Berserk Season 2 Review

So the 2nd Season of the new Berserk anime finally ended over the weekend, and I will admit, I am relieved. This season of Berserk is pretty much my vote for the Worst Anime of The Year. This is in spite that last season, it was one of my Top 10 personal favorites. Let me explain.

The 2nd season covers the early part of the Falcon of the Millennium Empire Arc. At 107 Chapters long in the manga,  the Falcon of the Millennium Empire is the longest arc of the series. So my guess you need about 50 or more episodes just to cover this whole saga. And I'm just deeply disappointed with how Liden Films presented this arc and just surprised how creator Kentaro Miura, who is also the executive supervisor for the anime, is ok with all of this.

When Liden Films announced the 2nd Season with the visual of the Berserker Armor, I pretty much guessed how far the 2nd Season will cover parts of the manga. In fact, this was done in the Playstation 2 video game of Berserk, which does end  with Guts getting the Berserker Armor. The way the PS2 version ended, it does leave room for a continuation, as it should be. But at the same time, it does feel like you've reached the end of the chapter and feel very satisfied with it.

When Liden Films do their version in the anime, for whatever the reason, they decided to rush the story so Guts can get the Berserker Armor as soon as possible! As a result, the entire narrative of the 2nd Season is totally ruined! Nothing in the anime is ever exciting or draws you in because it's terrible even with Guts in it! The CG animation's quality is much further down than the last season, as though it was made by amateurs without a care for quality control, ever!

Worse, the studio realized they're moving the pace SO quickly, they had to a recap episode! That's like the biggest insult to Berserk's integrity as a great story! And by the time the series finally ended, it felt totally incomplete and I'm just left hanging without satisfaction.

Is there anything at all in the 2nd Season that's actually good? Yes - the Opening and Ending themes and animation, for one.  "Sacrifice", the opening theme by 9mm Parabellum Bullet, is a vast improvement from "Inferno" last season and if you know Japanese, the lyrics, along with the Heavy Rock melody, really speaks alot of Guts's resolve against Griffith and the Apostles.

When we see the rare spots in which the characters are portrayed in 2D than 3D, it's when it truly shines and it's actually very very good. You can totally see it in the final moments of the finale when it was all 2D. I simply do not understand why they have to resort to 3D here other than Liden Films thinking it's a good gimmick. The voice actors did a great job with their roles, and I liked the soundtrack, though I got tired of listening to Susumu Hirasawa's insert song "Hai Yo" because it was so overused in this series.

As of this recording, there are currently no plans for a 3rd Season. Not to mention the manga also taking another long hiatus. I actually prefer the Berserk anime take a break for awhile until a new team comes in and make the series better. I'd like the series get a proper reboot with the 2D animation in, and include the arcs that were omitted previously. But I definitely do not want Liden Films to tackle this again. I'd rather the series goes back to OLM, the studio behind the first anime series, which are a doing very well with "Yo-kai Watch". Same goes with their recent "Atom: The Beginning" series airing on Amazon. So let OLM take Berserk back, reboot if they have to, and no pun intended, make Berserk great again.

I really cannot recommend even hardcore fans of Berserk to watch the 2nd season. It's just bad. If you didn't the like the first season at all, this one is much worse. If you must get into the Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc, I strongly suggest you read the manga. If that's not possible, just watch the cutscenes from the Playstation 2 game, which you can easily find on Youtube. Or even play the "Berserk and The Band of The Hawk" video game. Even that is far more better telling the story than what Liden Films did. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give the 2nd Season of the modern Berserk anime, a 1 out of 5.