Ranked #507

Berserk Ougon Jidaihen I: Haou no Tamago

A land of war.

For a hundred years Midland and Chuder have fought one another. Guts is a wandering mercenary, taking advantage of the war to make his living. In his wanderings he catches the eye of Griffith, the young leader of an up-and-coming band of mercenaries. The meeting isn't a happy one. Guts kill some of Griffith's men and Griffith stabs Guts in the chest. But Griffith is taken with Guts' skills, and duels with him to force him into his mercenary corps, the fabled Band of the Hawk. Years pass. Despite his hot temper and frequent clashes with Griffith's lady lieutenant Casca, Guts has made his place in the Band and grown fast friends with the brilliant and ambitious Griffith. Through siege and raid, against man and immortal demon, assassin and scheming noble, Griffith and his band rise ever victorious through Midland's ranks. And always at his right hand is fierce Guts, trusted with all the dirtiest and most dangerous of his tasks.

You know, I actually have something to tell you about me looking into the series and the movies….well, the first movie and the fact that I watch that first even before heading into the series. I know that the movies are more manga-centered as it covers as the film states The Golden Age Arc and I know for a fact that the movies is parallel to Berserk TV episodes 2-10, only with slightly advanced animation and speaking of that, the animation has switched from Oriental Light & Magic to Studio 4°C and like the TV series, there is some bad flaws to it, such as it can look a bit clunky and jarring at times and the CG often clashes with the background, making it look more fake than it already is, however, some characters do look more detailed than the TV series and the backgrounds are slightly more appealing to look at.

For the story and those who have already seen the show, this is more of a cliffs’ notes version of what happened in the series, only bringing the important details and nix the unnecessary and unnoticeable parts although I feel less interaction with some of Griffith’s crew and possibly even less for Casca. I know that in the later movies, they might be featured more into the limelight but it felt like they were just there for…..well, just there. Characters and their traits are the same in here as in the TV show so no going through that again.

Musically, the score was done by Shiro Sagisu this time around and it was a pretty good score, maybe not as much as Susumu Hirasawa but he did help with the theme song of the movie and the song is good and all, but it will never be a “FORCES” or “Guts’ Theme” in my eyes.

And for the English dub, Viz Media actually got the original cast and crew from NYAV Post to do the dub and while I think since the show’s dub was hit or miss, the movie’s dub is well-done, bringing back Marc Diraison, Kevin T. Collins & Carolyn Keranen in their roles of Guts, Griffith, and Casca respectively and even Collins as Griffith has made more of a better effort in this edition.

FINAL VERDICT: I guess that if you want to know about Berserk in general aside from the manga but you wanted to be in a shorter length, then the movie is designated towards you. However, if you already seen the series, then you probably would think differently about this. It’s still a good movie but for approximately 80 minutes, it feels slightly minuscule for something as epic as the name of Berserk.
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Just earlier this morning upon writing this review, I had the privilege of watching this movie in theaters in Japan. For the longest time, virtually everyone who has watched the original Berserk anime series have endlessly demanded more. And now that day has come upon us though not really in the most idealistic of terms. Many of us wanted a continuation of where the series leaves off, but for now, we have to settle a re-telling of the Golden Age arc which will eventually pave way for the rest of the manga to be adapted.

As for what it is covered, if you're already familiar with the source material you of course know what to expect and it's once again faithfully adapted (spoiler: there is no blackswordsman arc at the beginning). But I feel that for those already familiar with story, you want to see it with whole new animation which the original series was harshly criticized, then new animation is what you get and it's pretty awesome. But I suppose starting from the Golden Age, it can attract new audiences as well.

The action is very fluid and I feel that the postures and the weight of the armor and swords are properly depicted in the battle scenes. There are no still shots or any corner cutting. It really felt like an animated 300 but without all the trendy slow-mos and bullet time. What I really liked in the opening battle sequence is that the soldiers on both sides show fear in their eyes and that their arms and hands do shake when in battle knowing they could die. I like how more danger is more implemented with the battle scenes. Of course the battle scenes are violent, but I feel there is more psychology behind the battles as well. I like how Guts in his earlier days is portrayed as someone who fights off his experiences and instincts. When he's on that field, to him, it's just a day at the office.

I felt that the shaky camera angles you see in the Borne films was utilized too much. The panning both zooming in and out and the circular shots try to give it a live action feel. At this point, the fighting isn't drastically defying the laws of physics so the action does feel realistic.

What I felt somewhat upset that they changed the voice cast from the original TV series who were also used in the DC and PS2 games. I felt that the new seiyuu for Guts didn't have the same intimidation and that don"t fuck with me attitude that Nobutoshi Canna had. Sakurai Takahiro did capture some of Griffith's qualities but strongly lacked his charisma. Casca's new voice actress is nothing compared to the great Miyamura Yuko. If they could get those voice actors for the games, why not for something as big as this? Was this Miura's choice like masami's when they did the new Saint Seiya oavs?

Thankfully the music is once against compared by Hirakawa Susumu. To me, not having him for the music is like not having Kanno Yoko not doing the music for a Cowboy Bebop sequel and it would also be like Initial D without the Eurobeat. The style is still the same but brought to a whole new intensity appropriate for the epicness this project will bring.

For now, this movie does a great job of being just the beginning of what is to come. I understand this is supposed to be released internationally. I hope when it hits theaters or is on DVD wherever you are, you support this movie. read more