In medieval times a man lives or dies by the sword. Guts has joined the Band of Hawks, an elite fighting force who fight for the Kingdom of Midland against their mortal enemy the Cudan, but can a man born from his dead mother’s womb really change his destiny or is he condemned to be shackled to the wheel of fate as each step he takes brings him closer to a fate that will change Guts and everyone around him...?

Volume Four of Berserk is finally upon us and this show, from 1997, just gets better with its story telling, even if the visuals are below par. It remains violent with some nudity, so possibly not suitable for a preteen audience and, from its inauspicious start, the writer has fleshed out the back-stories of most of the prominent characters so that now they have the feel of real people. When we left the show last DVD Guts was surrounded and Caska had gone to get help before he is killed, however, Guts now knows how Caska feels about Griffith, leader of the Hawks. So from the more introverted stories in Volume Two, the story returns to it’s in your face, blood and guts heart.

Episode fourteen, Campfire of Dreams: Caska finally finds some of the Hawks, when they rescue her from an attempted rape, and leads them back to Guts only to find that whilst it had cost him, he had defeated all the soldiers. However the reunion is not happy as Guts finds it difficult to reconcile how he feels about being a warrior without a purpose when Caska and Griffith are fighting for a cause.

Episode fifteen: The Decisive Battle. The battle to retake Doldrey Castle, lost to the Chuda Empire, continues on its bloody path, but the castle is all but impregnable. In war council, The King of Midland and his generals meet to plan their next move. Griffith is goaded into taking the seemingly suicidal mission of retaking the castle

Episode sixteen: The Conqueror. The fog of war has descended upon Doldery Castle and it looks like the Hawks use of stealth might actually succeed, that is until they are surrounded by knights. Outside the walls of the castle Guts single handed, holds back the enemy army. Queue bulging biceps and buckets of blood...

Episode seventeen: Moment of Glory. Following Griffith’s success at retaking Doldry Castle he is promoted to White Phoenix General a title which brings with it entry into the aristocracy. However, his promotion is not welcomed by everybody and factions in the court determine to kill him.

Audio options remain English or Japanese, with optional subtitles, and the extras have an interview with Kentaro Miura (20 min 02 sec) which whilst interesting to hear from the creator of the manga on which this anime is based, it’s a rather odd affair as he refused to be filmed so the audio track is played against a static picture from the show. You get the usual production sketches and some more amusing outtakes (5 min 41 sec) wherein the English dub artists send up the show by rewriting the dialogue. The show is presented in 4:3 aspect ratio.

My general feeling about the show hasn’t changed, although it is extremely violent, it is also decidedly well written, I still think that the animation style chosen makes the show appear below par, but that’s just a personal choice.

8

Charles Packer