“In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental being or law? At least it is true, that man has no control, even over his own will…” -The narrator/Void

Berserk is an adaptation of the Golden Age arc of Berserk, and at its core, this arc is a tragedy. As such, in its nature, to properly tackle what makes it to effective as a tragedy, I will spoil the series majorly. The rest of you who know or don't care, band with me, brothers, as we remember this beautiful yet tragic tale…

Medieval tales have almost always interested me. I went to medieval festivals in my youth about twice or thrice, and it was always fun, eating turkey legs, seeing jousts, getting a scar on my middle finger at a knife throwing booth...yeah, those were fun times. In World History, one of the most interesting time periods was the High Middle Ages period. Not to say this is my favorite thing to explore, I prefer full blown modern warfare stories and World War history even more, by this has always been interesting to me. One such series has been the pinnacle of greatness in not only storytelling and character writing, but presenting this time period in a fantastical and fittingly brutal stage. Thus, we come to today’s topic: Berserk, or rather, the Studio OLM 1997 adaptation.

Let us define what I mean by tragedy. I don't mean the Shakespearean kind about the main character falling from grace and dying thanks to circumstances related to a lesson for the audience, I mean the kind where, like the former example, we are told that the main character goes through hell, but instead of losing his life, it's about seeing how he became the man he is at the start of the series. Hence, episode 1, which has been widely called the weakest and only skippable episode of the show, is actually very necessary. This is a story of honor, deception, purpose, and death, like the time period it presents.

I'm sure a number of you were puzzled when I called Episode 1 imperative to the viewing experience, as many people, especially popular reviewers, say to skip episode one. Yes, it only really becomes impactful in hindsight and it doesn’t really stack up to the rest of the series, but it serves an interesting utility that few first episodes serve. That’s why I say, watch it, since it frames the series in a completely different way. Rather than framing it as a simple war story that ends up having a brutal ending out of nowhere, it's one where you see how Guts became the man he is, and eventually you see his team and realize that he doesn't have that anymore, leaving you to speculate and hope that he left and that nothing terrible happened to them.

Oh how brutally wrong we were, but like the series itself, how about we rewind a bit…

3 years ago, Guts takes out an infamous warrior and is now scouted by Griffith of the soon to be legendary Band of the Hawk. And now, a journey begins as these men get involved in the 100-year war between Midland and Tudor. The narrative might not seem all that impressive, and instead, rather rudimentary upon first glance, especially when you’re done with episode 1, but the story really unfolds thanks to its characters and how human they feel. Until the episode 10 mark, what keeps the first few episodes interesting is promise. They play hints at bigger plots through memorable exchanges, such as the freakishly intense battle between Guts and Co. and Nosferatu Zodd, a demon and how after Griffith is knocked out, he accidentally reveals a behelet, a sort of necklace we see Griffith show off to Guts in episode 4 after a fun little water fight. They foreshadow big twists and remind us of the tragedy ahead as we interact with these characters who not only behave realistically but either hang around as a general likable member who often has small spotlights in battle and/or one who slowly reveals important bits about himself over time, and while that part might seem basic and that even bad shows get that down, the only reason it truly works here is because of the humanization and harmony these characters all have, carrying us over until the second half of the show, where shit gets truly real.

The first sign of trouble in terms of realizing the tragic route the series intends to go is when Guts overhears Griffith talking with the princess about a man’s dream and how he will only truly be friends with a man who also has a dream he will fight for. As a man who has only known borderline meaningless war, this sparks a flame of unease in Guts’ mind. Guts is a brilliant fighter and I love his struggles to fit in with the band and eventually, his quest to become his own man rather than just someone who fights for another’s dream, especially given what we already know about him, but not only does this pit in his stomach last, even after Guts defeats one last enemy commander and Casca and Co. captures a major castle in Tudor which causes an armistice to be held, but after one gloriously sad duel between Guts and Griffith, his journey begins, shocking and dismaying the band, but especially Griffith. Griffith has already been shown to be an ambitious but tragically sympathetic man who not only had fun and had a charismatic and borderline ethereal quality to him (which quickly made him a favorite of mine for a while), but one who found great interest in Guts, much like many of us did, but once his ambitions were somewhat fulfilled and Guts leaves, he loses his purpose and goes mad, coercing the princess into sex, whom he had many pleasant chats with and who admired and had a crush on him. The consequences are horrific, with him being tortured and stripped of even his muscles and ability to move properly for the most part. Then, we get his final decline in his humanity once after a brutal vision, he sacrifices his entire crew to the now awakened God Hand in order to become their leader.

Episode 1 is the episode that plants this seed of doubt in our heads, but at the end of the day, it could only end in one way the more you think about it as you advance through the series, especially once you reach episode 22, which is when, after many moments of buildup via Zodd in episodes 6 and 16, demons start showing up and gathering to see the man with the Egg of the King, arriving before him and his now ravaged band after a one year time skip of them getting betrayed after Griffith’s capture. The ensuing spectacle of chaos, bloodshed, insanity, and screams is both horrifying and heartbreaking, as no matter what, we actually got to see so many of the Band of the Hawk interact not only in meaningfully dramatic ways, but in truly humanizing ways that made us care for each of them despite them not being that huge a developed presence such as Pippin, Rickert, Judeau, Gaston, and yes, even Corkus. They manage this through both amazing humanization and how they slowly reveal moments for some of these characters over time such as Corkus initially being a captain of his own bandit team, and Judeau not only being the competent knife-wielding heart of the group but also a man who wants to settle down and have his own business.

While we’re at it, let’s get one last major character out of the way: Casca. She’s rather hard to stomach at first, being very, very bitchy and hateful towards Guts out of a combination of jealousy at his kinship with Griffith, but his general attitude and actions towards combat which make him come off as a deranged loose cannon to her. It’s only with her backstory that we see a more sympathetic side to her after she faints in battle over a combination of stress and fever, which Guts helps her through to nothing but scorn on her end. She eventually realizes her love for him, as he does for her, and it does come off as organic, luckily. If only she could get her temper and stress in check from time to time. While she may be my least favorite of the trio, she is still a great character with splendid development that I unfortunately can't help but downplay, which speaks volumes of how amazing Guts and Griffith are to me.

Of course, this show isn’t perfect. Many of the villains are just hateful, one-dimensional, noblemen who scheme to get rid of Griffith for being a commoner, while the others are just asshole generals who never really get fleshed out. Not to mention that this show does get a bit carried away with the concept of rape, which can be a turnoff for many viewers, even if the main incident people point to is so effective in its usage that it's honestly praiseworthy. There are minor plot holes as well, such as how we never see how it was possible for Griffith to arrange a fake death and then kill all those who plotted against him in one fell swoop given that we are never given many pieces to really try to figure it out for ourselves, and we never know how Griffith got the ingredients for his switched drink, or how it got switched. Not to mention that beyond one post-credits scene that only shows that Guts did indeed escape the eclipse (which we never know how) and that he finally got the sword we see at the start of the series, the show just ends en medias res. Regardless, as a glorious tragedy and human story, this show shines exponentially.

I guess this particular notion may seem iconoclast to some of you given that this anime is often considered to have mediocre at best production values. Well, that isn't really for any animation errors, but for the supposed lack of animation here. I admit, they take a fair share of shortcuts in the animation department, especially early on, and there are some things (like the waterfall in episode 20) that don't look very good. However, the character designs are fantastic and even when we see stills for a brief period used for a collision of something, they always manage to really sell the impact on those shots alone or use the animation to build up a massive impact as well. The artwork is stunning, as it's some of the most consistently detailed of any television production I have seen. Sometimes the movements in a fight can feel rather limited though. There are also slight bits of reused animation early on, which is always a sin, especially after the 80’s, but that goes away quickly, and there is plenty more animation than people give credit for. Another thing good about that is that sometimes they'll hold on one frame just long enough to let things sink in, such as Griffith’s distraught face in episode 19 after losing fights. Another huge reason I rank this section so highly is because this show has some of the best backgrounds I have ever seen, and I am convinced that each of those were not hand-drawn but hand-painted. You can see the luscious detail in each of these and they make perfect backdrops for any given situation. Studio OLM did a surprisingly good job with this one, and so did Kobayashi Productions for the luscious backgrounds.

Berserk doesn't have a lot of tracks. Excluding the OP and ED, Berserk has a total of only 9 tracks, hence many of the more memorable tracks get repeated a lot. Even still, the OST by Susumu Hirasawa is among the best I've heard in a long, long time. “Earth” is such a lovely and uplifting tune that makes any triumphant scene 10 times more epic, and “Gatsu” is an amazingly somber and peaceful track that is always used at those calm and human moments to excellent effect. These two pieces alone are legendary, immortalized for how beautiful they are as the former becomes one of the most hopeful and uplifting pieces in the medium, while the latter is one of the most tranquil, etherial, and somber. What stands among them to complete this holy trinity of music is one of the most exhilarating and roar-inducing tracks ever conceived: “forces”! It makes these medieval fights that much more epic and just makes you want to let out a fucking warcry! Unfortunately, the OP and ED do not hold up at all. “Tell me why” by Penpals is laughable, full of quotable hilarious engrish and an opening guitar riff that is insanely off-key. It's certainly a fun song in its own right with tons of quotable lines, but it doesn't necessarily match the show and it probably was not meant to invoke any of this. The ED is also very forgettable, as if it were an afterthought. It's a tone-piece, sure, but nothing really noteworthy.

The dub starts off shaky, and there are plenty of mediocre at best minor performances throughout, though luckily, the major characters are decent and some even improve. The only role I recognize is Mike Pollock (Eggman from Sonic) as General Adon, and he has arguably the best performance here. Steve Stanley does do a pretty good job at capturing Griffith entirely though, which is rather odd given that the acting isn't really that great on its own, but it just gels with Griffith so much. Overall, the dub is decent, especially for the time.

Despite the first episode not being as incredible as the rest, this series was immensely enjoyable, partially thanks to the amazing OST and the surprisingly good action scenes, but mainly for the awesome cast of characters we embark on this journey with. Said journey makes it all the more depressing when we see everyone but the main trio die a horrific death as Guts and Casca are scarred for life being brutally killed.

Berserk 1997 is a glorious and heart-wrenching tragedy, and one of the best stories I've seen in a good while. Its cast is beyond likable and it's nothing less than an epic of medieval proportions. It's surprisingly well put together for what I've heard, and you know what? This show deserves no less, for all of the reasons I mentioned above. Even if you are bothered by the kind of content this anime showcases, this classic is more than worth checking out for the characters and OST alone. It's an epic you won't soon forget. Well, with all that said, I bid you adieu.