English Dub Review: Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition “Nosferatu Zodd”

Overview:

The Band of the Hawk’s name is gaining popularity, but Casca questions Guts’ loyalty to the group. Guts and Griffith have to face an enemy like they’ve never faced before.

Our Take:

Three years have passed since Guts joined the band of the Hawk. He claims to have changed in that time, but he’s still reckless on the battlefield. This causes Casca to scold him. On the bright side, the band is getting a lot of buzz. Plus, Griffith doesn’t question the way Guts fights.

During a mission, Guts faces off with Zodd. He’s an ancient warrior who’s been around for over 200 years and he is a monster. Guts can’t match Zodd’s strength, but the rest of the band comes in to back him up. Griffith fights alongside of him, but nearly gets killed. Zodd sees the necklace Griffith is wearing and decides to flee, but not before giving Guts an ominous warning.

This episode feels bare bones compared to the previous one. The action isn’t as exciting and the story doesn’t feel like it’s progressing too much. Plus, there’s a montage that shows pretty much the entire season in the first four minutes of the episode. This is a very odd choice and I’m sure it contains plenty of spoilers. If you haven’t watched this episode yet, I recommend skipping this part.

For three years to have passed, it doesn’t feel like anything is changed. The characters all look and act the same as they did in the previous episode. I had no idea any time had passed until it was mentioned.

This episode is a pretty big step back from the first. At least the end of this episode is open-ended enough that it can lead to some interesting possibilities in the next one. Other than that, it feels underwhelming overall.