Berserk: Conviction http://i.ur.com/bW7JrwZ.jpg BERSERK 2016 IS AN ADAPTATION OF A LATER ARC OF THE MANGA. WATCHING EITHER THE 1997 SERIES THE 2012 MOVIES OR JUST READING THE MANGA IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED BEFORE JUMPING INTO BERSERK 2016 IF YOU DECIDE TO AT ALL. ADDITIONALLY THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN VARYING SPOILERS FOR THE EVENTS THAT LEAD UP TO BERSERK 2016. actually what am I even saying Berserk 2016s opening itself spoils the entire Golden Age right out of the gate Introduction IIIts better than nothing...? 440http://i.ur.com/Hrd7ZQX.jpg Forewarning: This is going to be long. This will probably be more of a dissection of all of Berserk 2016s flaws what I consider to be flaws anyways than a typical review. So before we get the ceremonial beating of the dead horse underway assuming youve seen any other reviews or conversations about this anime lets have a little bit of background on the Berserk series itself. Berserkhttp://anilist.co/manga/30002/Berserk by Kentaro Miurahttp://anilist.co/staff/96868/KentaroMiura has received several adaptations before this new one. There was the 1997 animehttp://anilist.co/anime/33/Berserk which was done by the Oriental Light and Magic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLMInc. studio who that year had also begun the original Pokmon anime. Berserk 1997 was entirely 2D of course several but not all of the action scenes went the still image route and left out a couple of story elements and focused mostly on the mangas Golden Age arc while still including a sliver to hint of things that would come after that arc. No second season directly followed Berserk 1997. Though there were two video games made in 1999https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SwordoftheBerserk:Guts27Rage and then in 2004https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserk:MillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkinoShC58D. Then there were the 2012http://anilist.co/anime/10218/BerserkOugonJidaihenIHaounoTamago movieshttp://anilist.co/anime/12113/BerserkOugonJidaihenIIDoldreyKouryaku donehttp://anilist.co/anime/12115/BerserkOugonJidaihenIIIKourin by Studio 4Chttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio4C2B0C. The movies unlike the 1997 series were a mixture of 2D and CG. Prior to Berserk 2016 the movies actually regularly received a lot of flak as some of the CG scenes just looked... off or subpar to say the least. In addition while the movies which focused entirely on the Golden Age arc included a couple of things the original 1997 anime excluded but ended up excluding an entire subplot and other scenes that the 1997 anime DID cover. Finally we arrive to Berserk 2016 by the studio Millepenseehttp://anilist.co/studio/6073/Millepensee who has done several Teekyuu tennis gag series seasons and two spinoffs. Theyre the ones doing Berserk 2016 and Berserk 2017. Whatever its fine I actually like Teekyuu. Point is nineteen years later we receive a new Berserk anime with Guts the protagonist of Berserk but finally in his Black Swordsman years the period that chronologically follows the events of the Golden Age. They included a confirmation of Berserk 2017 with the final episode of this. So... is Berserk 2016 good then? Or is it at the very least watchable? Lets just dive in shall we? 440http://i.ur.com/twyyBSE.jpg The Black Swordsman Or Not? The manga is better1 Our protagonist is Guts a man missing an arm an iron prosthetic which also serves as a cannon replacing it and an eye with an enormous slab of iron resembling a sword on his back. With a bloodied and dark past he wanders the land slaughtering inhuman monsters referred to most commonly as Apostles. On a dark night he steps into a dingy tavern in which some bandits are tormenting a little tied up elf named annoying bug Puck. He brutally kills all of them in the matter of seconds indirectly saving Puck. 440http://i.ur.com/vntGEek.jpg That is both the start of the manga as well as Berserk 2016 actually rewatching it Guts doesnt kill any of them in the tavern unlike in the manga and the 1997 series version. However once the tavern scene ends in Berserk 2016 things sort of go off the rails for a little bit. I dont wish to continuously compare this to the manga but at least this much has to be addressed as its one of the largest issues I have with this anime as a whole. As this was the first Berserk anime actually about what happened after the Golden Age there were certain expectations. A new Berserk anime featuring Guts the Black Swordsman out for revenge slaying the Apostles who are servants of the beings that wronged him the God Hand. One of the promo art images even was from a scene from the particularly dark subarc of Conviction the arc Berserk 2016 completely focuses on called Lost Children. 440http://i.ur.com/HBDb8ev.png While it turned out that Lost Children wasnt included they did include a tree monster from it thrown clumsily into the first episode of Berserk 2016 because Guts needed something other than humans and skeletons to fight. The Black Swordsman arc the very first part of the Berserk manga before even the Golden Age was slimmed down to the tavern scene and the chariot scene. The three fleshed out full Apostles that Guts had near death battles that were more like struggles and an outright face to face encounter with the God Hand the antagonists of the series who outright ruined Guts life from these two arcs was replaced with a later filler episode where Guts fights a CG Pig Apostle to be fair Miura himself wrote that episode and the Pig Apostle is actually elsewhere from the manga instead. Theres supposed to be a two year gap Guts spent these two years basically doing nothing but fighting monsters every day between the end of the Golden Age arc and where Berserk 2016 starts. The Black Swordsman arc first establishes Guts as this Black Swordsman character this haunted brooding and violent individual whose entire day to day life is basically a struggle to just remain alive due to the spirits and Apostles that are haunting and chasing him as theyre literally out for every single drop of his blood. Then the Golden Age arc happens explaining Guts past and how he became this way and Lost Children serves as a sort of transition back to Guts the Black Swordsman.. Removing Lost Children and gutting most of the Black Swordsman arc is equivalent to outright removing like a key jenga piece. It just all crumbles and instead you basically have: Guts fights bandits Guts fights skeletons Guts fights tree monster and thats the first episode done. To be honest I honestly contemplated stopping with the first episode... but I didnt. The second episode just outright goes to right after Lost Children ends aka the main part of the Conviction arc. Thankfully they did... the rest of Conviction about as well as they could have as far as the story/writing goes in you know ten episodes excluding the first and the Pig Apostle episode which is mostly filler. 440http://i.ur.com/U56eFd4.jpg 2D vs CG Therell never be a 2D Berserk anime ever again let every snippet of 2D we give you be SALT IN THE WOUNDS Have to get this one out of the way as its the low hanging fruit of Berserk 2016s several flaws. The movies mixed 2D and CG. But it wasnt as if their CG was completely terrible Berserk 2016s is hooray or as if a majority of all three movies were entirely CG. The opening of Berserk 2016 is essentially a reversed reflection of the show itself. 90 of the opening is of course 2D but then theres the last couple of seconds where it switches to CG Guts swinging his sword the Dragonslayer around. Those couple of seconds of CG Guts swinging his sword? Thats the show. The 2D opening might look nice but if you pause it... a lot of it just looks... either silly or wrong. Also there are flashbacks sprinkled throughout the entire twelve episodes and its basically the same 2D animation as the opening. 440http://i.ur.com/l0UrVAY.png 440http://i.ur.com/dlAcAq8.png Also Im not even going to go any further into it than this but as can be seen in the image on the right Casca Berserks female lead character is white in both the opening as well as any 2D flashback scene that has her in it. Casca of course is not white in the manga/97 anime/2012 movies/games but thats not my issue with it. Not the main one anyways. Shes white in the 2D portions of the show they did actually fix her in the opening like around episode 10 or 11 I believe but then ISNT white in the CG portion of the show. If the constant switching back from 2D to CG wasnt jarring or irritating enough as it was... 440http://i.ur.com/YDZIKEp.png But it of course gets worse. As well as the 2D flashback scenes or the scenes when Guts pictures something in his head like the God Hand there are further sprinklings of 2D here and there. All action scenes are of course CG. Guts is CG 80 of the time even if hes just walking running or talking but when he makes an angry face or chops up a rabbit cooks it and eats it hes 2D. Some of the minor supporting characters or background characters theyre usually consistently 2D although some are still just CG as long as they dont appear a lot/arent in any action scenes. Mozgus one of the antagonists of the Conviction arc a couple of his more notable moments are in 2D. Oh did I mention sometimes 2D and CG characters are on the screen at the same time right next to each other? 440http://i.ur.com/Oqtjzha.jpg I want to be 2D. I want to be CG. I want to be 2D AND CG. 440http://i.ur.com/ZRJInBa.jpg Push the panic button the poorly done 2D and CG worlds are colliding Love the 2012 movies or hate them there was at least a sort of consistency about them. There definitely wasnt full 2D and CG characters sharing the screen together at the same time. In comparison Kingdomshttp://anilist.co/manga/46765/Kingdom animehttp://anilist.co/anime/12031/Kingdom started out ENTIRELY CG but very gradually I think over half the way through the first season or with the start of the second season there was a point where conversation scenes/nonaction scenes basically started to be consistently 2D. Im not sure if that would work quite as well for Berserk as its more on the action side I remember Kingdom having entire episodes dedicated to the politics and etc but I think itd still be better than... well what we got. 440http://i.ur.com/kERIY6M.png Well okay but what about the action sequences? Ill tell you about the action sequences. Guts punches people with his iron hand. Guts swings the Dragonslayer slowly and decimates his enemies. Guts shoots his crossbow on his iron hand. Also almost every single really gruesome scene in the action scenes are either toned down or just wrong in the CG. 440https://i.ur.com/psGayGr.png Additionally maybe this is just me on this one but I dont really care for how they made blood look either. Overall I think theres like two action scenes I still actually liked despite the CG that I can also still remember after watching but theyre the two major fights of the entire arc technically theyre both just different parts of the same fight. 440http://i.ur.com/mHGDioH.jpg Also it may seem like Im now just purposely looking for things to complain about but this is just how Berserk 2016 to me is I couldnt really stand how Casca looked in CG throughout the entire thing. I dont know why I got used to CG Guts but not CG Casca she just doesnt look right to me even now which is bad considering one of the major points of this entire arc is Guts going to try and save Casca. I will admit however I actually did like how the Dragonslayer looked. Though I think thats really the only positive thing I can think of as far as the CG goes. Missing Pieces/Who Was This Made For mfw making another section about comparisons to the manga 440http://i.ur.com/uq2wer6.jpg The overall reception to Berserk 2016 from fans of the manga this includes myself has been... lukewarm at best to say the very least. The most positive thing Ive seen is basically Its better than nothing or a bad anime is better than no anime and I do get that to an extent but. I dont think this was the Berserk season 2 they imagined getting after 19 years But you know theres another crowd to consider here. Those poor Berserk fans who perhaps just really dont like manga who really liked the 97 series/2012 movies. How does Berserk 2016 hold up for them? Well Id imagine not well. I dont see how theyd even know what was going on without at least a general knowledge of the parts they skipped Black Swordsman/Lost Children. Because its not as if those arcs never happened in Berserk 2016 world. They just didnt do them. 440http://i.ur.com/KCYk5Ic.jpg They gutted the section of Black Swordsman when Guts got that Behelit but in the Conviction chapters they were adapting Farnese makes a comment on it and also they had to include it because itll no doubt be a important plot device later on in the manga. Its never shown or brought up again through the rest of the show but Im sure strictly anime/movies only fans were confused as to why Guts had it considering they know what that other Behelit did... 440http://i.ur.com/uSRePkf.jpg I already talked a decent amount about how much they axed Guts character development and you know him turning into the Black Swordsman. From I think episode four and on its already at the point where Guts is realizing his mistakes and trying to turn back from the destructive path he had wholly chosen to walk down. Resulting in a talking dog made of darkness taking permanent residence within his head/mind. The Beast of Darkness actual introduction was of course in Lost Children. Skipped 440http://i.ur.com/ykQGpNf.jpg Godo the blacksmith character who created Guts giant sword the Dragonslayer is a tricky one. I know for sure he appeared and his parts were there in the 97 anime. But he didnt appear in the movies though his house and daughter and etc did. That being said Im including him in this anyways because Berserk 2016 actually had a chance and could have totally shown Godos explanation for why he even created the Dragonslayer which is seen as this insane and crazy impractical weapon by every other human in the entire series because no other human would be able to use it as Guts does but opted to only show Guts first Apostle kill with it and only very briefly. So yeah I guess Guts just got a really big sword for no reason other than big sword once the Golden Age ended 440http://i.ur.com/fFr6bYK.jpg Puck. Oh Puck. Black Swordsman Guts is supposed to be in this spiral of madness and violence and not want to be around anyone other than the Apostles he brutally kills. Yet in Berserk 2016 Guts relationship with this elf is essentially slimmed down to finding him slightly annoying and then just choosing not to care when he continues to follow him. In the manga Guts was openly hostile towards him and probably wouldnt have put up with his presence long enough for him to get used to it if it wasnt for the fact elf dust basically very quickly restores wounds another detail mostly brushed over in Berserk 2016. 440http://i.ur.com/YlctUIq.jpg Nosferatu Zodd. Obviously neither the 97 anime or the 2012 movies cut him as after all hes sort of an important character. However theres a certain scene in Conviction that Berserk 2016 could have included but didnt to explain why all of a sudden he just appears literally out of nowhere in episode 11. It would also have explained why his face is scarred/his Apostle form is missing a horn. Even in the manga the only time he speaks in this arc is that scene which they didnt include. Should note that the other Berserk adaptation of 2016 Berserk Musou Berserk game done with the gameplay o the Dynasty Warriors games actually included this scenehttps://www..com/watch?v=DJuK4OSw0 and it was actually good Maybe they did it on purpose? Oh cool now an action scene with a CG Zodd I guess...? 440http://i.ur.com/cai1DwH.jpg All of these so far could be argued to be minor or only things that would annoy fans of the manga. But this one... its a huge huge flaw. The misshaped creature you see above plays a huge role throughout Conviction/Berserk 2016 and Berserk as a whole. Despite being a key piece of Conviction one that is integral to the arc and repeatedly shows up throughout it and elsewhere in Berserk they never show or explain its origin. The 2012 movies while they covered a bit farther than the 97 anime did not make it to the part that explains this creature. If you already know at least a bit about the rest of Berserk you can probably easily infer what it is on your own. I was maybe willing to give them a pass on this one due to the nature of the scene in question but Berserk Musou which was only just recently released in Japan actually includes this sort of important scene as well. Not linking this one because its an outright major spoiler. If youre going to cut essentially two entire arcs you go from volume 1 with episode 1 to the end of volume 16 of the manga with episode 2 youre probably going to end up losing/confusing the fans who really liked either the 97 anime or the movies that just havent read the manga for whatever reason. The manga fans on the other hand are going to be annoyed that two arcs were cut so they could just rush and get to the Tower of Conviction stuff. Or be annoyed when they see Isidoro in the Black Swordsman tavern or the Lost Children tree monster without actually getting Lost Children. Or that theres a filler episode when theyre watching a Berserk anime period. Point is it all adds up after a while The Anime of a Thousand CLANGS and HAI YOs How many easy targets does this anime have??? Should I even bother this is probably the most memed thing about Berserk 2016? Sure why not. Ive come this far and if youre still reading so have you for some reason. The clangs were actually a problem in Berserk 2016 right from episode one. Not only is it the same exact clang over and over again but there are clangs for places where there shouldnt be. Cutting a possessed corpse of a little girl in half should not result in a clang noise. Especially when its supposed to be this dramatic dark moment. It comes off as almost comical I recall actually laughing when it happened and this was before the tree monster came out and I almost quit at episode one. The clangs never leave after that point and I believe when Guts is fighting spirits or ghosts ETHEREAL BEINGS even then it happens. I understand that they wanted to make the Dragonslayers impacts sound heavy but it basically sounds like Guts is instead swinging around a gigantic frying pan. It doesnt help that the one and only episode from Berserk 97 that does a portion of the Black Swordsman stuff has a Guts swinging a Dragonslayer that doesnt clang.https://www..com/watch?v=11hauEzyQC8 Actually most of the sound effects of Berserk 2016 are kind of... like even Guts arm crossbow is unnecessarily loud. Loud noises the sound of like iron scraping against something even when Guts just moves his fake/metal arm and CLANGS. Youre assaulting my hearing as well? Why? Moving on one of the best things about Berserk 1997 was the OST which was done entirely by Susumu Hirasawahttp://anilist.co/staff/100750/SusumuHirasawa. The soundtrack for Berserk 2016 was... bad is a bit too harsh but forgettable sounds about right. Of what I can recall: there was the opening Inferno of course which I was actually a fan of Blood and Guts but that was also in the movies so Ash Crow by Susumu Hirasawa at the very end of the final episode and also by Hirasawa... Hai Yo. If you watch Berserk 2016 all the way through youre going to be sick of hearing Hai Yo by the time youre done. Let me get this out of the way Hirasawas music is great. Hai Yo is pretty good its not my favorite Hirasawa song it isnt even my favorite Berserk Hirasawa song thats not the point. Let me preface this with this. If youve heard any track from Berserk 97s OST its probably Forces. I mean Hirasawas done three different versions of it for a reasons. It played for the next episode previews and partially for one battle in one episode of Berserk 97. Berserk 2016 uses Hai Yo over and over and over again. Yes its good but if you use it every other scene in which Guts swings the Dragonslayer... it loses its impact or even worse becomes annoying. Especially if the rest of the OST save a couple of other tracks is bland... Hai Yo is playing again. I guess Guts is doing his thing 440http://i.ur.com/coAHgvS.jpg Conclusion I didnt feel like making a completely separate section for this alone but they also really went crazy with the camera/camera angles. To an unneeded extent. My goal in writing all of this was to go over all of the things that I think made this not work for fans of the manga fans of the past adaptations or just in general. It may seem like this review is almost entirely negative it is but I should note I overall was still capable of enjoying at least parts of it. Which is why I have it set at like a 6 out of 10. What of the Conviction arc is still there is reasonably okay once you get used to the CG... but I still wouldnt recommend Berserk 2016s version being the first you experience. If you really just dont like reading manga but liked the past adaptations or want to watch them and include this just proceed and take it with a grain of salt. if youre a gaming person Berserk Musou will be coming to the US for PS4 Vita and Steam in February 2017 Anyways... in closing I hope Berserk 2017 ends up being better than this. Not terribly optimistic though. Regardless Im not looking forwards to the scores of memes that will compare Berserk 2017 and the 2004 PS2 game side by side since theyre both about the same arc. http://i.ur.com/Oeyo3Ko.jpg