Berserk: Here’s How Old Guts Is

Guts is a powerful warrior from the Berserk series, and one of the most fascinating characters in the last decades. His journey was marked by many tragedies, which became a norm in the Midlands. The mercenary group of Band of Falcons went through a lot in their lives, and their demise happened when their leader Griffith decided to save himself and became a member of God Hand, by sacrificing his closest allies. Only Guts and Casca survived, and the former began his journey of revenge – killing Griffith/Femto, and avenging his fallen comrades. In this article, we will discuss Guts’ age during these events.

Guts’ age throughout the Berserk series

When a story is running for as long as Berserk is, it has to have a certain timeline for different stories and arcs to keep everything together. Berserk is a manga series that was released at the end of the 1980s, and since then, it has built a remarkable world of the Midlands that closely reminds us of the dark medieval times of Europe. The fantasy aspect of the series is extremely well implemented in the story, and characters like Guts and Griffith set the standards on how problematic and flawed characters should be written in the fictional media.

The lore, aesthetics, and immersion have an enormous impact on Berserk worldbuilding, but one aspect of the characterization is also really important and gets overlooked sometimes – the age of the characters.

Now, Berserk doesn’t necessarily put an emphasis on the age of the characters that much, but it plays with its timeline really well. For example, Miura didn’t go with the traditional chronological, by-the-book timeline. Berserk writer used the “in medias res” narration technique that puts the reader in the middle of the plot. In this case, The Black Swordsman arc is set after the happenings of the Eclipse, where young Guts and Casca were the only survivors of the tragic event.

This technique is closely connected to the characters’ ages, in particular Guts’, who is at the center of the story. The Golden Age arc in the series reveals Guts’ backstory, which is extremely disturbing. In the table below, we will present you with Guts’ known age during the Golden Age arc:

• At three years of age, Guts’ surrogate mother dies of plague,
• At six, Gambino, Guts’ carer, teaches Guts swordsmanship,
• At nine, Guts joins Gambino’s mercenary group and is sexually abused by Donovan,
• At eleven, Guts kills Gambino in self-defense after his father figure tries to kill him,
• At fourteen, Guts is imprisoned but was saved by an elf named Chich,
• At fifteen, Guts defeats Basuzo, a powerful slayer, and is recruited by Griffith and his Band of Falcons,
• At eighteen, Guts is promoted to commander and defeats Griffith in a duel to leave the Band of Falcons,
• At nineteen, Guts comes back to aid his former Band teammates and save Griffith – Casca and Guts start their romantic relationship, and Griffith sacrifices them to become a member of the God Hand.

The Golden Age arc is detailed enough for readers to piece the timeline together, but one fan created a simple but great timeline that is updated with new Berserk missions coming out. Of course, Guts’ journey did not stop at nineteen years of age because The Fantasia arc is the current story of Berserk manga, where Guts is the older, stronger, and more jaded man.

How old is Guts in Berserk?

As we already mentioned, the current story arc of Berserk is called The Fantasia arc, where Guts is dealing with the aftermath of the Millenium Falcon arc, where Guts and his teammates participated in the Great Roar of the Astral World caused by Griffith. Guts is already a seasoned warrior who looks to be over 35 years old, which isn’t odd since he went through a lot in his life.

Because he looks so old, some fans thought Guts was over thirty, close to forty years of age – of course, that is not the case.

According to Berserk timeline, Guts is currently 21 or 22 years of age in the current Fantasia arc. Despite Miura never mentioning the age of the characters outrightly, fans started connecting the data and came up with the Berserk timeline that has so much more sense than the Berserk guidebook.

The user u/walterbennet on Reddit, in the designated Berserk subreddit, shared a personal timetable that he recreated through the data they recovered from Berserk manga. After thorough research and reading the Berserk manga, I think this is the most accurate timetable currently available.

The original poster also mentions that he used Miura’s interview in 2009, where the creator confirmed the 3-4 years time skip between the Golden Age arc, and the Millenium Falcon arc. This information helped the OP tremendously in arranging this table.

We will provide you with the link to the Berserk timeline here.

In conclusion, Guts is around 21 or 22 years of age, and while most people’s lives just stop here, Guts never had a normal childhood and youth – he was always a warrior. Guts are problematic, and flawed character, but so fascinating, and we cannot wait for what will happen next on his journey. Kentaro Miura isn’t with us anymore, but there is still hope that we will get a proper ending to this incredible saga.

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