jmoriarty84

Continuing from where the last movie leaves off, Guts leaves the Band of the Hawk and Griffith is captured. It is now a year later and Guts has returned to save Griffith who is now only beyond a mere shell of his former glory self. Anyway, I say this has been the best movie of the trilogy so far. In context to story, the beginning is very rushed and some scenes are taken out from the original manga and some are properly rearranged. But it doesn't really hurt the flow for the story in relation to the movie. It works in its own way, butI will admit as a manga purist, idealistically, I wish it followed the manga 100% to a t, but that's just me. This movie is now 2 hours so it allows more content, though I wish all the movies were 2 hours. The controversial CG in my humble opinion, has improved but still has its problems. I say the frame rate is more even and the frame size in proportion to the characters and foreground appropriately accommodates it. It still comes across as "gamey," but it is an improvement, but by no means perfect. The action is very violent and lives up to its bad ass title. There will be plenty of blood and gore. Even though Guts is the main character and a bad ass, I will admit when this guy fights, he scares me and this movie does a good job of making me scared of the main character. There's nothing to fear, but fear itself, but fear fears Guts. On a list of top anime bad asses, Guts has to be on that list no doubt. I say what defines the art and animation is how it sets the atmosphere and brings you into the emotions. You feel Griffith's fragility. Even though you don't see him unmasked, the detail to the art on whatever you see of his face is enough to give you an idea of what he would look like if unmasked. You see the hesitation of Guts on whether or not he should leave the Hawks again. You feel Casca's frustrations. I feel that the raw emotions bring a sense of substance in conjunction to its R-15+ (the equivalent to an NC-17 in America) rating. The voice acting, as I have admitted in previous reviews, has been an issue for me. I will admit that Guts' new actor has shown improvement and shown instances that he can capture the character. But I will openly admit as a purist and fanboy that Nobutoshi Canna is still Guts to me while Michael Bell will always be his English voice to me. The guy who plays Jedau does an ok imitation of the character's original voice actor, Ishida Akira. Maybe for people not familiar with the previous anime series and the games will not find this to be an issue and may like the voice actors. Like the second movie, the soundtrack is more acoustics and orchestrated. My thoughts on that carry onto this movie as well. It suits the time period very well and knows how to suit the atmosphere. The orchestra in the ending credits was very impressive. Susumu Hirakawa still does the opening theme and is my favorite part of the soundtrack. Still, like the newer voice cast, fans new to Berserk who had not seen the previous anime series or played the games will probably not think of this as an issue. The closest thing to a spoiler I can give is that after the ending credits, there is a post credits scene which isn't much for some people, but after that is over, there is a message in clear English that says "This is only the beginning" meaning we will get new Berserk movies. I say its only natural with the easter eggs in previous movies, this series deserves its shot where it really shines. For those not familiar with the Berserk manga, this new trilogy is a mere fraction of what Berserk has to offer. So I hope we hear more news soon if a new Berserk movie will come out this year or not. After that, we get a bonus music video!!! So fans will most likely enjoy this.

literaturenerd

Overview: After how much I bashed the first 2 Berserk films, you might be surprised to learn that I actually really liked the 3rd one! I try not to be petty and hold grudges, where I will automatically attack every work in a certain franchise or by a certain author, simply because I didn't like previous entries. In the 3rd film covering the Eclipse portion of the Berserk storyline, they FINALLY get it right. SPOILERS! The first vast improvement is the pacing. The 3rd film covers an appropriate number of episodes, so the much beloved story and characters of Berserk don't need to be massively watered downin order to fit a 2 hour run time. In fact, the 3rd film is able to give us background about the Berserk world that the original anime wasn't able to fit in. We also get to actually see the full conclusion of the Eclipse instead of a random fade to black. We know from the first episode of the original Berserk anime that Guts survived the Eclipse, but the first anime doesn't even hint as to how he could have survived it. The 3rd movie is able to fit in the Skull Knight in all his Deus ex Machina glory! Given the movie did unfortunately cut out the Skull Knight's fight with Zodd the Immortal, but just showing the escape made it a massive improvement on the original ending. I also appreciated that the movie captured the full brutality and horror of the Eclipse even better than the first anime. There were parts of the original anime that I liked better including Judeau's final confession of love for Caska. However, Berserk 3 still does a very solid job adapting this portion of the manga...unlike those first 2 movies. On a technical level, the CGI is vastly improved and actually doesn't look like complete shit for once. The music was also pretty solid throughout, although the extremely melodramatic piano piece when Griffith rapes Caska was a tad out of place. I wasn't sure if he was going to rape her or tie her to a railroad track while evilly twisting his handlebar mustache. Bonus Section: Trivia The "Eclipse" happens every 216 years because 6 x 6 x 6 = 216. The Godhand members are all named after obscure books by great fantasy/scifi writers that Miura likes. Each Godhand member is partially inspired by one of these titans of fantasy. Void = Frank Herbert Conrad = Roger Zalazny Ubik = Philip K Dick Slan = AE van Vogt Berserk is one of VERY few non-hentai titles to show pubic hair. Although there is no longer a censorship law against this in 2015, most anime don't do this out of convention to keep the border between hentai and non-hentai echii clear. Guts was named after the real life historical figure Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen, a badass medieval mercenary who fought with a prosthetic iron hand just like Guts.