Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago

In the Kingdom of Midland, a mercenary named Guts wanders the land, preferring a life of conflict over a life of peace. Despite the odds never being in his favor, he is an unstoppable force that overcomes every opponent, wielding a massive sword larger than himself.

One day, Griffith, the mysterious leader of the mercenary group Band of the Hawk, witnesses the warrior's battle prowess and invites the wandering swordsman to join his squadron. Rejecting the offer, Guts challenges Griffith to a duel—and, much to the former's surprise, is subsequently defeated and forced to join.

Now, Guts must fight alongside Griffith and his crew to help Midland defeat the Empire of Chuder. However, Griffith seems to harbor ulterior motives, desiring something much larger than just settling the war...

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Berserk
Alternative version:	Kenpuu Denki Berserk, Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen - Memorial Edition
Sequel:	Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen II - Doldrey Kouryaku

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Guts

Main

Iwanaga, Hiroaki
Japanese

Griffith

Main

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Casca

Main

Yukinari, Toa
Japanese

Judeau

Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki
Japanese

Nosferatu, Zodd

Supporting

Miyake, Kenta
Japanese

Donovan

Supporting

Pippin

Supporting

Fujiwara, Takahiro
Japanese

Rickert

Supporting

Kotobuki, Minako
Japanese

Corkus

Supporting

Matsumoto, Yoshirou
Japanese

Bazuso

Supporting

Kobayashi, Kendou
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kamagata, Eiichi

Producer

Yonemori, Hiroto

Producer

Kubooka, Toshiyuki

Director, Storyboard

Shimizu, Yasuyuki

Episode Director, Key Animation, Animation Director

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Opening Theme

"Aria" by Susumu Hirasawa

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Ending Theme

	"Blood and Guts" by Shiro Sagisu
	"Utsukushikumono" by Ai

Reviews

Nov 21, 2023

MizuhoKamui

Recommended

One of my most beloved fictional works is Berserk due to its profound emphasis on character development despite the abundance of sword fighting and battles. Regrettably, the film does not allocate sufficient time to nurture the characters, and many crucial scenes are either abbreviated or omitted, detracting from the overall experience. Nonetheless, it still provides a pretty decent adaptation.

The movie's computer-generated aesthetic is pretty good, particularly with respect to lighting and cinematography. The action sequences are well-animated, making them more intense than the original series. Despite the characters' insufficient focus, they are still well-presented. Guts's backstory is presented subtly, contributing to the mystery surrounding his ...

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Feb 5, 2024

SIG442

Mixed Feelings

This needs some explaining and this could get lengthy.
But it needs to be done really.
Quick note; I watched a American-English dubbed version instead of the original Japanese version. This could have been part of why it gives me mixed feelings as you will read. Often the English dubs are really cringe and makes a mess of the original. So please keep that in mind, it could be the case here as well.

Now I won't talk about the story directly so no spoilers are given away.
But I can talk about the story progression, which is all over the place.
You get a lot of snippets of the ...

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Jan 23, 2021

spiderboi

Not Recommended

A pretty bad adaptation of one of the greatest manga arcs of all time. I do think adapting this arc as a movie trilogy provides more positives than negatives. Although it would suffer from some cut content (which in turn would affect the characterization and thematic depth) due to not being able to adapt everything in comparison to a TV series that has more time, it would be able to reach the extremely high artistic standards of the manga.

Berserk has some of the greatest art in any comic book, which makes it one of the hardest manga to adapt properly (also in part because ... of other aspects, like how it uses the comic medium to its full potential). A TV anime would not be able to do it justice because of the limited budgets and extremely tight schedules that plague a lot of shows in the industry. The budget, resources, and schedule of a movie would be able to emulate the ridiculous standards set by the manga to a much larger degree than a TV series. Unfortunately, the movie fails here and in many other parts too.

Right from the start, the film is littered with janky and bad CGI in a mediocre battle scene that showcases many of the other issues to come. CGI is used a lot in this film and it does not fit well at all with the 2D animation (which by itself is relatively decent). This in itself is pretty disappointing considering the art is one of the biggest strengths of the Berserk manga. The movie fails largely in the animation and a lot of the visuals, not living up to the transcendently dark yet beautiful atmosphere of the manga. Although, an apparent strength in this movie is the background art, which is pretty good most of the time.

As mentioned before, although some depth could be lost by reducing this arc to a movie trilogy because of cut content, this can be saved by some rewriting and making each film around 2 hours. The runtime of this film sends a bad sign as when removing the theme song, the preview of the next movie, and credits it’s less than 70 minutes. This issue is reflected in the terrible pacing, and an egregious amount of cut content that removes almost all the characterization, thematic depth, and subtlety that make this manga so amazing. If this is your first time getting into this series, these fantastically written characters like Casca, Guts, and Griffith will seem stale and boring to you.

This film also weirdly prioritizes a lot of action scenes and trivial scenes that are largely unimportant in the grand scheme of things. In turn, largely skipping a lot of the character-building moments and dialogues (until the last 15-20 minutes) that make Berserk so beloved. Important parts like Guts backstory are skimmed through in an uncreative and poorly directed 30-second nightmare sequence (where if you were new to this series you wouldn’t get it at all). Speaking about the directing, IT’S ASS. It seems this director has a pretty limited idea about what makes the source material so beloved based on a lot of decisions in this movie. Even with the running time being bad, the film itself could have probably been a lot better if it were handed off to somebody more experienced.

If you want to get into Berserk just read the manga because this series will not get a great adaptation anytime soon. It’s one of the best dark fantasy series in fiction. The 1997 TV anime adaptation of the golden age arc is pretty good, the only issues are some cut content (although it’s mostly minor and nowhere near as bad as this movie) and a limited budget which could be seen in the animation being stiff at times.

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Who else thinks this art is better than the 2016 series? MrYandereFan26 - Apr 9	9 replies	by Liberandum_ »» Apr 10, 10:32 AM
Poll: Berserk Ougon Jidaihen I: Haou no Tamago Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) amirhoss - Feb 4, 2012	160 replies	by BorednSpicy »» Oct 14, 2023 3:38 PM
Berserk fell off after Golden Age removed-user - Jul 27, 2021	36 replies	by -DxP- »» Nov 27, 2022 5:48 AM
BERSERK MEMORIAL EDITION WILL INCLUDE NEW SCENES (BONFIRE OF DREAMS) KatoWorks - Aug 8, 2022	23 replies	by KatoWorks »» Sep 21, 2022 5:08 PM
when to watch this? Hystique - May 22, 2021	10 replies	by Zoldra0 »» May 28, 2021 3:47 AM

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Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago

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Judeau

Nosferatu, Zodd

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Pippin

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Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago

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Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

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Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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