Guts then sees a newly reconstituted Griffith, yet could not attack him due to Casca while the others use the Apostle's appearance to flee as a Kushan legion arrives. Schierke begins to teach Farnese magic and dampens the effects of the sacrificial brands on Guts and Casca via magical seals.

In 2002, Berserk earned Miura the Award for Excellence at the sixth installment of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, being awarded along with Takehiko Inoue, who won the Grand Prize for Vagabond. Campbell also commented: "The closest thing visually that Berserk could be compared to might be Claymore, another very good manga—but really Berserk is on a plain of its own. The first volume of Dark Horse's deluxe edition was one of the highest-selling manga volumes of 2022. For this reason, Mori initially concluded that it would be impossible to keep the series going without Miura, but he changed his mind after meeting with the members of Studio Gaga, who had worked under Miura, to perfect the unfinished last Berserk chapter that Miura had worked on. Carl Kimlinger, writing for ANN, in his review of the thirty-fifth volume, compared Guts' "monster-plagued" trip to Elfhelm to the fantasy tales of Robert E.In a 2023 interview, on the occasion of the 42nd volume release, Mori commented that Miura "was a manga genius bursting with talent," and that "[h]e had an eagerness to see things through to the end as well as an outstanding ability to paint, conceive stories and employ narrative devices effectively. Flora gives Guts a dangerous relic known as the Berserker Armor, which increases his physical capability with the added risk of being consumed by his inner darkness.

Two years later, after having killed many Apostles and earning the nickname of "the Black Swordsman", Guts is joined by an elf named Puck. Griffith slowly starts to drift away from his comrades as the gets closer and closer to his dreams and we get to see what effects this has, both on Guts but also on Casca and the rest of the Band. Guts is a lone warrior who was born from a hanged corpse and raised as a mercenary by his abusive adoptive father Gambino after the death of his adoptive mother, Shisu. Miura stated that he based the Band of the Hawk on his own high school friend relationship experience.

Serpico retrieves a traumatized Farnese and escorts her back to their camp, allowing Guts a reprieve despite Farnese's demand to have him killed. Matt Fagaly, writing for Crunchyroll, analyzed Berserk 's use of shōnen and shōjo manga tropes in the Lost Children arc (volumes 14–16), which resulted in an "entirely original and moving narrative.

In Albion, with the surrounding refugee camp in utter disarray from the starved and over-populated masses, Mozgus begins his task in the Tower of Conviction where "sinful" beggars are tortured. Only the knights' herald Serpico gives chase, before finding himself surrounded by pursuing spirits.A lone swordsman named Guts walks into an inn where a group of bandits are tormenting an elf named Puck and a red-haired youth. In June 2016, Hakusensha's Jets Comics imprint was rebranded as Young Animal Comics, and the first thirty-seven volumes of Berserk were re-published with new cover arts.