Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen - Memorial Edition

Fleeing a traumatic childhood, lone mercenary Guts drifts from battle to battle, striking down powerful enemies with his unwieldy sword. After one skirmish, Guts clashes with the mystifying Griffith and his small army known as the Band of the Hawk. The victorious Griffith drafts Guts into his ranks, granting the swordsman a kinship unlike anything he has ever known.

Alongside the skilled warrior Casca, Guts helps Griffith guide the band to fame and glory. But as he gains military prestige, Griffith becomes the target of assassination attempts and political schemes. He uses Guts to further his ambitious rise to power, taking advantage of the swordsman's lack of aspiration.

Even as he grows closer to Casca, Guts' absence of direction robs him of any sense of belonging. Fostering opposing desires, Guts and Casca fight for Griffith's dream—although fractures forming among the trio threaten to disrupt their world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Guts Main

Iwanaga, Hiroaki Japanese

Griffith Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Casca Main

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

The Skull Knight Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Puck Supporting

Judeau Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

de Vandimion, Farnese Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Serpico Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Nosferatu, Zodd Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Donovan Supporting

Noda, Fuko Producer

Sano, Yuuta Director, Storyboard, Editing

Kubooka, Toshiyuki Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Ashino, Yoshiharu Episode Director, Key Animation

Reviews

Jul 12, 2025

Naufalalaziziyo

Recommended

Rating: 7,6/10
Status: Recommended


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💬 English Review

✨ Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition (2022)

... • Story 📖 – 8.2/10
Memorial Edition is a recut of the Golden Age Arc movie trilogy, now with extra scenes, smoother pacing, and toned-down censorship. It covers the tragic rise and fall of the Band of the Hawk, focusing on Guts, Griffith, and Casca. The story remains one of the most iconic and emotionally devastating arcs in dark fantasy anime history.

> Themes of ambition, sacrifice, fate, and betrayal hit harder with the added character moments. It’s a tale of friendship twisted by obsession and destiny.



• Plot ⚙️ – 7.8/10
The flow benefits from episodic editing—allowing emotional beats and character development to breathe more naturally. Though the structure is unchanged from the movies, the pacing feels more deliberate and less rushed.

> Added scenes, especially involving Casca and the camp life, enrich the relationships and heighten the tragedy that follows.



• Characters 🧍 – 8.3/10
Guts remains the beating heart of the arc—a warrior torn between loyalty and freedom. Griffith’s charisma and darkness grow clearer with each episode, and Casca’s emotional depth is better explored here than in the films. The side cast also shines more thanks to the new material.

• Visuals 🎨 – 7.0/10
Still a mix of 2D and CG, but Memorial Edition improves some transitions and blends. The animation remains inconsistent, but emotional expressions—especially in quieter moments—are handled better.

> Action scenes are brutal and intense, but not always fluid. Still, key moments like the Eclipse feel more haunting than before.



• Sound 🎧 – 8.5/10
Susumu Hirasawa’s legendary music returns, with “Aria,” “Forces,” and other haunting tracks elevating the atmosphere. New voice recordings and enhanced sound design give the emotional scenes more weight.

• Execution 🎬 – 7.6/10
This version doesn’t fix all of the trilogy’s visual flaws, but it adds humanity, context, and emotional balance to one of the darkest stories in anime. It’s the definitive way to experience the Golden Age Arc in modern format.


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🌟 What’s Interesting About This Version?

• ⚔️ A more complete Golden Age Arc.
The Memorial Edition adds important scenes that were missing in the original movies—conversations, flashbacks, and day-to-day moments that make the characters feel more alive. This especially benefits Casca, who feels more like a person with real emotions, not just a background character.

• 💔 Casca’s perspective gets attention.
One of the biggest flaws of the movie trilogy was how it glossed over Casca’s thoughts and pain. Here, we get more time inside her world—her loyalty to Griffith, her frustration with Guts, and her own ambitions and heartbreaks.

• 🧠 A slower, deeper descent into madness.
Griffith’s downfall is now shown with more subtlety and horror. His breakdown after imprisonment is stretched out, making his transformation into Femto feel more tragic and inevitable, rather than sudden.

• 🩸 The Eclipse is even more haunting.
By slowing down the build-up to the Eclipse, the horror hits harder. You feel the weight of the betrayal. The deaths are more painful, and the atmosphere more suffocating.

• 🫱 Guts’ silent struggle.
Guts’ internal conflict—between following Griffith and forging his own path—is more emotionally resonant here. The added scenes give his decisions more meaning, and the pain of his final breakaway hits deeper.


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💬 Versi Bahasa Indonesia

✨ Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen – Memorial Edition (2022)
Rating: 7,6/10
Status: Direkomendasikan


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• Cerita 📖 – 8.2/10
Versi ini merupakan potongan ulang dari trilogi film Golden Age Arc, kini dengan tambahan adegan, sensor yang dikurangi, dan pacing yang lebih halus. Fokusnya tetap pada hubungan Guts, Griffith, dan Casca serta kehancuran Band of the Hawk.

> Tema pengkhianatan, ambisi, dan takdir ditampilkan lebih tajam karena tambahan adegan karakter yang memperdalam nuansa emosional.



• Alur ⚙️ – 7.8/10
Dengan format episodik, alurnya terasa lebih stabil dan ritmenya lebih pas. Tidak ada perubahan besar dalam plot, tapi adegan tambahan membuat transisi emosional terasa lebih alami.

> Penambahan seperti momen santai di kamp atau interaksi antara Casca dan Guts memperkuat tragedi yang akan datang.



• Karakter 🧍 – 8.3/10
Guts tetap menjadi pusat emosi cerita. Griffith lebih kompleks dan menakutkan seiring waktu. Casca jauh lebih hidup di versi ini, dengan lebih banyak fokus pada sudut pandangnya. Karakter pendukung juga terasa lebih berarti.

• Visual 🎨 – 7.0/10
Masih campuran 2D dan CG, namun beberapa transisi diperhalus. Ekspresi emosional—terutama dalam adegan tenang—disampaikan lebih baik dari versi film.

> Adegan aksi masih brutal namun tidak selalu mulus. Tapi momen penting seperti Eclipse kini terasa lebih menyiksa dan menyeramkan.



• Musik 🎧 – 8.5/10
Soundtrack dari Susumu Hirasawa tetap menjadi kekuatan utama, dengan lagu seperti “Aria” dan “Forces” yang magis dan menghantui.

> Tambahan pengisi suara dan mixing baru membuat adegan emosional terasa lebih menghentak.



• Eksekusi 🎬 – 7.6/10
Meskipun tak menyelesaikan semua kekurangan versi film, Memorial Edition berhasil memberi nyawa, kedalaman, dan rasa sakit yang lebih manusiawi pada salah satu kisah tergelap di anime.


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🌟 Apa yang Menarik dari Versi Ini?

• ⚔️ Golden Age yang lebih utuh.
Versi ini menyertakan momen-momen penting yang hilang di film: obrolan, kenangan, dan keseharian yang memberi jiwa pada karakter. Casca khususnya jadi terasa lebih nyata dan punya emosi serta konflik internal yang kuat.

• 💔 Sudut pandang Casca lebih disorot.
Dalam trilogi film, Casca sering kali hanya jadi latar. Di sini, kita bisa lebih memahami pergolakan hatinya: loyalitasnya pada Griffith, kekecewaannya pada Guts, dan keinginannya sendiri untuk diakui.

• 🧠 Kehancuran Griffith lebih tragis.
Alih-alih jatuh secara tiba-tiba, versi ini memberi waktu bagi penonton untuk melihat perlahan bagaimana Griffith kehilangan segalanya, hingga akhirnya berubah menjadi Femto.

• 🩸 Eclipse yang lebih mencekam.
Karena build-up-nya diperpanjang, adegan pengkhianatan besar ini terasa jauh lebih menyayat. Atmosfernya sesak, horornya intens, dan rasa kehilangan jauh lebih kuat.

• 🫱 Perjuangan batin Guts lebih terasa.
Keputusan Guts untuk meninggalkan Griffith, lalu kembali demi menyelamatkan teman-temannya, jadi punya bobot emosional lebih besar. Rasa hampa, sakit hati, dan semangat bertahan hidupnya lebih terasa dari sebelumnya.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 9, 2025

SneezySaturn

Mixed Feelings

I’ve never read the manga, so I am basing this entirely off the shows merits. I was told a lot of positive things about the memorial remake, and berserk in general.

There was a significant amount of poor cg use. So the visuals were often a let down.

I completely understand the use of nudity when needed, but I felt there was a couple scenes that were bordering on hentai, which was unnecessary.

I only felt any attachment to 3 characters, those being Griffith, Guts, and Judeau. Casca was lacking something. She was headstrong but seemed to never be able to back it up, even though she ... was supposed to be a captain above Judeau, Pippin, and others. She lost every time. She was bossy for no reason. I never grew to like her character at all.

I understand it’s a dark story, but I feel as if it’s sometimes dark to just be dark. Casca is threatened to be raped every battle, and is often successfully stripped in some way. Guts was raped by some men, but he killed his father for allowing it and being drunk? Casca was saved by Griffith from rape, yet her and Guts are both virgins. Griffith never showed any sign of being evil to anyone in the party, but made Casca sleep with guts naked because “it’s the purpose of a woman”? Very random things included just to randomly remind you, “remember this is a dark medieval fantasy”. Got a little annoying.

SPOILER:
Griffith seems to genuinely care about Guts, even up until the end. Then all of a sudden he’s just like nah screw them all. And rapes Casca in front of Guts just to make him feel pain. When literally 2 minutes before he broke his arm to hold onto Guts from falling. Also, I’ve looked up explanations, but they weren’t really satisfactory; somehow Casca enjoyed what Griffith did to her? The author even semi confirmed it wasn’t even Griffith’s powers that did that. And they definitely animated it like she did.

TLDR: Show is overly dark to the point of not explaining things or making since, but since it’s the darkest thing that could happen, it happens. Also animation was goofy and Casca was annoying.

6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 25, 2024

MirageR

Not Recommended

Informative

Spoiler

Summary:

Another worst way to watch Berserk. I don't get how hard is for animation houses and the ones holding the rights of Miura's work to do it as it should. An average cut-down adaptation for this generation sensibility standards which was already heavily censored and shortened, that trades some of the most iconic, meaningful momments and crudeness, for some generic gore, extra fan service and CGI + movement-sensor-supported scenes that look mostly decent, while also ruining a few important parts.

Reasons to not watch over the 1997 version:

You've read the manga already.

Cut content

... A) Guts reaction when interacting with the general at the begining.
B) Guts past (just dialogue saved for the end).
C) The first time Griffith saves Guts (the full battle is pictured, literally in like 3 shots).
D) Revealing Zodd's ability after being further injured.
E) The lodestone knight gift from Charlotte to Griffith.
F) Foss, the queen, and everything that involved them.
G) Griffith's past related to Gennon.
H) Boscon vs Guts finale (sword break and Zodd's intervention got cut).
I) Griffith friction with a noble (commander/general?) which captures him after being with Charlotte.
J) Mention of previous queen (Charlotte's mother).
K) Guts participation in a tournament.
L) The year with Godo.
M) Griffith alternate future dream.
N) The cliffhanger of Rikert being before a couple apostles.

Ruined content

1) Gut's nightmare (a very, very short slide show).
2) Caska's past memmory (also a slide show).
3) Most of the tension between Guts and Corkus during all the episodes.
4) Corkus and Judeau table talk with Guts before leaving (Corkus got cut-off).
5) Guts and Griffith clash (no deep thoughts of the later, no forced stop the sword swing from the former).

Reason to watch over the 1997 version:

*Is shorter and you don't have that much free time.
*Some scenes from the manga that didn't made it into the 1997 like: griffith's torture, the assassin battle (only the 2nd one), the clash between skull knight & Zodd outside the eclipse and obviously everything that happen after the 1997 version ends.

Another reason to watch, is not "over" but as a complement for the 1997, and only if you don't feel like reading the manga.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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