The plot revolves around Guts as the "Black Swordsman," a character who made a brief cameo in the first episode of the 1997 television series as well as the last scene of the Golden Age Arc movie. Guts was a wandering mercenary who was taken in by the mercenary gang known as the Band of the Hawk (, Taka no Dan), and he battled alongside them until its disfigured commander, Griffith, sacrificed his troops to become a God Hand and fulfill his ambition of governing his own country. Only Guts and his beloved Casca, who lost her sanity and memory as a result of the atrocities she witnessed and underwent, escaped the "Eclipse" ceremony, despite being branded with markings that attract evil, restless spirits, and other supernatural beings.