Berserk(2016) – 02

Well this isn’t going to be an easy watch for me. Back in the days I was just getting into anime and manga I happened upon a series called Berserk. I watched it, really liked it and then went to read the manga. Eventually I read it up to date but over time I lost interest in it due to the ever slow release of chapters and just the story being stuck in a dull arc with no end in sight. I truly pity the fans of the series as their suffering must be immense. To such a degree that just the act of Gut’s making it off a boat after seven years is a cause of massive celebration. To make matters worst it has not fared well in regards to animated adaptions. The first adaption is the best and manages to be a good watch. However the animation is bare bones and it left off on the cliffhanger of the century. Several years without a sequel until a new series of movies came out which covered the events of the anime series. The movies had better looking 2d animation but suffered from poor CGI during battle scenes. Regardless this gave fans hope that this could lead to the possibility of the rest of the manga getting adapted but sadly this wasn’t the case as the series was left to the side again. Now here we are with a brand new adaption covering material never adapted before and we shall finally see the rest of berserk in its true glory….right? We it’s times like this that I wonder if Miura named his manga series rather appropriately, for the fans are most certainly berserk and for good reason.

The episode reviews are likely going to beat this point to the ground but when it’s as glaring an issue as it is I must bring it up. The CGI animation is truly awful, there’s no getting around that. It’s ugly, jarring and unnatural. However the main issue with this animation choice is the lack of consistency for that is what is causing the vast majority of problems. I have watched fully CGI shows before and I can tolerant even bad CGI or awkward CGI. Bubuki Buranki I think did an excellent job with it’s CGI animation and Knights of Sidonia still had a compelling narrative that allowed you to look past stiff motions or off putting shots. But those two series had a consistently in it’s style whereas Berserk does not. Berserk switches between 3D animation, 3D animation with sketch overlays and 2D animation and in doing so it never allows the viewer to become accustomed to a style. It’s especially jarring because of the difference in quality between each style. When you finally start to accept the uncanny CGI models, the story switches to 2D animation and gives you a glimpse to the quality this series could have had. Even if this meant we would get more still frames and less animation, this is the Berserk the fans would be happy with. But then it jerks you back to the CGI which when it switches to a sketch style becomes somewhat passable but keeps jerking between passable and bad, never letting the viewer settle into a style. Berserks high quality art style is one of it’s highest points of praise for the manga and I like it the most for just how expressive it makes the characters. There may be some who say that we should give them a break and that the CGI is the best the studio can do but I say nay. For there is a Berserk Musou game coming out and the animation in that games trailer tops everything this series has displayed.

What makes this especially sad is that there are moments, moments when the quality of the story shines through. I look at this anime as a diamond covered in mud and at some times the mud slides off and the shine of the diamond flows through but a minute later they throw muck over it again. The scene with Guts getting integrated by the knight commander, him in the cage getting worried over the demons beginning to come after him, Guts running to attack the female commander, the moments of the manga adapted true then manage to help you forget about the quality of the shows visuals. However it isn’t only the visuals at fault for there are other problems. In particular the conversation between Guts and the vice commander had far too fast pacing, to a degree that it felt on fast forward. Puck tends to break immersion when her turns into his chibi form and overall his character isn’t very likable in his current form. Small details are getting lost such as the Female Knight commander actually enjoying whipping Guts which is a pretty big part of her character and this arcs theme overall. Which mainly has to do with religious fanaticism and how people use it to justify their own base desires. I am also not fond of the hint of tidings of more anime original content which regardless of whether it’s written by Miura or not isn’t what this series needs. For now I see Berserk as a tough watch in that it takes a lot of tolerance to look past it’s numerous flaws and see the good in it. The studio needs to step up and keep a consistent style, otherwise this will be as disappointing as when Miura inevitably once again puts the Manga on hiatus.

~AidanAK47~