Is anyone else really annoyed at this being 24 FPS? Usually I wouldn't even think about it but because everything looks like PS2 cinematics, it being 24 FPS bothers the fuck out of me.
Welcome to CGI in anime, I don't think there is any studio that doesn't deliberately render everything in 12 fps. (actually ufotable is pretty good at cgi)
okay watch the first ep and that will be the last ep i watch .
Not going to go on a rant but after so many years that is what we fucking get .
Well there always the manga .
I started cracking the fuck up when Guts first slashed through the skeletons. What even was that sound effect? Like the audio guy set up a mic right next to a stack of trash cans then threw himself into them.
This is going to be a carnival of great decisions isn't it.
Why can't they get some talent for this? Give it the Hunter x Hunter treatment. I mean that's shounen and probably more marketable or has a better timeslot, but come on.
It was tough to digest the cg but I can tolerate it for the most part. That iron clunking sound though needs to change to something less annoying please.
This is going to be a carnival of great decisions isn't it.
Why can't they get some talent for this? Give it the Hunter x Hunter treatment. I mean that's shounen and probably more marketable or has a better timeslot, but come on.
Berserk hasn't ended yet and if they did weekly episodes like HxH there is a possibility they would catch up. Berserk also needs some grit and gore and has too much depravity and obscene scenes that can't air on TV. OVAs are the best option for when Berserk ends so we'll wait another two decades.
Berserk hasn't ended yet and if they did weekly episodes like HxH there is a possibility they would catch up. Berserk also needs some grit and gore and has too much depravity and obscene scenes that can't air on TV. OVAs are the best option for when Berserk ends so we'll wait another two decades.
I think, if anything, people are underselling how bad this episode was. I thought the previews for this series were terrible but still this managed to even worse than my worst expectations. I genuinely don't think the production got anything right.
- The CG, as has been obvious from the start, is ugly.
- The background art is just as bad.
- The colour design is reminiscent of the desaturated colour pallet of Dark Souls except here it's just washed out and bland.
- The music is surprisingly bad. It's not even fun in a 'cheesy Japanese electric guitar' kind of way. It's just faux-badass rubbish.
- The actual sound design might be the worst thing about the episode. Now, sound design is something you really shouldn't be noticing or having to even comment on because it should be fairly invisible to the audience. Yet, for whatever reason, the sound effects in this episode are awful and the biggest offender must be Gut's sword. Why does it sound like someone hitting a hollow trash can? How the hell do you even screw up something like that?
- The episode has no sense of pacing. It just flits from scene to scene, event to event, without building any rhythm or sense of place or time. It's just a jumbled mess of stitched-together moments that don't feel like a whole piece.
- The actual cinematography is really poor as well. I can't think of a single scene where the direction actually successfully communicated to the audience what the show wanted us to feel. We can't connect to this material, these characters, or this world when the visual storytelling is so sloppy.
I actually really enjoyed it, but I just started reading Berserk earlier this year and am almost caught up with the manga, so I wasn't waiting as long as many other fans.
Sure, the animation is weird but at least the art style looks almost identical to the manga (the close-up of Farnese looked on point from a page from the manga). I also like the tone of the music...it's exactly how I wanted it to be, particularly during the bar fight and the nightmare scene.
The only real disappointment I have is how much they're skipping from the manga (not talking about the Golden Age arc). It's the first episode so they might have just been introducing characters, but I hope they don't continue at the pace they're going at now.
Polygon Pictures has a certain level of technical competence even if their aesthetic decisions are often poor. GEMBA, the CG studio handling Berserk, is pretty inexperienced and doesn't seem to have a basic level of competence.
I would rather have Polygon do this anime, they would've been faithful to source material like Ajin and Sidonia. Instead this studio has shit pacing and is skipping tons of content so they can get to the big setpieces without any development just so they make a quick buck. I just don't see how they can get to Schierke in less than 13 episodes without skipping anything.
Or maybe there are unrealistic expectations despite knowing about who was working on it, what it will look like and that Berserk in general is difficult to adopt without a huge budget
There's nothing in the material that would make it difficult to adapt for 'budget' reasons. It's just an action series - we have plenty of good looking action shows.
Mob Psycho 100 is a less action focused, less popular series airing this season that looks immeasurable magnitudes superior to Berserk. No excuse. No budget memeing.
Man, I was hoping this would be watchable, but judging by the impressions here it seems it's best to avoid.
I really want a good adaptation of the manga
Man, I was hoping this would be watchable, but judging by the impressions here it seems it's best to avoid.
I really want a good adaptation of the manga
Man, I was hoping this would be watchable, but judging by the impressions here it seems it's best to avoid.
I really want a good adaptation of the manga
I would rather have Polygon do this anime, they would've been faithful to source material like Ajin and Sidonia. Instead this studio has shit pacing and is skipping tons of content so they can get to the big setpieces without any development just so they make a quick buck. I just don't see how they can get to Schierke in less than 13 episodes without skipping anything.
I mean, did you even bother reading this thread? Pretty much everyone agrees that it's not very good, so it's safe to say that this isn't a good representation of the manga.
I mean, did you even bother reading this thread? Pretty much everyone agrees that it's not very good, so it's safe to say that this isn't a good representation of the manga.
That's why I said "pretty much" and not just straight "everyone", and that "pretty much" was in reference to you, since you're the only one who seems to like it.
[edit]
And even if you like it, you gotta admit this is a terrible way to introduce someone to Berserk.
Berserk 1997 is still the definitive anime adaptation of the manga. It's just too bad that the same team couldn't continue on it. Everything was perfect.
Berserk 1997 is still the definitive anime adaptation of the manga. It's just too bad that the same team couldn't continue on it. Everything was perfect.
If i was a newcomer to the series and this the first thing of Berserk i ever saw, i would never care about berserk at all. People who seem fine with this and might have delusions of recommending it at all have no further interest in berserk .
If this is better a than no anime at all to you then have your fun.
Anyone who would like to convince others of following berserk don't make this your first suggestion if at all.
If i was a newcomer to the series and this the first thing of Berserk i ever saw, i would never care about berserk at all. People who seem fine with this and might have delusions of recommending it at all have no further interest in berserk .
If this is better a than no anime at all to you then have your fun.
Anyone who would like to convince others of following berserk don't make this your first suggestion if at all.
The biggest problem of this thing is not the budget. It's the direction. Something which the 97 series was very competent. Setting the tone. Framing. Colors. Spatial awareness of a scene. The animation could be stilt but it set a clear direction. Yeah the animation in this one is trash but it's not inherently its biggest problem (although the lack of expressions resulting from it doesn't help). Just look how they took something as simple as Guts introduction :
In the manga he appears fucking a demon, entrapping it who thinks it got the upper hand. 2 pages and we know he is cunning and clearly will do anything to kill (later one we would understand how extreme this action is to him as a character). Ok they cut this. Maybe the sexual nature is too much, altough if that's the case I don't understand why Berserk is being adapted, considering what's ahead.
After it he goes to a bar and picks a fight. Because he wants drinks? Because someone is standing in his way? No. Because he wants to extract information from the thugs. He is not there to brawl. He is not picking random fights for the sake of it. 10-12 pages and we know already this dude is a man on a mission. This is crucial for the arc they are going to be animating cause h
e will have to choose between his revenge or taking care of the ones he likes.
The anime is able to completely reshape such simplicity. He goes there on a whim, fights for no reason whatsoever and soon is going to be
captured
. With no Black Swordsman, there's no conflict ahead (and Isidro is there. Why? Who gives a shit)
Snake was cut so they jump straight to the wagon. Ok. We lose his nihilistic idealism explained to Puck (which is then clearly set after the end of this episode). We lose Puck telling him he finds it interesting how he seems to be surrounded by monsters when that is something you only hear in tales or poems. A normal world exists. One we haven't experienced yet as a reader. And his fight with the Snake is a great example of his combat abilities. All gone.
Collette and her father are part of that (normal) world. Him accepting their help when we know what usually follows him, sets the tone for both the horror that is expected and to his selfishness. Collette is a girl who gets affectionate over Guts and his enthralled by the situation. She's a very simple character that evokes emotions. Not a zombie. He dreams about the blob that follows him (one that appeared before which the anime cut). The action ensues and the child ends up committing a decapitation and attacks him. He is clearly affected by it to the point he lets himself gets injured. He slices her body and goes on a killing rampage filled with rage. Ends up explaining to Puck he gives no fucks whatsoever to anything that surrounds him. He is plunged in his quest and nothing will stop it nor he cares if innocents suffer cause of it.
It's introduction is a simple tale of endurance, abilities and pure nihilism. The anime transforms the entire thing in a edgy guy that has a big sword and fights at the sound of metal (both figuratively and literally). It's kinda cringe. Not cause the animation is bad. Cause it's a fucking horrific adaptation of the events.
And I don't even want to talk that they rob us of Jill's rescue of the bandits.
+The sound direction is really meaty even if not very varied
+Close ups of 2D faces actually look good
+Wasn't completely censored ala Terraformars S1
+All the voices were pretty good, but I definitely like the performance by Guts' VA
+3D Dragonslayer is still a good looking weapon
+Schierke and Flora looked fantastic when we got closeups of their 2D faces
-The sound direction didn't have much variety. Guts' Dragonslayer had mostly the same sound effect
-The animation was nothing to write home about
-The 3D CGI was even worse than I feared. It's a travesty and Puck is suffering particularly badly
-Introducing Isidro this early worries me because I find him annoying
-It's a shame they changed the opening scene in the bar. The original in the old anime and manga had far more impact
-The music was mostly butt. The gritty guitar just feels so.... uninspired compared to the music offered in the movies, the games and the old anime
-Casca looks whitewashed This is a negative times a thousand. So sad
Overall: A mixed bag and the bad outweighs the good. I'm gonna be disappointed if they really skip the Lost Children arc.
7-8/10 for me. Thought it was certainly good! And the hand-drawn frames are gorgeous to boot. Puck transfers shockingly well to CGI. As for the sound of Dragonslayer, I get what they were going for, trying to emphasize that feeling of a large steel slab grating against armor. Also, something I haven't seen mentioned is the amount of rotating shots, which I think were great given that it's one of the benefits of CGI, to command the 3D area better. Lastly, I think y'all are focusing too much on shots that are present for seconds (like the rabbit).
So yea, CGI really doesn't bother me. Will continue to watch with bated breath, but I'm so excited to see Berserk again.
If i was a newcomer to the series and this the first thing of Berserk i ever saw, i would never care about berserk at all. People who seem fine with this and might have delusions of recommending it at all have no further interest in berserk .
If this is better a than no anime at all to you then have your fun.
Anyone who would like to convince others of following berserk don't make this your first suggestion if at all.
Yeah I don't know what your deal is but I'm not trying to recommend it to anyone lol. Just stating that the cons don't deter me personally from deriving enjoyment from it. It isn't the Berserk from my hopes and dreams, but it's Berserk in some form, and I'll still watch it. Maybe we'll get another shot at it in the future with more quality. Maybe not. I'm not gonna bitch and whine about it. This is what we get.
