Forum - View topicDoes it Hold Up? Berserk '97-'98
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LegitPancake
 Posts: 1311 Location: Texas, USA |
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Hearing Sean Schemmel as basically every third or fourth background character is really funny I have to admit. I kinda endorse watching this series, and then the third movie (or all 3 if you have the time) since it does the best at answering questions that the '97 anime left with the eclipse and everything. Still a shame no one has picked the series back up in NA, I had to import the UK bluray to rewatch it recently with my brother (the HD remaster is very good), just requires a region free bluray player. I can understand Monster being such a prestige title that no western company has found it worth the asking price (if the JP rights holders are even answering pitches on that one which I don't know). But Berserk '97 is licensed in other English countries of the world, unlike Monster, so I can't fathom what is up with the NA rights.
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andramus
 Posts: 192 |
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Berserk 97 was my gateway to the franchise and after having read the manga and seen the other animated adaptations I still believe that despite it's flaws it was the best possible entry point for me. The soundtrack almost carries the series on it's own where the animation lets it down but is fortunate to be paired with what I personally consider excellent and considerably layered writing in terms of both plot and characterisation.
The entire series plays out like a Shakespearean tragedy with a near-constant underlying mood of haunting melancholy perfectly embodied by Susumu Hirasawa's Gatsu Theme. The three biggest complaints I've seen about the series are the absence of Puck and the Skull Knight, as well as the way that it ended leaving Gatsu and viewers in a state of despair with a post-credits scene merely alluding to the fact that Gatsu somehow survived without explaining how or why. Having read the manga a few times and given my understanding of how much material was available to adapt at the time the 97 anime was being made I think choosing to focus on the Golden Age Arc made a lot of sense as well as where the series ended. It was a perfect way to get me hooked and make me want to read the manga to see what happens next. If they had shown how Guts was rescued by the Skull Knight and set off on his journey of revenge it would have been an OK ending but it wouldn't have been as impactful. The way this series was structured to play out as a tragedy it works as a mostly self-contained story that doesn't neccessarily need to continue which is why I think paring down the fantastical elements such as Puck and the Skull Knight works in the series favour. The absence of lighter fantastical elements heightened the darkness and despair of the tragic ending as well as allowing the series to remain more grounded for most of it's run. Albeit with just enough glimpses of the fantastical that the eclipse whilst still shocking and unforeseen was not entirely beyond the realms of possibility of what had previously been established. If at the time this series was being made there was a lot more material ready to be adapted and there was a prospect of a second season in the near future then I would agree that Puck, the Skull Knight and even Wyald should have been kept in. I have seen some people complain about Wyald not being in the series but I personally think he wasn't needed for this adaptation. In the manga he provided an exciting action interlude to the getaway/chase from Griffith's rescue, laid some expositionary groundwork for forthcoming events such as Guts ability to fight monsters and highlighted some of the ambiguity surrounding the character of Zodd. However he also watered down some of the shock value of the eclipse which is why I think he was unneeded in this adaptation. The one element I really wish had been kept in was Guts' childhood sexual abuse and the way that informed his character and relationships culminating in his sex scene with Casca towards the end of the arc. The way that sex scene played out in the manga was far more intimate and emotional than it was portrayed in either of the Golden Age adaptations. There was a lot of nudity but there was also a lot of heart in that scene and I wish it had been kept as it was in the manga. TL;DR Does Berserk 97 hold up? I think so. |
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gsilver
Posts: 649 |
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It would have been nice if the video could have had footage from the Bluray version of the show. Even if we haven't yet had that version in the US, it would at least portray the show in a better light.
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Cardcaptor Takato
 Posts: 5180 |
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The 97 Berserk dub still has a lot more personality to me than a lot of modern dubs do and it gave us those amazing dub outtakes.
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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Honestly, this is still my favorite version of Berserk, yes, later volumes of the manga included. I never had any issues with the ending either, to me it went a full circle re: the story it was telling (Guts & Griffith, their relationship with each other and themselves) and I never particularly felt the need for more. It also toned down a lot of things that I found annoying in the manga. I actually rewatched it just a little while ago, and I think it absolutely holds up.
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2482 Location: United States |
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If you're looking for dub bloopers for other anime, I recommend the Kemono Friends bloopers as well. I always get a good laugh from those! |
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k_dawg_3484
 Posts: 58 |
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When I first heard about Berserk, all I heard was "It's really good, but it's a shame it doesn't have an ending." That put me off it for years until I watched it with friends. After that, I said "Man, this is a masterpiece...but it doesn't have an ending. 9/10." But, unlike any other series I'd ever seen prior, I immediately felt compelled to go track down the manga and just tear through it.
And so I did. And only then did I realize how good the anime actually is. They clearly knew that they were going to end in a really bad spot to end in the manga. If they tried to include all the necessary elements to explain how Guts and Casca escape the Eclipse in a well-executed way, the series was just going to be too long. So, they didn't. It ended where it did. And that is such an inspired and ballsy move. Instead, by cutting out unnecessary elements, they were able to use their 25 episodes to create something that actually brings additional atmospheric and emotional depth above and beyond what even the manga could. The soundtrack, of course, is crafted and used so perfectly for this that no other show is even comparable. But the pacing is also crucial. The ability to linger on certain shots, extend certain scenes, speak in a certain cadence...it's all helped by not having to cram as much stuff as possible into everything just to get to a certain end point. If you watch the movie trilogy (which I watched in the theaters literally immediately after finishing the show), you'll get more details of the plot. But you'll notice that the movies are just soulless comparatively. Hirasawa's soundtrack is gone, the art's a little off (the '97 art is spot on, which is critical for this series), and the clear intent was to put more of that plot back in. But that wasn't necessary. After I read the manga and I understood the decisions the anime team made (with Miura's oversight, remember), I upped Berserk and its "nonending" to an easy, confident 10/10. It is own wonderful experience. |
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andramus
Posts: 192 |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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See, this is the most common complaint and I've never understood it. Maybe it's just me (well, likely it's just me, seeing how common this complaint is) but I always thought that episode 1 was the end that the entire story was working towards, and the last episode was the conclusion where we the reach that status quo. I thought the story wasn't trying to be about "omg what happens next!" or "will Guts be able to defeat Griffith?!" - it was about Guts and Griffith, their relationship and how that affects who they are and what paths they take. I never felt that the anime was unfinished, and I was never particularly interested in what happened next. (Honestly I think the manga also went on the decline after that.) Sure, just going by the anime we won't find out if Guts will ever take revenge on Griffith, but I always thought that was irrelevant, the relevant part was the journey of the two characters that led to this situation. |
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andramus
Posts: 192 |
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@SHD
The first time I watched Berserk 97 by the time I got to the end I had mostly forgotten what had happened in the first episode. That first episode throws a lot at you and it was only upon rewatching the series that I picked up on things that I'd missed the first time around. There was so much happening in that episode that's it's basically a speedrun of the Black Swordsman arc from the manga. There was so much bizarre imagery that for me it was difficult to latch onto anything significant to remember for later such as Femto. Even the mentions of Griffith in that episode flew right past me. By the time I got to the end of the series I had become so immersed in the story of Guts, Griffith, Casca and the Band of the Hawk that I wasn't even thinking about the events of the first episode. I was completely swept up in their drama and the tragedy of the eclipse. In some ways I think the series might have been better without the post credits scene and the first episode because ultimately they left a lot of viewers confused. They give the audience a small glimmer of hope by showing that Guts somehow survived but the last time we saw him he was in such a hopeless situation we couldn't imagine how that was possible. If a lot of viewers were like me and had mostly forgotten the details of the first episode by the time they got to the end of the series then unless they watched it again they would not appreciate the series the same way you did. Which actually relates to a wider debate about whether the worth of a piece of media should be judged on a single viewing or repeated viewings. A lot of people judge media based on a single viewing experience and if they missed things the first time around that would have enhanced the experience they often don't go back. |
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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@andramus
I guess it was the same for most people - for me, though, the first episode was always in the back of my mind as a foregone conclusion, while watching the series. You're right in that it kind of throws you right in the middle of something and then waltzes away from it, but the contrast between the world and the characters in episode 1 and 2 are so strong that even as I, also, became immersed in the story, I was watching it wanting to find out how things got to that point. So I guess for me the framing structure worked as intended. I think it wasn't necessarily a bad idea, but I guess there should have been more in the end, not just a post credits scene, I mean I'm sure it didn't occur for a lot of people to check the credits for that. I'm sure there would've been complaints about an open ending either way, from people wanting to know if Guts eventually manages to defeat Femto or not, but perhaps that way more people would have felt a sense of closure. (That, or they could've just rewritten the story so that there is an actual ending, but then people would've complained about that.  )
Another show that did something similar was Gungrave, which started out with a status quo, spent its first cour showing how things got to that point, and then its second cour was about how things developed from there. But of course that was a different situation insofar as Berserk the manga was an ongoing story with no end in sight, while Gungrave was a game. |
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Scott Wulf
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Honestly, my first viewing of the original anime series was a set of Fan-subbed tapes, and I fell in love with it! The depth of the story, the variation of characters that was unlike most of what I had been watching until then, the music..."Forces" is still one of my favorite tracks from the OST, and I have it as part of a playlist I use to encourage myself for writing and other tasks. I still need to read the manga, but as for the other versions, I really didn't care for the newer series, having made it through the first "cour", and just not feeling much from the way it was done, especially the over-abundant use of CGI to the point you could barely call it an anime, and I still need to sit and watch the Trilogy of movies, but it almost feels like I would be insulting the memories of having watched those vid-tapes...and then when it got released on DVD.... Haven't watched it dubbed, and not interested in doing so either, kinda glad I haven't from the sound of things... Thanks for that awesome vid, though to be honest, I read the transcript! Very insightful, as I was not aware that the God-Hand was based on the cenobites, but that really makes so much sense now, and gives a clearer picture of things in retrospect!
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iamthevastuniverse
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A vast majority of current dubs don't even measure up to the memorability of the 2002 Berserk dub.
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 377 |
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It may be distracting to hear Goku sometimes on the dub but it's way crazier when Adon shows up and it's Mike Pollock doing the exact same voice he uses as Dr. Eggman in the Sonic series
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Soul_Punisher
Posts: 74 |
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So true! lol |
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