Berserk: The Golden Age Arc - Memorial Edition

TLDR: Great show with phenomenal characters and story (I mean its Berserk), but has a mix of beautiful and wacky animation plus a more condensed story.

Review: I was introduced to Berserk a few months ago by the 1997 anime (which is a 10/10 show) and then read the entire manga. After I finished it, I wanted more Berserk of course so I gave it a try. What I found was that it is a pretty safe adaptation of the golden age arc with good voice acting, beautiful animation for the most part, and extra scenes from the manga that 1997 does not show.

Lets talk about the animation and VA for a sec. This show is odd because 75% of the time it has beautiful hand drawn animation, but 25% of the time it has bad cgi animation that completely took me out of it. I have no clue why they didn't just do the hand drawn the whole time. I will also say the voice acting for the english dub was surprisingly pretty alright.

Now the story, which is Berserk. If your new, its a dark fantasy story about Guts who is a soldier with a big sword and the band he fights for called the Hawks. The story from the manga is just a template for a 10/10 show, it's so dark but so good. So of course the story is great. I will also say it adds some great depth even through its short run time for a show.

My biggest gripe with the show is that it is so condensed, if I was a first time watcher I wouldn't know the context and in-depth reasonings of the story. It will literally mention a big part of the manga that they skipped over like we are supposed to have already known. I did, but not if I was watching for the first time.

Overall great story, great animation for the most part, and a good time!

PLEASE ADD A CONTINUE WE ALL ARE CRYING SO MUCH THAT THE BERSERK IS ENDING I REGISTERED HERE JUST FOR THIS! PLEASE DON'T END THE ANIME.

THE HOW THIS ANIME IS RELEASED NOW* THE HOW IT IS DRAWN IT IS GORGEOUS VERY LIKE PLEASE DON'T FINISH WE WILL SUPPORT YOU ----- PLEASE ADD A CONTINUE WE ALL ARE CRYING SO MUCH THAT THE BERSERK IS ENDING I REGISTERED HERE JUST FOR THIS! PLEASE DON'T END THE ANIME.

THE HOW THIS ANIME IS RELEASED NOW* THE HOW IT IS DRAWN IT IS GORGEOUS VERY LIKE PLEASE DON'T FINISH WE WILL SUPPORT YOU PLEASE DON'T FINISH WE WILL SUPPORT YOU PLEASE DON'T FINISH WE WILL SUPPORT YOU.

In the 1997 series, they already successfully reflected these parts of the manga. Then a movie trilogy was made in 2012-2013. I think that was unnecessary anyway, but this Memorial Edition version makes no sense. Taking the movie trilogy and dividing it into episodes and releasing it again as if it were a series is like kicking a dead horse. The series in 2016-2017 could have been much more successful if there had been a real effort instead of spending time and resources on these things. If you're not interested in doing something new with Berserk, at least stop ruining what has been done well in the past.

This series follows Guts; a mercenary who wields a huge sword. Normally he doesn't work with others but after meeting the enigmatic Griffith he joins his mercenary group; the Band of the Hawk. They fight alongside each other and the Hawks have more and more success in battle. This makes Griffith one of the king's favourites which upsets the aristocracy who believe he is getting above himself. Over the course of the series the group fight numerous battles and much blood is spilt. We also learn more about Guts and Griffith's pasts. Obviously it isn't all fighting; there is an element of romance involving Casca; the second in command of the Hawks.

This series is a remastered version of the three films released 2012/13, which were in turn based on the same material as the 1997 anime series. One might think that this makes the series superfluous; perhaps it is but it is still a great series. For those who have never seen any Berserk this series is a good introduction. The characters are great, especially Guts, Casca and Griffith. The amination is really good; certainly much better than that used in the 2016 series, which details events after this series. There is plenty of violent action, as well as some sex and nudity which means this won't be suitable for younger or more sensitive viewers. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Berserk in particular and fans of action anime in general.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.

In my view this is the absolute best version of the Goldern Age story ark (AKA Season 1) of Berserk. An absolute MUST SEE for any Anime enthusiast. Yes I understand that it does skip some of the lore from the manga but the core of the story arc is there and polished to its absolute best! I tried also going through the original 1997 version that many claim as more accurate but I absolutely could not digest the low res designs and the crappy cheap animation.. If you can endure with this maybe you can get some more depth in the lore from the older version but be aware that it is also incomplete at many points and leaves you with a cliffhanger... We need more Berserk at the Memorial Edition quality!