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anime review: berserk
Feb. 10th, 2010 10:22 pmBerserk
Summary: (from IMDB) Guts was brought up by a mercenary group since birth. After killing his guardian in self-defense, he runs away. Years later, he encounters Griffith and The Band of the Hawk. The Hawks fight for the King of Midland, and after winning the 100-year war against the neighbouring Chuder, they become the King's personal guard. However, once they reach the top, things take a turn for the worse.
First impressions just do Berserk no favors.
If you look up "violent" in a thesaurus, you'll see that "berserk" is one of the first words listed there. And make no mistake, Berserk IS violent. Like a lot of people not in favor of gory seinen anime, I stayed away from this series for a long time. The trailer I saw some years ago -- which featured a ton of horseback soldiers getting their heads lopped off in battle -- did nothing to help matters. Despite the good things I heard, I figured it was a mediocre anime aimed at a niche demographic (aka: hormonal teenage guys) with little to appeal to me.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I came across one review that compared its plot to a classical Greek narrative. With pathos! And hubris! And tragedy! And...yeah. This was purely by chance, but the reviewer's description left me intrigued enough to check out Berserk for myself. As a result, I ended up giving the show a chance.
So, am I glad I did?
( spoilers ahead )
In other words, tl;dr.
Well. XD Now I can go back to finishing more reviews, or -- more likely -- prepare for my JET interview next Tuesday. Knowing me and my rambling tendencies, the former might have to wait or I'll never get anything else done.
Summary: (from IMDB) Guts was brought up by a mercenary group since birth. After killing his guardian in self-defense, he runs away. Years later, he encounters Griffith and The Band of the Hawk. The Hawks fight for the King of Midland, and after winning the 100-year war against the neighbouring Chuder, they become the King's personal guard. However, once they reach the top, things take a turn for the worse.
First impressions just do Berserk no favors.
If you look up "violent" in a thesaurus, you'll see that "berserk" is one of the first words listed there. And make no mistake, Berserk IS violent. Like a lot of people not in favor of gory seinen anime, I stayed away from this series for a long time. The trailer I saw some years ago -- which featured a ton of horseback soldiers getting their heads lopped off in battle -- did nothing to help matters. Despite the good things I heard, I figured it was a mediocre anime aimed at a niche demographic (aka: hormonal teenage guys) with little to appeal to me.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I came across one review that compared its plot to a classical Greek narrative. With pathos! And hubris! And tragedy! And...yeah. This was purely by chance, but the reviewer's description left me intrigued enough to check out Berserk for myself. As a result, I ended up giving the show a chance.
So, am I glad I did?
( spoilers ahead )
In other words, tl;dr.
Well. XD Now I can go back to finishing more reviews, or -- more likely -- prepare for my JET interview next Tuesday. Knowing me and my rambling tendencies, the former might have to wait or I'll never get anything else done.
