Shown Their Work / Berserk

Tropes for Berserk
Tropes A to D | Tropes E to H (Famous Last Words, Fan Disservice, Foil) | Tropes I to P | Tropes Q to T (Shout-Out, Shown Their Work) | Tropes U to Z

Despite this being a fantasy manga set in a Constructed World, Berserk is packed to the gills with research and real-life inspiration, which has only increased over the series' run.

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• Arms and Armor: Kentaro Miura made a great effort to understand how European weapons and armor were constructed, decorated, and used. By the later volumes, he had some characters wearing armor that is obviously based on actual examples in museums almost down to the placement of each articulation and rivet, including types of armor and helmets that are mostly unknown to non-specialists. This extends to the Kushan Empire's Indian-influenced equipment which includes suits of plate and mail, armor for Elephants, and real-life exotic weapons such as the Katar, Chakra, Urumi, and Maduvu.
  • The film trilogy by Studio 4°C goes one step further by having European-style armorer Shigetoshi Miura as its armor adviser, which combined with the CG technology results in some of the most historically detailed arms and armor you will see in any fictional medium.
• Swordsmandship and martial arts: Miura used a working knowledge of Kenjutsu to give Guts, Griffith, Casca, and other characters distinct fighting styles. In episode 331, Guts even pulls off something close to a real move from the German school of harnischfechten to take down a man in armor using his sword as a lever.
  • In particular as opposed to most fantasy fiction, there is at least an attempt to show combatants trying to aim at weak points in battle. A lot of visibly onscreen kills involve hitting the neck, arm pits, groin area, and thigh, areas particularly vulnerable in real life to bladed weapons.
  • The film trilogy builds on this work by having medieval martial arts consultant Jay E. Noyes design some of the action sequences and teach medieval swordsmanship to the stuntmen.
• Architecture: Miura lovingly referenced numerous European architectural styles from the Romanesque to Rococo, drawing numerous extremely detailed churches, castles, and cities. His overview of the city of Falconia is such an amazing vision of an ideal city that it must be seen to be believed.
  • Doldrey is based on the Castilla de Coca, the castle in Griffith's dream resembles the Alcazar of Segovia, the church in Enoch village is based on the Iglesia de San Martín de Tours in Frómista, and the pillared halls underneath the public palace in Vritannis are based on the Great Mosque of Córdoba. All of these buildings are in Spain.
  • The Cathedral in Windham is based on Rheims Cathedral in France, while the classical building that houses Daiba's Reincarnator is based on the Pantheon in Rome.
  • The Vandimion mansion in Vritannis is based on the Villa La Rotonda outside Vicenza, and the city's crenelated building with a tower resembles the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
• Fashion and Clothing: Various clothing fashions for both men and women from the 14th to 18th centuries are faithfully reproduced, such as the puffed-and-slashed doublets of German Landsknechte mercenaries, the lace collars and large trousers of The Cavalier Years, and many a Gorgeous Period Dress complete with gown, petticoats, and trimmings.
• Politics and Government: The Golden Age Arc very accurately simulates how mercenaries were often used by monarchs to reduce their dependence on the nobility for military support, and how this often created opportunities for mercenaries to climb the social ladder or seize political power. There is also a lot of attention paid to the nature of royal succession and marriage, and with the Holy Alliance in Vritannis we see the complex role of religious politics and military alliances in international relations.
• Religion, Folklore, and Mythology: A large number of fantastic beasts from various cultures such as unicorns, hydra, mermaids, and kelpies appear in the story. There are also many references to Hindu mythology and religion related to the Kushan, such as when Daiba refers to Guts and Serpico as warriors of Durga and Vayu, respectively, and the Kushan also use many terms in Sanskrit to describe supernatural phenomena.
• In the Seahorse chapters Miura had put an insane amount of detail into depicting a 17th or 18th century frigate with all its decks, sails, and rigging in the right place. It seems like he had also done some significant research on ship-to-ship combat in The Golden Age of Piracy and Wooden Ships and Iron Men, as Roderick uses a sophisticated strategy involving placing himself downwind to confound Captain Bonebeard's pirate fleet.
• The Sea God's servants: All animals seen protecting the insides of the Sea God are actual (deep) sea creatures, with Miura faithfully reproducing the animals' anatomy, with the only exception being their size (with some of the smaller creatures made bigger to pose a threat to Guts). Among the animals are quite a diverse number of species, such as giant isopods, sea spiders, gulper eels, sea cucumbers, hagfish, vampire squids and various deep-sea sharks like the frilled, cookie-cutter and goblin shark.
• Strategy and Tactics: The tactics used by Griffith during the Siege of Doldrey are pretty much word-for-word concepts mentioned in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (Sun Tzu).
  • One specific example is when Griffith burns his own ships, when having part of his army stand their ground against the opposing military. Sun Tzu mentions burning ships in his book, as a way to bolster a soldier’s fighting ability. If they had no option to retreat, the only option left was to fight for their lives. Conversely, since the attacking forces felt they could retreat back into the castle if the fighting got too hard, then they would be less committed to slaying every enemy.
  • Another example immediately follows, where at the end of the battle, Griffith loudly announces “all fleeing enemies would be spared,” is also a Sun Tzu tactic; and meant more for his own men’s sake. This is meant to have the exact opposite effect of burning the ships. Once he announced the option, a portion of the opposing forces would simply flee, reducing the number of enemy soldiers still trying to fight. Those remaining soldiers can then be either scared into fleeing or killed by now superior numbers.
  • Griffith's plan to eliminate the Queen of Midland and her allies is a fairly accurate depiction of a "tiger kidnapping". Griffith has Minister Foss' daughter kidnapped, and uses the ransom to make Foss burn down the Queen's fort. After the deed is done, Foss' daughter is safely returned to him.