I love the classic and I love the manga. I heard so much about how bad and disappointing this adaptation was but didn't start watching until recently. First, the source material is very deep and hard to mess up. Second, The storyline works as a good follow up to the old anime. Third and most importantly, The animation just sucks and you'll have to get over it to enjoy it. The main problem is they tried a form of animation that does not blend with anime. The flashback scenes are in the classic anime style and look amazing. Possibly better than the original. The computer generated stuff has its moments of glory. The problem is when they try to use this new animation while maintaining an anime feel. Spoiler! Experiment fail. This 3-D CGI effect does not work with classic anime. That's the whole issue. If you can get past the fact that the animation is going to suck most of the time, you might just enjoy this spectacular storyline.
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rrfpaf-998585 February 2021
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The long awaited continuation of one of the most acclaimed animes of all time is hard to watch due to atrociously bad CGI/animation, angles, and worse editing. Luckily the story remains somewhat true to the books so it was able to hold my attention but just barely as every time a character opened their mouth you lose focus on the story as immersion is completely broken.
Just how bad is the animation? Well, it reminds me a bit of 15-20 year old kids cartoons. We also had similar quality in cut scenes back in the N64/PS2 days. Now imagine if those cut scenes were the focus of the games and you will have a good idea of what this anime is like. Its almost like sabotage. If younger folks watch this without seeing the originals they will disregard the entire franchise from here on.
Anyway, like stated above, it still follows the books as best it can so by virtue of having a good manga, this one still gets a rating of 7 from me which makes it better than average overall. Thats how good the berserk story line is. In the future, they should definitely wait until they have enough money to get a quality animator. -
susmi-muntha13 February 2021Anime itself is not the worst it is not great but atleast okay to watch as a sequence. But seriously disappointed with the anime style the 1997 had the best anime style and it's better not to ruin the classics either should have continued as is or shouldn't have touched it.
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This in an awful, low-budget adaptation made by a team that I can only assume has no idea what it's doing. It all but makes a mockery of Miura's fantastic manga art. It also lacks the great soundtrack of the 1997 adaptation.
The animation is truly awful, with the human characters moving stiffly and awkwardly. The cinematography is atrocious. The camera is constantly, unnecessarily panning, the shot selection is puzzling, the rule of 180 is consistently ignored. Typical action scenes in Berserk feature the camera swooping through the scene and rapidly cutting and repositioning for no good reason while your eye struggles to follow the action. There are several shots in which it is literally impossible to discern what's taking place. In addition to this, the art is incredibly bland, featuring unfinished-looking CGI that looks like it belongs in a cutscene of a Final Fantasy game from the '90s.
I can only assume that such an adaptation was made by a team with a very low budget and very little experience in crafting a visual narrative. To top it off, the soundtrack is putridly stereotypical, featuring generic heavy metal that only goes further in proving this team was consistently shooting to make something that looks "cool" rather than putting any effort in telling a compelling story.
This is really only worth watching if you're a hardcore fan of the manga, otherwise it's not worth your time. Incredibly disappointing. Hopefully they find a different studio to continue this series rather than just completely canceling it, though after two seasons I'd honestly rather see it cancelled than continued in such a horrible fashion.
2 stars on the strength of the source material alone. If you're interested in Berserk, read the manga instead. This trash isn't worth the time it takes to watch. -
hadziber15 July 2016Not a fan of the art style and some of the animations. Some of the colors are far too saturated and colorful for a world that's supposed to be dark and gloomy. Serpico and the Knights look like they belong in Fairy Tail and not in the demon infested morbid world of Berserk.The lake of corpses in the opening scene of the first episode was just awful. It looked like there was some kind of oil spill there. Also, some animations appear robotic and need polish. The faces of the characters could use some work too.
Some things from the manga are omitted altogether. Just as an example, those of you who have read the manga will notice a difference in the way Guts behaves towards Puck. The show also moves a lot faster than the manga and some scenes are skipped. Now that I think about it, I never recall about reading some of the events from today's episode in the manga, but it's been a while.
All in all, it is very watchable and if you're a die hard Berserk fan, these things won't matter enough to keep you from watching, but you'll definitely notice them.
Lastly, I just watched episode three, and it was amazing. Three thumbs up! No goofy capes or coats. Puck doesn't like he was dipped in a glow stick, and Gut's doesn't move like the terminator. I only hope this show continues to improve and that the issues with the animations, colors, and character modeling is due to inexperience. Hopefully, with the production of each new episode, the team got a little better, noticed their mistakes, and fixed them. -
andreastornqvist11 October 2016I need to get this out there; This show IS good, but you need to get used to the animation. It is not as horrid as some people say, it's more of a hate/love thing in accepting the fact that it IS 3D with some frame rate issues. Quite frankly, once I decided to watch it no matter what, the 3D didn't really bother me too much. I was more interested in continuing Guts' adventures than nitpicking the animation apart.
Don't misunderstand me, I've no idea why they simply didn't do a good 2D animation on this and continued the 1997 story straight off the bat, and as such it is a flawed product. But definitely not flawed enough to deserve being called 'ruined'. That's childish.
This show continues the story of Berserk and is definitely for people who've seen the original 1997 animated series. It's dark, grim and surprisingly funny for such as dystopian tale. Guts slaughtering his way through mounds of enemies and facing all sorts of impossible challenges, all the while having to watch 'weaker' people die around him, is exactly what I wanted, and exactly what I got.
Looking forward to season 2! (Though seriously, whoever made this, considering improving your 3D drastically or switch over to 2D.) -
baller-1667725 July 2016Don't believe the bad review haters of this series right now. It just started. I just saw the first 4 episodes and I can say the kick off is good. I question the CGI in the first episode (because I've never seen heavy CGI anime before) but then notice the POV's during fight scenes. It has the potential to be better then season 1 and all the battle scenes back in 1997. Plus its the continuation of the series. So, to all the haters that are crying about the CGI be happy they are continuing it. Its definitely not an anime you would want young children to watch but great for adults. Give the anime some time and I think the CGI will get smoother as it grows. As for my review, its great!!!!
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Berserk (2016) is just incredibly heart breaking to be honest. When I watched this series I felt like I was at a crossroad between an absolutely godlike story with excellent characters and just absolutely god awful laughable animation. I've never read any of the manga, I've never watched the original anime series from the 90s, all I knew about berserk was that everyone who watches anime and reads manga have nothing but incredible things to say about it and I absolutely agree.
It's to my understanding that the 2016 version takes place around Ch. 140 give or take and there were moments where I felt like I was lost or didn't understand the back story of certain things that were happening but even then I still was able catch on pretty quickly and still found the story to be absolutely amazing.
This series should be absolutely godlike, but it isn't. It's massively disappointing. The animation is purely CG garbage! I cannot believe the animation studio GEMBA actually thought that this was okay? It's almost as if they were purposely trying to disrespect the author and the fan base with how bad of a job they did. I hope that GEMBA and the other animation studios who worked on this aren't making any more anime. I feel they should be banned from ever touching any new projects in the future. I'm not exaggerating at all, this is how bad it was. There were so many intense moments in the story that built up so much hype and the music would boost the hype even more and then the fighting would start and it just completely belly flops and takes you out of the moment and you just can't help but cringe at how bad it looks.
But even then, I still watched all of it and I can honestly say I still enjoyed it, purely because of the story. It's obvious, without even reading it, the original manga source was a masterpiece and it made watching this series bearable. The main character Guts is officially one of my all time favorites and the supporting cast is just top notch. The way they all connect with each other is just beautiful and hilarious as well.
If you can stomach bad animation for the sake of a good story I'd recommend it, otherwise don't bother. -
asdfasd-3924 June 2017I registered here only to write a review of this anime. I am doing so because the current reviews here are so ridiculous. 1 star? 3 stars? Are these people kidding me?
This anime is fantastic. The haters are mostly projecting their own biases because they are obsessed with the original anime and/or manga.
Get a grip and try to be a little objective. In the grand scheme of things, this anime is incredible. It has great character development, awesome action (and the fights are animated really well), it looks beautiful, and the story is - of course - very interesting. What's not to love?
I was so disappointed by the abrupt ending of the original berserk anime, and to be honest I actually enjoyed the first season of this as much as the original! And the second season even more! It's one of the best anime I have ever seen, so if you are in doubt of the accuracy of these negative reviews then please check it out for yourself. -
I loved the first series and it ended in a cliffhanger for me, im glad this series continues to tell the story after that without having to buy the manga's. Even if it's another short series and there is no season 3 the story only progresses in the manga's now. However me loving the story and not minding how different it is to the first anime with all the paranormal/magic stuff being all up in your face unlike in the first anime, the animation is just awful i hated the style, it's so stiff it's like stop motion, it would have been actually cool if it was a stop motion anime, i love traditionally animated stuff but i wouldn't have minded if it was just digital 2D animation instead of this 2D-3D hybrid looking trash. In Dragon Ball Super they improved the animation but i guess they made this whole series already before getting bashed by fans to able to improve it even though i think season 2 had some improvements. It would have rated this an 8 just removed 1 point because of it but the rest story and characters wise i liked it.
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I decided to watch Berserk 2016, and oh my God, what did I just watch? Let me start with the elephant in the room: the visuals.
The visuals are jarring at best and flat out disgusting at worst. The use of CG didn't pay off at all. People complained about Sailor Moon Crystal's use of CG, but even that was leagues better than any of the visuals I saw in Berserk. The animation was just as bad, as the characters didn't move smoothly and felt clunky overall. But to make it worse is the direction of the camera, it was disorienting, sloppy, and caused me to lose track of what the hell was even happening. Makes me question if the director knows anything about the basic rules of film making.
Now, I do understand why they went with CG, as they wanted to try and replicate all the little details, but even so, it was clear that the people beyond the animation had little to no experience with 3D modeling/animation. I have seen better cutscenes on the PS2 than this.
The story to me wasn't that bad, but nothing that special either.
Overall, the story is okay, but the visuals were trash. The first two season of Sailor Moon Crystal were also trash, but got significantly better at season three. Hopefully the same can happen with Berserk. -
As a fan watching this badly animated series was clearly injustice to the Berserk Manga series. It is a heavy slap in the face to the Berserk community on gaining huge following of diverse fans from different demographics. The fight scenes are bad with little to no movement at all. Characters at most scenes seem lifeless (move like little toy robots). But all in all if you're looking for more matured dark fantasy stuff based on Arcane Arts rather than loose childish stories or farfetched stories I guarantee that this is what you can count on. Every inch of the story draws you close to enjoy it more as our Blackswords man defies every odd with Fiery Will, Rage and Vigour.
I implore prospective fans to first read the Manga series or watch Berserk Arc movies before watching this "thing" so you don't judge this Magnificent Art wrongly. -
Nonomemes9 April 2022Although in a limited way if compared to the first series, the story is able to keep pathos and a good dose of unpredictability.
Still speaking about the pros, the story get a big boost from the "spirit world" episode onward, there are things here you will not be able to find in other anime, this alone worth the increase of score.
Schierke is a crack.
The sound design, music and effect are also very good, also the timing of them looks more one from a movie studio rather than an anime.
On the negative side:
1. The animation is bad, bad, bad.
2. Sometimes you have glitches in the story, you are in one scene and the next one the characters are already in a different places, it happen 3-4 times, this is very annoying. -
ckahloong-2867122 August 2020The animation is so 3d, its bad, if wanted, better watch the classic one than this
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memebigboy-9880316 May 2018Berserk is my favourite manga of all time, so to see it getting a anime this ugly is just an insult, the author of berserk spent years of blood and sweat to earn his success and producers saw how successful the manga was and decided to make an anime without heart or respect to the manga, by the way I don't hate the anime just because its 3D and i get as to why they use 3D but it looks so terrible its obvious that they didn't try, composition is terrible, sound effects are terrible, they even changed the dialogue so the main character sound edgy and even cut some important scenes, the anime is heartless and none card if the anime was good or not, when the producers read the manga they didn't see the love and care that want to the story and characters and art, they saw how much money they can make from the fans that love the manga.
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Ali-hamza-re12 July 2016The long awaited series has finally aired, well their is no problem with this anime its good gore and and the Savage Guts its an entertaining series. The only problem this series has is CGI but if you ignores it they won't make Berserk all colorful anime well its a dark fantasy anime full of blood and gore so CGI seem like suit its at some point but overall its an entertaining series. If you are into violence anime then this anime is for you. Yes the people give it low rating because of CGI and skip a lot of material from manga but if you have watch Berserk 1997 anime and three film of Berserk then they skip a lot of material from manga to I think its not that big deal. Its a must watch series and I can guarantee you that you won't be disappointed if you just ignore the CGI in this anime then you will love this series.
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Tutu6761315 April 2023I don't understand how this came after the golden age arc and this animation is worse. The golden age arc had pretty ok animation. Why didn't they just use the same type of animation too instead of this dud. I mean the animation isn't so icky that you can't watch it, it's just that after 2 episodes you start noticing it and it gets distracting. I mean it's not horrible cgi like some of the Saturdays morning cartoons for kids but still, all of us expected better execution of animating something as majestic as Berserk
Story was rushed through so if you're an anime only watcher you might've given up early on in the series. I watched two episodes and gave up but then I read the manga and felt compelled to watch and finish the series.
Also lots of stuff that are important to the manga were either removed completely or severely condensed. Background music is ok....but rarely marched the scene/action happening on the screen
We can only dream that one day Berserk anime is given a more respectful reboot. -
I was extremely worried going into this. I saw a slew of negative reviews on the first episode. I decided to ignore the reviews and watch anyway. I'm so glad that I did. I don't understand all of the nitpicking on this series. I love the rough animation style, almost like the manga came to life. It's picking up perfectly from where the Golden Age arc ended. They're pulling the story directly from the source. It's fantastic to finally see some memorable scenes from the manga brought to this medium. The censoring may throw some people off, as it's definitely made for television. If you can get past the fact that everyone has Barbie anatomy, and just be excited that we're finally getting the continuation of the story in anime form, it's awesome. I could be slightly biased since it's been years since I read the chapters that the current episodes are based on, but it seems faithful enough. We're gradually getting introduced to Guts' new party & there haven't been any glaring omissions or changes like there were in the first adaptation (i.e. Skull Knight!)
All in all, if you're a purist, I'm sure you'll find something to gripe about. If you think the first anime series is the pinnacle of all things Berserk, you'll gripe too. If you're a fan that has been following this saga for 15+ years, and has repeatedly dealt with the endless torment of a new hiatus on the manga for months or years at a time, I think you'll get some enjoyment out of this. It's just great that this series is getting something new added to it. -
sisubalan12 March 2023Significant change in animation quality and pacing. Although to be honest i much prefer the animation in the classic run (this has too many rough sketches and uninteresting color palette as compared to the classic, it would be great if at least use same quality animation as in the triology that was way smooth).
This is a soft reboot of the classic run continuing from the triology (so there are few changes in characters progression throughout the series, some new recurring characters, some killed too soon, some survived, etc). The opening and ending songs were uninterestingly okay - very shounen type.
In terms of the storyline, it was confusing AF. I cant follow the plot and reas the situation despite playing the episodes in loop to make it sense. So, i decided to reach out the manga readers and apparently the show runners skipped major stories and explanations for the reasons why these events happening. It gave me a major headache right after watching part 1. On to second part. -
uwe-ludwig4 August 2016I really want to inhale every new episode. Of course, some of the animations not perfect but on the moments that count it delivers. When the priest shows the torture room and gets angry, that's impressive. Its my favorite story part of berserk and i cant wait see the priest demon and maybe the golden dragon knight. After only 5 episodes its my number 1 even if dragon Ball went super. That means Dragon Ball Super is super now i also like it very much but the pure brutal power of guts ownes them. I hope they will not stop it and we will see sometimes the healing of Kaska. At the speed they telling the story i think we reach the actual Manga in about 50-100 episodes.
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loganembrey20 October 2020This series had so much potential to be great. I will start off by saying that the visuals in the FLASHBACKS using 2D manga style animations, look fantastic. I'd argue even better and more true to the manga than the 1997 version. EVERYTHING OUTSIDE of the flashbacks though, is a travesty. It being CGI is already a mockery of what Berserk is hailed for. A masterfully drawn manga hailed for its visuals. CGI disrespects everything artistically that made Berserk beloved. But even for CGI, this CGI work and animating is sloppy, ugly, disjointed, and lazy. An anime well regarded for its CGI in the anime community for being easily the best CGI anime in terms of quality would be Land of the Lustrous. It is considered a universal standard for how all CGI anime should look. It is fluid, clean, unique. The choreography for the fight scenes has amazing cinematography using techniques found in action movies. Land of the Lustrous boasts in every aspect what Berserk 2016 lacks in its animation, and that is the entire reason this adaptation tanked and gets clowned by not just the Berserk community, but reviewers / journalists alike.
Avoid this adaptation like the plague and just read the manga, or just wait for something of better quality to hopefully eventually come around. -
surfisfun19 January 20193 episodes in, I thought it is very graphic /intense. true, I was surprise at how some of the 3d is stiff(cheap budget) still, I like the story so far. I luv to see the original. lots of gore
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Only for those desperate to see more Berserk. What can be said about the animation that hasn't already been said? The 2D is fine, even great sometimes, but it's a shame we hardly see it in motion. The constant camera moving, which includes large amounts of quick panning and cuts to hide the bizzare CG animation, is headache inducing.
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rodneyarts8 June 2018This serie is nothing compared to the original one, as the original is way better.
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fernando4692 October 2016It was 2014 I first encountered with this great manga. I was pretty lucky to watch that and quite irritated with the ending note of Berserk.'cause it wasn't the best of ending for 1st season and quite disappointment for a devotee. I searched whether there were another season to this as it was created on 1997. but non was found. Accidentally i found Berserk 2nd season this year and eagerly watch the first episode to quench my thirst occurred way back. The show is great! same Guts and remind the episode entry without an error. I found difficult resist until see to the end. believe me you won't be despaired if you love the season one, passion is the same. Better animation compare to previous and satisfactory finish to lead for the next season. I'm not agree with people who rated low and showing negative reviews on this regard 'cause this is treat to watch. Shame that I didn't find the track they used to play in the middle of the episode when it came to a sentimental or touchy spot. But love to hear the theme song and end note, though I'm not Japanese. Waiting for the next season eagerly!!