First of all, a very peculiar style. As a rule, there are very few moving objects on the screen - and not only the backs are static, but also, sorry for tautology, extras, and even heroes in the foreground. The scheme is this: one moves, everyone freezes. And it is strictly observed exactly where it seems to me the least appropriate – in combat scenes. It turns out that in terms of an action movie, the series is no more spectacular than manga – the pictures do not come to life. That is, what we see on the screen is nothing more than at times colored and slightly animated manga. The cartoonists were afraid that the spectacular action will spoil the style of the original source? Anyway, this approach to animation seems to me, to put it mildly, too original.
But, if you thought that you are waiting for a literal and literal adaptation – do not hope. Censorship scissors pretty much passed along the "Berserk" - the bed scenes bordering on Hentai turned into a light erotic (also, for the most part, static - "and now slides!") Cut and dismembered in battle. Honestly, it's not that I need guts on the screen, but the ketchup fountains whipping from whole enemy carcasses look strange. That's the bloodiness. However, all these changes may please someone - "Berserke" is loved not only for hentai scenes and bloodshed, but also for a serious dramatic plot and epic scope.
Stop. Spread. Here we come to another drawback of the anime series Berserk. It is probably common knowledge that only the beginning of the manga covers the film adaptation - until the end of the Golden Age arch. So, in fact, the creators of the anime did not even complete the arch properly. The narration ends in mid-word, and after the credits we only know that Guts survived. Thanks, but we already know this from the first series. How did he survive, did anyone else survive, where did Rickert go? Read the manga. And best of all, first, otherwise cognitive dissonance is assured. For such colorful characters as Pak, Knight Skull, Erica are thrown out of the anime... But added a bunch of “left” battles, which leaves the feeling that the castle Daldray was taken twice.
I don’t know if they were going to shoot a sequel. The ending requires clarification, on the other hand – the reduced number of characters seems to hint that the storyline of the “present time” of the anime creators did not care. Either way, there should have been a sequel, or it didn’t. Many years later, the anime was restarted in a full-length format - a cycle of three films ... and again "Golden Age".
Result: a good adaptation of a great manga. There is a cool Guts, an arrogant Griffith, a warrior Casca, a mysterious and frightening Zodd, battles, political intrigue, love and friendship, enmity and betrayal. The basic philosophy and main manga conflicts are brought to the screen without loss. The exclusive plus of the anime is a great soundtrack, including the opening and closing songs of each series. But a peculiar stylist can scare off the uninitiated, and plot inconsistencies and simplifications – on the contrary, fans of manga. And the crumpled ending of the final series finally convinced me that the series “Berserk” is far from perfect. 7 out of 10
Original