Since the thread moves very quickly, here are my first thoughts after watching this:
I think adding Flora and Schierke early on like that is clumsy. It's too much stuff at once (the H.I.C.K.s plus them) and it serves no purpose until so long after. Why not introduce Schierke around the time she is supposed to be (volume 22) and Flora in volume 24? For those saying the bullshit will be limited to this one episode, this should be a clue that it's going to be a general thing. If they feel they can take shortcuts with the introduction of the core elements of the series (Guts, Puck, the Brand, Apostles...), then they will with everything else as well.
Anyway, they translated Femto's title as "Falcon of Darkness" in the trailer but it became "Hawk of Darkness". In the actual episode. Nice "fix".
Isidro's introduction is also pretty clumsy. I see what they tried to do, but it doesn't do his character justice at all. His introduction in the manga was very important to set the tone for his character and while this approximates a vaguely similar context, it fails to fulfill what actually matters. They could have been smarter, like to have him try and steal from the bandits while they toyed with Puck. Small change, big difference. Of course, the bar fight is a travesty. The visuals are shit, as are the animations. I'm not sure what the point of not showing the Dragon Slayer until later is. A progression towards a dramatic reveal? What a stupid idea.
Also, Guts comes in to get his water flask filled and to buy a bottle of rum so he can flambé the rabbit he doesn't yet know he'll catch? Really? That feels so random, not to mention that
rum is produced from sugar canes. Does it look like there are any around there? They could have at least made it wine or cognac or anything. I mean it's a small thing but geez, any idiot knows these things. And of course, Guts cooking at night is ridiculous. He fights all night long, every night, that's a core tenet of the Black Swordsman period. Putting out his fire is similarly stupid, because it keeps specters at bay. And that scene lasts forever too, and basically serves no purpose other than to show us Puck catching up with him.
Puck's dialogue is unconvincing too. It made sense in the manga because he follows Guts right away, but here it feels like he went out of his way to search for Guts for hours. I am 100% for sticking to the manga and I appreciate their efforts in that regard, but just transposing the dialogue to another context doesn't work. Making the absolute loser bandits from volume 14 into badasses to the thugs from volume 1 is also pathetic. It's nonsense. And I mean they chose the worst guy too, whose character design inherently implies he's worthless. He couldn't even stand up to a tied-up Jill in the manga. How anyone could make that choice, I don't know. Colette's voice acting sucks, and they misspell her name (but then again so did Dark Horse, I guess a Google search is above any and all of them). They give the old guy a random name... Ok? Serves no purpose. They also change the dialogue uselessly just because they're desperate to hide the DS until the moment they chose to reveal it.
I'm surprised that they spent so long on the dialogue with the monk instead of focusing on stuff that matters more, like the Brand or beherits, or apostles or Puck or anything really. To reveal the Brand in the dream feels like a very undramatic way of showing it to me. Kind of a wasted opportunity. And God does the music suck. When Guts yells Griffith at 13:00, Jesus Christ that's bad. Terrible voice acting. I find the way they cut between scenes to be super abrupt when Colette is killed. The Dragon Slayer's sound effects are so weird. Definitely feel off. The paused skeletons are weird. They're supposed to be waiting to see what the possessed Colette pulls off, not just stay there completely frozen right next to Guts.
The tree also makes no sense at all. In the manga, it "comes alive" because Guts is near. Because of the Brand. To have it travel through the forest, even aside from the fact a tree typically doesn't move, is ridiculous and contrary to how things work in Berserk's world. Also, what's the point of making up a story about there being 20 guys and the bandits being a big group and all of that bullshit if it's to show nothing for it? The tree could have showed up on its own and it would have made no difference. The tree looks like it's from a PSX cutscene by the way. Yikes. That fight is absolutely stupid too. Guts is immediately at the tree's mercy, literally about to die. Then he sees Colette's corpse also about to get eaten and gets pissed, and with a single sword strike kills the tree, which immediately dies in a weird dust tornado. Then queue the sad music for Colette, ruining the complex mood of the scene.
Anyway, I wonder why they couldn't just use any random apostle here instead? A made-up one, or the Snake Baron or whatever... I can hear that maybe they wanted characters (bandits and tree) to feel familiar to fans, but this really wasn't the best way to do it. They completely miss the point of why he shoots his cannon in the trees (the specters were hiding in the branches and it blew them off). The ending song is hilariously inappropriate. Next episode promises to feature some terrible shortcuts as well, so you guys better be ready.
Also it seems to me, given the pace of things, that the Conviction arc will be wrapped up in 13 episodes.
