So recently I've re-read through some Berserk chapters again, to really take time and appreciate all the effort that Miura put into his craft. Each panel is heavily detailed, yet still readable despite being only black and white. The pages are arranged perfectly to give a fluid sense of motion; especially important for the iconic two-page spread of Guts cleaving through dozens of enemies.
Aside from gushing about the art, Berserk contains as much worth in it's story and characters. There are many essays and videos analyzing the themes and comparing them to philosophical concepts. . To honor Miura, I'll try to make on own assessment on Berserk. I'm a bit of a dumb-dumb when it comes to philosophy, but I can interpret the themes from my own perspective
Asian Guts?
I feel that Miura put a lot of himself into Guts as a character. Guts has survived countless conflicts by using his absurd strength and talent as a swordsman. Through Guts' whole life he had a sword in his hand; perhaps how Miura felt about his pen as an artist.
Guts learned from the blacksmith Godo how "sparks" can make experts slaves to their craft, be it smithing, fighting, or drawing. Miura started creating manga at the age of 10, and was already acknowledged by a professional mangaka at the age of 18 while working as an assistant. His incredible passion and talent made him work tirelessly on his craft; which makes me think of Guts' sleepless nights after being branded.
I think Miura had subconsciously (or intentionally) inserted his own appearance, or at least an idealized version of himself into portraying Guts. Although Berserk is set in a heavily European-inspired setting, I find Guts is drawn with more Asian features. The most obvious are his spiky black hair, dark eyes, lack of facial hair, and overall anime appearance. Contrast this to how Miura draws all the nameless commoners: typically with facial hair, light eyes/hair, and overall more defined Caucasian features.
Miura took inspiration from Fist of the North Star's Kenshiro who was a Japanese character with appearance and traits inspired by Bruce Lee. Thus, Guts' appearance has a direction connection to a real-life Asian legend.
Guts also looked the most Asian in the trilogy of movies covering the Golden Age. His general appearance (skin tone, eye shape, hair color) and him speaking Japanese (in the Japanese dub obviously) made it seem a lot more feasible.
In Berserk, we 're never told anything about Guts' parents or ancestral; he was found as a newborn underneath a tree of hanged people. This was left as an intentionally ambiguous and coincidental incident (causality?). The fantasy story is centered around Midland and neighboring countries, which is agreed to be equivalent to Europe. To the East is the Kushan Empire, whose people are inspired by Indian and Middle Eastern cultures. Further East there would certainly be an Asian-inspired country. Through some circumstances, people from an Asian-inspired country could've migrated over or taken prisoner in Midland, and eventually hanged. The earlier chapters had ethnic diversity in the mercenary groups, where we saw obviously Asian (Pippin) and African (Donovan) characters.
Miura has mentioned taking inspiration from the Dutch actor Rutger Hauer. From the translated interviews, he may have meant inspiration from his character's clothing and portrayal as a mercenary. It'd make more sense for him to have drawn inspiration from Evil Dead's Ash William, portrayed by Bruce Campbell, who definitely has the eyes, hair, and jawline to inspire Guts. Both characters fight demons and have a metal arm. Apparently Miura only noticed the similarities afterwards and was worried about getting sued!
The race and ethnicity of anime characters are a common debate. Anime characters are drawn simplistic, which allows readers to subconsciously fill in details with their own bias. Many mangaka draw inspiration from Western influences for their story and characters. The majority of anime characters have fair skin and colorful hair, which leads to ambiguity between Asian or Caucasian. I'd say the story's context is the biggest indicator, i.e. if the story set is Japan, Europe, or any location inspired by a real culture. Even then, the fictional characters can't exist exactly as they do in real-life.
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