Berserk Golden Age Arc Memorial Edition Review

When I was watching this show, one question just came popping in my mind and that was, "who was this show even for?"

Make no mistake about this, it's basically the Studio 4 Degrees Celsius Berserk Golden Age arc movie trilogy that came out a decade ago except now it's in made into an anime series rather than a movie trilogy.

This series has the same issues that those movies have and it makes me bring up the question yet again, "who was this even for?"

If you are a newcomer to the Berserk franchise, you are just going to be asking a bunch of questions and wish the context for the emotional scenes were there when they happened or at the very least the good majority of them and if you are a Berserk fan whether it'd be the manga or the 90s anime, you are just going to get irritated by the amount of scenes and context that got cut in this version of the story. I read some of the manga and watched the 90s anime and while I can say thanks to the 90s anime, the scenes that happened in this adaptation still resonated with me due to me remembering the 90s anime, but that's the thing, it's because I enjoyed the 90s anime so much that these moments I still really like. Like Griffth's speech to Charlotte about friendship, Guts' first battle with Zodd the Immortal, the scene where Guts talks about himself and philsophy with Casca at the Campfire and so on. I love these moments because of the 90s anime and I recall it so well but if my memory was hazey and just watched this anime as a refresher, this show would fall flat, the whole anime fells like one of those licensed game or movie tie in game where it expects you to watch the 90s anime and read the manga to get all of it's context and that is a flawed way to make any adaptation since the story does not stand on it's own.

To name some more examples. Remember when Guts assassinated that Nobleman and killed the kid? Show by extension movies removes context. Guts doesn't fight Samson and get his sword damaged and get saved by Zodd establishing that Guts isn't the strongest that even he at times needs help. 2nd episode spoils so much of the story. Remember why that leader of Doldrey wanted to keep Griffth alive even though Basgone wanted to kill him? Show by extension movie removes context. The Minister Foss sub plot is removed entirely. Pipin barely gets any scene or character and the down time is not as prevelant anymore. Timeskips especially early in the show are quite frequent which makes it harder to get attached to the characters since they change so much offscreen.

But to this show's credit, and this is where I start praising it. Episode 9 and onwards isn't that bad, the sex scene where Guts reveals his insecurities about Gambino and his abusive relationship to Casca is geniunely well done since it actually feels like it was kind of built up and it was very emotionally gut wrenching to see Guts a guy who the show portrays and as strong and dependable is breaking down and crying to the woman he has grown fond of. The only person Guts can actually be emotional around.

From here on out the show doesn't time jump nearly as much and you get more character interactions and it feels like you are actually following them through their journey and them falling apart emotionally due to what the Midland Kingdom did to Griffth. This isn't enough to completely save this adaptation but it does at the very least prevent it from me calling it outright bad. The music and the dub are also solid and I will miss Marc Diraison as Guts and this series reminds me why I always found his Guts performance to be endearing.

And to give this show and by extension the movies some more credit, it does have a much better ending than the 90s anime, which was way too anti climatic and ends way too soon. Best thing to do is watch the 90s anime and then jump to the last few minutes of this anime and the 3rd movie to get a better and more cohesive ending to the Golden Age arc in an animated format.

Overall, while I don't dislike this show completely, I still question who it is even for and why it was even made to begin with since it doesn't really improve the GAA movie trilogy by a whole lot. The 90s anime is still the better choice if you want to watch Berserk in an animated format rather than reading the manga.