10 Disturbing Berserk Moments That Still Haunt Fans

Berserk is a famously dark and impactful manga and anime series, widely considered a cornerstone of its genre. Created by Kentaro Miura, it’s a gritty medieval fantasy filled with intense battles, shocking betrayals, and psychological horror. The story centers on Guts, a mercenary driven by a quest for revenge against his former comrade, Griffith. Through Guts’s journey, Berserk delves into themes of trauma, the will to survive, and the complex nature of humanity – both its capacity for cruelty and its incredible resilience.

Fans love Berserk for its brutally honest and emotionally powerful storytelling. Over the last three decades, the series has become known for scenes that are deeply disturbing and unforgettable. These pivotal moments dramatically shaped the characters of Guts, Casca, and Griffith, and are considered some of the most haunting in manga and anime.

Wyald’s Reign of Terror Showed Apostle Cruelty at Its Worst

Wyald commanded the Black Dog Knights, a ruthless group composed of convicted criminals, including murderers and rapists. The King of Midland tasked him with hunting down the Band of the Hawk, and during this pursuit, Wyald committed horrific acts – he crucified villagers, sexually assaulted women, and publicly displayed their bodies as trophies. The manga Berserk later revealed Wyald to be an Apostle, a demonic being with a terrifying, monstrous ape-like true form. Before the Eclipse, Guts faced Wyald in a major, climactic battle.

Wyald embodied the absolute worst of human nature, especially when empowered by demons. In Berserk, his terrible actions hinted at the even greater horrors to come during the Eclipse. While anime versions often shortened his scenes, creator Kentaro Miura used him in the manga to showcase pure evil, deliberately avoiding any sympathetic backstory. Ultimately, Nosferatu Zodd killed Wyald for exposing the existence of the Apostles.

When Guts Entered the World Through Death Itself

Wow, Berserk really grabs you from the very beginning! It starts with Guts’ birth, and it’s…intense. Seriously, it’s a deeply unsettling scene that instantly tells you this story isn’t going to be easy. He’s literally born into tragedy – his mother dies and he ends up falling from her body into a pool of blood. Found by a group of mercenaries, he’s taken in by Shisu, Gambino’s lover, even though everyone else thinks he’s cursed. That incredibly dark origin story immediately establishes Guts as someone who’s a survivor, and it perfectly explains why he faces life’s hardships with such a determined, almost grim, attitude.

Many fans consider the beginning of Berserk to be a core statement of the entire series. It hints at the dark and difficult life Guts will lead, born into tragedy and constantly surrounded by pain. This early trauma deeply affects Guts throughout the story, and author Kentaro Miura uses it to establish the series’ bleak and pessimistic atmosphere right from the start.

The Lost Children Arc Featured Child Apostles

I still get chills thinking about the Apostle Rosine and what she did – she turned kidnapped kids into these twisted, elf-like creatures, and they were just… terrifying. They weren’t playing games with toys, either; they were literally using human corpses as playthings and terrorizing villages. It was awful. To get to Rosine and stop her, Guts had to fight and kill dozens of these transformed children, and the villagers, seeing only that, labeled him the Black Swordsman. Honestly, that whole arc really pushed Berserk and Guts into this incredibly dark, morally ambiguous space. He was forced to do something horrific to stop an even greater evil, and it changed everything. It wasn’t about simple good versus evil anymore.

The Lost Children Arc upset many viewers due to its depiction of violence involving children. It also showed how Guts was becoming known as a terrifying figure to ordinary people. The story of Rosine mirrored aspects of Guts’ past, and the arc as a whole didn’t offer simple solutions to complex problems.

Guts Lost an Eye & an Arm During the Eclipse

During the devastating Eclipse, an Apostle destroyed Guts’ right eye and the Band of the Hawk was decimated. After Griffith’s transformation into Femto and the horrific assault on Casca, Guts, in a desperate attempt to reach her, severed his own left arm with a shattered sword. Despite his efforts, he couldn’t save Casca and collapsed, bleeding, as she was attacked. Fortunately, the Skull Knight arrived just in time to save them both from certain death.

The brutal scene of Guts losing an eye and arm highlighted his incredible willpower and how far he was willing to go. These injuries became defining characteristics of the character, and the series Berserk cleverly incorporated a hidden weapon within his prosthetic arm. Creator Kentaro Miura used this lasting physical trauma to constantly remind both Guts and the audience of the horrific Eclipse event and the motivations driving Guts’ journey.

When Gambino Tried to Muder His Adoptive Son

I witnessed a terrible series of events involving Guts. Gambino, a man I knew, held Guts responsible for the death of Shisu during an outbreak of the plague, and he’d always seen Guts as unlucky because of where he came from. Adding to that, Gambino lost his leg in battle and somehow blamed Guts for that too. One night, fueled by alcohol, he attacked young Guts – who was only eleven at the time – with a sword. Guts defended himself and killed Gambino, but instead of understanding, the mercenaries Gambino and Guts had grown up with banished Guts to the wilderness. They considered it the killing of a father figure, and just left him completely on his own at eleven years old.

Gambino’s betrayal deeply wounded Guts, becoming the foundation for his lifelong fear of abandonment by those he trusted. The creator of Berserk, Kentaro Miura, used this event to establish a recurring theme: every subsequent betrayal Guts experienced echoed the pain of Gambino’s actions. Consequently, Guts’ inability to fully trust others stems directly from what Gambino did.

The Beast of Darkness Nearly Made Guts Attack Casca

The Beast of Darkness is a manifestation of Guts’ deep-seated anger and past trauma. In the manga Berserk, this darkness takes the form of a wolf-like creature within his mind, pushing him to harm the defenseless Casca, who was suffering from amnesia. During a severe PTSD episode, Guts attacked Casca, nearly losing control and becoming the kind of monster he had been fighting against.

The appearance of the Beast of Darkness shocked readers who were supporting Guts. However, creator Kentaro Miura used this moment to explore how trauma can cause people to repeat harmful patterns. Berserk deliberately avoided making Guts a straightforward hero, and the Beast became a key part of his complex journey.

Griffith Endured a Year of Unimaginable Torture

Midland’s king threw Griffith in prison after he seduced Princess Charlotte. For a year, Griffith was held and brutally tortured in the Tower of Rebirth. His captors crippled him by cutting his tendons, stripping his skin, and silencing him by removing his tongue. This left Griffith a broken, barely living skeleton. When the Band of the Hawk finally found him, as shown in Berserk, Griffith was unable to walk, talk, fight, or command his troops.

Griffith’s horrific ordeal stripped him of his defining traits – his good looks, drive, and captivating personality. The manga Berserk used his intense suffering to offer an explanation – though not an excuse – for his actions later on. It was his overwhelming despair at losing everything that led him to the Crimson Behelit and the Eclipse. Through this, creator Kentaro Miura portrayed a shattered man who would ultimately transform into the demon Femto.

Donovan’s Assault Scarred Guts for Life

Gambino, believing Guts was responsible for both Shisu’s death from the plague and an injury of his own, sold Guts to a soldier named Donovan for a mere three coins. That night, Donovan brutally assaulted the nine-year-old Guts in his tent. This deeply disturbing event is portrayed with explicit detail in the Berserk manga, and its graphic nature led many anime adaptations to either heavily censor or completely omit the scene.

Fans of the manga Berserk will remember Donovan’s attack as a particularly impactful moment. Creator Kentaro Miura used this scene to deeply explore why Guts avoids physical contact, presenting it as a crucial part of the story and not just a shocking event. Guts’ difficulty with intimacy is a direct result of this assault. Later, Guts did manage to get his revenge, killing Donovan with his crossbow during combat.

The Eclipse Massacre Killed the Entire Band of the Hawk

Driven to desperation, Griffith used the Crimson Behelit to call upon the God Hand. They offered him the power of a god, but at a terrible cost: the lives of his closest friends. After a year of suffering, Griffith, broken and defeated, simply stated, “I sacrifice.” Immediately, demonic Apostles flooded the space around them, consuming every member of the Band of the Hawk.

The Eclipse remains the most shocking and heartbreaking event in the history of Berserk. In a single, devastating scene, nearly 300 characters – both major and minor – were killed. Creator Kentaro Miura had spent years developing readers’ connections to characters like Judeau, Pippin, Corkus, and Gaston, only to have them all tragically killed as sacrifices, leaving Guts and Casca to witness the horror. The Eclipse fundamentally shifted Berserk from a dark fantasy into a true tragedy, and fans still mourn the original members of the Band of the Hawk.

Femto’s Assault of Casca Broke Two Characters Permanently

In the manga Berserk, Griffith brutally sexually assaulted Casca while Guts was helplessly held back. The scene was depicted with graphic detail, showing Guts even cutting off his own arm in a desperate attempt to save her. Though the Skull Knight intervened and saved them from the Eclipse, the trauma of the attack caused Casca to suffer a permanent mental breakdown.

Watching Berserk, the scene where Casca is assaulted is incredibly difficult, and it’s sparked a lot of debate among fans. Some feel it was unnecessarily graphic, while others believe Kentaro Miura handled Casca’s resulting trauma with a seriousness rarely seen in manga. It’s not just a single event; Casca deals with severe memory loss for a huge portion of the story, and Guts’ burning hatred for Griffith is directly tied to what happened to her. It really shapes the entire narrative.

2026-02-06 05:51