BLEACH is one of the most famous anime released in recent years. As one of the mythologized trinity often referred to as "The Big Three", BLEACH is quoted amongst Naruto and One Piece as major inspirations to shonen titles that emerged after them.
BLEACH shares several close similarities with the late Kentaro Miura's, Berserk. Despite being vastly different stories, further investigation of both titles shows that it is increasingly difficult to separate the two. Here are five ways that BLEACH shows direct inspiration from Berserk. The following contains heavy spoilers for both Berserk and BLEACH and discusses material from the manga iterations of the aforementioned titles.
The Protagonist's Composition
One of the biggest signs of BLEACH's inspiration from Berserk lies in the main characters. Both Guts and Ichigo are characters noted for their exceptional physical ability and fortitude. Both characters have tragic pasts. While not the type to readily admit it, Ichigo and Guts both share the trait of being intensely focused on their friendships; and that's despite appearing rather brash, aloof, abrasive, or even antisocial.
Ichigo and Guts are both broody, and they're known for their perpetual scowls. In combat situations, the pair are both seen as one of the most powerful characters in their respective universes, but even without the various skills and weapons they eventually come to wield, Guts and Ichigo share the trait of being immensely formidable in a fight. They also have been known to survive things most people wouldn't and operate outside the norm of the worlds in which they operate and exist.
The Protagonist's Origins
While their respective backstories differ greatly, Ichigo and Guts share similar origin stories, with Guts having been born from the corpse of his mother who had been hanged, and Ichigo emerging from under his mother's corpse after being killed by the Hollow codenamed "Grand Fisher". Ichigo's mother's death is a birth for him in a more symbolic sense, as Ichigo Kurosaki becomes the broody, scowling tough guy despite having been a cheerful and emotional (crybaby) child.
Interestingly, both characters also suffer great levels of guilt over the deaths of their respective parents, which occurred when they were both very young. Guts is directly responsible for his "guardian" Gambino's death, having slashed his neck in self-defence; while Ichigo's mother's death was brought about by Ichigo's brashness and kindness, as he believes that had he simply not fallen for Grand Fisher's lure, or been able to see ghosts at all, his mother would not have died. Guts also loses his adoptive mother, Shizu, to the Black Death at a young age.
The Never-Ending Curse
In the early stages of BLEACH, Ichigo's latent Reiatsu (literally "Spiritual Pressure") is described as incredibly high for an average human being, and it is the reason for his being able to see ghosts (also known in-universe as "Pluses") for as long as his memory allows. Ichigo has an immense reservoir of spiritual pressure even before the awakening of his Shinigami powers, and this unfortunately makes him the target of Hollows, the fallen souls of human beings that have succumbed to the accumulation of their negative energy. Hollows; with a voracious appetite for victims with high spiritual pressure, feed on Pluses and the souls of the living, turning them into Hollows themselves. Ichigo's high spiritual pressure is also partly the reason for his friends' awakening to the supernatural and to their own special abilities.
In Berserk, Guts is plagued by demons known as Apostles, which come to feast on he and his companion Casca after they narrowly survive a horrific massacre spurred on by the ambitions of their former close ally, Griffith. Griffith sacrifices the lives of his entire army, The Band of the Hawk, subjecting them to gruesome torturous deaths at the hands of unbelievably grotesque inhuman entities. The brand which forms on those intended as sacrifices is impossible to remove, leaving Guts and Casca subject to a life of staving off the inhuman assailants that are drawn to them every single night.
BLEACH uses the concept of being plagued by human-devouring demons in its Hollows, whose varied and grotesque forms can be understood as Kubo's reinterpretation of the Apostles that pursue Guts. This is further supported by the fact that the Hollows in BLEACH, and the Apostles in Berserk have the similarity of being entities that were once human beings. The God Hand in Berserk is the group of five angels that rule over all Apostles. They are much larger and differ in composition to them, but their existence is comparable to that of the Menos Grande Hollows of BLEACH, remembering that the Espada are Menos Grande of the highest order. This similarity is also expressed in how the Menos Grande appear to break the laws of reality, appearing ominously from cracks in the sky much like the God Hand's appearance during an eclipse which created a dark vortex of death and blood.
Another layer to the similarity of the "cursed protagonist" trope that both series play into is the fact that throughout Berserk, Guts's hatred and anger begin to coalesce into a presence in his mind; a process fueled by his donning of the famous Berserker Armour for which he is known. This journey of fighting off the forces of darkness outside while also trying to remain in control of one's own darkness is mirrored by Ichigo's journey and struggles with his Hollow powers. The festering darkness pursues and threatens to overcome the protagonist and throw them into an unending rampage and on several occasions, it nearly does.
The Destined Blade
One of Berserk's most mentioned influences is the enormous sword wielded by Guts, now seen in various video game franchises and various kinds of media. The Dragon Slayer is Guts trademark weapon after the events of the Golden Age Arc, and he receives it after losing his blade in the horrific events that left he and Casca branded. His initial blade was a long greatsword, but the sword that Guts is known for is one he receives later in the series, when he arrives at the new residence of former Band of the Hawk ally Rickert living in the home of an old blacksmith. The old man claims to have created the blade on the order of a client who wanted one made, but its huge size made it impossible to wield in battle. Soon after Guts arrival, he is forced to engage in battle against an Apostle that has found him. No weapon made by the blacksmith can kill the creature, but when Guts sees the Dragon Slayer a second time, he recalls that it would take an immensely strong man to wield it.
In BLEACH, Ichigo's initial blade is remarked by all who see it as a large weapon, and many comment that it's miraculous that he can even wield it. That's something he has in common with Berserk's Guts; however, the similarities go deeper when one considers that Ichigo loses that blade when he's nearly killed in the first confrontation against Byakuya the same way Guts does on the day of the Eclipse. He later receives his true blade Zangetsu after training with Kisuke Urahara in the space underneath Kisuke Urahara's shop. The Dragon Slayer is similar in colour scheme to the various Shinigami Zanpakuto in BLEACH, but Ichigo's Zangetsu has a design that can shows immense inspiration from Miura's work, particularly in how Ichigo's fighting style mirrors the way in which Guts would swing the Dragon Slayer. Both characters lose their first weapon in a battle unlike anything they've ever experienced, and later come into contact with the blade that becomes their trademark, and the only tool that can truly overcome the kinds of enemies they face.
Destiny and The Ambitious Former Ally
One of the biggest talking points from Berserk is the betrayal of Griffith, the ally turned antagonist of the series. Griffith's betrayal is mirrored in BLEACH by Aizen's betrayal of the Soul Society, and even more so because both Aizen and Griffith enact a betrayal on a large scale, as well as on individual levels with people who harbour complex feelings of respect, admiration and even romantic affection for them. Aizen and Griffith's enactment of violence upon the women who were closest to them prior to the betrayal is particularly twisted in both accounts, and results in the immense psychological turmoil of Hinamori and Casca respectively. What's further interesting is how BLEACH reinterprets Griffith's betrayal of The Band of the Hawk, with the series antagonist Sosuke Aizen being revealed as a long-time traitor of his formerly affiliated Soul Society. BLEACH even has its own interpretation of the Crimson Behelit from Berserk, with the Hougyoku effectively being BLEACH's equivalent of the ominous Berserk artifact that enabled Griffith to commit one of the most heinous betrayals in manga and relinquish his humanity for greater power.
The Hougyoku, like the Behelit, offers its strength to whomever it chooses and exists in the BLEACH universe initially as Aizen's means of overcoming the boundary between Hollow and Shinigami. It's later revealed to be an incredibly powerful, sentient object capable of manifesting the desires of those around it. Similarly, the Behelit's tendency to return to one it deems to be its owner is the same as the Hougyoku's ability to actualize the will of someone of its own choice, as well as manifest it's own desires. Aizen's research on Hollows is BLEACH's equivalent of the Apostles' relinquishment of their humanity to gain demonic power, and this is strengthened by the fact that Aizen, with the Hougyoku embedded in his very body, uses his Hollowfication research to "ascend" the limitations of his Shinigami-hood and assume the monstrous abilities of the Hollows. Aizen's ambition was to usurp the Soul King and evolve beyond the limitations of Shinigami and Hollows, while Griffith wanted to be the king of his own country. Both antagonists pile a mountain of corpses in the journey towards achieving their grand dreams.