Berserk: The Box of War (6 Discs) (Review)
Sunday, 13th September 2009, 16:23

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As the story progresses, we share in their success as the Band of The Hawk become victorious over their foes. But when Guts decides that he must fight his own battles and wishes to leave the group, he and Griffith have a battle with Guts the victor. During 12 months away from the group, Griffith is captured and tortured and appears to be a shadow of his former self. When Guts returns and learns of Griffith’s imprisonment for treason, he and Casca set out to rescue him, though Griffith appears changed forever.

 
The final two episodes of the series stretch any semblance of reality into a mind-melt, with surreal monsters and demons tearing the Band of the Hawk to shreds, whilst assimilating the soul of Griffith into a new and grisly incarnation who turns on his own people. Anyone who has seen either Akira or Urotsukidoji may have some notion of the sheer mayhem that follows.

 
As usual, being no purist about  this things, I’m always happy to opt for the English dub which, unless its truly awful, I generally stick to. Some of the voices here are a little clichéd but just about passable. It seems that dubbing has come a long way since 1997 (the voices on ‘Death Note’ for example, which I am devouring at present are far superior and less obvious and clumsy than these). But despite this, ‘Berserk’ holds up just through the strength of its story and characters, with no let up – all killer, no filler!
 
It certainly warrants its18 certificate, with some of the bloodiest anime I’ve seen (with the exception of ‘Afro Samurai’ and ‘Black Lagoon’) and there are also scenes of implied rape and abuse which some may find disturbing.

 
The image quality is fine throughout despite its full-screen (4:3) TV ratio.

The extras, in common with the majority of anime sets, is a bit scant with the usual range of production sketches, textless openings and end credits (seriously – who the hell is interested in these?), art galleries, and an audio only interview with originator Kentaro Miura and a video interview with Producer Toshio Nakatani.
 
Overall, a great addition to anyone’s anime library and actually, probably a reasonable place to start for any newcomer to the genre too. For those who would like another opinion, and a whole lot more detail from our very own professor of all things anime, then check out Jitendar's reviews of the six seperate volumes that make up this set. (Search for 'Berserk').

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