Question about the 1997 Anime Adaption of Berserk.

Samtemdo8

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So this adaption of Berserk only had 25 episodes, so this series only covers Gut's Origin Story right? How he first joined the Mercenary Band of Griffith and ends with Griffith's ascension to some kind of Demon Prince (the ritual of which includes that nightmare fuel rape of Casca...)

So none of it depicts any of Guts Adventures as a Mercenary/Monster Hunter for hire which we only see in the first episode as far as I've witnessed? If so, for what it does adapt, was it a great adaption of Gut's origin story?
 

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It's pretty good, I enjoyed it.

I watched it before reading any of the manga, and it's what got me to read the manga. I generally don't read manga or comic books, but I wanted more of the story.
 

tippy2k2

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I have no idea where in the magna it ends because the show was so awful that I ignored the manga (I've been told the manga is far superior but the same people who say it's so awesome are constantly bitching about it because I guess it has sucked for a long while and the guy who writes it writes does so once every 37 years now).

Spoilers I suppose (it sounds like you've read the Manga so presumably this won't be a spoiler for you but I have no idea how different the magna and the show is)

The show ended when the white haired fella gets super powers or something and all his buddies get sent to hell. In hell, everyone gets slaughtered except for Angsty Sword Guy and the one lady and then the show ends.

Evidently in the magna and the movie, Marvel's Ghost Rider shows up and Deus Ex Machina's Angsty Man and lady away but the show just ends with Angst and Lady having everyone dead and they're stuck in hell or wherever white haired dude sent them.

So I'm not sure when that happens in the manga but that's where the show ends.
 

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So this adaption of Berserk only had 25 episodes, so this series only covers Gut's Origin Story right? How he first joined the Mercenary Band of Griffith and ends with Griffith's ascension to some kind of Demon Prince (the ritual of which includes that nightmare fuel rape of Casca...)

So none of it depicts any of Guts Adventures as a Mercenary/Monster Hunter for hire which we only see in the first episode as far as I've witnessed? If so, for what it does adapt, was it a great adaption of Gut's origin story?
It pretty much goes up to the Eclipse and then ends. And by that, I mean, it ends with Guts pinned under a demon, having lost his armed and Casca is getting raped. And you never find out how they escape, because there were no more episodes and the skull knight wasn't included in that adaptation, but at the beginning you do see Guts with his mechanical arm, so you know he somehow survives this.

It's my big issue with that adaptation and one of the few things I liked about the film trilogy adaptation better, which I know some would heavily disagree with me on, where if you're gonna do the golden age, at least fucking finish the damn arc and not end on an eternal cliffhanger. I mean, from a storytelling POV, it's very poor form to start a flashback and then be still in the flashback at the end when it can be implied that the flashback is meant to set up the demon hunting stuff. It feels like the equilvent of someone who tells you a joke, starts setting up the joke, takes an hour to do it and then never gets to the damn punchline because he has to go and then you never see him again.
 

Samtemdo8

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It pretty much goes up to the Eclipse and then ends. And by that, I mean, it ends with Guts pinned under a demon, having lost his armed and Casca is getting raped. And you never find out how they escape, because there were no more episodes and the skull knight wasn't included in that adaptation, but at the beginning you do see Guts with his mechanical arm, so you know he somehow survives this.

It's my big issue with that adaptation and one of the few things I liked about the film trilogy adaptation better, which I know some would heavily disagree with me on, where if you're gonna do the golden age, at least fucking finish the damn arc and not end on an eternal cliffhanger. I mean, from a storytelling POV, it's very poor form to start a flashback and then be still in the flashback at the end when it can be implied that the flashback is meant to set up the demon hunting stuff. It feels like the equilvent of someone who tells you a joke, starts setting up the joke, takes an hour to do it and then never gets to the damn punchline because he has to go and then you never see him again.
Was their production troubles about this adaption like what happened with Evangelion?
 

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Was their production troubles about this adaption like what happened with Evangelion?
I honestly don't know. I haven't been able to find much other then they were pretty much out of source material when the anime reaches the end, which I respect, but it still doesn't by itself explain why the cliffhanger when we already know he somehow escaped to become the black swordsman from the first episode. Even if they were literally out of source material and the manga hadn't gotten Guts out, I mean, would it have killed them to provide some kind of possible out instead of the "We're all fucked.....but then we escaped offscreen" we ended up getting?