Summer Anime 2016 Preview: Berserk

Berserk is back, and unlike the Ougon Jidai-hen movies, this time we get new material! The upcoming Berserk 2016 anime will let us take a look at the next part of Kentaro Miura’s original manga. More precisely – the Black Swordsman arc which revolves around Guts and his new companion Puck, the elf.

The new anime will begin on 8^th July 2016 with an early showing of episode one on the pay-per-view Japanese channel WOWOW on 1^st July.

The Story

Originally shown as the first ever arc in the story, the Black Swordsman arc is actually a sequelling adventure to the one we witnessed in the first anime series and the recent movie trilogy.

The story’s peak is when (you will definitely see this in many descriptions, but still: SPOILER!) Guts meets and clashes with the Count. This is also the first out of a number of similar adventures where our buffed-up hero strives to defeat all of the God Hand and reach Femto for complete revenge. While this is a recap of the bigger picture, in the first episodes of the series, we will meet bandits, old friends, new races, and most of all – we will be shoved into a world that has very little to do with what we’re used to form the Golden Egg arc.

Characters and Cast

Hiroaki Iwanaga (Guts in the movie trilogy) as Guts

Kaoru Mizuhara (Hyakka Ryouran’s Gisen Yagyuu) as Puck

Akio Ootsuka (returning from Ougon Jidai-hen III) as The Skull Knight

Toa Yukinari (Casca in the movie trilogy) as Casca

Takahiro Sakurai (Griffith in the movie trilogy) as Griffith

Hiroki Yasumoto (Bleach‘s Yasutora Sado) as Azan

Yoko Hikasa (Hal’s Kurumi) as Farnese de Vandimion

Kazuyuki Okitsu (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s Jonathan Joestar) as Serpico

Hiro Shimono (Durarara!!x2’s Aoba Kuronuma) as Isidro

Narrator: Unshou Ishizuka (narrator also in Pokemon and Sengoku Musou)

Staff

Director: Shin Itagaki (Devil May Cry)

Character Design: Hisashi Abe (Devil May Cry, Chobits, Wolverine)

Series Composition: Makoto Fukami and Takashi Yamashita

Original Creator: Kentaro Miura

Music: Shiro Sagitsu (Bleach, Evangelion)

OP: Inferno by 9mm Parabellum Bullet

ED: Meimoku no Kanata (瞑目の彼方) by Nagi Yanagi

The first episode will be shown on TBS on 8^th July, at 26:25 (effectively 9^th July at 02:25). MBS will begin the episode 15 minutes later – at 26:40, while CBC will air it at 27:16.

Images and video © 三浦建太郎(スタジオ我画)・白泉社／ベルセルク製作委員会

Official Berserk Website

Learn about the other featured anime from the upcoming Summer 2016 season.