“There’s no such thing as a painless lesson, they just don’t exist. Sacrifices are necessary; you can’t gain anything without losing something first. Although, if you can endure that pain and walk away from it, you’ll find that you now have a heart strong enough to overcome any obstacle.”
Life, as we know, is not always sunshine and rainbows; to rise, you have to fall; to gain, you have to lose – one cannot advocate for adversity without ever going through one themselves.
Suffering and pain is the inevitable part of life, and the pandemic put those words into perspective; the only way to grow past our pain is to learn from it.
The death of Ace taught him to push himself to the peak of his limit, people looking down on Naruto fueled his passion for becoming the Hokage of the village, and Yuzuru and Angel taught themselves never to let fate decide their journey.
Anime has always taught us never to stop chasing. No matter how treacherous the path is, one has to keep climbing – after all, you cannot lead the helm without learning to pick up the oar. And this is the tale that shows us just that.
Name: Nathan Doran
Lives In: United Kingdom
It was 2020, a year into Covid 19, and I, like many people, felt utterly defeated. I'd fallen out with my friends and had just gone through a personal tragedy that I didn't want to talk about. I was also going through some intense problems regarding my mental health. But despite all of this, I'd decided to start reading the story that changed my life – Kentarou Miura's Berserk. Berserk isn't a happy story but is instead one of the darkest and most horrific anyone could read. It's filled with graphic violence, horror, sexual violence, and terrifying demons. What I've said about Berserk so far paints it as a nihilistic mess of a story. But it's honestly one of the most hopeful and heat-felt stories I've ever experienced. The main reason for this is because of Berserk' protagonist, Guts. At first glance, Guts looks and acts like a typical edgy antihero. He's missing an arm and an eye, wields a giant sword, and acts cruel and aggressive to almost everyone he meets. Yet all of these attributes are only the surface level of his character. They fail to capture his humanity. Beneath his exterior, Guts is one of the most broken and traumatized characters ever written. I don't want to spoil what broke him, as it's the biggest spoiler I could give. So I'm just going to explain why Guts can turn something as dark as Berserk into a story of hope for me and many others. The reason Guts is able to turn an incredibly dark story like Berserk into a story of hope is that despite everything he's gone through, despite everything he's lost, he keeps going. He's broken, traumatized, and exhausted, yet he still never loses the ability to pick up his sword and take another swing. And because he didn't give up, he kept pushing forward no matter what horrific and traumatizing things happened to him! He was able to reconnect with people and start healing from his incredibly traumatizing experiences. This is what makes Berserk such a life-changing story. It shows its readers that no matter what they've been through, they have the strength within to carry on and keep pushing forward and, more importantly, that pushing forward and not giving up is worth it. This is how Berserk inspired me and changed my life for the better.
Key Takeaways
#1 Facade Of Emotion
A person may smile on the outside; that’s the facade they put on to go on with life, but you never know the raging storm inside them – changing them, anointing them.
Life’s cruel, and things might only get worse, and that’s what Guts have shown us countless times throughout the manga. And one dark, spine-chilling incident that embodies the personality of Guts is when a child clings to him; for him to rescue her from all the demons she’s put through – he tells her only one thing: “There’s no paradise for you to escape to.”
Instead of feeding her with false hope or trying to make her feel better. He tries to make her realize that – one can’t keep running from their fears every day; you have to face them head-on, you have to step on those fears to move forward, and only then will you overcome them. And as Nathan said, we overlook the humane side of Guts, but he has one, and sometimes it’s better than ours.
#2 The Resilience Of Pushing Forward
“You’re going to be all right. You just stumbled over a stone in the road. It means nothing. Your goal lies far beyond this. Doesn’t it? I’m sure you’ll overcome this. You’ll walk again…soon.”
A man who was born in a pool of blood and raised on the battlefield, he was never shown love and affection, and when he did, it led to an ultimate act of betrayal by a close companion.
Undoubtedly, one of the fictional characters with the most horrific life is Guts. And for him to say these word really show us the gravitas of ever pushing forward in life. Even after the odds were against him, Guts proved everyone wrong and fought on – and if he can, we sure can too!
#3 Zero Regrets
Despite his aggressive antihero actions and emphasis on violence, Guts has taught us several things, from persistence to faith to hope.
Still, more than anything, Guts has shown us never to compromise on the ideals we’ve lived by – he never gave up on his ideal, and neither should you. And the same inspiration made Nathan keep on going, and the same inspiration will put you on the right track; till then, hold tight and live without any regrets.
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