Puck in Berserk: Why He Matters Beyond the Jokes

Puck in Berserk is easy to underrate. He is a tiny elf with a big mouth who gets squashed, thrown and stuffed into Guts’s bag for laughs, in one of the darkest manga ever made. But Kentaro Miura did not add him only to lighten the mood. Puck is the character who keeps telling the reader that Guts is still a person, at a point in the story when Guts acts like he isn’t one.

Here is who Puck is, how he met Guts, and why he matters far more than his jokes suggest.

Who is Puck in Berserk?

Puck is a male elf of the pisky race, a kind of small winged elf, and he comes from Elfhelm, the elf kingdom ruled by the Flower Storm Monarch. He shows up in the very first chapter, Black Swordsman, and he is the first companion Guts gains after the events that turned him into a lone hunter.

Puck has three abilities that matter to the story:

• Elf dust: healing powder that falls from his wings. It speeds up recovery and eases pain, and it is one big reason Guts tolerates him.
• Puck Spark: a flash of light that briefly blinds enemies.
• Empathy: Puck feels the emotions of people around him. Strong pain or hatred near him actually hurts him.

The empathy matters most, because it shapes everything Puck does around Guts.

How Puck met Guts

Puck used to travel with a troupe of performers until bandits attacked them. When the story opens, he is their prisoner, kept in a bird cage. Guts does not set out to rescue him. He simply kills the bandits, and Puck slips free in the chaos.

Puck feels he owes the stranger, so when Guts is later thrown in a cell, Puck flies in with the keys. Guts lashes out the moment Puck touches him, then calms down as the elf dust starts healing his wounds. Puck asks for nothing in return.

Then comes the scene that defines them. Puck learns that Guts is about to bring a fight to the town and asks if he cares about the people who will get hurt. Guts answers that the weak who get caught in someone else’s battle get what they get. Puck is horrified. However, he can also feel how much pain Guts is carrying under those words. When Puck asks why Guts saved him, Guts laughs at the idea of risking his life for a bug. Puck slams into Guts’s chin and flies off in tears.

Puck watches the fight that follows from a distance. As Guts walks away, Puck says one word: berserk. The word in the series title comes from the elf, aimed at the man he just tried to understand.

Why Puck matters in Berserk

He reads Guts for the reader

In the Black Swordsman arc, Guts is cold, cruel and nearly impossible to like. We do not yet know about the Golden Age, Griffith or the Eclipse. Puck’s empathy is how Miura tells us there is more going on. Puck can literally feel the grief under the cruelty, so when he refuses to give up on Guts, the reader learns not to give up on him either.

He is a conscience Guts cannot shake

Puck does not just follow Guts around. He argues with him. After the deaths of Adolf and his daughter Collette, Guts says it proves his point about the weak, and Puck recoils. Even so, he decides to keep following, because he realizes death is the only thing Guts knows. In the Conviction arc, Puck storms off again when Guts takes a girl named Jill hostage, and later scolds him hard for how he fights the apostle Rosine. Our Berserk Lost Children arc guide covers that story in full. Every time Guts goes too far, Puck is there to say so.

He tracks how far Guts has come

As Guts learns to trust people again, through Farnese, Isidro and Schierke, Puck’s role changes. He shouts at Guts less and jokes more. I read that shift as Miura showing that Guts needs a full time conscience less, because he is starting to act as his own.

Why Puck’s comedy is important too

The jokes still earn their place. Miura draws Puck in a cute, simplified style for gags, from his chestnut armor to his habit of treating the beherit as a pet he calls Becchi. Berserk can be relentless, and Puck’s slapstick gives readers room to breathe between horrors. Without that relief, the darkest moments would lose their weight.

Puck also matters to the plot. Since he comes from Elfhelm, he is the reason the group knows where to go when they look for a way to heal Casca in the Fantasia arc. So the character most readers see as comic relief is the one who points the story toward hope.

Is Puck in the Berserk anime?

Not in the 1997 anime. That series skips him entirely, which is a big part of why its version of the Black Swordsman feels so bleak. He does appear in the 2016 Berserk anime, which opens with a short Black Swordsman scene and then adapts the Conviction arc. If you only know Berserk from the 1997 show, the manga’s Guts will feel noticeably different, and Puck is a big reason why.

Where to read Berserk with Puck

• Puck’s first appearance: Berserk Volume 1, or Deluxe Edition Volume 1, from Dark Horse
• When he returns: Puck sits out the long Golden Age flashback, since it happens before he and Guts meet, and comes back for the Conviction arc
• New chapters: Young Animal in Japan, continued by Studio Gaga with Kouji Mori supervising. English readers get them in Dark Horse volumes.

New to the series? Start with our guide to where to start with the Berserk manga. Caught up on the deluxe books? Here is what to read after Berserk Deluxe 14. And for the story behind the continuation, see what Kouji Mori knows about the Berserk ending.

Puck in Berserk FAQ

What is Puck in Berserk?

Puck is a male pisky elf from Elfhelm and Guts’s first companion as the Black Swordsman. He can heal with elf dust and feel the emotions of the people around him.

How does Puck meet Guts?

Puck is a prisoner of bandits when Guts kills them in the first chapter. Puck escapes, then repays Guts by bringing him the keys to his cell and healing his wounds.

Why does Puck say “berserk”?

After watching Guts fight in the opening story, Puck says the word as Guts walks away. It ties the title of the series to Guts at the end of its very first story.

Is Puck in the 1997 Berserk anime?

No. The 1997 anime leaves Puck out. He appears in the 2016 Berserk anime.

My take: Puck is the most important supporting character in Berserk, and I do not think that is a stretch. Griffith gets the spotlight and Casca gets the tragedy, but Puck does a job nobody else in the story can do. He sees Guts at his absolute worst, before we know a single thing about why Guts became this way, and he decides Guts is worth staying with anyway. That choice is the reader’s choice too. Without Puck, the Black Swordsman arc is a story about a cruel man with a big sword. With him, it becomes a story about a wounded man someone still believes in. The comedy belongs to the same design. A series this heavy needs a pressure valve, and Miura built one with wings. My one complaint is with adaptations that cut him. The 1997 anime is great, but removing Puck changes Guts more than people admit. If you have only met Guts through that show, read the manga and watch how differently he reads with a tiny elf hitting him in the chin.