Berserk: The Golden Age Arc Review

Toshiyuki Kubooka's trilogy covers the ground of the 1997 series and then keeps going. The Egg of the King moves briskly from Guts killing an enemy champion to his recruitment by Griffith and the assassination that makes him ask what he is to his commander. The Battle for Doldrey builds the bond between Guts and Casca, ends the war, then shows Griffith's ruin after Guts walks away. The Advent carries on through the Eclipse to the Skull Knight's rescue and Guts setting out alone, an ending the television series never reached.

The cost is compression and computer graphics. Ichirō Ōkouchi's script trims the side stories hard, and Carl Kimlinger of ANN placed the first film somewhere between the full saga and the Cliff's Notes. Studio 4°C leans on stiff 3D CG for its battles, which Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis called ugly in the first film, while the hand-drawn dramatic scenes hold up far better.

What survives is the tragedy. Takahiro Sakurai gives Griffith a serenity that makes the last act more frightening, and Shirō Sagisu's score, with Susumu Hirasawa's insert song Aria running through all three films, carries it. Eisenbeis called The Advent the most graphic mainstream anime film he had seen, and it earns that without losing the grief underneath.