Why can't you like both? Loved the anime myself, as I just finished it as well with my posts above. But I'm diving into the manga now and it's better for sure, but I liked watching the anime to give me a feel for the vibe, the voices (Japanese), etc.

The dub outtakes are hilarious though, my friend showed me the Griffith ones.

Claymore on the other hand, the last arc in the anime is garbage. Unlike Berserk that just abruptly ends, Claymore decided to stray off course from the manga and made up its own terrible ending there. That final arc is about 1,000 better in the manga.

THEN I SHALL DO BOTH! I remember seeing the dub outtakes a long, long, time ago, the only thing I remember from the whole series. I must've been 13 or so.

It's been quite awhile since the fact, but I finished Kino's Journey. Great show, and really creepy and bizzare at times too.

Getting into the last 4 episodes of Wolf's Rain and I really have enjoyed this so far. Animation is excellent and the story line is kinda thin but develops quite nicely. Probably gonna start Trigun after this. Heard it's on the order of Gungrave which was fantastic. Then onto an anime I have been trying to watch since like 1997, Record of Lodoss War. Can't believe I haven't checked it out in such a long span of time. My buddy in High School told me about it and for some reason I never got around to it. Anybody seen it?

It's an average fantasy anime. It's a big name if only because it was one of the first to not horrifically suck.

Yup, just average stuff.

I want to catch up Vagabond.

Just finished Legend of the Galactic Heroes. A masterpiece. I'm in the middle of higurashi no naku koro ni, which is a good series but has some pacing problems and I find the slice of life comedy kinda bland. I'm probably going to finish gundam00 second season after that, even though the first season was utterly bland though i figure i might as well finish it. Though I might need some mindless mech porn. After that, I'll probably watch Monster.

I have that one sitting on my hdd, hopefully I'll get around to watching it sometime in the not-so-distant future.

I finished Berserk. Kinda want to get the manga now.

If anyone has any recs for a fan of Berserk, I'd take them. That was definitely the best anime I've watched in a long time. I've heard people compare Claymore to Berserk, and I might try it next (not expecting it to be anywhere near as great really).

Just passing by to say that Mononoke is the best anime of all time.

I just finished Fate/Stay Night. Kind of disappointed a little.

Gungrave might be a better, but weirder recommendation. It's got the whole best friend vs best friend setup. It's conclusive though so not as long as Berserk (including the manga here, the whole Band of the Hawk arc really is kind of like the prelude).

Unfortunately I have to say, I'm 24 volumes in and now and it's very safe to say volume 24 probably marks the drastic turn the series takes that most fans don't like. I'm trying to stay optimistic, but it's clearly becoming another series at this point. Guts is going soft, few kid characters come in and comedy gets more rampant, magical equipment, fantasy troll enemies, the astral world explanations, some old magic witch lady in a mana tree... what the fuck am I reading!? There's some other stuff that happened recently that I definitely wouldn't have done either... anyways at this point it's apparent that Miura has just been pooling all of his ideas into Berserk I'm sure. Up to volume 24 is about 10 some years worth of work, but yeah, still pretty damn dramatic change of tone and direction. Some of the main issues haven't really been touched either. I still have ~10 volumes to read which is a damn lot, but yeah, I guess I can see why fans wonder if it'll even ever end.

Worth it up to this point though. Absolutely loved the anime, but the manga is even better with the first 20 some volumes.

The Claymore anime isn't anything that special, but I really enjoy what I've read of the manga. I'm always more of an anime guy, but this is just another rare case of me preferring the manga big time. If you do watch the anime first, just please know they completely fuck up the ending and break away from the manga, so it just gets straight up horrible at the very end, they'd practically have to reboot it if they ever made a sequel (probably not happening at this point).

A few volumes later, it becomes a sea monster epic a la Moby Dick or 20,000 Leagues.

It is a change of pace, but I really like Schierke and Isidro as well as the more grandiose and epic direction the story is taking. While the horrific darkness of the Eclipse and Retribution arcs have their appeal, I enjoy the tamer stuff, too.

Sums it up.

I'm being harsh there, but overall I can definitely say volume 24 just bored the hell out of me. That volume in particular was pretty whatever to me, haha. But I'm definitely not one to give up. My friend tells me it eventually kind of goes back to the Band of the Hawk big war kind of style (what you're saying too), so I'm looking forward to that and if anything, I have to keep reading for the art!

Schierke I don't mind at all so far, but Ishidro is just not doing anything for me. I'm digging how Farnase is evolving though, and Serpico is just awesome. Puck I've never minded.

But yeah, it's just like two big arcs after the BoTH stuff where Guts is kind of on his own, and I wish that was how the entire ride was. I thought it was cool Guts saying where I'm at "I need their help", and he's getting older, tired, etc, but still this sudden change of his seems a bit too much.

Spoilers for you and fans, stuff I don't think I liked around these points:


I still think the stuff in volume ~3 is up there with my favorite moments. It's that kind of stuff I wanted more of after the BoTH arc. Perfect blend of its dark fantasy elements and very weird supernatural ideas.

I thought the lost chapter was pretty cool. Very weird.

I definitely recommend looking out for the three Berserk Movies that have been announced for 2012; especially since the plot is not just some filler or non-canon BS - we're talking about the entire content of the first chapter (the Golden Age) of the manga, split into 3 movies. Basically what the crappy anime did, but better. It's a collab with Warner Bros featuring amazing artwork and cel shading-influenced scenes.
Berserk Golden Age Arc I: Egg of the Supreme Ruler, was released in February 2012 in Japan. It's also about to be released on BluRay and DVD May 23rd. The second movie will be released June 23rd in Japan. Third one is also scheduled for 2012.

Trailer of the first movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p286WtHoK2g

First ten minutes of the first movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEgcHdTb8t4

Great! I had heard something about those. I was wondering if they were worth looking out for. Though, I will say: cel-shaded? I'm not sure how I feel about that...

Yeah I don't know how anyone would think this looks better than the old anime. The style here is grating. It's just covering the BoTH arc -again- and goes into the Eclipse. They might keep the movies going but currently it only looks to be covering what the first anime already did.

Since I jumped right into the manga after finishing the anime, I can easily say the anime didn't exclude anything ridiculously major outside of Skull Knight. It was a pretty damn good adaptation I'd say.

While you could argue that cel shading in general might look a like a little "too much" for some anime-style movies (take Freedom OVA for example), I don't really think the Berserk movie seems to go overboard with the visuals. Most of the time it's just pretty clean drawings. I seriously think they look awesome. You also can't really deny the fact that the movie in a whole presents Berserk in a much more polished, cinematic way - better camera angles, no poorly animated scenes because of low budget, more emphasis on the soundtrack (resulting in a much more solid atmosphere) etc.
And since Berserk has a pretty huge fanbase in and outside of JP, I'd say that they ARE going to keep the movies going.

Sloooooowly working my way through Guin Saga, maybe 8 episodes or so over the last month. It's entertaining so far.

Madoka is the greatest anime ever. watch that shit.

Managed to get through all of Eureka Seven in the last couple days. I thought it was quite good although certain questions were left unanswered by that ending, though I'm not too fussed about that.

I'll probably watch the new series as it airs this season along with one or two other shows, but because school's about to start back up again I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep up with more than 2 shows.

Wtf dude? I'm able to watch at least one with school and baby and girlfriend, all at the same time

I haven't found any new shows worth my time, so I'm on a rewatching spree.

Saint Seiya Omega is pretty awesome. Zetman looks cool, the new Lupin is epic. Space Brothers looks legit.

Honestly not that bad of a season I'd say. I wasn't really feeling E7 AO though, I'll wait for it to finish.

I'm still catching up to you guys, somewhere along the way I'm gonna try and sneak in the last 2 episodes of Guin Saga.

How is it? I heard the Berserk creator was heavily influenced by the novels.

It's been quite enjoyable actually, though without spoilering, I should tell you that the second half is vastly superior to the first, seriously, the change is crazy.

Animation is quite good, the character designs are decent and the fights look great (no gore though), I'd at least check it out if I was you.

So not true, it skipped entire volumes of material and pales in comparison to the source. It was a pretty shitty adaptation, its only saving quality is that its berserk (And I guess the soundtrack to some degree). While the skull knight has never been a very important character, not including Puck and butchering the first 3 volumes was a greater insult.
As for the manga, I've been liking the newer material, but you're right that its different then the black swordsman arc. I think as long as Miura keeps up his attention to detail I won't be greatly disappointed.

My friend just got the Kuroshitsuji II blu-ray/DVD box the other day, and the OVAs were watched, much to our amusement. I wonder, are there any other series (or even episodes of series) shot mostly in the first person? It was a very strange episode...

Rewatching Death Note for the first time in years, and I forgot just how intense the first half of the series is. It's just such a shame the last 10 or so episodes are lousy.

Homura uber alles

Yeah, should've ended with the grave dance.

I liked Light all the way. Need more shows with the main character being the villain pretty much... and no Code Geass doesn't count.

anyone watching Sankarea? can't wait for the 5th episode to come out, it's perfect so far.

omfg yes

As episode 25 of Death Note draws to a close yet again, it makes me miserable that the series descends into hideous mediocrity until the final episode. And I'll have to bear witness to its tragic decline for the second time.

I only watched the first 19 episodes (A looooooong time ago), and now that I've heard so much about the shows descent into shit, I won't watch the rest.

The descent doesn't start until episode 26.

I still liked the ending a lot though. Near and Mellow were shit, but the ending was satisfying to me.

When I first watched the series, I hate the ending and the descent surely spelled the doom of the show. The second half pales in comparison to the cat and mouse tension of the first half. Far better execution. It just gets... odd after that. When I watched the series again, I actually didn't think the second half was as bad as I thought. Yes, there's a dip in overall quality, but I actually sided with Rivers at the end.

Imagine living in a society of constant fear, fake leaders, and no faith in governments... just like now, but with Light-kun. If you live your life then it's nothing to worry about, but it's so vastly different how the world would be run. So yeah, Light started out on the right footing but got so obsessed, and overkilling immediately screwed him over. If he was going to do it, keep it simple and stupid and just off criminals very irregularly and in different ways. Dumbass over-thought the entire tihng.

I actually think I liked the second half of Death Note more than the first, though I wasn't really too fond of any of it to begin with. I guess I don't really understand why the series is so well thought of.