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Berserk (2016) is a adaptation of the long-running Japanese manga, Berserk by Kentaro Miura. This would be the third adaptation of the Berserk manga in anime form, the first was the 25 episode series from 1997. The second was a movie trilogy that was released through 2012 - 2013. both of these adaptations covered a portion of the manga called The Golden Age Arc which tells the story of Guts and how he met Casca and Griffith and how he would eventually become The Black Swordsman. This means that this series is the first full adaptation of the series that goes beyond the beginning of ... Guts story and shows us his time as The Black Swordsman.

Plot & Characters.

One of the issues that Berserk 2016 suffers from is how it mangles the timeline and story of the original manga. The story begins in episode 1 on The Black Swordsman Arc which is the introductory arc of the series that serves as a flash forward to The Golden Age Arc which is the true beginning of the series. But episode 2 takes a gigantic leap from the rest of The Black Swordsman Arc, The Golden Age Arc and The Lost Children Chapter all the way until The Conviction Arc's Binding Chain Chapter, which means that the show skips almost 100 chapters of the manga within 2 episodes. Not only this but the series assumes that you already know the story of Berserk going in and are familiar with its characters, and does a bad job filling the audience in on who these characters are, which leads to someone like Guts coming across as massive assholes in this show, which isn't good when he is supposed to be the main protagonist of the series. Not only that but a lot of Guts development with other characters is absent, such as the reason why Guts keeps the fairy Puck around is not explained in the anime, because of this it feels like Puck follows Guts around for a whole year for no real reason and Guts couldn't care less if he was there or not. The issue itself is not with Miura's work, his work is fantastic and at times it still manages to shine through, for example the conversation between Guts and a bed ridden Godot is still fantastic, however it only works if you are a fan of this series before this adaptation. I say this as a fan of the series who has seen the amounts of success mangaka Hirohiko Araki has had with the 2012 adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. A series that began around the same time as Berserk and like JoJo's had previous adaptations beforehand, but seeing how that series has received such a well done and loving anime adaptation, leaves me wanting more for Berserk here.


Animation & Cinematography.

The Berserk manga is well known for its stunning visual storytelling, so much so that many key moments throughout the manga have no dialogue and simply relay on Miura's beautiful illustrations. Because of this it is disappointing how much Berserk (2016) fails to accomplish this same thing. It is well documented at this point that this shows production was a disaster that led to two different studios animating the same show in two different styles of animation, inevitably working against each other and causing more issues down the road, and shows that both studios GEMBA and Milliepensee were way to inexperienced to handle an adaptation of a manga as detailed as Berserk. The majority of the show is animated in 3D, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with 3D anime, you can tell that the studio didn't know how to work with 3D, modules look bland, lifeless and cheap, and they're all covered in pen-lines to give it a more manga aesthetic, but they are ultimately useless and just stand out way to much. There are also sections that are animated in 2D which just makes the 3D sections worse in comparison, which raises the question of why even have the 3D in the first place? But there are then scenes where there are both 2D animated characters and 3D modules in the same shot and it just makes it all feel so ugly and inconsistent. Not only that but the different art-styles leads to characters looking completely different in 2D then they do in 3D, most notably the character of Casca who appears much more pail-skinned in the 2D sections then the 3D sections when the character is supposed to be a dark skinned black woman. There also seems to be a large amount of censorship, particularly in toning down much of the violence that was shown in the manga, but also when it comes to things like nudity and sexual acts. Not that there is no nudity in the show but all naked character modules have no genitals and any naked female characters have no nipples, which just makes all the modules looking incomplete. I'm aware that this is an odd complaint but Berserk is an adult manga and violence, sexual identity and sexual abuse are core themes of the series, so it isn't something that an adaptation can be half-hearted about.

The adaptation also suffers from terrible cinematography, the camera often just moves in any direction it feels regardless of continuity with the previous shots, like these strange upside-down shots that are distracting and don't tell the audience anything of importance. Fight scenes suffer heavily from this because we have no point of reference for where everything is positioned because the camera is constantly breaking the 180-degree rule, which leads to disjointed fights that are hard to follow. They also on multiple occasions cut away before impact , which makes the action feel hollow. It's such an obnoxious way to use the 3D and in the end it all comes across as tacky and gimmicky. The 2D animation doesn't fair much better as they often simply pan the camera across a single drawing to create the most sub-par sense of movement possible and comes across as lazy. The cinematography here feels amateurish and overall only hampers the show even more then it already was.

Sound & Music.

Sound is quite interesting in this show, the obnoxious clank sound that was chosen for the Dragon-Slayer has become the laughing stock of the Berserk community with it's hollow feel and how it somehow makes the same noise when it hits steel to when it hits flesh and bone. But also both the Sub and Dub voice actors feel like their uninterested and would rather be elsewhere. Likely seeing that this was a product that was not going anywhere and simply doing this for a pay-check. However most interestingly I'd say the soundtrack is probably this series saving grace. The opening song "Inferno" - 9mm Parabellum Bullet, is a standard anime song with nothing note-worthy about it. The ending track "Meimoku no Kanata" - Nagi Yanagi, is a nice song but doesn't fit the tone of the series. However there are really great tracks here that are perfect for the Berserk series like "My Brother" - Shiro Sagisu, which is an intense, hard-hitting track with an epic feel to it. "Blood and Guts" also by Shiro Sagisu has a amazing string work along with haunting chants that tells the story of Guts tragic past, and has a metal remix version "Blood and Guts and Guts and Blood" however I do feel that the show uses this remix a bit out of place at times, like it in a particular scene towards the end of the season. And long time composer for the series Susumu Hirasawa who composed the classic Berserk tracks like "Theme of Guts" and "Forces" Returns here with what feels like a follow-up to Forces with "Hai Yo Oh Ashes" an epic track that retains Berserk's other worldly feel while still remaining loud and triumphed. And Susumu Hirasawa would return for Berserk (2017) with on of his best tracks "Ash Crow" which is one of the darkest tracks in the entire series and would fit in perfectly with From Software's Dark Souls games. These are all great tracks and if another Berserk series is created in the future I would love to see some of these tracks return.

Conclusions.

The Berserk Manga is arguably one of the greatest manga's of all time and even though none of the previous adaptations captured the series perfectly, they make a damn good effort, however I can't say the same for this series. This feels more like a cheap cash grab that rides on its name sake because it knows that it's die-hard fan base will tune in regardless of it's quality. Which is a shame because this is a series that deserves so much better then this. My recommendation would be to watch the 1997 series, and if you enjoy that then pick up the manga. But stay as far away from this adaptation as possible.

Gamers! Is a 2017 slice of life, romance anime, about 5 people who all come together from their love of video games. The series follows shut in nerd Amano, who is content with his anti-social life until the most popular girl in school, Tendou falls in love with him and asks him to join her gaming club, he rejects the offer but after befriend one of the guys in class 2-F, Uehara, Amano finds himself creating a Game Appreciation Club with some new friends who all entangle themselves in a web of misunderstandings that leads to them all overthinking about every little detail.

The characters ... are probably the show’s strongest part. Amano is a plain looking, but often funny and unpredictable protagonist who doesn’t let anything get in the way of his love of gaming no matter how bad he is at them. Tendou is the popular girl who lets her feelings for Amano completely overtake her, and is often seen stalking or drooling over our main protagonist, she’s quite endearing and her character design stands out really well compared to the rest of her fellow students. Uehara is probably my favourite character, he’s the hot guy of the group who in the past was made fun of for being a massive nerd, which he tried to hide in order to fit in, until he met Amano and discovered the true reason to why Aguri asked him out is when he accepts the gamer that he really is, it’s always fun to see him scheme to either help fix situations, or have everything go up in flames, and how it usually always backfires on him. Aguri is the only one in the group who is not a gamer, and only has a passing interest because of Uehara, but her friendship with Amano is both positive and pleasant and the fact that she isn’t afraid to stand up for her gamer friends is also quite nice. Last we have Hoshinomori a game developer who has almost all the same views and opinions as Amano, But due to minor differences the two can’t stand each other at the beginning, until she learns that Amano enjoy’s her games, leading to her developing feelings for him. She’s a fun character who throws a wrench into the group dynamics.

The story is simple, but is fun and charming, I like how the story likes to purposefully subvert cliches, like how the first episode is basically a massive set up for a single joke, and how they constantly frame Amano like he’s going to win something, only for him to lose miserably each time. The constant questioning of who likes who, and is he/she cheating on me between the cast was fun, however I feel that could of ended nicely after they all played the bored game at Hoshinomori’s house. Which could of given us a bit more room to develop and progress all of the shows main relationships. The couples, Amano & Tendou and Uehara & Aguri. Are both quite cute, however I feel like we don’t get to spend enough time on their relationship due to the constant misunderstandings. And at time’s it doesn’t even feel like Amano & Tendou are actually together. it would have been nice to see a bit more of their relationship’s and their dynamic’s apart from each other.

But all and all I had a lot of fun with this anime, and if in the mood would likely watch again.