Friday, July 8, 2016

Berserk (2016) - Ep.2: The Holy Iron Chain Knights | Review

Berserk really stepped up its game this time around.

New week, new Berserk!

At the end of last week’s episode, Guts had defeated a tree-like apostle, and soon found himself confronted by the Holy Iron Chain Knights. Branded as a heretic by their Supreme Commander, Lady Farnese, Guts now had to fight off the entire legion of knights, with his injuries from his previous encounter still fresh.

This episode was definitely a huge step-up from last week’s episode. There are still occasional pacing issues here and there, but they’re not nearly as prevalent as the first episode. Action scenes are far better choreographed, and it’s easier to tell what’s going on. As well, this episode is far more gratuitous with its violence, which is always a plus in Berserk.

The overall sound quality is much better this time around, with the voice performances being better, and the music cues here are nothing short of excellent. If there’s one thing that this new Berserk series nailed, it’s the audio.

Visually, this episode is better than the first. The blending of 2D art and CGI animations works better here. The only issue I have with the visuals are to the flashbacks of the Golden Age, where characters like Judeau and Corkus are flat-out ugly.

Overall, this episode is a huge step up, and gets me even more pumped for the rest of this series. Can’t wait to see where they take it from here.

OVERALL RATING: 
8.5/10

PS: Also, this anime was advertised as a sequel to the Golden Age Arc trilogy of films, but I think it serves better as a sequel to the 1997 anime. For example, Guts is already in possession of a behelit, and the episode where he obtains said behelit is shown in the ‘97 anime, but not in this one.

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