One of my favorite things EVER is an action horror manga created by Kentaro Miura (R.I.P.) called Berserk. And in Berserk, there is a character by the name of Griffith, just Griffith, his parents were too poor to afford a last name, that reminds me a lot of Gatsby.
I can hear the people who know both the Great Gatsby and Berserk calling me crazy. I mean, just look at them.
And where Gatsby is reclusive and has no one who really cares about him, Griffith is a public figure with an army who would all die for him and legions of women who would give anything for his time of day.
All that said, there are many things that make them similar. For one, both men came from less than nothing. Griffith was a gutter rat in some medieval city and Gatsby was the son of a midwest dirt farmer. They also both made their names through the theater of war. They both have a man who idolizes them to near deification, both seek out a thing that someone of their birth shouldn’t even believe they have a chance of attaining, and both lose quite literally everything they ever achieved by a single emotion-driven decision.
Time to break down each and every one of these.
Churlish Origin
Jay Gatz was the son of a farmer who lived in poverty worse than that you’d see in a place like New York. In fact, he loathed it so much he left as soon as he could, finding himself in the employ of an older wealthy man who taught him everything he needed to know to live in high society, though without the necessary funds to actually live within high society.
Griffith meanwhile grew up in a city as a churl in some medieval Kingdom and….that’s about all we know about his origins. I mean, we also know he at some point in his childhood acquired the Egg of the King which served as a lucky charm for his campaigns as a soldier. He also had an old rich patron, though instead of educating him on high society living the man…..solicited favors in exchange for funds and let’s leave it there as any more details would be NSFW.
On to war.
War
Though Gatsby had the look and attitude of a rich man, his wallet said otherwise. That all changed after heroics in WW2 and other factors ends up leading to him working among the US Crime Families in the Bootlegging industry. He amasses a lot of money and uses that money to buy a mansion in West Egg and host elaborate parties in the hope to draw Daisy Buchanan, his dream, to him. More on that later.
Griffith goes about things only slightly more lawful. He uses his own genius, luck, and wealth to lead the army of a Kingdom called Midland to victory in a Hundred Year war. Through this, he amasses immense influence and capital which he further invests to amass a lot of power.
Follower
Stepping back for a moment, both men have a man that practically worships him and is also integral to their final goal. For Gatsby, its Nick Carraway and for Griffith it’s a man named Guts, a very powerful and unyielding Mercenary. That tidbit out of the way, on with the main point.
Dream
Both men have a major dream that they wish to achieve. Gatsby’s is Daisy Buchanan, which has the added caveat of being obscenely wealthy. Griffith’s is his own Kingdom, which he plans to achieve by becoming a powerful lord in the Kingdom of Midland and to be wed into the Royal family of Midland.
Sadly for both men, they make a choice that costs them everything.
Decision
For Gatsby, the choice is twofold. The first is pushing Daisy too hard and the second is pouring everything into Daisy. He allowed his obsession for her to blind his judgment, and it cost him brutally in the end. And Griffith had a similar story, but instead of a woman, it was a man.
Remember that guy Guts I mentioned? It’s well established that Guts is really the only person in the world Griffith has emotional attachments to, though calling it love is not accurate. More like possession. Anyway, after Guts leaves he spirals and makes some decisions that leads to him stripped of all titles, thrown in a dungeon, and his army scattered and branded brigands.
Though unlike Gatsby, who died in the end, Griffith got a second chance at life. All for the low low price of damning every man and the single woman who had followed him into Hell, quite literally, in exchange for a pair of raven black wings to soar through the heavens.