Berserk Golden Age Arc 1 Review (SPOILERS)

When it comes to finding something that grabs my interest within the first ten minutes, it would be safe to say that that is a very hard thing to accomplish. I am the first to say that I lost interest in most things within a short amount of time, either due to how short my attention span is, or how rather boring I find most newer anime and movies here recently. But last year, and given this movie came out in 2012, but let's pretend it came out last year, I stumbled across Berserk: The Golden Age Arc 1. Now, I had heard of the series before, given I grew up with a parent that watched it, and on several occasions, I had even snuck in to watch it when they were not paying attention.

I hear a lot of hate for the animation style in the movie, and to a point I can see why. It uses 3D animation mixed with tradition anime. This is something that I had only seen a few times, the one that seems to strike me the most is RWBY. I have a reason for why it used this style, especially in most of the action sequences. Cost. It is much cheaper to use 3D models with the design over them than cuts the amount of times that the people have to be redrawn. It may suck, but I found the movie far more enjoyable due to it's story, and the animation never really bothered me.

The story revolves around a mercenary named Guts, who at the start kills a fearsome enemy named Bazuso, which causes Griffith, the leader of the Band of the Hawk, to notice him. Shortly after the town is seized, Guts is attacked by two members of the Band of the Hawk. He mutilates one of the members before Casca, a unit commander for the Band of the Hawk, rides in and faces Guts, before being easily beaten and almost killed if not for Griffith coming in. Guts is beaten by him, passing out for several days.

From here, Guts wakes up to Casca, who was ordered by Griffith to sleep bare with Guts to keep him warm. She has no favor for Guts, and slaps him when he wakes up. He is then met by several members of the Hawk. After this, there is a dual between Guts and Griffith, with Griffith winning against Guts and making him part of the Hawk. From here, it does skip the first battle that Guts fought with the Hawk, instead cutting to the battle with the Black Ram Iron Lance Cavalry. They defeat the cavalry, wiping them out almost single handedly (Midland does join the fray once they see the tide turn.).

During one siege, Guts and Griffith encounter Nosferatu Zodd, the first Apostle shown in the series, who killed a large number of the Hawks. He and Guts fight, with Guts damaging Zodd, causing him to turn into his Apostle form. Griffith comes in with several of the Hawk, but most are killed once they launch a volley of arrows at Zodd, who says the interruption to the fight is unforgivable. Griffith manages to damage Zodd, which Zodd compliments before launching him back against a pillar. He is about to kill Griffith, when he notices the Beherit around Griffith's neck. He leaves, warning Guts that his death will come when Griffith's dreams are broken.

What follows is probably one of the darkest parts of this movie. Griffith is going up the ranks with the royals, which is something ill received by the nobles. At one point the King of Midland's daughter, Charlotte trips and Griffith catches her by the waist. Julius, the king's brother, slaps Griffith for laying a hand on Charlotte. This also leads to a failed assassination attempt due to Julius finding out that one day Griffith might equate him in rank. The attempt is failed, however, by the arrow hitting the Beherit instead of Griffith's heart.

Griffith then tasks Guts with the single task of killing Julius in retaliation to the assassination attempt. Guts manages to sneak into Julius' keep and kills him swiftly in one on one combat. Julius notices who he is before taking his final breath. The commotion draws the attention of Julius' son Adonis, who peaks into the room as Guts is hiding, seeing the carnage he rushes in, only to be skewered by Guts, not knowing it is a boy on the other side of the door. Adonis clutches Gut's hand before he dies, horrifying Guts. Guts manages to escape the tower, fleeing to a pub where the members of the Hawk are drinking.

Casca initially starts to get onto him, but when she sees the look on his fast she backs off, telling him where Griffith is, and after a few moments following him. He finds Griffith talking to Charlotte, and he is horrified when he hears Griffith's definition on who his friend and equal could be. Gut's, by what Griffith said, does not meet it, and the movie fades out from there.

My god, I love this movie so much. I had heard a few people when Game of Thrones came out compare some parts to Berserk, and vice versa. I can see where a lot of people are coming from, especially with the first two movies of the Golden Age Arc, but in a lot of ways, Berserk is much more twisted in a lot of ways. Also, Berserk has more dark fantasy elements like demons and monsters while Game of Thrones is a dark fantasy with some monster but mostly the more brutal side of humans.

I would suggest this series for anyone who loves fantasy, dark fantasy, war, brutal anime, and just really dark, twisted stories. One a scale of 1-10, with 1 being horrible and 10 being perfect, I would give this a 8.0/10 for a amazing dark story, some cool combat, and a real feeling setting reminiscent of medieval Europe.

Pros:
+Movie clocks in at 80 minutes, and doesn't feel like it overstays it's welcome at any point, with each scene flowing smoothly to the next.
+Amazing story that gets extremely dark at times, especially at the end.
+Amazing war scenes, that seem massive and show the talent in combat that each of the main Hawks have.

Cons:
-Animation can be a little janky at times.
-Dialogue does feel a little off and on at times.
-Can we talk about some of the art choices for Griffith's looks?