Kenpuu Denki Berserk

Guts, a man who will one day be known as the Black Swordsman, is a young traveling mercenary characterized by the large greatsword he carries. He accepts jobs that offer the most money, but he never stays with one group for long—until he encounters the Band of the Falcon. Ambushed after completing a job, Guts crushes many of its members in combat. Griffith, The Band of the Falcon's leader and founder, takes an interest in Guts and duels him. While the others are no match for Guts, Griffith defeats him in one blow.

Incapacitated and taken into the Band of the Falcon's camp to recover, Guts wakes up two days later. He confronts Griffith, and the two duel yet again, only this time with a condition: Guts will join the Band of the Falcon if he loses. Due to his fresh injuries, Guts loses the fight and is inducted by Griffith.

In three years' time, Guts has become one of the Band of the Falcon's commanders. On the battlefield, his combat prowess is second only to Griffith as he takes on large groups of enemies all on his own. With Guts' immense strength and Griffith's leadership, the Band of the Falcon dominate every battle they partake in. But something menacing lurks in the shadows, threatening to change Guts' life forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Guts Main

Canna, Nobutoshi Japanese

Griffith Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Casca Main

Miyamura, Yuko Japanese

Judeau Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Nosferatu, Zodd Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Pippin Supporting

Amada, Masuo Japanese

Rickert Supporting

Uechi, Aki Japanese

Slan Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Void Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Godo Supporting

Nishikawa, Ikuo Japanese

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Okuno, Toshiaki Producer

Takahashi, Naohito Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, Chief Animation Director

Tsurumaki, Kazuya Episode Director

Reviews

Sep 4, 2010

Moonlith

Recommended

I'm one of those guys who usually read the manga before watching the anime. You can imagine, then, what my sentiments were like when I began watching a 25-episode-anime of which I'd read 300+ chapters of manga. To clarify, I was preparing for a completely unripe anime-draft of a manga praised to the heavens that'd actually been worth it, and then some. To my pleasant surprise I discovered the anime adaptation of Berserk lost to its original version in nothing but length and detail.

But the main elements, the magic that made the epic manga what it is are all present in the animated version. Guts, ... The Black Swordsman, is still the hapless avenger wandering in search for revenge and peace of mind. The world in which the story is set is still that medieval realm right down to the brilliant castles with their greedy landlords, the disadvantaged common folk, and the never-ending wars. And, perhaps most importantly along with the characters, the story is still the same tragedy of fate, friendship and love.

Perhaps one point of criticism for some could be the outdated artstyle. Having aired more than ten years ago, the art and animation will inevitably seem rough and simple for those (like me) who've discovered anime rather recently, through recent shows with more high-tech appearance. Upon closer look, however, I'd say that instead of a shortcoming, Berserk's old-school animation works exactly in the shows favor. The story is, after all, rough by nature and set in an age long gone, in which case the ancient animation actually accentuates the overall mood quite nicely. I wonder if the series's impact would've been the same had it been done in the 2000s, closer to this day. I dare doubt it.

An avid listener of music though I am, I rarely pay much attention to the tunes played in anime. But whereas most shows fail to catch my admiration with their musical score, Berserk did so in spades. Far more than once I found myself being chilled to the bone as the horror scenes rolled in, aided by terrifyingly fitting ominous sounds without which the anime's horror elements would've lacked greatly. In comparison, the joyful tunes of bonfire festivals, the musical elegance of the upper class's dances, and the emotional pieces of the more waffy scenes all help to highlight the sentiment of each situation. 10/10 score for this department; a true rarity given by me.

One might wonder why I've so far mostly talked about aspects many would consider minor in comparison to an anime's story and characters. Well for one, both animation and music contribute so much to the show's overall score that there's nothing minor about them in this instance. As for the other reason, if I'd start to go on detailing bit by bit what makes the story and characters of Berserk so unfathomably excellent, we'd all soon be looking at a review of more than 10,000 words. And since reading all of it would be that much more away from your Berserk-watching (or reading) time, I'm going to keep it simple. Just imagine a story so compelling and layered you'll truly find yourself gasping at times, a cast of characters so real you actually start to care for them though they don't even exist, and a high-fantasy medieval world so immersing you can almost feel the reality around you blur away.

But an adaptation from a manga as this is, there's no way to escape the shadow of the original work. An no matter how excellent an anime this is even forgetting the manga, fact of the matter is that Berserk is the greatest MANGA ever made, and the anime is just a colorful side-kick next to it. At the beginning of my review I said the anime loses to the manga in nothing but length and detail. True. But ponder on this: the anime is one of 25 normal length (a bit over 20 minutes) episodes. The manga is one of over 300 and still going on chapters. The conclusion being, Berserk anime loses A LOT to the manga in length and detail. I didn't even care to count all the scenes an details of the original work that didn't exist in the anime, and now as I'm doing so for the sake of writing this review, I can't help but note that, again, A LOT is lost when such a number of details that helped understanding the characters in the manga, for example, are nowhere to be seen in the anime. To refrain from writing a novel-length review, again, let's just say that even though Berserk manga had nothing but text and black and white drawings to reach me, I never felt nearly as immersed by the anime as I did by the original.

Be that as it may, Berserk is truly one to deserve the title "epic" in the history of anime. It is an obligatory watch for anyone who likes Japanese animation. It is a classic right there among Evangelion, Miyazaki's works, or any other anime one might deem ageless and undying. It is right there among them, shining in their midst as the bloodiest gem of them all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Moonlith (12)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Mar 12, 2009

Credulous

Mixed Feelings

As I write this review I realize that I may have been slightly too hung up on the thing I'm hung up on that results in me giving this anime a lower rating than it probably deserves. The thing is, Berserk is a good anime, I enjoyed it immensly with its shady animations and art that you just have to love yet you wonder if you should take it seriously. I loved the characters of this anime, they were all so tragic, almost too tragic on the verge of being funny, yet it never crossed the line over to funny, so they were tragic, really ... tragic. Truth be told the entire anime was pretty tragic, even when the plot went into lighter things it still had tragic undertones, or overtones.

In any case, the story of the anime was pretty straightforward yet really complex, something that may seem paradoxal, but when you're watching Berserk it's the most natural thing in the world. In all honesty I still, to this day, don't forgive Griffith for his role in this anime and how it all played out in the end. Something which might contribute to my overall rating for this anime, but the main reason for my relatively low overall rating for Berserk is the ending.

I felt robbed as I saw this anime come to its conclusion, when the final episode came to an end I was stunned at how betrayed I felt by an ending that can be described with words like; 'displeasing', 'unsatisfactory' and 'disappointing' yet, it does not even begin to describe to what extent. I am sure many disagree, or perhaps they were just satisfied with the journey to the end, but for me the ending to Berserk felt unnatural which is why I gave this anime a 6.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Credulous (31)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 1, 2019

starfarts

Not Recommended

[SOME SPOILERS]

Back in high school, my English teacher was big into literary treasure hunts. We would read the classics and spend days or weeks dissecting words written hundreds of years ago for hidden secrets or obfuscated intentions supposedly stashed away by authors who obviously knew that pimply kids half a millennium later would be sweating over term papers. "Yes but what did he MEAN by that?" she would lecture. I didn't know--who really does?--I just wanted to test out of English in university so I would write parodies and fake it.

Berserk is like an old classic written by a roguish magician. I was very ... much into the series in no small part due to my recent re-addiction to Mountain Blade (Perisno in particular), and I wanted to enjoy an anime that followed a mercenary company. Jormungand was great in this regard but clearly the setting didn't particularly line up with the game. Berserk it was.

I hated the animation style at first. Twenty-five episodes later and I still don't like it. I'm not dense enough to ignore that the manga came first, but I didn't read the manga and so the art and animation I have to work with is what was contained in the anime. In general I'm a sucker for huge production values and Berserk felt cheap: overloaded with scrolling still images and frequent static shots. Often there were no sounds effects or music for long periods and I didn't appreciate it.

Then the narrative took off, the Band of the Hawk came together, and Guts began to go, well...berserk. The art and sound made more sense and actually became charming, even if it was still ugly to me. Personalities were born and molded; Casca specifically had her backstory greatly expanded. Awesome! The Band was riding high and the story was objectively accelerating.

And then the roguish magician danced to a Kansas City Shuffle and it all came apart. "Oh, you thought you were watching an anime about the rise and fall of a mercenary band?" the sorcerer said. "You were not. This is, in fact, a tale about alternative hellish dimensions with a huge tiddie demon and mass sacrifice. Everyone you grew attached to over the last twenty-two episodes is now dead or irreversibly ruined and the entire anime was a big ruse to get you to feel feelings."

I don't like being baited. The anime was so long that I'd forgotten about the first episode, and afterwards there hadn't been so much as a hint of the way things would turn out. I had no inkling that the ultraviolent battle scenes and sweet '80s synth tunes would give way to a Clive Barker orgasm so detached from the in-series reality that it essentially overrode all that came before.

So I thought about my old English teacher. What did they MEAN by this? Betrayal, greed, loss, sacrifice, goals, love. I get it. I liked Guts. I liked Casca. I liked Judeau and Pippin, and although Corkus was a caricature he still fit inside the collective. Just like that they were all gone and Casca was destroyed as a character and all I could think was "what was the point of building all that up?" The only conclusion I've been able to reach is so viewers could feel an even bigger sense of treachery and sadness over the finale.

And I don't like that. I also don't like Shakespeare or Voltaire or Dickens. I like Howard, Larsson, I like Lee Child. Perhaps that makes me stupid, or perhaps I'm simply the sort of person who appreciates a progressive narrative that goes from A to Z but is told with masterful skill. I know I'm in the overwhelming minority by not enjoying Berserk, but in my opinion it would have been so much better without the total transition towards the end.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by starfarts (48)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Cultural References and Memes

by Cestlavie_

50 Entries · 745 Restacks

The Works of Director & Writer: Yasuhiro Imagawa

by TheCoolGuy82

21 Entries · 5 Restacks

must watch shooters medieval and other stuff (gore,action, ADULT AUDIENCE) GORE GALORE

by max6599

20 Entries · 6 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for November. Week 1: November 5 - 11 Anime Releases Gibiate TV Series Blu-ray [Limited Edition] H...read more

Nov 3, 12:15 PM by Aiimee | Discuss (1 comment)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for March

Here are the North American anime, manga, and light novel releases for March. Week 1: March 5 - 11 Anime Releases Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi (Redo of Healer) Com...read more

Mar 12, 9:00 AM by Aiimee | Discuss (1 comment)

	Poll: Berserk Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Zell182 - Aug 5, 2009	77 replies	by Tacitus_1 »» Nov 23, 10:37 AM
	Poll: Berserk Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Scribbly - Jan 31, 2009	131 replies	by MitchSenpai22 »» Nov 21, 7:48 PM
	Berserk Golden Age Sequel 18927 - Apr 21	24 replies	by wildhood »» Nov 18, 5:36 PM
	Poll: Berserk Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) djinn_690 - Jun 1, 2008	87 replies	by ItzInvision »» Nov 13, 2:51 PM
	Poll: Berserk Episode 25 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Friendlysoul - Mar 11, 2008	518 replies	by ReaperCreeper »» Oct 23, 11:33 PM

Ten Overpowered Protagonists in Anime

When in comes to power, these anime protagonists have it all. Literally. All of the power. We call god-modding on ten of these overpowered anime characters.

by Littoface

358,752 views

Anime Monsters: 15 Of The Most Terrifying Creatures and Demons

Nothing makes an anime scarier (or more thrilling) than those that feature grotesque beings terrorizing everything -- including us viewers. This in-depth look at these utter monstrosities will reveal why these horrific beasts are, in fact, so frightening.

by beruseruku27

243,035 views

Collection