Gats, known as the Black Swordsman, seeks sanctuary from the demonic forces attracted to him and his woman because of a demonic mark on their necks, and also vengeance against the man who branded him as an unholy sacrifice. Aided only by his titanic strength gained from a harsh childhood lived with mercenaries, a gigantic sword, and an iron prosthetic left hand, Gats must struggle against his bleak destiny, all the while fighting with a rage that might strip him of his humanity. Warning: This manga is for mature audiences only, since it has sexual content and graphic violence (gore, blood, rape, etc). Definitely not for the weak hearted.

	Gats is the primary protagonist of the story. He is a tall, muscular man who wields the Dragon Slayer, a zweihander or 2 handed sword about 7' long and 12" wide at its base. Described in the manga as more of a table-sized slab of iron than a blade, the Dragon Slayer's massive size makes it the ideal weapon for slaying apostles of the God Hand. Gats' left hand is prosthetic, a replacement for the one he lost when Griffith attempted to sacrifice him to the forces of hell; it folds back to expose a hidden cannon within the wrist. Gats also carries throwing knives, miniature bombs, a dagger, and even a repeating crossbow that can be mounted onto his prosthetic arm. While not innately magical, Gats’ sword, the Dragon Slayer, was recently shown to have become a cursed blade after killing so many Apostles; enabling it to kill creatures of a non-corporeal nature and even the members of the God Hand. Gats is a Byronic hero; he is born as one who may be able to struggle against causality but who is unable to maintain it indefinitely. The second 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. The dynamic and turbulent relationship between Gats 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, Gats 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, Gats travels with a new group of companions. He currently possesses the Berserker's Armour, an ancient, cursed suit of armour that allows the wearer to overcome his physical and mental limitations in combat but at the cost of damaging his already-weakened body and allowing his inner Beast, a feral dog-like creature, to take over and endanger everyone in the vicinity, friend or foe (hence, berserk).
	Griffith is the main antagonist of the series. He was the founder and leader of the mercenary unit known as the Band of the Hawk, named for his helmet which was forged in the shape of a Hawk's head. Extraordinarily charismatic, intelligent, and handsome, his skill with his sabre and tactics gives him and his band the reputation of invincibility, making him the favoured choice of the Midland King, who was locked in a century long war with the Empire of Chudor. Believing that he is destined for greater things than the average man, Griffith is willing to sacrifice everything for the dream of his own kingdom and only values others so far as they are useful to him. The one exception seems to be Gats and Casca, both of whom he confides to in private moments. The source of his ambition is a Behelit given to him by a fortune teller she claimed was "The Egg of the King," which could lead an average person to becoming King himself. After he won the war for Midland, he discovered Gats' intention to leave the Band of the Hawk. Intending to stop him from leaving or kill him altogether, Griffith decides to battle Gats a second time. However, he was instantly defeated when Gats broke his rapier, leaving him in disbelief and in turn crushing Griffith's morale. Later that night, Griffith went to Princess Charlotte's room and slept with her. The affair was discovered by a maid and later the Midland King, after which Griffith, unable to defend himself without his sword, was captured by the king's guard. The king ordered that Griffith be imprisoned and tortured but kept alive. A year later, Griffith was rescued by Casca, Gats, Judeau, and Pippin, but he had already been physically crippled and mentally broken. After Wyald's attack and the further realization of his current state, Griffith attempts to flee the Hawks' camp, crashing his carriage into a lake. Gats comes to his aid, despite Griffith's unheard plea for him to stay away. The crimson Behelit is triggered, and Griffith and the pursuing Hawks are drawn into another dimension where they are greeted by the demons known as the God Hand. They declare that Griffith has the opportunity to become one of them, but only if he sacrifices the Hawks who followed him to the lake. Convinced by Ubik that dying would invalidate all that he had done and that a few more corpses wouldn't matter considering all the enemies he had killed and strolled over in search of his kingdom, he agrees to the God Hand's terms and is given a new body with black hawk armour, clawed feet, and a wing-like cape. Renamed Femto by the Idea of Evil, his first action is to viciously rape Casca in front of Gats; both of whom are rescued by the Skull Knight before they can be killed. Two years later, the Incarnation Ceremony occurs at Albion, an event that happens once every thousand years, allowing a being from another dimension to be reborn into a human body. At the end of the ceremony, Griffith is reconstituted into his original form but given the gift of supernatural charisma in addition to other as yet to be specified powers. He now leads a newly formed Band of the Hawk and is still in pursuit of his dream to obtain a kingdom. This band's strongest members are a group of Apostles who view him as their god in addition to humans that are drawn to him as the original Hawks were. Griffith recently fended off an attack by invading Kushans at the city of Vritannis. Afterwards, Charlotte, elevated to the status of queen by the death of her father, acknowledged the Band of the Hawk as the official army of Midland. He has taken the Princess Charlotte as his fiance again effectively putting him in a high position of power within the government.
	Casca was the only female soldier in the original Band of the Hawk and is behind only Griffith and Gats in swordsmanship. Her ambivalent relationship to both of them makes her moody and capricious. Casca joins the Band of the Hawk after Griffith empowers her to save herself from a sexual assault by a nobleman. After Griffith is imprisoned; she becomes the leader of the Band of the Hawk, proving useful in fending off the constant assaults issued by the Midland King. After Gats return and the strengthening of their relationship together (which culminates in the two spending the night with each other), they embark on a rescue mission to recover Griffith. However, after the trauma of the Eclipse, especially her rape at Femto's hands, Casca has seemingly lost her memory and speaking abilities. In addition to being Gats’ lover, she also gave birth to their child, which had become tainted during Femto's rape becoming a misshapen fetus. This child seems to track down his parents till his apparent death he protects his mother a couple of times from other creatures of the night. During her travel with Gats, the strain of watching over her in her state and fighting against malicious spirits for nights on end drove Gats to succumb to his inner beast and possibly rapes her (he experiences a vision of raping, biting, and killing her, and subsequently realizes that at least the biting actually occurred). Consequently, she now detests Gats and has found comfort in the only adult female travelling with them: Farnese. As Casca travels completely oblivious to her surroundings, Gats and company keep a close watch over her. She has put herself in grave danger many times but Gats' group has yet to fail to come to her rescue and protect her. She seems to slowly be warming up to Gats again even coming to his side when he is unconscious to watch him. Casca's well being is the driving force for Gats to keep himself from reverting back to a revenge-obsessed wanderer. While outside Vritanis, the Skull Knight revealed that her mental state may be cured at their final destination, Elfhelm, by the King of the Flower Storm. It should be noted during the ending events of the non-canon Dreamcast game, Casca briefly regained her sanity due to her ordeal with the mandragora. She remembers Gats and the love they had prior to the Eclipse.

REVIEW

Anime: This is my review for the Berserk Anime.

Manga: This is my review for the Berserk Manga.

Berserk Manga AMV	Berserk - My Last Breath
Berserk: The Fight Song	Dead Berserk
Berserk: Sweet Dreams

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