Guts' father and leader of a mercenary band. Gambino trained Guts to be a mercenary like himself and even gave Guts his first scar (across his nose) during a practice fight. Gambino sold Guts as a sex slave one night to Donovan, a pedophile soldier, who anally raped young Guts and whom Guts later brutally kills afterwards. Gambino was later hit by a cannon blast in battle and lost his leg and the ability to fight. This infuriated his anger at Guts even further, as he also blamed the death of his lover, Shizu, on Guts when she adopted him. Gambino became drunk one night and tried to kill Guts in anger. He admits he sold Guts to Donovan for three silver coins right before Guts killed him in self-defence. Despite this revelation, Guts bears no ill will towards his surrogate father.