Friday, July 1, 2016

Berserk (2016) - Episode 1: The Branded Swordsman - Review and Thoughts


Ok, so let me start off by saying that I apologize I haven't been updating this blog as much as I promised a few months. Life has been busy between my degree, work and travel mostly in the last few month and although a ton of stuff happened regarding Berserk , I didn't find the time to write about all that.

However, the first episode of the new series got recently released and today being a holiday and all, that means I have all the time in the world to go into details about my thoughts of the first episode. This will basically be an extended version of what I wrote on the Berserk subreddit megathread about the episode.

I'll simply break down the episode into different highlights that I noted after watching the episode a first watch.

1. The Opening: "Inferno" by 9mm Parabellum Bullet


I liked the OP in general. Quality animation (for the most of it) with some re-used scenes form the movies. Consisted mainly throwback at the Golden Age characters and the Eclipse, so not a lot of foreshadowing for what's to come in the series, which I don't mind. Some nice symbolism too with the Band being all burned down, actually there was a lot of fire in the whole OP, so they really went down with that theme all the way.

The song itself, "Inferno", which really connects with what I've just said about fire, by "9mm Parabellum Bullet", was ok at best. A lot of oldschool fans of the first anime adaptation are probably not as happy with the result. "Tell Me Why" by "Penpals" was a much more slow paced song that despite that, still had some heaviness to it and really connects with what the character were going through as the series progressed. I don't really see that happening with this song.

I don't see this happening with this song. Sure, it has some catchy moments, but as a first impression, I think it was an ok choice at best. However, as always with anime OPs, I like to ive them a grace period of a few episodes to see if the song as potential to grow on you like so many.

9mm Parabellum Bullet don't have an extensive anime song backlog. Aside from the opening for the 2008 anime "RD Sennou Chousashitsu" entitled "Wanderland", they haven't done much in the anime industry.


2. CGI/Animation

Surely one of the most controversial and dividing factor among fan. Maybe dividing is a bit of an overstatement, since I'm under the impression the majority didn't like the idea/were afraid it'd be shit. Well, I must say I found myself not too bothered by the - at times very obnoxious - CGI. Some of the movement looked really clunky and "video-gamy", but the flow of action sequence was generally not too bad. I did notice they took some shortcuts though in those said action sequences: I noticed they opted for various cuts that left out what would have been very detailed action sequences. Most of the "big scenes" are close-ups of Guts and the Dragonslayer; very rarely there are wider shots of him killing the spooky skeletons or chopping down that tree. In overall I'd say they were passable. I did found myself being hyped up in one of the fights, so that's at least a good sign.

Where I think most of the negative aspect of the CGI lies would be in the facial expressions. Generally, the exaggerated features of anime characters makes it really easy for the animators to have the characters express different feelings. The CGI totally kills that advantage over regular animations; most of the time the characters' face seem to bland and lifeless. I understand Berserk is a gritty and dark series, but that doesn't mean all the faces need to be neutral at all time. There's a serous lack of shading on the faces making gritty/frowned faces almost impossible to achieve. The faces are also always the same color with some added global lights. I mean, look at Guts' face after the big fight of the episode:


You would expect it to be at least a bit dirtier. I hope it won't stay like that the whole time. Speaking of bad CGI and expression-less face, here's another one:


I mean, look at Colette's face. This is such a basic face, it looks like it's from a 2010 Japanese video game...

One other artistic choice they made that really stand out is the shading and the very heavy use of diagonal "manga style" lines to accentuate shading on the models. I really think this is a hit and miss. It can look good at some points:


Notice the line gradient from left to right, with the lines becoming lighter. I'd say the above screenshot is some quality work, but unfortunately this cannot be said for other parts of the episode:


This really speaks for itself... the mix of bad CG model/animation plus the crude shading lines doesn't mix well at all.

So yeah, to wrap it up, I wouldn't say I'm that disappointed in the animation: it is nowhere near great, but it's passable enough to not break immersion too much, although some passages are really awful and make you remember you're watching some poor CGI animation. The latter is what needs to be gone. I don't mind the so-so quality, but at least have consistent so-so quality so the viewer doesn't get reminded of that.


3. Sound/Music

The sounds effects were quite enjoyable I must say. Notably the mixing they used for the Dragonslayer was exactly how I would expect a huge slab of steel to sound like. The part were the narrator talks about the sword (a narration most fan will probably remember) got some really good sounds effect to compliment that. To the sound of heavy oscillating metal when Guts swings to the loud and heavy impacts sounds, sounds that had different variation too, not just the same clip used multiple times. So yeah, I'm really pleased with the SFX so far.

As for the BG music along the episode, nothing really stand out too much: some generic ambiance music here and there. There was some catchy metal/orchestra segments that synergized well with the action at some times, but nothing that will make me look forward the soundtrack CD release...

The insert of "Hai yo" by Hirasawa Susumu during the preview at the end was a good surprise though. I'm not aware of the level of involvement by Hirasawa in the whole production, but I'm surely hoping there will be more.

They also reused during the preview a variation of the "Blood and Guts" by Shiro Sagisu, song that was used primary as the ending credit of the movies (among others). That is good since that song was quite good and moody; a perfect fit for Berserk.

4. Voice acting

Nothing outstandingly bad or good I think. Iwanaga Hiroaki, who voiced Guts in the movies as well, did a good job before, so I'm confidant he'll get it right for the series as well.

I was not a great fan of Puck's voice, by Mizuhara Kaoru, but I think I can get over it.

I loved the narration though. I believe it was made by Ishizuka Unshou, who also happened to be the narrator and Void's voice in the original series. Imediatly noticed as the episode started since I'm currently re-watching all the Initial D series and he's voicing Bunta in there.


5. Story/writing

One of the main weakness of the episode, as many stated, is its writing and the way it was put together. It did not feel like a continuous story at all, but rather like a bunch of scenes stitched together to make a 20 min long episode. Farnese and Schierke get a few seconds of screen time without anything else during the rest of the episode, but at the end for Farnese. Most Berserk fan won't mind that, but this would be incredibly confusing for a new viewer and totally pointless. They try to have the first few introduction scenes as an intro to the "huge epic story" ahead, but it doesn't work at all.

All the rest of the scenes are just about Guts being somewhere at some time. No clue what he did after the Eclipse or what's his current goal (again most of the long time fans know, but I'm putting myself in a newcomer shoes now).

The whole bandit ambush thing also felt really unnecessary. I understand they wanted to establish the fact the Berserk universe is dark, full of blood and malice, but it could have been done another way.

The series is directed by  Itagaki Shin, who doesn't have stellar portfolio so far... I'm a bit worried about that and hope the supervision of Miura will help straighten things up.

6. Preview

Looks like more story will happen in the next episode with Farnese and the Iron Chain Knights catching up with Guts. Big question about the next episode: will the horse scene be there or not?

Final Thoughts

Did I enjoy the episode? Yes. Am I looking forward the next one? Yes. I'd say that' a good start as far as enjoyment goes, but that's ultimately up to my subjective criteria to enjoy something; I can totally see why some of you are going to trash the series and deep down I am somewhat disappointed our beloved Berserk didn't win the Animation Studio jackpot and got some higher production budget.

It's surely worth a watch, but don't set your expectation to high (for now).

To give it a note (which I don't believe in that much as a rating system), I'd give the episode a:

3.3/5 or C+

The episode is available legally for streaming on Crunchyroll for Premium members:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/berserk/episode-1-the-branded-swordsman-714981

Until next time,

g0rth


g0rth Web Developer

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