What are the main philosophical influences found in Berserk?

Hi All,

First post here. I was wondering if insight can be shed on some of the various philosophies and beliefs that contributed to the formation of Berserk. I've been told that part of the various worlds concepts comes from Plato, so I was curious what other works and thoughts served as inspiration.

Thanks!
 
There's a bit from Nietzsche, you might say Machiavelli for Griffith. You could say that determinism is a big factor on how the God Hand view things, yet they are able to influence the cause and effect subtle. There is no one philosophy that is overt though. Miura uses many influences and has many original ideas himself as well.
 

DasBouf

I'm Noah. I love my waifu and my friends
Not to start a debate as I know this is a controversial topic, but whenever Griffith spoke of his dream I always got an objectivist vibe. The whole putting yourself ahead to achieve your dream is very much a big part of Griffith's character.
 
The first few arcs are very fatalistic, but when Guts starts acquiring companions(post becoming the Black Swordsman) it shifts more into the realm of determinism.
Skull Knight is very Nietzschean (death of god, will to power(struggle for existence in the original german, remind anyone of Guts/SK?))
 
I wouldn't say these are direct influences on Miura but reading Berserk I picked up on:

Neoplatonic metaphysics (grades of existence that become more idealized as one climbs the ladder; Miura inverts this by placing the Form of Evil at the head instead of Plato's Form of the Good)

Schopenhaurian and Spinozan conceptions of the will (man insofar as he is a creature on this earth with the resources to do so can will what he wants, but he never willed his birth as a willing being in the first place) - Compare the transcendental entity or law stuff with "Man can do what he wants, but he cannot will what he wills"

Kabbalah (the Sephira are the archetypal forces that constitute the physical and spiritual reality of the universe; the God Hand are essentially the Ideas of Pestilence, Deceit, Lust, etc.)
 

Squiddot

The Falcon needs you. You don't need him!
I always felt the Idea of Evil had shades of the Gnostic Demiurge within it. A creator deity responsible for the physical world, but was itself created and therefore separate from the "true" unknowable God. Oftentimes portrayed as antagonistic to the will of the supreme being and the spirit, either out of malice or simple ignorance.

Free Will vs determinism also crops up a lot whenever Skull Knight is around. Him and Void seem to agree on the concept of determinism, in which actions are guaranteed to occur due to the events that precede then, while Guts exists in opposition of it as a testament to free will.
 
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