Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Berserk
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Merida
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I'd guess she's hated because she's acting like the vast majority of people would if they actually lived in that world. Of course, everybody wants to believe they'd be more like Luca, but let's face it, there are way more Ninas than Lucas out there...which actually makes Nina a very human and relatable character IMO. |
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Mightybutt
 Posts: 6 |
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This new Berserk is really slow, kind of boring imo
 I want more action and blood, just like the old one 
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wolf10
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I know people love to blame this poor, broken anime for everything as if the manga can do no wrong, but they've been shot-for-panel with the manga for four episodes now. News flash: post-Eclipse Berserk is basically a different series from the Golden Age. I suggest you take complaints about the content itself up with Kentaro Miura. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2262 |
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Ep. 8
Probably the best looking episode so far (still a little clunky switching between modes). Too bad it didn't start looking this way 5 episodes ago.
I also feel sorry for her. She's a young girl who is a prostitute with a disease that may kill her while living in the midst of witch hunts and inquisitions. Throw in that people in the camps are starving and its a pretty horrible situation. I think most people would find it challenging to function rationally in that situation and look for some kind of escape or some way to preserve themselves which I suspect is what most of the heretics were doing. I do think that the torturer in the anime was too quick to choose her, if I recall from the manga (its been a long time) she had more time to deliberate and it seemed like she wasn't going to be picked. The longer pause in the manga created more tension if I remember right. I'm not sure its quite fair to blame Guts for "abandoning" Casca in this situation like the review implies. This was a tough opponent and its hard for Guts to protect everyone. He also has to learn not to be afraid to rely on other people, that he can't do it or go it all alone. Puck has already been helpful and so has Luca. |
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Ulinox
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Great episode. Hope they keep this up. spoiler[Guts vs. "angels" before the final fight with Mozgus is probably one of my favorite fights from the entire manga. I really hope they do that fight justice.]
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Souther
 Posts: 604 |
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The anime's already cutting out things to speed it up (and it's not been to this adaptation's benefit IMO), it can't go any faster. They did shave Blackswordsman completely down and removed Lost Children, so if you wanted action and gore, you'd be in heaven right now had they also been included lol.
Agree with the two of you on Nina. She's the viewpoint of the average person in Berserk's world, scared, suffering, struggling to survive and looking for any way to escape their pain, Unfortunately, a lot of the options for escaping pain have evil forces behind them (the heretic cult and Slan being the Goddess of Flames you see in the fumes being their deity, as well as Behelits, etc.) and they further perpetuate suffering, as intended. And yeah, her suffering's a lot more relatable and more uncomfortable because of it.
You're right, they rushed that part, it's like the torturer couldn't make up his mind . "You, not you, you, no, not you, you."  In the manga, it was slower. As for Guts's decision to leave Casca in Isidro's care, staying with Casca would've gotten Farnese and the rest of the Iron Chain Knights on him, on top of the psuedo-Apostle, endangering Casca too, so Guts figured it'd be better if he got Isidro to sneak them out while he covered them, then get back to them. Were it not for the...thing spying on everyone deliberately attracting Joachim's attention to Nina, it would have worked out pretty well.
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Valhern
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If this wasn't the best episode visually, it certainly was the best directed. That fight with the goat was great to watch, too bad that the fight with Serpico was stretched a little and Guts not dodging any of the multiple strikes looked a bit weird.
And as the review says, my favorite scene was Nina walking into the torture room, perfectly placed shock value of the destroyed bodies, excellent music for dread impact and very good composition overall. What also sticks out for me is that this episode feels longer for how many things happen in it, yet it doesn't feel slow, so that's actually a great point in its favor. |
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Themaster20000
 Posts: 864 |
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Totally agree on the Nina scene at the end. The buildup and direction of it was just perfect. It's both shocking to her character and the viewer
 It sucks that the production took this long to come together. Am worried how their going to handle the upcoming,which is going to be a bitch to animate on a shoestring budget.
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vision33r
Posts: 90 |
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Serpico is your classic Rogue character. He won't beat a warrior in a standup fight but he can win under favorable conditions. But Guts is like a Hulk, he is nearly indestructible. When he gets angry that's when he can take on any formidable enemy except the five.
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xifeng.hu
 SubscriberPosts: 103 Location: Oahu,Hawaii |
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Just going to point out that Serpico's weapon is a Rapier and not a foil. Contrary to popular belief rapiers are not pure thrusting weapons but cut AND thrust weapons and are not easy to break. Still it might snap if he used it to block Guts' Dragonslayer but it would probably bend first (the Dragonslayer is literally impossible to use as Guts does in reality)
I'll link some videos I used as reference from a HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) Instructor/Scholar and a Practitioner. In any case in sword fighting speed>strength. All the strength in the world does no good if you can't hit your opponent before they skewer you in the heart 
Rapier breaking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6VB2hQJhqg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFRxZod-iI0 Dragonslayer (I know it's about Cloud's Buster Sword but the samething applies): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6QSu1EolCI |
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Etrien
 Posts: 525 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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This kinda stood out to me in the review, because the goat demi-apostle was focused on getting Casca. With its incredible speed and mobility, it was unlikely they could escape it and Guts was the only one there capable of killing it. Furthermore, they were still surrounded by hordes of flesh-eating, zombie-like heretics and the Iron Chain Knights, who also had Casca and Guts in their sights. It may not have worked out due to forces conspiring against them, but I do think Guts made the safest choice given the circumstances.
To be fair, the original anime also had tons of "characters sit around and talk about their feelings", which I personally loved. I'm not terribly big on action, but I love Berserk's storytelling. (...I really do miss Susumu Hirasawa's soundtrack. The music in the 2016 does a fine enough job, but Hirasawa's had such a unique flavor that I really miss.) |
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Pidgeot18
 Posts: 101 |
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I started doing some research on swords and other medieval weaponry to get a sense on what a realistic Dragonslayer would be. Given that Guts is larger than an average human being, particularly in Medieval-esque eras (he's 190 cm), and given that he's stated to have trained with oversized weapons, it seems reasonable to up the maximum feasible weight of a sword from ~4kg to 6-7kg. If we take the Dragonslayer at face value, it appears to be ~30cm×180cm×10mm, which comes out to around 40-50kg. A sword that's ~15cm×180cm×3mm (the last value appears to be the usual thickness of a sword), you actually get the right weight--the thickness is the most outlandish part of the weapon. I don't know the physics of such a wide yet thin sword, though; I imagine that you'd have to thicken it a little to give it better stability. For comparison, the heaviest sledgehammers are about 9-10kg, and they're only really usable in a vertical dropping motion, which is not at all how Guts swings his sword. It should be noted that Miura does seem to be depicting Guts using the Dragonslayer more like a blunt-impact hammer that can slice than the normal slicing motion of a sword (such large swords generally can't be used in thrusting motions). I suspect it's a case of the author not doing the math to find the unreasonableness of the weapon, as it is clearly meant to be too big to be an effective sword. On the other hand, axes and hammers weren't really all that heavy--the medieval versions seem to be about 1-3kg, about the same weight as a sword. If you assume that the mass is supposed to be about twice the mass as a regular sword, each of the dimensions should be about 25% longer (mass is proportional to volume, which is proportional to the cube of the length scale factor). Something that's about 50%-100% bigger than a normal two-handed sword is probably what Miura intended, and is on the bare edge of feasible of reality. If you assumed he forgot (or more likely never thought about) that the length/height/width need to change by the cube root, you get closer to the visual dimensions you see. |
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Souther
Posts: 604 |
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The author is very aware of the impossibility of the sword, to the point where people who come across it are in awe of its size and Guts wielding it. Plus the famous narration "That thing was too big to be called a sword, etc.". Its origins also acknowledge its ridiculousness (cut out in the anime); a king wanted a sword that could slay a dragon, but in reality, he wanted an elegant, fanciful sword. Godo didn't believe in dragons and was tired of making such swords for nobility. So he decided to take the request literally in defiance and made the Dragon Slayer, a sword that no human could use, his point being that no human could beat a dragon, so if you were capable of using the sword to kill a dragon, you wouldn't be human. So you're exactly right, it's not meant to be practical, which is the whole point. |
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Melchiorgk
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Weird - the translation I initially remember (either retconned or a poor translation) had an actual dragon present. The king put out the request for a dragon-slaying sword as a way to appease the people - he was at least doing something. Godo made the Dragonslayer as a weapon that could actually hurt a beast as strong as the tales. The fancy swords were all praised, but broke against the dragon. After finally finding someone who could weild the Dragonslayer, the dragon was successfully injured/killed. But a retaliation from other dragons devestated the kingdom, and the king blamed Godo for it. Which is why Godo is a hermit out in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, yes, the Dragonslayer is way too large to be a real weapon. Due to his early life (he was trained with extra heavy/large weapons from the start) and his experiences with the Hawks (which gave Guts skill to go with his strength and speed), Guts was operating at the far end of human capability. Then the Eclipse happened, and the definitions of what a human can do, especially Guts, has gotten blurry. On a side note - Serpico NEVER tries to block Guts' Dragonslayer. He knows that is a fool's errand. He either seals Guts' ability to use it (cannot draw it, and mountainside is in the way), tries to catch Guts without it, or tries to leverage his better manueverability. Serpico's problem is that Guts is very adaptable, has a variety of tricks, can and will trade damage for guaranteed hits, and wields the Dragonslayer as fast as a more regular fighter like Serpico might wield a normal sword. |
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Souther
Posts: 604 |
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I know which ones you're talking about, those translations are truly, truly bad. While not perfect, the official Dark Horse translations are far better and worth the money.
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