Berserk: The Golden Age Arc

The Egg of the King

A soldier named Guts attracts the attention of a mercenary group, The Band of the Hawk, when he kills an enemy champion during a siege. He is forced into joining the group after being defeated in single combat by its leader, Griffith. The Band of the Hawk are employed by the Kingdom of Midland for its Hundred Year War against the Tudor Empire, and Griffith rises in the kingdom's hierarchy after a successful battle. During another siege, Guts and Griffith encounter the demon Nosferatu Zodd, who notices the pendant around Griffith's neck and warns Guts that Griffith will be his doom. Griffith's rise in status is ill-received by Midland's noblemen, and there is a failed assassination attempt on Griffith by the king's brother, Julius. Griffith charges Guts with murdering Julius, and Guts also kills the noble's young son. Guts, emotionally scarred by his actions, overhears Griffith say that The Band of the Hawk are his comrades, but for people to be friends they must pursue their own dreams and not someone else's.

The Battle for Doldrey

Guts and Casca are separated from The Band of the Hawk, and fend off attacks by the Tudor's cruel commander Adon and his men. Guts defeats most of Adon's men while covering Casca's escape, but begins to lament his life's path and decides he will eventually leave the Band of the Hawk, find and pursue his own dream, and become a true friend to Griffith. Later, the Band of the Hawk participates in the battle to capture the impenetrable Fortress of Doldrey and end the Hundred Years War, wherein Casca kills Adon. A month after the war's end, Guts parts ways with Griffith after defeating him in a duel. Griffith is distraught at Guts' departure, and in a lapse of judgment he is caught sleeping with the king's daughter, Charlotte. Griffith is charged with treason and imprisoned in the Tower of Rebirth while the members of the Band of the Hawk are branded outlaws.

The Advent

A year after Guts' departure from the Band of the Hawk, he returns to aid them in freeing Griffith from the Tower of Rebirth. However, when they find Griffith he is barely alive, rendered mute, and physically withered after months of torture. Griffith attempts suicide, and his pendant reacts to his despair, opening a portal to another dimension experiencing a solar eclipse that draws in him and The Band of the Hawk. There, they encounter archdemons known as The God Hand and Griffith is told that his tribulations have been leading to this moment, when Griffith agrees to sacrifice his allies in exchange for being reborn as Femto, a member of the God Hand. The Band of the Hawk are slaughtered by the God Hand's monstrous Apostles (former humans like Nosferatu Zodd) and Femto rapes Casca. Guts loses his left arm and right eye trying to save Casca, but Casca loses her sanity from the nightmarish ordeal. Guts and Casca are spirited back to their world by the mysterious Skull Knight, who tells Guts he has been branded by the God Hand and will be subjected to nightly attacks by evil creatures. Guts leaves Casca under the care of former comrade Rickert and embarks on a journey to hunt down Apostles and the God Hand.

Memorial Edition

In June 2022, it was announced that the trilogy would receive a television broadcast version, titled Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition (ベルセルク 黄金時代篇 MEMORIAL EDITION).[24] The series was featured at the Aniplex Online Fest 2022, held on September 23, 2022.[25][26] It was directed by Yuta Sano and broadcast for 13 episodes on Tokyo MX, Tochigi TV, Gunma TV, BS11 and other networks from October 2 to December 25, 2022.[27][28][29][30] The episodes were released on a Blu-ray set on March 29, 2023.[31]

It was streamed outside of Asia by Crunchyroll.[32][33][34]

Episodes

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]