rogahn.macy - 2016-03-20 21:56:26

Critic’s Log - Earthdate: May 1, 2014. Review #84: Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King.

In February of 2013, I reviewed an anime that was an adaptation of the well-known dark fantasy manga juggernaut by Kentaro Miura known as Berserk. I bring this up because back in 2010, the news of a set of Berserk movies were announced for theatrical releases. Many Berserk fans got excited. Now with all 3 movies released in the United States, it is time I revisit the tale of Guts and his days with the Band of the Hawk in theatrical form. The question is… Does this adaptation hold up? Well, I can assure you that this will take three reviews for me to explain that with the first being Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King

Guts is a young and highly skilled mercenary living in the era of the Midland monarchy. During a siege of a castle, he catches the attention of Griffith, leader of a mercenary army called The Band of the Hawk. As the two clash, Guts ends up joining The Band of the Hawk.

There’s your brief synopsis of the first movie and I don’t think I need to add anymore when the synopsis is concerned. If you’ve read most of the manga and/or saw the anime adaptation, I don’t need to say much about the premise of Berserk.

This first part of the Golden Age Arc is a Studio 4°C production and this studio doesn’t really get the appreciation where the credit is due. This studio produced a film called Tekkonkinkreet which I’ve heard is alright. I also heard they produced an OVA series called Detroit Metal City, which I heard is awesome and they also produced the 2011 remake of ThunderCats which sadly got cancelled after one season consisting of 26 episodes. The ThunderCats remake may have not been a Masterpiece but it was a nice change of pace considering how Cartoon Network doesn’t have as much animated shows worth watching as they used to years ago. As for the first Berserk movie… We are going to be here for a while. The original Berserk anime had flaws with its animation. There were some inconsistencies here and there and there were even some moments where it felt like a slideshow. The slideshow moments from the original anime are gone in this remake but the animation in this movie is also flawed. What’s the problem? THE USE OF CG ANIMATION IS TERRIBLE. seriously, some scenes in this movie make them look like video game cutscenes. What’s even surprising is that some scenes actually do look pretty good. Most of the animation does look good, but I hate to say that the CG animation is very distracting and it really did not sit well with me. The animation is inconsistent and it is the movie’s weak point. With this being the second anime adaptation, it’s totally understandable to go back to the source material being Kentaro Miura’s Juggernaut Manga which its artwork still looks sharp compared to the blunted anime adaptations

The music this time around is by Shiro Sagisu who you may be familiar with the name. He also has done the soundtracks for animes like Neon Genesis Evangelion (plus the Rebuild movies), and Bleach. Yes. This guy is doing the soundtrack for these Berserk movies. In all honesty, the soundtrack really compliments the movie well. It may not be as memorable as the original anime soundtrack, but since the soundtrack has more themes than the original anime. There is more room for the music to sync in with the emotions that are conveyed in these films. Susumu Hirasawa’s soundtrack to the original anime soundtrack was fantastic and it was nice that he lended a hand with the opening theme “Aria”. It’s a nice little nod to the original anime and I like this opening theme a lot more than the original anime opening that really didn’t hold up for me to say the least. Shiro Sagisu’s soundtrack compliments this movie and that’s all I can say about the guy for this movie.

In regards to the Japanese cast, Hiroaki Iwanaga debuts as Guts and I can’t say it is an impressive performance. Comparing Iwanaga-san’s performance to Nobutoshi Canna’s performance in the original anime, Iwanaga-san sounds a little off. Toa Yukinari is not too bad as Casca despite she hasn’t had many roles leading up to the Berserk movies. Yuko Miyamura is not a bad seiyu when she voiced Casca in the original anime, but Yukinari-san’s performance makes Casca sound believable in the Subbed version. Takahiro Sakurai was an interesting choice for Griffith, but I can’t say I favor his performance compared to Toshiyuki Morikawa in the original anime. It’s still listenable but I think Morikawa-san could have played it again if the casting staff gave him another shot at it. The other cast members play their roles just fine for the most part. As for the English Dub. This will probably be the most interesting part when it comes to voice acting for the Berserk movies. I found the Dub of the original anime to be hit and miss. Some performances were okay, some were not. In my opinion, the original dub was laughable at times when the skewed dialogue kicked in. When it was announced that the English voices of Guts, Casca, and Griffith were reprising their roles, I had some skepticism towards that casting decision and I had no expectations of a better dub than the original anime. Now that I sat through the dub, I was completely surprised that the quality of the dub far exceeded my expectations. Marc Diraison reprises his role as Guts and he is far more listenable than the original anime despite he was mostly not too bad back then as Guts. Carolyn Keranen returns as Casca and she is terrific in this movie whereas in the original dub, she was alright but she sounded off at times. This dub has shown quite a number of improvement compared to their original performances. If there is one voice actor in the dub that has improved greatly, that would be Kevin T. Collins as Griffith. His performance in the original anime was hit and miss. This time, he doesn’t sound laughably bad. It is a nice improvement from the original dub to this newer dub. The dub has miraculous improvement and Michael Sinterniklaas deserves major props as the ADR director of this movie’s dub compared to the original series. This dub makes up for the previous dubbing’s hit and miss performances.

This series could not be the way it is without its characters. But I should inform you that there’s really nothing new compared to the original anime and its source material as well. Guts fights with impulse, Griffith is quite the strategist with his swift skills in swordsmanship. Casca is still an interesting character that still stays true to the source material like the original anime did. The rest of the Band of the Hawk are great characters too but I have some nitpicks in regards to how the characters are written in these movies but I’ll save that for another time.

The animation may have been the movie’s downfall. But that’s not the only thing I had an issue with this first movie. Another issue that this first Berserk movie has is the film’s entire pacing. The entire first movie of Berserk has the runtime of 75 minutes. This movie could have been 10 to 20 minutes longer than it is now. This is technically spoilerish, but if you’ve seen the original anime or read the manga, my biggest disappointment with this movie’s portrayal of the plot is Guts’ backstory being condensed. it was a very interesting and tragic backstory in the manga, but with the way its portrayed in this movie. They didn’t show much and these glimpses of Guts’ backstory lasted around 2 minutes. I wouldn’t mind the movie being 20 minutes longer because of it. But they decided to show a little and not tell much. The original anime got this right, this movie does not. When it comes to story arcs in Berserk, The Golden Age arc is a Masterpiece of a story arc. This movie had its potential of portraying the first third as much as possible, but it feels rushed and this is only building up to the next movie which I will review it next time.

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King is available by Viz Media, the original manga by Kentaro Miura is available by Dark Horse.

With all that said, The first Berserk movie is somehow faithful to its source material like the original anime that preceded it. The soundtrack compliments the movie extremely well and the characters are still portrayed well as far as this movie goes, but the story’s pacing is too quick even though the Golden Age arc is a terrific story arc in Berserk. The movie suffers with 3D animation that looks like shit and it just doesn’t mix well with the 2D animation that is actually worth seeing. You should see this if you are a fan of Berserk. The 3D animation will be a turnoff for most people but it doesn’t affect the story (albeit rushed) which is not a turnoff.

I give Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King a 8.1 out of 10, it is VERY GOOD!

jamil.okeefe - 2015-11-03 22:04:42

***NOTICE***

This is a review of all 3 Berserk movies because I don't see a reason to review them one by one, they have been out for some time now. Also you might see some original Berserk/manga spoilers.

Remakes in anime aren't really something new, but they also aren't that common, an anime is usually amazing and gets a sequel if its set for one and if it received high praise or it is a total flop and is forgotten, something you can see with Western live action movies/tv shows. Now in anime you can see remakes, they can be done if something has a really popular and good source material that was horribly transferred into an anime adaptation, so fans ask for a remake or the original show that ran is old today and the animation and art is considered outdated by today's standards, so normally fans want a remake that will bring back the old things they loved with new modern day features found in today's anime. 

Some examples are Fullmetal Alchemist from 2003 getting a remake known as Brotherhood in 2009. Now the thing with FMA is that, the 2003 version was highly praised and still is and the remake came because it didn't follow the manga after 10+ episodes because there wasn't any source material back then. Brotherhood being even more popular and is still in the top 5 when it comes to the most successful anime ever. Now we have Berserk, an old anime from the 90s that comes from a long running manga that started publishing in 1991. It got a remake because like mentioned above, it was old by today's standards but had a fan base that wanted more out of it, since the manga only gets better and better.

 So Studio 4C tried to give us a remake in the form of several movies that will show content never before seen outside of the manga. They stated they wanted to animate everything from the manga that came after the original anime ending. 

So they started with the Golden Age arc, that introduces us with our characters. The story takes ideas from medieval Europe and the many wars that took place then. We have Guts, a mercenary that was raised to fight from a small age by an abusive father that only wanted to make money out of him. He carries a great sword and at first is shown as emotionless, fighting just for the sake of fighting, he doesn't even care for fame or money that he earns from the wars. So one day he meets a group of mercenaries known as the Band of the Hawk. 

Of course he doesn't want to join them at first and is hostile, but there he meets a young female soldier Casca, a person that you can say had rough times in her younger days like Guts but is different because unlike Guts she had somebody at some point who cared about her and showed her how to survive in the world. That character is also important and he is the leader of the band, Griffith. A man with White hair who wants to one day be the ruler of the land. Although later on we will see that his desire for power is so big that he ruins the lives of other people close to him, but that's going in spoiler town now. 

One more thing about the story, you might think it was rushed if you saw the original material as they do remove some of the little things out of it and some key things from the manga go by really fast as if they are not so much important.

Now after Guts settles with the group they naturally start going to battles, since it is their job. I don't want to talk much about the story anymore since I don't want to spoil it, of course I am expecting you to have watched/read the previous material for this.

This anime like the original is focused on showing aside from other things, huge battles. And while we already see how the animation is a lot better than the 90s original it is also considered a downfall for the movies. Namely because they use CGI extensively when showcasing the battles and even beyond battle scenes at some points. Now in modern anime, especially military themed ones with huge battles, using CGI to animate the thousands of soldiers on screen isn't something new, although many people hate it. Usually they animate in CGI the battle parts when they want to show us the huge scale of the battle, and the CGI goes away once they decide to focus on the main character and how he cuts down individual soldiers and when he goes one on one with somebody, usually the leader or something like that.

But here the CGI doesn't go away then, we get to see Guts in CGI going one on one with somebody, which looks absolutely horrible. This completely ruins the individual fights and also ruins the idea of having better looking animation and characters. Also the movements look semi stiff and the soldiers look like they are doing the robot dance instead of fighting at times.

Now we can ignore the CGI, because it doesn't ruin the amazing story we get and lets be honest in the 3rd movie the CGI is seen less. 

Another thing from the animation I can say is that the anime is still full of gore and nudity with some strong sexual themes. Glad the CGI didn't ruin that.

As for the sound, the Japanese cast gets replaced by a new one, I know some people complained about this but I personally liked the new voice cast for the Japanese dub. The English one stays the same and I am pleased for that, because I don't if they could find some new ones for this anime. The only thing I will say I miss from the original OST is the Forces theme, that one was my favorite and its sad when the video games kept it but the movie remakes didn't.

With all of the problems I can say I enjoyed the movies and I think it was a good idea to get a remake even though flawed.   Would like to see more of this since they have greatly improved with the 3rd movie but this is still unknown.  

It was nice to see Guts back and killing lots of enemies with his great sword.

My final score will be for all 3 movies combined, and in the end I can say you can enjoy them, especially if you try to ignore the CGI and maybe some things being rushed when compared to the source material and the original 90s anime.

ottilie.denesik - 2013-07-22 22:48:46

To tell you right in the begining,I am a fan of the berserk manga.But in this review I'm not going to talk about the manga,I'm going to try and make my review just about the movie series because people who for some reason haven't read the manga,the movies are probably the thing they are looking for.Also if you wonder if berserk is worth reading I have to say that it really is.

Let's get right ahead to the ratings and topics which I will talk about:

Genre: 6/10

Story: 7/10

Animation/Artwork:8/10

Sound: 7/10

Characters:6/10

Enjoyment: 8/10

Importance:8/10

Overall:7/10

* Genre:

-The movie wants to be so much(adventure,seinen,action,demons,horror,drama) and it feels like the whole movie was choked to death by Shinji Ikari,the real issue I had was that I simply can't see why is this movie labeled as seinen(mature),there are no complex dialogues,or twists or anything which could catch your eye.I wouldn't put it and say that it's a shounen series but more like something in between shounen and seinen,something like Gurren Lagann(btw TTGL is awesome).

* Story:

-A yet simple but wonderful story about self made men who do mercenary jobs and want to build up their future and archieve their dreams.The story follows the 100 year old war between 2 kingdoms and the mercenary group called band of the hawks.The art which the story was represented was easy to understand and satisfying.The most interesting thing about the story is the character interaction between Guts(the main character,and the newest member of the hawks),Grififth(the leader of the hawks),Casca(the main female character).I also wanna add that the "mistery" in the whole series was very interesting,for being a series of movies the first movie did a great job for getting me hooked and I just wanted more,I wanted to see what will happen next.(of course I know what will happen,because I've read the manga,but as I said I judge this movie like someone who never read the manga in his life before)

* Animation:

-The animation is CG(computer generated) and the animation is one of the problems which I had,at some point's it was very good,the backgrounds and especially how the world/nature looks is amazing,it was one of the few things which got me hooked and at some points I had to stop the film and just look at the artwork.On other hand the characters are in my opinion poorly animated,and at some points it could be more "fluid".Sometimes the artwork/animation was very beatiful and sometimes so bad that I almost wanted to skip some scenes.But I guess I'm not a huge fan of CG and this might be more a personal preference.

* Sound:

-I watched the sub of it,I sadly don't speak Japanese but I think that the voice actors did a good job.The sound itself was very clean and especially the sword fights have a very good sound.The music in the whole movie was good,but not very memorable.

* Characters:

-There is no great character development,I would even go so far that the biggest problem of this movie are the characters,there's almost no character development,back story or anything which would make me say "I know that feel bro,I feel with you", or "Guts is so awesome".The real "star" of this movie is probably Grififth,while the other characters might be flat he is the only character which sold the anime for me.Also I don't wanna blame the movie too much because of a running time of only 1 hour and 20 minutes,it had a lot of character introductions and fights which made it almost impossible for deep character development.

* Enjoyment:

-There were very few parts where I was bored,the fights were awesome and the talks weren't too long enough and quite enjoyable,and at some points deep.

* Importance:

-I gave it a 8 because I feel that there is a lot of talk on the internet about the whole berserk series(probably more about the manga,which you should go now and read it),also the manga is one of the most sold manga in Japan,there was a TV series which a lot of people have enjoyed and some consider it as their favorite anime,and now with the recently made movies I think you simply can't pass and not hear anything about berserk if you are a anime/manga fan.

* Overall:

-The first movie did a great job,but it coul've been so much more.A score of 7 doesn't mean that it's a bad anime(5 means decent),a score of 7 meants it's pretty good but not a masterpiece.

F.A.Q.

Do I recommend watching it?

--- Eh... kinda,it's nothing you have to watch,but overall it's not that bad.

"What do you think as a fan of the manga about the movie?"

---I think that it's a very good movie to refresh your memory,also getting more berserk stuff is always a good thing.

"What is the difference between the manga and this movies?"

---As I said the manga is the thing which you WANT to read(trust me,you want to read it),I can't blame the movie that it had not much development,but one thing which I really disliked was how "warm" the whole film felt to me,the manga felt so different,it was dark and had more violence and blood and so much more gore.Also some scenes were cut off in the movie,but again I probably don't want that the movies will be 1 to 1 berserk,and have all scenes and all dialogues same like in the manga.If they would do it,then we would need 10+ movies how I calculated it,which would be a insane thing if you think about it,but hey the Harry Potter movie series is long too,and if something deserved a long movie series then it's definitly berserk.

"Should I recommend berserk to my friend?"

---I would say yes,it's not a bad movie to watch but neither great.

"Will I watch the other 2 movies and write a review"

---Yes.

Thanks for reading :)

Here is a cute picture as a gift because you've read my review. :3

buckridge.tia - 2013-07-01 08:48:48

When a new anime movie comes out for an already great anime series a lot of questions can pop to mind. Those questions varying from how the animation, story, and so on differ from the TV series itself and if it raises the bar. Whether Berserk Ougon Jidaihen does or not? That's a bit controversial. Berserk Ougon Kidaihen I is a retelling of the Berserk anime series up to a certain point. The difference being animation, pacing and some of the twists they take on certain scenes. I'll be focusing on every part as a whole as well as the art which I think to many people are harshly criticizing this movie on.Story: 8/10Our story begins on the battlefield. Where at this point an army has begun its siege on a castle where soon we are introduced to our main protagonist Guts. Somehow in a chain of events Guts ends up becoming a member of a mercenary group which he coincidentally fought against in the beginning and where we begin our long journey following the story of Guts. As it is essentially starting from the beginning like the anime series it feels like they are try to smash to much of the story in the amount of time they are given. Even though it is all done well and the story great the pace is quicker then it should be which is a negative, but nevertheless still enjoyable. Art:7/10This is the MAJOR one.So I have been reading through a lot of the comments and reviews and it seems the reason why some people go as far as rate the movie as low as a 5 or 6 is the art. They try to bring a new refreshing look on the animation compared to the anime series which was beautifully done. Now I can easily tell while watching this that the makers wanted to keep a similar look to the anime series, but with a fresh look by taking advantage of the technology. Now after saying that I can say that the art was not that bad. It didn't exactly impress me, or make me get to excited but the change was noticeable and although not great it was a nice change. Least to say we all have different opinions, but to score so harshly just because of the art is just to much. Sound: 9/10 Fantastic aspect. The soundtrack was great, voice actors wonderful, and the sounds of soldiers fighting and clashing blades just fantastic. The sound was one of the great aspects of the movie.Character: 9/10We don't get much to start off on about our characters at the beginning, but we get to know them little by little as it progresses and fights pass. A lot of shows end up failing at attempting to feed us piece by piece of our character's story as time goes on(past, etc.) ;However, Berserk Ougon Jidaihen executes this well. As in most shows where they keep the character's past and such a mystery we begin to understand our character's personality and actions more and more as time goes on. As of now I will focus on our main two characters Guts and Griffith. Guts is our main protagonist with no real direction of where he wants to go at first, but lives by his sword. We see him as a man of immense brute strength, aggressive, and is able to kill people without a thought. This all eventually changes as he ends up getting mixed up with the number one mercenary group The Band of the Hawks. After this we see major changes in Guts character as he becomes loyal to his leader, kills to keep his comrades safe, and begins to take a liking to those around him rather then being distant. It is apparent from some scenes he has a terrible past which we cannot make much out on besides his "dreams". Also the emotion we see displayed on Guts character is amazing as in some certain scenes we see with Guts.(Not going to spoil it.) Overall he is a very unique and great character.Griffith on the other hand is the leader of The Band of the Hawks. Beautiful, intelligent, quick, strong, he is the man that can do anything in the story. It always seems like he is calm and collect in any situation and is adored by all from his comrades to even people of higher social status. His main goal is to achieve his dream and would do anything to obtain it which could shock some people of the kind of person this perfect person could be. Their has been many shows with the perfect guy as such, but Berserk really shines in this aspect and making him very different then your typical perfect character. Enjoyment: 9/10I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the movie even though it had its flaws. I felt like I was watching Berserk for the very first time again with a new look, feel, and everything. The twists they had put on some scenes were done very well and in-fact some emotions displayed along with the soundtrack were just perfect. Even though the pacing was quick and animation a bit better eventually I was just so into the movie it did not bother me that much and I eventually was able to go with the pace. Overall 8/10Overall Berserk Ougon Jidaihen I: Haou no Tamago was a great watch. The animation, sound, characters and story go really well and keep you interested every moment. At the same time though, the major problems being that it moves at a faster pace so it may confuse first time Berserk viewers and the art isn't exactly A grade is all that is holding it back from being a fantastic movie. Nevertheless it was still great watch and any Berserk fan, or any new-comers to the show should give it a watch.

cathy89 - 2013-05-22 09:19:55

I first saw the original Berserk TV series about 2 years ago and thought it was pretty good. By 'pretty good' I mean I consider it to be the greatest story ever told, better than The Odyssey, Hamlet, Citizen Kane and Big Oiled Butts 3 combined. 15 years later they've brought out a Berserk movie. A trilogy no less, the first of which was just released in good old illegal format for all of us dirty foreign pirate scum to watch. Early impressions: They've changed a few things. Very few things.The movie covered about 10 episodes of the original, from when Guts first meets Griffith to the part where the assassination attempts start happening in the royal court. They cut out a fair amount of scenes, the most noticeable of which being there was no naked water fight. Seriously, no naked water fight means you might as well not call it Berserk anymore. Not that the homoerotic subtext isn't there anymore. Forget subtext, Guts outright states that he'll happily be Griffith's whore. Berserk has always ridden on their relationship and how closely interlinked their goals in life are and how they define each other, so at the very least they got that part right.The movie did cut out a lot of content, as I mentioned before, but the fact that the only content I can recall them skipping was the naked water fight goes a long way to showing how what they cut out wasn't vital to the story. It did feel a bit mechanical the way they jumped from plot point to plot point, making the movie feel disjointed like you could feel the gaps where the episode would normally end or the manga chapter would cut out, but perhaps this is only noticeable to me as a fan of the original. They still got across the importance of the relationship between Guts and Griffith, along with Casca's jealousy, which is all that really matters.The main big change they made, apart from streamlining the story, was the animate the movie entirely in CG. As much as I hate to chime along with everyone else who talks about this movie, but the majority in correct in this case. The CG simply does not look good. It might look good compared to many of the other CG anime I've seen over the years, but it still looked awkward and unnatural. From the trailers I thought the character animation for the CG looked fantastic, but now having watched the movie I have to confess that those scenes I thought were great CG were actually just standard 2D animation. When they cut to the free-flowing CG stuff it looked plasticky and artificial.The use of CG ties into something else bigger going on with the tone of this Berserk movie. The movie is going for a more high epic fantasy adventure rather than the gloomy gritty affair that was the original TV series. This does come with its own set of problems though. The fight scenes in Berserk are as bloody as hell, with characters heads being cleaved in two and arms flying around and the camera being smeared with blood. The original Berserk had all this as well, but here it felt gratuitous and immature, like you had some suger-rushing 15 year old boy off camera going "fuck yeah now cut his head orf yeah!".The original Berserk was harsh and brutal. The level of violence fit the tone because it was a tough world they lived in and people die and have brown smeared over everything. By no means do I have anything against high fantasy, what with the Lord of the Rings movies being my favourite movies of all time. But with this mechanical look and bright colour palette, the gore feels out-of-place. I maintain that the best fully CG anime is Fireball, precisely because the fake mechanical look to CG works when the characters are all robots. It doesn't suit something that's as gritty and dirty as Berserk is. God only knows how they're going to handle what happens later on in the story when shit really gets brutal.That brings me on nicely to my final point about this movie. This Berserk remake trilogy plans to cover the 'Golden Age' arc, which is exactly the same material the original TV series covered. It's still the same old Berserk story. That story may be fantastic. The duel between Guts and Griffith where Guts bites down on the sword is still an awesome scene, as is the washed up Guts standing on the stairs after the assassination and looking up at Griffith as he gives his speech about dreams. These are still powerful scenes that show Berserk is as great a story as it always was, even in this streamlined version. But it brings so little new to the table to Berserk that I don't get why it exists. What little it does bring, shifting the tone to a more high fantasy one, makes the darker and more brutal elements of the story seem gratuitous and silly. I'll have to wait to watch the rest of the trilogy to make some sort of final statement on this, but I don't think this is really worth watching. If you're a newcomer, watch the original TV series or pick up the manga if you're more of a manga person. At least those versions have the naked water fight.