History Anime / Berserk2016

* OffModel: Some of the less stellar 2D animation distorts the characters off model, as seen for example in the opening credits sequence.

* {{Gainaxing}}: A significant amount of animated boob-bounce is inevitable when Farnese spends most of episode 3 running around topless.

''Berserk (2016)'' is a TV anime adaptation of the popular and [[PrintLongRunners long-running]] DarkFantasy manga ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' by Creator/KentaroMiura, which focuses on the grim AntiHero Guts as he quests for {{Revenge}} against his treacherous former best friend Griffith and TheLegionsOfHell that he commands. The two previous animated adaptations, the Creator/OLMIncorporated 1997-98 TV anime ''[[Anime/Berserk1997 Kenpuu Denki Berserk]]'' and the 2012-13 movie trilogy ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'' by Creator/Studio4C, both focused on the manga's famous "Golden Age Arc". Unless you count the [[VideoGame/SwordOfTheBerserkGutsRage 1999]] and [[VideoGame/BerserkMillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkiNoSho 2004]] licensed games by Yuke's, this is the first adaptation that depicts Guts as the Black Swordsman and serves as a sequel to the Golden Age Arc. '''Warning: This description contains {{Late Arrival Spoiler}}s for those who haven't read the Golden Age Arc!'''

* ConspicuousCG: Although the CG elements are cel-shaded to give them a more artistic feel, no one would mistake them for hand-drawn because of the low poly count, giveaway textures, and how different it looks when animated.

** After receiving a wound on his soul from Slan of the Godhand, Guts is forced to wear the Berserker Armor, a cursed suit of dwarf-made armor that once belonged to the Skull Knight. While it greatly amplifies his already-superhuman physical abilities when active, the downside is that it slowly kills its wearer by piercing their body to suture the wounds sustained by wearing it. Worse, it's indwelled by the Beast of Darkness, which actively seeks to take over Guts and reduce him to a rage-driven monster, and as such functions as a SuperpoweredEvilSide.

Directed by Shin Itagaki and produced by Creator/LidenFilms, it is animated in a hybrid of 2D and 3D animation with 3D by Studio GEMBA and 2D by Millepensee. Miura himself was the show's executive supervisor involved in all aspects of production, including writing an original scenario for episode 3. Most of the Japanese voice actors from the movie trilogy return to their characters, joined by additional voices for newly introduced characters, and Creator/UnshoIshizuka reprises his 1997 anime role as TheNarrator. The music includes an OST by movie trilogy composer Shiro Sagisu, opening song ''Inferno'' performed by 9mm Parabellum Bullet, insert song ''Hai Yo'' (''Oh Ashes'') performed by 1997 anime composer Music/SusumuHirasawa, and ending theme ''Meimoku no Kanata'' (''Behind Closed Eyes'') performed by Nagi Yanagi. An English dub will be provided by Creator/BangZoomEntertainment, and the whole show is legally available [[http://www.crunchyroll.com/berserk here]] on Website/{{Crunchyroll}}.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/berserk_2016_poster_350.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/berserk_2_key_visual_350.jpg[[/labelnote]]for second key visual.]]

** Unlike in the manga, where Guts meets and travels with Puck for a significant portion of his Black Swordsman period, Puck joins Guts only the night before his encounter with the Iron Chain Knights. It's less clear why Puck continues to follow Guts or why Guts tolerates him, since Puck hasn't had time to see past Guts' JerkassFacade, and Guts hasn't had time to warm up to him. It's also puzzling how Guts could have survived so many wounds or kept his sanity for two years without his company, since in the manga Puck's fairy dust saved him from death several times, and he acted as Guts' MoralityChain.

* AdaptationalWimp: Guts is caught by the Holy Iron Chain Knight the same way he was in the manga, but the harrowing fight against Rosine in the manga that left him too exhausted and injured to properly swing his sword when he fights the H.I.C.K.s is replaced with a less intense fight against skeletons, a possessed dead girl and a demonic tree. That gives him a shallow sword thrust in the abdomen and a tree root which pierces his side pretty deeply so that bleeds while he's fighting the H.I.C.K.s, but considering how MadeOfIron he's supposed to be it isn't as convincing as how Rosine repeatedly blew him off his feet, ran him through with her proboscis, and dropped him from hundreds of feet in the air, so that the show makes it look as though a lot less was needed to take him down.