How I Got Into Berserk

Hello, my name is Chris.


Anime was never something I liked until a few weeks ago. The issue mainly was that in high school I was dyslexic and illiterate to the point of sounding like Hellen Keller trying to pronounce "Water" whenever trying to read aloud. Recently though I found I have a lot of time free on the weekends and found on youtube a channel that seems to do nothing but post top ten lists. One of them was on Gory Anime series. Among those listed that caught my eye were Blood C, Berserk, and Claymore.

So I started watching Blood C and loved it. Then I watched the movie they made and thought wow, how could they make something so boring from a show that ended with demon rabbits eating people!?

Moving onto Berserk, I really loved this show. The tactics Griffith used in battle, the development of Guts not only as a character but as a fighter. It's actually believable that he could take out 100 men in one sitting. And then the events of the Eclipse happened.... and I realized a friend of mine had made me watch this episode before.

In high school he was a huge anime buff but was so hell bent on reading subtitles that I could never enjoy any of these shows with him. To me, reading subtitles is all the fun of trying to read a book at an airport somewhere in Japan, only there are couples arguing around you, someone's hunting demons, there's a creepy girl and her pet thing that's, adorable, annoying to some, and looks like it escaped the Pokemon universe. Meanwhile I'm trying to read and pay attention to what's going on... why don't these people who love subtitles so much just read the manga?

So having finished the 1997 anime series I moved onto Claymore and realized that this is another one of those shows that my friend tried to get me to watch. And by get me to watch I mean he'd just load up one of the episodes that had the amazing twist of the series in it and hit play and go "See, they killed that character off!!! See how great the writing is!?" .... The trouble with introducing anime to someone in this way is it removes all the gravity and emotional weight of the scene.

I probably would have been into these shows back in high school had he just bothered to buy or show me the English dubbed versions instead. As it was presented to me, it all seemed like a waste of time because he ruined the ending.


So of the three listed I actually tracked down my friend from high school and told him about Berserk... it was kind of odd hearing him say he'd forgotten all about the show. He sent me a link a place online where I could read the manga series and I fully want to order all of the volumes to own myself someday.

I got through the Berserk manga now with a better understanding of the show and what was going on. In all honestly the eclipse in the 1997 anime really comes out of left field, and without the inclusion of the Skull Knight character the ending really leaves you with a WTF!!! moment!


Moving onto the Berserk: The Golden Age movies. I have to say things look amazing, even with the CG, but there are a lot of parts where they don't "Move" as well as they could. Also they somehow managed to make Guts's head rounder-looking which it probably should be but not to the extent as it appears in the Anime and Manga. Also I don't like that they removed scenes from the Anime. Simple scenes such as Griffith standing naked by the well and having a water fight with Guts; as homoerotic as this scene is we get to see Griffith at his most vulnerable and actually having fun for once, which added to that feeling that Guts was the only person who made Griffith stop going for his dream. And then another thing they cut out was Casca knowing that Griffith sold his body for money. These simple scenes, and probably others too, added to the eclipse when it finally happens. Griffith wasn't only sacrificing his friends and comrades, he was getting rid of the witnesses to his past life.

I'm actually eager to see how they handle the next film. The CG in the trailer looks poorly animated. It's like they stylized it after a video game. Things should move more realistically and look gritty for this series. The epic rape and fight scenes in the manga shouldn't look like two sock puppets goings at it.
 
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