Berserk

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: ベルセルク

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 1, 2016 to Sep 16, 2016

Premiered: Summer 2016

Broadcast: Fridays at 22:30 (JST)

Producers: WOWOW, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Hakusensha, Ultra Super Pictures, LIDENFILMS, NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan, Lucent Pictures Entertainment, Docomo Anime Store, Koei Tecmo Games, Rialto Entertainment

Licensors: Funimation, Crunchyroll

Studios: Millepensee, GEMBA

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural

Theme: Demons

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 6.31¹ (scored by 136,971 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #7139²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #584

Members: 304,411

Favorites: 1,987

External Links

Official Site, AnimeDB, AnimeNewsNetwork, Wikipedia

6.31

Ranked #7139Popularity #584Members 304,411

Summer 2016TVMillepensee, GEMBA

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Episodes: /12

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Synopsis

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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Episode Videos

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Related Anime

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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Staff

Satomi, Tetsurou

Producer

Itagaki, Shin

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Iwanami, Yoshikazu

Sound Director

Yanagi, Nagi

Theme Song Performance

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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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Reviews

Sep 24, 2016

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

literaturenerd (All reviews)

318 people found this review helpful

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

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 2

FireEmblemIke24 (All reviews)

129 people found this review helpful

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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Sep 16, 2016

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

iHitokage (All reviews)

104 people found this review helpful

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 read more

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Sep 16, 2016

12 of 12 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

LeaderTGW (All reviews)

96 people found this review helpful

Berserk returns with a whimper than a roar! The return of Guts and his tale feels like a horribly put together fan project.

Story 4/10

Berserk initially had many fans, myself included, anticipating its return. In this installment of the once great franchise the story and plot lacked the intensity & excitement the original series presented. This series was supposed to follow the manga according to what is on file in the MAL/ANN database. For the most part, it didn't follow the original source as much and sort of pulled random things out its ass to improvise. I found this to be both unprofessional and lazy on the director’s end. Of the many, one of the most disappointing things about the story is its overall presentation. It comes off ass.. (He he, I wrote ass) as, lazy.

It appeared as if Berserk was only made just to cash in on the franchise some more. The story is painfully weak in terms of plot & narrative. The beginning and middle, rising action, parts of the story were perhaps the biggest turn off. The amount of action, gore and death in the story felt limited. This ruined a majority of my experience with the beginning and conclusion of the story. I strongly believe that the writing could have been much better.
Few moments into the introduction, the first episode pretty much plays homage to the original anime series. Guts arrive at bar or brothel saves a woman, etc. Except, now in the 2016 version Guts saves a woman, befriends a possibly homo-sexual fairy, who doesn't shout "Hey, Listen" and the two become buddies. I don't remember the time it takes for all of these events to happen, however I believe it was about 10 minutes into the show that I wanted to drop it simply because of that. The stories appeal is bad enough to make even people who haven't seen the show turn away from it. Lastly, the main story gets even worse when it gets taken over by an awful intrusive sub-plot that focuses more on some of the most uninteresting characters in the series. This isn't so much the case in the manga however, I digress.

Towards the middle of the series, during maybe episode 6-9 (69.. ha ha children, see I have sex jokes) the story focuses less on Guts and his goal to save or abduct his mentally disable, brown sugar skinned goddess. Instead the story decides to focus more on the supporting and non-supporting characters. This wouldn't be so bad if only the characters were not so annoying, troublesome rather. For example when the prostitutes arrive, and Elaine is first show, at this point in the story is where I felt things became horrible. . The settings that the story took place in were not as visually horrifying nor did they set the tone for any new developments. The narrative, or rather, the way that the story was told, it failed improve successful elements that the original story used.
The unfortunate thing is that although the story is somewhat part of the original work, the way that its' been directed so far, makes Berserk feel like a horribly put together fan project. Shallow story, coupled with bad action scenes, animation and horrible dialogue made me cringe.

Kentaro Miura should be ashamed for agreeing his work to be animated in CGI poorly. His Penmanship, his detail in the original work is God-Like! (No exaggerations needed.) The Golden Age Arc of the series looks like perfection compared to this ugly, unappealing and awful, simply awful visuals. Details, there was a lack of the detailed gore like dismembered bodies and such for berserk. The dark settings and somber tone berserk once had seemed to have vanished. For some strange reason, berserk, the settings seemed to have taken a JRPG style setting. Woods, forest, deserted battle fields etc. Detailed animation on these settings was very minimal and unfortunately took away a lot of the enjoyment.

In all honest though, the type of CGI, the art style is what ruined this once great series for me. I felt that I focused too much on how bad the art was that it completely turned me away from the story. It needed more work, it needed to feel more realistic not forced! Or over the type.. Or "Edgy" as the hip people say.
CGI, CGI, I still feel like CGI based anime is still a work in development. I would not be surprised if Berserk was used for this very reason and we were all the test audiences. If this is the case I do fear what else animation studios are planning to redo or "re-master" in full on CGI. I digress, using CGI over the traditional style that made berserk such an amazing series that is what hurt the series the most for me. There was simply no enjoyment, nothing to saw "wow what amazing settings or detail, and I feel that it was the CGI to blame for that.

The voice acting was on and off. Sometimes I felt that a majority of the actors were over-exaggerating when it came to screaming. When there were serious moments in the dialogue, I wasn’t convinced that events were as bad as the characters said they were. The soundtrack wasn’t impressive for the show. Fight scenes were not nearly as intense because of the music.
Enjoyment

I was not impressed with any of the characters. Lack of character development and bland personalities is what kept me from making any sort of connection. As mentioned earlier everyone was riddled with problems and awful traits.

The show didn't seem like it was ready for release. It's sort of like a video game... which ironically there is a game coming out. There were so many problems with it that it needs patches to fix them. I felt like what was released, wasn't the shows full potential. It almost feels rushed. Perhaps they didn't have any editors to look over it before release. I don't know what they were thinking when releasing this. However, it totally could use work on the story, animation, and settings. Maybe a dialogue that isn't so stale a cat wouldn't even eat it. Overall, I simply was not impressed with Berserk 2016.

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