Berserk

Now branded for death and destined to be hunted by demons until the day he dies, Guts embarks on a journey to defy such a gruesome fate, as waves of beasts relentlessly pursue him. Steeling his resolve, he takes up the monstrous blade Dragonslayer and vows to exact vengeance on the one responsible, hunting down the very man he once looked up to and considered a friend.

Along the way, he encounters some unlikely allies, such as a small elf named Puck, and Isidro, a young thief looking to learn swordsmanship from the former mercenary. As the ragtag group slowly comes together after having decided to join Guts in his quest, they will face incredible danger unlike anything they have ever experienced before.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Guts Main

Iwanaga, Hiroaki Japanese

Casca Main

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

Puck Main

Mizuhara, Kaoru Japanese

Isidro Main

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Griffith Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

The Skull Knight Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Schierke Supporting

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Judeau Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

de Vandimion, Farnese Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Serpico Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Satomi, Tetsurou Producer

Kurosu, Reo Producer

Harima, Yuu Producer

Reviews

Sep 16, 2016

iHitokage

Recommended

Funny

Now I feel like Guts standing in front of the army of the new Berserk hating people. Bring it on then! No seriously I believe that many people rate this anime focused way too much on one thing, not looking at it objectively.

Let's start with the main problem, the animation. It is bad! When I though I got used to it after the first episodes but another punch in the face came. Silly censorship incarnated into characters with no genitals. The animation is a mix of CG and drawn one. The CG parts are really strange. However it's not like a total fail. Some ... parts were beautiful. Some were sadly, hilarious. So I can't agree with statements like "The whole animation is terrible!". More like "Some parts are funny. (When they are not supposed to be funny.)"

Enough of that. If you forget the animation, then this anime is pretty good. Exactly what I expected and wanted to see as a sequel to the original series. The dark and raw atmosphere is still there, even darker. Guts is as badass as always and you even see some old characters not only in flashbacks.

There are also new characters that are really well made with a focus on their inner feelings. They are just humans after all and they act like that. There are some inner conflicts and deep thoughts. Also some epic quotes that we "anime only watchers" were waiting for!

The sound effects are very specific, especially Guts and his sword slashes will leave a trace in your memory. The music is a treasure. Really an amazing OST. (Susumu and his Hai Yo really reminded me the previous anime adaptations.)

So I have really enjoyed this show despite the bad expectations I had after watching the trailer. I was really wondering if I should watch or drop it. Glad I stayed. You know it was also announced that the season 2 is coming next year. Give it a shot, survive the animation torture and you'll never regret it!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 16, 2016

Stark700

Mixed Feelings

Ah Berserk. Yes, the series that fans have been waiting what seems like ages for a new adaptation. Anime adapted from manga isn’t likely going to be perfect and most often times or not, they’re not. Berserk is an interesting case though. The series feels like a bad date that the studio, producers, and director tries to make the best out of. In practice, you should not expect Berserk to be a dream come true. Sure, it’s what fans have been eager for but the tradition of trying to match a series of such high expectations is far from reality. Berserk isn’t a show that’s ... going to change from that.

Adapted from the manga, it’s imperative that fans are familiarized with the franchise. If you plan to watch the series completely fresh, then it’s going to be like a recipe for disaster experience. Taken for granted, the new Berserk is series focuses main protagonist Guts as the Black Swordsman that also serves as a direct sequel of the Golden Age arc.

With that being said, the first episode of the new Berserk series will be painful to get through. Remember that first time when you went to the dentist and had to get a tooth taken out? That’s kind of how it feels like with the impression of the pilot episode. First impressions are important and unfortunately, Berserk dropped the ball. On paper, the animation quality is difficult to get used to. It uses a fusion hybrid between 2D and 3D while the action scenes looks like it’s made from broken cardboards. Mediocre isn’t even a word to describe the effort as the quality falls more into abomination. On the story perspective, the series is a dark fantasy journey featuring Guts. As the Black Swordsman, he is now more of an avenger, seeking vengeance against his former friend Griffith. If you’re unfamiliar with the storytelling about the infamous Eclipse, then you’ll want to revisit a bit of that by either watching the previous season or the final movie of the trilogy. Now on his journey, he is also accompanied by a mysterious elf named Buck and later on gains new allies on the way. While the animation bombed, the story itself is also a mixed bag because by adaptation standards, it sometimes hits the right marks while other times doesn’t. In retrospect, it’s a condensed adaptation with some chapters being followed faithfully while others are reshuffled.

Character dynamics revolves around Guts and his character relationships with the people he comes across with. Some more noticeable ones include Farnese (a leader of the Holy Iron Chain Knights), the ever so cheerful Puck, and runaway thief Isidro. One of the most important relationships from the franchise (if you can remember) was with Casca. However, the new anime downplays that until later on in the story when the two actually meets each other again. In the meantime, Guts’ personality has changed greatly after the nightmarish experience he suffered from events of the Eclipse. He is both angry and also confused at what Griffith has done. Various flashbacks throughout the new season also shows that Guts suffers guilt because of how helpless he was, especially when Casca became a victim of violation. That aside, other characters introduced in the season have some memorable moments such as the courageous Luca. Even the Skull Knight makes a nostalgic appearance but like so many times, he is still a mysterious puzzle. Other characters such as Nina is mostly forgettable and in general, it’s not hard to realize that the characterization is rushed.

As with most dark fantasy stories, expect plenty of violence. Especially for the case of Berserk, we have mature content such as horse rape, body dismemberment, bloody massacres, satanic-like rituals, etc. There’s not much room for humor except for perhaps the occasional comic relief provided by Puck or Isidiro. However, I do give some praise for the show as more episodes progressed. There are even some content that is adapted frame by frame with certain episodes. In keeping tradition of the mature content, some of violence is uncensored. My only pique is the awkward nudity and sex scenes especially with the non-existent nipples on female characters. I guess they had to remove some of that to fit the content to be tolerable for airing on TV. In the meantime, the show follows its tagline pretty well:

“Sleepless nights shall begin”.

And damn right they shall.

Like I mentioned before, it sort of feels like Berserk’s production staff thrown themselves into this project without being fully ready. Early episodes gave us weak impression of the animation quality whether it’s the action scenes or character designs. Luckily, the series does improve a bit more later on as some chapters are even adapted symmetrically frame by frame. In general, it ends up being more of a mixed bag that bounces between trashy to decent for its animation.

On the other hand, the new Berserk really shines when it comes to the music and soundtrack. If there’s anything memorable to take to heart for the first few episodes, it would be the OST. The stellar choreography combined with its instrumental style will make you awe. Character voice mannerism is generally decent with Guts still showing off his manliness and why he lives up to his Black Swordsman nickname.

It’s quite easy to mock the new Berserk at first. The animation looks like it’s a preview of a CGI video game and the storytelling has a rocky start. Yet as time went on, fans can feel somewhat more appreciated by the adaptation. It probably isn’t at a level where we’d expect to every episode to be 1:1 in terms of faithfulness. In a perfect world, maybe. But for Berserk? That’s more of a fantasy. Still, I would give the new Berserk a try. It’s nostalgic enough to give viewers some treat. And plus, who wouldn’t want to see some ass kicking from the Black Swordsman himself?

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 24, 2016

literaturenerd

Not Recommended

The Internet Hate Train has arrived. ALL ABOARD! WOO WOO!!!!

I put off watching this series for a while because all I had heard was extremely negative! Then my inner contrarian was awakened and I reasoned that the internet anime community also hates a lot of series that I love. Maybe this series isn't so bad? WRONG! I swear this series was produced by the Rapehorse himself!

Background:

The internet anime community only has a couple "sacred cows" where you will get flamed to a crisp if you dare say a negative word about them. One is Legend of the Galactic Heroes and the other is the Berserk ... manga. Many corners of the internet regard it above Watchmen as the greatest graphic novel of all time. 4chan loves Berserk so much that even badmouthing the manga on /pol/ would make people go "WOAH...too far dude! Freedom of speech has limits!" Yet despite the slavish devotion Berserk has online, Japanese producers have always been skeptical and thus rather tight with their money. The original Berserk anime had recycled animation and non-animated splash pages to a degree that was occasionally comical. The soundtrack replayed the same songs over and over. Cool portions of the manga had to be cut out. Yet it was still regarded as a classic and rightfully so. Berserk 2016 on the other hand is outright, indefensible GARBAGE!

Plot and characters:

Berserk 2016 already had a difficult task because the Black Swordsman Arc is... honestly the worst point in the entire manga. It has glimmers of brilliance, but is weighed down by Miura trying to be so dark and edgy it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Examples of this include the infamous rapehorse and a nun warrior burning innocent people alive while fingerblasting herself. The dialogue includes such over the top classics as "Miracles make me wanna PUKE!" Caska comes down with classic soap opera amnesia. Adapting this portion of the manga was always going to be hard, but Berserk 2016 flat out eviscerates Miura's work.

Remember the creepy yet emotionally powerful Rosina Arc that helps introduce us to the new Post-Eclipse Guts? Gone. They cut out the whole thing and gave us some schmuck apostle with no backstory that we have ZERO reason to care about. Remember how morally disgusting Farnese was at first and how big a deal it was that she gradually became good and turned face? The anime version of Farnese blushes at the site of blood and has never killed anyone. Her sadism is implied briefly, but NOTHING like how she was in the manga. The best portion of the entire Black Swordsmen Arc is Miura's impressive ability to actually get the reader to forgive Farnese and want to root for her. The anime fucking ruined it! Characters are watered down, crucial backstory is cut out, and important arcs are entirely skipped. Most baffling of all is that the gore is cut way down from the movies and even the nipples are censored, let alone privates. This is fucking BERSERK! You can cut down some of the pointless squick nudity like the bathhouse chapters with Farnese and Caska. I would actually thank the anime for sparing us the cringe of Schierke’s loli ass shots. However, you can’t simply cut all blood and nudity of Berserk. It is too iconic and integral to the gritty feel of the story. It is true using too much blood and nudity can lead to backlash and unintentional comedy. Look no farther than the internet’s favorite punching bag Elfen Lied. However, going the opposite direction and making a PG-13 Berserk actually robs Berserk of the shock and awe edge that helped Berserk stand out and win over casual fans in the first place.

Art:

HOLY SHIT is the art awful in this series! It uses cell shading CG like Valkyria Chronicles on the early PS3 only the character art is shit and the animation is about 5 frames per second. This means the characters move clunky and unnatural like this was filmed in fucking stop motion. When the skeletons attack it looks exactly like a scene from “Jason and the Argonauts” or “Army of Darkness”. The art in the 2nd and 3rd movies greatly improved from the 1st movie, but the series looks WAY worse than the 1st movie! This art is so bad it simply has to be seen to be believed!

Sound:

Remember how the original Berserk had “Forces” and “Behelit” and other memorable tracks? This soundtrack has none of that! Not to mention the voice actors are almost all amateurs because the producer clearly doesn’t give a shit about this project. The worst of all though is the fucking STUPID sound that occurs every time Guts swings his sword. They go with this metallic BOOONG sound that viewers have described as an empty oil drum being hit with a hammer. This same sound happens no matter what Guts hits with the sword and turns what should be serious scenes into comedy gold. They basically turned Guts into El Kabong! Berserk shouldn’t be making me think of Hanna Barbara cartoons from the 1950s!

Overall:

1 episode of Berserk 2016: This is SHIT, maybe it will get better?
2 episodes of Berserk 2016: I think I’m beginning to lose my sanity!
3 episodes of Berserk 2016: I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!
4 episodes of Berserk 2016: DELETE! DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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