Ranked #159

Berserk

Berserk was, is, and will always be one of the greatest anime I have ever seen.

The story is one of the deepest, most absorbing and original that has ever been done in anime. Set in a medieval world with knights, sword battles, castles and kings, a young warrior named Guts travels and tries to simply survive in a vicious society filled with evils ranging from the natural to the supernatural. The anime has an intriguing plot, starting the series at a point where Guts is a worn, embittered, restless soul somewhere in adulthood. We are then taken back to the beginning in subsequent episodes where we learn what exactly has been done to this man, and trust that you will indefinitely be absorbed by the amazing story that is told.

Admittedly, the first time upon viewing Berserk, the art was rather displeasing to the eye. I had only seen it about two or three years ago to this date, and it looked horribly dated. There are many still-shots and most battle scenes were merely giant immovable watercolour portraits with the sound playing over it. Other than that, there are actual instances where the art and animation was actually brilliant--namely in some of the one-on-one fight scenes and some of the more violent and gory scenes. However, it must be said, once you get into the anime, you won't even notice the flaws in the art and animation. It becomes a non-entity, overshadowed by the brilliance otherwise seen.

The sound is amazing. There are original compositions that totally suits the anime. A chilling, haunting score that definitely gets to you on an emotional level. Gut's Theme, for example, is one of the best character pieces ever made for an anime.

As for the characters, the protagonist is Guts, who seems to be a tragic hero. His life is a tough, interesting one. He is a deeply perturbed and troubled young man and we see his strength and endurance against what appears to be a violent, literally "dog-eat-dog" existence.

Griffith is an amazing anti-hero mostly because he carries himself as a prince and not a villain. His Macbethan mentality is one of the anime's most powerful driving points other than his enchanting charisma. He is a man who truly will stop at nothing, a man who will sacrifice everything to get what he wants, and you will simply sit back in wonder and gasp at his deep and frightening ambition.

The third most important character is a young woman named Caska. She is definitely one of the first and best Amazonian creatures anime has ever seen. She is one of the strongest warriors ever seen--female or not--with a great amount of authority, reverence and honour to her name. The rest of the cast consist of a magnificent group of side characters, each with great personalities that will certainly interest you.

You won't stop Berserk once you've started. I watched the entire series, jaw-dropped most of the time, and was actually horrified that it had ended.

Some words of warning is that it is definitely not for the squeamish, and it is not for young children either. There is a lot of explicit violence, gore, strong sexuality and some themes that are definitely not suited to a younger audience.

One grouse is that the anime ended at a point of the manga where more questions had been asked than answered, so if you don't like anime with stories that are "unfinished", then you won't like this about Berserk.

I can only tell you to watch this. It's a brilliant anime, with deep characters, an engaging storyline, strong and intricate themes such as jealousy, ambition, honour, and identity, and it's filled with so many ugly moments that you'd find yourself not knowing whether to cry out of sadness or joy when something beautiful is seen.

This is truly deserving of the title 'Masterpiece'. read more

Review by theme analysis:

There are three major themes that mark this series: (1) MEDIEVAL, (2) GORE, and (3) PHILOSOPHY.

This is why I think this is a great series: this combination of themes, which is already rare in anime, are very well incorporated together as a complete story.

The (1) MEDIEVAL theme brings the setting of the story. creating an atmosphere where the gore and philosophy can develop together. This also sets the pace of the story based on the technological circumstances of medieval culture. The slow nature of this large-scale medieval story allows enough time to unravel the deep characters.

The (2) GORE theme accents the philosophy, reinforcing characters and foreshadowing the character progression by their behaviour in battle. This is a real treat to see the battle behaviour contrasting with the respective characters you've watched develop (Most notably the main protagonist).

The (3) PHILOSOPHY theme is a major feature to the characterization in the main characters. The characters and their actions are defined by their varied internal philosophies. With a very distinct difference in character philosophies and a heavy story focus on them, central story events are marked by relationships between these philosophies.


General review:

SOUND: At first glance, the soundtrack seems to be lacking with only 11 songs (Including intro and outro). However, the placement and feeling (And sometimes repetition) of these soundtracks is well done, giving the story great fluidity and emotional propulsion. Voice acting and sound effects are well done, even on dub. Voice acting most notably reflects the characters well, save for some of the demons.

ART: A rough art technique is used in this series, with unique design. Both of these accent the themes by reinforcing and elevating the serious nature of this anime (As opposed to the chibi art design). At times there is an over usage of scrolling single pictures in place of animation, which works as both an advantage and disadvantage. The advantage: it is reflective of the pacing of the anime. The disadvantage: it can be too slow (Especially in the beginning when the story is slower).

STORY, CHARACTER: Probably the greatest strength of this anime are it's story and characters. The story and characters grow simultaneously making the world of Berserk very lively. Most of the typical anime cliches are steered clear of here (with the exception of one blatant one), which really improved the effectiveness of the story and characters. With a unique and lively world, Berserk captures a lot of realism for an anime.

OVERALL, ENJOYMENT: This is definitely not a lighthearted anime. It can be embraced to the extreme of obsession (Like me) because of the interesting, deep perspectives that operate in the story. The good development quality only makes it further enjoyable. But this anime is truly for a certain crowd because of its extremely deep nature and depictions of extreme brutality. This is going to be a 'hate it or love it' sort of anime.

(Updated August 2008: Touched everything up a bit; explanations should be clearer now. =] Thanks for all the positive feedback.) read more