Story (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.25/10) Great
I'm here to say that this story created by Kentarou Miura is probably the most fucked up story I have experienced and I feel not a lot of stuff and fuck me up like how I'm fucked up right now. Now episodes 1, 2-23 24-25 all have different moods. And rightfully so because apparently episodes 1 vs 2-25 are two different arcs. I started to watch this anime a couple of years ago with only one person to recommend it to me I only got through one episode. Episode 1 is not a good example for a first episode in my opinion as it came out like a weird semi-generic demon slaying mid-evil anime. I before I even started episode 1 for the first time again like a week ago, I read the manga chapters 1 and 2. And chapter's 1 and 2 take place in the same Arc as episode 1 (the Black Swordsman Arc as it's called) and the one episode adaptation of that Arc I feel doesn't do it justice either as firstly the characters are changed the little elf character doesn't even exist in the anime. Now I'm not going to go on tangent about how this isn't a perfect adaptation because I was just about. Even though they could have made this anime a lot longer if they followed the timeline presentation that the manga did they wouldn't have caught up to it as fast and end it. Obviously the main reason they wanted to get straight into adapting the Golden Age Arc is because of it's climatic ending. Either way I still think their execution for something back in the 90s if great.
Art and Animation (8/10) Very Good
More Specifically (8.75/10) Very Good+
The Art style and animation is very good some scenes I can tell when censored down though. And I would think that for something that can show nudity it wouldn't hold back when it came to blood and mostly gore in the case. Certain scenes that would show someone get sliced in half would have the guts that Guts (see what I did there?) sent flying out aren't there just redness inside them oh well, a nitpick is debatable but for me it did take away from the realism of how it would actually look if someone got sliced but oh well it very good.
Sound (9/10) Great
I watched this in english dub and usually when it comes to dub pre-2000s that really can't be trusted but this is one I can approve. All the voice actors do a great job with their lines nothing sounded fake. The BGM through out the anime that plays is very good and different from what you would usually hear in an anime like this but I can't stand that opening song it just wasn't good, heard it once and couldn't take it again that and the outro.
Characters (10/10) Outstanding
All of the characters especially the main cast and all created outstandingly adaptation i highly doubt changed any of the ways the actual characters acting in their manga version. The backstory, characterization, character development and probably the biggest "fall from grace" I've ever seen in anime are all perfectly wrapped together in 26 episodes.
Enjoyment (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.25/10) Great
My enjoyment factor stayed pretty high. When I tried to watch this back a few years ago without anything really telling me about the anime I kind of dropped it after episode one. But if I would have known that episode 1 isn't a good representation of what this Golden Age Arc is going to present (just the after-math) I would have stuck through because after episode 1 it's definitely in my genre taste.
Overall (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.25/10) Great
This is a great anime even with the changed that OLM decided to take with the Black Swordsman Arc which I heard they are going to adapt later this year so I guess it's kind of forgiven. This Golden Age Arc left me with one of the biggest cliffhangers I don't know how anyone who watched this didn't want to read the manga because I sure will. Berserk is a great anime and I'm disappointed in myself for waiting this long to get around to it.
