Berserk: 10 funniest moments

Berserk may be famous for its dark tones and violence, but fans know the series also contains some of the funniest moments in all manga – so, here’s the 10 best ones.

Any Berserk fan knows that there isn’t much to laugh about in the series, with horrific trauma-inducing violence and tragedy being the base tone of any given day.

Still, we keep reading to see what happens next to Guts and the gang and where their journey takes them, now more than ever since the death of Berserk author Kentaro Miura.

Comedy in manga rarely translates well and relies on pictures more than text, but when it does, it can sometimes be the funniest thing you’ll ever read and ask anyone; they’d recommend reading Berserk over watching any anime adaptation, at least the first time around. So today, we’re ranking our picks for the funniest moments in Berserk. Yes, believe it or not, they exist.

Spoilers for Berserk ahead!

10 funniest moments in Berserk

Berserk has the advantage of having long story arcs where comedy can seriously support the story from going too dark in places without taking away from the drama or action within the scene; it’s terribly well-balanced in terms of story tone.

10. Golden Age gags

Before the awful Eclipse and Griffith’s betrayal was the Golden Age arc, the adventures of the rising Band of the Hawk related a lot to young people looking to belong and give their all to a cause they believe in. Though they’re forced into adulthood by battle, we tend to forget that the band is still very young compared to most knights.

Casca often feels like she has a lot to prove, so dishing it out whenever a young and dumb Guts makes a rude, offhand comment always results in a laugh at his expense during the most serious of moments, even during the daring Griffith rescue mission. Casca and Guts have built their relationship by now, and Casca knows she just has to put up with him at this point.

9. Guts gains a fan, denies his fame

A good way into their journey, Isidro reveals his idol is the mysterious captain of the Band of the Hawk’s raider party, and he hopes to become as strong as he is, little to his knowledge that Guts is right there casually playing down his incredible feats of combat that saved lives and secured victories. Exaggerated? Yes, but it’s not inaccurate.

We, and most likely Guts, would never have thought his old life in the Band of the Hawk would have any lasting outside effect where someone would know about him, especially someone as young as Isidoro. Guts isn’t someone who lives in the past nor boasts about his strength, so him trying not to call attention to it by directly looking at the viewer is hilarious.

8. “What’s with your face?”

In true Berserk fashion, one of the funniest moments comes during an extremely dramatic time, including over-the-top gory violence. The visuals versus the dialogue – “What’s with your face?” with the straight-faced look back of “it’s happening to you too, don’t pin this solely on me” – make this a very human moment in an inhuman scene.

For context, Kushan Emperor Ganishka transforms himself into an incomprehensive giant monster to take on Griffith. This causes fog to flow into the kingdom and melts anything it comes into contact with. Leading to this brief, hilarious moment between the two guards before they disintegrated.

7. The pirates of the boat arc

Any Berserk fan could tell you about the infamous “boat arc,” where the gang was stuck on a boat for what felt like a decade. The one solace at the time was these pirates who followed the group to sea, who were about as serious as pirates in Berserk could be reappearing, causing trouble whenever they showed up.

You’d expect cutthroats, looters, and murderers; instead, we get a gang of barely functional sailors blissfully unaware of the severity of their situation. One scene that sticks out to us is whenever the pirate crew goes to attack the heroes head-on and gets stomped in a one-sided battle, all while just complaining about the situation.

6. The Tapasa try to blend in

While undercover in Falconia, Silat and his Tapasa bodyguard join forces with Rickert, and both plan a daring escape from Griffith after being targeted by his troops. This means the Tapasa need to encourage stealth despite their powerful builds more designed for one-on-one combat.

The menacing Tapasa don’t hold the friendliest of faces, so when they try to make a good impression with Rickert’s friend Erica, it goes about as well as you expect a small girl seeing musclebound brutes attempting to smile for the first time in their lives. It’s okay, Erica, they mean well!

5. Puck rescues Guts from Farnese

Guts is injured and captured by Farnese’s forces. Casca is still missing, and he’s pulled away from his sword. Sat in a cage all chained up, he thinks, “How can this situation get any worse?” and in comes Puck, taking advantage of the situation to get his way for once. Guts doesn’t treat Puck very well, so wanting some respect and wringing a “Please” and “Thank you” out of Guts is a bit of hilarious justice.

Puck carries a lot of tone-setting weight after the Golden Age; his shenanigans feel out of place until we get used to his curious and sassy presence. Despite the situation, things can only get better, and it all starts with a little Elf getting cocky with his walking, giant sword-swinging caravan.

4. Schierke’s “research” in Casca’s mind

Schierke and Farnese travel inside Casca’s soul in hopes of recovering her mind; this means reliving many moments from her life, mostly from her point of view. This includes Casca’s sexual relationship with Guts before losing her memory to the intrigue of Schierke; as you can imagine, we’ve cut the page down to the panel.

If there’s one scene we wouldn’t imagine much comedy, it’s the journey into Casca’s mind, so we did not imagine a scene of Farnese being sensible and Schierke pulling out the classic “for research purposes” excuse. Much like Schierke would, we swear this scene is vital to the story. I wouldn’t want to see her browser history.

3. The many faces of Puck

When we meet Puck, he is a small, lighthearted Elf with healing powers who helps Guts and gives him a much-needed “conscience” during the Black Swordsman arc. His role maintains as the story continues, keeping the tone from getting too dark until Guts’ small groups get bigger and bigger, and Puck maintains a side role as much-needed comic relief.

Puck appears more in his chestnut comical form than his actual appearance, more often than not, only going back to his normal during serious situations. Puck whips out jokes, breaks the fourth wall, and pulls off the most out-of-place references, often Yoda from Star Wars treating Isidoro as his Padawan, purely to break the tension, and it works.

2. Guts yeeting Isidoro

Never meet your heroes, kids, because they’ll throw you comically down a hill. On his way to rescue Casca in the Tower of Conviction arc, Guts encounters Isidoro, a youngster following him around. They’re attacked by some demons, and Guts casually tosses Isidoro down a hill away from the fight to safety.

The little moment of Guts and Puck just watching him roll down the hill before going back to fighting with a dramatic cape twirl sends us. Guts sees a lot of himself in Isidoro, a snarky kid who doesn’t want to follow anyone but wants to get stronger. Like most of us, if we saw how we used to act, we would throw our younger selves down a hill, too.

1. The 1997 Berserk anime outtakes

While the 1997 Berserk anime is understandably censored, it’s still widely regarded as the best-animated adaptation Berserk has received. Behind the series is a great voice cast who gives us all a great laugh with their vocal mishaps and jokes in Berserk ’97’s outtake reel. While this may not count as an in-universe joke, we cannot deny how funny these outtakes are.

Big voice acting names behind it include the voice of Goku, Sean Shemmel, and Dr. Eggman’s Mike Pollock. It’s good to see the cast had such a fun time recording such a dark and dramatic anime. Where else would you find Griffith, the most hated anime character, singing about how easy he is in bed and Guts having a philosophical meltdown in the heart of battle?

Those are our picks for the funniest moments in Berserk. While Berserk is still ongoing, here are some anime you can watch from start to finish right now. If you want to keep the funnies going, check out our picks of the funniest moments in One Piece, or if fighting is more your style, check our rankings of the strongest characters in Dragon Ball Z.