by Jayden Leggett, Editor

For those of you who didn’t catch my review of the original theatrical release during the Reel Anime 2012 film festival, Berserk: The Egg Of The King follows the story of a mercenary named “Guts” who’s fighting skills catch the eyes of Griffith, leader of the Band of the Hawk mercenaries. As the Band of the Hawk grow in fame, they soon become hired by the Midland army. Whilst Midland are victorious in all of their battles, not all of its members take too kindly to the presence of the “ignoble mercenaries”, and assassination attempts ensue, with devastating results…

Since I had seen the movie previously in its native Japanese tongue with English subtitles, I figured I would watch it this time with English dubbing.

The dubbing, for the most part was solid. The voice acting was of a high quality, with a mixture of American and British accents. Griffith (the androgynous girly-man) had a slightly more masculine voice this time around, but occasional his accent seemed to shift from a posh British accent to having slight American inflections. Also, some of the dialogue felt a little bit clumsy after its translation from Japanese, and the lip synching was mostly pretty good but not always spot on, but if I wasn’t trying to focus on these factors I probably wouldn’t have even notice. Plus, there is always the option to play it with Japanese audio anyway, so all preferences are catered for.

Being on a Blu-Ray format, the visuals were still unsurprisingly as slick and awesome as last time, as were the sound effects and music. The cinematography and camera angles were of excellent standard, same with the fight sequences and action choreography. One thing that I remember from my first viewing was the slightly jilted 3D CG segments, which looked like the animation had dropped some frames of animation during a render. Unfortunately this slightly rocky frame rate still remains during the 3D CG segments, and while these stick out a bit like a sore thumb, they can be forgiven because the action contained within is pretty rad indeed.

Speaking of which, while I had remembered that the action sequences were outstanding (and still hold up to the high expectations of my memory), I had almost forgotten about the excessive amounts of graphic violence. I loved the gore (which probably makes me seem like a psychopath, but meh, what can you do?) Sliced limbs, blood gushing out of people’s mouths, eyeballs popping out, all very graphic but perfectly suited to the bloody wars that are waged during the course of the film.

As for special features… there aren’t really any! OK, so there was a trailer at the beginning for Bleach: Hell Verse, and of course the option to watch the movie with either English or Japanese audio, but for a flick of such high quality I would have loved it if the Blu-Ray had included some behind the scenes segments outlining the animation techniques used, or how the adaptation process from manga to movie took place. Alas, this was not the case, and somewhat of a missed opportunity in my eyes. However, as the quality of the film itself is so strong, I can forgive this for the most part.

All told, Berserk: The Egg Of The King on Blu-Ray is a worthy addition to any anime aficionado’s collection. Despite not really containing any special features, the detailed story, above average voice acting, brilliant fighting sequences and gorgeous visuals and sound effects make this a film that I would still gladly recommend, and sets a real benchmark for what anime films can really accomplish when they aren’t cheaply produced. And yes, I am still eagerly waiting to see the sequel.

ComicsOnline recommends purchasing your copy of Berserk: The Egg Of The King directly from the Madman entertainment website by following this link (particularly for residents of Australia and New Zealand).

Rating:

ComicsOnline gives Berserk: The Egg Of The King 4.5 out of 5 pheasants being swallowed whole by a hungry mercenary.

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