he is very fast, dexterous and agile for a human of his size and stature which can be seen when he is engaged in combat with multiple enemies.

Guts' ferocity, fury, aggressiveness, and strength do much to conceal the cunning person within him. He is very perceptive, quick witted, clever, and a skilled strategist, all of it goes hand in hand with his strength. These are major reasons of why he had survived the countless encounters that he so far had faced. A good example of his tactical prowess is his fight with the apostle Rosine. During the fight Guts was severely outnumbered by Rosine's demon elves but managed to kill them by lighting himself on fire when they got too close then quickly dousing himself by slicing open the cocoons that were in the process of turning more children into elves. Though not much of a talker, Guts is also shown to possess astute logical reasoning which can be seen in some of his conversations within the manga.

Considered by many as the pure personification of strength and will, Guts is a Byronic hero who is born as one who may be able to struggle against causality but who is unable to maintain it Indefinitely. The first story arc of the series revolves around his childhood and adolescence in a mercenary band after being adopted by the band's leader Gambino, and his later joining of, and departure from, the Band of the Hawk. It was said that he had always fought to survive even from his childhood.

The dynamic and turbulent relationship between Guts and Griffith, the leader of the Band of the Hawk, forms the primary focus of the manga for the first thirteen volumes. After the events of the Eclipse, during which he loses his left forearm and right eye, Guts seeks revenge on Griffith, who is now Femto. In the process, he is reunited with Casca after a separation of two years.

Following the Incarnation Ceremony at Albion, Guts came to travel with a new group of companions.

Guts can be seen as the exact opposite of Griffith in just about every way. Guts is a tall, muscular warrior with short black hair, a body full of scars and wields a monstrous weapon. Griffith is of average height, thin, has long white hair, no scars and wields an elegant sabre. Guts wears tattered black clothing and, though incredibly skilled, fights like a barbarian; winning by any means necessary. Griffith wears white armor and has a much more refined style resembling fencing. In addition they usually have the exact opposite effect on everyone they meet. Most people are naturally drawn to Griffith upon first meeting him and would die for him without hesitation. Guts however is usually feared and detested by just about everyone he comes across. This extends to their morals and intentions as well. Guts usually refrains from involving others in his plights whereas Griffith rarely dirties his own hands. Griffith freely manipulates others, caring only for his ultimate goal, while Guts (though he would never admit it) values the lives of others and strives to protect them.

Powers and abilities

Guts was an ordinary human being with no innate powers within him but instead relied on his incredible strength and physical resistance. From a young age, he went through extensive training to the point that his strength and endurance were described as not being human. He was able to wield massive 7' swords with incredible speed and with a single hand. Such was his endurance that he also was able to survive impacts that would normally kill a regular human being even with the protection of armor. In addition, he had incredible strength of will and resistance to pain with him cutting off his own arm in an effort to stop Griffith from raping Casca. Alongside his physical skills, Guts had learnt much from experience on the battlefield allowing him to come up with new strategies quickly and determine the best means of fighting an opponent.

From his youth, Guts had lived in a mercenary camp where he was forced to learn to use all forms of full-sized weapons. By adulthood, this when combined with his physical frame and strength meant that he was able to wield larger weapons and had a tendency to use large swords in battle. This meant he was skilled in a wide use of weapons which he used to aid him in battle. Guts tended to carry throwing knives, daggers and other smaller blades on his person. A further talent he used were miniature hand-held bombs that he could lit at a moments notice and throw them at a location to detonate. These were often used to surprise his opponents such as human foes not expecting such an attack or even have the explosive stagger an Ogre allowing him to deal a heavy blow with his sword.

After the Eclipse, Guts was provided a prosthetic left forearm designed to replace his lost limb which he had to sever during his encounter with the God Hand. The mechanical limb had magnets within It allowing him to grip onto weapons. Hidden in the hand was a cannon that he could fire to deal heavy damage to a target. In addition, a repeating crossbow was mounted on the arm where he could load ammunition into it and use a mechanism to rapidly fire arrows at targets.

Gut's primary weapon was a massive sword known as the Dragon Slayer that was a form of zweihänder or two-handed sword which stood 7' long and 12" wide at its base. The huge blade was more than an inch thick in the middle with this giving it incredible weight and power. Its strength made it ideal for slaying large monsters and in particular was able to deal injury to the Apostles of the God Hand. Any Apostle killed by it had their blood being retained by the blade making it more effective in time. Such was the strength that it could cause damage to the hard skin of Grunbeld in his dragon form. The cursed nature of the sword and the evils it had absorbed from the Apostles slain by it meant it was able to kill creatures of a spiritual non-corporeal nature and even deal injury to members of the God Hand.

He came to be the user of the Berserker Armor (狂戦士の甲冑 Kyō Senshi no Kacchū) that was the most powerful item in his position. This was a suit of ancient and cursed armour that had been crafted by Dwarves. Once worn, it caused the wearer to overcome their physical and mental limitations in battle. This caused him to ignore the pain experienced in his body allowing him to overcome his limits and fight above that of an ordinary human. However, this did not remove the damage experienced to his body as it only eliminated feeling the pain. As such, extended use of it can kill the wearer as it opened up wounds with the armor digging its spikes into the user. The spikes it protruded into the users body caused excess bleeding but also reinforced any broken bones allowing him to fight longer after sustaining heavy injuries against an opponent. In such a state, Guts began to succumb to the Beast of Darkness that resided in his body and threaten to take control of him. This caused him to became more feral and beastial where he went into a berserk state as he targeted both enemies and even allies. It only took magic that touched into Gut's mind that led to him re-asserting control over the armor. Upon first using the armor, the strain of its use caused Guts to lose his sense of taste, become slightly colourblind and the stress caused part of his hair to turn white.

At first, he came to operate as a lone mercenary until he was defeated by Griffith. This saw Guts being forced to join the original Band of the Hawk.

Notes

• Guts was created by Kentaro Miura and featured in the setting of the Berserk universe.
• In an interview in Le Figaro (2019), Kentaro commented that, "In short, starting from a world with a dark hero who is burning for revenge, prompts you to imagine a rabid character. When, guided by his anger, he will pour out this rage on overpowered enemies, we must insist on his fanaticism if you want to stay consistent. That’s why I thought "Berserk" would make a perfect title to represent my universe."

In other media

Television

• In Berserk, Guts appeared in the setting of the 1997 anime television series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Nobutoshi Canna and by English actor Marc Diraison in the dub.
• In Berserk, Guts appeared in the setting of the 2016 anime television series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Hiroaki Iwanaga and by English actor Kaiji Tang in the dub.

Video games

• In Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage, Guts appeared in the setting of the hack and slash action video game.

Appearances

• Berserk:

External Links

• Berserk Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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