Berserk (2016 TV series)

Plot

The story follows Guts as the "Black Swordsman", an appearance which was briefly seen in the first episode of the 1997 television series as well as in the final scene of Golden Age Arc films.

Guts was once a wandering mercenary taken in by the mercenary group known as the Band of the Hawk (鷹の団, Taka no Dan) and he fought alongside them before their mutilated leader, Griffith, sacrificed his followers to become one of the God Hand and continue his dream of ruling a kingdom of his own. Only Guts and his lover Casca, who lost her sanity and memory from the horrors she saw and endured, escaped the "Eclipse" ritual, though they were branded with marks that attract evil, restless spirits and other similar entities. With Casca in the care of blacksmith Godo and his adopted daughter Erica as well as Rickert, the only member of the Hawks absent during the Eclipse, Guts set off to hunt down the God Hand's Apostles to find and kill Griffith in a quest for vengeance. Years have passed, and Guts is joined in his hunt by an elf named Puck as events the God Hand have long waited for are beginning to unfold.

Production

A new Berserk anime was announced in December 2015 in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine, with a short preview trailer released at Comiket later the same month. The anime's website announced in February 2016 that the project would be a television series. A second trailer was streamed in March 2016. A teaser video was streamed on the series' website in early June 2016. At the conclusion of the first season's final episode, a teaser confirmed a second season for April 2017. The brief clip showed off the character Schierke and the Berserker armor, indicating the second season would adapt the next arc, "Hawk of the Millennium Empire".

Kentaro Miura, the author of the original manga, is serving as executive supervisor for the anime. The series is directed by Shin Itagaki and written by Makoto Fukami and Takashi Yamashita. The character designs are provided by Hisashi Abe. Animation studio Liden Films is producing the series with GEMBA and Millepensee helming on the animation production. Shirō Sagisu returns from the Berserk: The Golden Age Arc films to compose the music for the series, while Susumu Hirasawa, composer for the 1997 series and the Golden Age Arc films, returns to produce two insert songs for the series, titled "Ashes" (灰よ, Hai yo) and "Ash Crow". For first season, the opening theme song, "Inferno", is performed by 9mm Parabellum Bullet, while the ending theme, "Meimoku no Kanata" (瞑目の彼方, lit. "Beyond Closed Eyes"), is performed by Nagi Yanagi. For second season, the opening theme song, "Sacrifice", will be performed again by 9mm Parabellum Bullet, while the ending theme, "Issai wa Monogatari" (一切は物語, lit. "Everything is the Story"), will be performed by Yoshino Nanjō feat Nagi Yanagi.

The primary voice cast are reprising their roles from the Golden Age Arc film trilogy, while voice actor Unshō Ishizuka is reprising his role as both Void and the Narrator from the original anime.

Producer Reo Kurosu has described the show's animation style as "a hybrid between 2D and 3D", elaborating that "For this series we’re trying to do something new. The director is a 2D animator so what goes on in his mind and what he puts on storyboard is all in 2D. From there it’s all about choosing which tool to use between full CG animation, traditional 2D, or a hybrid of the two. The director and the 2D and 3D studios will meet and discuss what to use when depending upon what we’re trying to accomplish with each scene." The 3D characters and objects are rendered with Cel shading to make them look more like 2D cartoons. A particular feature is that the shadows on 3D objects contain a linear hatching effect which simulates shading with a pen or pencil, and the same hatching effect is applied to the shadows that appear on any 2D models to create a more uniform look.

Broadcast and release

The 12-episode series premiered on 1 July 2016 on WOWOW, and later on MBS's Animeism programming block, TBS, CBC, and BS-TBS. The second season of the series will begin on April 7, 2017, with an hour-long two episode premiere.

The series is being simulcast on Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll announced at the annual Anime Expo on 1 July 2016 that the company will be releasing the series with an English dub on Blu-ray and DVD. The exact date that the series will be released has not been announced.

Reception

Anime News Network contributor Jacob Hope Chapman was critical of the show's production quality in his review of episodes 1–3, stating that "Berserk 2016 is an abominably ugly and almost forcefully unpleasant realization of our dreams, with cut-rate CGI, questionable music choices, and disorienting camera work". However, to him the strength of the source work helps to carry the show, and Itagaki's frenetic directing style at least keeps the action interesting: "Once you manage to unclench your teeth at all those garish cel-shaded puppet bodies smacking against each other, Miura's compelling story and captivating world still shine as one-of-a-kind flights of dark imagination with poignant characterization, even as they struggle under such a lackluster production". In his reviews of the episodes, Chapman gave episodes 4–6 a grade of "C+"; episodes 1–3, 8, and 12 a grade of "B-"; episodes 7, 9, and 11 a grade of "B"; and episode 10 a grade of "B+".