First medium of exposure to Berserk

What was your first medium of exposure to the Berserk universe?

  • Manga

    Votes: 22 18.5%
  • Anime

    Votes: 73 61.3%
  • Dreamcast game

    Votes: 19 16.0%
  • PS2 game

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 5 4.2%

  • Total voters
    119

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
I'd like to say manga, but anime took my Berserk cherry.

Coincidentally, I recommend the anime to people before the manga, for those who plan to do both. It puts a lot into perspective.
 

Uriel

This journey isn't ov--AARGH!
EXACTLY.

It's my way of guiding the flock into the unmarred sanctuary that is Berserk, only having introduced them to Susumu Hirasawa so that they may have listening pleasure to accompany their reading experience. It's all very hum-drum.
 

CnC

Ad Oculos
Whoops. Voted for anime by mistake.

It's been so long but I'm fairly sure I saw the manga first (only a bit of it tho). I didn't really start to understand it until the anime, tho.
 
I first saw the Anime, Practically went insane for 3 days because of the last episode. I actually thought that was the end, until I found out about the manga. I then played the Dc game about 2 years ago, I have yet to play the ps2 game, however I did watch all the cutscenes and whatever online fighting I could find.

I agree with Uriel. Since most people are gonna watch the anime anyway, they may as well start with it. That way they wont get upset at the character emissions until after reading the manga.
 
I bought a Japanese Dreamcast quite a while before the UK version was released, and picked up Berserk as it just looked so cool. As I can't understand Japanese I couldn't get all the details but I loved the game. Next I discovered the anime, then followed the manga.
 

SlimeBeherit

[FIGHT][SPELL] [SACRIFICE][ITEM]
It was the Dreamcast game for me as well, a few years later, through a game magazine (Play magazine) i saw an ad for the anime and i couldn't be more excited.
 

Scorpio

Courtesy of Grail's doodling.
I put the anime as well. However, I do remember picking up an EGM way back and I saw an ad for Sword of the Berserk: Gut's Rage and thought it looked pretty awesome. Some years later I was looking through shelves of anime at some store, and I noticed a DVD for a show called Berserk. I made no connection between that and the dreamcast game, but I thought it looked interesting enough and soon I was hooked. Some years after that, I finally discovered there was a manga, and discovered it continued on where the anime ended, so I bought a few volumes and became mesmerized. In my ensuing frenzy for all things Berserk, I stumbled across this site and quickly caught up with all the volumes and haven't looked back. Well, except for the occasional rereading of the whole series.
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
After lurking around Sk.net for a while I decided to see what all the hubub was about. I bought the first volume of the anime (my preferred media at the time) and within a week I owned all the anime volumes! I seriously must have watched the first damn episode ten times.(Still my fave, the Snake Baron fight was amazing. The part where Guts scrapes his sword along the ground to deliver the strike to Snake Baron was earth shattering to me!) After playing out the anime, I was a confused young lad so I downloaded terrible scanlations and was instantly hooked on the sheer beauty of the manga. The videogames never really had much of an effect on me, I bought the Dreamcast version and while the story was good the gameplay was terrible. The PS2 version was basically a retelling of the manga with a small side story about the child apostle. It was rough to understand since I don't speak Japanese but the gameplay was phenomenal to me. You could really feel the weight of the Dragon Slayer when Guts swings it, and his body animations while swinging it were superb. Also, while using the Berserk Armor, I felt that's what it would really look like if I could see it in motion. Guts running and standing animations in the Berserk Armor were very carnal and beastly. And killing legions of trolls never hurts either. Anyway,
Berserk is most beautiful to me on the black and white, and from there I joined the folks here at SK.net.
And while I may not be a walking Berserk Encyclopedia (Wait a minute, didn't I beat Walter and take first place in the chat room trivia challenge?) and discuss current episodes as rigorously as my fellow board members, I love this story with all my heart. Theres no other place I would be but here, and no other story could fill me with such satisfaction as Berserk.

It was party.
It was monster party.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
While I learned of the manga's existence first, it's the anime I first watched.

handsome rakshas said:
After lurking around Sk.net for a while I decided to see what all the hubub was about.

So wait, you mean you were on SK.net before even knowing about Berserk?

handsome rakshas said:
I seriously must have watched the first damn episode ten times.(Still my fave, the Snake Baron fight was amazing. The part where Guts scrapes his sword along the ground to deliver the strike to Snake Baron was earth shattering to me!)

I also like the first episode the best. The fight against the Snake Baron is quite nice. In fact, I have a ripped video on my computer of that specific moment you mention: Guts blowing up the baron's face, then cutting him in half. :guts:
 

handsome rakshas

Thanks Grail!
Aazealh said:
So wait, you mean you were on SK.net before even knowing about Berserk?

Sounds ridiculous, I know. I used to get a lot of information and reviews about anime before I would go out and purchase them. After hitting up a few places to get some info (Arctic Nightfall, I think?) I ended up here. I was very entertained by this place and would come here just to check out the Shooting the Breeze section before I actually joined. Or maybe my chronology is all screwed up? All I know is when I get out of work I'm dusting off the Ol' Box of War and watching the first episode, it's been a long time.

And as an addendum to my long-winded post above, I forgot to mention the hundreds and hundreds of dollars and countless hours I've spent hunting Berserk Statues. One day I'll have that silver Skully from Toys R' US, one day. :SK:
 
The Anime.

Franz (not sure if he still visits this board) recommended the manga first but I've never been into comics. Later he recommended the Anime. I watched the first 3-5 episodes slowly and reluctantly, not seeing anything great in it (and downloading them one by one didn't help either.) I was also into Naruto far too much to care about anything else. Then, I suggested to a friend of mine who's into swords & sorcery/Conan type stories that he might like Berserk (even though I had only seen like 6 episodes at the time.) I then met him again two weeks later and he was talking non-stop about how awesome Berserk was and I'm like, well I haven't actually seen more than 7 episodes :guts:
So then he urged me to watch it all and lent me the rest of the episodes and the rest is history. Too bad my friend stopped reading the manga half way through though, not sure what made him lose interest. He still asks me sometimes what's going on in the Berserk manga, I guess he just wants to know if Guts will ever get his revenge.
 
P

Pencil-smith

Guest
My first contact with Berserk was the manga.
I read a few episodes from the Golden Age when I was looking for quality manga a few years ago and I was hooked.
 
I saw the anime first then read the manga. If I had done it the other way, I would have been seriously pissed about the omission of the Count, the battle with Wyald, and a bunch of other events. I'm glad the anime had such an incomplete ending or else I never would have bothered to pick up the manga.
 
I had heard of the anime first actually but I ended up reading the manga first. Then I went and watched the anime and could barly get past the first dvd really. I have yet to watch the whole thing. It's then i got the PS2 game which is just epic really, then I played some of the dreamcast one. Still my fav vol is 25 and around that, which may also why I think the PS2 game is epic though.
 

Rhombaad

Video Game Time Traveler
I got into the anime first, as it was advertised on Media Blasters' Rurouni Kenshin DVD's and looked interesting enough. While waiting in between DVD releases, I cruised around BSOM for more information, but never made it to the forums. After watching the rest of the series, I started to read scanlations of the manga and was hooked. I read volumes 1-25 before coming to SK.net. Since then I've been following the episodes as they come out and buying the Japanese volumes as they're released.
 
Bumbed into the first 3 or 4 volumes in the local library, been hooked since then.

Btw: This is my first post but i´ve been lurking here for i while.
 
I had to vote for other. I'm a big fan of Iced Earth, and I was searching for music videos a while back. One that I found was Dark Saga looped over Berserk clips. Then I bought the whole Anime series (for $20) based on that, and I am currently into the manga also.

This is the link to that video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2988752479675320247

The song was the title track from an album they did based on the Spawn series. From what I know, Spawn and Berserk have a lot of things in common, but Berserk allways dominated, and continues to, as I heard Spawn has gone down hill and sucks now. Probably as much as the movie did for all I know.
Anyways you'll find a crap load of AMV's there that contain Berserk clips.
 
AMaineKillingFrost said:
I had to vote for other. I'm a big fan of Iced Earth, and I was searching for music videos a while back. One that I found was Dark Saga looped over Berserk clips. Then I bought the whole Anime series (for $20) based on that

I would have chosen anime in that case.
 
I'm one of the Dreamcast boys. It wasn't even the gameplay that impressed me (in fact it was kinda shitty if I remember correctly), it was Guts' presence that left such an impact. That opening scene where bandits attack the carriage and Guts steps out was my introduction to Guts and the dark world behind him. Following that was the anime and then the manga. It's kinda odd how bad the anime/game seem when you compare them to the original manga, but for me and it seems many others, they hold enough awesome aspects that they lead us to seek out the manga in the end, which turns out to be the most rewarding.
 

Oburi

All praise Grail
Now that I think about it the dreamcast game was my first exposure to Berserk. I thought the game was great when I first played it but I forgot about it completely soon after. Even after I purchased the berserk anime years later I never made the connection. It never dawned on me that the two were related. I showed my friend the anime and he made the connection with the game and thats when I realized. Then came the sacred Manga, my most prized possesion.
 
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