Why Berserk’s 2016 Anime Flopped

Berserk remains a masterclass not just in the manga world, but the world of storytelling overall. Guts and the Band of the Hawk weave such a tragic, brutal tale, that the legendary series remains a fan-favorite decades following its initial release. Following the tragic passing of creator Kentaro Miura, creator Kouji Mori and the artists of Studio Gaga have taken the reins of the manga. Unfortunately, there was one Berserk story that wasn’t welcomed with open arms by anime fans, and with good reason.

Berserk’s 2016 anime series has become legendary not in the same way as its source material, but almost as a case of what not to do when it comes to adapting a manga. Making the risky decision of using a blending of CG animation with 2-D art, the television series seemingly attempted to use a method similar to the trilogy of films in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc. The series however gave fans scenes and battles that weren’t only not able to live up to the high standards set by Kentaro Miura, but creating rough, muddled animations that were unable to convey some simple actions and are still shared to this day amongst anime fans.

Berserk 2016: The Wrong Kind of Sacrifice

While the Berserk anime of 2016 did garner two seasons, taking the opportunity to have Guts fight against Father Mozgus, bring Griffith back to Earth, and finally give Guts the Berserker armor, it was not renewed for a third. Simply put, the animation was such a shellshock that it distracted from the main story and would often be unable to convey the emotional heft of some of Miura’s nail-biting scenes. Unfortunately, many other aspects of the series were on point when it came to voice acting and hitting some of the major story beats, but many other aspects almost bordered on amateurish.

While it doesn’t often get mentioned in the face of the crude animation style, the anime adaptation also didn’t adapt a major tale in Guts’ story via the Lost Children Arc. Seeing Guts following the Eclipse taking on a demonic Apostle who looked more like a fairy than the usual monstrous faire that he fights, the arc went even further in showing how brutal both the world and the Black Swordsman, were in this anime world. 

At present, Berserk has yet to confirm if a new anime adaptation will arrive in the future, though hopefully, the franchise will give fans an anime worthy of the manga series it is based on. Just like Guts and the surviving members of the Band of the Hawk, anime fans deserve a happy ending when it comes to the world created by Kentaro Miura.