It's the 4th of July everybody! As an American, I will celebrate my country with one of our time honored traditions...beating the dog shit out of something weak and defenseless. Everyone is lining up to shit on Eromanga Sensei. Worst animu of the year! Sure that's pretty low hanging fruit, but I'm going even lower. If bashing Eromanga Sensei was the equivalent of America's pummeling and carving up Serbia, picking on poor Berserk 2017 is like the 1983 invasion of Grenada!
Story:
Berserk 2017 has 2 clip show episodes in a 12 episode run! That's really all I need to say to illustrate how fucking shit this series was. That could be the entire review right there!
However, I'm a tad more professional then that so let's get on with the review. This series covered the part of the manga where Guts meets Schierke, gains the Berserker Armor, and fights the New Band of the Hawk. Basically this is the part of the manga where Miura abandons the "Ow the Edge" feel of the Black Swordsman Arc and makes Berserk a shonen with occasional tits and gore. I'm exaggerating of course, but the tone has changed vastly and it often seems to almost venture into shonen territory. This SHOULD make it easier to adapt into a fun and fluid anime right? Unfortunately it would seem not. They cover very little of the manga in these 12 episodes, not only because there are 2 fucking clip shows, but because the pacing isn't great. If they were going to make it short and sweet, they could at least put serious attention and detail into the battle scenes. However, the art budget got gutted AGAIN, so this series often looks even worse than Berserk 2016! The battle scenes are predictably lackluster, so we mostly get padding and dialogue. Does it even end at the logical point with Guts gaining the Berserker armor and standing tall against Griffith's minions? Nope. The series rushed that scene and farted on for another episode so we could meet Bonebeard the Pirate...the character near universally considered to be the worst character in all of Berserk. Yes, he's worse than Puck. Since this series bombed and there are no plans for a Berserk 2018, this is where the Berserk anime journey ends...with Bonebeard the fucking Pirate! I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Art:
If you had told me last year that Berserk 2017 would look even worse than 2016 I wouldn't have believed you. How could they possibly sink further down when they had reached the center of the Earth? From that point, any direction would be up. However, Studio Gemba has accomplished the unthinkable. There are a lot of anime studios I love to give shit: Toei, ARMS, 4C, OLM, etc. Those are all GODLIKE though compared to Gemba. Only Idea Factory can compete head to head with Gemba when it comes to being an absolute shitstain of an animation company.
Overall:
Were my expectations high following last years' travesty? Nope. Was I STILL somehow disappointed by this trash? Yep. Berserk 2017 isn't even good as a guilty pleasure. Keep in mind my standards aren't that high. Dragonball Super is something I watch as a guilty pleasure. Berserk 2017 is to Berserk what Superman 4 was to Superman films. It is a blow so devastating that it may never recover. As successful a cult following as the manga has, it will likely be YEARS before we see another attempt at a Berserk anime if ever.
