The Berserker / Anime & Manga

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• Eren Yeager from Attack on Titan has pretty serious rage issues even in his normal state since at least around nine years old when he killed two grown men in cold blood in order to save the girl who would become his adoptive sister, Mikasa. It is even more pronounced when he goes into Titan form. As Character Development kicks in, he learns to control his Titan form while also becoming resourceful while fighting as a human, while after the Time Skip he becomes downright pragmatic.
• Iceman Hotty of Basquash! looks like just another pretty boy, but... "Destroy!"
• In Berserk, both the manga and anime (but especially the manga), Guts takes on this role, acknowledging in the manga that he realizes that his battle-crazed moments make people close to him fear him. He is driven, but definitely is not a Death Seeker, despite his tendency to take on 100 men (or even worse things later on) at once. This state is now "magically" enhanced by the use of his Berserker Armor that facilitates such fighting mode, for example by numbing any wounds received to keep fighting at his maximal potential. However it does come as a price (aside from not being aware that lethal wounds might have been received) in that his Superpowered Evil Side always threatens to take over which would cause him to start attacking everything, friend and foes alike, until he's either dead or the last one standing on the battlefield. There's a good reason why he provides the image for the trope's main page.
• Black Clover:
  • Subverted with Asta as he shows a little more restraint than other examples. Asta himself employs this as his main strategy as he can only fight with his physical capabilities with his Anti-Magic blades but due to his Hot-Blooded nature he mostly just charges into his enemies full force and will continue fighting even if he's injured and will keep pushing through the pain to continue his battle. This is amped up when he activates his Black Asta form as his attacks become much more ferocious as he becomes way more serious and fights with the intent of dishing out as much damage as possible while also being invulnerable to pain thus making him an unstoppable juggernaut.
  • Due to being such a battle maniac, Luck fights relentlessly in battle, almost constantly trying to attack enemies during a fight. Unlike most, he does display some perception when he actually stops to strategize.
  • Vetto has the fighting style of a raging beast, attacking and giving his opponent little time to defend. It's also quite fitting due to his animalistic beast magic.
• Bleach:
  • Ichigo's inner hollow, being the personification of his aggression and bloodlust, fights relentlessly and mercilessly, and mocks Ichigo for not doing the same. Whenever it takes over his body it grants him great power and fights far more brutally than Ichigo is willing to and obviously doesn't care about Ichigo's goals. When the two of them fight for dominance in Ichigo's inner world, his body gradually transforms into a lizard-like hollow as it blindly lashes out at everything in sight.
  • Kenpachi Zaraki's Bankai seems to put him in an unthinking berserker state. His skin turns red, he stops speaking, and he attacks mindlessly and without much pause whereas usually he either bemoans a boring fight or laughs in enjoyment of a good fight.
• In Brave10, there's Kamanosuke, who finds the idea of strategy offensive as no one can tell him what to do and he just wants to create blood and havoc. His lack of awareness of his limits alongside this also makes him a Leeroy Jenkins, unfortunately.
• Call of the Night: Initially, Yamori has trouble controlling himself when triggering his half-vampire powers and defaults to attacking anyone who gets close, even Nazuna. Even when he does gain a semblance of control, he still becomes an unhinged Blood Knight.
• Inosuke from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. His fighting style boils down to him charging into battle full force without any sort of strategy and attacking wildly in an animalistic fury. Especially played straight when Inosuke gets angry enough that he'll lose all rational and will keep attacking until his enemy is defeated. This is also similar to how a real boar would attack by constantly charging and ramming into their opponents, also like Inosuke they are known to be very reckless and very angry whenever they are provoked.
• In Digimon Adventure Greymon's Superpowered Evil Side SkullGreymon loses all sense of self and becomes a rabid monster of destruction with a giant missile strapped to its back. Even in the sequel series its berserker nature was so volatile that it couldn't even be controlled by the dark rings, the only Digimon up to that point shown capable of outright ignoring their effect.
• In Dragon Ball Super, the extremely demure Kale of Universe 6 adopts this trait once she bulks up into her (appropriately named) "Super Saiyan Berserk" form. She becomes an unmanageable, almost unreasonable force for the more experienced Cabba (even in his Super Saiyan form).
  • This trope also rings true for her movie counterpart, Broly, albeit in a much more psychotic manner. In both these cases, these characters are just so powerful that they don't need to think about what they are doing in a fight.
• Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara!!. It's bad enough that he's inhumanly strong and uncontrollably violent when angry (read: all the time), he also happens to have such an insanely high pain threshold that even multiple gunshot wounds barely register — And, even then, only when he looks down and realizes that he's bleeding all over himself.
• Natsu from Fairy Tail lives this trope. But unlike most Berserkers, he shows little remorse or regret for his actions because they tend to be rooted in rather pure-hearted means, such as defending his True Companions. And he despises the thought of self-sacrifice, he just seems to think that if he tries hard enough (and again...and again) his enemy will eventually fall. It doesn't help that his magic tends to get boosted by his Berserker rages and he tends to come out of the other side better than the person he was facing, so more often than not he is proved right.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: King Bradley aka Wrath the Furious certainly counts as this during his Last Stand. Mortally wounded and having fulfilled his role in Father's plan, he eagerly jumps into a battle to the death with Scar in order to go out with a bang.
• Gauron from Full Metal Panic!, who takes his constant personal antagonizing of Mithril and (especially) Sousuke to a suicidal degree. He seems to care little whether he lives or dies, or who he harms, as long as he is able to mess up the heroes as much as humanly possible — and with as much panache as he can wring out of it — in the process. In the light novels, it is revealed that his destructive attitude stems from a lethal cancer that would kill him sooner or later anyway.
• Ryoma from Getter Robo. He combines all the best parts of Hot-Blooded, Slasher Smile, Ax-Crazy, and the Determinator.
  • And then there's his moment in New Getter Robo which gave him an completely maniacal Unstoppable Rage.
• Carossa from GUN×SWORD easily surpasses Shinn Asuka in anger and brashness, and that's before someone comes within speaking range of his sister. Unlike Shinn Asuka however, Carossa is infinitely more justified in that he's a small child with no military training whatsoever.
• Hellsing Ultimate:
  • Alucard and Father Alexander Anderson both fall squarely into this definition, although the latter tends to be just a little bit worse sometimes. Despite being fairly calm around regular humans and especially children, Anderson transforms into a full-on berserker whenever he encounters vampires or any kind of monstrous heathen, as he likes to call them. His bloodlust becomes nigh-unstoppable and he can plow through huge swathes of enemies without a single fear for himself, which is definitely reinforced by his powerful Healing Factor, regenerative powers, and role as The Juggernaut of Iscariot's forces. It often turns into a berserk form of Ham-to-Ham Combat between Alucard and Anderson since both of them are rather high on the Blood Knight scale of Ax-Crazy hitmen.
  • When Seras Victoria's eyes go red during the early parts of the series, it's a sign that she's in Blood Rage mode, and that any ghouls or other enemies in her presence are going to die very, very messily. During the Valentine Brothers' assault on the Hellsing building, she annihilates the ghoulified remnants of the Hellsing staff in a rage so frightening that Integra has to give her a Cooldown Hug to snap her out of it. When Seras drinks Pip's blood and becomes a full vampire, she gains the red eyes permanently, though she gains a measure of control over her blood rages.
  • There's also Yumiko Takagi of Iscariot, who has two personalities. One of them, Yumiko, is a pacifistic, harmless nun who frightens quite easily and looks quite adorable with her glasses on. But when those glasses come off, her other personality, Yumie, emerges. Yumie is a fearless, bloodthirsty, and violent berserker who is absolute murder with a katana, has near superhuman strength, and is good enough to kill someone from outside the room. Her fanaticism in regards to her faith rivals that of Anderson himself, and has a loyalty to the man that is so strong that she completely loses it when Walter desecrates Anderson's remains, which gets her cut to pieces.
• High School D×D: Issei, when witnessing Asia's "death" at the hands of Shalba Beelzebub, activates Juggernaut Drive. The form possesses greater power and stamina, but causes the user to lose their sanity and will obliterate everything in its surrounding, leaving very little to no trace, as shown when Issei was consumed by his own fury.
• "Apapapapapapapapapapa!" While Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple actually has a character named Berserker, the real berserker of the series is Apachai Hopachi, the Death God of the Muay Thai Underworld. He can't hold back in a fight and, as a result, nearly kills Kenichi a few times when training him. He does overcome this to a limited degree, though.
  • Also, there is Kisara Nanjo when she first awakens to what other characters name "Nya Kwon Do," during which she behaves exactly like a cat (meowing, grooming herself, and kicking sand at her opponent).
  • Ultimately this can happen to anyone who can't control their Dou power.
• Vita from Lyrical Nanoha. She's a badass Determinator with a giant hammer and says herself that destroying is the best thing she can do. For example, in the fight with Nanoha, after her hat gets damaged, her pupils were narrowing in shock, just before she goes ballistic and beats Nanoha like a screaming warrior.
• Gundam:
  • Gundam Build Fighters has the Embody System in Aila's helmet, which the characters explicitly compare to Allenby's Berserker System at one point. It's later used on an unwilling Meijin Kawaguchi just before the final round.
  • Mobile Fighter G Gundam has Allenby Beardsley, normally a sweet and cheerful Genki Girl, whose handlers have fitted her Gundam with the aptly-named Berserker System, which forces her to fight like one of these. Domon Kasshu also acts like this prior to finally achieving his True Super Mode. Master Asia uses it to his advantage in his fights against his former pupil.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Kira is mistaken for such by the Desert Tiger - and honestly he seems to be acting somewhat like it at that point as well. He has his reasons...
  • Shinn Asuka of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny is also a classic berserker. He's good enough to get away with it against anyone outside of Kira and Athrun. Interesting in that while an Anti-Villain, he's also a genuinely complex character, with a real life outside of Berserker-ing. Sadly, while he had a better head on his shoulders at first, manipulations, failures and no one to smack him upside the head and telling him he's an idiot causes him to degrade himself into this trope almost permanently by the end.
  • Chang Wufei from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing was highly on offense and never cared about defense, even when playing chess.
  • The Evil Sword Epyon from SD Gundam Force, who was outright called a Berserker in the english dub. After possessing and transforming Tallgeese's body, Epyon goes on a rampage, attacking anyone who catches his attention.
• Maria no Danzai: With the sole exception of Okaya, there's no one that can stop Tsuyoshi Kinugawa when he gets mad. If someone who's not one of his friends tries to stop him, even it it's a grown adult, he will shake them off or even beat them up.
• The title character of Murder Princess is this; fortunately her maid can snap her out of it.
• Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia is endlessly aggressive and extremely violent (reaching Omega-levels of brutality, just to give anyone the idea) when it comes to his fighting style, screaming, hollering and bellowing at the top of his lungs like an unhinged beast, charging at and attacking his enemies with absolute ferocity like a rabid wild animal, possessing the shortest fuse out of all the characters and having a meaningful quirk, physical appearance and hero alias to match said fighting style. This proves to be his weakness when he has to fight Izuku Midoriya during the Heroes vs. Villains exercise because he fights so aggressively and so frequently that Midoriya, who has witnessed and often been on the receiving end of his attacks, can easily predict his moves, such as the fact he always opens with a strong right hook.
• Naruto:
  • The Curse Seal personality of Jūgo behaves like this, willing to attack anyone it encounters.
  • Naruto himself became one in his Superpowered Evil Side fueled by Kurama's chakra. The more chakra he used, the more tails he sprouted, and the less he could control himself. By the time the fourth tail sprouted, he couldn't tell friend from enemy, as shown when he lashed out against Sakura, who was rushing to his aid.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Shinji Ikari lapses into this under sufficient psychological stress, when his Unstoppable Rage kicks in, the battles against Shamshel and Zeruel being good examples. Threatening Asuka and Rei's lives is also a good, quick way to set off his berserker mode.
  • The titular Evangelions have been known to go out of control from time to time; in fact, the semi-official term NERV uses for this situation is "Berserker". Eva-01, the flagship mecha of the show is the most notorious berserker out of the bunch, and it's also fiercely protective of it's pilot Shinji. It's broken out of restraints, moved without power, and brutally ripped attacking angels to shreds in order to protect the boy. The Eva is a living being with the soul of Shinji's mother, Yui, inside it; meaning these berserk moments are one hell of a Mama Bear moment. Eva-00 goes berserk during its activation test, with far less beneficial results. Likewise, Eva-02 goes berserk during the Final Battle in End of Evangelion.
  • One non-EVA related example is when Gendo does a Shoot the Dog moment as he is faced with the 13th Angel, Bardiel, who had just taken control of the Eva Unit 03 moments before the first test was supposed to start. When Shinji refused to destroy the Angel (and the Eva with it) due to the risk of injuring the Eva's pilot, Gendo takes control of the situation and takes Eva Unit 01 from Shinji's control, using a backup system to do the deed. Needless to say, Shinji isn't happy, and goes berserk before being stopped by Gendo himself.
  • This is sometimes used as a game mechanic anytime the EVA's make an appearance in the Super Robot Wars series. If Unit-01's health is depleted during a battle, it will go Berserk; gaining a massive increase in stats (not mention a brutal melee attack) but also causing it to attack any unit within range, be it friend or foe.
  • Mari, from Rebuild of Evangelion, takes elements of a Blood Knight and takes this to new heights, being the only pilot to initiate a wholly new variant of Berserk Mode consciously and of her own volition. She goes really, really crazy with it.
• One Piece: Luffy during the Marineford Arc.
  • Anytime Luffy gets sufficiently angry (to the point where he stops smiling completely and gives blank angry looks to everyone) he tends to only stop because he's run out of people to beat the crap out of.
  • Chopper's Monster Point form is initially this: after transforming, he becomes a mindless beast that will smash anyone in front of him, foe or ally, regardless of how much damage he takes. This becomes averted after the Time Skip, since Chopper learns how to remain in full control even when transformed.
• Overlord (2012) deconstructs this with Shalltear Bloodfallen. Due to her Blood Frenzy passive ability, as more fresh blood spills on her, she becomes stronger but more irrational and reckless. Her frenzied state ultimately led to her becoming Brainwashed and Crazy by a weak enemy using the World Item Downfall of Castle and Country, which overrides her usual vampiric immunity to mind-altering statuses. It was all she could do to kill the enemy before receiving any orders, and thus simply stood there idly after the "fight."
• Dawn's Mamoswine in Pokémon: The Series, arguably even worse than Ash's Charizard in its inability to follow orders, and Iris's Dragonite takes it to an art form. Both eventually learned to listen to their trainers.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Sayaka fights like this at the apex of her mental breakdown; nullifying her body's ability to feel pain, rushing headlong and tanking whatever the enemy throws at her, reducing it to a bloody mess, and then healing off the damage afterwards. This does bad things to her Soul Gem, and when she refuses to cleanse it, it starts the downward spiral that ultimately turns her into a witch.
• Annelotte Kreutz becomes this whenever her demon side comes out in Queen's Blade Rebellion. In the original series, Tomoe ventured here after she was forced to fight her best friend Shizuka to the death.
• Ranma ½: Ranma's "Cat Fist" mode is probably meant to be a form of berserk state. He starts to think he's a cat and attacks any threat with an Unstoppable Rage. (The original Norse Berserkers were said to believe themselves to be bears in the heat of action, hence the name — "berserk = "bear shirt".)
• Orson from Record of Lodoss War is an authentic berserker. He's generally The Stoic, since the emotional catharsis of his rage makes it difficult for him to feel, but hurt someone he cares for, especially his Tsundere partner Shiris... and well, see what happens. Notably, Orson as a name is derived from the Latin for "bear".
• Rurouni Kenshin: Kenshin's "Battousai" state where he reverts to the cold-hearted killer from the revolution.
• Virtually the entire main male cast of Samurai Deeper Kyo.
• In the first two seasons, Hibiki Tachibana of Symphogear could become a berserker. Due to being fused with her Gungnir Relic, if her emotions ever went out of control, she would enter a state that was outright labeled the Berserk state, with messy results.
• Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. 'Give up' is not a word in his vocabulary, nor is 'tactics', 'sound judgment', or 'subtlety'.
  • To a lesser extent, everyone else, even the bad guys!
    • Oh, yeah, you think they're Hot-Blooded... and then you go and hurt Nia. Cue people punching your minions through the boundaries of space-time and blowing up your space armadas with the sheer power of their awesomeness.
• In Tokyo Shinobi Squad, the normally stoic and stern Taiga becomes this in combat, tearing up everything in a building and nearly tossing En out a glass elevator by accident until Jin reels him back in. Lampshaded by Jin.
  Jin: En, watch this. Our friend here looks coolheaded, but when he gets into a fight... he's more savage than anyone.
• Aleksei Amigochaz from Tower of God got himself some notoriety by behaving like this on the second floor.
• Venus Versus Virus's Sumire is a berserker, in guess what? Her Berserker mode.
• Bjorn in Vinland Saga, apart from being a Berserker, is also a real berserkr. After eating a special mushroom he flies into an uncontrollable fury, and is able to rip apart multiple enemies with his bare hands. Problem is he has a habit of killing his own men at the same time, just as any true berserker would. His name even means bear in Nordic languages.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Kaiser, once he realizes he doesn't have much time left anyway, and Judai, when the desire to find Johan completely overrides his reason.
  • The monster Elemental Hero Wildheart and his fusions tend to exemplify the concept, doing things like ignoring/destroying traps, attacking all enemies in one go, etc.
• Koululu from Zatch Bell! becomes a berserker in the truest sense of the word when her spells are activated.

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