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Despite a grievous tech failure, we’re back to discuss the upcoming Fall 2024 anime season before Daryl reviews the 1997 anime adaptation of Berserk, recently back in print in the US due to a Blu-Ray release.
Introduction (0:00 – 59:42)
The actual on-topic anime discussion doesn’t begin until about 23 minutes in, so feel free to skip ahead if you don’t want to hear about Daryl’s ineptitude that resulted in him shelling out for a new PC as an unplanned emergency expense, which somehow segues into us making fun of the PS5 Pro. A new anime season is underway, and while Patrons who tuned into our Discord live event saw our reactions in real time, we’re recounting those to the best of our ability here. There are 68 new titles this season alone, and that’s not counting continuations of previous shows, stuff for young children, or 18+ material. As such, there was no possible way we could talk about everything here, so if there’s something noteworthy or enjoyable that you’re checking out, let us know about it! PS: It’s In My Desk is a song commonly sung by elementary school chorus kids. Or at least, it was something done back in the 1980s. If YouTube is anything to go by, it seems to have endured into this century as well.
Review: Berserk (59:42 – 2:40:50)
Daryl’s PC death means he lost all of his notes, but perhaps that doesn’t matter since Berserk by Kentaro Miura is one of the single most popular manga and anime series among American fans, as it has been for decades now. With the release of the new Blu-Ray set from Discotek Media (available from the Crunchyroll Store or Amazon — note those are affiliate links), we figured now would be a good time to review the original 1997 anime series, now that everybody has a legal way to watch it again. We understand that there are entire podcasts and entire websites devoted to covering Berserk in detail, so this review is mostly centered on how each of us have engaged with it over the decades. For example, Gerald has only ever seen this anime version, and has yet to read any of the manga. Daryl by contrast has seen and read everything (but is bad at remembering things), while Clarissa has seen this series and read much of the manga but has not dared to watch…the 2016 series. Hmm. Perhaps Daryl should make Gerald and Clarissa watch the 2016 Berserk TV series–which he watched as it simulcast and then purchased the Blu-Rays of–and then record a future episode about that…
The one show you guys were concerned about doesn’t have the best name (If My Wife Becomes an Elementary School Student), but it actually quite a fantastic series. Very much a story about grief featuring two adults getting over the loss of their wife/mother.
Entertaining review as always 🙂
To my surprise they were selling the collector edition set of this at alltheanime in the UK, so I picked it up. As you guys suggested watching the anime before reading it may be a good way to finally get into Berserk.
On a sidenote, are there any plans to continue reviewing the JoJo’s manga series?
I have a really hot take about Berserk. I believe the 1997 Berserk anime has made a majority of people who watched that won’t really give the future arcs a chance because of it sway away from the low fantasy aspects of the Golden Age. There’s a reason why the Golden Age has been redone twice.
Also I am someone who likes the 2016 Berserk series because I’m not an insane person who needs the best animation (most fans are crazy people who want Berserk to be hand drawn without realizing they will kill the animators in the attempt to replicate Muira’s art style of the demons, not the fans themselves but the animators won’t be able to draw anymore).
Removing any mentions of the Skull Knight reminds me of what happened with Detective Conan early on in its anime run. The manga had the Black Organization appear in some of the early cases which the anime producers felt having them appear in those early cases would dilute them so they weren’t there. There was a problem to this since one of the cases involved the Black Organization killing a woman who betrayed them which was an important part of a major character’s backstory. The anime actually had that woman lived. When that major character was about to debut in the anime, the anime actually to make an episode of the woman being killed by the Black Organization so they debut the major character with no plot holes.
Still being on the boat has been transferred to Hunter X Hunter now.
How convenient, since a friend of mine will be forced to watch this first adaptation of Berserk soon (he made a deal and cannot back out). I personally will maaaaaybe read the manga once it finishes, since I hate incomplete adaptations, and incomplete stories in general.
And I just watched Heron + Boy, and now will listen to YOUR review. OH BOY, I LOVE HEARING DIFFERING OPINIONS! I will try to be brief and respectful in the comment section (if you approve my comment that is).
P.S. Recently I acquired the last piece of a precious puzzle, volume 1 of I’m Gonna Be an Angel! OST. I now have all 3 of them! And this show, one you watched briefly 20 years ago and never finished, somehow manages to have one of the best soundtracks ever, and that is not hyperbole. This is Taku Iwasaki tier, this is Joe Hisaishi tier. Insert your favourite anime composer tier. If you want, I can send you all 3 volumes (to the show email that is).