Kenpuu Denki Berserk

Guts, a man who will one day be known as the Black Swordsman, is a young traveling mercenary characterized by the large greatsword he carries. He accepts jobs that offer the most money, but he never stays with one group for long—until he encounters the Band of the Falcon. Ambushed after completing a job, Guts crushes many of its members in combat. Griffith, The Band of the Falcon's leader and founder, takes an interest in Guts and duels him. While the others are no match for Guts, Griffith defeats him in one blow.

Incapacitated and taken into the Band of the Falcon's camp to recover, Guts wakes up two days later. He confronts Griffith, and the two duel yet again, only this time with a condition: Guts will join the Band of the Falcon if he loses. Due to his fresh injuries, Guts loses the fight and is inducted by Griffith.

In three years' time, Guts has become one of the Band of the Falcon's commanders. On the battlefield, his combat prowess is second only to Griffith as he takes on large groups of enemies all on his own. With Guts' immense strength and Griffith's leadership, the Band of the Falcon dominate every battle they partake in. But something menacing lurks in the shadows, threatening to change Guts' life forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Guts Main

Canna, Nobutoshi Japanese

Griffith Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Casca Main

Miyamura, Yuko Japanese

Judeau Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Nosferatu, Zodd Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Pippin Supporting

Amada, Masuo Japanese

Rickert Supporting

Uechi, Aki Japanese

Slan Supporting

Tanaka, Atsuko Japanese

Void Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Godo Supporting

Nishikawa, Ikuo Japanese

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Okuno, Toshiaki Producer

Takahashi, Naohito Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Chief Animation Director, Key Animation

Tsurumaki, Kazuya Episode Director

Reviews

Sep 4, 2010

Moonlith

Recommended

I'm one of those guys who usually read the manga before watching the anime. You can imagine, then, what my sentiments were like when I began watching a 25-episode-anime of which I'd read 300+ chapters of manga. To clarify, I was preparing for a completely unripe anime-draft of a manga praised to the heavens that'd actually been worth it, and then some. To my pleasant surprise I discovered the anime adaptation of Berserk lost to its original version in nothing but length and detail.

But the main elements, the magic that made the epic manga what it is are all present in the animated version. Guts, ... The Black Swordsman, is still the hapless avenger wandering in search for revenge and peace of mind. The world in which the story is set is still that medieval realm right down to the brilliant castles with their greedy landlords, the disadvantaged common folk, and the never-ending wars. And, perhaps most importantly along with the characters, the story is still the same tragedy of fate, friendship and love.

Perhaps one point of criticism for some could be the outdated artstyle. Having aired more than ten years ago, the art and animation will inevitably seem rough and simple for those (like me) who've discovered anime rather recently, through recent shows with more high-tech appearance. Upon closer look, however, I'd say that instead of a shortcoming, Berserk's old-school animation works exactly in the shows favor. The story is, after all, rough by nature and set in an age long gone, in which case the ancient animation actually accentuates the overall mood quite nicely. I wonder if the series's impact would've been the same had it been done in the 2000s, closer to this day. I dare doubt it.

An avid listener of music though I am, I rarely pay much attention to the tunes played in anime. But whereas most shows fail to catch my admiration with their musical score, Berserk did so in spades. Far more than once I found myself being chilled to the bone as the horror scenes rolled in, aided by terrifyingly fitting ominous sounds without which the anime's horror elements would've lacked greatly. In comparison, the joyful tunes of bonfire festivals, the musical elegance of the upper class's dances, and the emotional pieces of the more waffy scenes all help to highlight the sentiment of each situation. 10/10 score for this department; a true rarity given by me.

One might wonder why I've so far mostly talked about aspects many would consider minor in comparison to an anime's story and characters. Well for one, both animation and music contribute so much to the show's overall score that there's nothing minor about them in this instance. As for the other reason, if I'd start to go on detailing bit by bit what makes the story and characters of Berserk so unfathomably excellent, we'd all soon be looking at a review of more than 10,000 words. And since reading all of it would be that much more away from your Berserk-watching (or reading) time, I'm going to keep it simple. Just imagine a story so compelling and layered you'll truly find yourself gasping at times, a cast of characters so real you actually start to care for them though they don't even exist, and a high-fantasy medieval world so immersing you can almost feel the reality around you blur away.

But an adaptation from a manga as this is, there's no way to escape the shadow of the original work. An no matter how excellent an anime this is even forgetting the manga, fact of the matter is that Berserk is the greatest MANGA ever made, and the anime is just a colorful side-kick next to it. At the beginning of my review I said the anime loses to the manga in nothing but length and detail. True. But ponder on this: the anime is one of 25 normal length (a bit over 20 minutes) episodes. The manga is one of over 300 and still going on chapters. The conclusion being, Berserk anime loses A LOT to the manga in length and detail. I didn't even care to count all the scenes an details of the original work that didn't exist in the anime, and now as I'm doing so for the sake of writing this review, I can't help but note that, again, A LOT is lost when such a number of details that helped understanding the characters in the manga, for example, are nowhere to be seen in the anime. To refrain from writing a novel-length review, again, let's just say that even though Berserk manga had nothing but text and black and white drawings to reach me, I never felt nearly as immersed by the anime as I did by the original.

Be that as it may, Berserk is truly one to deserve the title "epic" in the history of anime. It is an obligatory watch for anyone who likes Japanese animation. It is a classic right there among Evangelion, Miyazaki's works, or any other anime one might deem ageless and undying. It is right there among them, shining in their midst as the bloodiest gem of them all.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 12, 2009

Credulous

Mixed Feelings

As I write this review I realize that I may have been slightly too hung up on the thing I'm hung up on that results in me giving this anime a lower rating than it probably deserves. The thing is, Berserk is a good anime, I enjoyed it immensly with its shady animations and art that you just have to love yet you wonder if you should take it seriously. I loved the characters of this anime, they were all so tragic, almost too tragic on the verge of being funny, yet it never crossed the line over to funny, so they were tragic, really ... tragic. Truth be told the entire anime was pretty tragic, even when the plot went into lighter things it still had tragic undertones, or overtones.

In any case, the story of the anime was pretty straightforward yet really complex, something that may seem paradoxal, but when you're watching Berserk it's the most natural thing in the world. In all honesty I still, to this day, don't forgive Griffith for his role in this anime and how it all played out in the end. Something which might contribute to my overall rating for this anime, but the main reason for my relatively low overall rating for Berserk is the ending.

I felt robbed as I saw this anime come to its conclusion, when the final episode came to an end I was stunned at how betrayed I felt by an ending that can be described with words like; 'displeasing', 'unsatisfactory' and 'disappointing' yet, it does not even begin to describe to what extent. I am sure many disagree, or perhaps they were just satisfied with the journey to the end, but for me the ending to Berserk felt unnatural which is why I gave this anime a 6.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 21, 2011

YasuiWainnoKishi

Not Recommended

Funny

It's bad anime. It is below averange level for grown-up people.
I didin't read the manga, I don't know how's with it, but this anime is bad. If you haven't watched it, you can of course but I tell you - go with some other series with high rating. You won't waste a day of your life this way.

Why?

I don't know what do people that claims it to be 10/10 see in it, maybe it's because they loved the manga or they watched it in school and feel a sentiment.
Well I didn't read it and I'm not in schoolage, and here's how it looks for me:

Good ... things:
Good thing in it for me at least is medieval setting, knights, kings, castles and all - wich can be in some degree enjoyable.

Now bad things:
It's not so easy to stand the old-fashioned art and poor animation it has but it's somehow understandable as this series has its years (although it's not SO old). Anyway it could be not a flaw if the plot and the feeling were good. (or awesome like in Cowboy Beebop)

But the story is infantile. The unvincible hero with posture of a bodybuilder, silly and kind of funny combat scenes, flat dialogues, not much of depth - what's this? He-man? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? I bet I would be enjoing this like hell... if I was 10 years old. I would write in this review it's kind of cartoon for kids and if you're a teenager go ahead and watch it but what with all this bloody violence and the final rape scene? Then for who this anime is except Berserk manga fans? It's just poor.

I could count many examples of its silliness but take this one. What's with this name of the main character - Guts? Give me a break. With his posture and overall macho image in anime it would've been good if this series were mentioned to be humorous. But it attempts to be serious. And he's running, swinging his big sword, defeating countless groups of enemies by himself. Again - stuff for kids. If there were some humorous thing about it, some wink or just another interesting things in this anime it could've been different. But there's no such thing!

Opening theme is silly for my taste so my personal sound raiting goes down a little too.


In summary it can be a little entertaining but it absolutely can't be compared to other high rated anime like Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Beebop, Genshiken or whatsoever, you get the point. It doesn't deserve even 8/10 and it's for sure no masterpiece.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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