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]

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Adaptation:	Berserk
Prequel:	Kenpuu Denki Berserk, Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen III - Kourin
Sequel:	Berserk 2nd Season
Summary:	Berserk Recap

Hikasa, Youko
Japanese

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Satomi, Tetsurou

Producer

Maeda, Toshihiro

Producer

Itagaki, Shin

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Iwanami, Yoshikazu

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"Inferno" by 9mm Parabellum Bullet

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Ending Theme

"Meimoku no Kanata (瞑目の彼方)" by Nagi Yanagi

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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!

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Sep 16, 2016

iHitokage

Recommended

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 ...

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Sep 16, 2016

FireEmblemIke24

Not Recommended

It truly saddens me that this new adaptation of Berserk we receive after patiently waiting for almost two decades had to turn out like it did. This is a far cry from what the older adaptation managed to achieve and is regarded as a timeless classic, then again the previous anime was working with arguably the best source material out there with that being the 'Golden Age' arc. The decline in quality was to be expected as Berserk certainly peaked during the conclusion of that arc with the events of the Eclipse. The problem with this current adaptation was the fact that the script writers ... were adamant about fully adapting the Conviction arc but at the expense of rushing the Black Swordsman arc and completely omitting the Lost Children side story arc. The latter is understandable due to the censorship that modern anime are subject to and so with current regulations it was an uncertainty from the beginning it was announced.

This adaptation focuses on Guts trying to locate and eventually rescue Casca who has very much turned into an invalid after the traumatic events of the Eclipse. This is mainly due to the negligence of Rickert who as a former Band of the Hawk member was concerned with the mental state of Caska who was under his protection the whole time. This responsibility is ultimately Guts' one in the end but would make his main objective seemingly more difficult. Learning about the details of Caska's movements, Guts along with a new companion named Isidro who is obsessed with him and aspires to emulate his heroics find themselves in the desolate refugee camp called Albion. This is where the tower of 'Conviction' run by the Holy Iron Chain Knights is located and where the main events takes place.

Apparently the damage was already done when the fans of Berserk realised that the first few episodes did not cater to their expectations. Let's be real here, anyone here knowing Berserk's relationship with CG animation should have had the mindset of wanting an average/decent adaptation, only to get a big f*ck you when butchering the source material. If you are reading this then you are a brave soul indeed after experiencing this abomination that may have scarred you permanently. The verdict of most fans by now will probably be dismissing the show and refusing to acknowledge its existence.

The series barely manages to retain the authenticity of the manga with it being a decent portrayal of a dark fantasy series. It still possesses that gritty, inhumane atmosphere that is commonly associated with Berserk. It could even pass off as a post-apocalyptic setting due to the state of events within Albion where poverty and desperation is strife due to an outbreak of the plague in certain cities in the Midlands leading to an influx of refugees seeking help. Religion is the main theme for this arc as it is seen as the way forward when experiencing hard times - basically the only means of salvation for these commoners who would do anything to survive. This is evident in the numerous amounts of individuals being put to death after being accused of being heretics hence is linked to the tower of 'Conviction', where all sorts of horrific torture and other forms of extreme brutality taking place in the name of religion.

The hate for the animation techniques used in this anime is probably the single reason why many dropped the show. I abhor the use of 3D and 2D animation ever mixing and to me are like oil and water when done in a mediocre fashion. The ratio between the two is the most disturbing factor personally, as I'm actually impressed by the hand drawn animations which are sparse and are used occasionally as a means of conveying certain facial expressions such as Guts purely concentrating for the kill. This is short lived though as we are expected to put up with the unsightly 3D which infuriates me.

3D models of the characters make up the majority of the animation but are heavily altered with shadings being applied to everyone and the rest of the designs being drawn over by the animators. If there is a positive from this show (though not many) the character designs are consistent but is not always the case as there are times when normal animation is used randomly in certain scenes such as the girls from Luca's group.

The more episodes you watch, you gradually become more accustomed to the CG which would be case for those who managed to stay on. There is no smooth movement from the animation as it can look jerky at times mainly through different shot compositions such as close ups and its use in the background. The last thing that needs mentioning was the opening had good animation but that is just pure deception compared to what actually takes place.

The sound is one aspect that probably goes unscathed in my review as the voice actors did a reasonable job at performing their characters. Characters such as Farnese and Mozgus sound just like I had imagined them when reading the manga which was unexpected. The soundtrack is a slight disappointment as it can't compare to the greatness of Susumu Hirasawa's one for the original series. This series just has one theme that I find worthwhile whereas the other has plenty to offer in comparison despite it being half an hour long. The background sound use is adequately used in most cases except for Guts and his use of his broadsword which can come off as being similar to striking a metal bannister when obliterating his enemies.

I was very much hyped about Berserk getting an adaptation because everyone hates cliffhangers after the 1997 Berserk finale. I wouldn't even call this a direct sequel as it assumes you have prior knowledge of the manga when watching and for an anime-only would be difficult to follow. This show is not worth your time and so like they say, avoid it like the plague.

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