So the Berserk Guidebook book came out last month and several days ago a generous fan posted some of the character information contained in it here, which included the apparent ages of many main and supporting characters. Ever since then I’ve been mulling over the purported character ages and while some of them definitely fit and/or are likely accurate, others are also definitely unfitting and/or likely inaccurate. Now I realize that the Guidebook wasn’t necessarily compiled by Kentaro Miura, and could have easily been done by some random Young Animal/Hakusensha staff or intern who just guestimated the stats, but even so I decided to do a full skim/reread of Berserk (relying primarily on my Dark Horse volumes and some skullknight.net translations for further reference) with a focus on noting every single reference to character ages and the passage of time in the series in order to compare and accurately estimate how old the characters are in the most recent Episodes of the manga (i.e. Episode 347) and how much time in general has passed as well. Now to be clear, I am fully aware that these sorts of statistics are generally largely insignificant in regards to how important they are to the narrative and character writing, and even Miura himself likely doesn’t put too much value in pedantically tracking exactly how much time passes in his story (which I found evident in some of the occasional date inconsistencies in my reread of the series). However, I personally find such minute character details and the analysis of said details to be an enjoyable aspect of my engagement with the series. Basically I found over the course of my read through that the best way to keep track of the passage of time and character ages (beyond explicit reference to them) was to analyze them relative to both the depicted seasons (and the moon’s lunar phases)and to the two characters whose ages were/are the easiest to directly discern: Guts and surprisingly Princess Charlotte. Without further ado (my intro has already gone on long enough) let’s begin the timeline and character ages analysis/estimation under the cut (FYI terms that are underlined are linked to their relevant manga Episodes and/or images).
Start: The Golden Age Arc
Now the best place to start the in the timeline is in the first Episode of Volume 4 titled, The Golden Age Chapter 2, here Guts’ age was stated by Gambino (before Guts accidentally kills him in self-defense) to be at least 11 years old. The subsequent Episode, The Golden Age Chapter 3, concluded with a timeskip of 4 years, meaning Guts was at least 15 years old when he first joined up with the Band of the Hawk (I know it’s more accurately Falcon but I’m sticking with Hawk for consistency with the Dark Horse translations and it just rolls off the tongue easier IMO). Now the next two character ages I am going to estimate are Casca and Rickert’s (Griffith, Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus’ estimates will come later). Based on Casca’s flashback in Episode 17 and Episode 18, Casca states that she was already a veteran of the Band of the Hawk when Guts first joined up with them, so based on that and how Miura was drawing her character then, I am going to go with the Guidebook and estimate that Casca is approximately the same age as Guts and was about at least 15 when he joined. Now with Rickert, (the Episode The Golden Age Chapter 8 has some of the best full body images of him) we see over the course of Volumes 4 and 5 that he was already participating in battles with of the Band of the Hawk (armored and using a crossbow) and the previously mentioned Episode 17 showed that the young boy who was part of Band of the Hawk whose death weighed on Griffith’s conscious was about 10 years old. Based on these facts, IMO Rickert was likely at youngest 10 years old when Guts joined the Band of the Hawk. The season that Guts killed Gambino and joined the Band of the Hawk aren’t particularly relevant but I can best estimate (for posterity’s sake) that both of them took place during non-winter months.
The next timeskip occurred in Episode 1 in which it is stated that about 3 years have passed since Guts joined the Hawks. Thus we can confidently say both Guts and Casca were about 18 years old and Rickert was at youngest 13 years old. The next Episode that referenced the passage of time was Episode 7, in it Minister Foss stated that the Autumn Hunt was coming up soon and along with the depicted weather and environments I think we can determine that it was about early autumn at that point in narrative. Now the amount of time that passed between Episodes 1 and 7 is relatively vague, the main events that occurred between them was Griffith’s knighting and the first encounter with Nosferatu Zodd. Now based on the drawn environments of Episode 1 and taking into account that likely some time needed to have passed for Guts and Griffith’s injuries from Zodd to have significantly healed, I’m guessing that Episode 1 took place sometime during the middle-to-end of summer, and that maybe 1-2 months passed between Griffith’s knighting and the Autumn Hunt. The next major timeline event was in Episode 13, when the Band of the Hawk gets deployed in the war campaign to take Doldrey (this is indicated to have occurred relatively soon after the Autumn Hunt, likely a few to several days IMO). Also in Episode 13 Princess Charlotte is stated to be about 16 years old.
The next major point of character age information comes in Episode 16, when Casca describes how she first joined the Band of the Hawk, in it she states that she was 12 years old at the time. And this here is where one of my first points of contention with the Guidebook’s age information (specifically for Griffith’s current age in the most recent Episodes, and Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus’ age when they were killed) comes from, as Griffith, Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus IMO all definitely look and act older than 12 years old. Furthermore Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus also all have explicitly stated character histories of what they did before they joined with the Band of the Hawk, Judeau worked with a traveling entertainment troupe, Pippin used to work in a mine, and Corkus previously used to lead a band of thieves. Based on that Griffith, Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus all must have been older than Casca when she first joined (and IMO Pippin and Corkus were likely significantly older). Thus my guestimates for how old Griffith, Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus were when Casca first joined are thus: Griffith and Judeau were about 14-15 years old (2-3 years older), Pippin was about 15-17 years old (3-5 years older), and Corkus was about 16-18 years old (4-6 years older). Pippin and Corkus being older than Judeau is based on a combination of their overall character design/look and histories and the Guidebook listing Pippin as being older than Judeau, and Corkus being older than Pippin.
Thus the major Band of the Hawk of members’ ages were at the beginning of Episode 1: Guts and Casca (18), Griffith and Judeau (20-21), Rickert (13), Pippin (21-23), and Corkus (22-24).
The next major point of character age information and time passage reference occurred in Episode 37 and Episode 39. The former, Episode 37 began on the evening of the very day Guts left the Hawks, when Griffith visited Princess Charlotte in her chambers she stated that it had been half a year ago since the day Griffith and the Hawks left for the Doldrey war campaign. The latter, Episode 39 took place immediately after Griffith was imprisoned by the King of Midland, in said Episode both Griffith and the King explicitly stated that Princess Charlotte was now 17 years old (meaning her birthday must have occurred in the last half year).Based on the snowy scenery of Guts departure, and since it was likely approximately early (or mid) autumn when Doldrey war campaign departed, it can be concluded that Episode 40, the final Episode before the next timeskip, took place sometime around the end of winter or the very beginning of spring.
Thus we can guestimate major Band of the Hawk of members’ ages were when Guts left them: Guts and Casca (18 years and 6-8 months), Griffith and Judeau (20-21 years and 6-8 months), Rickert (13 years and 6-8 months), Pippin (21-23 years and 6-8 months), and Corkus (22-24 years and 6-8 months).
The very next Episode reveals that a timeskip of about 1 year has passed. Based on the various scenery and environmental depictions from Episode 41 (the first Episode after the timeskip) to Episode 90 (which takes place about four days after The Eclipse). A sample of said scenery and environmental depictions can be seen here in Episode 46 (warning very NSFW images accompany said Episode environments), evidence that flowering is already occurring in Episode 59, and more environments in Episode 90. Thus, I personally believe that it is very unlikely that the aforementioned span of Episodes took place around end of winter/beginning of spring. Rather, I think said Episodes likely took place during late spring or early summer, meaning that the timeskip of about 1 year was likely specifically a year and a few months (we’ll say 3-4 months to represent the passage of a season). Now there is one aspect of the these Episodes I am a little muddled on, so based on statements and scenery from Episodes 49, 62, 67, and 72, one can precisely calculate that from the departure of the “Griffith Rescue Squad” to the very moments before start of the Eclipse, about 5 days passed. After the Eclipse, Guts is then bedridden for 4 days then spends another day running/grieving. Casca then has her extremely premature birth (in Episode 92) of the Demon Infant right before the crack of dawn of the very next day, which means about 10 days had passed since the departure of the “Griffith Rescue Squad”. Now while the Skull Knight describes the Demon Infant as a fetus, it’s likely not meant to be taken literally (as fetuses require 12 weeks of gestation and Casca was definitely not 12 weeks pregnant), but I had previously thought that since the Demon Infant was similar in size to an embryo, Casca might have possibly been about 5 weeks pregnant (not sure if these two pages from Episode 71 are meant to imply that Casca realizes that she is pregnant). However, during my reread I realized these three pages from Episode 49 were likely meant to imply that Guts and Casca’s “intimate moment” had only just occurred the day before, meaning Casca could have at most been 11 days pregnant (and that’s assuming very immediate fertilization/implantation). Now if you wanted to really stretch the possible interpretation of the Episode 49 pages, you could argue that Guts and Casca had been having multiple“intimate moments” for about a month since their first time and that Casca was just sore from their most recent copulation, but again that’s really stretching the possible interpretation when it’s more likely that Miura didn’t care about being super pedantic about the details of human gestation when he had Casca give premature birth to a supernatural demon infant.
So based on the previous paragraphs we can guestimate that by the time of the Eclipse Judeau died when he was about 21¾-23 years old, Pippin when he was about 22¾-25 years old, and Corkus when he was about 23¾-26 years old.
As for the living characters, another span of time passes after The Eclipse but before the very end of the Golden Age Arc (i.e. Episode 94). Based on Guts’ statements in Episode 93, along with taking into consideration the time it would take for Guts’ wounds to heal and Godo’s crafting time on the initial sword (that broke) he forged for Guts, about a couple months (at a minimum of slightly more than 1 month) likely passed since The Eclipse. That estimation along with scenery and environments of Episodes 93 and 94, I think it is fair to infer that the very end of Golden Age Arc took place during the middle (possibly near the end) of summer.
That means Guts and Casca were about 20 years old (or at least a couple months, at most, away from being 20), Griffith/Femto about 22-23 years old (or at least a couple months, at most, away from being either 22 or 23, if his age even really matters anymore after his transformation), Rickert about 15 years old (or at least a couple months, at most, away from being 15), and Princess Charlotte about 18⅓-18½ years old (Erica’s age and arguably unchanging design I’ll discuss later in this analysis) at the very end of the Golden Age Arc.
Golden Age Arc Ends
Conviction Arc Begins:Lost Children Chapter Begins
Now that we’re past the Golden Age Arc, our analysis of the Berserk timeline and character ages gets both easier and harder in many respects. Smaller specific passages of time occur more frequently and the moon’s (which has always had recurring symbolism throughout the series) lunar phases become more important in determining the passage of time. However, this also where Miura starts to get a little inconsistent, if not outright contradictory at times, in his depictions and indications of the passages of time. As such, my subsequent analyses won’t always be as linear in terms of progression through the manga, so some jumping around in terms of narrative chronology will occur at times.
After the end of theGolden Age Arc in Episode 94, the Conviction Arc begins with an explicit timeskip of “two years later” stated in the middle of Episode 95. Now based on the depiction of the environment and weather throughout the Episodes of the Lost Children Chapter and Bind Chain Chapter (where one can deduce both Chapters took place over the course of about 5 days, supported by Jill’s narration in Episode 117) one would already likely assume that these Chapters occur during Autumn. Thankfully we also get explicit confirmation from Puck in Episode 108, that said Chapters occurred during Autumn. Therefore, since we previously concluded that the very end of the Golden Age arc likely tookplace during the middle to possibly the end of summer, we can confidently say that the“two years later” timeskip was more accurately 2 years and a few months (let’s say about 2-4 months). Also while not of huge importance (in regards to determining the timeline placement) Guts’ fight with Rosine took place during a waxing gibbous moon, which can be seen throughout Episode 113(though the lunar phases depicted in the manga will become more important later in the manga for determining the passage of time).
Episode 125,the final Episode of the Binding Chain Chapter then marked the endpoint before the next (though comparatively smaller) significant passage of time. As such we can deduce that ages of the major characters at said point were:Guts and Casca were at least about 22 years old, Griffith at least about 24-25 years old, Rickert at least about 17 years old, and Princess Charlotte at least about 20½ years old.
This is also a good time to establish the ages of Farnese de Vandimion and Serpico. As established in Volume 22, in the Episode“Of Snow and Flames/Final Act” (FYI the two “Of Snow and Flames”were originally published in Young Animal as Episodes 177-178, but when collected in Volume 22 were arranged as if they were Episodes 185-186 (for narrative purposes I assume)) Farnese was already 16 years old before she was sent to the monastery, while Serpico was about 17 years old (since the previous Episode"Of Snow and Flames/First Act", stated that Serpico was Farnese’s older half-brother, I think it’s reasonable to follow the Guidebook’s example of having Serpico be about 1 year older than Farnese). Based on the depiction of the environment and weather depicted in the Episode before Farnese is sent to monastery, I think it reasonable to assume that it was early Autumn when Farnese (and Serpico) were sent to the monastery (since it would reasonably likely take at least a month or two before Farnese was made the leader of the Holy Iron Chain Knights). Furthermore, within the same Episode,it was also established that it was during the winter of that year, soon after Farnese assumed her leadership title, Serpico and Farnese ended up burning Serpico’s mother at the stake. And there are multiple references during the Birth Ceremony Chapter of the Conviction Arc and the beginning of the Holy Demon War Chapter of the Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc (which I will soon show took place during Winter) such as Episodes 143, 152 and theEpisode “Of Snow and Flames/Final Act” that state that the winter Serpico’s mother was burned took place 3 years prior. Ergo, by the end of the Binding Chain Chapter Farnese and Serpico were at least about 19 and 20 years old respectively.
Episode 129 is the next point in the manga where we can accurately deduce the passage of time since the end of Episode 125, which if you need a reminder explicitly took place during Autumn. Based on both the depicted snowy environment/weather and Puck’s dialogue at the beginning of the Episode (and dialogue from refugees at the Tower of Conviction in Episode 135, which occurs a few days later chronologically), I think it is safe to say that Guts returned to Rickert, Erica, Godo during the early winter (meaning likely 1½-3 months passed). Now keep with me here, as I am going to jump around a bit, in Episode 131, right after Guts begins his 3 day trek to the Tower of Conviction the narrative jumps back 1 month previous to when Farnese, Serpico, and Azan are escorting Mozgus tothe Tower of Conviction (it is implied that Farnese had been taken off tracking the Black Swordsman a while ago, I’d guess at least half-a-month ago). During this Episode Azan states that “several days prior” is when the Kushan Empire invaded Midland, which we saw depicted back in Episode 127. This is a very important event/date narrative-wise, as many future references to the passage of time in the series refer back to how long it has been since the Kushan invaded; anyways based on Azan’s statement, that means nearly1½ months before Guts’ departure tothe Tower of Conviction (which we’ve already established likely took place during early winter) is when the Midland was invaded by the Kushan Empire, which means we can safely say that the Kushan Empire invaded Midland sometime during the middle-to-end of Autumn.
While not super important to determining the timeline placement and/or character ages, there are a couple interesting tidbits of information gleaned from the Birth Ceremony Chapter I’d thought I mention. One, according to Isidro in Episode 146, it hadbeen about a year since he ran away from his village; and secondly, the mock-Eclipse took place during the night of a full moon (which is expected but it is nice to have explicit visual confirmation in Episode 167).
Conviction Arc Ends
Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc Begins: The Holy Demon War Chapter Begins
Okay, since our analysis is now at the beginning of the Chapter of the Holy Demon War of The Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc (it’sfirst Episode, “The Rent World”, taking place about several days after Guts’ departure to the Tower of Conviction), I think it would be a good time to recheck what the ages of our major characters (whose ages are discernible at this point) are at the beginning of Volume 22, which takes place still during early winter (meaning likely a few months since the Lost Children Chapter in Episode 95). Guts and Casca were at least about 22¼ years old,Griffith at least about 24¼-25¼ years old, Farnese at least about 19¼ years old, Serpico at least about 20¼ years old,Rickert at least about 17¼ years old, and Princess Charlotte at least about 20¾ years old.
The next point in the manga that indicated the passage of time was be the “Winter Journey”Episodes 187 and 188at the beginning of Volume 23. So based on the names of said Episodes (and depiction of the weather/environment in them) we can assuredly say that this part of the manga took place during the winter (presumably the same winter that the Birth Ceremony Chapter occurred during, as there is no evidence to assume otherwise, but it is also not impossible for it to be a winter that’s 1 year later ). Though thanks to the first page of Episode 188, depicting a full moon we do know at least 1 month has to have passed since Griffith’s incarnation (which also occurred during a full moon) at the end of the Conviction Arc, meaning we’re well into at least the middle of winter by said Episode. This would also be the time that the events of the Sega Dreamcast game took place during, if you want to consider it.
Now it’s after Episode 188 when things start to get a little tricky to determine the passage and/or Miura’s timeline inconsistencies start getting noticeable. To explain how much time passes from between the end of Episode 188 to Episode 199 (or perhaps more accurately to the 17th page of Episode 196), I’m going to have to jump around for a bit and reference some Episodes from later Volumes. Remember how earlier ago I said Episode 127marked an important date/event in the Berserk timeline since it depicted when the Kushan Empire invaded Midland (and we were also able to establish that said event likely took place during the middle-to-end of Autumn)? Well this is where that event gets important in determining the rest of the Berserk timeline and how it’s arranged.
Basically the Kushan Empire invaded Midland during the same year that Guts was forced to finish his wanderings as the Black Swordsman (which we determined was moreaccurately 2 years and a few month) and the Conviction Arc events occurred, let’s designate this calendar year“Year 2″, with“Year 0″ referring to the calendar year that The Eclipse and Griffith’s transformation into Femto took place in (which we have previously estimated likely occurred during the late spring-to-early summer). And thanks to two separate explicitly stated lines of dialogues from two separate characters in the manga (specifically from Volume 29 and Volume 32) and Kentaro Miura’s letter to Skullknight.net (that was sent in March of 2009 and answered in April of 2009, the most recent Episode released then would have been Episode 301) we know definitivelythat the Kushan invasion/occupation of Midland (and later Holy See territories/countries) lasted “years” plural (so based on Miura’s answer let’s say 2 years). The two lines of dialogue in the manga supporting this estimation of time came from the characters: Mule Wolflame, in theEpisode“Homing” (originally published in Young Animal as Episode 258, but when collected in Volume 29 was arranged as if it were Episodes 250, again for narrative purposes I assume), where he lectures Sonia to empathize with Princess Charlotte exclaiming, “How tormented must she have been…by loneliness and anxiety, alone for years amongst the enemy?” and Sir Owen, in Episode 285, where he chastises the other former Midland nobles,“Whatever excuses we may offer…the truth is that we have spent these years away from our own land, hiding ourselves in various countries.” Furthermore, since the events of both of those episodes occur within a few-to-several days of each other and likely take place during the very beginning of spring (which I’ll explain later in the analysis), said Episodes also have to take place in“Year 5″ of our calendar, 2 years and 4-5 months after the Kushan invasion of Midland.
So how does this relate back tohow much time passes from between the end of Episode 188 to Episode 199 (or perhaps more accurately to the 17th page of Episode 196) and why does it make Kentaro Miura’s depiction of the passage of time seem inconsistent/wonky? Well that’s because those 2+ years of time passage during the Kushan occupation/invasion have to take place over the course of those 8-11 Episodes, a lot of it having to occur “off-screen” and/or literally between the pages of some of the Episodes with very little explicit indication by the narrative. And the reason why said span of Episodes is the only place the 2+ years of Kushan occupation can take place is because the events that take place during Enoch Village (during Volumes 24-27), which are explicitly stated to take place during the winter (meaning the winter of “Years 4-5″ of our calendar), can at most occur 2-3 months before the events of Volumes 29-32 (the details of why that is I’ll explain later in this meta).
Now back to the analysis of the timeline of the Episodes immediately following Episode 188. As I stated before, the full moon at thebeginning of Episode 188indicates that the beginning of said Episode takes place at least 1 (lunar) month after the Mock Eclipse (and likely no more than 2-3 months since it’s still winter throughout the rest of the Episode, presuming it’s the same winter as the Birth Ceremony Chapter winter). During this Episode Guts ends up getting temporarily possessed by evil spirits during one of their sleepless nights and as a result ends up attacking Casca. This quite understandably results in Guts losing what little trust/affection he had built up with Casca in her then current non-lucid state. Guts, not being able to think of anything option, resorts to binding Casca in rope in order to be able to get her to travel in the right direction and for Guts to be able to keep her stationary during the night while fighting of spectres and other evil spirits. This makes Guts’ travels even more fatigue/stress inducing than they already were (as he reflects on during the beginning of Episode 189). Now, technically any amount of time up to a maximum of a little less than 2 years (since the exact amount implied is ambiguous)could have passed between Episode 188 to the start of the events of Episodes 189-191(specifically page 4 of Episode 189 to page 11 of Episode 191), which for those who do not recall is when Farnese, Serpico, and Isidro join Guts, Casca, and Puck on their travels. However, due to the fact that Guts was at his limit in terms of his fatigue (and his struggles with his Beast of Darkness desires/personality) and the unlikeliness that Farnese, Serpico and Isidro could keep on Guts’ trail but without catching up to him for 1-2 years,I can’t reasonably imagine more than 1-2 months passing between Episode 188 and Episodes 189-191. Also due the depicted environment of Episodes 189-191 being definitely not-summer, but also likely no longer (the middle of) winter, Farnese, Serpico, and Isidro joining Guts about 3 months after the Mock Eclipse would fit with the season being the end of winter/beginning of spring (of “Year 3″ of our calendar).
This would mean at this point in the manga the (discernible) ages of our major characters would have been:Guts and Casca were at least about 22½ years old, Griffith at least about 24½-25½ years old, Farnese at least about 19½ years old, Serpico at least about 20½ years old, Rickert at least about 17½ years old, and Princess Charlotte at least about 21 years old. And if we accept from the Berserk Guidebook that Isidro and Sonia’scurrent ages in the most recent Episodes are about 14 and 15 years old respectively (i.e. Episode 347), they would have been about 12 and 13 years old respectively by Episode 191.
The following group of Episodes, 191-195 (specifically page 12 of Episode 189 to the 4th to last page of Episode 195) chronicles Mule Wolflame’s first encounter (and subsequent joining) with Griffith and his Neo-Band of the Hawk/Falcon. Based on the environment/weather depicted in these Episodes I’d say they with take place during the seasons of either early spring or mid-to-late autumn. Also, page 14 of Episode 191, is where we get one of our first (and unfortunately not last) examples of Miura writing an explicit inconsistency/contradiction with the discernible timeline in Berserk. On the aforementioned page Mule Wolflame and one of his soldiers converse saying:
Mule:“B-but I’ve heard that Count Griffith died! That three years ago he was arrested for treason and died in prison…”
Lumias Soldier:“It is also said that he was rescued by his men and escaped the capital.”
Now this creates an inconsistency since based on our earlier analysis, at this point in the timeline, Griffith’s arrest (which would have taken place during the end of winter/beginning of spring during“Year -1″ of our calendar), would have taken place about 4 years (if not a few months more if this takes place during autumn) ago not 3. Even if we were to say the events of Episodes 191-195 were still taking place during the middle of winter, it would only take a couple months off (meaning the most recent Griffith’s arrest could have taken place would be 3⅚ years ago, and it’s hard to rationalize why one wouldn’t round up to 4 in that case). Now if dialogue/Dark Horse translation was merely unclear and Mule was actually referring to how long ago it was when Griffith“died”/escaped the capital, and assuming Episode 191-195 were taking place during autumn,“three years ago” would be a reasonably accurate statement (since that event was estimated to have taken place during end of spring/beginning of summer during“Year 0″). So IMO the best way to rationalize/deal with this inconsistency/contradiction is either assume Miura wasn’t keeping pedantically close track of his manga series chronology and meant/should have written 4 years ago, or the dialogue is meant to be referring towhen Griffith “died”/escaped the capital, in which case“three years ago” still works. Basically that was an extremely lengthy way of explaining why I think Episodes 191-195 took place during“Year 3″ of our calendar (during eitherend of winter/beginning of spring or autumn).
The passage of time that takes place throughout, between, and by the end ofEpisode 195 and Episode 196 (or morespecifically the 3rd to last page of Episode 195 to the 4thto last page of Episode 196), based on our previous analysis/calculations, covers the span of more than 1¾ years (despite the lack of explicit narrative references to that amount of time passing during these Episodes). So by the time the Guts and co. reach the old highway mountain pass (which leads to the events in Enoch Village, which are stated to take place during the winter), as stated previously the best estimated date would be early-to-mid winter of“Years 4-5″ of our calendar by the end of Episode 196.
The events that take place in Enoch Village and Flora’s Spirit Tree Mansion are depicted in Volumes 24-27 (specifically Episodes 197-229) and take place over the course of few days. Despite it being winter (of “Years 4-5″ of our calendar)during these Episodes (as stated explicitly in Episode 199 and Episode 203) it’s not quite as snowy in terms of depicted environment/weather, so perhaps Guts and co.’s journey has taken them further south in the Holy See lands (which I suppose makes sense if Vritannis draws inspiration from Italy). Episode 199, despite it containing a confirmation of it being winter, unfortunately also contains another example of one of Miura’s inconsistencies (though thankfully this one is much easier to rationalize). During Episode 199 Morgan, the old man from Enoch village, states that the trolls started appearing in the mountains and forests surrounding Enoch village on the first night of winter (i.e. the winter solstice). Based on both the specific dialogue and paneling of the pagewhen Morgan’s recounts his tale, one would assume that the“cursed night” would be referring to the night (or night after) of the Mock-Eclipse and Griffith’s incarnation, however we know that cannot be true thanks to our previous timeline analysis. So while it’s not an explicit contradiction, since it can be rationalized that Morgan is just referring to the winter solstice of“Year 4″, I think it is evidence that Miura wasn’t being super pedantic about his timeline consistency (which to be clear I don’t expect him to be to this degree).
After Episode 229 next timeskip that occurs is explicitly stated in Episode 236, in which“almost a month” has passed. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the night depicted in Episodes 236-243 takes place at least during the middle-to-latter half of winter (if not late winter).
(interesting bit of trivia for those curious, originally when published in Young Animal Episode 236 stated that Guts and co. had only been“laid up” for about a little more than a week, which is consistent with the waxing crescent moon he drew in Episode 201, but later changed it to “almost a month” when the Episode was collected in Volume 27, accidentally creating a lunar phase calendar inconsistency)
Also the full moon that occurs in Episodes 236-243 also tells us that the events that occur during Episodes 230-235, occur a few days before the former Episodes since final page of Episode 235 depict that the night of Princess Charlotte’s rescue was on a night of a nearly full waxing gibbous moon.
The next locale the narrative travels to is the city of Vritannis. The events depicted in this city are covered by Episodes 244-285 (with Guts and co. departing on Roderick’s ship in Episode 278). Originally I had assumed that the final pages of Episode 243 depicted the port-city of Vritannis in the distance (and thus only a day or two away in terms of traveling time). However, during my reread of the series I discovered that either I was mistaken, or Miura created another inconsistency in his timeline (I prefer to think it’s the former). As while Guts and co. did indeed spend some time in Vritannis (a few to several days at most), the full moon depicted in Episode 264 (when the The Pontiff of the Holy See is greeted by Sonia and Mule) indicates that at least 1 month (at most 2, since Guts still needs to be fatigued by his not fully healed wounds when they arrive in Vritannis and/or more than 2 months would put us pass the beginning of spring of “Year 5″, which Serpico states is the season during their time in Vritannis the Episode “Mother” ) has passed since the full moon of Episodes 236-243 (though admittedly this is at slight odds with the waxing crescent moon depicted in Episode 261, but IMO the greater explicit imagery of the full moon in Episode 264 trumps the significance of the moon imagery in Episode 261, meaning I’ll go with the assumption/reading that the Episode 264 moon is the more “canon” one).
Addendum: Thanks to some recent discussions with the admins at skullknight.net, I became aware that the waxing crescent moon appeared not only in Episode 261, but also Episode 257 (collected in Volume 30 as if it was Episode 258). Due to this new information and taking into consideration the fact that The Pontiff in Episode 264 had just woken from a God Hand-influence dream/vision (thus the full moon he saw could have been adramatic and dream-like effect), I have come to the new conclusion that the waxing crescent moon is the“canon” one. Therefore, this indicates that at least 2-3 weeks, i.e. ⅝ of a month,(at most 1⅝ months,since Guts still needs to be fatigued by his not fully healed wounds when they arrive in Vritannis and/or more than 1⅝months would put us pass the beginning of spring of “Year 5″, which Serpico states is the season during their time in Vritannis the Episode “Mother”)have passed since the full moon of Episodes 236-243.
Since the night of the attack on Vritannis is explicitly stated to have occurred during the beginning of spring of“Year 5″ (meaning about 3 months have passed since early winter, which is earliest/maximum amount of time prior the events inEpisodes 197-229 could have taken place), IMO this marks a good place reevaluate the ages of our major characters.
At this point in the manga,Episodes 244-285, the (discernible) ages of our major characters would have been: Guts and Casca were at least about 24½ years old, Griffith at least about 26½-27½ years old, Farnese at least about 21½ years old, Serpico at least about 22½ years old, Rickert at least about 19½ years old, and Princess Charlotte at least about 23 years old. Isidro, Schierke, Sonia, and Mule Wolflame are all likely about at least their Guidebook ages (of 13, 14, 15, and 17 years old) at this point as well, since the most recent Episodes (Episodes 332-341 and Episode 342-347) can at most take place 2-3 months after Episode 285.
The next significant blocks of time passage in manga occurs during Episodes 286-291 and then Episodes 292-307. The first span of Episodes 286-291 cover the events of Guts and his companions initial journey on Roderick’s Seahhorse to Skellig Island (specifically these are depicted Episodes 286-290), and the contiguous events occurring in Windham where Sir Laban and Minister Foss and the rest of the Windham Resistance learn about the Neo-Band of the Hawk/Falcon victories and the oracle dream forewarning them about Emperor Ganishka’s second reincarnation and the coming of Fantasia. The dates of Episodes 290 and 291 are both indicated by occurring on nights of waxing crescent moons, which means that about three weeks (or ⅝ of a month) Addendum: 1 monthhas passed since the night depicted in Volumes 30-32(though as I’ll mention later it is possible that Miura made a typo and meant draw waning crescent moons instead of waxing ones, which would instead mean that about ¾ of a month, i.e. a little more than 3 weeks, has passed). Another fact stated in Episode 291 related to the Berserk timeline is that night when Ganishka reincarnated himself occurred during the night of a new moon, which means the events of Episodes 292-307 occurred about ⅞ of a month after the events of Episodes 286-291 (or to put it another way about 1½Addendum:1⅞months passed from the end of Episode 285, to the events of Episodes 292-307 (i.e. the fusing of the Astral World and Physical Worlds).
Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc Ends
Fantasia Arc Begins: Elf Island Chapter Begins
The next passage of time starts with the events depicted over the course of Episode 308/Episode 311 to Episode 328 (originally published in Young Animal as Episode 331, but when collected in Volume 29 was arranged as if it were Episodes 328, again for narrative purposes I assume), which for those who may not recall is the battle with the Sea God and Isma’s joining of the party. These events essentially took place over the course of 24 hours and explicitly ended on the night of a full moon. That means about 2monthsAddendum: 2⅜months have passed since Guts and his companions left Vritannis in Episode 278 (unless, as I stated before, Miura made a typo during Episodes 290 and 291 and meant to draw a waning crescent moon instead of a waxing crescent moon, in which case about 1monthAddendum: 1⅜ monthswould have passed since then). Episode 311 perhaps contains one of Miura’s most blatant and confounding timeline contradictions/inconsistencies, which is where Roderick states that’s their previous encounter with Captain Bonebeard and his pirate crew (before they had been turned into Sea God tentacle-whiskers) occurred “just a few days ago”. This is impossible, regardless of whether Miura meant to meant to draw a waning crescent moon instead of a waxing crescent moon in Episode 290 (which makes the difference between the last encounter having been ⅝ of a month ago or 1⅜ months ago), as the Seahorse’s previous encounter with the pirates had to have occurred before the new moon (i.e. the night before the Blast of the Astral World occurred) which is more than half a month prior either way. So Roderick’s statement just doesn’t add up any way you look at it. So IMO the solution is to either ignore the veracity of the statement, assume Roderick’s usage of the term “just a few days ago” applies to spans of multiple weeks, and/or assume that the Seahorse had some second “off-screen” encounter with the pirates after the Blast of the Astral World.Addendum: Thanks to some recent discussions with the admins at skullknight.net, I became aware that one way to rationalize Roderick’s statement in Episode 311 would be to assume that the battle with the pirates in Episodes 308-311, took place a couple days after the Blast of the Astral World, which would still fit in within a “few days” since Episode 290 (though it does require us to assumeMiura meant to meant to draw a waning crescent moon instead of a waxing crescent moon in Episode 290). And then since the Island of the Sea God wasn’t in sight of the Seahorse after the battle in Episode 311, it could bereasonable to assume that it took them a couple of weeks of travel to get there.Basically sometime would elapse (about a little less than ½ a month)between the moment Roderick and his first mate decide to stop at the Island of the Sea God and the moment they reach it (within Episode 311).
The next locale in the narrative is Rickert and Erica’s arrival and subsequent near immediate escape from Falconia, covered by Episodes 332-341. Rickert’s time in Falconia takes place over the course of a couple to few days at most. The final Episodes of the aforementioned block also explicitly depict that Rickert and co. escape from Falconia during the night of a full moon. Whether or not the night of Rickert’s escape is meant to take place simultaneously with the night Guts and his companions kill Sea God I think is ambiguous and currently still up in air. Personally, I think it should take place a month after (though in this scenario I also think that would meanMiura meant to meant to draw a waning crescent moon instead of a waxing crescent moon in Episode 290, to prevent Guts and his companions having been the Seahorse for 3 monthsAddendum: 3⅜ months, presumingcongruent passage of time), since if it was meant to be the same, that would mean Falconia had only been inhabited for about half a month by the time Rickert left it, since The Blast of the Astral world occurred the night after the new moon that was prior to the full moon depicted during the Sea God fight. Episode 333 also contains Miura’s most recent (and hopefully final) timeline inconsistency, where Rickert states that “it’s early spring right now”. The problem with this is even if one assumes the minimum (which is a stretch IMO) possible amount of time has passed since Guts and his companions departure from Vritannis (which is 1 month Addendum: 1⅜ monthsFYI, the maximum is 3 monthsAddendum: 3⅜ months), that would still put Rickert’s arrival to Falconia at as at least more than one month into spring (which I think most people would qualify as mid-spring). Perhaps my standards of what qualifies as early spring differ from Rickert’s (and/or Miura’s and this still assuming the 1-month Addendum: 1⅜ monthsminimum scenario is correct) and/or perhaps this just another case of Miura not being super pedantic about tracking the progression of seasons Berserk (or in the maximum 3-month Addendum: 3⅜months scenario perhaps Miura meant to say early summer). Also Erica’s age is something that muddles me, as while the Berserk Guidebook’s lists her age as being 11 years old, it kinda stretches my disbelief timeline-wise, since that would mean Erica would have been 6-7 years old during the Eclipse in “Year 0″. Though admittedly Miura’s character design for Erica haven’t really changed that much visually (in a manner that indicates her aging over the years, like he has done for Rickert). Personally, I think a more realistic age timeline-wise would be about 13 years (like Schierke) as of the most recent Episodes.
Anyways with the most recent span of Episodes, specifically Episodes 342-347, whether we assume that the Seahorse’s arrival at Skellig Island occurred only a few days after the departure from Isma’s island or it took about one more month, we can confidently say Guts and his companions spent about 1-3 months Addendum: 1⅜-3⅜ months(which one could average out to 2⅜months) on Roderick’s Seahorse since their departure from Vritannis in Episode 278. Which in turn means about 2-5 months could have passed since the events of Episodes236-243, and 3-6 months since Flora’s Mansion was burned down.This also means that the season when Seahorse arrived on Skellig could be as early as the mid-spring (IMO) to the end of spring/beginning of summer during “Year 5″ of our calendar.
So based on the entirety of my analysis and previous calculations the (discernible) ages of the living main characters, as of their most recent appearances in the manga, are:
Guts: about 24 years & 7-11 months old
Casca: about 24 years & 7-11 months old
Griffith: about 26 years & 7-11 months to 27 years& 7-11 months old
Farnese de Vandimion: about 21 years& 7-9 months old
Serpico: about 22 years& 7-9 months old
Rickert: about 19 years & 7-11 months old
Princess Charlotte: about 23 years & a few months old
Isidro: about 14 years & a few months old
Schierke: about 13 years & a few months old
Sonia: about 15 years & a few months old
Mule Wolflame: about 17 years & a few months old
Isma: about 15 years & a few months old
Erica: about 13 years old
Roderick and Magnifico’s ages being about 27 and 28 years old respectively I think fits perfectly well since they have been both described has having graduated from college a while ago.
As for the rest of the ages given in the Berserk Guidebook for the characters Azan, Silat, Godo, Luca, and Mozgus (which are 46, 25, 68, 27, and 42 respectively) I think those are all unobjectionable and fit perfectly well.
So basically, I think the Berserk Guidebook’s data (if we are meant to view the character ages as them being of the most recent Episodes and/or their ages when they died) was largely correct for the majority of the listed characters but underestimated the ages for Griffith, Farnese, Serpico, Princess Charlotte, Erica, Judeau, Pippin, and Corkus.
Also for those who had trouble following along with the text of my analysis, I created a visual representation example (in a table/calendar format) of what I mean by “Year 0″ or “Year 2″ when discussing the Berserk timeline.
Also for anyone curious, this is the image I used to calculate the lunar phase/month fractions:
