Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King (2012)

He trusts no one, only his sword.

Director:

Toshiyuki Kubooka

Writers:

Kentaro Miura (manga), Ichirô Ôkouchi (screenplay)

Stars:

Hiroaki Iwanaga, Carrie Keranen, Takahiro Sakurai

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hiroaki Iwanaga	...	Guts (voice)
Carrie Keranen	...	Casca (voice) (as Carolyn Keranen)
Takahiro Sakurai	...	Griffith (voice)
Kevin T. Collins	...	Griffith (voice)
Toa Yukinari	...	Casca (voice)
Yûki Kaji	...	Judeau (voice)
Yoshiro Matsumoto	...	Corkus (voice)
Minako Kotobuki	...	Rickert (voice)
Takahiro Fujiwara	...	Pippin (voice)
Kazuki Yao	...	Gaston (voice)
Aki Toyosaki	...	Charlotte (voice)
Kenta Miyake	...	Nosferatu Zodd (voice)
Nobuyuki Katsube	...	King of Midland (voice)
Rikiya Koyama	...	Adon Coborlwitz (voice)
Hiroshi Arikawa	...	Hassan (voice)

Storyline

This arc is a flashback showing Guts' youth and what led him to become the "Black Swordsman". Guts grows up as a young mercenary until his enrollment in the Band of the Hawk. He develops complex relationships with Casca and Griffith, the Band's charismatic leader and holder of the Crimson Behelit, who leads the Band to its rise to prominence within the Midland army. Griffith is elevated from his commoner status to the nobility, causing some resentment, and after sleeping with the King's daughter, Griffith is imprisoned, and the Hawks are declared outlaws. The Hawks manage to rescue Griffith, only to find him broken mentally and physically. From a conventional medieval European background, the story shifts to fantasy and horror, with the apparition of the Eclipse ceremony that ends with the destruction of the Band, as per Griffith's sacrifice in order to become Femto, the fifth member of the God Hand, and reclaim his path towards his dream. Only with help from the enigmatic Skull ...

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Plot Keywords:

medieval times | shapeshifting | arrow | arrow in chest | arrogance | 

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | War

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

26 April 2012 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Beyond C.,Lucent Pictures Entertainment,Studio 4°C

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Griffith: Why do men like to shed blood, you asked. You are right in saying that it is one of the facets we, men, possess. However, it is but a tool to obtain what our heart desires and keep it from harm's way. I believe it to be a double-edged blade.
Charlotte: What your heart desires... a lover? A knight's honor?
Griffith: Both are important, aren't they? Fighting and dying for love and honor is what a knight desires above all else. But for men there exists something even more important than that. You know of it, I believe...
Charlotte:
Griffith:

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Connections

Follows Berserk: Millennium Falcon hen seima senki no sho (2004)

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Soundtracks

Utsukushikimono (Something Beautiful)
Performed by 'Ai'

User Reviews

Masterfully directed climatic epic saga

Few stories can capture your mind and soul in a visceral way from the beginning, and never leave you. Berserk is one of them.

Written and illustrated by the legendary manga artist Kentaro Miura, Berserk (ベルセルク) is an epic fantasy saga that knows no time, no boundaries, and no has end. It tells the story of a Guts (ガッツ, Gattsu), a boy born from the corpse of a woman hung on a battlefield, who struggles to fight his unfortunate destiny. Set in a fictional version of medieval Europe, Gatsu is a young mercenary who travels with no direction nor purpose, swinging his huge sword in merciless fights in order to survive. He buries his blade deep into the flesh of his opponents, fighting like a madmen in battle, reminiscent of the nordic berserks, coming closer and closer to death, maybe to finally feel alive. His life is meaningless, his actions have no honor nor reason, except survival. He strives to escape his nature, that of a man born from a dead body, already between this world and the other, with nothing to lose except his miserable life.

That is, until he meets Griffith, the impossibly beautiful and charismatic leader of the undefeated mercenary band called "the Band of the Hawk" (鷹の団 Taka no Dan). This encounter will forever change his life, and that of everyone else.

Beware, Berserk is not an ordinary series. It is hard, violent, and not easy to follow. There are no flashbacks constantly reminding you of what happened before, no fill-in episodes, no sweetening of the pill. It is a solid punch of crude reality hitting you in the stomach, and you have no way of guarding yourself. Miura's genius permeates in each page, down to every minute detail. The themes treated are difficult, and never simplified for the sake of the reader. Reality has no shortcuts, no easy way, and that is reflected in the story. The characters in Berserk are genuine, real, endlessly complicated, troubled. They hold secrets, they cheat, murder, conspire, but they are also capable of great kindness. Friendship, ambition, causality, the supernatural, our ambivalent nature, the struggle for power, love and hate. Twenty-two years in, still going strong, in what is possibly one of the greatest stories ever told.

With that premise, you would think that the task of turning such a story into a series of animated feature films would be arduous. And you would be right. Only an animation studio capable of immense greatness could be up to the task. STUDIO4°C is one such group.

From the opening scene we know what kind of film we are dealing with. A clear, peaceful blue sky is contrasted by the presence of ominous birds flying in circles, while balls of fire fly over them. Guts looks up at the sky with sad eyes, a scar in the middle of his nose and a helmet on his head immediately tell us what he is. A heartless mercenary. The deaden sound of the blasting gives us a hint of where we are. Everything moves slowly, as if underwater, or inside a womb. How appropriate for someone who was born in a battlefield, who is neither truly alive nor dead, until he begins to fight. Gatsu's heart starts pounding, as he watches a black hawk fall down, the sound increases, until the bird drops dead in the middle of the fight, crushed beneath the boots of armed mercenaries, assaulting a castle. That is the time when the sound rises up at full blast, and we are catapulted into the battle.

The fight is cruel and violent, unlike anything I have even seen. The Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Game of Thrones, list what you want, nothing compares to the level of horrifying realism that Berserk has to offer. The animation is top notch, the colours vivid and stunning, you could take any frame from the film, hang it on the wall, and it would work as a painting on itself.

The soundtrack by Shiro Sagisu is perfectly calibrated to match the already spectacular animation sequence, the epic chorus elevates the scenes to a sense of greatness, without ever overdoing it. The first eight minutes are a masterpiece of action down to the last second, flawlessly directed by the talented Toshiyuki Kubooka.

In every moment we can see something in motion, be it the clouds in the background or the hair on someone's face, the level of maniacal details is lessened only by the overuse of 3D animation (which is a bit irritating at times). But action sequences of crude violence, great animation, and impeccable sound effects are just a spec of dust in the whole opera. The real value lies in the moments of silence, when the characters quietly ponder about their lives, or study each other, looking into their souls. We can see through their fears, their dreams and aspirations, their hate, without them needing to utter many words. And the few words that are spoken weight a million tons.

Berserk Golden Age Arc I: The Egg of the King covers volumes 4,5 and half of 6, each of which requires a few hours to read, all delivered in 70 minutes. As you can imagine, they had to make some choices and not everything was included. When this happens, the story usually loses value, the characters are simplified, and everything becomes dull. Surprisingly, this is not the case here. The first part of the Berserk Saga Project, which should cover the Golden Age Arc of Berserk does not disappoint. In fact, it excels, in both execution and presentation. The climatic drama and the anticipated tragedy yet to come reach the peak at the end of the film, accompanied by an epic final score by Susumu Hirasawa.

STUDIO4°C has delivered a compelling and engaging story, masterfully animated and directed, which breathed life to Miura's pencil, and gave it voice.

Full review: http://goo.gl/8HNpB