Berserk needs no introduction. It is among the most iconic anime/manga series period, and for good reason; it's an epic dark fantasy with amazing artwork, complex and interesting characters and amazing writing. The original adaptation might've had its issues, but was still a worthwhile watch. This...isn't. This is not Berserk. I have no idea what the people who created this abomination thought they were doing, but this is not Berserk.
For one, gone is the expressive artwork of the manga, replaced with ugly-looking and plain character designs that feel so bland and generic that you would think I'm staring at sketches from Deviant-art. This would look poor at best there, but slips into outright horrid and ugly to look at when taken into anime format. I can't believe someone thought these character designs were a good idea. And speaking of artwork, gone are the gorgeous backgrounds in the manga, gone is the incredibly humane proportions for the designs; everything looks like the developers traced over everything roughly with tracing paper, and it looks like absolute garbage.
Speaking of garbage, the CGI looks horrid; almost no actual animation happens over the course of the episode, and the pacing is jarring and confusing, skipping through massive portions of dialogue (that are present in the manga) and leaving stand-alone watchers confused at what is going on.
The story suffers because of said pacing, as this constantly jumps between scenes and has no sense of flow or direction, but also fails at being compelling because of the aforementioned factors. No just that, but the story also happens to skip out on a lot of careful character build-up, leaving Guts' characterization with much to be desired and flowing like an edgy teenager whose been on drugs rather than any sense of coherency.
This is garbage, this is not Berserk. Avoid it like the plague.
thank you
Millepensee, GEMBA and LIDENFILMS for destroing one of the most anticipated anime of 2016
final score 3/10
