Anime review time courtesy of Shawn Francis, this time looking at BERSERK, a bugnuts mental looking anime spawned from the series from the late 90s. Boasting some stunning animation courtesy of Studio4C, the guys behind the stunning Katsuhiro Otomo flick, Steamboy. Check out Shawn's words after the jump.
Written By Shawn Francis
I
first heard of this movie last year, and was not aware until recently
that it’s based on a manga, and that it
Every
time I see any kind of anime that even remotely falls into the “sword
and sorcery, Dungeons & Dragons” category, I always flash back
to high school when me and my friends were into Dungeons &
Dragons. I always imagine how psyched we would have been had
something like this been around at that time. In the mid-80s, all we
had for inspiration, in the toon department that is, was the Dungeons
& Dragons Saturday morning cartoon.
Berserk
focuses on a mercenary named, Guts, who fights with a sword
bigger than he is tall and has skills unmatched by any warrior in
existence. That is until one day he encounters the Band Of The Hawk
(aka The Grim Reapers Of The Battlefield) as he attempts to depart
the recent castle siege he was just involved with. An androgynous
warrior by the name of Griffith, who also leads the Hawks, has set
his sights on Guts and come hell or high water intends to make him
part of his notorious band. He does this by first besting him in
combat, but later on after he’s all healed from the wounds Griffith
gave him, he still resists. Another fight ensues and he’s bested
again. Cut to three years later and Guts is well integrated into The
Band Of The Hawk.
From
the start you get the feeling Griffith, despite his superior nature,
fighting skills and even temper, harbors ulterior motives that are
not in the best interest of Guts. Guts doesn’t see any of this, he
believes they are friends, equals, then one day they encounter
Nosferatu Zod, a demon who has been alive for more than two centuries
and has just gutted most of the Band’s men in an underground lair
of this castle.
Guts
has never seen anything like this greenish hulking, glowing-eyed
fiend, and vice versa, for combat with Zod generally ends up with Zod
winning. Guts manages to wound Zod. Zod tells Guts no human has ever
managed to wound him. He transforms into this immense Minotaur-like
beast and proceeds to try and tear Guts apart.
When
Griffith intervenes, Zod notices the thing that hangs around his
neck—the “Egg Of The King.” A strange looking amulet that
resembles a heart but with odd bulges all over it. These bulges are
eyeballs that open up and see. Griffith was given it as a kid. Zodd
turns to Guts and warns him that this man will someday betray him.
And then for reason known only to Zodd he stops trying to kill both
men, and flees the scene on a pair of bat wings he grows.
Yes,
by now we learn Griffith wants to be King someday, he wants power,
and he intends to use Guts in this endeavor. We also learn he will
stoop to any level to make this happen, even assassination. Life for
the Hawks becomes less violent and more stable once they get in the
steady employ of a King, but one of the King’s loyalists gets
passed over as Griffith takes over his position. An assassination is
attempted but Griffith’s egg protects him from the poisoned arrow.
The leader of the Hawks decides to give a little back and stage his
own assassination of the assassin, using a willing Guts to make this
happen, but the assassination does not go as planned. Well, it does,
actually, but the eight-year-old son of the man he’s been sent to
kill intervenes, and Guts kills him mistaking him for a retaliating
soldier sneaking into the room.
A
hard truth is learned later on when Guts over hears Griffith talking
to the King’s daughter and telling her his definition of
friendship, of which Guts does not meet. This is where the first
movie ends.
There
are flashbacks in the beginning of the film, which shows Guts as a
kid, and we see how really fucked up his childhood was; makes you
understand his mentality a lot better, too. He kind of reminds me of
Marvel’s mutant hero, Wolverine. His hotheaded personality is
almost the same.
The
animation is top notch. I did notice, however, the use of CGI in the
movie. Usage that reminded me of the way Japan used it in the
Marvel’s Anime series, Iron Man. The Iron Man suit animation
was really quite smooth, smoother than normal for traditional
Japanese animation. In the extras on that set I learned the Iron Man
suits were, in fact, pure CGI but tweaked so they fit in more with
the Japanese animation, which I thought was a brilliant idea. I
remember looking at them as they fought, flew, and interacted with
everyone and thinking, ‘Is that CGI or just really, really
excellent traditional animation?’ The same technique appears to be
used in some of the scenes in Berserk, making some of the
action of the characters appear more dynamic and smoother than
normal. I noticed it only in the beginning with the siege at the
castle, but for the most part the whole of the movie relies heavily
on good old fashion Japanese animation. In case I wasn’t sure,
right in the credits there’s a mention of CGI with a long list of
names under it.
Here
in the states Hollywood either goes all CGI, or all traditional
animation; never have I seen a meshing of the two like I did with
Iron Man or Berserk.
The bloodshed is
heavy, with limbs and heads being lopped off a plenty, not to mention
the letting loose of various gut-like organs in various scenes where
blades meet supple belly flesh. There’s even one poor guy who takes
a sword right to his junk. Some of it actually made me wince,
probably because of how expertly animated it was. I was also taken
aback by the sudden full frontal nudity that warrior chick, Casca,
displays in the beginning. Was not expecting that at all.
Berserk
is available in separate blu-ray and standard DVD releases. The blu
transfer is available in a 1080p 2.35:1 anamorphic aspect ratio,
while the audio comes in an English dubbed, DTS-HD 5.1 or the
original Japanese DTS-HD 5.1 (English subtitles are included). The
only extra feature is a Production Art Gallery, which are photos of
the characters, and a trailer for the anime streaming website, Neon
Alley.
I
highly recommend Berserk!
This
first movie is currently available in the States and in the UK, with
Part II set for release in the States, from Viz Media, in August.
Definitely
looking forward to the other two movies and seeing where this whole
tragic tale goes.
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