How did you find out about Berserk?

How did you find out about Berserk?


  • Total voters
    64
Hello!

This is my first post ever on the forum. I wanted to do it many time, but honestly it seems like most topics one might be wondering about are already debated elsewhere and it all repeats itself.

So I began my posting wondering how was your first contact with the Berserk series. Maybe there are other options, but I can only think about these right now. Some of then I think are farfetched, but hey...you never know.

For me I have long heard about this series and so back in 2012 I decided to have a look into the Anime. Although I have seen several Anime since an early age I normally take about a couple of weeks to see a 25 episode series, watching a couple per day, sometimes 3 or 4. To my shock and surprise I have seen the Berserk anime in 25 hours as I couldn't stop and then I couldn't rest until I had read the Manga. Funny enough I did all that while working in Denmark :)

Now that episode 334 is finally out I re-read all the Manga again and watched the new movies regarding the Golden Age.

Can't get the track number#4 from the original Anime out of my head...
 
Re: How did you find out Berserk?

Welcome to the forum. :D

I think the question is a little shaky. " How did you find out Berserk?" feels like it should read "How did you find out about Berserk?" or something like that.

A back then new online acquaintance of mine recommended Berserk after I complained to him how unintelligent most manga I had then recently been reading were [years ago. :p That was back when 70% of what I read was still Shounen (mostly SJ) and only about 25% Seinen]. I was hooked from the beginning and loved the Black Swordsman Arc. The Golden Age Arc blew my mind and I hadn't been this much "into" a series since I had read Death Note years before that. So basically, it was the Manga for me. I only watched the Anime much much later when I finally got a good copy on DVD. :)
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome to the forum :void:

We actually have an older thread on this topic, but you're welcome to start the idea fresh with this thread.

I discovered Berserk around the summer of 1999 through the anime, which came to me in the form a bootlegged, VHS "fansub" I rented from a nerdy anime shop. I knew nothing about the series at the time, nor had any recommendations for it. The recording quality was so bad, with colorbleed and all the other wonders that come from a beaten-up VHS, that I thought it was an older series. In fact at that point it had only been out for a year. But the tone of the first episode, and truly the first section of the manga, does emit a very 80s vibe.

Something about that visual fidelity, and Guts' character, really resonated with me. I couldn't get the whole series at the time, it wouldn't be made commercially available in the US until 2002 or so. So, I only saw up to about episode 15 or so before I started buying the Japanese volumes, and soon after that discovered Black Sun Over Midland, this site's predecessor. And well, the rest is history.
 
Re: How did you find out Berserk?

Welcome to the forum and great question!
I was first introduced to Berserk through my boyfriend back in high school (we are still together), and he sat me down and made me watch the anime after countless weeks trying to convince me. I simply didn't want to get into it, because the surface appeal of Berserk just didn't resonate well with me. (Oh, a big tough guy with a ginormous sword, how typical.)

Little did I know, that Berserk would soon become a huge part of my life, and my all time favourite story. :guts:
 
Re: How did you find out Berserk?

MrMehawk said:
Berserk actually makes me feel young because the Manga has been running for longer than I am alive. :p

Hopefully it will end before we stop living as well....I hate leaving stuff in the middle :)
 
A friend introduced me to the Anime back in 2002. A year later I deployed to Iraq and that same friend sent me copies of the Manga while I was away, it took me a while to really appreciate the manga since I was still convinced at the time that the Anime was better, but when I got to volume 11 I think my opinion on that changed. Anyways, I heard about it through a friend initially.

rikt said:
Hopefully it will end before we stop living as well....I hate leaving stuff in the middle :)

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a passing of the torch sort of deal that came about... i.e. Miura ends up dying, and forgets to end the series and it passes on to someone in his family or another gifted writer.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
I voted TV series, though technically my first encounter with Berserk was a manga review in a video game magazine in 1996. That did not leave much of an impression at the time.

Vodnak said:
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a passing of the torch sort of deal that came about... i.e. Miura ends up dying, and forgets to end the series and it passes on to someone in his family or another gifted writer.

I really doubt that Miura would "forget" to end the series he's spent his entire life working on. Anyway, there's no reason for this kind of negative thinking.

rikt said:
Thanks to whoever changed the title. I couldn't figure out how to do it yet.

No problem. There should be a button called "modify" on your posts. It allows you to modify them. By the way, I'm curious as to why you included a field called OVA in your poll, given that no Berserk OVA was ever produced. I've changed it to "Other" as a result, and dissociated "Anime" into "TV series" and "Movies".
 
Aazealh said:
By the way, I'm curious as to why you included a field called OVA in your poll, given that no Berserk OVA was ever produced. I've changed it to "Other" as a result, and dissociated "Anime" into "TV series" and "Movies".

Hello!

I thought that the three recent movies were considered OVAs...actually I don't remember where did i get that idea from.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
rikt said:
I thought that the three recent movies were considered OVAs...actually I don't remember where did i get that idea from.

Hehe, no big deal. They're definitely movies though and were even released in theaters.
 
OKAY. Long story ahead!

I first found out about Berserk from watching the anime back around 2000-2001. My family was really into watching anime and buying fan subs at the time, and the series was recommended to us by a friend. I was only 10-11 at the time :schnoz: but I was allowed to watch it with my mom's discretion. At that time, after watching countless series, we had never seen anything like it and fell in love. I remember my mom, my two older brothers, and I thinking the 100 man fight was ridiculously awesome. As the final minutes of the show wrapped up, we were shocked. Despite being so young, I wasn't too traumatized by the events of the Eclipse ceremony, but I was certainly upset that the characters I had grown to love were destroyed.

Luckily, the friend who suggested the series to us let us know that the story didn't end there. She introduced us to the Dreamcast game and explained the currents events of the manga. 14 years ago volumes of manga in general were difficult to come by, and Berserk hadn't even been released in English, so I was left with only a vague idea of what happened after the Golden age (and I wasn't even aware of the Black Swordsman arc).

Years later I became a teenage weeaboo and my tastes were questionable, but Berserk still had a special place in my heart. I was able to read the first few volumes that Dark Horse had released, but again was left in the dark about the events after the Golden age arc.

Then around 4 years ago came across scanslations :magni: and read through them in a single weekend. Be still my heart, I fell in love again!

Now I am working on obtaining all the Dark Horse releases(It's taking me a while since I buy from local bookstores) Japanese volumes, art books, and anything Berserk. I own a few figures, both games, war cry, and attempt to support Miura anyway I can. I show my love through fan art and cosplaying. After years of consideration, I plan on getting a brand tattoo sometime this year.

Berserk has been with me for more than half my life and I don't ever see it leaving.
 

Grail

Feel the funk blast
Gummyskull said:
I was only 10-11 at the time :schnoz: ... I wasn't too traumatized by the events of the Eclipse ceremony, but I was certainly upset that the characters I had grown to love were destroyed.
You Oregonians are tough. :magni: What did you watch when you were in elementary school, Legend of the Overfiend or something? Your mom seems like a rad lady.

Is anyone else in your family still a Berserk fan? Get your mom in here! :iva:
 
Aazealh said:
I really doubt that Miura would "forget" to end the series he's spent his entire life working on. Anyway, there's no reason for this kind of negative thinking.

Lol I don't really think that would happen either, the series has just been going for a very long time, that's all I was really trying to point out. :guts:
 
Grail said:
You Oregonians are tough. :magni: What did you watch when you were in elementary school, Legend of the Overfiend or something? Your mom seems like a rad lady.

Is anyone else in your family still a Berserk fan? Get your mom in here! :iva:
:ganishka: Never watched that one, but I did watch stuff like Genocyber, Ninja Scroll, Demon City Akira, and Fist of the North Star. My older brothers were into that kind of anime so I'd watch it with them.

Unfortunately I am the sole Berserk fan. Although my mom has recently flipped through the volumes and marveled at the detail. She doesn't remember the story, but figures it must be good if I still like it so much.
 
I was 12 years old.... That's when I started watching a I
As and learned about them. My first one was elfin lied which hooked me
Into the whole anime scene.

I just randomally heard about berserk in a online forum on recommendations I think the website was called animesuki

Anyways I watched it In English back then -_ -

Watched the animefirst at the end of it I needed to know what happened after the eclipse cause it left such a cliff hanger
Then instantly started reading the manga 20 mins after I finished ep25 hahha

The good old noobie days
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
I think it was 2002 or 2003 when I saw the anime series. In high school my friends were all into randomly buying anime and sharing them with each other. One night a whole bunch of us were at a friend's house when he told us about Berserk. We watched the first episode and I was instantly hooked. I wasn't able to get my hands on the show until many weeks later, but when I did, I consumed it, I think, within a week or two. Those final few episodes just blew me away and from that moment on Berserk was cemented as my favorite series.

Of course I knew it couldn't have ended there, so I scoured the internet for more info until I stumbled upon Skullknight.net around 2004, which was not too long after Dark Horse began releasing American volumes. Of course I've been with the manga and, more or less, the episodic releases since then.
 
My friend had the Dreamcast game back in 2000. I remember not really being impressed with the game, clunky controls and hard to see what you were doing at times, but the concept and Guts got my attention. When I got cable internet about a year later, I found the fansub community on IRC and sought out the anime. I was hooked and the manga came shortly after.
 
The climax of the eclipse turned up in a youtube suggestion bar one day.
I had been watching a lot of Higurashi.
Presumably, they went: "oh... you like fucked up anime?" :ganishka:

It scarred me in a few major ways. First off, it was very disturbing, Guts losing his arm and whatnot.
Secondly, reading the manga, I kept being sad as hell whenever he made any friends, because I knew how it was going to end. :judo:

I was happy to see Rickert survive though, more than I hoped for!
 
She doesn't remember the story

How can one forget the eclipse? :???: (or for that matter any moment in Berserk :p)

I really doubt that Miura would "forget" to end the series he's spent his entire life working on. Anyway, there's no reason for this kind of negative thinking.

No, I don't think anybody thinks that. But I really, really hope (for our and most of all for his sake) that he doesn't go the way of Guin Saga. :sad: (nothing suggesting he will, I know, but the thought still makes sad)

Anyways I watched it In English back then -_ -

While I don't like dubs all that much, it was obviously enough to get you into the Manga - so be as thankful as I am for the Dragonball dubs ariring in German back in the days. :p Everybody needs an introduction.

The good old noobie days

Ah, yes. The days I called episodes chapters. The days I called Schierke Schie.L.ke and the Beherit Behe.L.it [I love that the forum auto-corrects those terms by the way - that's an awesome feature, gus! :D]. All in all, very embarassing but still enjoybale days. :p
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
MrMehawk said:
No, I don't think anybody thinks that. But I really, really hope (for our and most of all for his sake) that he doesn't go the way of Guin Saga. :sad: (nothing suggesting he will, I know, but the thought still makes sad)

Kaoru Kurimoto, the author of Guin Saga, went well over the goals she had set when she started (to write a hundred books). I'm not sure she had any real intention of finishing her story.
 

jackson_hurley

even the horses are cut in half!
I remember watching the anime after a friend suggested it. Never did for a while until I found them on dvd. Bought the first one as a blind buy. Then remembered it was the anime my friend told me about. I watched the first disc and was hook. I was waiting my pay to buy the next disc. the realized it cam from a manga while reading the opening credits. I checked on the web and Dark Horse had just release the first 3 volumes. Got them from amazon. Then I was waiting anxiously for the new volume. then I found again sk.net (found it once 2 years before my subscription) and since then I've been following the series episodes by episodes. I remember some of my first questions with Aaz about Guts canon arm and repeating crossbow. :guts:
 

Snake Plissken

President of what?
Found out from a friend on another forum. I actually just finished catching up to the most recent episode last week, loved every second of it. Officially addicted.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Snake Plissken said:
Found out from a friend on another forum. I actually just finished catching up to the most recent chapter episode last week, loved every second of it. Officially addicted.

Glad to have you!

Just so you know, chapters are what we call larger portions of the story (Chapter of Lost Children). The 20-22 pg individual releases that come out in Young Animal are called episodes. Here's a longer post where I explain why: http://www.skullknight.net/forum/index.php?topic=10807.msg194523#msg194523
 
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