History Anime / Berserk1997

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sword_wind_chronicle_berserk_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''♪ [[AwesomeMusic/{{Berserk}} Hai Yai Forces!]] ♪''[[labelnote:Characters]]Bottom row, left to right; [[AntiHero Guts]], [[RedBaron Black Swordsman Guts]], [[{{Yandere}} Griffith]], [[TheChick Casca]]; Above, [[NobleDemon Nosferatu Zodd]].[[/labelnote]]]]

** The upbeat melody of "Tell Me Why" by Penpals sharply contrasts with the dark and violent mood of the whole series, especially in the final episodes.

** Having to hear the SolemnEndingTheme "Waiting So Long" right after seeing [[spoiler: Guts in utter physical and emotional agony from having to watch Casca get raped to insanity]] is REALLY unsettling.

* ShoutOut: In the first episode, the bartender looks at his ruined bar area after Guts kills some men who tried to rape a young girl. The bartender states "Aww, what a mess. [[Film/LethalWeapon I'm too old for this kind of bullshit]]."

* DownerEnding: The Golden Age Arc comes to a totally depressing ending. [[spoiler:Griffith, who is completely broken from a year of being put to the torture and who has pretty much lost everything worth living for, uses his Crimson Behelit to call forth the Godhand on the day of the Eclipse, resulting in Guts and all of his friends being transported to Hell. There, the Godhand, the Big Bads of the setting, reveal the true nature of demons and persuade Griffith to sacrifice the Hawks in exchange for becoming their fifth member. Griffith accepts their Deal with the Devil, everyone gets marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, and carnage ensues as everyone is picked off one by one by a whole mess of things out of pure nightmare until only Guts and Casca are left. Then Guts' left arm gets caught in a demon's jaws as he tries to save Casca from the demons, and as he tries to free himself, Griffith is reborn as a demonic god known as Femto, who begins to rape Casca in front of Guts. Guts is forced to chisel off his arm with what's left of his sword in order to save her, only to be trapped again by more monsters and is forced to watch as Femto rapes Casca right in front of him as his right eye is clawed out. Guts somehow survives, but everybody he cares about is gone.]] Compared to the manga--and to some extent the movies--which leave some hope for the future as the story will continue, the way the anime leaves off is particularly stark because of its abruptness and lack of closure.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: Guts infiltrates a fort commanded by Adon by disguising as a Tudor soldier and then takeing the gatehouse, allowing the rest to stream in.

* ForegoneConclusion: The series lets you know from the get go that Guts' relationship with Griffith will not end well by having the first episode take place after the rest of the series, showing that Guts hates Griffith and that Griffith has become something beyond human. The rest of the series is just about how they got to that point.

* GoryDiscretionShot: Occasionally the show cuts away from gore and leaves it to your imagination, such as in the second episode when Guts kills Bazuzo. The original manga, and later ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc, explicitly show Guts chopping Bazuso's head in two with such force that an [[EyeScream eyeball]] pops out!

* ActorAllusion: In a dub outtake, Guts asks a group of soldiers, "So, which one of you is [[Anime/DragonballZ Goku]] (Creator/SeanSchemmel)?"

** The upbeat melody of "Tell me Why" by Penpals sharply contrasts with the dark and violent mood of the whole series, especially in the final episodes.
** Having to hear the SolemnEndingTheme "Waiting so Long" right after seeing [[spoiler: Guts in utter physical and emotional agony from having to watch Casca get raped to insanity]] is REALLY unsettling.

* WeaponStomp: When the Baron gets ScaledUp and gives Guts such a devastating beatdown that he can hardly move, Guts desperately reaches for the Dragon Slayer lying on the ground several feet away, only for the Baron thwart him by crushing his outstretched arm with his tail.

* PragmaticAdaptation: This anime tones down some of the more graphic violence and sexual content for the sake of a TV audience, and focuses more on the themes of ambition and friendship instead of on the series-wide themes of causality and the supernatural. This, combined with slightly fewer slapstick gags, helps to give much of the series a dark, serious, and realistic atmosphere. Despite all the changes from the manga, including of the [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole plot holes]] and [[AdaptationExplanationExtrication lack of explanation for some scenes]], the fans were pretty accepting of these changes because the reinterpretation still preserved the essence of what they love about ''Berserk''.

* 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.
** Naturally, this is parodied by the HilariousOuttakes: ''"In a world of tiny red objects, one man held one for a very long, long time."''

This anime produced some HilariousOuttakes from the English dub which are detailed on the ''Berserk'' [[Funny/{{Berserk}} Funny page]], and also inspired the gleeful parody ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged''.

This anime produced some HilariousOuttakes from the English dub which are detailed in the ''Funny/{{Berserk}}'' Funny page, and also inspired the gleeful parody ''WebVideo/BerserkAbridged''.

** 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, since the blade snapped off when he stabbed Wyald in the 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 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.

** The upbeat melody of "Tell me Why" by Penpals sharply contrasts with the dark and violent plot of the show, especially in the final episode.

* PastelChalkedFreezeFrame: The show often relies on heavily stylized still frames at a dramatic moment to compensate for its LimitedAnimation. [[TropesAreNotBad This is not always to the show's detriment]], as certain scenes use this trope with startling effectiveness, an example of which being [[spoiler:the scene where Casca and Guts embrace each other as lovers]].

** 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.

This series is well-loved in the fandom as a PragmaticAdaptation that preserves the spirit of the original work, takes its time focusing on CharacterDevelopment, uses good editing and art direction to make a lot out of a shoestring production with LimitedAnimation, and features a memorable soundtrack by Music/SusumuHirasawa. This version notably has a GainaxEnding that abruptly leaves Guts hanging and rolls the end credits at the bleakest moment in the Eclipse, a shocking conclusion to the series that deliberately denies closure to the viewer and leaves them feeling the same sense of rage and grief that Guts does. This approach admittedly introduces an AdaptationInducedPlotHole concerning how Guts is still alive in TheStinger when he girds on the Dragon Slayer and embarks on the RoaringRampageOfRevenge depicted in the first episode, and avoids dealing with some important things that happen in the immediate aftermath. Still, it is a great way for newcomers who are not used to reading manga to get hooked on the series, and the cliffhanger ending ensures that once invested in the story and characters, one will feel compelled to pick up the manga and read up on the rest.

* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: In a bit of appropriately surreal imagery during Guts' nightmare in episode 2, Gambino accuses Guts of killing him, and a wound appears on his body which gushes forth blood like a fire hydrant; as Guts is pinned down by a giant hand and surrounded by taunting skeletons, Gambino's continuously gushing wound is literally ''producing a rainstorm'' over everything!
* PastelChalkedFreezeFrame: The show often relies on heavily stylized still frames at a dramatic moment to compensate for its LimitedAnimation. [[TropesAreNotBad This is not always to the show's detriment]], as certain scenes use this trope with startling effectiveness, an example of which being [[spoiler:the scene where Casca and Guts establish their relationship as lovers]].

* DressHitsFloor: "Cape Hits Floor" in this slightly more censored anime, where after their second IntimateHealing encounter, Casca starts fighting with Guts after he [[StayInTheKitchen insulted her]]... in nothing but his cape... This can count as [[FunnyMoments/{{Berserk}} a funny moment]] [[RuleOfFunny depending on]] [[NakedPeopleAreFunny how you look at it.]]

* RoleReprisal: The primary cast of the English dub-- most notably Guts, Casca, and Griffith-- returned for the movies.

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Without the Skull Knight the anime is left with a few plot holes, such as how Guts ever escaped from the Eclipse.

** 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 assassins and an ArmyOfThievesAndWhores lead by the Apostle Wyald. Most critically, the Skull Knight and any scene where he appears is cut out entirely, [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole leaving no explanation at all]] for how Guts or Casca escaped the Eclipse at the anime's end.

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:The show ends with the God Hand achieving their goal of corrupting Griffith, and Griffith getting away with sacrficing all his followers in order to become a god-like being.]] The manga story doesn't end here, but that's as far as the show covers.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Downplayed. This anime significantly tones down on the violence, nudity, and sex, at least until the Finale when it shows the Eclipse about as graphically as the standards of the time would allow.

* DownerEnding: The Golden Age Arc comes to a totally depressing ending. [[spoiler:Griffith, who is completely broken from a year of being put to the torture and who has pretty much lost everything worth living for, uses his Crimson Behelit to call forth the Godhand on the day of the Eclipse, resulting in Guts and all of his friends being transported to Hell. There, the Godhand, the Big Bads of the setting, reveal the true nature of demons and persuade Griffith to sacrifice the Hawks in exchange for becoming their fifth member. Griffith accepts their Deal with the Devil, everyone gets marked with the Brand of Sacrifice, and carnage ensues as everyone is picked off one by one by a whole mess of things out of pure nightmare until only Guts and Casca are left. Then Guts' left arm gets caught in a demon's jaws as he tries to save Casca from the demons, and as he tries to free himself, Griffith is reborn as a demonic god known as Femto, who begins to rape Casca in front of Guts. Guts is forced to chisel off his arm with what's left of his sword in order to save her, only to be trapped again by more monsters and is forced to watch as Femto rapes Casca right in front of him as his right eye is clawed out. Guts somehow survives, but everybody he cares about is gone.]] Compared to the manga and to some extent the movies which leave some hope for the future as the story will continue, the way the anime leaves off is particularly stark because of its abruptness and lack of closure.

* NoEnding: For some reason, this version didn't leave itself enough time to resolve the ending plot threads in a graceful manner. We never find out what happens to Rickert or Casca, or how Guts escaped from the Eclipse. In fairness the most recent volume published at the time was 15, which was only up to the Lost Children Chapter, so they couldn't really have had any idea where the manga was going past that point or which plot threads were going to be important later on.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The lack of the Skull Knight's presence in the anime 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]]. It also means there's no explanation as to [[spoiler:how Guts got out of the Eclipse alive or what became of Casca]].

* ForgoneConclusion: The series lets you know from the get go that Guts' relationship with Griffith will not end well by having the first episode take place after the rest of the series, showing that Guts hates Griffith and that Griffith has become something beyond human. The rest of the series is just about how they got to that point.

** The character Donovan, a mercenary who raped Guts as a child, is cut despite a fair amount of time being devoted to Guts' childhood.

** 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' 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.
** The character Donovan, a mercenary who raped Guts as a child, is cut despite a fair amount of time being devoted to Guts' childhood. This event would lead to Guts' extreme aversion to being touched, which while not completely out of character for him, does seem a bit odd without an explanation.
** 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, the Skull Knight and any scene where he appears is cut out entirely, [[AdaptationInducedPlotHole leaving no explanation at all]] for how Guts or Casca escaped the Eclipse at the anime's end.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: This anime significantly tones down on the violence, nudity, and sex, at least until the Finale when it shows the Eclipse about as graphically as the standards of the time would allow.

* RoleReprisal: The original cast of the English dub returned for the movie’s, primarily due to Creator/VizMedia PanderingToTheBase.