07.05
Berserk needs no introduction. The manga and original anime from the late 90’s is lauded for it’s intricate fantasy world, multi-faceted characters, gut-wrenchingly gory violence, and a hauntingly tragic Shakespearean narrative. Unfortunately, the original anime left viewers at a loss, ending with a unsettling and emotionally soul-crushing episode that left Guts’ journey far too open-ended and unsatisfying given the events transpired.
A decade and a half later, Studio 4°C finally brought the series back to animation…remaking the same material already covered in the original anime, just with some of the details previously omitted added in. Unfortunately, those films did less justice to it’s source material than the original anime, marred by distractedly poor CGI, aimless fight scenes, and uninspired uses of lighting and color. It was a dishearteningly mediocre adaption that, despite teasing elements from future arcs in the story, squashed most fans’ hopes of getting a new anime that would adapt past the oft-retreaded “Golden Age” arc.
That is until Liden Films snatched the rights to the property from Studio 4C and announced a new tv anime that would finally continue the story of the Black Swordsman. With Miura himself supervising the production, hope seemed bright for an anime adaption that would faithfully capture the spirit of his original manga. So, has the director of Teekyu given us the definitive anime iteration of Berserk fans have always been clamoring for?
Tell me what, tell me what, tell me what the fuck I'm looking at?
….Do you even need to ask?
Let’s state the obvious here – the CGI animation is by far the biggest problem about this new Berserk. That’s not entirely a surprise; the CGI was problematic in the movies as well. But whereas the movies were a hybrid of CGI and traditional animation leaning towards the latter, this new anime is mostly CGI and it suffers greatly from it. The character models are often poorly rigged, with character movements and even simple walking animation looking incredibly weightless and unnatural. The environments are muddy and feel unpolished, losing the detail and lived-in feel of Berserk’s world. Crowd scenes boast poorly-hidden duplicated characters, and the monsters all look like something out of a B-grade PS2 game. Not to say the CGI looks dated, but it feels unpolished and unfinished. Most modern video-games look leaps and bounds better than this. Heck, the average Dragon Ball Z and Naruto game looks way better this! Maybe bad CGI could be forgivable the 2-D animation looked any could, but there isn’t really any of it to speak of. At best, there are stills that are traditionally drawn and employed for character close ups. While those do look nice, they are few and far between, and their usage doesn’t really doesn’t help assuage the impression you’re just watching cut-scenes from a substandard video-game pieced together.
It’s a shame, because if this episode had been presented with better-looking visual design and smoother animation, it could’ve been worth recommending. As bad as the show looks, the meat of Berserk, it’s sobering story of revenge and redemption and it’s dynamic characters, are still here. The first episode does a great job focusing on what makes Guts who he is, and the moral struggle he faces internally as a killer in this survival of the fittest world. He tries to avoid getting close to people, afraid of growing an emotional connection with them that could be ripped away at any moment. Here, a brief meeting with a father and his daughter ends in their deaths by demons drawn to the brand on his neck, and it haunts him. He throws up, disgusted, after having to slice apart the zombified daughter. Even after they’re dead, he tries to save their bodies from being devoured by demons. Though he may laugh their deaths off as their fault for being weak, that callous, uncaring attitude is clearly a front, a coping mechanism to help him persevere through all the tragedy he’s endured. Guts carries the weight of his sins alongside so many others from his past on his back, symbolized by that goliath of steel he calls a sword. The episode closes with an absolutely chilling scene of demons clamoring to rip apart his heart and soul, promising to stalk him to the ends of the earth until the day he dies. If you had no idea what Berserk was about before watching this series, this episode does an amazing job of establishing Guts as a compelling character, through possibly the most sympathetic introduction the character has had in any iteration of the series to date. While the presentation thoroughly disappoints, at least it’s comforting to know that the people behind the show really understand the story and characters.
Look, I’m a big Berserk fan. I’ve wanted an anime adaption that continues past the Golden Age for years. Just seeing some of my favorite characters from the series like Schierke, Serpico, and Farnese finally animated is incredibly gratifying to me. That said, I can’t possibly recommend this show for newcomers just because the narrative itself is sound. An audio/visual medium like anime needs to also excel on both those fronts. While the sound design and music is admittedly very fitting and atmospheric, the show’s visuals and animation are so distracting that they often take you out of the show, making immersion and investment in the story much more difficult, even with a story as strong as Berserk’s. I’ve waited so long for a post-“Golden Age” Berserk anime that I’ll probably keep watching. But if you’ve never read the manga before, or are completely new to the story, then just stick with the manga. Maybe the day will come where Berserk receives a lovingly rendered and stylistically driven anime that perfectly replicates Miura’s highly detailed artwork and brutal action set-pieces in animation like David Productions’ adaption of JoJo Bizarre Adventure. But that’s about as likely as the series ending; it ain’t happening anytime soon. – LumRanmaYasha