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What kind of crap is that? Seriously. That was the worst ending I've seen in my life. Too much introduced too late, no respect for the characters whatsoever. It just made me depressed and feel like I wasted my time even trying to get to know the band of the hawk and their quest. People had told me nothing was left resolved, but in my mind everything was resolved perfectly, just in the most utterly horrible, vulgar, crass, mindlessly shocking and depressing way.
What was going to be one of my top 5 animes of all time was dropped to mediocre status in the course of 3 episodes.
Phew, ok. Rants over now. Just had to get that off my chest =)
o-('-')-o HuG
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l felt the same when l borowed my m8s copy, l was like what the hell, and it was so depressing seeing everyone die. That sucked ass, but hopefully there be another series..please
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i have yet to see it and probably wont because it just doesnt look like a series that ill like. but the point im here to make is that people expect too much from the endings of series. they always expect everything to be tied up, no loose ends to be seen and everybody to go home happy. the harsh reality with most anime is that this doesnt happen. some of the time there is too much manga and only one series of anime is planned so the ending is just left open completely with no conclusion (just like guyver). but usually endings just suck. people dont want everything to turn out perfectly, but it isnt acceptable to kill off every character and for the world to end. examples of bad endings are everywhere; all the drangonball series, evangelion, guyver, berserk and hellsing to name a few. however endings that leave a lasting impact on the viewer, for being great usually, are few and far between; bebop and evangelion (although far too depressing) are the only two i can think of and one of them is debatable. its very stupid that anyone would want to end a great anime series very shitly without any effort being put into a viewers point of view, and i agree that people shouldnt stand for it, but the fact of the matter is that it doesnt really matter that much. if its a great series with a shit last episodes or so, then its still a great series. theres no need to rate a series lower because of its bad ending, because the ending is just how the writer wanted it to end, and hes responsible for the greatness of the rest of the series also, so respect his decision. i probably feel this way due to my experience with bad endings, especially in video games, but lets face it when anything good ends its bad because its over, every possible ending except perfection isnt acceptable. guess this is just human nature
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some anime just don't give closure..
Tylor for example, l hated the ending, never knew what happened
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Groove Adventures Rave
Wai!
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I guess i look at it differently.. I don't think the ending sucked.. Yea it left you open and wondering allright but it didn't suck..
basically the Point of the whole anime was to Show you how guts became the man he is in the first episode of the series.. How he gets stronger how he grows and how he gets all the anger he has towards Griffith now. And that is exactly what the anime does and it does it perfect.. I mean going along in the storyline guts never really had a goal or anything until he met griffith and girffith beat him. And also griffith never took risks like he did to save guts for anyone else.. And after time Guts truely wanted to be Griffith friend but when he over heard the conversation with Charolette about no-one in his band could be his friend etc.. It drove guts to wish to be equal stand beside griffth. So he leaves but he didn't knwo that he meant so much to griffth.. and thus goes into what you hate the ending.. But like i said the story is just how to tell how he became the person he was in the first episode.. but there are other avenues fi you wish to find out more.. there are manga's up to like book 21 which the anime stops at book 16 or about there.. There is also a Dreamcast game that has guts searching for things after they get out.. Caska is in it also.. and it helps with the story etc..
But also supposdly there is a Season 2 of berserk in pre-production phase.. and hopefully it won't take too long to get it all done..
P.S. You know Rickert (i think is his name) the boy at the end where the whole camp is killed and it just shows him.. He didn't die.. Just FYI..
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Berserk anime is a tease to lure you watching the manga. Manga is still going. Check out this Berserk exclusive BBS http://www.skullknight.net/index2.htm.
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That's the thing, I'm not complaining about whether it tied everything up nicely or not. It was just a horrible ending. You slowly start to care about all these characters, and then they are killed off in the most ridiculously forced way ever. It was effective, it just left me feeling depressed, empty, and I had wasted my time. When you establish characters that much, you expect some sort of resolution or emotional catharsis at the end that is satisfying. A character is like a puzzle you slowly piece together from start to end, and when the puzzle is complete, the picture revealed is much greater, fullfilling a greater meaning and a defining an overlying idea. Shinji and Spike were both such characters.
Berserks characters were the same, especially deeper ones like Caska and Judeau, but they shattered the picture before I could get a better look. Worse yet, I cared about that picture and they ripped it to pieces in a vile way. They didn't even give you the slightest hint as to Caska's fate, which I was as involved in as Gatts'.
I guess I just feel strung along. With the brilliance in which the paths were laid down, I thought there would be great things at the end, yet what I found had no point. The quest for the treasure was fun, but the pot of gold at the end determines the worth of the journey.
o-('-')-o HuG
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I will admit, the first time I watched Berserk, I was displeased with the ending. After I went back and watched a few more times I loved it though...and then I found out that it was continued in the manga and my enthusiasm grew even more. I still feel that they could have at least added one more episode to bring everthing to a semi-close instead of ending the way that it did. Basically, it is just like neoEIN said..."Berserk anime is a tease to lure you into watching the manga.". The manga is really where all the enjoyment of Berserk lies. 
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Just like schultz said. The Journey was all about Gatsu, and his growth. Had the anime countinued after that point you probably wouldn't feel the same way. In my eyes that is where the story really begins.
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~SPOILERZ/RANT~
Okay, I watched the ending with Vance and I hated it to the point of dismissing it. In my mind, the last two episodes were just the cast's bad drug trip after they ate some (strangely bitter) paper out of desperation.
I gather that the events are acceptable in context with the manga and I have no problem with that. However, the manga and the anime tell two entirely different stories.
In the Manga...
BEFORE THERE'S -ANY- information about the Band of the Hawk, there's an entire story arc (the Black Swordsman) in daemon world. You realize this is how things are. You come to terms with Guts being a lone warrior battling demons in a hellish universe. This is the focus. Everything has GONE TO HELL, this is GUTS'S STORY, and you're going to learn about HIS PAST. It then proceeds to the Band of the Hawk arc and you know intuitively beforehand that this will tell you how the world went down the shitter.
In the Anime...
Episodes 1 - There's a man with a big sword killing people and demony things. Who is he? WTF?
Episodes 2 - Whoa, is this a flashback? No, it's going on too long. This must be the actual story. Lots of main characters here, lots of simultaneous threads...
Episodes 3-23 - Yes! What an engrossing plot! Things are going places.
Episodes 24-26 - Hmmm... suddenly lots of demons show up for no apparent reason and everyone dies. Wow. How fulfilling.
Obviously the makers of the anime wanted to focus on the BotH arc, so why didn't they just leave it at that beautiful, epic tale? They were comfortable taking other liberties throughout the series, so why bother with the frame story when they weren't going to explore it at all? WHY WHY WHY? It makes no damn sense. It's a special kick to the face when the series builds up so much of its dramatic tension by saving main characters from the brink of death. Every person had at least two sequences where they could have expired with meaning and purpose.
End of Evangelion was this ending done right. Everyone died, but at least they got their due respects.
IMHO, if you want to be left whispering "Wow", just stop where Judeau says "Y'know, I think I'm gonna start a band of thieves and take care of Griffith", and Guts says "I never realized it, but everything I wanted was right here." I think it's at the end of Episode 23. End Series. Cut. Servicable ending.
The End.
In fact, what am I saying? It did end there. Like I said, everything else = bad cast acid trip.
Why do you want my signature? Are you forging a check or something!?
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The problem is the story is NOT about the Band of the Hawk it is NOT about any of those other chars.. Yes they are chars that play a role but ITs not about them.. The Story is about Gutts, Griffith and Caska how she is tied to both of them. They start off showing you what gutts has because and then they go through HOW he became who he was.. They have to show everyone getting killed because this is how Griffith became the deamon that he is.. by sacraficing the band of the hawk.. But like i said the Story IS NOT about the band of the hawk.. I personly don't mind the ending because it tells what it needs to.. Yes i would of liked to know how he got out and the rest but the thing is that don't further the story that where trying to tell. If a season 2 comes out which then the story will probably be about Gutts hunting Griffith down then thats where it belongs..
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Well, I'd have to say while the manga might not be about the band of the hawk, the anime most definitely is. And in viewing the anime, to review it effectively you have to take it as a standalone work. If they make another season, that ending will be excusable. If they don't however, I'll still chalk it up as a travesty.
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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..
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I understand how you could feel that way after reading the manga, but please understand that Vance and I had absolutely no knowledge of Berserk. We just picked up the anime and watched it; and now, I say four things:
1. It takes a carefully crafted story and a lot of effort to make me really care about a character.
2. Berserk made me care about every member of the Band of the Hawk.
3. The ending senselessly mowed most of them down and horrifically violated the rest.
4. That makes icenine0 very angry. :mad:
Listen, in high school AP English, I studied an important literary term that you may be familiar with: deus ex machina.
The jist of it is this -
In Greek and Roman times, dramatists would frequently end plays by having a god or goddess mythically and mysteriously *poof* in to save the hero from death and resolve any dangling plot threads. Example:
------------------------
Pyritheoneo: Oh! This alligator is going to eat me! I'm doomed!
Athena: *ZING* Here I am! There's no plausible way for you to escape, and although I haven't been in the play up to this point, I decided to suddenly appear and save your life!
Pyritheoneo: Oh great! But what about my wife's ensuing affair with Laetohon?
Athena: Oh, I erased both of their memories. Now she'll be your obedient love slave.
Pyritheoneo: Great!
~Fin~
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This can be applied to any literary work nowadays and refers to any time a story is resolved through "divine intervention", i.e., any great, previously unintroduced force coming in to "fix things up".
While deus ex machina was acceptable back then, now it's generally critiqued and avoided. It's considered a cop-out -- a cheap way to get out of writing a plausible, well crafted ending to a story.
Looking *strictly at the anime*, Berserk's ending is the worst example of deus ex machina I've ever seen. Bar none. The worst. Let's end this great story by having every main character killed, maimed, or raped by a huge demon army that suddenly appears.
I wouldn't have minded if it was a lesser anime - something I didn't expect resolution from. You can say "it was only about Guts" all you want, but you're wrong.
It was about Judeau's deep and caring friendship with Caska.
It was about Pippin and Ricket's careful protection of one another.
It was about Caska's unrequited love.
It was about Guts's mind slowly healing from his horrific youth.
It was about Corkus's cynical outlook and unyielding loyalty.
It was about political intrigue.
It was about Griffith's meteoric rise and fall from grace.
Every one of these plot threads was senselessly butchered. Indeed, upon reflection, it reminds me of Guts brutally hacking off his own arm.
Anime Director Bob -
Let's beat this story until it's DEAD, gentlemen. Damn the means! Kill them all off! Every last one I SAY!
Anyway, that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
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