Dragonslayer gets supersized in a striking Berserk cosplay.
Shared on Reddit, the costume recreates the Black Swordman’s armor and his prosthetic arm. While multiple knives and weapons can be spotted throughout the image, a gigantic version of Guts’ deadly sword dominates the picture. The prop easily dwarves the tall cosplayer.
The ongoing Berserk manga first appeared in the now-defunct Monthly Animal House magazine before it moved to Hakusensha’s Young Anime in 1992, where it remains to this day. After creator Kentaro Miura sadly and unexpectedly passed away in 2021, mangaka Kouji Mori stepped up to continue the series with the help of the artists at Studio Gaga. The story follows Guts as he travels the dark fantasy world, killing monstrosities and seeking revenge against his former friend and commander, Griffith.
Berserk’s Role as a Cultural Cornerstone
Berserk serves as a pivotal cornerstone of the fantasy genre and of the pop-cultural landscape as a whole. Not only has it inspired many other prominent manga series like Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama and Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura, but it has also impacted notable pieces of Western entertainment media. For example, Castlevania showrunner Adi Shankar and assistant director Adam Deats pointed to Miura’s masterpiece as an influence on Netflix’s original animated series.
As such, unsurprisingly, many fans and readers also make their own content for the series. Other than the Guts and Dragonslayer cosplay, a recent example includes a crossover piece of fan art that transports the colorful world of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away to the bleak world of Berserk. The illustration shows Chihiro confronted by a more terrifying version of No-Face, with Yubaba’s bathhouse looming in the background. The artist, who goes by the Reddit username BadFengShui, explained that they were inspired after seeing the stage play of the Studio Ghibli classic while also rereading Berserk. “Spirited Away doesn’t really go too hard on the horror angle, but boy could it have,” they stated in the post’s comments.
Similarly, a fan of both Berserk and The Legend of Zelda used one of the novel gameplay mechanics from Tears of the Kingdom to reimagine the manga’s notorious Eclipse sequence, crafting a simultaneously horrifying and hilarious instance of mash-up fan-made content. Another anime fan took inspiration from Vincent van Gogh’s well-known Starry Night painting. The final product sees a heavily-bandaged Guts looking out over a colorful night sky with Dragonslayer by his side.
Dark Horse Comics distributes the Berserk manga in North America.
Source: Reddit