• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Berserk Anime Season 2 |OT| wacky waving inflatable sword man!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Grudy

Member
DCcVGEx.gif


K8g9SuT.gif


Holy crap thet cant even be bother to just trace the teeth on the other side of the helmet. What the fuck

Wait is that supposed to be blood??

So this was the last episode huh? Good riddance. I feel bad for whatever anime this studio will do next.
 
Damn they cranked the cross hatching up to like 11 and it makes the show look worse. Why does it feel like Serpico and Guts should have had their second fight already, or very closely after this? Are they going to end up cutting the plotline where Farnese leaves? They only even got the boat because Farnese met Rodrick and Magnifico.
 

Gulz1992

Member
Damn they cranked the cross hatching up to like 11 and it makes the show look worse.

In light of the hatching filter, Azurepark on reddit says it all here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Berserk/comments/6hmyod/episode_23_megathread_post_reactions_and/dizk0ag/

Azurepark said:
To me, the hatching filter has been one of the most puzzling and unnecessary aspects of the production this whole time. Even as they made various other tweaks and changes, it never seemed to occur to them that having a filter that laid uniform diagonal lines over any area in shadow would just flatten out and scribble over any kind of detail, like this. On top of that the lines stay still while the characters are moving, creating the impression of looking at them through a dirty window. I have a hard time imagining why they didn't just turn it off during the break between seasons, since it adds nothing and only serves to make everything ugly in a show where a lot of scenes take place in the dark.

Berserk (2016) takes an idea that had already been competently executed by other anime-style shows such as Ajin: Demi-Human (2015/16), and nearly perfected in this year's Kado: The Right Answer, but executes it poorly. It is neither original nor well-executed, making it a lose-lose situation.

Short Version: They took a decent idea and did it extremely poorly.

Why does it feel like Serpico and Guts should have had their second fight already, or very closely after this? Are they going to end up cutting the plotline where Farnese leaves? They only even got the boat because Farnese met Rodrick and Magnifico.

Guts and Serpico's second fight occurs right before Ganiska's attack on Vrtiannis. And yes, they most certainly are cutting the Farnese's storyline since they only have one episode left and this show clearly is not getting renewed for another season. They already cut the Moonlight Child and Charlotte's rescue.
 
I actually like Farnese's storyline. It really did a good job of showing the the cast actually cares about her and you get more insight into her messed up family. They're cutting some of my favorite plotlines. Berserk would be an excellent anime in the right hands, but not like this.
 

Gulz1992

Member
I actually like Farnese's storyline. It really did a good job of showing the the cast actually cares about her and you get more insight into her messed up family. They're cutting some of my favorite plotlines. Berserk would be an excellent anime in the right hands, but not like this.

Be honest, do you really want to see those plotlines in the hands of this team? I don't even want to imagine how they would have ruined the Lost Children and killed any chances of it ever getting a good adaptation.
 
Be honest, do you really want to see those plotlines in the hands of this team? I don't even want to imagine how they would have ruined the Lost Children and killed any chances of it ever getting a good adaptation.
No cause they fuck up everything else. They fucked up Slan raping Guts hardcore and they fucked up Grunbeld turning into a crystal fucking dragon, which is one of my favorite panels. Even if they did animate Rosine you bet your ass they wouldn't bother to animate the wings flapping.
 

ScribbleD

Member
I really, really did not think this show would wind up looking so much worse in season 2 than it did in 1, but hot damn. This is belief defying.
 

Gulz1992

Member
I will start by saying this.

I did not mind the ending of the 1997 anime. While I don't necessarily think a cliffhanger was the perfect way to end the show, it at least happened at the most climactic moment and served it's purposed of getting you interested in reading the manga.

Okay. That said, this episode is one of the laziest, most anti-climatic and incompetent endingS I have ever scene in any show or film.

Following is a synopsis of the episode. I will spoil every goddamn thing. So don't read if that matters to you.

Firstly, we start off with the crew on the outskirt of the city. Seeing as how the previous episode ended very abruptly with Guts being pulled out of the Berserker Armor on a beach, this is very jarring. There's no mention of what happened in the previous episode, no ramifications, nothing whatsoever. This episode is self-contained, completely separated from what immediately came before it.

Second, we get to see Schierke be denied access into the city by the guards like in the manga. She then jedi mind tricks them and does it again to some other guys, and that's when we start to see repeated character models.

Remember these guys?
ZPEMxB1.png



Well they're back!
aJi9Mlz.png


IXtTWwY.png

And they aren't the first reused models we'll see. I actually made a game of spotting the same character model while watching this episode.

I realize that reusing models is something commonly done in animated shows, but when I remember stuff from the anime like this
Its+not+just+bad+its+copy+and+paste+art+_a35f3b67d38bbd52b0ae33f85b0875ea.jpg

I can't help but be cynical.

Anyway, Isidro then pulls Schierke away and in the very next frame they're in an alley. He then knocks her hat off and it gets run over by cart. Schierke runs away crying and Isidro is sent to look for her. Up till now, less than 2 minutes have occurred in this episode, reminding the audience that this is really just a shitty and poorly paced drama anime when you get right down to it.

After this point, Schierke goes to some deserted street where she sees a ghost that is pretty much a balloon man.
PJpLQ8f.png


funny-balloon-man-yali-shi.jpg

who she then follows to a courtyard full of hanged Kushan slaves who all have balloon shaped ghosts. After some more stilted exposition, she jedi mind tricks a couple of guards into lowering the dead bodies.

We then get several cuts of Isidro robotically animating to stiff and poorly textured character models about her location.

We get back to Schierke who has ended up at a dock and see some ships and seems puzzled by their existence.

Back to Isidro, he's told that she's at the docks and to hurry because there are pirates.

Repeated model!
CZKUJch.png


As Isidro's leaving he's stopped by Mule, who, as far as I remember, has only been in one episode before this and it wasn't established that he's assigned to be Sonia's bodyguard. If I'm wrong on that than please let me know since I don't really remember too well because this anime is stupid. Either way, the audience really has no clue who he is at this point due to how poorly set up he was.

Things then continue exactly like the manga. Isidro thinks he's looking for Schierke so he runs off for her and then we cut to Schierke sitting on the pier and she's approached by Sonia. Sonia then proceeds to tell the entire duck story exactly like in the manga. As in, she includes the bit about Griffith rescuing Charolette and how she's jealous and everything.
MymlnZ1.png

Which I guess is fine.....if you completely forget that never happened in the anime. The people behind this show clearly did not give a fuck.

Also, did you know seagulls can fly without going anywhere and that they don't even need to fly at all and instead can just levitate in the air?

giphy.gif


Anyway, after they have their talk Schierke than says her goodbyes and returns to the group, because there's no way this anime would do something as ridiculous as introduce a bunch of laughable cartoon villains in the final episode for no other reason than that they were just trying to desperately cram in as much of the manga in as possible.

6k1qLw8.png

Ha ha ha. Yeah, right.'

Also,look at the guy in the middle. Remember him from anywhere? Cause the animators sure did!
26eab4134e05cc20d452f317ba6fef601467375288_full.jpg

I guess all that bullshit with the bandits from episode 1 of Berserk 2016 did have a greater meaning after all.

Anyway, they're rounding up Kushan kids and Schierke magically freezes one of them and the proportions in this shot look ridiculous.
3Buj92A.png


Isidro then shows up and they have the fight scene like in the manga and it actually doesn't look disastrously terrible like the Grunbeld fight. It's still rubbish, and it's absolutely pathetic that this is supposed to be the climatic final battle of this anime. Isidro fighting the dumbass comic relief pirates in what was supposed to just be some down-time in the manga. Even Little Witch Academia has a better finale than this.

Because this story takes place on a high-speed plot railroad, the Mule magically finds himself at this plot relevant location. He assists Isidro in fighting the pirates and we get more assume blood effects.
giphy.gif


giphy.gif


After some more poorly choreographed fighting we then see the Pirate Captain, everyone's favorite Berserk character and truly the best villain to end on.
KR1NlJn.png

And I think he looks worse here than when he got turned into tentacles in the manga.

He and Mule have their fight scene for a few seconds, than it's Isidro's time. They fight on the rowboats and during this fight we get to see the most realistic water even since the Silent Hill HD Collection.

We then get this animation:
giphy.gif

Keep in mind that Isidro is supposed to be talking for this entire shot.

Anyway, Azan is completely removed so Puck knocks the guy into the water and then the kids escape. Somehow. This anime sucks.

Things once again progress exactly like in the manga, Mule and Isidro have their poorly animated fist fight and Sonia asks Schierke to come with them and Schierke declines to instead stay with the wonderful team of strangers that blend into the background due to the perspective of this anime. Sonia than gives her cryptic warning and Schierke sees the image of the city under attack, which once again has no context for anyone who didn't read the manga and thus is a terrible way to end this anime on.

Isidro apologizes to Schierke for knocking over her hat earlier and than they go back to the group. The final scene is the tavern scene and then out of nowhere the shitty 3D animation suddenly completely changes to 2D and gives you an idea of what this show might have looked like if it had even the barest amount of care and effort put into it. The credits role and we get this:
HCjGv1L.png

Which might be cliffhanger for a third season or might be a not-so-subtle way of telling the audience to buy the manga if they want to see what happens next. Hopefully the later.
FIN
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
It feels so strange going through this thread and thinking that somewhere out there is an artist at a screen that put these images in order and animated them and stood back and said "Yea whatever it's fine.." and sent that shit out the door..

Like i consider myself an artist but it's never been my profession/business and I would never show half of these shots to people and be like "look what i did!" i'd just... close the pull the page out, stack it with all the other practice pages and start over again.

Wuuuut the fuck happened behind the scenes here. And what is with that cross hatch? It's a filter they apply then? Why is shit moving without motion?

Why would they even do this?

So strange.
 

Gravidee

Member

"You'd best start believin' in poorly animated adaptations. You're in one."

Seriously though. Look at his eyepatch, the lower strap is either clipping through his head or they didn't even bother making the rest of it.
 

Mendrox

Member
These last few minutes were good trolling. The studio is on point.

"Hey guys we animated everything with CG...let us do something different for once"

*draws Berserk in 2D and it looks better than the CGi shit*

Season ends.

Manga on hiatus.

What is this?
 
Remember that thread which said 1/4 of anime studios in the red, point being they take liberties on workload for the artists and hire cheaper amateurs/novice artists to get the job done.

Kinda sad.
 

Ushay

Member
God I am hoping this abomination gets cancelled and left for another studio to swoop in and save the anime adaption of this franchise (Netflix please!)

What an incredible disappointment this has been after all this time.
 

Gulz1992

Member
Right now, it's not clear what the final message is supposed to mean. It's worth remembering that the 2016 season ended with an announcement explicitly saying that there would be another season. The announcement at the end of this season simply says "The Story Continues", which is a lot more open-ended. It could mean "the story continues in the manga, so read that to learn what happens next" or "the story might be able to continue if the anime gets renewed". I'm holding out hope that it's the former.
 
Shouldn't a hat be limp after being ran over by a horse? Schierke's hat is still as still as a board. Mule looks like he's on fucking Cocaine.
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
Yeahhhhhh you can try to polish a turd, it's still a turd.

Nipples tho I guess? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The hatching filter still does nothing for me.

I'm just glad they're redoing some of the poorly done faces and added walking animations where there previously wasn't. Those two were always the worst offenders to me. Interested to see what fixes they make to the combat animation as well.
 

Mister Wolf

Gold Member
Lol @ some of those "fixes" being them just turning down the awful filter.


Wouldn't that be a bigger reason to rag on it? Unless we're video games now and we accept a broken show because it will be updated months later.

The Blurays with the English dub and the fixes are what I will be purchasing.
 

Nice article. I have no doubt this was a train-wreck of a production, no sane production company would release such a visually grotesque product but, once again, it's seems most negativity is focused on the animation-aspect. The terrible animation is not the cause of a sound design that seemed appropriate of a benny hill show, it's not the cause of the lack of scene direction, it's not the cause of a terrible pace, it's not the cause of bad writing mutilating Miura's story. And those were this show biggest sins.

And you can see the evidence of this with Puck and Isidro scenes. Most of them actually...worked. Why? It's still the same shit and the same people. But the director clearly was able to translate the intent of those moments through coherent scene composition and timing. Maybe cause that style is the only thing he knows how to do. You can't blame Gemba when some kind of shitty jazz starts playing in the middle of Berserk, when the first confrontation between Guts and Serpico is played while the credits are rolling, you can't blame them when Susumu's new music is introduced in a season ending scene between Nina and...Joachim (!?).
 

Gulz1992

Member
Nice article. I have no doubt this was a train-wreck of a production, no sane production company would release such a visually grotesque product but, once again, it's seems most negativity is focused on the animation-aspect. The terrible animation is not the cause of a sound design that seemed appropriate of a benny hill show, it's not the cause of the lack of scene direction, it's not the cause of a terrible pace, it's not the cause of bad writing mutilating Miura's story. And those were this show biggest sins.

And you can see the evidence of this with Puck and Isidro scenes. Most of them actually...worked. Why? It's still the same shit and the same people. But the director clearly was able to translate the intent of those moments through coherent scene composition and timing. Maybe cause that style is the only thing he knows how to do. You can't blame Gemba when some kind of shitty jazz starts playing in the middle of Berserk, when the first confrontation between Guts and Serpico is played while the credits are rolling, you can't blame them when Susumu's new music is introduced in a season ending scene between Nina and...Joachim (!?).

It's the Jar Jar Binks syndrome: when a movie or show is so incredibly terrible, it becomes difficult for audiences to articulate exactly why it's terrible. So they point to the obvious flaw that they could easily focus on. In the case of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, it was Jar Jar Binks, and in the case of Berserk 2016, it was the CG.

Between all these production issues and a 3D studio that had never worked on a project of this scale before and a director who had never directed 3D and a 2D studio that was mainly known for cute moe shorts, it seems this anime was doomed from the start.
 
The anime was so bad that it pretty much made me drop over a $150 in Berserk manga just so I could wash the taste of the anime out of my mouth.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom