Incredible Music - Susumu Hirasawa is insane and is easily the best background music ever created
Guts and Griffith have the best character and character development I have ever seen from any show. Guts is such a good archetype of what he is (no spoilers).
The level of maturity to the show and the level of depth in incredible
With its drawbacks from its time, it has the best dub of all time.
Upsetting it cuts back from the manga but if you haven't ever read it it serves perfectly as a standalone and serves you to read the manga. And if you have read it, you should most definitely still watch this depiction.
The shows natural unpredictability even though the answer is right in front of you is what really sets the show apart as void says "All that is left is the purest dream".
"I'd rather fight for my life than live it" comes from a man who life has no meaning and yet chooses to live, all he knows is that his sword is apart of who he is and chooses to exist to fight.
The Philosophical Elements of the show is what really gives the show meaning. There's nothing more interesting then listening to voids narrations of existentialism and fate:
"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control; even over his own will."
"For what sake do humans come into being, what do humans live for? Why are humans destined to meet those that will become important to them? Everything rely soley upon fate."
"A man draws his sword in order to protect the small wound deep in his heart it was inflicted in the days long past, at the farthest reach of his memories. A man wields his sword to in order to depart life with a smile in the days far ahead beyond his memory. A Kingdom in the West an Empire in the East the war between Midland and Tudor has lasted 100 hundred years. During the war the death on the battlefield, known as the Hawks, increased their power many fold, fighting on the side of Midland"
"Is a man ever able to possess something more solid than a dream?"
"For a man's whos victories are entwined with his survival defeat is forbidden. Though tormented and grieved he tenses back not to victory. To grasp hold of his dream. The price ever will be bloodshed"
