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Berserk (TV 2016/17).


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sun May 01, 2016 12:18 am Reply with quote


Part 1 - Berserk (TV 2016)
Part 2 - Berserk (TV 2017)

Genres: action, drama, fantasy, horror, supernatural
Themes: conspiracy, gore, medieval, mercenaries, military, monsters, swordplay, tragedy, war

Plot Summary: Guts, known as the Black Swordsman, seeks sanctuary from the demonic forces that pursue him and his woman, and also vengeance against the man who branded him as an unholy sacrifice. Aided only by his titanic strength, skill, and sword, Guts must struggle against his bleak destiny, all the while fighting with a rage that might strip him of his humanity. Berserk is a dark and brooding story of outrageous swordplay and ominous fate, in the theme of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLoJVw-0P4&feature=youtu.be
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I had some strange impression about the preview at first but after seeing it a few more times, I think it might work out. I’m really surprised that Berserk is actually getting more anime after all these years, even after the movie trilogy. Should be interesting to see.

The series has been one of my favorite fantasy stories.


Last edited by Stark700 on Tue Mar 07, 2017 2:41 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:41 am Reply with quote
Episode 1:

I have really mixed thoughts about this. On one hand, the episode gave me some nostalgia just at seeing some of those flashbacks and guts fighting again.However, I'm really not a fan of the CGI stuff they used for the battle segments.

On a more positive note, I like the music for the show so far while the storytelling itself is questionable. Going to stick around for more to see how it goes..
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Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
Posts: 602
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:10 am Reply with quote
They absolutely gutted Blackswordsman, it's all over the place, and overall, it's everything I predicted and feared it'd be, plus more. When they get to Tower of Conviction, they'd better get it right, otherwise it'll never recover.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:48 am Reply with quote
The point of this first episode is to quickly establish an a character who has there own long story while not completely bogging the character down the current narrative with there own personal history.
Guts has demons following him, both metaphorical and literal, while he is very close to being the monster he would hint himself to be he still has some level of empathy for others.

I can understand if there are failings in trying to capture the essence of a character that is decades worth in establishing material, but I think in presenting a new animated production for what could be a new audience this was a decent enough first episode.
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Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
Posts: 602
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 12:15 pm Reply with quote
FenixFiesta wrote:
The point of this first episode is to quickly establish an a character who has there own long story while not completely bogging the character down the current narrative with there own personal history.
Guts has demons following him, both metaphorical and literal, while he is very close to being the monster he would hint himself to be he still has some level of empathy for others.

I can understand if there are failings in trying to capture the essence of a character that is decades worth in establishing material, but I think in presenting a new animated production for what could be a new audience this was a decent enough first episode.


Knowing what I know about future events, the problem is, they're skipping over important aspects which'll make later things incredibly confusing, one of those aspects being important to his quest and the themes of Berserk. Plus while they've got a bit of it, you don't get the full picture of Guts's goal or how monstrous he can really be. They've also combined completely separate events from other parts of the story in a patchwork manner that will affect future events unless they bring them in in the next couple of episodes. I'll wait and see....


Last edited by Souther on Fri Jul 01, 2016 2:31 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Ajc228



Joined: 29 Dec 2015
Posts: 264
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 12:48 pm Reply with quote
Jesus. I was hesitant from the trailer but this first episode confirmed the worst. The animation is terrible. They tried to go for this cell-shaded cg/2d effect that is incredibly awkward due to a pretty low frame-rate. Not a fan of the cell shaded stuff to begin with but this was worse than the movies. Is it a budgetary thing? Why can't they get a talented director to do a series of OVAs in 2d animation? I know the designs are detailed but I wouldn't mind if they simplified them slightly to allow for better animation. I would be able to power through the animation, but the writing is not strong enough to save this dumpster fire. It's a shame because I really liked the tv series and the manga. At least it's one less show I have to keep up with.
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 1:12 pm Reply with quote
I'm not feeling this at all. I was already skeptical about the CG, but I thought it could at least be Ajin or Bubuki Buranki-level good... This is just terrible, like almost unwatchable. The one plus I will give this show is that the soundtrack is fantastic. A shame this couldn't be better. Mad

Last edited by v1cious on Fri Jul 01, 2016 7:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 3:08 pm Reply with quote
CLANG!

also that merc who got chopped in half in episode 1 of the 90's anime is a glutton for punishment as here he is in brand new super 3d ultra-suck to get murdered all over again.

There were moments when the animation didn't suck great big hairy lesbian mammoth bollocks but those were sparse. Berserk is my favourite manga but so far its looking like all my adoration wont buy this monstrosity any leeway.

roll on berserk mousou.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11348
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 8:29 pm Reply with quote
So...what in the hell are those rabbits eating anyway? The femur he left in the fire was as long as my shinbone, and it was partially broken off. Shocked

Whatever mood they're trying to establish in the episode, the OP and ED songs just kill it. Did they get confused by Guts' arm and think they were doing another FMA reboot? Fullmetal Swordsman!
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Souther



Joined: 22 Feb 2015
Posts: 602
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:05 pm Reply with quote
Speaking of killing the mood, the "You're too damp for firewood!" one-liner certainly did just that after the event between Colette, her father and the skeletons. The issue of course is the stuff with Colette and the possessed tree (plus the one-liner) were orginally completely separate events in separate arcs, but they've been mashed together.

I really don't wanna be negative, but honestly, I think the first few eps are gonna be a mess. Hopefully things will pick up when we get to Conviction. I'm going to bed.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15462
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:13 pm Reply with quote
Episode 1

I will start off by saying that I actually have not seen earlier series, this is really the first time I have seen an episode of the anime. Now I am sure that itself is going to have people telling my to go and watch the original series, but I am really not that into watching it. Although it is not like I actually do not have an idea of the story, years back I watched the abridge series of Berserk, and although I probably don't know all of the facts, I have a pretty good idea of how it all goes. I am not really that interested in working through the series to make it to the very dark and gruesome moment where someone (I know as Griffith) turns into a demon, and everyone gets killed and or raped, I can be a bit sensitive to really gruesome things. Another experience I had recently was I watched a bit of a play through of a Dreamcast game, which is a relevant to watching this first episode, because the CG animation here is absolutely horrible.

Some parts of the episode looked pretty good, I think that there was a bit of good work in places that sold a tone, but other parts were really ugly. I think one of the key points were frame rates, when it was up it could look pretty good, and when it was down it looked really unnatural. Another I felt that there was something kind of missing of putting across the threat of being cut, which maybe sounds weird and maybe not put across right but I thought there was a problem. The models look pretty boxy, and I think I would say a bit too solid. We are meant to believe the characters are at risk of being hurt, but when the bandits are in the mouth of the tree monster they just look intact, there is really nothing that puts it across that they were impaled or cut or whatever. The worst I think was when Collette was impaled, like sure we see the spear or whatever it was gone through her the models did not sell brutality. Later we see her animated corpse has chopped off the head of her father, which did somewhat sell brutality, but the act itself was something we did not see much of, and her shambling corpse standing up only seems to have some red texture of where the wound would be, instead of say something that actually looks like a wound. It makes the follow up scene where he gets lightly impaled as having little tension, because their models just solid. The follow up of showing her body has been cleaved in half is the more impactful because it gives this feeling that these bodies are fragile and we are seeing an innocence defiled.

I don't think the show can get away with saying that it is a problem with CG models, because in my opinion something like Knights of Sidonia was able to use its CG models in a way that made me kind of feel the pain and could sell brutality. Maybe the CG might be used more effectively later, but at this moment it feel really out of place in this current setting. I will probably continue to watch to give my take on its uses as someone fairly fresh to the franchise.
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FenixFiesta



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 2581
PostPosted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 11:45 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I think one of the key points were frame rates, when it was up it could look pretty good, and when it was down it looked really unnatural

The issue seems to be that the studio is not adapt in "hiding the filler" in the 3d cg format, we know how bad off model shots look like and sometimes there are moments of "nothing really happening" usually as viewers we will literally over look the standard animation of off model character, but when the off model shot is a 3d cg animation actually moving at a strange frame rate our eyes simply must be forced to "gaze into the abyss" and not the intriguing kind.

Works from the studio's that brought us Sidonia and BBK/BRNK knew how to better hide the lower priority shots quality and as such the general viewership was able to focus on the story at hand in place of sudden frame rate drops which made the characters look like in game model ps2 era movements.

I am of little doubt the uneven balance of animation quality will continue for this season's run sooo all the nay sayers believing this will be an ugly piece of garbage just on the first episode, you will likely be proven correct at least for this cours worth of episodes.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15462
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:33 am Reply with quote
FenixFiesta wrote:
Quote:
I think one of the key points were frame rates, when it was up it could look pretty good, and when it was down it looked really unnatural

The issue seems to be that the studio is not adapt in "hiding the filler" in the 3d cg format, we know how bad off model shots look like and sometimes there are moments of "nothing really happening" usually as viewers we will literally over look the standard animation of off model character, but when the off model shot is a 3d cg animation actually moving at a strange frame rate our eyes simply must be forced to "gaze into the abyss" and not the intriguing kind.

It was moments like when he hopped off the cart that felt as a clear example of a problem. We should expect something that would give off fluid movement, but he moves stilted, especially with his cape that they are trying to give the illusion of blowing in the wind, and it just does not look right. It felt like a mistake that the creators of Bubuki Buranki and Sidonia did not make, I think it was that they knew that there were other ways to put across that sense of motion.

I think it is actually a misunderstanding of how to use it in that it tries to make all the movement come across as fluid, the other examples on the other hand largely focused on small things like hair blowing. Light things Would blow to show they are not stilted images, but when a character moved it would sudden, freezing after the moment then added the impact. They kind of got it with the sword in the first episode, although in my opinion they kind of undid it where after a swing they showed the sword moving in slow motion still moving, probably eating up their budget along with the impact that might have been delivered if it did just look like one quick fluid swing before looking like one big heavy mass afterwards. Anime has gone with that style for some time, that motion can be emphasised without actually looking like someone moving, and I think that is something they got wrong.
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Shadowrun20XX



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 1935
Location: Vegas
PostPosted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:39 am Reply with quote
Ep 1: I thought is was excellent but the pacing is questionable. They focused too long on the cart but they were getting to the point that the brand haunts him. If the pacing keeps up it will take forever to see the berserker armor, therefore the jump to Farnese is welcome. I'm happy it's censored in a way, got something to look forward to.

Yes the cg sucks, get over it.

Both OP and ED were great, what the hell did you all watch?
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11348
PostPosted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 2:07 am Reply with quote
^ Oh, they're not bad songs at all, just a terrible fit for Berserk.
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