Like many other 1990s-era anime and manga series, Berserk suffers from issues regarding how to watch, and what order its numerous adaptations should be watched in. The answer is, unfortunately, quite simple.
Modern-day shonen anime fans have it quite easy. A series will come out, a new season will come out every year or two, and the show will wind down. The worst-case scenario is that the show will end while fans are still hungry for more, like with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Either that or it goes on for so long that it spawns too many spin-offs and sequels to keep track of, like with Naruto.
Fans of series like Berserk, Evangelion, and Grappler Baki desperately wish that watching an anime in order was that simple. Time, the exchange of licensing rights, and shifts within the entertainment industry have seen each of these iconic franchises split up across multiple companies who adapted them in multiple ways. So how should you approach watching the Berserk series in order? It’s not too difficult, but it’s still a sub-optimal viewing experience.
All Berserk anime adaptations, in order of release
Berserk has had three anime adaptations that vary wildly in quality. Unfortunately, even in aggregate, they don’t cover anywhere close to the full story of Berserk’s manga. Even the critically popular adaptations hone in on a small portion of the manga, while leaving things out to hit all the key plot points within a limited number of episodes. This means that most of the Berserk adaptations aren’t really worth watching.
Here are all the different Berserk anime adaptations that have come out thus far.
Berserk (1997)
The 1997 Berserk anime adaptation touches upon the Black Swordsman arc, followed by the Golden Age arc. Unfortunately, in both cases, the series omits much of the content from the manga in order to cram these two stories into 25 episodes. Still, this series is held up as the best adaptation of Berserk and a very strong series overall.
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (2012-2013)
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc was a trilogy of movies that hit screens across 2012 and 2013 and they should be watched in this order:
- The Egg of the King
- The Battle for Doldrey
- The Advent
The story of these films overlaps heavily with the 1997 Berserk anime series, but prunes off even more content than the 1997 anime. The films received mixed reviews both in terms of the visual style, and the changes to and omissions from the manga’s story.
Berserk (2016)
Another Berserk anime series launched in 2016, though many fans prefer to forget about it. Berserk 2016 picks after the events of the Golden Age arc, covering the Conviction arc and the Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc. While this makes it completely distinct from the Golden Age-focused series and movie trilogy, this sequel is viscerally hated.
Rather than 2D animation, the series uses CGI that is jarringly clunky at times. Though the story is enough to carry things for some, the series was not well-received at launch and opinions haven’t softened in the years since.
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc Memorial Edition (2022)
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc Memorial Edition is a remaster and recut of the movie trilogy. It adapts the three films into a 13-episode anime series. It doesn’t add or remove a significant amount of content relative to the films. Instead, it simply breaks them up into more digestible pieces of content.
Best Berserk anime watch order
The best order to watch the Berserk anime adaptations is to simply watch the 1997 Berserk anime series followed by the 2016 series.
While hardcore fans of Berserk will say to ignore the anime and simply read the manga, that’s not going to be optimal for everybody. For those who want to take in the series through their TV, the best option is to simply ignore The Golden Age Arc films and series.
The 1997 series is the best way to take in Berserk’s The Golden Age arc, and is the most highly regarded adaptation thus far. While the 2016 series isn’t nearly as popular, it is still effectively a sequel to the 1997 series. The Golden Age Arc films and anime are worth watching for Berserk fans, but fans don’t need to watch them in order to take in the full breadth of story content.
