Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago (2012) Reviews

• Masterfully directed climatic epic saga

  federicopistono2012-06-04

  Few stories can capture your mind and soul in a visceral way from the beginning, and never leave you. Berserk is one of them. Written and illustrated by the legendary manga artist Kentaro Miura, Berserk (ベルセルク) is an epic fantasy saga that knows no time, no boundaries, and no has end. It tells the story of a Guts (ガッツ, Gattsu), a boy born from the corpse of a woman hung on a battlefield, who struggles to fight his unfortunate destiny. Set in a fictional version of medieval Europe, Gatsu is a young mercenary who travels with no direction nor purpose, swinging his huge sword in merciless fights in order to survive. He buries his blade deep into the flesh of his opponents, fighting like a madmen in battle, reminiscent of the nordic berserks, coming closer and closer to death, maybe to finally feel alive. His life is meaningless, his actions have no honor nor reason, except survival. He strives to escape his nature, that of a man born from a dead body, already between this world and the other, with nothing to lose except his miserable life. That is, until he meets Griffith, the impossibly beautiful and charismatic leader of the undefeated mercenary band called "the Band of the Hawk" (鷹の団 Taka no Dan). This encounter will forever change his life, and that of everyone else. Beware, Berserk is not an ordinary series. It is hard, violent, and not easy to follow. There are no flashbacks constantly reminding you of what happened before, no fill-in episodes, no sweetening of the pill. It is a solid punch of crude reality hitting you in the stomach, and you have no way of guarding yourself. Miura's genius permeates in each page, down to every minute detail. The themes treated are difficult, and never simplified for the sake of the reader. Reality has no shortcuts, no easy way, and that is reflected in the story. The characters in Berserk are genuine, real, endlessly complicated, troubled. They hold secrets, they cheat, murder, conspire, but they are also capable of great kindness. Friendship, ambition, causality, the supernatural, our ambivalent nature, the struggle for power, love and hate. Twenty-two years in, still going strong, in what is possibly one of the greatest stories ever told. With that premise, you would think that the task of turning such a story into a series of animated feature films would be arduous. And you would be right. Only an animation studio capable of immense greatness could be up to the task. STUDIO4°C is one such group. From the opening scene we know what kind of film we are dealing with. A clear, peaceful blue sky is contrasted by the presence of ominous birds flying in circles, while balls of fire fly over them. Guts looks up at the sky with sad eyes, a scar in the middle of his nose and a helmet on his head immediately tell us what he is. A heartless mercenary. The deaden sound of the blasting gives us a hint of where we are. Everything moves slowly, as if underwater, or inside a womb. How appropriate for someone who was born in a battlefield, who is neither truly alive nor dead, until he begins to fight. Gatsu's heart starts pounding, as he watches a black hawk fall down, the sound increases, until the bird drops dead in the middle of the fight, crushed beneath the boots of armed mercenaries, assaulting a castle. That is the time when the sound rises up at full blast, and we are catapulted into the battle. The fight is cruel and violent, unlike anything I have even seen. The Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Game of Thrones, list what you want, nothing compares to the level of horrifying realism that Berserk has to offer. The animation is top notch, the colours vivid and stunning, you could take any frame from the film, hang it on the wall, and it would work as a painting on itself. The soundtrack by Shiro Sagisu is perfectly calibrated to match the already spectacular animation sequence, the epic chorus elevates the scenes to a sense of greatness, without ever overdoing it. The first eight minutes are a masterpiece of action down to the last second, flawlessly directed by the talented Toshiyuki Kubooka. In every moment we can see something in motion, be it the clouds in the background or the hair on someone's face, the level of maniacal details is lessened only by the overuse of 3D animation (which is a bit irritating at times). But action sequences of crude violence, great animation, and impeccable sound effects are just a spec of dust in the whole opera. The real value lies in the moments of silence, when the characters quietly ponder about their lives, or study each other, looking into their souls. We can see through their fears, their dreams and aspirations, their hate, without them needing to utter many words. And the few words that are spoken weight a million tons. Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the King covers volumes 4,5 and half of 6, each of which requires a few hours to read, all delivered in 70 minutes. As you can imagine, they had to make some choices and not everything was included. When this happens, the story usually loses value, the characters are simplified, and everything becomes dull. Surprisingly, this is not the case here. The first part of the Berserk Saga Project, which should cover the Golden Age Arc of Berserk does not disappoint. In fact, it excels, in both execution and presentation. The climatic drama and the anticipated tragedy yet to come reach the peak at the end of the film, accompanied by an epic final score by Susumu Hirasawa. STUDIO4°C has delivered a compelling and engaging story, masterfully animated and directed, which breathed life to Miura's pencil, and gave it voice. Full review: http://goo.gl/8HNpB

• Big Spoilers, whats going on with the story?

  purpleprinc32012-12-22

  Sorry but I don't think this was nearly as good as it could of been. Basically if your new to Berserk watch the old series otherwise you will have no idea what in the hell is going on. The main appeal and the best part of Berserk is the characters, the story and the awesome dialogue they have between them. Well in this movie series, they've pretty much left that out, no character development, weak dialogue they've changed it in some instances so the characters (such as the King of Midland) seems to have a totally different persona. What happened to the Queen scene amongst others? One of my fav scenes was when Guts meets Zodd the Immortal. Zodd is impressed by Guts' swordsmanship, Guts realises whilst their skill is not equal, at least the strength of their blades are. So Guts places his life on the strength of his blade, Zodd realises this and accepts his challenge. But in the movie, no duel acceptance, guts just says to himself 'at least our swordsmanship is on par,' basically changing the scene and made it a terrible let down on top of not making sense. Just ruined one of the most epic scenes in Berserk. Then when Guts fights General Boscone and his blade is broken because of the previous battle (100 men fight) Zodd, who is just awesome watching from afar, tenses his demon muscles and throws him his sword. Well in the movie, Guts just throws up a flag and cuts him with his beaten and blunt blade. Ruined another great scene. And I really felt for Corkus, all the characters felt like real people, in this movie, they've just left out the story basically, which is the main point of a series, film or book/manga, to tell a 'STORY.' I noticed there were more a lot more tit and ass shots in this movie version which annoyed me, hell why not have a full on sex scene whilst were at it, oh wait there is. And yes I realise what happens at the end, but that's in context, not just mindlessly flashing a bit of tit/ass to keep people interested, and whether its a game, movie or TV series, when they need more ass to keep you interested, you know its making up for something its lacking. I don't know if there just fast-forwarding through the series to get to where the last original series ended, if that really is the case, then I take back what I say, but judging from the changes they've made, I don't think that's going to be the case. The animation work is great, but its like graphics in games, if the content is crap, no matter how good it looks, it won't actually be that good fun. Like covering a turd in glitter if you will, albeit that's a bit harsh. Nah actually, it wasn't very good. Sorry I really love Berserk it is one of my fav animes if not my fav but I just felt this was a real let down. Anyone else feel the same?

• Wrong Direction

  Dharkstar12013-08-04

  If anything, the story of Berserk needs to be expanded upon, not shortened. Basically, they are taking a 10-hour long show, improving the visuals, and reducing to the story to 3-4 hours. I'm curious who thought this would be a good idea. Many pivotal moments that occurred during the series were completely glossed over in this movie, and in many cases, left out entirely. What was great about the show was the emphasis on the story and character development. How can you develop the characters when you're cramming everything into such a short amount of time? Sure, the re-imagined action sequences and animation are great to look at, but that was only ever a small part of what made the series so good. Berserk being my favorite (if not, second favorite) anime of all time, this was doomed to fail for me. This first part is entertaining, sure, but doesn't do justice to the original series. It's just not possible. That being said, it might be a decent watch if you're a first time viewer of Berserk, but for true fans of the show, I don't see how this could be acceptable. They should have just redone the entire series and gave it a proper ending. Or, continued the show from where the original left off. I'm certain either of these options would please fans more, rather than giving them cheapened, hyped-up movies. I'll watch the rest of the movies just to see how they turn out, but I suspect I'll be disappointed with the rest. I can only give the first part a biased 5 out of 10.

• True to original - made for fans!

  unibaba22012-07-17

  After several months of anticipation I just got to watch Berserk - The Golden Age Arc Chapter I - The Egg of the King, and as a fan of both the Manga Comic and the animated TV series, I was not the least disappointed. This movie kicks ass! I was perhaps most amazed of the battles, which come off as extremely vivid and original. Many will compare this movie to the animated series, and yes, some things have changed, as this format is much more time-limited. The exclusion of some scenes and moments to the benefit of other, might make the movie feel as a summary of the series. The much loved musical themes of the series have also been changed, something I expected, yet hoped would stay the same as I really liked them. On the other hand, we get to see Guts and Griffith swinging their swords in a much more vivid graphical universe, which I think the story deserves! As the above mentioned mainly comes down to a matter of taste, the main problem with this movie is that it doesn't focus as much on character development as the original comic and animated series did. This will create some moments which new viewers couldn't possibly make full sense of. However, for any passionate Berserk-fan, this should not be a deal-breaker, as it is still a great movie, true to the original story.

• Amazing

  galaxydrill242012-05-28

  This is a movie so don't expect it to follow the comic exactly, The only problem is the CG graphics but other than that its so well done and worth the wait. 1 hour and 10 minutes the 2nd and 3rd both will be 2 hour movies. The first movie ends after Guts kills General Julius and his son. Art: (A) Animation: (C) Story: (A) Music: (B+) Violence: (A). It Delivers the emotion and our favorite parts nicely. but there are some cuts here and there still great overall, watch it all and decide for yourself nothing will be better than the old anime and comic we know that, i'm a happy Berserk fan now can't wait to see the other movies and the post Eclipse.