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Berserk 2016 Anime |OT| Prelude to the CGI Boat

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Tizoc

Member
DO NOT DISCUSS MANGA EVENTS OR POST ABOUT STUFF THAT DON’T OCCUR IN THE EPISODES THAT HAVE AIRED SO FAR.
BE MINDFUL OF YOUR FELLOW GAFFERS WHO WANT TO FOLLOW THE SERIES VIA THIS ANIME SERIES.
IF YOU WANT TO DISCUSS THE MANGA TAKE IT UP IN THE BERSERK OT:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=710402

hqtx1f2.jpg


What is Berserk
Berserk is a Dark Fantasy series by Kentaro Miura, set in a Medieval European setting. The manga began publication in 1989, and while it did have animated adaptations they mainly focused on the Golden Age arc which told of Guts and Griffith's past.
This new anime adaptation, taking place a few years after the final events of the Golden Age arc, following Guts on an epic quest to find the perfect boat to get stranded on the vast oceans, The Black Swordsman, as he hunts down the demonic God Hand and their many monstrous Apostles.
To face off against the many demonic spirits and monsters that hunt and haunt him, Guts is armed with a metallic arm canon, a repeating auto crossbow and a giant slab of iron dubbed the 'Dragon Slayer'. Also his Elf companion Puck who can deal with a few weaker evil spirits, has healing powers, and offers some nice comic relief to an otherwise dark and grim series.
This new anime series will begin airing on July 1st.

Getting ready for the new anime series
You have the following options:
1) Either read the manga, published in print by Dark Horse
2) Watch the 25 episode anime adaptation of the Golden Age arc (available on DVD)
3) Watch the recent movie Trilogy.
Note that both anime adaptations of the Golden Arc skip various stuff from the manga, but will otherwise get you up to speed to this anime series.

About the new anime series
It should be noted that this new series will ALSO skip some stuff from the manga as seen in the episode list that’s gone online.
While this might seem off putting at first, hell this is a Berserk anime, expect the following:
Kickass action and fights
Gore
Nudity and Sex (mostly rape really)
Guts ripping and blasting demons and monsters to shreds and bits
The core primary story and characterization being adapted

You’re still bound to have a good time watching this adaptation as long as you’re up to date via either the prior animated adaptations or the manga.

Where to watch
The anime will be made available through Crunchyroll.com

The cast

Guts
TbpILi2.jpg

Guts is the Black Swordsman, a big, burly, manly, badass who doesn't take shit from anybody and would very much want to be left alone.
He was once a prolific member of the mercenary group, Band of the Hawk, until the entire troupe were mutilated by demons, as sacrificial offerings to the God Hand during an event known as The Eclipse. Surviving this mad ordeal, he now journies through the land hunting the Apostles until he can exact his vengeance against them.
Because of the brand on his neck acting like a magnet for the many evil spirits across Midland, he hardly can get a moment's rest for they can even torment him in his sleep. As such he sleeps only during the day and every waking moment has his him hunting for the Apostles, his one link to getting closer to the God Hand, from daybreak til sunrise.

Puck
8I1VrNw.jpg

Puck is introduced as being of the Elf race (the manga has been refering to him as an Elf for so long we just stuck with it despite the more appropriate term being Fairy or Pixie. One could argue that Fae is more fitting). He is Guts' companion and has been following him throughout his journey, heroically, according to him at least, protecting Guts from the dark spirits that would otherwise devour him.

Initially, Puck is curious about Guts; able to sense human emotion he became intrigued by all the dark thoughts and trauma that Guts has been holding in that, having nothing else better to do, decides to tag alongside him, much to Guts' dismay.
Puck was intended to be part of the series since the early prototype that Miura drew in '88, and over time he became a fan favourite, whose comic relief doesn't take away from the events of the plot that are unfolding.

Serpico, Farnese & Azan
These trio lead the Holy Iron Chain Knights, a group tasked with investigating and hunting down the Black Swordsman under direct order from the VaticanHoly See.

Isidro
A young boy who wants to make it big in the world through his own strength and sword, by any means necessary (including cheating his way to victory). After seeing Guts in action, he becomes enamoured by him and starts to tail him in order to become a stronger warrior.
 
Wait so this is an actual continuation of the original 25 episode anime? Ive always wanted to know what was going to happen next.
 

Vice

Member
The year of Berserk. I can't wait. A game, a new anime and one whole chapter. When does it start airing?
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Wait so this is an actual continuation of the original 25 episode anime? Ive wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Sort of? It continues the story after the Golden Age arc but also appears to be chopping out large sections of the manga to do so. Its also done more in the vein of the movies in terms of style.
 
Let's go Griffith.

I never thought they were supposing to wear these garish colors...

The ornamental armors and colors make sense. They are an irrelevant army formed by noble men. They dress according to their status and manners. The problem is that it's too shiny, the armors should be more worn out.
 

Einhander

Member
So, will we be seeing Guts fight at least one of the Apostles in this series? I want to see an incredibly brutal fucking fight,
unfortunately in CG.

I haven't read the manga.
 

Strimei

Member
It just blows my mind to realize that new Berserk (that isn't the damn Golden Age) is about to air.

Like...what reality am I in?

Next you'll tell me that Miura's on schedule for the next five years.
 
So, will we be seeing Guts fight at least one of the Apostles in this series? I want to see an incredibly brutal fucking fight,
unfortunately in CG.

I haven't read the manga.

Actually , it's possible that the answer is
No
. But there's some nice fights.
 

Kudo

Member
Hopefully this will be good, even if the 3DCG is awful the story could carry it.
Looking forward to Friday.
 

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
Sort of? It continues the story after the Golden Age arc but also appears to be chopping out large sections of the manga to do so. Its also done more in the vein of the movies in terms of style.

The original anime had issues too.

  • Cut out portions of the manga
  • Heavily censored some scenes
  • Cheaply made and poorly animated
  • Didn't even have the budget to finish the final episode
Didn't stop it being awesome though. This new anime, which continues directly after the events in the first anime and is a perfectly acceptable continuation, seems to have it's own issues too. I'm confident they will do their best and capture the spirit of Berserk just as well as the 1997 show did.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
So, will we be seeing Guts fight at least one of the Apostles in this series? I want to see an incredibly brutal fucking fight,
unfortunately in CG.

I haven't read the manga.

Seeing as they cut out the Lost Children Arc and don't seem to be doing the Slug Count part of the Black Swordsman Arc, we might not actually see Guts fight an apostle.

The original anime had issues too.

Cut out portions of the manga
Heavily censored some scenes
Cheaply made and poorly animated
Didn't even have the budget to finish the final episode

Didn't stop it being awesome though. This new anime, which continues directly after the events in the first anime and is a perfectly acceptable continuation, seems to have it's own issues too. I'm confident they will do their best and capture the spirit of Berserk just as well as the 1997 show did.

Well seeing as they are having trouble even making Guts look right, its still up in the air whether they will get the rest of it right.
 

Bebpo

Banned
The amount of nitpicking I've seen about this and berserk musou is crazy. The colors are too garrish? The armor is not worn down enough? Really?

I don't get it. I'm a Berserk fan, been reading the manga as long as you guys. I remember translating chapters on the skullknight.net forums 10+ years ago. I am ecstatic at the fact we're simply getting a continuation of the anime 20 years later. Hell a new game is nice too! You'd think the fanbase would be excited to finally getting some non-manga Berserk, but all I've seen since the PVs has been hate & criticism of every little detail. When did Berserk fans become so elitist.
 
I just recently watched the anime series and was really disappointed by the cut. It was really awesome, I don't know why they decided to only make one season.
 

brawly

Member
The amount of nitpicking I've seen about this and berserk musou is crazy. The colors are too garrish? The armor is not worn down enough? Really?

I don't get it. I'm a Berserk fan, been reading the manga as long as you guys. I remember translating chapters on the skullknight.net forums 10+ years ago. I am ecstatic at the fact we're simply getting a continuation of the anime 20 years later. Hell a new game is nice too! You'd think the fanbase would be excited to finally getting some non-manga Berserk, but all I've seen since the PVs has been hate & criticism of every little detail. When did Berserk fans become so elitist.

Saying that the animation is looking like shit (fact) isn't nitpicking. An amazing manga like Berserk deserves better than possibly the worst animation job of the year.

Better than nothing, right?
 

Bebpo

Banned
Saying that the animation is looking like shit (fact) isn't nitpicking. An amazing manga like Berserk deserves better than possibly the worst animation job of the year.

Yeah, the CG animation being cheap CG is disappointing. I'm mainly talking about the other nitpicks about little things.

For instance whining about stuff like no Lost Children arc is funny since the first google search of Berserk and Lost Children Arc is a reddit thread titled "Is the Lost Children Arc Filler?"

I've seen people say they're boycotting the show because it doesn't have the Lost Children arc.

It's a dumb arc with nothing of value other than shock tactics at
Gattsu killing naked children
. I can see why they'd skip it, and I don't think it's a big deal. Berserk was never really about shock stuff. Earlier on Miura used a lot of gore and rape and shocking fucked up stuff because he needed flash to sell to Joe 6 pack. Once the manga got successful enough he cut back on all that and now it's just a good R fantasy story. Berserk's always been about the story & characters, so I don't really care if the anime tones down the shock stuff as long as they keep the character development and storytelling.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
The amount of nitpicking I've seen about this and berserk musou is crazy. The colors are too garrish? The armor is not worn down enough? Really?

I don't get it. I'm a Berserk fan, been reading the manga as long as you guys. I remember translating chapters on the skullknight.net forums 10+ years ago. I am ecstatic at the fact we're simply getting a continuation of the anime 20 years later. Hell a new game is nice too! You'd think the fanbase would be excited to finally getting some non-manga Berserk, but all I've seen since the PVs has been hate & criticism of every little detail. When did Berserk fans become so elitist.

Since we expect quality art for a series renowned for quality art? I mean how hard is it to make the main character of the series look like his manga counterpart?

It's a dumb arc with nothing of value other than shock tactics at
Gattsu killing naked children
. I can see why they'd skip it, and I don't think it's a big deal. Berserk was never really about shock stuff. Earlier on Miura used a lot of gore and rape and shocking fucked up stuff because he needed flash to sell to Joe 6 pack. Once the manga got successful enough he cut back on all that and now it's just a good R fantasy story. Berserk's always been about the story & characters, so I don't really care if the anime tones down the shock stuff as long as they keep the character development and storytelling.

Are you fucking kidding? What nonsense. The arc is incredibly important to the series and to Guts. Not to be mean but for someone saying the series is about character development and storytelling and then to shit on the Lost Children arc is pretty damn bone headed in my opinion.
 

brawly

Member
Yeah, the CG animation being cheap CG is disappointing. I'm mainly talking about the other nitpicks about little things.

For instance whining about stuff like no Lost Children arc is funny since the first google search of Berserk and Lost Children Arc is a reddit thread titled "Is the Lost Children Arc Filler?"

I've seen people say they're boycotting the show because it doesn't have the Lost Children arc.

It's a dumb arc with nothing of value other than shock tactics at
Gattsu killing naked children
. I can see why they'd skip it, and I don't think it's a big deal. Berserk was never really about shock stuff. Earlier on Miura used a lot of gore and rape and shocking fucked up stuff because he needed flash to sell to Joe 6 pack. Once the manga got successful enough he cut back on all that and now it's just a good R fantasy story. Berserk's always been about the story & characters, so I don't really care if the anime tones down the shock stuff as long as they keep the character development and storytelling.


That is weird, since most were bitching about the rape stuff being in there (game cover, DLC). Can't please everyone.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Since we expect quality art for a series renowned for quality art? I mean how hard is it to make the main character of the series look like his manga counterpart?

The arc/animation criticisms are pretty ironic in light of the original anime (that everyone loves) having some of the worst animation of the 90s. It outdoes Eva TV on still frame panning.

It's a great show, but the animation was really really weak.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
The arc/animation criticisms are pretty ironic in light of the original anime (that everyone loves) having some of the worst animation of the 90s. It outdoes Eva TV on still frame panning.

It's a great show, but the animation was really really weak.

Yeah and? My points is Guts doesn't look like Guts in the new anime, I said nothing about the animation. At least the characters looked like their manga counterparts in the 90's version.
 

Snaku

Banned
Been waiting for this for almost 20 years. The movie trilogy was nice, but all I've wanted since episode 25 was another goddamn episode.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Are you fucking kidding? What nonsense. The arc is incredibly important to the series and to Guts. Not to be mean but for someone saying the series is about character development and storytelling and then to shit on the Lost Children arc is pretty damn bone headed in my opinion.

The arc is meant to re-introduce Gattsu as the black swordsman after Band of the Hawk before moving on to the next major plot movement with the knights. Since the new anime does not have band of the hawk, it doesn't need that, although it could've been fine like a 90s Berserk anime ep1 if they wanted. But obviously they didn't want to animate it because
naked dead children
would be a problem and I don't have a problem with that. Also if the ep count is limited, skipping straight into the first plot movement makes sense.
 
It's a dumb arc with nothing of value other than shock tactics at
Gattsu killing naked children
. I can see why they'd skip it, and I don't think it's a big deal. Berserk was never really about shock stuff. Earlier on Miura used a lot of gore and rape and shocking fucked up stuff because he needed flash to sell to Joe 6 pack. Once the manga got successful enough he cut back on all that and now it's just a good R fantasy story. Berserk's always been about the story & characters, so I don't really care if the anime tones down the shock stuff as long as they keep the character development and storytelling.

Yeah, no.
The shock stuff is easily the least interesting part of that arc. Jill and Rosine flesh out the world perfectly (they're children and girls, two of the most vulnerable demographics in a feudalism-based fantasy world), and their story deals specifically with these things, I mean their entire conflict revolves around both of them being abused. It also lays the groundwork for Guts finding his new companions, since Jill goes back to her people in the end to find her own way in the world, she doesn't have to live in the dark world that Guts does, which in a way gives us another perspective on what Guts is doing. Rosine's story fleshes out exactly how complex and tragic the apostles can be, which seems utterly necessary when Guts is going around killing a bunch of them, and we're still trying to figure out the implications of the choice that Griffith just made. If instead we were under the impression that the apostles were just two-dimensionally evil (no other apostle has been presented as more three dimensional than Rosine thus far) it would be a lot more boring and lacking in the actually interesting grey/antihero morality of Guts as the black swordsman. It's also ridiculously concise thematically, the Perkaf story and how Rosine ultimately dies is a perfect example of how to tell a satisfying story in an extremely economical or efficient way.
 
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