Berserk

Berserk is some old school anime that I enjoy. It's one of those shows that at the end of the episode will freeze frame and go from standard anime cel animation to a "dramatic" protrait of a character in mid snarl. Love it.

The story is one of those back and forth deals where we see the grizzled hero in the future then go into the past to see what made him such a bad ass. Said bad ass is named oddly enough "Guts." In the future he's armed with a fake hand/cannon, repeating crossbow, and a sword the size of a house. In the past he still has a sword at least the size of a bungalo but he's still young. He gets involved with a band of mercenaries called "The band of the hawk," who is commanded by Griffith who is one of those girlish bad asses you only see in anime. There's something of a triangle between Griffith, Guts, and the butch but sexy Casca. Obviously events will eventually lead to betrayal and other nasty stuff so the fun of the show is just watching things slowly unraveled.

The animation is not exceptional but professional enough and for some reason the English/Japanese songs tickle me. It is exceptionally violent but often in silly ways. It's the type of show where a sword fight can end with Guts grabbing the other guy's sword between his teeth. For fans of old school definitely fun to watch.