Guts (Berserk)

Infobox animanga character
name = Guts
series = Berserk


caption = Guts by Kentaro Miura
first = Vol. 1 Chapter 1: The Black Swordsman
last =
creator = Kentaro Miura
voiced by = Anime (Japanese)
Nobutoshi Hayashi
Anime (English)
Marc Diraison
Sword of the Berserk (English)
Michael Bell
oaux* name =
oaux* =
nickname =
alias = Hundred Man Slayer
Branded Swordsman
Black Swordsman
age = 0 → 19 (Golden Age)
20 (Black Swordsman)
21 (Conviction/Hawk of the Millennium Empire)
gender = Male
species = Human
born =
death =
nationality =
class =
occupation = Mercenary
title =
relatives = Mother "(deceased)"
Shizu "(adoptive mother, deceased)"
Gambino "(adoptive father, deceased)"
Unnamed child
paux1 name = Affiliations
paux1 = Band of the Hawk "(raid leader)"
divider =
aux* name =
aux* =

nihongo|Guts|ガッツ|Gattsu is a fictional character of the anime and manga franchise "Berserk" by mangaka Kentaro Miura. He is the main protagonist of the story.

Role

Guts 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 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 travels 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 rapier. 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.

Characteristics

Guts is depicted as a tall, muscular man, standing from 6'5 or even taller with short, spiked, black hair. He is missing his left forearm and right eye due to an encounter with the Godhand and is covered head-to-toe in scars, with the most notable being a lacerated scar on his nose. After receiving the Berserker Armor, Guts receives a small fringe of white on his hair, presumably due to the stress brought on from wielding the armor. Guts' tendency to wear black clothing while hunting the Apostles gained him the nickname 'The Black Swordsman.' Aside of all this, Guts has a brand on the back of his neck that attracts demons and evil spirits to him at night, as a result of the Eclipse.

Guts' original design, featured in the Berserk Prototype, had him wearing an eye patch.

Considering the fact that he is just a normal human, Guts is considered a grandmaster swordsman of no ordinary level and skill which shows up in every battle or duels that he partakes. He is also good at using many weapons, has knowledge on how the mechanism of complicated firearms work and is also a skilled horse rider. Despite his large frame he is very fast, dexterous and agile 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, which goes hand in hand with his strength, is one of the major reasons of how he had survived the countless encounters that he so far had faced. 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.

Though a rumor, it is also known that Guts is not bound by destiny and fate. Everything in life has a destiny and Gut's destiny was to die young, underneath his mom's hanging body, but he did not die. This so far theorized that Guts fate and destiny is within his control and him and only him can change it.

Equipment

As a youth, Guts lived in a mercenary camp where he was forced to learn to use full sized weapons. This and his natural physical size and strength enabled him to wield larger weapons than most. Throughout the Golden Age arc, he primarily uses a variety of large swords, along with various other weapons when necessary.

In the (chronologically) later arcs, Guts wields the "Dragon Slayer", a zweihänder or 2 handed sword about 7' long and 12" wide at its base. It is more than an inch thick at the middle of the blade, giving it incredible weight and power. 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. Guts' left forearm is prosthetic with a magnet to help grip weapons, 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. Guts 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, Guts's 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 harm the members of the God Hand.

One of Guts' most powerful assets is the "Berserker Armor", an ancient, cursed suit of armor 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). The Armor has deadly effects on its user. After using the armor once, Guts lost some of his sense of taste and became slightly colorblind, among other things. It can pierce his flesh to reinforce broken bones, enabling him to continue fighting long after his body is broken to the point of exsanguination.