Demons have now become commonplace around the kingdom of Midland, which has fallen into chaos. The swordsman Guts still cannot stay in one place for long due to his demonic brand. He could always manage to protect himself when he was alone, but now he has the added challenge of protecting former Commander Casca, a shell of her former self who neither remembers nor trusts him. They never have a moment's rest with the constant threat of demons, and they need a place where Casca will be safe till they find a way to heal her. Their elf ally, Puck, tells of the mystical land of Elfhelm, which is supposed to be a safe haven from the demons that ravage the lands. Tired and with only a vague hope, they struggle on to find a place to live—and they still need to find those responsible for the madness they are forced to endure.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
literaturenerd
Overview: It's the 4th of July everybody! As an American, I will celebrate my country with one of our time honored traditions...beating the dog shit out of something weak and defenseless. Everyone is lining up to shit on Eromanga Sensei. Worst animu of the year! Sure that's pretty low hanging fruit, but I'm going even lower. If bashing Eromanga Sensei was the equivalent of America's pummeling and carving up Serbia, picking on poor Berserk 2017 is like the 1983 invasion of Grenada! Story: Berserk 2017 has 2 clip show episodes in a 12 episode run! That's really all I need to say to illustrate how fucking shitthis series was. That could be the entire review right there!
However, I'm a tad more professional then that so let's get on with the review. This series covered the part of the manga where Guts meets Schierke, gains the Berserker Armor, and fights the New Band of the Hawk. Basically this is the part of the manga where Miura abandons the "Ow the Edge" feel of the Black Swordsman Arc and makes Berserk a shonen with occasional tits and gore. I'm exaggerating of course, but the tone has changed vastly and it often seems to almost venture into shonen territory. This SHOULD make it easier to adapt into a fun and fluid anime right? Unfortunately it would seem not. They cover very little of the manga in these 12 episodes, not only because there are 2 fucking clip shows, but because the pacing isn't great. If they were going to make it short and sweet, they could at least put serious attention and detail into the battle scenes. However, the art budget got gutted AGAIN, so this series often looks even worse than Berserk 2016! The battle scenes are predictably lackluster, so we mostly get padding and dialogue. Does it even end at the logical point with Guts gaining the Berserker armor and standing tall against Griffith's minions? Nope. The series rushed that scene and farted on for another episode so we could meet Bonebeard the Pirate...the character near universally considered to be the worst character in all of Berserk. Yes, he's worse than Puck. Since this series bombed and there are no plans for a Berserk 2018, this is where the Berserk anime journey ends...with Bonebeard the fucking Pirate! I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Art:
If you had told me last year that Berserk 2017 would look even worse than 2016 I wouldn't have believed you. How could they possibly sink further down when they had reached the center of the Earth? From that point, any direction would be up. However, Studio Gemba has accomplished the unthinkable. There are a lot of anime studios I love to give shit: Toei, ARMS, 4C, OLM, etc. Those are all GODLIKE though compared to Gemba. Only Idea Factory can compete head to head with Gemba when it comes to being an absolute shitstain of an animation company.
Overall:
Were my expectations high following last years' travesty? Nope. Was I STILL somehow disappointed by this trash? Yep. Berserk 2017 isn't even good as a guilty pleasure. Keep in mind my standards aren't that high. Dragonball Super is something I watch as a guilty pleasure. Berserk 2017 is to Berserk what Superman 4 was to Superman films. It is a blow so devastating that it may never recover. As successful a cult following as the manga has, it will likely be YEARS before we see another attempt at a Berserk anime if ever.
existentialist
I'll keep this short and sweet because everyone here must have seen Berserk (2016). It's basically the exact same, except the pacing problems have gotten better. There really isn't too much too say, the CGI art is trash, but if you have read the manga you'll take what you can get. Obviously the ending is incomplete because the manga continues on much much further, and is still ongoing. I'd say don't watch this if you haven't read the manga, because it will confuse you and will be the least bit enjoyable. For me I love seeing manga come to life through animation even if itisn't the best so I did enjoy it to a degree, and overall will give it a 7.
BlackCicero
I think being an anime-only watcher has helped me in sticking it out with this anime despite its glaring faults in the technical department(CGI,sound effects, etc). I decided to give the Berserk franchise a chance with the introduction of the 2016 season and if I had to compare that season to 2017's there are a couple things I can mention. The story for this season was amazing as always and it is what keeps me coming back to watch week after week. I didn't have any issues with how the pacing was done. I felt like the directing was a bit better this season thanin 2016 although this was mainly for about 75% of the series. The last 1/4 had some major issues that I couldn't look past. Much of the same can be said for art and animation. The addition of 2D animation for some scenes were more than welcomed on my end but if you are one that do not like the mixture of 2D and 3D in shows then it might be a bit jarring for you.
The soundtrack is what you would've been familiar too from the 2016 season and it is great as always. The introduction of new characters as well as the development given to some members of the cast was appreciated. Overall I was able to enjoy this season of Berserk a little bit more than I had the first season.
If you are coming across this anime for the first time, I'd suggest you give episode 1 of the 2016 season a go to see if the 3D CGI would sit well with you. After that I recommend you check out the Berserk anime that came out in the 90s(or the movies if you're short on time) or you can read the manga for which I keep hearing great things about. I hope my thoughts on this show was useful to you!
Lainsbearsuit
TL;DR: 7/10 - The dreadful 3D CGI animation is almost bad enough by itself to ruin this whole adaptation, but in the end, this show has enough awesome characters, plot developments, and fight scenes to make it worth watching. ART: 2/10 Let's get this out of the way. The 3D CGI "art" is bad. There is no way around it, and there is no excuse good enough to make up for it. The actual moments where they take the time to fully draw each scene without the CGI is so beautiful that it literally makes the show worse because you know what it could've been, whatit should've been. I wouldn't go as far as saying that the show is unwatchable, but I'm admittedly a huge nerd for Berserk, and I've conditioned myself by watching RWBY, Blame!, Knights of Sidonia, etc..
STORY: 10/10
Spot on adaptation, frame for frame, and scene for scene. So what can I say about the story? It's Berserk, and it's the good times, where we really see some actual character development and the fight scenes sprinkled in are frequent and satisfying. There's new characters, both allies and enemies, magical weapons, mysterious powers, interesting plot developments; I really envy anyone who is unfamiliar with Berserk and gets to see it for the first time in all its glory!
SOUND: 9/10
All of the voices are still coming out pretty much how I imagined them when I was reading the manga. 9mm Parabellum Bullet returns to provide the opening once again this season, and it's just as awesome as the first one; the ending was just okay. Just like the plot, the score of this show often pushes the boundaries of being over-dramatic and cliche, yet somehow it always appears graceful and confident. You may, however, get tired of BLOOD AND GUTS AND GUTS AND BLOOD AND BLOOD AND GUTS AND GUTS AND BLOOD AND BLOOD AND GUTS AND GUTS......and blood
CHARACTER: 10/10
Solid characters appear this season, and we get to see deeper character development of ones that have been around a while. The unlikely cast that began to form in the first season becomes better, faster, stronger, and most importantly, more fun to watch as they work together to get out of life-threatening situations. Gone are the days of watching Guts, all alone, getting thrown around for twenty minutes before somehow impaling the enemy and dragging his broken body away. Now he has friends to watch him do it too! We also get to see most of the enemies that will become more of a presence as time goes on, even if it's just for a moment. There are also a few characters, both new and old, whose true alignment is hard to determine.
ENJOYMENT: 7/10
This one was tough, because I truly enjoyed this season, and this new anime series as a whole. I didn't want it to end, and I'm excited that a third season has been confirmed. That being said, I can't blind myself to the complaints of others, who have enjoyed Berserk in the past, but were completely turned off by the new animation. "Read the manga" is not something you want to hear when describing an anime adaptation, and I can't honestly say that those who are newbies to Berserk would be able to appreciate this show as much as I did.
OVERALL: 7/10
It pains me to give an official entry in the Berserk series such a mediocre score, but I feel that if I went any higher it would be the fanboy in me, not the reviewer. This isn't what anyone imagined when they pictured the day that Berserk would get a continuation to the anime adaptation. I wish they could've chosen another show to try this on, but I respect them for trying at least, and it is enjoyable to watch. I hope that they prove everyone wrong next season, and really get the hang of overlaying the CGI with drawings and commit to it like in the movies, but if none of that happens I'll still watch it.
magaiverix
First time I started watching Berserk in 2014 year and that was movies 1,2,3 and 3D art was amazing + story line and overall 10/10 true masterpiece. Second time was 2016 season 2 TV series almost everything on 8/10 except art 5/10 everyhing (story) is from manga, but I do not read manga just played berserk in dreamcast and ps2 version. 2017 jul I started season 3 and what I saw art improvements and all other things same, tbh from this 3D art I got resistance and no longer crying about it. That ANIME in overall = Masterpiece and if you disagree that means you are WEAK!
ReviewMan9174
After watching the original 1997 anime, which I loved, I really expected this to be at least decent and decided to give it a chance despite the reviews. BIG MISTAKE. This show is the embodiment of everything I dislike about anime; it takes all of the worst anime tropes as ingredients and puts them together in one disgusting pie. I have not read the manga yet, so I will review this as a series, not as an adaptation. Part 1) The Plot The plot contains many of the biggest issues with this anime. Very often, it feels like things happen suddenly and for no reason. The biggestexample is the Kushans, who are an antagonistic nation, like the Tudor in the 1997 show. The issue is that pretty much no context is given about them at all, and it feels like they only serve as a plot device for Griffith to appear as a savior. Who are they? What is their goal? How big is their army, are they a real threat? Where did they come from? NOBODY KNOWS!
Also, the tension and stakes throughout the entire season are minimal, and nothing really interesting happens at any point; it is incredibly boring. And of course this does not exclude the ending, which is not even an ending really. Literally nothing of note happens in the final episode. I have seen filler episodes with more plot relevance than this final one. There is no conclusion and no climax, though I did find it fitting for a show like this. I guess the one thing of note here is Guts receiving the Berserker armor, which was pretty cool to see.
Part 2) Animation & Audio
The animation is far from the biggest problem this show has, but it is still awful. The biggest problem is the fact that the animation is mostly 3D, which rarely, if ever, works well for anime. On top of that it also pretty poorly done in a lot of occasions, specifically in dark scenes. I also remember specifically a scene where Guts was 'walking', and it was clearly just his model being dragged from left to right. Movements and facial animations look very stiff but I have seen worse. Griffith looks surprisingly good in contrast to literally everything else.
The sound design, like the animation, is very subpar and rough around the edges. A lot of things just sound off, like Guts' sword, though it's not a huge dealbreaker to me. The soundtrack is actually pretty good, especially some of the of the tracks that play during fight scenes, although it can be hard to hear due to the poor volume mixing.
Part 3) Fight scenes
This might be a minor thing, but it is very glaring. Most of the fight scenes are very bad, and for more reasons than just crappy animation. Most fight scenes suffer from one of the worst anime tropes: constant interruptions. It is really bad here; sometimes you will have five seconds of fighting, and then a minute of side-characters just talking about the fight like 'wooohhh look at guts swinging his big sword'. A lot of characters are literally just describing what is happening. Like yeah I just saw that happen, I'm not blind, you don't have to spend an entire minute telling me that Guts is getting hurt by the berserker armor. I can not find a single positive thing to say about the fight scenes.
Part 4) Characters
The characters exacerbate the previous issues enormously. Most of them are either uninteresting or incredibly annoying, which is a very big issue since they take up a lot of the screen-time.
By far the worst character in this anime, and potentially all of anime, is Isidro. This is the kid character that lingers around guts for no good reason. This kid barely has any personality besides being incredibly annoying. It is infuriating how often this kid makes a stupid, unnecessary comment in the middle of a serious or emotional scene, which just ruins the entire thing ("You know what this dark, mature show about vengeance needs? A comedic relief kid sidekick who erases all tension and is not funny at all!"). This character ruined this show like Griffith ruined Casca. This kid alone feels like he takes up more screen-time than Guts himself, despite having no character motivation or goal whatsoever. He also falls into possibly the worst anime trope of all: being a pervert for the sake of 'comedy' (seriously though, who actually finds these things funny? It's incredibly cringy, how did we go from Berserk 1997 to this?). There are two scenes in particular, around the middle of the season, where this reaches peak cringe. In the first one, the kid squeezes a girl's chest and comments on how small it is (why? Why would anyone think it is a good idea to write this?). In the second one, it is just an incredibly generic peeping tom scene where he secretly watches women taking a bath. In the previous season I recall Puck saying that the kid is similar to Guts, but this is just completely wrong because the kid is a clown.
Farnese, Serpico, Schierke, and the skeleton knight are kind of interesting, but their characters are not fleshed out enough to really care about them.
Puck (the little fairy) is similar to Isidro, but much less annoying. He does not really seem to have a good reason to stay with Guts, and he doesn't offer much to the plot.
Griffith was kind of just there, doing Griffith things. His side-story is alright but should have been fleshed out more. He doesn't do anything significant character-wise, and is mostly off-screen doing things.
Casca is also just there. You would expect some kind of development after two seasons of nothing, but nope. She just moves along with the party, occasionally doing something dumb so that the show can have some action.
Finally, the protagonist Guts is of course still the most interesting character. He struggles with his own sanity, which could provide a good character arc. Sadly, this show does not do nearly enough to make it as interesting as it could be (Imagine if Guts accidentally lost control of himself and killed Isidro, wouldn't that be incredible?).
Part 5) Conclusion
This show takes everything that made the 1997 anime special and throws it into the garbage. It has become an incredibly generic fantasy anime with bad animation, a boring plot, and annoying anime tropes. It seems to be unable to decide on an audience, mixing a more adult setting and themes with very immature humour and almost no real tension. The plot is boring and feels directionless, with no real stakes, which is only made worse by the characters that aren't fleshed out enough to care whether they live or die. Even if you liked the 1997 anime, I would not recommend watching this disgrace.
otaku_nerd7
Kentaro Miura did a great job giving us such a series to read. If it wasn't for his many hiatus, Berserk would have been competing with One Piece in manga category. Now coming to the anime, again going for the 3DCGI. The animation totally sucked, it was looking like playing a 3rd rate 3D video game. The only thing that helped berserk cross the line of being a decent anime was its intense storyline and an amazing plot. Although, the anime left out a lot of scenes, but if they would have stuck to 2DCGI rather than doing the entire stuff it would have muchgreat!!! The fight scenes and the blood shed would have been more intensified if the frame overlaying would have been a lot smoother considering they would have done it in 2D style animation. Aside from that it was all Kentaro Miura's story telling and plot that dragged the anime forward keeping viewers glued to the series cosnidering many Berserk fans prefer reading it rather than watching after the Berserk (1997) series.
BTKB
I miss the old animation, like the Berserk (1993) version. I wish they continued this series! I can understand why they do not want to due to popularity and all, but it is still annoying leaving it at a cliffhanger or stopping at a certain arc. Of course, we can read the rest in the manga, but I am not a reading fan since that interest went away from doing reading comprehensions for school :D Anyway, I gave it a 9/10 for Art because of the CGI. Then again, it is better than nothing. The rest were great! I honestly like the story. After watching the oldversion, I still watched this, despite it being CGI animation. The story was interesting enough for me to continue the series. It may be bad for others, but it is great in my opinion. Personally, I want all the anime that were cancelled, stopped, left it at a cliffhanger, or stopped at a specific arc, to continue the anime series and finish it like the manga.
Such as Toriko, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Slam Dunk, Fist of the North Star, and this, which is Berserk!
harrash
This season directly follows season 1, but there were some things missing so I had to read manga to catch up. Also it was obvious this season will be hated, but to carry the story forward I think it served the purpose, if you're willing to complete the story you should watch it, personally I liked it, apart from animations its perfect. After catching up with anime, I switched to manga it was smooth transition you must read the manga the quality is unparalleled, just so much Guts has suffered, I had to see what was about to come and wasn't disappointed.
SteamingDullahan
I don't know how this got a rating this high, i mean 7.14 or sth. like that i just can't. you know guys this is a disgrace to you and the masterpiece of miura himself you should not be satisfied with this horseshite and don't be afraid to ask for sth. better we, the manga and miura deserve better than this shit this is just a shame. instead go read the manga or watch the anime from 1997 also not perfect but way better than this. well i need to mention im happy that susumu did the music at least he does a great joband did it also in the 1997 anime thats one of the few positive things i have to say about this steaming pile of disgraceful shit. yea i like to use disgraceful because this shit is just an disgrace, you know when u order some of your favorite food and you get shit served and they want to tell you this is the food you ordered or wanted after you said this is not what i wanted well you got the same here just because there is not much of animated berserk doesn't mean you have to accept it all as good or say: well at least sth. no thats not how it should be, it is an horrible adaptation and nothing else and thats what it has to be pointed out for
Sesshomaru
Berserk 2017, don't judge a book by its cover. I've tried that, but the product is also reminiscent of the popular saying: "Don't make the same mistake twice! In the case of story and characters, the applause for writing a beautiful manga with good story and character development rightly belongs to the mangaka and no one else. In other words, the proper use of a given story and its characters is a solid basic skill that is required for the preparation or completion of a respectable result. This basic knowledge cannot be regarded as a valid sign of professionalism, nor as a way of mitigating errorsin other disciplines, such as visual adaptation. In short, if a good story and its characters are considered to be the merit of the creative team, it seems to me that the intention is to create a cycle that reverses the previous relationship between cause and effect. Combined with an attitude of "anything is good as long as it entertains", this leads to an unacceptable philosophy best described as unreflective, illogical positivism.
It doesn't matter how much effort and polish went into improving Berserk 2017's visuals, using the same techniques as Berserk 2016 will result in the same visual disgrace, like a leopard can't change its spots. Instead of using the standard 2D, GEMBA opted for 3D modelling, which cuts to 2D in close-ups. But the 3D modelling looks sloppy. It often lacks well-developed expressions or emotions. The quality of synchronization between speech and mouth movement is poor. Last but not least, and to add insult to injury, the most persuasive, expressive and vital force in an anime character, the one that creates a tension in the viewer somewhere between interest and seductive sensitivity, is the expression of the eyes. But the performance attempts in Berserk 2017 are still far from sufficient to express the strength and beauty of this elementary component. For this reason, and because of the stiff, unnatural movements of the characters, the action scenes created leave the viewer untouched. The shadows are still created using linear hatching, which looks cheap and, at the same time, irritating, as it often seems as if the shadows are floating and even moving when the camera zooms in or out. The cinematography is often wrong, making the viewer feel uncomfortable with the disorienting camerawork. All in all, it looks artificial, totally unpleasant and sometimes even ugly, like the appearance (especially the face) of the pirate captain at the end of episode 12. A creative team needs to have a willingness to hear complaints and accept critique. Despite the fact that its predecessor was heavily criticised, all the shortcomings of the 2016 version are present in Berserk 2017. In this context, the saddest aspect is - we could laugh about it if it were not so serious - that there are signs of what it could have been, but they did not make any effort and ignored the feedback, so that it felt like wasting the breath with the words.
The sound is not much better either. On the contrary, the sound of the sword is still ridiculous and synthetic, no matter what it hits. The background music often seemed out of place and even distracting. I constantly had the feeling that the music reminded me of other famous themes. "Peering into Darkness, for example, reminds me of Maurice Ravel's Bolero. The OP "Sacrifice" - 9mm Parabellum Bullet, is not bad at all, but it sounds more like an opening for a shounen, rather than a dark and gloomy medieval fantasy show. The appropriate music for a show like this needs to be darker (IMO) to create the right atmosphere. For example, some good gothic rock or power metal music would have been appropriate. The ED "Issai wa Monogatari" by Nanjou, Yoshino (feat.) Yanagi, Nagi, maybe the lyrics are poetically interesting, but it starts with monotonous singing, then develops a bit of style, but soon returns to the typical, appropriate ending theme instead of inventing something new, and therefore is not very remarkable. In its predecessor, the voice acting was the one thing that at least showed some effort, but this time the feeling is not the same.
Well, there was a small chance of convincing me, but then I ran into the problem that they had made "the same mistake twice". This was a very disappointing development for me, and so I really hope that they won't continue to use manga as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of commercialism.
As bad as its predecessor, this approach has the added disadvantage of being the second failure.
It was simply no fun at all.
budweis3r
well despite what most people say i found this season to be really enjoyable the CGI from last season and this one was a bit to get used to, but i kind of find myself liking it more and more every time i see. the pacing was better than the 2016 season and the new comrades are always nice to the show. my only major complaint about the show is that 12 episodes is just too damn short wish they would dish out the big bucks for a longer format season to add more content/story to the show. next season i just hope guts is not stuckon the boat for 12 episodes.... i think i might die if i have to go through that again.
dragon97king
If you hated the last season of berserk and was hoping they would improve on there mistakes you will be disappointed like the first overall just stay way from this one theirs just not much to write about this that hasn't been said about the first season. The animation is still piss poor like the first season no improvements there not much to talk about on that. Story is done better in this season but the animation holds it back and really theirs no point to really watch since we have a manga that has better art to help the story its the same for characters. themusic is the best part of season 1 and 2 really holds up same with voice acting these are the best parts about the show but that not saying much.
RuleZaWarudo
I rarely buy manga but berserk was the exception for me, I had everything I could ask for in a fictional series and more. When It comes to the newer berserk adaptations people go straight to the bad CGI for why It's terrible, but I'll try to focus on more than that. Story: 8 This anime covers the Millennium falcon/hawk arc of the manga and does a pretty good job of staying true the story and not being a mess in the beginning like the 2016 anime. Art: 1 Baring a few scenes with hand drawn animation the rest is very poor CGI same as last season. Sound:6 The score by Sagisu Shiro while not as fitting as Hirasawa's music for the 97 series is still epic. Theres a few overused tracks but thats it. Guts voice actor sounded very stiff in 2016 but improved a bit in this series. The rest of the cast was solid.
Character: 9 In this arc guts forms his traveling party all made of characters that get a great amount of development in this arc.
Enjoyment: 6 Once I got past the jarring art and realized it's still berserk's characters and story underneath I got a good amount of enjoyment.
Overall: 6 Whether you like this series or not will depend on how much you love berserk and whether or not you can look past the art. I don't recommend either this series or it's prequel to someone who hasn't read the manga.
Raven57
This is my first review.. ok sooo.. It's a great story, with great characters, but had a lot of troubles with their adaptation.. I'd admit that I have a preconcept of the show, and of course I did'nt live under a Rock, I know everything about the hate that this work had, principaly on the CGI animation, and will not say it was good, at all.. So I think is not as bad as peaple say.. The point here is, The producers, directors, animators had a really bad choice at the time to decide the artstyle, and of course, they don't have the money, to do thatCGI works properly.. I don't accept CGI on Anime, but some of shows that I'like a lote was made on CGI, this has'nt the best that I have seen but has'nt the worse either, I think they made it decent, must of the time, and have their good moments, and the bad moments, at this point I'll have to say, the episode 9 was awfull, there's no excuse, but then episode 10 was really good, but people chose the bad one to shot, but, for me is very unfair to say that all the show was disastrous only for one capther. In a second point, is very confusing why they decide some stupid thing like made the apostols and monsters talk, I mean, you can paint the main art of those characters and put the static image, you can have better results if you do that with a little camera movement than a horrible 3D model with horrible plastic textures, some of the forest escenes was a large purple planes with clonned 3D trees that looks worse than PS1 models, why? those are some of the stupids things that don't have sense for me..
Ok let's get over that, I can't tell you if it's a good adaptation because I haven't read Kentaro Miura's manga, what I can say based on the art that I do know about the author, is that it leaves a lot to be desired, on this last point , it made me realize how good the first adaptation of 1997 was, it's sad after seeing that, and with the emotion that lets want to see the continuation of that heartbreaking story, that many of the moments that should have been nostalgic or cruel, look like a bad parody because of bad art. However, the story written by Mr. Kentaro Miura is too good on its own for you to get carried away and immerse yourself and enjoy it, the Characters great too, principally our Black Knight, and the secundary ones that we can see how their goes evolving during their adventure.
fushiro
A crime to any review is to not start with what you're reviewing in the review. But a series as "lauded" as this one requires a short preamble. After watching the original 97 series, I was left in a flurry. I *really* wanted to watch more, but I had heard so much flame about the newer series. I really didn't want to approach it. I saw the gifs. You know the gifs. But alas, my thirst to see what happened next needed to be quenched, so I bit the bullet. I figured the first movie would be fine to watch, since if it was in factterrible, at least it was short. I was expecting the worst at this point.
But it really turned my head around. Sure, the CGI was a jarring at first, but after acclimating to it, I really fell into the story being told. Even if it was a retelling of the 97 series, it was nice to see that part of the story again. And by the time I finished the 3rd movie, we were treading new ground, and I was all the way in to wherever Guts was going next. Which lead to me watching the 2016 series, which picked up where the movies left off. I thought the CG in the movies took adjusting, but looking back they were actually done pretty well. I missed the movies' CG two minutes in. Moving to a different production company really does wonders, essentially starting from a clean slate, and not for the best. But the story was as strong as ever. So I trod on to the 2nd cour.
Story: 8
Continuing on the dark tale of Berserk, it pulls that off pretty well. Not much to say, if you're in this far in the ongoing story of Guts' epic, let it be known that the story continues at a fine pace.
Art: 3
The CGI in the reboot series has definitely left an impression on a lot of fans. It varies from passable to to Photoshop dragging across the screen. When the show isn't using CG, it looks decent for the most part. It's hard to capture what makes the manga look good at times, some characters and monsters are a combination of Eldritch horror and HR Giger's wet dreams. Unless you're working for a Studio Bones-level company, you're probably not gonna have the budget to pull that off. But there are times when they use stills to capture important moments, as if they had no idea how to animate something at all.
Sound: 7
The mood presented in the OST is consistent as ever at least. But the sound design is nothing too great, and some specific sounds just don't line up, and are very noticeable. Not everything Guts hits with his sword is made of metal or rock, it shouldn't sound like that. I watched the subtitled version of the show, so I can't speak for the dub. But I did try the dub of the previous cour and moved onto the subtitled version after one episode. It may or may not be the same quality in the 2nd cour.
Character: 9
I just want Guts to find what brings him peace. This is where Berserk succeeds for me.
Enjoyment: 8
Despite the show not looking the greatest pretty often, the show was still very easy to watch. Berserk is known for its great story, and having any more of it put out in anime form is appreciated here. Seeing where this crazy tale goes next will always keep me watching.
Overall: 7
I think the new series of Berserk gets trashed way more than it deserves. Yeah, the animation is laughably bad at times, and it's a shame. A show you want to take so seriously can fail to the point of laughter, constantly breaking immersion. I'm not trying to deny or downplay that. What I'm trying to get at is that if you can get over/accept that the animation is poor, what you have is a further continuation to a legendary epic. One of the most important manga to come out of the 90's, pushing the limit of what was being made then, and even to this day. So I hope you don't pass on this show just because the production company couldn't afford to make it look the best, you'd really be missing out.
Shadowarrow64
They have butchered Berserk more than Guts butchers just about everything. The only decent things I can say about this show, is that the music is not terrible, and they somehow managed to keep parts of the original show in it...are they done well? God no, but there are still traces of it there, slowly being consumed by a studio that clearly does not want to listen to the fans. The sound effects are pretty shit, though the voice acting is solid enough, though I can only say so much about that since I am not Japanese. So now I am going to talk about theanimation...at least I would if there was much there...Now I don't hate 3d animation, in fact I actually quite like the Berserk movies, and hell even Kado has some damn fine 3d animation, but this looks horrendous. Like don't get me wrong, it looked bad in 2016, but it somehow manages to look even worse this season. Characters have little to no emotion, and there are points in time where nothing is moving... Now nothing moving wouldn't be a huge problem if the still shots were at least pleasant to look at, but you could honestly get more mileage out of stick figures. Please for the love of god don't watch this show. Don't give this studio any attention, just let the show go die in a hole so that hopefully we can get something better by a studio that cares down the line. Sure it ain't likely to happen, but I would rather have nothing if this is the something.
HuiItsLui
This review is tainted by the subjective feelings of a Berserk fan. I tried my best to suppress them but I can't ignore those entirely, I'm sorry. If you want a totally unbiased opinion, please do not read further. There are people who enjoyed Berserk (2017), and they have the right to do so. But I simply couldn't. Fans know the suffering. We live with it every day, knowing it will never come to fruition: The perfect Berserk Anime. Even though, we keep on hoping that someday, someone will take on the task of transforming Kentaro Miura's outstanding work, into a visual experience comparable to his exceptional art skills, itwill probably never happen.
The expectations are way too high, so we will keep on complaining that nothing is good enough.
Keep that in mind while reading further.
"But maybe....", your were thinking, when they announced Berserk (2017), a sequel to the atrocious prequel and adaptation that was Berserk(2016).
"Just maybe, this time it's going to be fine. Yeah sure, the animations were bad, a CGI-Monstrosity even. The sounds were supposedly recorded on a busy day, in a tiny Japanese restaurant: *clang* *clang* *clang*, weapon sounds similar to a distorted pan hitting the floor.
Awful and absurd scene positioning and camera shots, draining a lot of scenes off their potential...
But maybe not this time! They surely used some feedback to improve the show, making it possible to watch an entire episode without screaming internally. It's going to be okay."
Whelp, prepare to cry. It happened again.
The issues of the first season are the same in the second.
I do not exaggerate when I say, that the best thing that came out of it for me, were the opening and the last two minutes of the season finale, which were on one hand, decently animated and on the other hand a painful reminder of what could have been.
The only reason I watched it to the end, was the same reason why a lot of people did the same thing: The source material.
And when you stick to a series just because of the source material, I don't think that the adaptation was a success. But that's just an opinion after all.
Maybe my expectations were to high or the mentioned insufficient objectivity blinded my openness completely...
I desperately wanted it to be good, but I couldn't.
If you enjoyed Berserk (2016) you will enjoy Berserk (2017).
If not, then you won't like the second season as well.
But don't despair, struggler.
Maybe next time it's going to be all right...
MxS7HGS
The CGI is crap, but the story remains captivating. I enjoyed the twists and turns, as well as the encounters. Watching Guts meet new comrades and battle monsters is what I had hoped for when I started watching this season. The characters are all fantastic, with none of them feeling out of place or dull. They all serve a purpose and contribute to the story's development. As for the crappy animation, it can be unpleasant to watch. However, it isn't as terrible as some people make it out to be. The camera angles could use some improvement, but the action scenes are decent and get thepoint across. Anyway, it wasn't as crappy as the one in Seven Deadly Sins.
The music is fitting and well-done, creating the appropriate mood for the scenes. Depending on what's happening on screen, it gets you hyped up or scared. Personally, I don't have many complaints about it.
To sum up, I highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed the original Berserk watch this series if they want more action-packed Guts cutting. Although the animation isn't the best, if you can get past it, you'll still be able to appreciate the story and characters. For me, the animation isn't a deal-breaker, but it's still not visually appealing. I hope that more seasons are forthcoming. Who knows, maybe they'll finally ditch the CGI in the next season!
