YMMV / Berserk Abridged

• Awesome Music:
  • In episode 7 "Bitch slap!/Oh snap!/Punk motherfucker ain't worth a cap! It's hilarious given the context.
  • Spoofed in episode 15, where the Governor insists on blaring "Dance of the Curse" 'round the clock at maximum volume. Why? Because Yoko Kanno makes everything more awesome.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Remember Guts' traumatic childhood rape experience? You know why it happened here? Because Guts declared it opposite day and Gambino was going to buy him a black guy.
  • Guts' killing Mike the Murderer and demanding extra pay for one particular part.
    Mike: How are you gonna put a price on making orphans out of my kids, man!?
    Guts: (Record Scratch) Hm, that's a good point. Three extra silver stags for making orphans out of his kids?
    Mercenary Captain: Oh god, yes!
  • From the movie: "Say 'No, Uncle Griffith, don't touch me there!'"
• Fridge Brilliance: One episode has Griffith comparing his troops to pawns in a conversation to Charlotte, with a mention that pawns can be sacrificed to bring back more important pieces. This actually serves as an early indicator for the fact that the infamous sacrifice won't be carried out here; since the king (Griffith) can't be captured, it also can't be brought back by sacrificing pawns.
• Fridge Logic: If the finale never happened, where would the first episode fit?
  • hbi2k has said that he wrote the ending for his own amusement and that the real ending to the anime still happened, because he couldn't find a way to make any of it funny.
  • Alternatively, the final episode never happened, but Guts still eventually lost his eye and hand and went adventuring on his own for whatever reason.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • While the foxhunt was a shout out to Naruto, ("Here Kyubi, Kyubi, Kyubi!"), if one was to turn it into a mondegreen, it becomes an entry to the many "Everybody Hates Kyubey" Moments.
  • When the series was first released, Zack was just an easily missed (though still vitally important) bit player in Final Fantasy VII, hence why everyone mistakes Guts for a Cloud cosplayer (and Phil dismisses the character as a "black-haired Cloud"). Then Zack got his own game.
  • In Episode 20, Godo suggests that Guts should train until he's a better swordsman than anybody could ever realistically need to be. "Unless the world should suddenly be overrun by horrible demons, of course. But what are the chances of that happening?" This was obviously a joke about how Guts would fight demons extensively during and after the Eclipse, but after the magic came back and astral creatures made a sudden resurgence in the world in the manga proper, it became a lot more stunningly accurate.
• Magnificent Bastard: Griffith, charismatic leader of the Band of the Hawks, manages to press Guts into the Band before taking the lead in Midland's Hundred-Year War. Using his command of tactics and the proper battle music to set them to, Griffith leads them to victory after victory before taking the impenetrable Doldrey fortress. Luring out its corrupt Governor who lusts after Griffith's place in his Escaflowne cosplay group, Griffith then fakes his death to catch the Queen of Midland in a plot and burns her and her co-conspirators alive. When the time comes to sacrifice the Hawks to the Godhand, Griffith can only refuse and tells the demon lords to leave him and his friends alone before recovering and setting off to become king.

---