[2022] Berserk: The Golden Age MEMORIAL EDITION

[Léon-Solide]

Memorial Edition episode #10 vs. Trilogy Movie #3 Comparisons below:

https://imgur.com/a/fHUACYh

Memorial Edition #11 vs. Trilogy Movie #3 Comparisons below:

https://imgur.com/a/QyADnjR

The ~50 seconds of new content with Rickert had some really nice animation...but my goodness, the dialogue was so darn cringey.
-"So, is there a way out of..." *looks around* "...the kingdom?"
-"Yeah, wasn't an easy feat"
-"NOW WE CAN GET AWAY!"
-"Yeah. Oh also, there's rumors of some monsters, be careful" (((((*hint*apostles *hint*)))))
-"Thanks"

I was also pleasantly surprised with Guts's re-done faces during the eclipse (like below, left-movie & right-Memorial Edition). I forgot how bad he looked in some scenes in the movies.

 

[ApostleBob]

Thanks for this breakdown Léon-Solide, it really shows the efforts they took to update the rough CGI to something with a bit more emotive. It's often subtle, but I have noticed as I watch the new series just how good a lot of it looks.

 

[Imperivm97]

I had forgotten that Guts shot you highlighted, @Léon-Solide , maybe because of brevity, it looks so better now! Except that now he looks around rather than on the ground.

My favourite improvement though is the Casca scene when she and the others enter the Eclipse. It looked pretty bad and was longer.

 

[Aazealh]

Episode 12 has one main change: they added some missing lines to Judo's final dialogue while he walks with Casca, lengthening the scene by a few seconds. On the other hand, they shortened the cut to Void as he casts the Brand, then the cut to Rickert as he comes up to the tornado and sees Zodd & the Skull Knight fighting. Also of note, the episode begins by replaying the scene of the hand rising up from episode 11, but shortened/accelerated until Void starts speaking at 00:30.

As expected, the episode ends when Femto is born, right after he lands in front of Guts and before the rape. There remains 20m15s of footage from the third movie to feature in the final episode (including the post credit scene of Guts gearing up as the Black Swordsman), plus the new stuff they seem to have concocted.

 

[dumbweebo]

Hi, new member here. Why does CR take so long to release the Berserk episodes? It aired about 8 hours ago in Japan. Don't they advertise a 1 hour after Japan release schedule

 

[Aazealh]

Hi, new member here. Why does CR take so long to release the Berserk episodes? It aired about 8 hours ago in Japan. Don't they advertise a 1 hour after Japan release schedule

Hi, most of the time they've released them 2h30 after they first aired in Japan (a few times earlier), but the episodes don't show up right away on the series' page for some reason. It's best to check the "Simulcast Calendar" page to get access to them quickly. Also, episode 12 only aired about 4 hours ago in Japan.

One thing I've noticed is they're aiding themselves with Dark Horse's work for the translations, because they reproduce some of the same errors.

 

[Keratos23]

Hi, new member here. Why does CR take so long to release the Berserk episodes? It aired about 8 hours ago in Japan. Don't they advertise a 1 hour after Japan release schedule

Where did you get the "8 hours ago" from? It aired in Japan around 4 hours ago..

 

[cijhho123]

They butchered the eclipse, I simply have no other way to put it. Everything felt so weightless and rushed.
Judeau's death was so rapid, they skipped Gaston's diaoluge with Guts entirely (not sure if it was the same in the movie, still hell of a shame).
So many things went wrong in this episode I legitimately feel offended for Miura sensei for them to call this a memorial.

A small part of me hoped we'd get a quick glance into the abyss and the IoE (he showed up in chp. 82, so no broken canon there), but no, instead they went for The Rugrats Movie style.

 

[ApostleBob]

Gotta say, I do appreciate the Memorial Edition focusing their efforts of new scenes on character-building moments. Abridging Judeaus death was a travesty the first time around. In this version of the show, he's a more developed character.

 

[Léon-Solide]

No visual differences between Memorial Edition Episode 12 & Movie #3 (aside from 1 or 2 scenes being extended/shortened slightly).

Let's see how much extra content they can include in the next episode:

• There's approx. 19min 18sec of content left to cover in Movie #3 (+ ~50sec of extra animation of Guts putting on his Black Swordsman gear). So about 20min 8 sec left to cover of Movie #3 in the next Memorial Edition episode 13.
• Episodes run for 24 minutes, minus 3 minutes of opening/ending sequences. So if they keep everything intact, and include the opening and endings in the next episode, there could be ~50 seconds of extra content to add, at a minimum, next episode. That's assuming they don't extend any of the already animate content.
• As identified in that silly 4-minute montage at the beginning of episode 2, there's some newly animated content shown (screenshots below). Question is...will they append anything else in the next episode? I'm sure many will hope for something like a sequel announcement message. But I bet there won't be anything.

 

[Aazealh]

Episodes run for 24 minutes, minus 3 minutes of opening/ending sequences. So if they keep everything intact, and include the opening and endings in the next episode, there could be ~50 seconds of extra content to add, at a minimum, next episode. That's assuming they don't extend any of the already animate content.

Episodes can be 25 minutes, it's happened five times so far. They could also skip the opening to save on time, but it might be more difficult for the end credits, since they presumably need a buffer between the scene in the field and the one of Guts gearing up.

 

[Imperivm97]

Speaking of new scenes, there should also be these scenes as well:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1595766741153579008

I wonder if they will replace the scenes used in the movie with a more manga-faithful version of that scene. We shall see.

As usual, thanks for the breakdown guys. I noticed that this time they didn't update the CG models of Casca and Guts in a number of scenes (Judeau's death, Guts falling from the altar, the final standoff with Griffith).

One thing I've noticed is they're aiding themselves with Dark Horse's work for the translations, because they reproduce some of the same errors.

Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Could you make some examples? I'm not aware of those.

 

[Imperivm97]

The 13th and final interview is with director Yuta Sano and the movies / Memorial Edition editor, they talk about the process of adapting the trilogy into episodes. There is also an "explaination" for the bizarre AMV in ep.2, they essentially were enthusiastic about being allowed to use "Forces" and with the way they wanted to end ep.2 they had that empty spot in the beginning and decided to go with it. I would assume that they just didn't have the resources to add 4 full minutes of new footage and went with this instead.

There is no hint at a continuation, other than a "Berserk starts here" comment which is more an observation than a tease.

 

[Léon-Solide]

The 13th and final interview is with director Yuta Sano and the movies / Memorial Edition editor

I believe it says "part 1" in the interview title, so there's still a 2nd part of the interview that will be posted later.

Yeah, skimmed through and this interview didn't offer anything new worth noting. Just that the director and ME editor were excited to work on the Memorial Edition. I think they also mentioned they look through Twitter every week to see the reception of the episodes and they're pleased by it (I mean...there really aren't many Japanese viewers tweeting about the broadcast lol). I wonder if they've seen the truckload of angry/pissed off replies on the official ME edition Twitter account (https://twitter.com/berserk_mePR) after the countdown reveal.

 

[Walter]

I wonder if they've seen the truckload of angry/pissed off replies on the official ME edition Twitter account (https://twitter.com/berserk_mePR) after the countdown reveal.

I get that the hype train was running wild around this promotion, but if anyone really expected more than what was announced, they simply played themselves.

 

[Dark Emperor]

I believe it says "part 1" in the interview title, so there's still a 2nd part of the interview that will be posted later.

Yeah, skimmed through and this interview didn't offer anything new worth noting. Just that the director and ME editor were excited to work on the Memorial Edition. I think they also mentioned they look through Twitter every week to see the reception of the episodes and they're pleased by it (I mean...there really aren't many Japanese viewers tweeting about the broadcast lol). I wonder if they've seen the truckload of angry/pissed off replies on the official ME edition Twitter account (https://twitter.com/berserk_mePR) after the countdown reveal.

Ha! It was fun to all read those chimp-outs. Some people in there telling guys that run the account to kill themselves and shit.

 

[Imperivm97]

I believe it says "part 1" in the interview title, so there's still a 2nd part of the interview that will be posted later.

You're right! I either missed it or though "Part 1" was referring to the first of two pages of the interview. I assumed this was the last since it should be the final episode and there wouldn't be more of them.

 

[Imperivm97]

Looking at screenshots from the website, they'll keep the scene of Guts freeing himself and almost hitting Phempto with the broken sword in the next episode. I'm quite disappointed since that scene despite being "cool" it really doesn't make much sense and shifts the attention from the act of rape to just a power struggle between Guts and Griffith... and the fact that he is allowed to almost succeed is awful. They should have removed it.

 

[Imperivm97]

I quickly skimmed through the last episode now that it's online (the censored broadcast version so far). The new scene at the end is kinda mediocre, I like the 2D cuts but the CG cut are very jarring at times with their weird movements. Now that I think about it, it's ridiculous that Skull Knight is there, the only reason for his presence is that Guts can take a sword and fight the spirits and not be possessed / killed on the spot, he doesn't even speak to him, quite terrible in comparison to the manga where he takes action and helps him out in this new world he lives in and with Casca. It reminds me of the usage of his character in the new Mori / Gaga serialization, SK appearing only when the plot needs him. I don't understand the logic of completely flattening his role so that Guts can be more active in here... just as much as various quotes at the end where they frame Guts going solo to fight demons, get revenge and abanding Casca as a good thing.

As for other changes I noticed, they used the full-length version of "Aria" for the credits, removed the "This is just the beginning" appendix and replaced it with a quote and a "With gratitude to Kentaro Miura" at the end.
Additionally, they released this new visual for the last episode. It's a nice concept but Guts' expression is at a really bad angle to draw him properly.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1606311168364216322

 

[Aazealh]

Episode 13:

The episode's duration is 25:18. It starts by replaying content from the previous episode with the opening credits showing on top. That lasts until 2:00.

Some scenes that were darkened/blurred in the movie now have the same brightness as the rest. The first I noticed is around 3:00, then there's more at 6:20, 6:40, 6:50... Plus a couple of others I didn't write down. It's footage of penetration, that kind of stuff. Not sure those changes were needed. Anyway, overall the depiction of the scene is as bad as I remembered it. Really poor choices all around.

The new footage starts at 18:30. The transition between 2D animation and the new 3D they've inserted is pretty rough, you immediately see it. As expected it's Guts' declaration of war. They interspace it with a bit of the existing footage too I think (not sure), around when he remembers Griffith's words (which isn't in the movie). The new material ends at 19:30 and we get back to the old footage as Guts reminisces about Judo. It lasts a minute in total.

They actually start playing Aria at the end (21:44), as dawn breaks and the camera recedes in the grass. It keeps going as we get a "Memorial Edition" title card and then the footage of Guts gearing up as the Black Swordsman. It's an odd choice to show it directly afterwards like that, honestly. There's not enough of a pause between the two scenes in my opinion, and the song spoils the mood of it. Anyhow, Aria is cut short at 23:29, after which the normal credits play with Wish. The line "This is only the beginning" doesn't appear after Guts sets off.

After the credits, the message "Chasing an ever-twinkling light" (常しえに瞬く光を追って) is shown, followed by a brief shot of Puck (recycled footage), and then "To Miura Kentarou-sensei, with gratitude" (三浦建太郎先生へ感謝を込めて). Crunchyroll's translation for that first line ("Forever in pursuit of a flickering light") isn't very good.

 

[Léon-Solide]

So, first off - no announcement of a sequel at the end of Memorial Edition episode 13. However, the "This is the beginning" message that was originally included at the end of Trilogy Movie #3, was replaced with the following text:
"瞬き続ける光を追いかけて" and "三浦建太郎先生へ感謝を込めて" (Aazealh translated them above)
With a (not new) animation of Puck flying to the screen between the messages.

A short new sequence fully animated in 3DCG (with a few shots in 2D) was included (see link) adapting Guts's declaration of war. Looked pretty good in my opinion (the hand-drawn shots were very nice) although was not very seamless being inserted in the middle of hand-drawn scenes.
There were no visual differences/updates (aside from maybe one or two moments that were shortened slightly).

You can pre-order the Blu-Ray (release date: March 29 2023) on Amazon.jp. They charge when the item ships. Shipping to CA, USA is 2,926 JPY:

• Limited Edition (they call this "Limited Edition" but it's the standard release) [discounted to 30,520 JPY when posting this]
• Limited Edition with acrylic stand [full 39,600 JPY]

 

[cijhho123]

It haven't gave us a lot, but I really do appreciate what we did got overall.
This episode was decently executed and the inclusion of the declaration of war and black swordsman gearing up scenes is a nice touch.

I truely pray that one day this manga will receive the anime adaptaion it truly deserve.
May Miura-sensei rest in peace.

 

[CoolGuyZool]

There was a recent interview with the director where he states:
今回のTVシリーズで初めて『ベルセルク』に出会ったという方は、この先の物語が描かれている原作や、映像化されている次篇のTVシリーズへと身を投じて、より深みにはまっていただけたらと思います。
at the end.
The jist is that's he's saying Golden Age is just the first part of Berserk, implores the reader to immerse themselves in the original story that depicts future events, and something else about a TV series.
AI translations seem to imply a sequel entry of some kind, a movie in some variations or video in others. Could Aaz provide a more accurate translation?

2ページ目：TVシリーズ『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇 MEMORIAL EDITION』重村建吾＆佐野雄太インタビュー（後編） | アニメイトタイムズ

【アニメイトタイムズ】映画三部作『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇』の公開から10年。TVシリーズ『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇 MEMORIAL EDITION』として、鷹の団の輝かしい時代が再び語られ、そして、その終焉がまた彼らを蹂躙する──。原作は言わずとしれた三浦建太郎による同名コミック。2022年6月時...

www.animatetimes.com

Also interesting note - in an interview with the script writer, he recalls during the Saga Project early stages, they were planning on multiple projects released simultaneously: a movie, TV series, and OVA series.

大河内：最初は、映画を主軸に、OVAがあったり、TVがあったりと同時多発的に色々なベルセルクがリリースされるという話だったんです。僕はそのプロジェクトの全体のストーリー配置と映画の脚本担当という感じでした。「僕がここからここまでを映画で書くから、このエピソードはあなたがＯＶＡで書いてね」という感じで。でも、擦った揉んだした結果、まずはシンプルに映画を作ろうという話になって。結果的には三部作の映画という形になったのですが、僕への発注は一本の映画を想定したものでした。

TVシリーズ『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇 MEMORIAL EDITION』大河内一楼インタビュー | アニメイトタイムズ

【アニメイトタイムズ】映画三部作『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇』の公開から10年。TVシリーズ『ベルセルク 黄金時代篇 MEMORIAL EDITION』として、鷹の団の、あの輝かしい時代が再び語られていく。 原作は言わずとしれた三浦建太郎による同名コミック。2022年6月時点で全世界累計発行部数5,500...

www.animatetimes.com

 

[Imperivm97]

I saw that as well, but I wouldn't make much out of it. The phrasing seems confusing to me but I suppose he's referring to already existing adaptations. With the deliberate removal of the "This is only the beginning" text from the last episode, the absence of a public announcement (or even a clear hint) of a sequel I wouldn't stick to this confusing phrase for any hope.

It is interesting that so much was planned. It's a pity we didn't get to see more, I think they could have done a half-decent job at Black Swordsman / Lost Children, especially if they were aiming at non-Movie format for them. I think a lot of issues with the Golden Age trilogy boil down to the needing of being "cinematic", "kinetic" and have that kind of appeal (it still doesn't excuse them but I guess that was the approach they had).

 

[Aazealh]

AI translations seem to imply a sequel entry of some kind, a movie in some variations or video in others. Could Aaz provide a more accurate translation?

He's just telling people they should read the manga or watch the 2016 series.

Also interesting note - in an interview with the script writer, he recalls during the Saga Project early stages, they were planning on multiple projects released simultaneously: a movie, TV series, and OVA series.

Yeah it was known at the time that they had big plans to animate the entire series. The problem is they botched the project so badly that they couldn't do anything else. I haven't read the full interview, but kudos to this guy for recounting it truthfully: the plan was to compress the entire Golden Age into a single movie, which is obviously not possible and is why they ended up doing a trilogy. Truly mind-blowing incompetence.

It's a pity we didn't get to see more, I think they could have done a half-decent job at Black Swordsman / Lost Children, especially if they were aiming at non-Movie format for them.

I really wouldn't say it's a pity. Given how terrible their adaptation of the Golden Age was, there's no reason to think they would have handled the rest of the story any better. And contrary to what you're implying, the Black Swordsman arc and Lost Children chapter are the two parts of the story that are best suited for the movie format. They're short, relatively self-contained and the Lost Children chapter could be produced as a "sequel" to the Black Swordsman arc without being disorienting for people unfamiliar with the manga. It was obvious to me even 10 years ago that they should have adapted those if they wanted to make movies. This project's failure was the result of bad decisions due to incompetence and lack of care.

I think a lot of issues with the Golden Age trilogy boil down to the needing of being "cinematic", "kinetic" and have that kind of appeal (it still doesn't excuse them but I guess that was the approach they had).

I have to disagree. The main problem is that it doesn't have enough run time to fit in everything that happens in the story, so it ended up being a clip show of events. In addition, because the director tried to make it into something it wasn't (a coming of age story about young people keeping their chin up during tough times), they ablated many of the most interesting elements of the story, leaving it as a mere shadow of itself. This memorial edition tried to correct it to some extent, but it was just not enough. Last but not least, even the parts they kept in are badly interpreted and modified to be lesser than the originals. In fact, it's far less "kinetic" than the manga, despite being animated!

To me, it's truly a case study in how not to adapt something. A complete failure from beginning to end.