It's kind of sad when old - old, old - AMV's from the mid-00's of still manga pages (I'm looking at you, Wonders at your Feet) have better animation to them at times.
It's doubly so when you look at the Berserk movies and realize that - while not exactly... top-grade - they at least showed basic competency.
[Stuff written by Moid will be prefaced by an "M", stuff by Zerb will have a "Z"]
M
And so, we start, as we do...with the mentioning of a dying sun, rising above the multitude of nations.
There's no real context for the dying sun, it's just kind of there. I don't remember this thing being in the manga. Like, the anime started with this really cool opening monologue that set the tone. The manga didn't bother with bizarre exposition. The dying sun here is just kind of there. It's just "this rose over Midland. Enjoy that, fuckers."
The camera then pans down, where we're immediately treated to
MULTI-HOOF DRIFTING.
HOLY SHIT JUST RIGHT THERE WE'RE GETTING INTO IT. Like, I thought the opening episode would try to hide the terrible quality. Except, no, it's just front and fucking center, right here. Farnese's model just slides right the fuck onto frame from the side. There's no reason behind it. Like, this is the kind of animation you'd see out of fucking Inferno Cop, not the opening shot of your dark Action Drama.
Like they literally just had Farnese on a looping animation, where they probably just had the horse's head bobbing in and out of frame, before just sliiiiiiding her in. The motion graph probably looked like a straight line with a slight ease-out.
Z
Here's the thing. Farnese and her horse literally sliding into frame could've worked. It's a stylistic choice the likes of which I've seen more times to count... in traditional animation. There's something about the nature of 3D animation that makes stylisation choices that'd otherwise be perfectly fine look awkward as hell. I can't even really put my finger on why precisely, it's just on my mind since I'm fresh off watching RWBY where one shot had to cheat perspective by giving Weiss a gargantuan Manimal paw. Making CG 'look like anime' is real fuckin hard and in certain cases (fucking framerate) actively damaging.
M
But after that, we do get a shot of what they're looking at. It's a multitude of mutilated corpses, all just lying in a heap in a blood-red river.
Well, it's a somewhat purple-ish river, because TV censors, but the idea is that they were caused by some kind of mysterious force. The camera zooms out from a crow that was just done eating one of the corpses, and...
Somehow I don't think direction was the only problem with this scene. In order to pad out time and drag out the scene longer, the camera randomly fades into a pan shot over the corpse bodies, before fading back out onto the old scene. Whoever the fuck the editor was, they were just as big a fucking idiot as the director, because the fadeout is redundant and pointless.
Instead of having us return to the fadeout, why not just have the shot end with Farnese and crew standing before the corpse river? Like, right there. Have them dwarfed by the scale of the carnage, emphasizing how surreal and horrific it is. Maybe have a few horrified gasps and whispers among the other guard. Something to set the tone. Because random evil musical strings and a guy going "What's this?" isn't exactly cutting it.
Actually, come to think of it, why the fuck are we dealing with Farnese right now? I thought they didn't start showing up until later in the Black Swordsman arc. It seems a little bit early to show the Holy Iron Chain in a series that's supposedly just following hot off the heels of the Golden Age movies.
Oh, speaking of real early...
Holy fuck wow. We're like not even in a minute into the first episode and we're already being introduced to Schierke and the fairy island. Is the director trying to foreshadow future events in the series by just cramming everything into the start? I thought Guts hadn't done all the shit that would eventually lead to the Holy Chain just pursuing him.
I was actually honestly surprised that this was straight-up the first episode. It's just such a bizarre way to start up the new Berserk series, with these elements that aren't supposed to pop up until later just showing up right here within the first minute of the series.
Z
In theory I would readily applaud an adaptation bringing characters in from later in the series. In theory. Like anything it has to be done within reason and like Moid said Berserk hasn't done anything yet. He fights Apostles and doesn't afraid of anything, and in the manga the Holy Chain knights entered the story at a natural and pretty damn logical point as a way to add interest after two arcs of "fight this one Apostle and learn about them".
Also fuck Schierke she singlehandedly represents the nadir of Berserk in my eyes and after seeing her pomf on top of Guts in bed naked I want to punt her like a football.
M
That's an actual scene in Berserk. It's still baffling that Miura thought it was okay to put in. Christ. But back to Berserk, like, we then cut to the utterly baffling OP. Like while we were watching, the opening was just so awkwardly and haphazardly shoved into the first episode that we had to take a minute to figure out that it was actually the opening.
Otherwise it was just like a bizarre shot of Guts walking forward, looking ominous because he has to, while heavy guitars play in the background. And then it zooms in on his face so you can look at all them GWAFIX.
As for the opening song itself it's...alright, I guess? I mean it definitely exists. The music is like generic j-rock which actually really doesn't fit with Berserk. But the biggest issue is with the opening itself.
Namely that it's like mostly boring. An anime opening is where the studio can just pump money in. This is where you have to sell the series. You have to like really emphasize why a show's worth watching. Except the opening of this show is full of boring fucking shots. Really, really, really boring fucking shots.
They're almost all static. There are action shots in there, but they're supplanted by boring shots that don't mean anything. There's no real symbolism there, they're just boring pans of the characters.
Z
The most interest you'll find in the OP is trying to figure out which closeups are 2D and which shots are 3D. It's a game you can play throughout the entire series and it mostly works because when it does transition back to 2D it's jarringly and seemingly without rhyme or reason.
M
That's not the only interesting thing. There's also white Casca.
*strangled hate noises*
Z
Hey now, the original 90s anime darkened her, doesn't it only seem fair for the new one to correct that grievous error~?
M
Hahaha you're hilarious hahaha so funny funny meme haha.
OH RIGHT THEY ALSO SEXUALIZE HER SEQUENCE IN THE ECLIPSE. They gotta just put in bits of the Eclipse! Isn't that hot?! It's so hot to have bits of Casca's rape sequence in the Eclipse! Thanks for that, Berserk 2016! That scene's supposed to be gross and uncomfortable, but then you put fucking tentacles in her goddamn mouth for your OP.
Z
Wow listen to you, it's like you don't even ship Reylo.
(Griffith did some things wrong but Femto did nothing wrong.)
M
After the opening, we do eventually actually reach a town, where we get a really, really nice, pleasant establishing shot. It's the best looking shot in the show so far; it actually kind of establishes where the next scene's about to take place.
This is then promptly ruined by a woman being dragged by the hair as she flails by the camera, clearly wearing nothing but a towel-like nightgown as she's pulled into an alleyway, struggling ineffectually.
It's not just like the events on-screen, it's like how it's portrayed. We're like introduced her to this gigantic, close-up shot of her. Who is this woman? Why is she given like this big shot with its own background and own animation? It's animated like an action shot, even though she's just being pulled into Rape Alley #294.
It's like weirdly indulgent and gross.
Z
I don't even know why it's like this. I rewatched the relevant segment real quick just to refresh my memory and it's just... Rapetown, Population Thugs for some reason. See if this were, say, Witcher 3 then this exact kind of situation might possibly be happening, only it would make sure to contextualise it as "these bandits/actual professional soldiers (and it doesn't matter which side they're fighting for) are here because a war is on and as it turns out in Ye Olde Medieval Times when the troops get soused after a good battle they get rapey". Because half the appeal of that setting is the magical knight-errant noir detective main character being an outside observer means we get a 'modern' moral perspective with which to look at this fairly realistic grimdark and in most cases condemn and fix it, at least in the short term.
Which is a weird comparison to have to make because a huge reason why the Golden Age arc was as compelling as it was is precisely because it portrayed a pretty damn well-realised low-fantasy world where everyone but Guts and Griffith was more or less a normal person and then added the Warhammer-tier cosmic horror shit. But as far as Berserk '16-'17 is concerned though, some Guys showed up and they're Evil and it's time to Rape and also throw knives at the first fairy seen in the human world for like a hundred fucken' years or whatever because Lol and they're a bandit force that attacked the town maybe? It's just completely removed from context because it's time for some Shock and PACING TOO SLOW, then Berserk walks into a bar and it might as well not even have happened.
M
Yeah, I completely agree. Like the purpose of having these shithole towns is to provide context for how fuckin' shit these places are and provide catharsis when they're knocked down. And it's never pointless shittiness; there's a purpose behind it. It might be a terrible fucking purpose, but it's a bit more than Rapeville.
Also Isidro is here for some reason. And he's taken the place of the old abused barmaiden, because we gotta compress all the plotlines.
Z
Why is Isidro here.
I don't mean in the context of this show, I mean why is he fucking here period, the little shit added nothing to the manga and the only reason he's not higher on my totem pole of antipathy is because he didn't blatantly signpost the coming nadir of the series like Schierke did.
Well I mean, at least we get to see some big burly men stomping on his head. Poorly-animated though it may be.
M
Even better, in this show he's complaining about mercenaries basically just being paid thugs and bandits. He's not even like horrified, he's just annoyed that he has to be helping out with cleaning up the booooooooodies.
My dude, my man. Mercs aren't good people. They're not exactly like heroes. Routiers did some abhorrent fuckin' shit. Like, they are not the kind of people that you should want to follow. And as the conversation's happening in the background, where Isidro gets the shit beaten out of him off-screen because animating him is hard, we get a lot of random panning shots of Guts.
Z
In most fiction 'mercenary' is basically just what you make a character when you want to make them a cool man-hitter without having to commit to some kind of national identity or ideology. And once again In The Manga (SECONDARIES GET OUT, RRREEEEEEE) you get a pretty good indication of that by comparing and contrasting the rando bands Berserk drifts between as he grows up to the Band of the Hawk which Griffith is pretty explicitly trying to style like Proper Knights because he's got his sights set on nobility and even higher. And also his ridiculous Charisma and Crimson Behelit narrative buffs.
But once again you're just kinda not supposed to think about it too hard. It's set decoration, you're just meant to wait with baited breath for the lightsaberDragonslayer to come out and CLAP WHEN YOU SEE IT.
M
Again, it's made more frustrating because the manga does put thought and effort into it. And yet the property is handed to these fucking hacks.
We didn't flip this. It's actually just upside down for no reason. They just randomly fucking flipped it because they...wanted to make it visually interesting? For funsies? Because the director's a fucking hack loser?
What is this shot supposed to convey that a normal pan wouldn't? Is it to hide the fact that the show looks like hot fucking garbage? Too late, we already see it everywhere. What the fuck is the point?
Z
The point is "Wait if this is 3D animation I can put the camera anywhere!"
This is what Mr. Plinkett meant by 'art through adversity'. When something is difficult to attain it means you have to really want it to see it through, and have conviction in your artistic vision. If this were live-action and the director wanted that shot he'd have to construct some fucking rotating crane arm to stick the camera on, it'd be a pain in the ass and cost a lot more, so the whole way through he'd be forced to ask himself "do I really need this shot?"
But instead it's just INDULGENT CAMERA MOVES WHEEEEEEEEEEE~
M
...oh hey you get to see Ishidro get the shit kicked out of him. you happy yet zerb.
it looks like hot garbage since the model is about expressive as a block of wood, and the actual animation quality is incredibly poor since the director very clearly just had us focus on a PoV shot so they wouldn't have to animate more of Ishidro.
We are five minutes in.
Z
oh no he's lightly tapping the sole of his boot on isidro's temple oh the humanity who will save this poor boi
M
but it hurts tho. look at those red jpgs flying out. that looks like pain.
Also fuck Schierke she singlehandedly represents the nadir of Berserk in my eyes and after seeing her pomf on top of Guts in bed naked I want to punt her like a football.
Miura puts a... disturbing, amount of effort, into emphasizing the fact that:
A) Schierke is infatuated with Guts,
B) This isn't supposed to be creepy with several side characters enabling it and her getting dragged into a Harem Anime-esque love clusterfuck as half the named female cast still present wants to be with Guts.
Berserk kinda... dropped in quality, after the Berserker armor came into the picture. Silat and the Silat-centric parts are probably the strongest / most tolerable segments (IMO) in recent publishings which is not a good sign when a formerly C-List background character has the best quality contributions.
Berserk kinda... dropped in quality, after the Berserker armor came into the picture. Silat and the Silat-centric parts are probably the strongest / most tolerable segments (IMO) in recent publishings which is not a good sign when a formerly C-List background character has the best quality contributions.
...y'know. Maybe I've just been desensitized, maybe I just haven't seen an actually effective rape scene in so long that I forget what makes one work.
But since they clearly don't have the budget or skill to do the Ascension properly. How far off would it be to have Guts get stopped just short, enough he can HEAR everything but we/him don't get a visual. Just a couple agaonizing minutes of him and Christa slowly losing hope and breaking down while Griffith makes a point to torture them with the presence of the other.