Berserk
Short Synopsis: After being betrayed by a dear friend, the black swordsman ventures out for revenge while surviving the demons chasing after him.
Let’s get this out of the way first, yes indeed. This show is ugly. It keeps switching between 2d stills and janky 3d animated models that look like a Playstation 2’s throwup. It never truly allowed me to adjust because the quality of the show was all over the place and thus I was left being nagged that after nearly twenty years without a continuation, Berserk is graced with this visual abomination. But to be fair it was expected considering the studio. Music felt equally off in some places as instead of medieval themed pieces we are graced with heavy guitar and what seems to be some electronic rock? The tune played when Guts swung his sword at the tree demon was especially jarring. Let’s move on to what matters, the story. This episode didn’t fair well in that category either as the pacing was fast and wonky. This wasn’t a faithful adaption as the studio wishes to skip some story arcs to jump right into the conviction arc, so it’s hastily trying to gather the pieces together instead of letting it flow naturally. I am a good bit disappointed as one of my favorite arcs, Lost children is going to be skipped but we are short in time when it comes to this. But there are parts of this that held some potential, Guts dream sequence was done very well and I rather liked the end with Guts making a declaration and silencing the demons whispering to him. The original Berserk anime in 1997 also had a shaky first episode and I am hoping that once this settles into the arc proper, it will begin to shine.
Potential: 40%
Mario’s thoughts:
The long awaited Berserk has finally arrived with new material. I am a bit worry about the amount of CGI when I first heard about it but now after watching it I’d say the CGI is pretty serviceable. In term of actual story, this is more like a self-contained story to show us more about Guts and his curses, about the way he unfortunately has to walk on, paved with skulls and dead bodies of the weak and innocents. I’ll say we will get into the actual arc when the next episode kicks in. The biggest drawback for me in this episode is the overall tone, which they mix between gritty, harsh, dark material with the light-heart comedy, and frankly it feels very awkward. All the out-of- place comedy involves Puck so I’m a bit worry since he will be prominent from now on. The fighting sequence, like I mentioned earlier, still holds much tension and at least the CGI don’t distract the atmosphere. That aside I think we pretty have a solid new episode of Berserk and I’m hungry for more.
Potential: 70%
Relife
Short Synopsis: A 27 year old man is given a chance to relive his high school life.
Well despite this being only an impression of the first episode, I am surprised to say that you can view the entirely of the Relife anime right now. All 13 episodes are available now to view on crunchyroll, making this the very first anime to begin and finish airing on the same day. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is up in the air for me as it’s great to have the full series at hand now but in that case how am I supposed to blog it? If this becomes the norm for anime I may be out of the job. Anyway what we have here is a pretty much perfect adaption of the Relife comic. It’s looks great and has captured the comedy of the series perfectly. As a man in my twenties I can certainly relate to Kaizaki’s troubles with finding work as it really wasn’t that long ago where I was a NEET myself. Can’t say I ever lied about having a job to friends though but man, that was rough. My own personal feelings may be heightening my enjoyment of the show as I can sympathise with the main character so much. However I truly feel like this is quite a good school life show and from ratings of the series as a whole, it looks to stay that way. An enjoyable little show and I give it a higher rating because you can binge right through it all now.
Potential: 90%
Mario’s thoughts:
Although the concept about a failed adult has a chance to return to his high school life has been done to death at this point, most glaringly we just had ERASED few seasons back, there’s still meat behind this show so I’m eager to see more from this. The first thing that this series done right is to make Arata the main protagonist as relatable as possible, and his failure from his current life is something that most of us has been through. 28-year-old without a proper job, still relies on parent’s allowance and see all his friends has been settled down is not a pretty picture. The second thing the show is really good at, despise just this first episode, is the power of the cast. Just in about 10 minutes I feel like I’ve learnt about most of the cast, all their traits and the chemistry so far is rock solid. With that said, the gags about Arata being under-prepared, his sometimes silly reactions don’t do well to me, and judging from the first episode here I can see that comedy is not this show’s strong suits.
Potential: 75%
Rewrite
Short Synopsis: Something something, murderous little girl with ribbons, something something, high school, something something, fairies and giant squid monster.
If it’s something I say this adaption isn’t botched like I was expecting though the animation could certainly be better. But I suspect that any viewer watching this is bound to be very confused. I will say I am not fond of the choice to just use the soundtrack of the visual novel for the anime, even if I do admit that Maeda is a fine composer if nothing else. The visual novel tracks were meant more for a reading experience and hearing them in the anime felt too intrusive and sudden. There is nothing wrong with the tracks themselves but it’s clear they are being shoehorned into the anime scenes.While the show isn’t making any effort to explain itself I admit that the supernatural elements lend a certain mystique to the anime and act as a good hook. As a forty minute first episode, it did it’s job. However I give this a low rating namely because I know what’s to come and the end of the episode is perfect indicator of that. First we go into the old typical Key comedy and school life first half and then things are gonna get weird. Sorry I mean weirder. Still annoys me how Key heroines tend to act more like kindergarteners than high school girls and the hints of mystery bug me because I know the answers and those answers are pretty dumb. You may get some enjoyment out of this if you happen to be a Key fan but I recommend that you keep your expectations low.
Potential: 30%
Mario’s thoughts:
We have a double-length first episode and they use these 50 minutes just to set everything up. I guess this is an essential part of time-loop series, just like Re:Zero last season where the first few episodes just to set things up, get us to know all the main characters and then wait for the plot kicks in. In that respect, there are still ways too many characters get introduced in this first episode, while the main hook still hasn’t presented. There are some underlying bits that will be relevance in future episodes: like the very nature of our main character, Kotarou; or the setting place itself, it seems like there is something going on behind those factories; and I especially like the first opening of displaying the ruined city and it’s interested to see how that part connected to the main storyline. On other notes, the character designs of making every one “cute” annoys the hell out of me, and I can’t even get behind these uniforms: it’s more like a maid uniform for all I care. In all, I’m not quite convinced with this first episode but I’ll give it a 3-episode test to see if it can still hold up.
Potential: 40%
