Guts carries a sword that weighs as much as his rage, and every swing costs him something irreplaceable. The 1997 anime doesn't just show you medieval brutality, it makes you feel the specific loneliness of a man who kills monsters because he's too broken to do anything else. Susumu Hirasawa's score doesn't underscore the darkness; it becomes the darkness, turning every scene into something that stays in your chest long after the episode ends.

In a land much like medieval Europe, a heavily armed warrior who goes by the Black Swordsman arrives in the castle town of Midland, where a cruel king uses demonic servants to oppress the people. The swordsman shows those servants no mercy as he hunts them one by one, working toward revenge on the king himself. Before earning that title, Guts is a young wandering mercenary with an enormous greatsword who sells his blade to the highest bidder and never stays anywhere long. That changes when he crosses paths with the Band of the Falcon and its leader, Griffith, who beats him in a duel and brings him into the mercenary company. Mixing action, fantasy and supernatural horror, the series pairs battlefield violence with a growing sense of menace.