Berserk Guidebook

Went ahead and did my best translating the summary on the back of the guidebook's cover protector. At the very most it gives a primitive sense of the book's contents. Keep in mind, I'm the furthest thing from a professional translator and I can almost certainly guarantee that there are errors. Nevertheless here's what I got:

First "Berserk" Official Guide book, finally covering the complete story since publication!! Episode 1 to Volume 38. A full introduction to the main characters, the Apostles, and a view of the world. A long interview looking back on a whole record of the story writing of Mr. Kentaro Miura, and a first look at the reference materials used for characters and settings. Also a special glimpse of unreleased content past volume 38, a pre-writing of what's to come! One book "Berserk" readers must have!

The text on the inside of the protector gives a synopsis of Berserk and Gigantomakhia and a quick notation of other popular works published by Hakusensha that Miura has contributed to. I'll try translating a few other things too but as I've already suggested, any and all translations I post should be read skeptically.

*Edit:
Had some extra time on my hands and decided to measure out the given attributes of the main characters. Kinda weird that they decided to list them the way they did. Made me feel like I was reading a guidebook for a video game. At any rate, some of the measurements are extremely close to the measurements of other characters so my order below might not be 100% accurate as some of the diagrams were indeed quite small. On top of that, despite my best efforts, some of the characters seem to have an equal measurement of certain attributes, hence the equals signs.

Muscle Strength (listed highest to lowest):
Guts, Azan, Serpico, Roderick, Casca, Farnese, Isidro=Isma=Magnifico, Schierke, Puck, Ivalera

Endurance (listed highest to lowest):
Guts, Azan, Serpico, Roderick, Casca, Farnese=Isma, Isidro, Schierke=Ivalera=Magnifico, Puck

Agility (listed highest to lowest):
Serpico, Casca, Guts, Puck=Isidro, Isma, Ivalera, Roderick, Azan=Farnese=Schierke, Magnifico

Brainpower (listed highest to lowest):
Schierke, Serpico, Roderick, Guts, Isidro=Magnifico, Azan, Farnese, Isma=Ivalera, Puck, Casca

Mental Stregnth (listed highest to lowest):
Guts=Schierke, Isidro, Farnese=Azan, Serpico, Roderick, Isma=Magnifico, Puck=Ivalera=Casca

Sociability (listed highest to lowest):
Roderick, Isma, Puck=Isidro, Ivalera=Serpico=Azan, Magnifico=Casca, Farnese, Schierke=Guts

I found the order somewhat odd in certain areas; Casca and Serpico scoring higher than Guts under agility for instance. Nevertheless, this is what I came up with.
 
Figured this would the most appropriate place to link/repost the information Fieryfurnace999 on reddit posted from the new Guidebook:https://www.reddit.com/r/Berserk/comments/54y7jb/comprehensive_list_of_guidebook_character/
[quote author=Fieryfurnace999]
So, my Official Guidebook finally arrived. I've put the ages, heights and weights, as well as the romanized names given for all of the characters in case anybody was curious. I've converted the heights and weights to feet and stone and pounds as well for the benefit of any imperial users. There's also stats given for each of the main characters in hexagon diagrams, but I don't know any Japanese so the contents are a mystery there.
I doubt that Miura provided the heights and weights for each of his characters since it's superfluous information, but it's nice to know regardless. Some of the romanized names are different to Dark Horse's translation, which I've put at the top of each character's info in bold.
So, without further ado:
Guts:
Romanized name: Guts
Age: 24
Height: 204cm - 6'8"
Weight: 115kg - 18st.2lb
Puck:
Romanized name: Puck
Age: Unknown (c'moon...)
Height: 15cm - 0'6"
Weight: 20g - 0.04lb
Casca:
Romanized name: Casca
Age: 24
Height: 165cm - 5'5"
Weight: 50kg - 7st.12lb
Farnese:
Romanized name: Farnese
Age: 19
Height: 162cm - 5'4"
Weight: 48kg - 7st.8lb
Serpico:
Romanized name: Serpico
Age: 20
Height: 175cm - 5'9"
Weight: 63kg - 9st.13lb
Isidro:
Romanized name: Isidro
Age: 14
Height: 130cm - 4'3"
Weight: 42kg - 6st.9lb
Schierke:
Romanized name: Schierke
Age: 13
Height: 120cm - 3'11"
Weight: 31kg - 4st.12lb
Ivalera:
Romanized name: Ivalera
Age: Unknown
Height: 17cm - 0'7"
Weight: 18g - 0.04lb
Azan:
Romanized name: Azan
Age: 46
Height: 157cm - 5'2"
Weight: 95kg - 14st.13lb
Roderick:
Romanized name: Roderick
Age: 27
Height: 188cm - 6'2"
Weight: 77kg - 12st.2lb
Magnifico:
Romanized name: Magnifico
Age: 28
Height: 174cm - 5'9"
Weight: 69kg - 10st.12lb
Isma:
Romanized name: Isma
Age: 15
Height: 152cm - 4'12"
Weight: 44kg - 6st.13lb
Griffith:
Romanized name: Griffith
Age: 24
Height: 178cm - 5'10"
Weight: 66kg - 10st.6lb
Zodd:
Romanized name: Zodd
Age: Unknown
Height: 220cm - apostle form 350cm | 7'3" - apostle form 11'6" (seems a little short in his apostle form - possibly referring to when he's on all fours?)
Weight: 165kg - apostle form 1001kg | 26st - apostle form 157st.9lb (just 1 over 1000kg - Zodd goes above and beyond!)
Sonia:
Romanized name: Sonia
Age: 15
Height: 140cm - 4'7"
Weight: 42kg - 6st.9lb
Locus:
Romanized name: Locks
Age: Unknown
Height: 200cm - apostle form 300cm | 6'7" - apostle form 9'10"
Weight: 100kg - apostle form 520kg | 15st.10lb - apostle form 81st.12lb
Irvine:
Romanized name: Irvine
Age: Unknown
Height/length: 175cm - apostle form 531cm from nose to tail | 5'9" - apostle form 17'5" from nose to tail
Weight: 63kg - apostle form 446kg | 9st.13lb - apostle form 70st.3lb
Grunbeld:
Romanized name: Gurunberd
Age: Unknown
Height: 270cm - apostle form 600cm | 8'10" - apostle form 19'8"
Weight: 303kg - apostle form 1644kg | 47st.10lb - apostle form 258st.12lb
Rakshas:
Romanized name: Raksas (with extra sass)
Age: Unknown
Height: Unknown
Weight: Unknown
Mule (Wolflame):
Romanized name: Mule
Age: 17
Height: 150cm - 4'11" (he's tiny!)
Weight: 48kg - 7st.8lb
Rickert:
Romanized name: Rickert
Age: 19 (holy shit!)
Height: 166cm - 5'5"
Weight: 61kg - 9st.8lb
Judeau:
Romanized name: Judo
Age: 18
Height: 159cm - 5'3"
Weight: 49kg - 7st.10lb
Pippin:
Romanized name: Pippin
Age: 19
Height: 190cm - 6'3"
Weight: 133kg - 20st.13lb
Corkus:
Romanized name: Carcus
Age: 20
Height: 173cm - 5'8"
Weight: 66kg - 10st.6lb
Charlotte: (the only character to be given a profile including age, weight and height, but not a hexagon stat diagram, interestingly)
Romanized name: Charlotte
Age: 20
Height: 162cm - 5'4"
Weight: 50kg - 7st.12lb
Mozgus:
Romanized name: Mozguz
Age: 42
Height: 222cm - apostle spawn form 280cm | 7'3" - apostle spawn form 9'2"
Weight: 145kg - apostle spawn form 299kg | 22st.12lb - apostle spawn form
Ganishka:
Romanized name: Ganishka
Age: Unknown
Height: 180cm - apostle form "measurement is impossible" | 5'11" - apostle form "y'all can't measure this"
Weight: 92kg - apostle form "measurement is impossible" | 14st.7lb - apostle form "y'all can't measure this"
Daiba:
Romanized name: Master Daiba
Age: Unknown
Height: 165cm - 5'5"
Weight: 44kg - 6st.13lb
Silat:
Romanized name: Silat
Age: 25
Height: 182cm - 5'12"
Weight: 75kg - 11st.11lb
Erica
Romanized name: Erica
Age: 11
Height: 139cm (she's taller than Schierke, ha) - 4'7"
Weight: 43kg - 6st.11lb
Godo:
Romanized name: Godo
Age: 68
Height: 155cm - 5'1"
Weight: 51kg - 8st
Luca:
Romanized name: Luka
Age: 27 (older than I expected)
Height: 174cm - 5'9"
Weight: 63kg - 9st.13lb
Now for name differences from the Dark Horse translation; I have included every romanized name, including those that are the same as Dark Horse's versions. Again, the Dark Horse names are in bold.
Behelit is translated as Beherit - sk.net rejoice!
Flora: Flora
Owen: Owen
Laban: Laban
Jarif: Jarif
Foss: Foss
Gaston: Gaston
Julius: Julius
Anna: Anna
Bakiraka: Burkilaka (only the ilaka part is unobscured by Japanese characters so I could be wrong. but this is what it looks like - very strange)
Samson: Samson
Adon: Adon
Gennon: Guenon
Boscogn: Boscone
Nina: Nina
Joachim: Joachim
Jerome: Jerome
Gambino: Gambino
Shisu: Cis
Jill: Jill
Vandimion (family): Vandimion
Femto: Femto
Void: Void
Slan: Slan
Ubik: Ubik
Conrad: Conrad
Skull Knight: The Knight of Skeleton (for goodness sake...)
Aaand that's all the information I could understand! The Guidebook is an amazing thing to have: it includes concept art for Guts and the group from Miura as well as a bunch of information (including what appears to be every single pop culture reference Puck has ever made! I wonder how long it took for the guys at Young Animal to compile those pages). Definitely snatch it up if you can!
Anyway, off to add all these to the wikia eventually...
[/quote]
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
There's some pretty suspect information coming out of this guidebook... Mean, Guts is taller than Pippin? He was what, like at least 6 inches shorter during the Golden Age, and now he's 5 inches taller?

Do you know anyone who grew an extra foot of height after their 19th birthday? :???:
 
Delta Phi said:
There's some pretty suspect information coming out of this guidebook... Mean, Guts is taller than Pippin? He was what, like at least 6 inches shorter during the Golden Age, and now he's 5 inches taller?

Do you know anyone who grew an extra foot of height after their 19th birthday? :???:
It's very very uncommon but not completely unheard of/impossible I suppose. Like there are always extreme outliers in any average I guess.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Delta Phi said:
There's some pretty suspect information coming out of this guidebook...

Some of these had privately seeped to me beforehand, and unfortunately it's very clear that none of the character information from this guidebook is to be trusted. It's the same than with the previous "guides" we've had over the years. Just like in the past, the names they didn't know about seem to have been made up while they copied those we already knew. And they also seem to have lifted names from previous unreliable sources (the PS2 game, the 1997 anime artbook) as well as reliable ones (the manga volumes). A lot of those spellings are just not possible, and some directly conflict with known official YA spellings as well...

As for the rest (age, height, weight), it's as fishy/random as expected. Oh well, it's disappointing, but there's not much we can do. Maybe the next one will be different... For now though people should really make sure to not get confused by this. Those aren't reliable.

P.S. Beherit has already been confirmed 10 times over to be the correct spelling.
 
Thanks for providing that, -cause.

The data in this book is...interesting I guess, and not necessarily in a good way. I mean, every instance where Casca is listed, are they referring to her before or after the Eclipse? Thanks to muscle atrophy, I can't image that she'd really be as high up on the lists for strength, endurance, and agility in the present, but her past self would most definitely not be so low on the scales for brainpower and mental strength. And Schierke, Farnese and Guts are most definitely not worse than her currently in terms of sociability.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
-cause said:
Had some extra time on my hands and decided to measure out the given attributes of the main characters. Kinda weird that they decided to list them the way they did. Made me feel like I was reading a guidebook for a video game. At any rate, some of the measurements are extremely close to the measurements of other characters so my order below might not be 100% accurate as some of the diagrams were indeed quite small. On top of that, despite my best efforts, some of the characters seem to have an equal measurement of certain attributes, hence the equals signs.

I found the order somewhat odd in certain areas; Casca and Serpico scoring higher than Guts under agility for instance. Nevertheless, this is what I came up with.

I appreciate the effort, but like I mentioned above, the character information provided by the guide, be it the age, height, weight or even the name spellings are completely unreliable. It was unfortunately a possibility, as it has happened several times before. I guess Hakusensha just left this up to some intern, or even outsourced it to whoever. As a result, I can't recommend that any stock be put into this information.
 
Man, I was really excited to get official confirmation on some of these names once and for all. My heart sank when I saw "Locks" and I realized this couldn't be trusted as soon as I read "Burkilaka". Knight of Skeleton is just the obviously-wrong cherry on top. Oh well... :schierke:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Rupert Sinclair said:
My heart sank when I saw "Locks" :schierke:

Locks is actually the only feasible name among the ones they bungled. For example, "Mozguz" is impossible. It's written as モズグス, not モズグズ. Gurunberd may be phonetically correct, but it looks like they didn't bother making it an English name. Like leaving Griffith as Gurifisu. Guennon also isn't possible, based on the way it's spelled in the manga. Same goes for Carcus (a repeat from before). Erica goes against Erika as spelled in English in the Japanese Vol 38.
 
Walter said:
Locks is actually the only feasible name among the ones they bungled. For example, "Mozguz" is impossible. It's written as モズグス, not モズグズ. Gurunberd may be phonetically correct, but it looks like they didn't bother making it an English name. Like leaving Griffith as Gurifisu. Guennon also isn't possible, based on the way it's spelled in the manga. Same goes for Carcus (a repeat from before). Erica goes against Erika as spelled in English in the Japanese Vol 38.

That just happened to be the first one I saw that was different before realizing this wouldn't be legitimate. I just don't think I could have gotten used to calling him that.
 
Aazealh said:
...the character information provided by the guide, be it the age, height, weight or even the name spellings are completely unreliable.

Ya I figured this was the case when I read that Guts is 204cm (~6' 8") and Pippin was only ever 190cm (~6' 3"). Still though, I couldn't help myself.
I think I'll try and translate a bit of the "Walk Through Midland" pages which are a part of the View of the World section. Don't expect to come across anything new but they might be interesting anyways.
 
DraceYun said:
Rickert being older than Mule is suspect. Their ages should be switched.
Rickert being 19 is actually quite feasible. Like I doubt Rickert was younger than 10 when Guts joined the Hawks/Falcons (who was 15 then). And if we accept that Guts' current age is 24, then that means 8-9 years have passed since Guts first joined the Hawks/Falcons, so Rickert being 19 easily works out.
 
Even though it doesn't sound like some of the info is reliable, which is a shame, I still deem this little book well worth the purchase. I love the illustration for the cover as well as the other color pics in the front of the book. I was happy to see that one was a favorite of mine of Schierke reading her spell book! :guts: The pages showing Miura's workspace were of course really interesting and I like the pages towards the back with the character sketches, too.
 

DANGERDOOOOM

Rest In Peace, Kentaro Miura. We will miss you.
Guts is 6'8??? That's freakishly tall :ganishka: I'd say more like 6'2.

I see what they were going for. But all in all useless and unreliable information. Large portions of these are questionable. Still can't wait to receive my copy in the mail (in the next 4-6 weeks... :judo:)
 
Aazealh said:
A lot of those spellings are just not possible, and some directly conflict with known official YA spellings as well...
Which ones are you thinking of?
(if you have a list of those YA spellings, I'm interested!)

Walter said:
Locks is actually the only feasible name among the ones they bungled. For example, "Mozguz" is impossible. It's written as モズグス, not モズグズ. Gurunberd may be phonetically correct, but it looks like they didn't bother making it an English name. Like leaving Griffith as Gurifisu. Guennon also isn't possible, based on the way it's spelled in the manga. Same goes for Carcus (a repeat from before).
I'm going to have to disagree, there. "Impossible" spellings? Whah? The names should look (and sound) like English names? Whaah??
For example, a quick Google search netted me one "Ewa Guz-Seroka" whose name was spelled as "エヴァ・グス=セロカ" in Japanese. Pesky non-English names!
(it was also spelled "Mozguz" in the MBR edition of the series, for what it's worth)
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, uh... hi Olivier! Long time no see? The last time we spoke, I wasn't even a father yet and now my son is in pre-school. But enough chit chat, let's get into some hot katakana transliteration action!

Olivier Hague said:
I'm going to have to disagree, there. "Impossible" spellings? Whah?

Normally I would trust your judgment on names (as the person who originally clarified such things for us almost 20 years ago), so I'm genuinely curious about your reasoning here. Because when it comes to the Zu and Su differentiation in the spelling of Mozgus' katakana, it's elementary, right? If it were supposed to be "Mozguz", the letters/sounds would have been repeated. Instead, they're different -- thus, Mozgus.

I guess what you're getting at is that sometimes these names aren't spelled in katakana correctly from the beginning, and that we should take whatever English spelling they eventually dole out to us as the true name all along. But if that were the case, we'd have had to adapt to all the various, poorly Romanized names we've gotten over the years, including G a t s. I think at the end of the day, we have to use our best judgment based on the spelling in the manga. Thankfully the names that have been spelled out at the start of the past 10 volumes appear to have been rock solid, so far. Whereas the various attempts at Romanizing the names into English in supplementary materials have been hit or miss.

For example, a quick Google search netted me one "Ewa Guz-Seroka" whose name was spelled as "エヴァ・グス=セロカ" in Japanese. Pesky non-English names!

Well, that one's just a fucking mess, isn't it? Anyway, in that example, they didn't have ズ and ス sitting right next to each other, so I can sort of see how someone not adept at English would have transliterated the sounds poorly into katakana. I don't see the excuse for "Mozguz" though.

(it was also spelled "Mozguz" in the MBR edition of the series, for what it's worth)

Are all the MBR spellings gospel? I seem to remember a few discrepancies in that one as well. Either way, two sources can be wrong twice in a row. Carcus, for example.

ズs aside, what's been going on with you lately? What'd you think of the 2016 anime?
 
Walter said:
Wow, uh... hi Olivier! Long time no see? The last time we spoke, I wasn't even a father yet and now my son is in pre-school.
Oh, wow!

when it comes to the Zu and Su differentiation in the spelling of Mozgus' katakana, it's elementary, right? If it were supposed to be "Mozguz", the letters/sounds would have been repeated. Instead, they're different -- thus, Mozgus.
Not necessarily, no? In a whole bunch of languages using the Latin alphabet, the same letter may be pronounced differently depending on the context. Here, the final "Z" being pronounced "S" wouldn't be that shocking to me.

Well, that one's just a fucking mess, isn't it? Anyway, in that example, they didn't have ズ and ス sitting right next to each other, so I can sort of see how someone not adept at English would have transliterated the sounds poorly into katakana.
B-b-but why are you even talking about English, there? It's not an English name, so you shouldn't expect it to sound (or be transliterated into kana) like one.
Is it really a poor kana transliteration? I believe it's a Polish name, and I'm not nearly familiar enough with the language to tell.
(For whatever it's worth, a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that the Polish "Z" sounds /z̪/ or /s̪/ when devoiced...)

Are all the MBR spellings gospel?
Oh, I'm not arguing they are! Just pointing out that it's not the first time I've seen that spelling.

Either way, two sources can be wrong twice in a row. Carcus, for example.
... I don't know that that one is wrong either, actually.

ズs aside, what's been going on with you lately?
Nothing, really!

What'd you think of the 2016 anime?
I don't know why they bothered.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Olivier Hague said:
Which ones are you thinking of?
(if you have a list of those YA spellings, I'm interested!)

The biggest offender is "Erica", which was spelled "Erika" in a supplement for YA #15 of 2015 as well as at the beginning of volume 38. The spellings at the beginning of volumes are what I was referring to here, as they're the most credible source of information as far as I'm concerned. The fact this guide misses such an obvious and recent one casts serious doubt on its reliability to me (not even going into the character stats). Some other names have also shown up in YA over the years, like "Charlotte" or "Rakshas" (or even "Skull Knight" in recent years), but it's really the volumes that I consider the reference.

The names that have been shown at the beginning of the volumes so far are: Guts / Casca / Griffith / Puck / Isidro / Schierke / Farnese / Serpico / Zodd / Magnifico / Roderick / Sonia / Ganishka / Isma / Rickert / Erika

That aside, "Burkilaka" isn't very credible to me given the Indo-Middle Eastern inspiration of the clan as well as the Kushan in general. In my experience you find a lot of "Baki" > "バーキ", but "Burki" rather goes to "ブルキ". "Gurunberd" is also as unconvincing as ever to me. The German or Dutch "Grun" very typically transliterates to "グルン" (Grunwald, Grundisse, Grundtvig, etc.), while for "Gurun" I can only think of "Gurung" from Nepalese. The former seems much more likely to me. There's a few others I'm also dubious about but you get the idea.

Now I'll admit that everything's possible with Japanese transliterations and strictly speaking these aren't incorrect. But looking at the names we do know about and how they were created, these just don't fit the bill to me. I think they lack coherence. I also can't help but remember how back in the day stuff like "Gats", "Zoddo" or "Ricketts" was used on official material before the correct names came about. So while I keep wishing for an authoritative rundown of all the names in the Latin alphabet, IMHO this isn't it.
 
Does anyone have a larger picture of this (without the logo)?

main.jpg
 
Fucking hell this is abysmal. Shierke has the same mental strength as Guts? so if need be, Shierke could cut her arm off? And Serpico is more agile than Silat, the man who can catch arrows in mid flight and survived a fight with Guts is more agile than Serpico.
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
MrFlibble said:
Fucking hell this is abysmal. Schierke has the same mental strength as Guts? so if need be, Schierke could cut her arm off? And Serpico is more agile than Silat, the man who can catch arrows in mid flight and survived a fight with Guts is more agile than Serpico.

Well Serpico survived twice against Guts you know... :ganishka:
 

Feeblecursedone

"This hammer has broken Daemons on my anvil, Elf.
Had a pretty good laugh reading about Guts standing over 200 cm, like in what universe has that happened? Also im not sure how exactly is Casca more Agile than Guts who can move like typhoon carrying a super large sword and heavy armour. Oh well.
 
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