Berserk Volume 43 sends Guts into a Kushan crisis

Berserk Volume 43 will arrive in English on November 24, continuing Guts’ story as the survivors of Elf Island are drawn into the Kushan Empire’s increasingly dangerous politics. Dark Horse Comics’ official listing confirms the paperback’s release date, 220-page format and $14.99 price. ¹

The volume follows the crew of the Seahorse after unknown raiders board the ship and force it into Kushan territory. Guts is taken prisoner, while Roderick, Farnese, Serpico, Morda, Isidro, Schierke and the other survivors are accepted as refugees. Dark Horse’s synopsis says a grand council of Kushan tribes is preparing to debate war against Falconia and Griffith, while Griffith’s power is already reaching into the empire through murderous sorcery. ¹

The Kushan return

The Kushan are familiar figures in Berserk’s history. Emperor Ganishka’s invasion of Midland and his transformation during the Millennium Falcon arc helped reshape the world around Falconia. Volume 43 brings that people back into the centre of the conflict, but with the political focus shifted from one emperor’s campaign to a council weighing whether to fight Griffith.

That gives the new volume a particularly awkward position in the series. The Kushan are not simply an old enemy returning for another battle; they are a society deciding how to respond to a threat already inside its borders. Guts’ imprisonment leaves his companions navigating that danger without the person who has usually forced the story forward.

Miura’s story continues

Kentaro Miura died in 2021, and Berserk resumed in 2022 with his longtime assistants at Studio Gaga drawing the continuation under Kouji Mori’s supervision. Dark Horse credits Miura as the original storyteller, Studio Gaga as writer and artist, and Mori as supervisor. ¹

The English edition includes a double-sided full-colour fold-out, an afterword by Mori and a bonus comic strip about Miura. It is rated for mature audiences and continues Dark Horse’s long-running paperback edition of the manga. ¹

The release is therefore more than another date in the publishing calendar. It is the next point at which the continuation has to balance Miura’s unfinished direction with the pressure of moving Guts and Griffith towards a conclusion. The official synopsis keeps the immediate question deliberately bleak: Guts is chained, his companions are exposed, and the Kushan are considering a war that could redraw the map again.

Our opinion

Volume 43 has a strong setup because it places Berserk’s personal tragedy and its wider political conflict in the same room. Guts being physically powerless while the Kushan debate Griffith gives the story a different kind of tension from another duel or battlefield cliffhanger. It also makes the returning Kushan feel narratively useful rather than nostalgic. The key test will be whether the continuation can make the council and its competing factions feel as vivid as the series’ established central rivalry, but the official premise points to a chapter with real consequences rather than a holding pattern.

For English readers, the important facts are straightforward: Berserk Volume 43 launches on November 24, 2026, in a 220-page paperback priced at $14.99. ¹