Ending of Berserk sucked. (semi-spoiler)

[Vance]

Originally posted by Schultz
But the Anime is not.. like i said you are failing to see it. The anime is about Gutts growing over time.. Being in the band of the hawk and getting stronger and stronger.. There is NO part of it that don't include gutts.. Everything is about him.. and there really isn't nothing about the Band of the hawk.. besides Gutts intervention with them..

If you can say that then you can say that Cowboy Bebop is not about the crew of the Bebop, but just Spike, which I would disagree with severely as well. I would also be pissed off if at the end of Bebop a rogue criminal just walked on the ship and massacred Faye, Ed, and Jet for no apparent plot oriented or thematic reason.

Actually there are tons of highlights throughout the series that are not focused around Gatts. Take Caska for instance. She has her own plot and rival afforded entirely to her centered around her hatred for the Corbowitz general, and has an ENTIRE episode dedicated solely to her past. We get to know her angst over seeing Griffith with the princess, her hopes and desires, the struggles she faces as a woman in a field dominated by men. None of these are crucial to Gatts' growth, they are her own problems, and make her a unique and fleshed out character in the series. I won't even go into Griffith, that's too obvious.

Even minor characters such as Judeau have unique dreams, pasts given to them. Judeau secretly loves Caska, he was with a band of traveling minstrels, he follows Griffith because he has no confidence to forge his own dream, he was always number one in contests of slight of hand and dexterity when he was a child. All of these things have nothing to do with Gatts.

If Gatts was the sole topic of this anime and all screen time and thoughts were focused on him, and you cut out everything else, this series would be less than half as long.

[Schultz]

But all the points you broght up.. Are caska is telling who this.? Gutts so that he knows more about her past and such.> Because she is in love with guts.. All the other people all kinda tell about them to Gutts so that He can find the answer he is looking for.. the Main people it is about is
Griffith his will to be King
Gutts and his survival all his life
And Caska who she has always loved Griffith and now more loves Gutts
and it shows this by how she has changed from Griffith's and Gutts first fight to there second she is trying to stop the second.. They have the side part's a little but its not really about them.. Cause about half way you even had Zodd say that when Griffith's ambision comes crashing down that Gutts will die.. So he basically told him right there what was going to happen.

And i beg to differ with Cowboy bebop alot of Episodes Solely revoleved around different people on the Ship.. like the episode with Jet and his past finding out that his friend betrayed his and such.. Its been a while since i seen Cowboy Bebop and only watched it once..

But they started and stopped the anime right where they needed to be.. Because again thats what it was about.

[kakoi_sugoi_yama]

The anime is about Gatsu. It is his past. You need to see how tragic it was to appreciate where he is now. This work isn't an example of deus ex machina. The god hand were involved from the start (if you really think about it since before the start). That is were Griffith got the Behelit from. Which had been involved since the start. If you paid attention the story tells you from the start that there is something very wrong in the works. All of the foreshadowing with the behelit, and Zodd. You had to have known that the hawks were doomed. I really love the end to Berserk. It had everything it needed to be completely tragic. It was a very fitting end, well beginning actually.

I knew from episode five of Cowboy Bebop that Spike was going to die. Surely you guys had to know that something was up.

[morgorath]

Ok I have read this whole thread and have disussed enough series with Schultz to know his point of view. Here is my view which is in th middle of Vance's and Schultz's views...

1. The story is about Guts and how he turned into the man he is in the first episode.
2. While the main charcter is Guts the story builds up this bond between Guts and the rest of the Band of Hawk, so that we as viewers have this love for them as Guts does. Just like KOR...
3. Here is were I disagree with Schultz since this story is about Guts and how he turns into the Dark Swordsman. I can accept (not like) them killing off the BOH. Because that creates a rage between us (viewers) and Griffin. That is what the directors are shooting for... The problem..
4. We never see how Guts takes that hate & Rage and escapes the Hell he is in (I don't care about the Manga I am looking at the Anime only) We know he escapes but how, and why...? another deus ex machina saves him...
5. If those little red balls are so powerful and when the situation is right they unleash the demons why do we have no real knowledge of them thru the whole Anime. Yes the anime establishes that they are there and they have some sort of power, but other than that...

Look here is my strongest point... in KOR there was another Love intrest for Hikauri. He was there for her thru the whole series, but near the end he sorta dissappeared. In the OVA's he was no wear to be found hell he is never mentioned again after a certain episode. That pissed me off. that threw him away after cementing him into the story. They could have made two happy couples and insted riped my heart open with how they ended the realtionship. Hell it took a movie to mend the hurt and even there put a rock between two friends as well as a distaste in are mouth for the directors.

Bezserk does the same thing. It was done on purpose to make us feel the same hate that Guts feels for Griffin. But they leave us with a bunch of how did he get out and is Caska alive questions...? And you can say all you want that oh the First episode... explains... it don't explain much. They should have made one more episode showing the Boney Horseman god saving Guts and Caska's lives (deus ex machina) and telling Guts the only way top save him and Caska was to hunt down the demons. That would have at least numbed the pain and made me hungry for more instead of pissed off...

[kakoi_sugoi_yama]

I think it did what it set out to do. I really grew to love the characters, and when they were all killed to accomplish Griffiths plan.. I felt emotions for them. It made me hate Griffith, like it was supposed to. It is part of the story. The only thing that is a shame is that more hasn't been animated yet. I would be pissed off had thier slaughtering been for nothing, and a cop out ending, but.. It wasn't. The company VAP actually ran out of funding for the show (maybe because it was on after 1:00 in the morning), but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Since the show was such a hit (in both in japan and here) more will be made. It is just a matter of time.

[Vicious]

Maybe that's the reason it only had 25 episodes. Maybe they did originally intend on having 1 more, but they ren out of money.

I finally saw the last disc last night. The ending is weak in my opinion. The last 3 episodes totally deviate form the rest of the series. Most of the series is based around war and battles and all of a sudden it shifts into this supernatural demonic crap and Griffith turns into Batman. I realize that it's meant to be that way in the manga, but with the anime, they gave us different expectations.

As for the ending itself, I could care less about the other characters getting killed off, I just wanted to know how Gatts got out of it. I just assumed that Griffith let him go so he could feel pain and misery for the rest of his life and so he could continue to torture him. But Morg's last paragraph makes me think that there's more to it then that.

As for who the story revolves around. I always took it as it was Gatts story with Griffith being a main player in it. The rest were just supporting extras meant to help the storyline along. We didn't even see Cascas past or start caring about her until like episode 18 or something like that. So they could kill off whomever they wanted, I just didn't like the deviation from what they had built up in the 1st 23 epsisodes into some weird demonfest.

[kakoi_sugoi_yama]

SPOILER ALERT

Since you wanted to know Vicious here you go. Gatsu, and Casca are both saved from the Eclipse masacre by the Skull Knight. Rickert was also saved by Skull Knight. The stories after that point where the anime ends are so great. Even better than the previous stories. All we can do is hope for more.

[Vicious]

Originally posted by kakoi_sugoi_yama
SPOILER ALERT

Since you wanted to know Vicious here you go. Gatsu, and Casca are both saved from the Eclipse masacre by the Skull Knight. Rickert was also saved by Skull Knight. The stories after that point where the anime ends are so great. Even better than the previous stories. All we can do is hope for more.

Spoilers don't bother me too much at this point, since I don't have the patience to wait 6 months for the manga. I've seen figures of the Skull Night and 1 other character that I can't recall now. I always wondered who they were. Do they tell you who the Skull Knight is and why he's such a thug that he could save all those people?