History Anime / Berserk1997

* WeaponStomp: When the Baron reveals his true form and strikes Guts so that he can hardly move, Guts desperately reaches for the Dragon Slayer lying several feet away only for the Baron to crush his outstretched arm with his tail.

* InAWorld: The ''In this world...'' OpeningNarration introduces a setting in which no one is in control of their own fate, which is manipulated by mysterious powers beyond their comprehension.

* HighPressureBlood: The show uses copious high pressure blood as a stylistic flair; In episode 3's duel between Guts and Griffith, for instance, each shallow slashing cut that Griffith opens on Guts' arms and legs shoots out a ribbon of blood to a distance of perhaps two feet!

** The first episode is a loose adaptation of the manga's first chapter with a few elements of the other seven chapters of the Black Swordsman arc: Guts's encounter with a female Apostle is skipped, though she still appears during the Eclipse. Puck is cut because, despite being a major character, the rest of the anime is an arc he doesn't appear in; the girl and her father (here her grandfather) from the manga's second chapter take Puck's place in what was his introductory scene. Instead of getting a Behelit from the Count, Guts gets one from the Snake Baron. Instead of encountering the Godhand in person, Guts sees them in his dream and Griffith is mentioned by two villagers.

* BarbieDollAnatomy: The males are drawn without nipples, and genitals are either hidden with a CensorShadow or simply not drawn in. The ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged'' series parodies this with Guts's complaints about his lack of genitals, for which he [[RageAgainstTheAuthor beats up the character designer]].

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Guts infiltrates a fort commanded by Adon by disguising as a Tudor soldier and then takes the gatehouse, allowing the rest to stream in.
* EvilOverlooker: Zodd, as can be seen in the above picture.
* EyeScream: Casca stabs one of her would-be rapists in the eye with a stick during the Hundred Man Fight, and then the same guy gets his remaining eye gouged by one of Judeau's knives a moment later. Of course, the guy had it coming, but still. *shudder*

** The tail end of the Golden Age Arc before the Eclipse is [[CompressedAdaptation significantly cut down]]: A brief tournament Guts participates in, which introduced Silat and the Kushan Empire, is skipped. The Griffith RescueArc is much shorter, leaving out the fights with a squad of Kushan assassin and an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores lead by the Apostle Wyald. Most critically, Skull Knight and any scene where he appears is cut out entirely, [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole leaving no explanation at all]] for how Guts escaped the Eclipse at the anime's end.

* BarbieDollAnatomy: The males are drawn without nipples, and genitals are either hidden with a CensorShadow or simply not drawn in. The ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged'' series parodies this with Gut's complaints about his lack of genitals, for which he [[RageAgainstTheAuthor beats up the character designer]].

* EyeScream: Casca stabs one of her would-be rapists in the eye with a stick during the Hundred Man Fight, and then the same guy gets his remaining eye gouged by one of Judeau's knives a moment later. Of course, the guy had it coming, but still. * shudder*

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The lack of Skull Knight means that when [[spoiler:Rickert's unit is attacked by the Count and Rosine, the scene just ends with him staring at the Count in horror. [[FridgeHorror Rickert's never seen again]], even in the beginning when Guts is shown with all his new gear.]]

** In the manga, Guts fights during the eclipse without armor, because he used the armor as a decoy against Wyald, and with his sword broken, the blade left stuck in Wyald's neck. In this version, Guts is actually wearing his armor when everything happens, but he seemingly leaves his sword in camp in his haste to go after Griffith. Not completely inconcievable, but given how Guts is normally so keen on keeping his sword with him at all times, it seems a bit odd that he wasn't wearing it--especially since he hadn't even bothered to take his armor off.

** In the manga, Guts fights during the eclipse without armor, because he used the armor as a decoy against Wyald, and with his sword broken, the blade left stuck in Wyald's neck. In this version, Guts is actually wearing his armor when everything happens, but seems to just ''leave'' his sword in camp for no reason when he goes running after Griffith.

** In the manga, the Queen agreed to lead the conspiracy instigated by Minister Foss because [[spoiler:she and Julius had been lovers, and Foss helped her figure out that Griffith was responsible]]. This connection between her and [[spoiler:Julius]] is never shown in the anime, and she only thinks about the importance of preserving Midland's royal bloodline, which doesn't give her as much of a reason to hate Griffith personally even if it's still a sufficient explanation for her participation in the conspiracy.

''Berserk (1997)'', also known as ''Sword Wind Chronicle Berserk'' (剣風伝奇ベルセルク, ''Kenpuu Denki Beruseruku''), is a 25 episode anime adaptation of the seminal DarkFantasy manga ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' by Kentaro Miura. Directed by Naohito Takahashi, with series composition by Yasuhiro Imagawa and animation by [[Creator/OLMIncorporated Oriental Light and Magic]], the series aired from October 7, 1997 to March 31, 1998 and opened the door for all the other ''Berserk'' adaptations that followed.

'''''As of April 5, 2017, all your votes are needed for a character portrait policy [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/remarks.php?trope=Characters.Berserk here]] on the Characters/Berserk discussion page.'''''

* KillEmAll: Ends with [[spoiler:all of the Hawks except Guts and Griffith dying in the Eclipse, with Casca and Rickert somehow unaccounted for]].

** In the manga, Guts used the armor as a decoy against Wyald, while his sword was broken and the blade left stuck in Wyald's neck. in this version Guts is actually wearing his armor when everything happens, but seems to just ''leave'' his sword in camp for no reason when he goes running after Griffith.

** We all know from the manga that Guts HatesBeingTouched because [[spoiler:he got raped as a child]], and there are three later scenes showing how much he doesn't enjoy it: first when being clasped on the shoulder by a general, second when he mutters in his sleep while Casca is warming him, and third when Pippin picks him up [[PlayedForLaughs for the lulz]]. These same three scenes show up in this anime, only it's never explained why Guts hates being touched because the flashback to Guts' childhood leaves out Donovan.

* GratuitousJapanese: In the English dub, the names of Adon's techniques are left untranslated from the Japanese, such as ''"ganzansenpuu"'' which means "rock-cutting whirlwind". Perhaps the localization team thought they would sound awkward if translated literally, but to have a character in a MedievalEuropeanFantasy using Japanese words and phrases in an English dub without explanation sounds pretty weird.

** Also, it looked like Guts simply forgot to bring his sword for the Eclipse. In the manga he used the armor as a decoy against Wyald, while his sword was broken and the blade left stuck in Wyald's neck; in this version Guts is actually wearing his armor when everything happens, but he still leaves his sword in camp when he goes running after Griffith.

[[caption-width-right:300:''♪ Tell me what, tell me what, tell me what you want. ♪''[[labelnote:Characters]]Bottom row, left to right; [[AntiHero Guts]], [[RedBaron Black Swordsman Guts]], [[{{Yandere}} Griffith]], [[TheChick Casca]]; Above, [[NobleDemon Nosferatu Zodd]].[[/labelnote]]]]

* LimitedAnimation: Lacking the kind of production resources necessary to create a lot of fancy movement, the show relies heavily on good old animation-saving tricks like the PastelChalkedFreezeFrame, StockFootage, and editing that minimizes the need for in-betweens. Even by late nineties standards it's pretty bare-bones, and they clearly couldn't attempt to match the manga's mind-blowing detail, but skillful directing and the beautiful paintings used for the freeze frames and backgrounds manage to make a lot out of a little.

->''♪ I'm waiting so long/ I'm waiting so long. ♪''

[[caption-width-right:300:''♪ Tell me what, tell me what, tell me what you want. ♪''[[labelnote:Characters]]Bottom row, left to right; Guts, Black Swordsman Guts, Griffith, Casca; Above, Nosferatu Zodd.[[/labelnote]]]]