jkeebler - 2017-02-15 19:32:03

I tried my hardest to ignore the visual atrocities in this show… and it worked. I love anything Berserk and this turned out pretty okay for me. Looking forward to Berserk 2017 and seeing the armor animated.

yost.elissa - 2016-10-06 00:48:31

The first time I watched the PV for the new Berserk anime, I immediately knew that it was going be terrible. A Berserk adaptation buy a no name studio by a staff with zero experience with the subject, there was nearly zero percent chance that this adaptation will be any good. However, in my mind, I thought this can be a show I can be worked up about it and kill time during this excruciatingly bland summer season. So I sat down expecting a terrible show to get angry at. However, it was so bad, so utterly garbage that I couldn't get worked about it. I feel more pity and misery towards the show rather than that of anger and rage. And I can only imagine how hardcore Berserk fans feel about this completely irredeemable show.

To get the obvious out of the way, the anime in animated in CG and it looks terrible. Unless you are Marty McFly traveling through time or a person who think Reboots is the pinnacle of CG animation, that CG is obviously sub par. All the character models looks awkward and unnatural. They all look like those human models in early 2000s games where video game developers haven't seen to get the gist of how a human model should look like. The fame rate for this show is so low. It looks like it's running at 15 frames per second as if this is some cheap TV stop motion movie. And what with the weird line shading over everything? I guess it is there to make it look more like the manga. But it just makes the show fall even deeper into the uncanny valley. 

Many anime fans think that a fully CG anime is an inherently bad idea. However, that is not true. I know that Japan can make a fully CG anime look good (checkout Appleseed or Avent Children). However, the problem I see with these new 3D anime like Sidonia and Berserk 2016 is they are using CG as a cheaper alternative to 2D animation. CG can look good, but it requires a lot of money and time. This show and all the CG anime in the same vein have none of these traits and that's why these shows looks terrible in comparison to 2D anime. 

Plus, the directing doesn't help hid the crummy animation. There are many panning and rotation shots that doesn't fit the anime. Many basic film making techniques like color theory are completely ignored. A lot of shots are complete overkill and unnecessary making many scenes nearly incomprehensible. 

The music is also terrible. Remember the bizarre yet engaging Susumu soundtrack of the 1997 anime, with amazing tracks like "Forces"? This show have none of that. None of the tracks are memorable or fitting. There are many metal tracks that do not fit the tone or atmosphere of Berserk. And did a 5 year old craft the sound effects? The sound design is piss poor. The most obvious example is the sound effect for the Dragon-slayer. The Dragon-slayer tearing through soldiers and Apostates should be bad ass. However, the sound effect they gave it sounds like someone hit a stop sign with a shovel. It sounds dumb and out of place.

The most offensive aspect of this anime is how it handles the story and characters of Berserk. While the animation and sound makes me want to bash my head in the wall, but I could forgive Berserk 2016 if it was a faithful adaption. But no such luck, and the story and characters are completely neutered.

While I have mixed feeling about the Black Swordsman and Conviction arc of Berserk, they do have there good points. However, the anime fail to capture any of these highlights. The Black Swordsman arc is completely glossed over to quickly in the first episode to get to the Conviction arc. And even that is complete rush though at a break neck speed since there are only 11 episode to depict it. Because of the rushed pacing, all the characters feel like caricatures of there manga counter parts. Important details and backdrops to characters are completely dropped, making many of the characters feel empty.

Also this anime cut out many parts from the manga. I can understand to a degree why studios cut out parts from the source material such as time constants. For example, the original 1997 series cut out the skull knight even though he is important in the manga. Even though I was disappointed they cut him out, I can understand why decided to cut him out. That series was completely focused on the Golden Age arc and he was not need in that arc. 

But in contrast, the arcs and story beats that the 2016 series takes out are necessary for the arc they are adapting. The Rosina arc and the Post Eclipse arc are completely excluded from this series even though they are important to understand post Eclipse Guts. And characters and parts from later volumes are included in this series for no reason. For example, Isidro appears in the bar scenes in the first episode though he shouldn't appear until several volumes later. 

To sum it up, Berserk 2016 is a tragedy. There is nothing redeemable about this show. The animation is terrible, the sound is terrible, the writing is terrible, everything is simply terrible! It feels like I am looking into an infinity of terrible. I couldn't even push myself to finish watching this show, and considering that I sat through Akame ga Kill and GATE, that is saying something. I only got to episode 6 so I don't know how they handle the remaining part of the Conviction arc. And honestly, I don't really care. There is nothing that the series can do to redeem itself to me. So whether you are a Berserk fan or not, the only advice I can give you is to avoid this show at all cost. If you want get into Berserk, either watch the 1997 series or read the manga. show less

darian23 - 2016-09-18 03:44:53

One star for Susumu Hirasawa
Half star because Berserk

murazik.august - 2016-08-21 21:51:00

In short: They tried to adapt a manga that's revered for how beautiful the artwork is and continue an anime that's revered for how beautiful the animation is. They decided to do this with below par, really horrible looking CG. There is nothing that can excuse this decision, and there is close to nothing to redeem the show beyond "its berserk".

zbayer - 2016-08-16 02:15:04

Similar to Ajin, the animation is not as jarring if you are watching it at 50-60 fps, and it feels as though it was intended to be watched at those higher frame rates.
The other annoyance some may find is the art style, in which black lines are used as shading. It gives the series a feel as if it is either unfinished or trying to mimic the art style in the manga.

If you can survive the unusual art and animation, you will find a gripping, nuanced story with plenty of elements that will hold the attention of the adult audience (gore, nudity, etc.).

nedra.cormier - 2016-07-16 16:29:34

I normally don't write reviews when the show isn't over (I hardly write any reviews at all) but the overall negative reviews lead me to make some points clear:
Yes, it has CGI. If you are not a fan of it, you are going to have a bad time. The overall mix of cgi with different styles of anime feels awkward. Depending on which style Guts has a horse-ish long face or his familiar look from the original series. So...kinda bad.
But weirdly...in some way I like it. I'm not strongly opposed to CGI-animations and the hatched lines give it an interesting look.

I can understand that other people don't like it. It IS bizarre and honestly the animations aren't well made. But it fells fresh and interesting and is a nice diversion from the "common" animations you see in anime. So if you can live with those drawbacks you should give it a try.

Apart from that I can't say a lot about story, characters and such only that it continues where the series (or the movies for that matter) ended and from what I have seen it captures the atmosphere quite nicely.

hschneider - 2016-07-15 17:17:13

Absolute garbage CGI animation. The art style isn't bad, but the character's movements look like a marionette show being orchestrated by an orangutan who is bravely trying to move beyond the troublesome situation that someone was playing cat's cradle with the strings seconds before the curtain went up.

Watch the originals, or watch the recent movie adaptations. The movies have some awkward CGI moments where things clash a bit but nothing even remotely close to what you will see in the first 10 minutes of the first episode of this failure of the recreation of a classic.

kenna35 - 2016-07-10 20:12:04

Watched the first 3 episodes.
I dont know if the 3D animation will get better, but at the moment its unwatchable. Guts moving, walking or fighting looks clumsy and akward.

There are some (very short) 2D animated parts that look good, but for some reason they desided to do it in half-assed 3D.

I thought this would be the series that I could start getting into Berserk with, but nope.

I'd rather have no new berserk than this.

Just watch the 1997 version.
Or actually dont. It doesn't have an ending.
Read the manga. Its awesome.

Ps. How can this have so many 5 star ratings! Are people blind and deaf?

conroy.fritz - 2016-07-05 04:34:34

Most people who review this anime will zero in on the CG animation. I feel that's a bit of a red herring, especially considering that the animation is no better or worse than the three films that serve as the prequels to this anime. I didn't find those films to be particularly bad, and the animation here is pretty much on par. I'd love if they'd smooth some stuff out, fix some textures, and generally improve the fluidity, but those are minor gripes. My biggest problem with this anime is in the actual story/narrative. The first episode was directed more like a music video than a piece of coherent visual storytelling, and the tone was all over the place. I couldn't identify one real or coherent plotline throughout the whole episode. It begins with Guts walking into the bar where Puck is being harassed (like the beginning of the manga). After about a minute, it cuts to him getting into the cart with Colette and her father. There's a weird cut to this kid who's barely relevant to anything (yet), and then we get a weird and horrible dream sequence (I know it's taken from the manga, but the direction is so haphazard and hammy it might as well have been a death metal music video), and then we get 10 minutes of a fight scene. Roll credits. There was no real tension, build-up, suspense or anything. All of the non-violent elements of the manga (and prior anime adaptations) that made the violent portions so poignant and so gruesome are eliminated here. 

In short, this looks like it's going to be Berserk, boiled down to the raw elements and mainlined straight to the blood. It may end up being pretty good, but for now it seems like the visceral pleasure of seeing Gut's big ass sword will be the only real draw of this adaptation.

P.S.: What the hell did they do to Casca? In the manga (and every subsequent anime adaptation) she's been dark skinned. Now she's paler than Guts and it's horrifying. One star. 

veum.rickie - 2016-07-04 15:16:14

I don't think I have seen a worse anime then this one, in a very long time. Animations are so bad that it hurts my eyes to watch it. This show looks like something they made over a night. And the art style is so ugly a blind 3 year old can make it better. I hope the serie make an epic fail, so they learn from it. There is no feeling in it, nothing. Nothing like the other ones.

Do not make anime like this!