English Dub Review: Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition “Prepared for Death”

Overview:

Guts and Casca fall off of a cliff during battle and get separated from the rest of the Hawks. Guts does what he can to keep Casca alive and she shares her true feelings with him.

Our Take:

Casca has had a hard life, especially a woman on the battlefield. She’s always looked down upon, except by Griffith. She has a nice emotional moment with Guts when she’s telling him what Griffith means to her. He rescued her when she was younger and since then, she’s wanted to be his sword. However, Griffith views Guts in such high regard, so Casca became jealous. This explains why she acts the way she does toward Guts and Guts completely understands.

Regardless of how cold Casca is to Guts, he backs her up and battle and saves her life after they fall off of a cliff. Not to mention, he gives her a chance to escape when the enemy forces find them. Unfortunately, that leaves Guts to fight them off alone until reinforcements arrive.

It’s nice to see Guts and Casca bond a little bot. This isn’t the most intimate scene, but it gets the job done and it helps the viewer see things through Casca’s point of view. Plus, it’s nice to see Guts putting one of his comrades ahead of himself for once.

It’s also nice to hear Mike Pollock’s voice here. Her reprises his role as Adon from the original series. I’m not familiar with the character, but I know the voice very well.

Overall, this is a fine episode. There’s a little bit of cool action, but the episode’s a little uneventful at points. It offers a good dynamic between Guts and Casca, but I’m hoping to see that built upon more.