5 Reasons 2016-17’s Berserk is the Ultimate Adaptational Failure

Considered the Game of Thrones of the anime world, few franchises can match Berserk. Pairing themes of medieval politics, questionable morals and nightmarish imagery with a level of gore which would put Jason Voorhees to shame, none will dispute its place as a classic. Yet, what should have been a triumphant return in 2016 turned a lauded gem into the laughing stock of the anime community. Quickly becoming the butt of every joke imaginable, it was the rare example of a series where absolutely everything went wrong. 

So, let’s get onto the analytical evisceration, and dissect this disaster.

1. Cinematography - The Crimes of a Twitchy Director

There are a few set rules when it comes to setting up any scene to help establish certain shots. From the famed 180 rule to how to structure certain shots to establish scenes and spacing, there is a simple “How to get it right” list for directors to follow. Apparently, Shin Itagki took one look at it, and then promptly set it on fire before starting on Berserk.

Try watching any scene, anyone at all, and you’ll quickly see how entire storyboards have seemingly been written back to front. A large encounter requires an establishing shot? Quick, cut to an extreme close up instead! It’s a tight interior? Canted angles, everywhere, and shove it up against the wall! It’s a fight scene? Make sure not to focus on any character for more than a second!

Everything should have a logical sense to the director’s vision, from the kinetic momentum of Satoshi Nishimura’s scenes to the slow burn of Hiroyuki Okiura’s deeply atmospheric designs. Even Michael Bay has a vision, it just happens to be a very sick and disturbed one. Here though? There’s no logic to it, to the point where scenes will abandon a great closing shot purely for the sake of doing so. Berserk might be famed for its twisted imagery, but this probably isn’t what Kentaro Miura had in mind.

2. Abridged Storytelling - Arcs Abandoned

Of all the characters in Berserk, Guts was the one to suffer through its harshest character arcs. While the hero of the story, his betrayal, tragedy and relentless hunger for revenge turned him from a man slowly coming to understand comradery into a monster. The true darkness surrounding him and what could drive others into becoming demonic apostles was fully explored in the Lost Children arc. It helped to establish a new status quo, raised the stakes and led directly into the next major part of the story following the brutal tragedy of the Eclipse. So, naturally, this adaptation did away with all of that, and just tried to jam two other story segments together in its place.

The end result was a chaotic lurch from the initial lead-in to Guts’ capture by the hallowed thugs of the church. Naturally, this wasn’t enough, so we ended up with character after character being shoved into the plot well ahead of time. Isidro promptly reared his head 18 volumes earlier than planned, while the likes of Schierke and Ivalera abruptly arrived a full 22 volumes ahead of their storyline. Time and time again the scripts mixed and matched story elements, until you were left with a shambling Frankenstein’s monster of a plot in the original’s place.

3. Absent Shaders - A World Without Depth

Look at any scene from this version of Berserk, and you will see an inherent ugliness to it. There’s an obvious wrongness to everything from its characters to the backgrounds themselves. While many would blame this on a poor animation budget, the truth runs deeper than that. Seemingly intended as some stylistic choice to match Miura’s beautiful artwork, all traditional forms of shading were abandoned. In place of true shadows, details or even textures, the series favoured a hatch-mark design to imply depth. This was obviously intended to give it a vibrant stylistic design to help the series stand out. All it accomplished was making the characters look as if someone had scribbled on their faces in biro.

At first glance this choice seemed to not be that bad in the grand scheme of things, largely thanks to a series of moody night scenes. Yet the very second the Holy Iron Chain Knights strolled in wearing bright pastel armour worthy of a sentai series, something had clearly gone horribly wrong. From there things rapidly went downhill, leading the series into a world of overly smooth faces, weapons without any true steel to them and humans who were somehow even more horrifying than the apostles.

4. Sound Design - CLANG!

Any slight thing can take you out of a scene, from the wrong lighting to simply an unintentionally humorous bit of drama. Yet, for all the problems the visuals have in Berserk, it’s the sound which fails to ever get anything right. Often seemingly resorting to the kind of stock battle sounds you would find in Age of Empires II, battle sequences devolved into the cartoonish mash of swords and generic screams. The distinct squish of flesh meeting steel offered only the same old stabbing sound we’ve heard a thousand times across a thousand series. And the Dragonslayer? That beloved murderer of demons? The famous hunk of iron? Every strike was made to sound as if Guts had decided to start carrying a fry pan into battle.

Our only respite was the merciful return of Lord Susumu of Hirasawa with a few excellent new songs. It might not have been much, but it made the first few fights tolerable, until Hai Yo started showing up in almost every fight. Yes, welcome to the modern Berserk anime; a ugly, bloated monster which hunts down quality and grinds it into the dirt beneath its heel!

5. Animation Shortcuts - Who Needs Physics Anyway?

It was bad enough that Guts was strolling around with pen on his face, seemingly massacring people with a fry cook’s weapon and having half his story skipped. Yet, that one remaining shred of dignity had to be stripped away from him. So, they turned Guts into a puppet, along with everyone else.

Shambling about in jerky motions which would make Beast Wars seem lifelike, the cast of Berserk lumbered through their scenes. With an already tight budget seemingly slashed further, fans were rewarded with oddly jerky motions as swords were flailed about and awkward blurring used to disguise engine limitations. This was kind of natural laziness no hope of training could hope to match.

At every turn corners were cut, from simply shaking Guts model up and down to imply walking, to one of the single worst transformation effects ever to be televised. If nothing else had accomplished this, if somehow a few fans were holding out hope for a improvements in a season or two, this finally snuffed those out entirely.