Berserk
[Episodes 1-25 Reviewed]
[Reviewed by Brinson]

Anyone out there remember "The Persian Boy", Mary Renault's pseudo-historical take about Alexander the Great as seen through his slave boy's eyes? It wasn't as good as certain (rabid yaoi girls, I'm looking at you) fangirls would lead us to believe. What it lacked for in...oh, characterization, for one....it made up for in its subtle examination of the ambition driving such an extraordinary man. Berserk is sort of like this. Although, I would hesitate to call it a meditation on ambition, simply for the factors that differentiate it from "The Persian Boy": blood, ruthlessness, and a whole lot of EVIL DEATH.

Plot, Schmot.
Gatts didn't have a great childhood, and his middle years aren't shaping up to be much better. Swinging a massive sword since he was a wee one has landed him a career in the exciting field of mercenary war. Fresh off a job and assumably reeling with testosterone, he encounters a rather effeminate looking young man and, of course, feels the need to beat him senseless. However, this elfin fellow makes short work of handing Gatts his ass, and demands he join his ragtag gang of quirky adventurers. This entourage is the rising Band of the Hawk, and their blue haired cutie of a commander is Griffith. And Griffith owns just about the ugliest pendant in existence, a terrifying nugget of misshapen facial features supposed to lead him to unimaginable power.

Yeah, So What About the EVIL DEATH?
Berserk is, in most respects, a hardcore manime. Muscles, boobies, and death in most squirmingly efficient manners all make a cameo. That said, there's little in the way of Fist of the North Star or Dragonball that sends us fangirls running. While I would hesitate to call it a thinking man's anime, there's some surprisingly deep stuff at work here. Characters evolve, people change in degrees of gray--there's no Big Bad here, only flawed people doing shitty things to their fellow humanity. It's the rare anime that addresses the grieving that comes with losing someone while they're still alive.

But back to the evolution thing. Let's take our lead for argument's sake. Gatts is--well, a detestable meathead at first. With no definable character traits and that silly ostentatious sword, I was hoping the little fellow would take a header down something steep and rocky. But something weird happened as the anime progressed: I actually began to care about him. A true coming of age story, Berserk follows its protagonist from a misanthropic lump of muscles to a mature human being. He questions himself, his loyalties, and ultimately the consequences of his actions; is it possible to live without dreams? And can there be any selflessness in dreaming? Am I still talking about a shonen series here? With all its raw imagery, Berserk is about as earthy as you get, but it asks some pretty big questions without being heavy-handed/preachy. No moral treatises on spiders or butterflies, here.

But a good deal of you ladies were probably sent skittering back into the greenwood from whence you came at the sheer mention of muscles, no? I'll admit, the visual style is formidably masculine. Big guys strutting about in spiky armor has never been my thing either. Berserk amends this by having one of the most varied looking casts I've encountered in anime, from big-silent-Buddha Pippin to requisite bishonen Griffith. And really, once you get past the initial gag reaction to all that well-toned skin, the animation's quite remarkable. Unlike Kenshin and its ilk, the majority of fights are portrayed in real-time, with people moving about in *realistic space*....as opposed to, you know, the cheap-ass running paint background. Details win: characters change clothes at a shojo-like rate, and the distinctive style in which the sky is rendered is suitable methadone for your Trigun withdraw.

This Paragraph is About Judea and Music and Some Spoilers, Too.
...Because I can't structure a simple review for the life of me. As further proof that Akira Ishida CAN DO NO WRONG, there's Judea. Hands down the nicest, noblest member of the cast--of course he's screwed from the get go. ...Albeit, I take a little solace in the fact that most everyone was brutally screwed as well. After twenty episodes of medieval politicking and soul-searching, without nary a heads-up, suddenly we're in a raging anime apocalypse--huh? I can only think that Berserk's less than up-with-people finale is some macabre response to Evangelion's off-screen end of the world. Don't skip the last episode. Just, watch it with crisis counseling close at hand.

Oh yeah, and the music. Download and looove Gatsu, Earth, and Behelit. Give in, ye bitches, and loooove the muscles. Loooove Judea. Serious criticism, pishaw. You're not going to get much more than puppy-eyed adoration out of me at this point.

The Bottom Line
Sometimes I forget there's a difference between adult anime and mature anime. ...Fortunately, Berserk is a little bit of column A, and a whole lot of column B. As of writing this (11/26), the entire series can be had--had on DVD, no less--for around 35 bucks on Ebay. And you can't beat that with a stick.