KENPUU DENKI BERSERK

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionBerserk
MOVIE ActionBerserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago
MOVIE ActionBerserk: Ougon Jidai-hen II - Doldrey Kouryaku
MOVIE ActionBerserk: Ougon Jidai-hen III - Kourin
ANIME ActionBerserk: Ougon Jidai-hen - MEMORIAL EDITION

REVIEWS

• 

  Peng

  70/100
  A cult classic and the standard bearer of dark fantasy anime

  With the remake stirring up tonnes of controversy, I thought I’d relive the 1997 cult classic that is _Berserk_. A manga and anime icon and a flagship for the dark fantasy genre, _Berserk_ stands to this day as a much loved franchise and a staple for any anime fan. Famous for its grim, dark atmosphere and unwavering onscreen brutality, protagonist Guts has long been considered the original suffering Subaru. The series is perhaps even more famous for the suffering inflicted upon its fans who, after an unsatisfying conclusion, were forced to wait twenty long years [for, well… ](http://sidearc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/berserk-2016-1.jpg) #Feel no shame about shape *** Guts is a wandering mercenary with a big ass sword. Like, the thing is more ridiculous than the Buster Blade. He eventually comes under the employ of Griffith, a charismatic tactical genius who leads a much feared mercenary company: The Band of the Hawk. However, Griffith is revealed to have much larger ambitions. At first glance, both Guts and Griffith seem pretty straightforward. Guts appears to be a mean, mysterious, buff dude who happens to be an OP swordsman. Griffith appears to be a charming bishounen with a knack for strategy. They, of course, are these things. And yet, they’re so much more. Guts’ troubled past had led him to be proficient at a single thing: swinging his big ass sword. He embraces this, but it concurrently traps him. War is, and has been, his entire life. It is something he continuously strives to excel at; otherwise the purpose of his existence is effectively moot. Yet, as the dynamic of the world ceaselessly changes around him, he wonders if he still has a place. To complicate things further, Guts begins to reconsider whether he’s really satisfied serving as someone else’s tool – someone else’s sword. Griffith is ambitious. His ambition drives his very being, rendering him the charismatic, shrewd and relentlessly determined individual that he is. This very same ambition makes him narcissistic, arrogant and obsessive. His followers are not so much his friends as they are his tools. Servants destined only to satisfy his insatiable desire. The point is that these guys are surprisingly complex. Although they may look fairly stock standard, they prove to be pleasantly nuanced and compelling. What is even more compelling and is without a doubt the highlight of the show, is their relationship. The paradigm is constantly shifting and you’re never really sure if they’re friends, rivals or something else entirely. The two are like Joker and Batman, Bonnie and Clyde or Luke and Vader. They complete each other and expose all the intricacies of each other’s personalities and thoughts. They both complement and undermine each other. And I love it. It’s mind boggling and ceaselessly engaging. The rest of the Band of the Hawk are pretty one-dimensional, but fun enough. The central female character, Casca, receives more attention. However, her romantic flip-flopping is a bit trite, especially for a character as ostensibly strong and stubborn as she was. It was a little disappointing to see the fearsome, independent female lead be somewhat reduced in this way. Everyone else, especially the numerous villains, are typical fantasy fanfare. They can be very cliché and often verge on the point of caricature. With one exception, it’s very obvious that none of them are real threats and thus you can’t take them seriously. It’s more of a matter of how Guts and Griffith will eventually, but inevitably, overcome them. What many of these tertiary characters do contribute, however, is the 'comedy' part of tragicomedy. There are some genuinely funny gags, my favourite of which is the Shakespearean tendency to cut to a couple of enemy of grunts mid-battle to listen in on their conversation. #So put your grasses on *** From a technical standpoint _Berserk_ is questionable. It had a 3am airtime – in 1997 – and it frequently shows its age and budget limitations. There are countless freeze frames and highlights which can make the action sequences especially underwhelming. It also doesn’t really help that anything and everything Guts swings his sword at, man or metal, gets bisected. The art, especially the character designs, are somewhat dated and at worst can be a little cheesy (particularly in regards to the demons). That said, everyone that matters is pretty classy and well-designed and Griffith looks like a total BAMF. Visually, what _Berserk_ excels at is establishing atmosphere. Grit. Everything is coarse and unpolished, but this pays dividends in portraying the series as exactly how it is: grim, rough and unsettling. Background watercolours are particularly good in this sense. All the set pieces, although unclean, are eerie, haunting and practically scream dark fantasy. Usually, the music complements this. Most tracks aren’t exactly memorable, [save for the likes of ‘Forces’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYX1ZLFxs8A). [Susumu Hirasawa](http://anilist.co/staff/5750/SusumuHirasawa) uses these weird electronic tracks that are so stereotypically 90s but actually do a great job in creating an unnerving and unsettling vibe. The OP and ED are contentious, where many argue they do not fit the series. I’m not exactly sure if the cheesy visuals and bad engrish in the OP had their intended effect, but the thing is catchy and it sure as hell grows on you (maybe for the wrong reasons). #Nothing will be wrong *** Structurally, the story is bookended. The first episode is set after the events of the series and so is pretty much a massive spoiler. This can be problematic: you know the ultimate outcome of the story, including the major plot-twist, which inevitably removes a substantial amount of the shock-value and impact. The stakes simply aren’t as high and you may find yourself getting impatient as to find out how it all goes down. I guess the journey is supposed to be what matters, but it just doesn’t have the same effect it probably should have. In a similar vein, and partially because of the story’s circular layout, the ending feels slightly unfulfilling. There is very little foreshadowing and without spoiling anything, there is a very sudden focal transition from a more political, character orientated, low fantasy story to that where more typical high fantasy elements, and I suppose what is the central theme, seize centre stage. It’s not as shocking as it should’ve been because, thanks to episode one, we know how it’ll ultimately turn out. This somewhat ties into the whole fate/pre-determination/causality theme that the series kinda tackles? It isn't handled with particular grace, nor is it ever really that compelling until the final act despite the ominous reminder at the beginning of every episode with the God Hand sequence. I wasn’t sure if the show was reminding us that this was supposed to be a thing as much as it was reminding itself. But, the biggest problem with the ending is more of a testament to the show than it is a criticism. It abruptly ends and just when things are getting _really_ interesting. YOU WANT MORE. The manga is still running, whilst this version only adapts the Golden Age arc. There’s so much unfinished business and we’re left right in the thick of things. #Too late, it's too late *** _Berserk_ is dark, grim and brooding. This is tragedy - and perhaps tragicomedy - at some of its most compelling, with an amazing main duo who have an even more incredible dynamic. The technical aspects and structural choices can be a bit lacking, but ultimately it engrosses and entertains. In the end, the most unfortunate thing about this series is that it leaves you wanting more. Was the twenty year wait worth it? Probably not, especially given the result. Regardless, _Berserk_ is a cult classic for a reason. It’s iconic and a damn fun anime.
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• 

  StupidWeeaboo

  100/100
  Freeze frame perfection

  A complete story. The characters, the art style, the sound design, the music, the tone and the plot. All nailed down to a T. Although I started with the anime rather than the manga, I feel as though I got the most complete parts of that manga condensed into this well-presented package. It made my heart race, pulled on the strings but ultimately left me wanting more. Of course I will end up reading the manga because of how much of a masterpiece this show was which I guess is the goal of an anime adaptation.
  The first episode did a successful job of establishing the badassery of Guts and his huge sword, and really that would be all that I would need to be hooked. It gave me enough intruige to watch the whole 25 episodes, just through sheer force of the main character Guts. And so to talk about the plot.
  Firstly, the plot. I know that the manga continues on after this and just the fact that this entire show (or season I guess) is dedicated to how Guts turns into who he is and what he's motivated by allows me to understand the character and the journey he has been on so that I can appreciate his further adventures in the manga (when I read it) so I feel as though this anime has done a good job at establishing that for me. This story is not only driven by Guts' background story and motivations, but also the overarching plot and interpersonal relations that the show itself plays with over the course of the whole series and with perfect pacing at that. It starts off developing its characters with the brash Guts against the seemingly angelic Griffith and his pack of mercenaries. Establishing them as enemies, then friends, to which they distance and become sort of enemies again. This progression between the two 'main' characters allows for the entire story to be driven forward and not stay in a state of stagnant filler and the anime just trying to bide time. The cohesive flow of episodes allowed me to continue on without becoming bored with what the show had to offer. Just the fact that the scale kept increasing and increasing and that the stake just grew exponentially allowed for there to be a real sense of danger for the characters over the entire series and didn't leave me bored. Of course in the manga this entire show is only one arc, but I think that it was perfectly conclusive and would allow me to just get into the actual adventure that the manga had to offer. Not only was I driven to continue watching this show by the two 'main' characters (and I would say that they are somewhat the main driving forces of the show to some degree) but that acceleration from them was also propelled by the wonderful supporting cast all of which felt real. The most important aspect of a character for me is one who feels like I am able to know them through the anime itself via what it shows me. Rather than being told who the character is and what they're driven by, I like a character who shows me who they are and what they're about and I feel as though Berserk allows for me to feel what the characters are feeling throughout the entire show. Casca, Guts, Griffith, Rickert, Pippin, Judeau and even Corkus bounce off of each other and help to establish the heart and soul of the mercanary band. Just being able to witness their growth throughout the entire show warmed my heart and I didn't want it to end. Even the men under Guts' command helped to realise the characterisation and personalisation of the show as a whole, with Gaston's admiration never failing to have me smile a little. All of that and yet. They all die. This show empties you, after filling you with the personalities of interesting characters and motivations it empties you. It flips this all on its head and runs with an even darker tone than it had already established. Although the series does progressively get darker over the 25 episode run, the last few episodes really do make an impact and I have never felt so alone and so empty just seeing Guts hopelessly held down by the Apostles and emotionally tortured by Griffith's rape of Casca. All the life sapped out of the characters in the favour of a new plotline, though it is intruiging, it hurts a little. This is not to say that this is a bad decision moving forward, if anything it motivates me to see what the manga has to offer in terms of characterisation. And in saying all of that, it would most likely prove that the characterisation is very strong, making me care about the stakes and the danger that is posed to the cast many times throughout the show.
  From that, the art style. Although this is an anime from the 90's and I'm usually about that fluffy 2000's style of moe and happiness. This roughly edged and worn art helps to not only give the show a bit of timelessness but also assists in the conveyance of the show's sombre and dark tone overall. The hand-painted backgrounds and the hyper detailed pan shots really show the care put into this show and makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable. It reminds me a little bit of how timeless Cowboy Bebop is.
  From this, the sound and the music help to drive home that heavy feeling art style in such an impactful way. From heavy clangs of metal to the sound of flesh being impales, all of it assists in evoking in me the dark tone of the show as a whole. And the music, used in crucial moments with particular tracks honing the polish of scenes further than they are with the art style.
  Overall, I would like to read the manga which I've heard is even better than this anime. 10/10, complete in every aspect and does an honourable job in adapting a long-form manga into a digestable single season to get me hooked.

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• 

  TheRealKyuubey

  90/100
  My review of the anime Berserk

  As far back as anyone can remember, the land of Midland has never been peaceful. It’s unclear how long the Hundred Year war lasted, with kings waging war against each other for territory, and a number of uniquely named mercenary bands fighting on their behalf, but the casualties have been many, and the conflict has only recently appeared to be resolved. You would think that the end of this war would bring piece to midland, but you’d be sadly mistaken, as the rise of a cruel demon king has led to the earth being invaded by terrifying monsters, the likes of which not even the darkest imagination could comprehend, and whom hunger for the blood of men, women and children. It’s a dark time for the human race, one where death waits around every corner, and any given person can become the dripping dinner of a demon at any given moment. We live at their whim. We are their cattle. Among us, there is only one human the demon scourge fears. One they’ll try to kill at any cost, as they know full well he’ll do the same thing to them.

  That man is named Guts, and the demons are right to fear him. Towering over other men, covered with battle scars and always ready for a fight, he is almost literally a killing machine. With one eye, a prosthetic arm chock full of demon-killing weapons, and a giant 400 pound sword resting on his shoulder, he travels midland looking for demons to slay. Sadly, he’s not motivated by the survival of the human race… He’s killed more than enough humans to be considered a demon himself. It’s revenge that he thirsts for, and his target is the herald of the apocalypse himself, the Demon King Griffith. See, this isn’t a story about the demon-infested world, but of how that world came about… And these two have a history spanning several years. Once upon a time, Guts was just a wandering soldier, bouncing aimlessly from battle to battle, sort of like a mideval Ronin Warrior. It was his chance meeting with a young Griffith, still just a brilliant, strategic genius leading a fledgling mercenary group, that would entangle his destiny with what he could not have possibly predicted would be the end of the world as we knew it.

  It’s been around twenty years since this series came out, and in that time, there’s been an ever-present demand for a new adaptation to be released. There have been a few reasons for this, and I’ll get to one of them later, but the other one… and perhaps the more persistent one… Has to deal with the animation quality of this initial adaptation, and just how dated it looks due to the technical and financial limitations of the time. The truth is, however, the animation in Berserk was bad even back when it came out, and it had it’s pedigree to blame for it’s disaster. It was animated by a company called Oriental Lights and Magic, yes that’s an obvious Star Wars pun, and not only was Berserk their fourth series, but their only other major claim to fame was… You’re not going to believe this unless you already know about it… The Pokemon anime. Yup. They had just gotten started animating the Pokemon anime about six months prior when they decided to try their hands at one of the most infamously mature and intensely beloved manga properties of all time, and God help me, they tried.

  I’ve talked in the past about how low-budget anime productions can use a lot of tricks to hide the weaknesses that such a restraint holds over their productivity, and how more experienced observers can pick out these techniques. With Berserk, however, even the greenest of viewers can spot the corners being cut. Right in the first episode, the onslaught of a struggling human settlement is portrayed by static images being either panned across or zoned in and out of while the music plays. The static images look good, like high qualities paintings depicting the horrors of war, so it’s not like any of it comes off as an eyesore, but it does sort of defeat the purpose of animation, which is a word that’s defined as movement. The speed lines are even worse, as they really do drag down the action of a series that’s mostly famous for it’s action. Dialogue scenes are often reduced to a series of talking heads, and when they don’t have any shadows to play around with, these issues are embarrassingly exposed.

  So of course, new adaptations came. People got what they wanted, and in a weird sort of twist, they’ve only served to make the original series look better. Yeah, an anime whose visuals were already on the low end of the scale back in the late nineties looks better now than it did when it was new. Thanks to the new adaptations, it’s aged miraculously well. Part of this is due to the new adaptations looking like complete ass… The movies in particular employ extravagant CG, and while it obviously had a lot of money poured into it, they just look ugly and clumsy as a result, with a serious case of Uncanny Valley plaguing all of it’s characters. I haven’t seen the new series, but from what I’ve heard, it’s not that different. A quick comparison between movies that spend a lot of money haphazardly, and a series without much money that had to be responsible to make ends meet, Berserk has actually managed to develop a certain kind of nostalgic charm and respectable sincerity to it’s plethora of visual issues. I won’t go as far as saying that it looks good, but it’s hard to look at the amount of effort and artistry they put into it without cutting it some serious slack.

  So the visuals are a mixed bag, but you know what definitely isn’t? The soundtrack. The music in Berserk is almost as famous as the show itself, and with a composer like Susumu Hirasawa behind the wheel, it’s not hard to see why. In addition to Berserk, Susumu has also done the scores for several Satoshi Kon projects… And that alone is a high praise. While his contributions to The Berserk franchise may not be as deep or cerebral as those, they are some of the most epic, powerful orchestrations you’ve ever heard from the medium. The over-all aesthetic of the soundtrack is something akin to what you’d hear in a really inspired opera about King Arthur… Fantasy, destiny, war, the rising tension of a battle that’s about to start, the inner conflict of deceptively complex characters, and none of it sounds like it was just picked for the sake of sounding good. for a few examples, a tune like Behelit is subtle but bone-chilling, while Guts’ theme song, which you’d expect to be some sort of roaring metal anthem, instead sounds like you just entered a fairy sanctuary, and it’s used in scenes where’s he’s most at peace, and we get to see who he is behind the carnage.

  The most famous track from this show is without a doubt Forces… Okay, well, the God Hand Remix is the one people seem to hear the most often, but the original track is still the most popular from that release. While there are other tracks that feature vocals, I’m pretty sure forces is the only one outside of the OP and ED to feature actual lyrics. The most famous part is the chorus, which awesomely belts out the phrase HAI EEE YAI FORCES a few time before lapsing into instrumentals, but the interesting this about that is that you never hear this during the series. The song plays once in one of the early episodes, but cuts off right before the chorus can hit. I’m not sure what the history behind this song’s usage must be, but it is weird that the most famous 16 seconds of Berserk’s soundtrack don’t actually make it into the show. To give the opening and ending themes a quick mention, they’re okay. I initially didn’t like Tell Me Why by Penpals, I felt it was too light and upbeat for the material, but it’s grown on me recently. The ending, Waiting So Long by Silver fins, I’ve always been cool with. It’s a cool ending.

  The English dub is… Good. It’s not particularly remarkable, as almost everyone across the board does their job competently, with only one or two performances standing out in one way or another. Mark Diraison does a perfectly fine Guts, and while his acting is never bad, the best thing you can say about him is that he has the right voice for the part, as he plays the character with a low, gravely tone that makes him sound appropriately tough. He used pretty much the same voice in his other major role… Oh good lord. He played Zoro in the 4Kids One Piece dub. Moving on, as you damn well should after learning something like that, Carrie Keranen is amazing as the Hawk’s sole female warrior Casca, whose interactions with the other main cast walk a tight rope between her strengths and weaknesses, as she speaks forcefully and proudly as a leader, yet still insecure and full of longing for her unfulfilled ambitions and desires. They’re both better than Kevin T Collins, who plays Griffith in a very hit-or-miss fashion. He has his moments of brilliance, and can be downright chilling even at his charismatic best, but can also sound stiff as a board inbetween.

  Those three make up the majority of the show’s dialogue, but there are also a lot of memorable performances in the supporting cast, as well. Rachel Lillis plays a charming, naive young princess who catches Griffith’s eye. Veronica Taylor plays the child version of Griffith, who shows up once in a surreal scene towards the end. I was a huge fan of Mike Pollock in this show, as he plays a recurring antagonist General named Adon, who’s just an arrogant loudmouth over-all, but still manages to become a fitting arch-rival for Casca. It’s very likely he was typecast, as he also played Eggman in a lot of Sonic properties. Famed Goku actor Sean Schemmel takes on several roles, including a low-level hawk member, and if I’m being honest, most of his best lines are bloopers. Actually, speaking of bloopers, those are totally a thing, and while you can find a ton of them on each individual disk, you can find the entire set on Youtube. If you’ve ever wanted to hear Guts do a Shwarzenegger impression, Casca rant in a lisp or Griffith bust out in all his showtunes glory, I highly recommend checking them out.

  Berserk is not the only anime in history to be granted a do-over. I feel like this is kind of obvious, but one of the most notable examples is Fullmetal Alchemist, which carried a lot of the same complaints that Berserk did… Mainly, though, it was too different from the source material, and people wanted to see a more faithful adaptation. As we all know, Brotherhood came out to monstrous fame and adoration, while surprisingly, Berserk seems to have had the opposite effect. The movies, as much as people praised the first one, and the 2016 remake, which I’ve pissed people off by calling Berserk Brotherhood, is popularly considered an actual dumpster fire. I have not seen it, but I’ll take their word for it until I finally do. But all of this does raise a very interesting question: If the original 1997 series had so many shortcomings that people demanded a do-over, why are there so many people who still consider it the best version? I mentioned earlier how it’s animation has aged better than anyone thought, but I think there’s more to it.

  One of the first problems you’ll hear from people with grievances over the original series is how incomplete it is. Now I’ll be blunt, I’ve only read the first seven volumes of the manga… Give me a break, I’m not a huge manga reader, and there’s like hundreds of volumes… But it’s not hard to see their point, especially since the prologue in the manga was way longer than the one we got for the series before it went back in time for Guts’s origin story. There are other things that were cut, and other changes that were made for the sake of streamlining the story, and while this may be considered a mild spoiler, they cut a part of Guts’s childhood where his guardian sold him for a night with a grown man, who raped him. I don’t think this is a particularly bad cut, though. The story works just fine without it, although it does sorta rob him of a connection he shared with Griffith and Casca. The more obvious change, however, is that the story doesn’t properly end. After a huge climax, it leaves off on a massive cliffhanger, wrapping around to the prologue that we’d seen in episode 1. I don’t personally mind this, but we’ll get to why in a moment.

  And if you think the removal of Guts’s pedophilic abuse scene means the series was toned down in any way, you’re fairly well mistaken. I haven’t read much of the manga, so it’s hard to say how far the story truly went with it’s content, but Berserk rests firmly as one of the most R rated mainstream anime in existence. It has just about everything you could want in a mature title, such as blood, gore, sex, nudity, uncompromising violence… It’s oddly light on foul language, I noticed… And it presents all of it with no shame or hesitation. Now, some of you may be asking, so what? The movies did this too. Well, yeah, but here’s where I’m going to be a bit prudish… No matter how far the 1997 Berserk’s content went, it was always, well, tasteful, which is quite a bit more important than you might realize. A long time ago, I ranted hard on Blood C over it’s violence and depravity, and it wasn’t because I have a problem with gore or anything, but because I had a problem with how it was used, and how the series was basically just a vehicle for gore porn.

  But leaving the blood splatters behind for a moment, let’s talk about what’s possibly the most controversial and divisive element in any media, nudity. This has always been a weird element in anime, as producers will happily use it to titillate audiences, but they have to bend over backwards to avoid showing certain things… So you get weird compromises like convenient censorship and straight up nipple-free Barbie-doll bodies. You get situations like Sankarea, where it’s okay on some characters but not others. Berserk has nudity, but it never goes too far in either direction. It doesn’t bother censoring anything(unless it had to legally), and it also doesn’t create situations like endless showering and bathing scenes just to push out more flesh coverage. If it’s in the story, it happens, and not one single fuck is given as to how you feel about it. If you’re offended, you know where the fast forward button is. If you’re turned on, you know where the pause button is. It’s not there to please or shock you, it’s part of the story… And that’s how Berserk is about everything, really.

  Every single second of this anime is important in some way. Every conversation, every fight, every death(even those involving nameless soldiers and mercenaries), every second of sex and inch of flesh, every single second of material has a direct purpose, such as establishing mood, developing characters and their relationships, communicating details to us, furthering the story and even foreshadowing later events. This is in stark contrast to the Golden Age movies, who valued spectacle over story, and would often gloss over important events in order to, presumably, ‘get to the good parts.’ Like, there’s a moment where Griffith, depressed, making a huge mistake by sleeping with someone he should have stayed away from. The series made no bones about what was happening, but only showed you what you needed to see in order to follow what was happening and appropriately fear the outcome. The movies straight-up presented it as a hot, sexy porn scene, completely missing the point to a confusing degree, and to make matters worse, the same thing happened regarding a rape at the end of the third movie.

  I don’t know which version was more true to the books, and frankly, I don’t care. I’m worried for these characters, so why are you trying so hard to make me jerk off? You don’t need to destroy the tone of the story to keep my attention, and the series knew that. And that’s when mature content becomes a problem… When it’s manipulative. If you write something into your story as fan service, with the effect it might have on the audience as even one of your main intentions, all it will be is fan service. The original Berserk doesn’t give a shit about it’s audience, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It never tries to shock you, or titillate you, or coddle you, or excite you, it’s focus is squarely on it’s own damn story, which is where it should be. If you need boobs and catgirls to get invested, fuck you. If the material goes too far for you, fuck you. Berserk is the story it wants to be, and while that’s not always the best thing to say about an anime… Garbage that wants to be garbage is still garbage… Berserk legitimately is a great story.

  And yeah, i know, Berserk doesn’t really have the kind of story I’d normally praise in a review. I’ve made it kind of a theme to talk about metaphors, social commentary, allegories, real symbolic stuff, and as far as I can tell, Berserk doesn’t really feature any of that. It’s a fairly straight-forward story, with everything that’s happening being right there on the surface, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have depth. Whether it was intentional or not, Berserk(at least the parts that made it into this anime) has managed to become something very few anime can actually claim… A Greek tragedy. This ancient style of storytelling takes flawed characters from all walks of life, gives them some lofty ambition to pursue, and then follows them as they put everything they had before on the line, make heavy sacrifices to get within inches of their dream, and then ultimately lose everything when they fail, due in major part to those flaws they just couldn’t overcome. There are countless ways that Berserk stands as the perfect example of this, and it’s unflinching look at pain, suffering and despair only serve to cement it as possibly the greatest Greek Tragedy Anime of all time.

  There’s also the dynamic between Guts and Griffith in general, which is probably one of the most important elements of the story, but getting into that would be going WAY too heavy into spoilers, so check out Bennet the Sage’s review if you want to know more about that..

  Berserk was originally available from Animeworks, with individual DVDs way back in the early to mid 2000s, and a thinpack that was released back in 2009, all of which are currently out of print, but the thin pack isn’t too expensive online, if you’re bent on owning it.. The follow-up movies are also fairly cheap on DVD, but the 2016 remake, which has just started hitting the shelves about a year ago, is still worth a pretty penny. The original manga is available from Dark horse, and yes, i know it’s just 39 volumes, I was kidding earlier. There are also a few video games, including titles for the Sega Dreamcast and the PS4.

  It’s frustrating to see just how close Berserk came to perfection. Much like the hero of any Greek tragedy, it came so close, only to fall to it’s own undisguised, insurmountable shortcomings. Like I said before, I don’t personally mind the cheap animation, but that doesn’t make it any less of a problem, and it was a driving force behind the demand for a reboot. The same could be said for it’s crippling lack of an ending, and while I think the way it wraps around to the prologue ultimately justifies it, I still completely understand how cheated some people feel over it(Unless the ending of the third Golden Age movie is manga accurate, in which case I can firmly say that I’m GLAD it cut off before reaching that shit). On it’s own, Berserk is still such a thrilling and engaging story that I sometimes have difficulty remember which episode I’m watching, as the story flows so naturally from moment to moment that my mind barely registers the episode breaks. I can’t call it perfect, but I can call it one of my favorites of all time. I give Berserk a 9/10.

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