Kentaro Miura’s Berserk is often considered to be one of the greatest manga ever written. If you’re reading this article, you’re likely already a fan and don’t need me to tell you how great it is. But, despite its lauded status, the series has never received a worthy anime adaptation. Miura published Berserk‘s first chapter in 1989, and, eight years later, in 1997, OLM released its adaptation of the Golden Age arc. The anime has a devout fan base, but it also has its share of flaws, and many will agree that the series cuts too much from the manga to truly be called a worthy adaptation. While the debate about whether Berserk needs another anime rages on, one thing fans can agree on is that they don’t want Netflix going anywhere near the series.
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Unfortunately, the Black Swordsman may be headed to the streamer in the near future. Adi Shankar, the creator of Netflix’s Devil May Cry and an executive producer on Castlevania, is an outspoken fan of Berserk and has been desperate to adapt the series for ages. But, the animation creator recently shocked the fan base by releasing a cryptic Tweet, that could spell disaster for a potential adaptation. “Berserk = Mine. Lore = Changed. Guts = Adi Shankar Self Insert,” read the Tweet. Netflix hasn’t officially confirmed a new adaptation of Berserk, but Shankar’s post has fans thinking that it’s only a matter of time. I’m sure Adi Shankar is a massive fan of Miura’s work. But, please, Netflix… leave Berserk alone!
Netflix Is the Wrong Fit for Berserk
Berserk is a series that’s just waiting for a quality anime adaptation, and now is the perfect time for it to happen, with Kouji Mori releasing new chapters. But, as fans of the manga will tell you, Berserk is a special series, and it deserves a unique anime adaptation, which isn’t something Netflix or Adi Shankar can provide.
As a producer, Shankar’s biggest hit so far is Castlevania, which many anime fans will agree is an excellent adaptation of Capcom’s video game franchise. But, as a writer and showrunner, his biggest success, 2025’s Devil May Cry, cannot boast the same fanfare. The series was modestly received by casual audiences. Sadly, fans of the genre-bending video game franchise were less than impressed with how the story was stripped down to its bare essentials.
This is exactly what fans don’t want to happen to Berserk. There are so many individual elements to love about Miura’s dark-fantasy series. The artwork is breathtaking, especially as the chapters progress. His character writing is intimate, as he manages to make you care about the smallest of characters after just a few panels. And the relationships and the intertwined arcs and story are second-to-none. But, if you strip away any one of those elements, Berserk would be a hollow shell of itself. Shankar’s comment, “Lore = Changed,” has fans worried the most about how loosely Shankar and Netflix would treat Miura’s original story.
Berserk Would Be Hard to Adapt, But It Would Be Worth It
During a past interview with ComicBook, Adi Shankar gave some insight into how he would adapt Berserk into a western animated series. “What makes Berserk appear challenging is that it’s a literary property with a distinct visual style that you have to preserve,” he began. “It’s a marriage between these two pillars, but you have to preserve the two pillars. It’s a balancing act because you always have to speak to the hardcore audience, but you also have to know what to interject versus what would be blasphemous to put in.”
As beloved as Berserk is, fans also agree that it would be a difficult series to faithfully adapt. The tone is incredibly bleak, the violence is gruesome, and some of the story elements would be hard to translate into anime. Berserk is a series that uses the medium of manga to the fullest, and some of these intricacies could be lost during the adaptation process.
But that’s not to say it’s impossible. There are several manga that fans once believed to be unadaptable, which have since received incredible anime renditions. If the right director and studio were to take their time with Berserk, to truly examine what makes the series so special, and how to translate that into the animated medium, a new Berserk adaptation could live up to the quality and status of the manga. But, given Netflix and Shankar’s track record, and the creator’s comments about how changes would need to be made, I don’t think they’re the people to do it.
