"Kenpû denki beruseruku" (1997) TV series

Creator:

Kentaro Miura

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

28 May 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Plot:

Gatsu is a skilled swordsman who joins forces with a mercenary group named 'The Band of the Hawk', lead by the charismatic Griffith, and fights with them as they battle their way into the royal court.

Plot Keywords:

Mercenary | King | Fight | Force | Battle

Cast

Nobutoshi Kanna

...

Guts (unknown episodes)

Also Known As:

Berserk (International: English title)

Runtime:

21 min (25 episodes)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Chile:18 | Spain:18 | UK:15 (some episodes) | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:MA (some episodes) | UK:18 (some episodes)

Company:

OLM-Animation Studio

Trivia:

When Guts' massive sword is unsheathed from his back the sheath often looks similar to a devil's tail. This is most likely a reference to the numerous times Guts or those he encounters are said to have "The Devil's own luck".

Quotes:

Guts: What kind of a man is he?
Judeau: Griffith? I don't know.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in We Are the Strange (2007)

Great series for people who like realistic anime

Berserk is an amazing sleeper anime series gaining popularity in the U.S. It follows the adventures of a mercenary, Gatts, who lives a hard life, and survives by his wits and his incredibly large sword. The first season (and how we wish for a second) covers Gatts involvement with the mercenary group "The Band of the Hawk" and its leader, Griffith.

Berserk is realistic in that people are not doing over-the-top, impossible things, all the time that is. Gravity defying moments occur occasionally, but can be viewed as realistic due to the attention to detail and logic of the rest of the show. You will not scratch your head and say things like "That's not possible" with this series. Everything makes sense and the situations will grab your attention.

The story is very well told and follows a long arc from beginning to end, explaining Gatts past to the reason of why he ended up the way he did in the first episode. (In other words, the entire series is a flashback.) In it, you see the lithe and powerful Griffith do whatever it takes to achieve success, with his dark-eyed beauty of a lieutenant Caska ever faithful and always vying with the newcomer, Gatts.

Based on a comic book (manga), the battles are usually shown with interesting single cell depictions of events. And the fighting tends toward a realistic hack and slash as you see each person fight and defeat their opponents. The violence level is high, there is a lot of blood. With such a serious subject matter, some light moments are injected, as well as occasional bits of comedy, to help keep the audience from getting bored.

For such a great series, it lacks in a couple areas. Namely that there are only three main characters, for the rest of the "Band," we have faces and names, but no backgrounds. Also, like other anime series, there are bouts of empty blandness that, one must assume, are supposed to convey emotional impact of statements said by characters. These moments do no translate well and you would just wish the director would get back into the action.

The only other problem is that there is only one season.

If you want to know if you'll like the series, watch the first episode. If you enjoy it, then you will love the series.