The Anime VS The Manga aka The Story of BERSERK

sup.

first of all, i agree with everything Olivier said about the Berserk anime. It's definitely right that it's a half-assed adaption of our beloved "seinen manga". lots of events just don't take place in the anime. they canceled the appearance of the SK and so on.

But still... how do you feel about the anime? i can only talk for myself, but i like the animated series a lot, i'd even say i like it better than the manga due to various reasons.

.) The Story Arc treated in the anime is the "Taka No Dan Arc", which is IMO by far the best in the entire story of berserk. The amount of emotion in this part of the epos is just overwhelming... the other arcs just don't match all that deep-going, philosophical quality of this very arc. Moreover it is - although it ceases with a dead end - a story that is coherent: The main message of berserk was being said already IMO.

.) No character of another Arc can match with those mentioned in Taka No Dan (Farnese, Serpico, Luca VS Griffith (the original one), Caska, Judeau... do i need to say more?) when it comes to depth and character.

.) What actually happens outside of the Taka No Dan Arc except for Guts killing one apostle after another??? I'm sayin' that i get the message really right now, i don't need entire volumes that show Guts struggling against apostles before finally defeating them. I can see that the whole thing gets more and more horrific for Guts, and that horror himself become a part of Guts' character by every move he makes.
I enjoyed seeing how relationships between major characters like Griffith, Guts and Caska way more. You don't get that kind of thing in the manga - i mean not in those dimensions. Farnese and Serpico are characters that aren't related to the main story line what-so-ever! The story has to focus on the _personal_ story of chars like Farnese in order to make them appear interesting. But actually all those people aren't essential to the actual storyline.

.)Susumu Hirasawa's music makes it all a lot more emotional! You don't have that feature in the manga.

.) The anime contains a decent amount of brutality, the amount exactly fits for the purpose of making berserk a manga with enough action and enough horror to get the right feeling for what it is. The manga, however, exceeds that limit clearly after my fancy.

-TS

Don't you think that this:

trapped_soul said:

first of all, i agree with everything Olivier said about the Berserk anime. It's definitely right that it's a half-assed adaption of our beloved "seinen manga".

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contradicts a little with the rest of your post?

The Story Arc treated in the anime is the "Taka No Dan Arc", which is IMO by far the best in the entire story of berserk. The amount of emotion in this part of the epos is just overwhelming...

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I like the rest of the manga just as much. I only find this whole magic and Trolls part slightly less interesting than the rest. But a lot more interesting stuff happened besides the Taka no Dan Arc, A LOT more.

No character of another Arc can match with those mentioned in Taka No Dan (Farnese, Serpico, Luca VS Griffith (the original one), Caska, Judeau... do i need to say more?) when it comes to depth and character.

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Farnese can definitely match any character in Berserk when it comes to depth and character, even Griffith and Guts.

What actually happens outside of the Taka No Dan Arc except for Guts killing one apostle after another???

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Uhmmm.... excuse me? What have you been reading? Sorry, I'm a bit speechless now, in my opinion there were so many interesting things that happened after this arc I don't even know where to begin.

The anime contains a decent amount of brutality, the amount exactly fits for the purpose of making berserk a manga with enough action and enough horror to get the right feeling for what it is. The manga, however, exceeds that limit clearly after my fancy.

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I can only say I disagree. You must have a very different image of what Berserk is than me.

I agree that the anime was pretty half-assed. On the technical side, the animation was pretty bad and then of course, there's the loss of our beloved manga characters.

But I really don't think the anime was all that great story-wise either. It's a little strange to say considering it's essentially parallel to the manga story, but I just don't like the anime much. I'm more of a manga fan anyway, regardless of the series, though.

i saw the anime first(like most people in part part of the world i would guess) and loved it .... it was 2 years before i found out that it was a manga that was STILL running .... i soon as i found out that the manga was more indepth with both the past and future of the anime i went and got the whole damn series .... i love berserk more than ever now ....

the music in the anime was fantastic, which is why i listen to it when i read the manga .... so the manga does have the music for me anyway

You can't really compare the two because anime is just a smidget of the whole story to come. The Golden Era was just the flashback and what writer doesn't have more planned beyond the flashback? That was just the set-up and it's only gonna get more crazy like it already is. Guts getting an even crazier alter ego with the Beast? Crazy. Griffith being reborn on earth in the body of Guts/Casca's premature demon baby? Insanity. Griffith being surrounded by the souls of the dead after a battle?

The only things the anime really had going for it are:

1.Animated-Some things like Guts hacking his hand off are way more powerful animated with sound effects.

2.Insane music-Hirasawa's music adds so much to the scene it's sick. I still get chills watching certain scenes in the anime.

3.Speed-10 pages of carnage takes like 2 minutes to show animated so the wait for some character interaction isn't too long.

4.Mystery effect-Since they trash the Blackswordsman Arc there's all type of mystery leading to the Eclipse. You spend a shitload of time in the anime wondering what's that little red stone is gonna do and it's easier to forget that Griffith will become Femto.

5.Toned downed-If you're squemish, the Berserk anime is easier to stomach and it's easier to pretend Guts is a hero.

However point number 5 is iffy because they cut a major theme in Berserk: this motherfucker is crazy! That's part of the power of Guts' character. Miura pounds this into your head until the flashback that shows the reason behind the madness.

And if you wanna compare the quality of the storytelling of the arcs the manga crushes it without a doubt. The Taka no Dan arc had alot of awesome shit in it but it's only the set-up and like somebody in the manga said "This is a story with no end in sight."

"Whoa... TS." <--Really obscure quote
I think I agree with you, somewhat. I think the Berserk Anime is the best anime ever made. And they animated the best part from the manga so far. And the music is awesome. And it has the best ending to a story I have ever seen.

But then again the manga lives on and is still interesting so to compare them would be a little hard because the anime is only one piece of the manga.

I believe the anime was real good, obviously, you can't fit everything from the manga into the anime, but at least the discrepancies between the anime and the manga are minimal and even if there were to be any discrepancies, they'd be miniscule in nature.

missing characters like sk and puck was not a minor discrepency, but forgivable

For people who read the manga first, the anime was probably a huge disappointment. For everyone else, it was fascinating and only made us more curious at the end, which is when we learned about the manga and the characters/events that were cut out...but learning about that didn't lessen our appreciation for the anime. I wouldn't say it was "half-assed," they did the best they could with their limited resources and tried to make it as cohesive as possible in only 25 episodes, rather than just including things that would never be seen ever again (puck, skull knight, silatt, etc). What it did cover, it covered well, in my opinion. The character development and the overall theme were very well done.

Psymont Wallace said:

missing characters like sk and puck was not a minor discrepency, but forgivable

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Um, their appearance in the manga is quite minimal, although puck does play a role in helping gatsu in the first couple of chapters, that's all. Certainly, picky pricks like us would say it matters because we've analyzed and dissected the manga inside out, but the transition from watching the anime to reading the anime is quite comfortable and smooth.

Mage said:

For people who read the manga first, the anime was probably a huge disappointment. For everyone else, it was fascinating and only made us more curious at the end, which is when we learned about the manga and the characters/events that were cut out...but learning about that didn't lessen our appreciation for the anime. I wouldn't say it was "half-assed," they did the best they could with their limited resources and tried to make it as cohesive as possible in only 25 episodes, rather than just including things that would never be seen ever again (puck, skull knight, silatt, etc). What it did cover, it covered well, in my opinion. The character development and the overall theme were very well done.

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You are correct. Miura had a very tight budget. Certainly, the animation quality is house league, nonetheless, the character development was intact. I believe that one of the hardest thing to do to convert a manga into anime is the ability to portray the characters the way they oughta' be, and as you have suggested, the anime has done well in this aspect.

Beserk didn't have that bad of animations. Like Guts was done fairly good and so was Judo, Griffith was awsome and so was Zodd. The backgrounds however were... May I say different. But I do agree on the emotional part. I never saw the first ephisode til after I saw the rest. (My friend told me to do this) and after I saw the credits roll in I shivered in a sad way. Expecally when Judo saws up with his sad smile, Corkus being stubborn and Pippin just tough. And the animations (Suprisingly) got better when the characters started fighting.

Overall of all the anime I've seen this ranks as the second best in my opinion.

Cowboy Beebop-Mostly becuz of Jet's comments to the crew about food
Hellsing- Just the music
Beserk-I liked Boscogne, he was badass

UrashimaSenpai said:

You are correct. Miura had a very tight budget. Certainly, the animation quality is house league, nonetheless, the character development was intact. I believe that one of the hardest thing to do to convert a manga into anime is the ability to portray the characters the way they oughta' be, and as you have suggested, the anime has done well in this aspect.

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That's what I thought up until recently, but in an interview with the director of the anime on DVD 5, he says that even though their time slot was late night, their budget was as much as prime time tv shows (a lot). This budget was allotted to insure that Berserk was THE ONLY decent show to watch in their time slot. It succeeded.

Walter said:

UrashimaSenpai said:

You are correct. Miura had a very tight budget. Certainly, the animation quality is house league, nonetheless, the character development was intact. I believe that one of the hardest thing to do to convert a manga into anime is the ability to portray the characters the way they oughta' be, and as you have suggested, the anime has done well in this aspect.

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That's what I thought up until recently, but in an interview with the director of the anime on DVD 5, he says that even though their time slot was late night, their budget was as much as prime time tv shows (a lot). This budget was allotted to insure that Berserk was THE ONLY decent show to watch in their time slot. It succeeded.

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Yeah, but maybe they were probably working on a 13 episode prime time budget. -_^

Anime

• Positive
  
• having Berserk on this Format(Video,Audio) is already an advantage!
• Color, great drawing quality
• Soundtrack
• Really gets you into the story and characters
• ...
  
  Negative
  
• Characters dropped(especially Puck and Sk)
• Different story or only small parts of the original story(manga vol.3-13!?)
• THE ENDING!!!!´
• 5 DVD s ,too expensive
• the intro“tell me why!“sucks
• ...
  
  Manga
  
  Positive
  
• The original!
• Great Story(whole story)
• Great drawings
• Not too expensive
• Of course nothing left out
• Puck
• ...
  
  Negative
  
• new volume every 8th month!?(
• nobody knows how long it ll still last;maybe 40 or maybe 80 vol.!)
• Miura works his ass off
• Bad translations
• ....

However i gotta say that i like both the anime and the manga although they are kinda independant from eachother!

So what about u guys what do u find additionally!??

an schaas!!!!

-TS

trapped_soul said:

an schaas!!!!

-TS

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...

Maximus said:

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didn't refer to you max...

-TS

trapped_soul said:

Maximus said:

...

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didn't refer to you max...

-TS

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but!?
btw what are u doing still at home!?
i m really pissed that u guys didn t show up!! >:(
Äh did i already say that i luv you honey??
::)

UrashimaSenpai said:

You are correct. Miura had a very tight budget.

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Miura? ^^;

I watched the anime first, and I'm currently reading the Taka no Dan arc in the manga. Personally, I think that arc is far, far, superior to the first arc in the manga (and the first episode in the anime). The anime does an excellent job of representing the manga. Sure, a few events and characters are missing, (and others have been added) but it's no big thing. The feeling is intact, and that's what matters.

I think, and some of you may want to kick me for saying this, I think that the series would have been better if all the supernatural elements were cut. Even including Zodd, though he's totally badass. Really, the God Hand doesn't play a significant role until the eclipse. The story, minus the ending, would not change significantly if you took away the apostles, behelits and the God Hand. The whole Taka no Dan arc would, in my opinion, work better.

Of course, it would preclude the rest of the manga, but this is just my opinion, and I haven't read that far yet. I just think the whole gods-and-demons-thing sort of lessens the story of one man's ambition, rise to glory and inevitable fall, as well as the relationships between the main characters.

OK, you may commence with the ripping of a new ass hole for me now. (I was getting pretty sick of the old one anyway.)

Olivier Hague said:

UrashimaSenpai said:

You are correct. Miura had a very tight budget.

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Miura? ^^;

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For all of you who don't speak Hague, he's saying that you are all so very stupid becuase it was not him who funded the Anime, it was the stoopid bastardes who just paid him for the show.

Makkuro said:

I watched the anime first, and I'm currently reading the Taka no Dan arc in the manga. Personally, I think that arc is far, far, superior to the first arc in the manga (and the first episode in the anime). The anime does an excellent job of representing the manga. Sure, a few events and characters are missing, (and others have been added) but it's no big thing. The feeling is intact, and that's what matters.

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Yeah except if they ever try to make a follow-up to episode 25 then they got their work cut out for them.

I think, and some of you may want to kick me for saying this, I think that the series would have been better if all the supernatural elements were cut. Even including Zodd, though he's totally badass. Really, the God Hand doesn't play a significant role until the eclipse. The story, minus the ending, would not change significantly if you took away the apostles, behelits and the God Hand. The whole Taka no Dan arc would, in my opinion, work better.

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No way. The ending of anime wouldn't be as powerful if it wasn't for the supernatural. With the extent of Griffith's torture his role in the story would have been over. There would be no kickass betrayl because there's no force on Earth that could have made Griffith a king. The Godhand give the Griffith the choice: live the rest of your days as broken man or sacrifice your army/friends so you can achieve the only thing you give a damn about. That was one of the best parts of Berserk.

The Behelits/Godhand add so much to story it's sick and as a wannabe writer I wish I would have thought of that. Practically every Apostle has potential tragedy that leads them to the Godhand's arms which keeps them from being 2D badguys.

Of course, it would preclude the rest of the manga, but this is just my opinion, and I haven't read that far yet. I just think the whole gods-and-demons-thing sort of lessens the story of one man's ambition, rise to glory and inevitable fall, as well as the relationships between the main characters.

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See you're getting it twisted and that's the anime's fault. It's not about Griffith, it's about Guts getting swept up in Griffith's ambition which leads to Guts' ambition and how it affects his present state of being. Guts is the star of Berserk, Griffith is a close second.

OK, you may commence with the ripping of a new ass hole for me now. (I was getting pretty sick of the old one anyway.)

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You asked for it. ;D

All_4_Yume said:

Yeah except if they ever try to make a follow-up to episode 25 then they got their work cut out for them.

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Actually, I don't think it would be such a big thing. Just pick up exactly where the last episode ended, and make the first scene the appearance of SK.

No way. The ending of anime wouldn't be as powerful if it wasn't for the supernatural. With the extent of Griffith's torture his role in the story would have been over. There would be no kickass betrayl because there's no force on Earth that could have made Griffith a king. The Godhand give the Griffith the choice: live the rest of your days as broken man or sacrifice your army/friends so you can achieve the only thing you give a damn about. That was one of the best parts of Berserk.

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True, the ending wouldn't be as grand. It would end with a whimper instead of with a bang, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just different.

See you're getting it twisted and that's the anime's fault. It's not about Griffith, it's about Guts getting swept up in Griffith's ambition which leads to Guts' ambition and how it affects his present state of being. Guts is the star of Berserk, Griffith is a close second.

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Well, that's the case with the manga as a whole. But for the Taka no Dan arc, it's really the story of Griffith, as percieved by Gatsu. The narrative focus is on Gatsu, but all of the main story events rely on Griffith. That's not to say Gatsu isn't necessary. You can't really identify with Griffith. As a reader/watcher, you see him in much the same way as the Band - that is, like someone above you. Superhuman, even. It's not until the end you find out how vulnerable he really is. Also, Gatsu probably shaped the life of Griffith as much as vice versa.

You asked for it. ;D

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So I did. Hey, you can never have too many assholes, right?

Actually, I don't think it would be such a big thing. Just pick up exactly where the last episode ended, and make the first scene the appearance of SK.

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And then they have to find a convient way to explain the Gaiseric mythology and make a new whole scene to introduce Puck.

True, the ending wouldn't be as grand. It would end with a whimper instead of with a bang, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just different.

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Uh huh, what about a little thing called climax? I'm not going to mention what Guts is gonna do with no Godhand to fight.

Well, that's the case with the manga as a whole. But for the Taka no Dan arc, it's really the story of Griffith, as percieved by Gatsu. The narrative focus is on Gatsu, but all of the main story events rely on Griffith. That's not to say Gatsu isn't necessary. You can't really identify with Griffith. As a reader/watcher, you see him in much the same way as the Band - that is, like someone above you. Superhuman, even. It's not until the end you find out how vulnerable he really is. Also, Gatsu probably shaped the life of Griffith as much as vice versa.

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Well in actuality the Golden Era (Taka no Dan arc) is really about the flashback of Guts life up until now. If they wouldn't have butchered the Blackswordsman arc anime viewers would know Guts is crazy, pissed off, doesn't give a fuck, and then the Golden Era shows why Guts is out of his mind. That's why it starts off with Guts being found under his momma's hanging corpse. It's also isn't outta whack chronologically like the anime by starting off with young Guts killing homie with the big axe. In a nutshell:

Blackswordsman basic theme-This mofo is crazy!!!

Golden Era basic theme-Ahhh...that's why this mofo is crazy!