And it's kind of unfortunate. Why? Because it got my expectations WAY up for all other Animes I watched after that. "Oh, THIS is Anime? Cool! That means there's hundreds of other shows just like this one?" Welp, nope. There's only one Berserk.
Some people say the graphics are dated and I'll admit the dub is cheesy, like most if not all dubs during that time period. But the first time I watched this, it was nothing but the coolest shit I ever saw. I loved the heaviness of the sword impacting and destroying armor. The slow burn toward the plot twists and revelations. The first episode is out of order and you see Guts as the full fledged black swordsman, a dude with a giant sword, a repeating crossbow and arm cannon like Megaman. Then, you jump into realistic looking medieval setting in the past, complete with ballroom scenes with harpsichord music. And finally, in the last two episodes, you understand why and how Guts became the black swordsman with the Eclipse.
But far and beyond the best thing about this Anime, better than Zod, better than the medieval battles and yes better than a repeating crossbow and arm cannon, is the relationship between Guts and Griffith which reach a figurative and literal climax in the final episode. The contrast between Guts as a kid, through bad luck his body and mind forged by warfare and violence to become a muscular, nearly unidimensional brute, with the innate talent, charismatic finesse and boundless ambition of Griffith is incredible. This is simply peak characterization, and it shows by how many characters those two have influenced. A quick example, only Cloud and Sephiroth from FF7?
When Griffith, who so far has only known victory and success, loses Guts to a duel, his whole world is turned upside down. His one-man army leaves him, and he acts brashly, which leads to the mistake which leaves him debilitated and then makes him choose to sacrifice the Band of the Hawk to become a God Hand. The perfect Griffith, loses to Guts, and he cannot take it, and it leads him to become a literal Demon Lord. Before this, Guts could not accept a life of comfort, and simply decides to leave the Band of the Hawk because he only knows war. If he had accepted his new life as a lord/knight, the whole Griffith Demon Lord thing would not have happened. So who's fault is it, the bonehead Guts who can't stop fighting wars, or the Perfect Griffith for misjudging Guts and forgetting his own training, leading to his inadequacy in the duel? Ultimately this leads to one of the biggest acts of betrayal in all of fiction.
Here's a critique of Berserk I read in another review "Guts, what a stupid name!". It's a Japanese anime. It's Gatsu, and to Japanese people, it's an exotic sounding name. Sure it can sound stupid in English, but if you can't understand that anime is Japanese, you're the stupid one. Here's another very common critique of this anime, "The Manga is better". Well, I won't argue with you, but this is still one of the best Animes, even incomplete, even in 4:5 format and with the cheesy English dub(what true anime fan watches dubs anyway?). As for music, Guts theme became a meme in itself and is a poignant and mystical theme song. Another song I really like is "Forces", used when the Band of the Hawk charges an enemy camp. It fits perfectly.
This anime is a masterpiece.
