Under the Knife – Berserk

By OD

( Does man control his own destiny? Or does God? )

Quiet possibly. The best anime ever. Berserk was an amazing anime that delivered both action and drama with a stunning effect of making audiences cry in awe and woe. If you haven’t seen this anime yet, you are missing out!

The Berserk anime is based off the Japanese manga created by Kentaro Miura in 1989, and is still ongoing with over 300 books. The anime wasn’t made until 1997 and was shipped off to  televisions across the world. The anime follows up the first 100 issue’s of the Manga, and is more like a large prolouge rather than a story. And while the Manga is based soley on Paranormal beings, Berserk is more based on the nature of humanity and war. But there are still paranormal assets in the anime that follow up to the manga and plays a large role. Berserk is very well known for it’s intense gore and action, and it’s very unique way of showing drama, but the drama doesn’t give you that sick “oh we know what they are gonna say or do already” stomach feeling like what you would see in watching a Soap Opera. The anime is heavily famed by anime fans and casual watchers of anime and fan art, cos-players, and franchise’s can prove just how much people love this anime. And it’s not a fad anime at all like, Naruto or Inuyasha even though they suck. Berserk is basically like “The Godfather” to movie lovers, as Berserk is to Anime lovers.

Story

Berserk’s story takes place during the Dark Age of mankind. But in the anime they like to call it the “Golden Age” mostly because it happens a little bit after the Dark Age starts dying out. Berserk follows the journey of a very skilled swordsman who’s name is “Guts”. Guts is a 15 year old boy who has no family or friends to turn to, and becomes a wondering Mercenary who takes jobs to keep himself fed. While he has no idea why he fights and even though he loves the feeling of fighting, Guts still questions himself. Guts comes across a band of other Mercenary’s who are just teenagers, and are known as the “Band of the Hawk”. The Band of the Hawk is led by a 16 year old boy the name of Grifith,  during a challenge between him and Guts, Griffith beats Guts and Guts becomes one of Grifith’s soldiers. Through out the anime, the story follows the life of the Band of the Hawk and Guts. But the real story is behind Guts and Grifith.

While the story sounds simple and you know that there are going to be upcoming problems within the anime. But the anime really knows how to throw in a twist in it’s story to keep viewers from ever seeing the same ol’ same old.  Not to mention, the anime has quiet possibly one of the most original story lines out there.

Music

Berserk’s music really knows how to set the mood for itself. The music is a set of harmony’s that keeps your mind set in the story and let’s you focus on just whats going on. Parts where Griffith tells his past, is what triggers this kind of music. And it fits the tone of Griffith as well, and as do many other characters who seem to have their own set of music to go with them. But what really makes the music stand out. Is the intro song to the anime.

Some of you might find the song to be a bit of a disturbance, but really it stands out from what Berserk really is. Even though the vocalist has some broken engrish, it still sounds awesome. The intro song really gets you amped for the anime and tells viewers “Hey I’m not all about this drama bull shit, I can kick ass too ya know. But when I need to get sentimental, I can do a damn good job at it.” Berserk’s music is really something to admire, hell I even downloaded the Original Sound Track!

Voice Acting

The voice acting in Berserk, is just great! What else could you expect from such a highly famed anime? And to be honest I prefer the Dub over the Japanese voice actors! Mostly because the Japanese voice actors tend to sound a bit off key from the character that they are playing. But the American VA’s fit just perfect into each character. And it’s just great to see how much emotion and character they add. And even though they tend to be serious at times, the VA’s of Berserk can also crack a few jokes around, just look at the bloopers. My favorite VA in Berserk would have to be Guts. I just love it when he goes all out with out any thought. What also made this anime great, was how their really was no voice actor that sounded like a total douche. Or God forbid an annoying voice. All the actors play their character well and you will surely enjoy them I’m sure.

Art/Directing

The art likes to take a page from the manga. Adding blur effects and surrounding characters with aura’s. But the anime still has it’s own art style. For instance, most anime’s in the 90′s made their characters stick out by adding a “Hue” stratifaction. Making the background really gloomy and bland. Also making the characters and objects stick out which many viewers could tell already what the character was going to do. Berserk blends the colors of both the characters and background making them combine into an all in one package. This makes the eniviroment and characters work equally well. Now while the theme of the art is great, it’s the gruesome action which sticks out. Now in most sword based anime’s most directors do the old “Decapatate this guy, cut that guy in 2, and stab him”. Berserk instead goes all out and really just leaves the audience in awe. Or makes the audience throw out the word “DAMN!” or “HOLY SHIT!” out constantly.  I mean in one scene, Guts cuts his own arm off with  a broken sword! Not a sharp, quick, and easy sword! He stabs the shit out of his arm to get loose with this broken sword! Either way, the action is never the same old same with Berserk, and it’s just great. And while the gore in the anime is pretty grueling, the manga is ten times more gorey. Trust me, it is.

When’s the last time you’ve seen a sword that fucking big? Oh Cloud Strife?  Gut’s Dragon Slayer makes Cloud’s sword look like a butter knife! Gut’s is the original bad ass mother fucker with a giant ass sword! And no one can deny that! Which brings me to another part, the directing in this anime really makes you love the characters! While each character has his or her own story to tell, Berserk covers just enough of each character to get the breif idea of what happend to him or her. And this stops flash backs from ever coming back to haunt viewers. Now I’m not sure if anyone else agree’s with me, but the anime feels like just a big movie. And its not a bad thing at all! And you can even follow Berserk’s story line without jumping too far into the series. But ofcourse the last 3 episodes are a bit skeptical, mostly because everything in Berserk comes into place and the manga takes over. But Berserk likes to stay on point. Which means no fillers or unannounced interuptions that do nothing but stall the anime. Berserk’s directing is very smooth and stays on point, and I like that.

Overall

Berserk is an amazing anime, it’s got a solid story line that never gets dull, and enough action and drama to give viewers a real emotional vibe. If you wanna get big on anime, you should really watch this first. And if you’re the casual watcher, Berserk is the best choice to watch for an anime that you can keep up with and understand through out every episode. Beserk is just a perfect anime that please’s all of it’s audiences, and the only people that I can see who wouldn’t like this anime are the ones who have a very low attention span. Or are too busy looking at the new age anime shit that makes me sick to my stomach.

Score

10 out of 10

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