Berserk - Kentaro Miura
Berserk is an anime series that goes for the serious, hard edged view of life. It's about a band of mercenaries in an age of swords and horseback riders.
Based on the extremely popular manga by Kentaro Miura, the anime series is directed by Naohito Takahashi and has music by Susuma Hirasawa.
The castle town of Midland is the center of the series, with the Band of the Hawk as a mercenary band that grows in power as its reputation builds. The band's leader, Griffith, is well respected by both his allies and enemies, and has aims to someday rule the land.
Into this band's path runs Guts, an orphan who was rejected by the group of soldiers he grows up with. Guts and Griffith slowly gain respect for each other and become a well matched fighting team.
The graphics are well done, from the gigantic swords to the details of the armor. There is a cross between medieval British styling and traditional Japanese samurai equipment, although it is mostly European. The dubbing was reasonably done, with the characters seeming to have emotion and match the lips reasonably well. The music was low key and non-intrusive.
There is some blood, and in some cases it is the spray-for-10-seconds variety when heads are cut off. But it is not overly excessive when compared to other anime out there. The characters are not immature and inane - they each have realistic motivations and a hard-edge view of life. These aren't schoolkids who think that worms are icky. They are soldiers who have had to fight to get where they are, who have seen betrayal and compassion.
Buy Berserk Vol 1 from Amazon.com
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