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

It has been a while since I last blogged on here, but that is about to change.

I was surprised to see Berserk’s new (I guess it isn’t really that new) movie in my Netflix account because Netflix doesn’t have much in terms of anime compared to other streaming websites. At first I thought it was the original anime from 1997, but I was wrong. The original Berserk anime disappointed me because when I had caught up (or should I say reached the end), I was in for a surprise – the show had been cancelled. However, seeing this one was great because it revives hopes of the producers animating the rest of the Berserk anime. I don’t exactly remember the 1997 Berserk anime, and whatever I do remember won’t be included in this review. So here we go…

The movie starts off by introducing the audience to both Guts and Griffith, and as the show goes on it shows Griffiths’ ambitions. Guts trusts and believes in Griffith, and we see these feelings continue to grow. In this movie the two characters are like a unit, or should I say a duo, with Griffith as the brains of the outfit and Guts as the brawn. However, things change towards the end of the film when Guts overhears Griffith telling the princess that he is using Guts and isn’t actually his friend. I don’t think Griffith really means that because I feel like Guts and Griffith genuinely have a friendship. However, it does seem that Griffith is conflicted about his feelings for Guts.

The contrast of Griffith’s elegance and Guts’ rough edges is great. Guts follows Griffith everywhere and does anything he asks until he assassinates someone for Griffith and things seem to change in Guts’ mind. Before that, Guts had fought but had never assassinated anyone before, and it seems to have made Guts feel like he was doing something immoral. I wonder if Guts will keep on going and following Griffith, because of the oath he made that he would do whatever Griffith said at the beginning of the movie, or if he will go his own way in the next film.

The show is beautifully animated, although it does lack the roughness of the 1997 animation which suited Guts’ roughness. I am looking forward to seeing the next two parts of the movie trilogy, which I will hopefully be able to find on Netflix. They are both out as I write this review, so I look forward to reviewing the other two soon as well.