Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago

In the Kingdom of Midland, a mercenary named Guts wanders the land, preferring a life of conflict over a life of peace. Despite the odds never being in his favor, he is an unstoppable force that overcomes every opponent, wielding a massive sword larger than himself.

One day, Griffith, the mysterious leader of the mercenary group Band of the Hawk, witnesses the warrior's battle prowess and invites the wandering swordsman to his squadron. Rejecting the offer, Guts challenges Griffith to a duel—and, much to the former's surprise, is subsequently defeated and forced to .

Now, Guts must fight alongside Griffith and his crew to help Midland defeat the Empire of Chuder. However, Griffith seems to harbor ulterior motives, desiring something much larger than just settling the war...

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Guts Main

Iwanaga, Hiroaki Japanese

Griffith Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Casca Main

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

Judeau ing

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Nosferatu, Zodd ing

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Pippin ing

Fujiwara, Takahiro Japanese

Rickert ing

Kotobuki, Minako Japanese

Corkus ing

Matsumoto, Yoshirou Japanese

Gaston ing

Yao, Kazuki Japanese

Bazuso ing

Kobayashi, Kendou Japanese

Kamagata, Eiichi Producer

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer, Production Coordination

Noda, Fuko Producer

Ooshima, Mitsuru Producer

Reviews

May 25, 2024

lordJahoo

Recommended

Let's keep this short. I have no problems with the audiovisual design or the voice acting. And it's Berserk's story and characters, which are great.
Would be 1 point higher if there was less cut content and it would be a 10 for me if on top of that it had Junketsu no Maria level of combat and armor realism.
Instead, it's even worse than in the manga. For example, what the hell was that scene with just hitting with like 10 overhead slashes in a row and the other guy just holding out the axe horizontally in the same position the whole time?
Why wear that ... heavy and expensive lamellar armor when you can still be easily skewered to the hilt with a normal arming sword by a normal person? Why wear that shiny and REALLY expensive plate breastplate when a bolt from a small crossbow easily penetrates it?
It would make more sense to fight naked under those circumstances, at least they wouldn't be slowed down and overheated by that overweight cardboard.
7.5

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 5, 2024

SIG442

Mixed Feelings

This needs some explaining and this could get lengthy.
But it needs to be done really.
Quick note; I watched a American-English dubbed version instead of the original Japanese version. This could have been part of why it gives me mixed feelings as you will read. Often the English dubs are really cringe and makes a mess of the original. So please keep that in mind, it could be the case here as well.

Now I won't talk about the story directly so no spoilers are given away.
But I can talk about the story progression, which is all over the place.
You get a lot of snippets of the ... past and the present at different times to see. However nothing is really in order, nothing is really following common sense either. This makes it most of all very difficult to follow. Now if this was done in a more decent way so you could actually follow the story, then it would actually be a great anime. This took away 2 points off for my taste.

Now for the last missing point that I took off, this is due to the story not really saying much which makes it rather vanilla.
This making in combination with the previous point makes it rather tiresome to watch. Now, I am from 1982 myself, so the "you don't get it because you're too young" doesn't fly as it's right in the window of my teens where I watched a lot of anime and cartoons overall. So I do know what I'm talking about.

The graphics look rather 90's style, which in 2012 would be out dated clearly. Even now it looks rather dated. However you have to give credits to the studio for doing more research about actual European middle-ages then anime normally would get. A lot is actually very much aligned with realistic historical things. How banners would look, armor to a degree, weapons and even clothing. Yes it very clearly did get a fantasy treatment but well within reason. This while the hairstyles are a mixed between realistic and anime depending on the character.

I still have more a mixed feeling about this anime, due to it's major storyline problem.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 12, 2025

huntingsounds

Not Recommended

I absolutely love Beserk, but the animation (specifically the weird 3D rotoscope-esque stuff) is terrible and distracting. As a fan of the series, I think non-manga readers will enjoy walk away from this piece feeling confused and without answers. Far too much is left out - if you are interested in Beserk, watch the 1997 series and read the manga. The rating I've given here was elevated primarily by my bias as I was already a fan going into watching this. There are a few scenes I liked, and the non-3D animation was fine. If the entire film was in that style I certainly would've ... rated it much higher. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this, especially not to unindoctrinated viewers.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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