The story of Guts is once again hitting the anime world as Studio Eclypse is remaking Berserk with the title Berserk: The Black Swordsman. Fans of Kentaro Miura and Guts are ready to follow the adventures of The Black Swordsman Party as they once again tackle the dangers of their world while accomplishing their individual goals.
Berserk is one of the best stories of all time. And although the creator of the series is no longer with us, his work and his legacy are being taken forward by his best friend Kouji Mori, along with Studio Gaga. However, many people don’t know this, but Berserk is inspired by different mangas that are also quite popular in the industry.
Mangaka Miura once came clean about the stories that inspired him to create Berserk and how these works had taken a place in his mind as a standard to measure his own work against them. Not only that but even Guts’ iconic sword, The Dragon Slayer, was also inspired by other projects.
Different Manga Series That Inspired the Disturbing Arcs of Berserk
In 2002, Miura was interviewed by Yukari Fujimoto, and this interview was translated by Manga Brog. During the interview, the manga creator was asked about the different scenes from the series and how they looked similar to the popular manga series Violence Jack and Guin Saga. Miura confessed that these manga series inspired him a lot.
Miura stated:
I was a manga reader. There are things that I’ve consciously borrowed from, but there are also things that have sunk to the bottom of my consciousness and pop up out of nowhere later. They’ve become part of me.
Talking about the Violence Jack and Guin Saga, the Berserk mangaka stated:
Violence Jack and Guin Saga are things I was obviously really into, and I do think that Guin Saga was the biggest source for this fantasy universe. That atmosphere it has just stuck with me and now I think of it as the standard to measure things against, so I suppose you’re right.
According to Miura, Violence Jack and the Guin Saga were some of his favorite manga series, and they had taken a place in his consciousness. This is why whenever he created a plotline or a narrative for Berserk, he would compare it with these two manga series, thus making them look similar.
Kentaro Miura’s Inspiration Behind Guts’ Dragon Slayer
Kentaro Miura continued talking about the inspiration behind Berserk, and he also revealed that Guts’ sword came from Pygmalio by Shinji Wada and the Guin Saga’s spin-off series, The Snow Queen. Miura stated that the sword was the perfect representation of Guts’ personality, somehow carryable, and liked by the audience.
Miura stated:
That comes from Shinji Wada’s Pygmalio. Also, I think it was in the Guin Saga spin-off The Snow Queen that there was this illustration of a two- or three-meter-tall giant wielding a sword. Guts’s sword is a cross between those two. It’s just the right size to be still somehow carryable, while giving that close-to-the-action feeling of violent men’s manga.
Miura also confessed that he initially had a lot of trouble while working on Guts’ physical attributes as he could not lock on one design.
However, after a lot of changes, he finally landed on the current design with the Dragon Slayer, and the readers are now fans of Guts and his extremely dangerous sword.
You can read the Berserk manga on Dark Horse.
