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The story behind Guts' absurdly huge sword in Berserk is surprisingly specific

Before he had his giant sword in Berserk, Guts had multiple designs.

Berserk Sword In Rain — Image credit: Dark Horse

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Wed Aug 12 2026

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The story behind Guts' absurdly huge sword in Berserk is surprisingly specific

One of the first things that anyone notices when picking up a copy of Berserk is Guts’ sword. We know that Kentaro Miura wanted to give his protagonist something distinctive to help him stand out among other manga characters, but there were two specific sources that influenced that giant sword: Shinji Wada’s Pygmalio manga, and the other comes from Kaoru Kurimoto’s Guin Saga novel series. Before he settled on the image of Guts we all know and love, Kentaro Miura went through multiple versions of the character.

During an interview, Kentaro Miura was asked about where the inspiration for Guts’ inhumanly large sword came from. The interviewer suspects it came from Go Nagai’s Violence Jack manga series, but Miura had two other influences in mind. “That comes from Shinji Wada’s Pygmalio. Also, I think it was in the Guin Saga spin-off The Snow Queen, there was this illustration of a two- or three-meter-tall giant wielding a sword,” Miura explains. “Guts’ 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.”

Meanwhile, it wasn’t easy to settle on one specific design for the main character of Berserk. “I couldn’t make up my mind for a while, though, and Guts’ design went through quite a bit of change — long hair, wielding a katana, etc. After agonizing over it for a while, I ended up with what he is now, and I felt like I really nailed it. All I had to do was somehow capture the swinging around of that sword and that pleasingness of it. I probably don’t know what I’m talking about given that I’ve only created the story for one manga, but when you do manage to hit upon that crucial something before you start, I feel like it works out.”

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included...