Summary
Studio 4°C’s Berserk anime retains the less tragic plot from the original trilogy, revealing Griffith’s injuries and his inability to lead Casca and Judeau. The new series differs from the 1997 manga and anime by omitting Apostle Wyald’s revelation of Griffith’s torture and giving control of the situation to Casca and Judeau. Although the setting hasn’t changed much, Berserk Memorial Edition adds a hopeful note as Guts’ people rally around him, making the impending despair of the Eclipse all the more devastating.
Recently from Studio 4°C Hysterical The anime adapts the original Golden Age arc trilogy into a television series that still uses the film’s less tragic plot of how the Band of the Hawk actually learns about the consequences of their injuries. Griffith maintained in the manga.
In episode 10 of Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition, Casca informs the surviving members of the Band of the Hawk that Griffith is no longer able to lead them.
Judeau also supported Casca by saying there was no point in asking Griffith directly since he could no longer speak. While Memorial Edition is ostensibly a new series, the setting remains completely unchanged from how Studio 4°C first portrayed it in the original Berserk trilogy.
Griffith’s torture was initially revealed by an apostle
This development is in contrast to the manga and even the first anime adaptation in 1997. In chapter 68 of Kentaro Miura’s Berserk, Apostle Wyald becomes sick of the hope he sees in Griffith’s people and strips removing the small armor he wore to expose the extent of Griffith’s cruelty. torture. The Apostle then happily listed all the things Griffith would not be able to do because of his injury.
Meanwhile, the 1997 Berserk anime completely replaced Wyald and the special Kushan warriors, the king of Midland also afflicting Griffith with an army of normal Midland knights. One of the knights was able to capture Griffith and present his wound to the Band of the Hawk in a similar manner as Wyald did in the manga.
Berserk Memorial Edition gives more control to Casca and Judeau
Both the manga and the 1997 anime are more tragic than Studio 4°C’s two Berserk adaptations that retconned Griffith’s reveal scene. The trilogy and the Memorial Edition put Casca and Judeau in complete control of the situation. They choose the time and place to inform Griffith’s men of their leader’s condition and things may never be the same. Meanwhile, the 1997 manga and anime stripped them of all control, creating the possibility that they could keep the truth from the Band of the Hawk for as long as possible if given the chance.
However, since the manga’s Wyald and the 1997 anime’s Midland knights defeated them, Casca and Judeau’s hesitation forces their people to hear the already terrible truth in the worst possible way. They deserve to mourn Griffith’s plight in a safer environment and to hear from people they consider family, not from enemies. For Griffith, the ordeal of being exposed by someone who wanted to harm him and his subordinates without his permission was certainly a serious violation.
The Berserk Memorial Edition makes for a smart addition
The irony is that although the Memorial Edition left Griffith’s scene unchanged in Studio 4°C’s original trilogy, the new series’ specialized format allowed the studio to actually shine some light on the retcon. inherently less tragic by having episode 10 of Berserk’s Memorial. The trial ends on a hopeful note as Guts’ men rally around him in excitement at the prospect of him becoming their new leader.
While not as tragic as the manga or the 1997 anime, perhaps it was the combination of Casca wresting control from her enemies and the ending scene with Guts’ men clinging to hope that made the hopelessness and the inevitable despair that overwhelms the Eclipse becomes even more traumatic and scarring. While by Griffith Torture revelations were certainly more brutal than in Hysterical manga, the addition of hope to the Memorial Edition makes the wounds of Eclipse even more painful.
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