Berserk Volume 5

Details

 Director: Naohito Takahashi
 Catalogue Number: MVD2201
 Certificate: 15
 Date Released: May 19th 2008
 Screen: Widescreen 16:9
 Languages: English - Dolby Digital (5.1)
 Additional Languages: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0)
 Subtitles: English
 Duration: 100 minutes

Special Features

• Artwork Subject To Change
• Video Interview With producer Toshio Nakataui
• Outtakes

Synopsis

Griffith stands at the peak of victory. The remaining opposition attempts one final act of treachery, and for that they will burn. Guts fights at Griffith's right hand till the very end, and now that the status of the Hawks has reached it's peak, he has decided to take his leave and find a new path. But to call his sword his own, there stands one obstacle in his path; the promise he made when he lost that fateful duel three years before.

As the band of the hawk watches, Guts and Griffith draw their swords once more. As Caska looks on, the dream of her past and the dream her present face each other.

Contains episodes 18 - 21.

Cover

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Review

Time moves on with some significant events and realisations made within the Band of the Hawk, and within Guts himself.

Audio:
I listened to the English language track primarily for my main review, and noticed no dropouts, distortions or other technical problems; this is a pretty standard stereo mix with most dialogue coming through the centre channel. The same can be said of the Japanese track from the areas I spot-checked.

Video:
One area where Berserk is beginning to show its age is in terms of video, and it's even more noticeable when upscaled on my HDTV. Presented in its original full frame ratio, the picture is very grainy and there are a lot of nicks and scratches around the screen. During high movement and some darker scenes, there is some blocking, and although it's not helped by the style of the show itself, some of the colours are a little washed out. Having said that, much of this is more down to the quality of materials available to Madman rather than poor production on their point.

Subtitles are in a yellow font which is easily readable, and I didn't notice any obvious spelling errors this time out.

Menu:
The main menu starts with a brief introduction as all the selections animate on screen, and then in the background images in the style of the cover art for all of the characters revolves and rotates around. The show's logo and volume number are in the top right, with all the selections on a parchment of sorts at the bottom of the screen. One of the show's signature themes plays over this menu. The two sub-menus are static, with no music, and in the same style, with just a piece of artwork running down the right side.

Extras:
Another great extra appears on this volume; an almost 20 minute interview with series producer Tushio Nakatani, in which he talks extensively about the show, how it came to be, why he worked on the project and how it all came together. It's an interesting insight into how an anime is conceived. We also get a few more dub outtakes.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The winds of change have arrived in Midland. As the anime series enters its penultimate volume, this arc of the story is thrust towards its conclusion in an interesting fashion. At the end of the last volume, Griffith had been poisoned and was left collapsed in a heap at the big ball to celebrate his and the Hawks' success. As we've come to expect of Griffith though, he won't go down without a fight and sure enough, he returns with a vengeance to get his revenge.

First on his list of priorities are the Queen and the ministers who he knows plotted his assassination. He uses Minister Foss in his plot, and ends up trapping all of them in a room and burning it down. The Queen realises it's Griffith's doing, but as she looks on through the smoke there's little she can do. Guts is naturally at Griffith's side by all of this, attacking the people who Griffith thinks is at fault. But once they return to the Hawks things have moved on to the point where Guts feels he's reached the end of the road with them, and he decides to leave.

As expected, Caska is none too pleased as her feelings have been developing for Guts for some time, and his presence has almost become the constant she can always come back to. She alerts Judeau and Corkus, and the pair try and talk him in to staying. It doesn't work though, and Corkus leaves before Guts has even finished explaining his reasons for going, while Judeau takes it more gracefully. Griffith was always going to be the one to stand in his way though, and sure enough, he and the other key Hawks are waiting for him before he leaves.

Griffith uses his hold over Guts, from their fight those years ago, to force him to duel with him one last time before he is allowed to leave. Guts makes short work of it though, and with one swing of the sword he has broken Griffith's in half and has him yielding. Guts leaves with a simple "farewell", realising that Griffith's ambitions lie far beyond, while the other Hawks watch on. Griffith is clearly in despair though, and forces himself on Princess Charlotte, and gets arrested by the Royal Guards.

This all happens in the first two episodes, and the main focus really here is how much Guts has matured as a character. There are a couple of moments where this is particularly noticeable. Firstly, in the scene in the inn with Judeau and Corkus, where he explains what he wants in life and why he must leave the Hawks to carve his own destiny, he speaks with such dignity, sense and pride that it's easy to see why a hothead like Corkus is just so frustrated while the level-headed Judeau can only wish him the best in his endeavours. Because what Guts says makes so much sense.

Secondly, there's no better culmination to his time with the Hawks than to once again duel with Griffith, going full circle from when he was first drafted in. Again, Guts' development shines through, because whereas he made silly mistakes in his first fight and was easily outclassed by Griffith, he has now learnt from his "master" so to speak, and easily has him defeated with one swing of the sword. Yes, Griffith's mindset isn't quite where it should be, but it really illustrates how far Guts' has come.

As if things hadn't heated up enough already, the third episode on the disc is where everything changes. One year on, and Guts is staying with a sword smith and his granddaughter, training and reflecting on life and what all the people he has known mean to him. But the Band of the Hawk are in disarray, and have been since that fateful night when Griffith was captured. But on hearing the news, Guts returns to help them just in their time of need. The reunion isn't straightforward though, and the truth about Griffith's captivity, and everyone's feelings, are revealed.

Moving the story on by a year at this point is a masterstroke, because it gives us the opportunity again to see how Guts' entire outlook on life and what he sets out to do has changed, but also how everyone else has been affected by his departure. Griffith has been captured and literally looks like a shadow of his former self, with Guts' departure pushing him to do something he clearly hadn't planned to do at that point. The Hawks meanwhile have mixed feelings upon Guts' return, but it's worth it just to see the scene where he and Caska talk, as she tells him exactly what she thinks of him leaving and he reveals his feelings about her.

The pair-up is a long-time coming, but again it serves to strengthen both their characters, giving them a purpose and reason to live outside of Griffith and the Hawks, and that is something that will probably be important in the long-run. Like with everything in Berserk, it's the history of these characters and what has taken place between them that makes it all mean so much, and I can't do enough to praise the story-telling of Kentaro Miura, the original author, who has built up the cast and their relationships so wonderfully.

In Summary:
By the end of this volume of Berserk, things have changed forever. But as the story of the Band of the Hawk is drawing to a close, the appearance of another demon right at the end of the volume signifies the beginnings of another story that will change the face of this world even further. With a story that plays out so intricately, and a cast of characters that you can't help but get attached to, and that continue to evolve even at this late stage in the series, this show is simply a winner. There is nothing else to say but buy it - it's brilliant. (Anime-on-DVD)