The Egg of the King
Ko Ransom of Anime News Network (ANN) gave the film a B+ and wrote, "This concise and well-adapted story results in an exciting, intense action tale full of intriguing characters and drama. Unfortunately, the decision to heavily utilize 3D CG throughout the movie drags the overall production down, but does not quite deal a fatal blow to the film, which despite this shortcoming should find a receptive audience from fans of the series and newcomers alike."[45] Fellow ANN reviewer Carl Kimlinger, in a critique of the film's Blu-ray release, was similarly receptive, awarding both the Japanese version and the English dub a B and stating, "That The Egg of the King isn't crushed under the weight of our expectations is a testament to its strength. That it cannot in any way measure up to its progenitors is proof of its weakness. It is a good film, rousing and occasionally deeply felt, but also a truncated one—an introductory lesson in Berserkology that falls somewhere between the full version of Guts' saga and the Cliff's Notes."[46] The film was deemed "one of the best animated action films of recent years" by Hugo Ozman of ScreenAnarchy.[47]
Richard Eisenbeis, in a review written for Kotaku, lambasted the film, especially the pacing and computer-generated animation, and concluded, "As an adaptation of the Berserk story, it succeeds well enough; but as a piece of film making, it just fails. It is an ugly, poorly-paced wreck of cinematography."[48] Dallas Marshall of THEM Anime Reviews was also critical of the "haphazard" CG animation and lack of character development, gave the film a score of 3/5, and concluded, "Do not think that this is a bad anime, it is a good one, but in hindsight it could have been a great one if some extra care was taken in terms of the art, and a little more time was taken to develop the overall story."[49]
The Battle for Doldrey
Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis enjoyed The Battle for Doldrey more than its predecessor, opining that it was "a great improvement over The Egg of the King in every conceivable way" and further stating, "And while I hesitate to call it a good movie, I certainly don't feel like I wasted time or money in seeing it."[50] Darius Washington, in a review of the film and its predecessor written for Otaku USA, noted they had "a good balance of action and character development" and told "a pretty hard hitting story" but felt the "cleanliness" of the animation took away a bit from the "grit and hard edged brutality that the Berserk TV series had."[51]
Rebecca Silverman of ANN criticized the film's computer-generated animation and "pervasive misogyny" but commended the character development, traditional animation, and voice acting and awarded The Battle for Doldrey a score of C+.[52] Fellow ANN staffer Carl Kimlinger, in a review of the Blu-ray release, awarded a C to the Japanese version and a C+ to the English dub while noting that beneath its "thundering medieval warfare and gut-splattering violence" the film was an "emotionally impoverished facsimile, a wispy shadow of the rich stretch of deepening character and subtly shifting relationships that it adapts."[53]
The Advent
Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku, after panning the first film and offering moderate praise to the second, commended The Advent, which he labelled "the most graphic mainstream anime movie I have ever seen" while noting it delivered "an experience surpassing even the original manga in both emotional turmoil and eye-wrenching ultra-violence."[54] Carl Kimlinger of ANN criticized many aspects of The Advent, such as the animation and the streamlining of the story, and deemed it an "inferior and redundant movie" and a "clunker" before giving the Japanese version a C+ and the English dub a B−.[55]
