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Berserk

The same arc is animated twice, and only one of the two versions is the one the later series continues from.

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Where to start with Berserk

The question here is not what order, it is which version. The Golden Age arc has been animated twice, in 1997 and again as a film trilogy in 2012 and 2013, and the 2016 series continues from the films. Start with the trilogy and you have one unbroken run. Start with the 1997 series and you reach its final episode with nowhere to go.

  1. 1
    The Egg of the King Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King

    The beginning of the Golden Age arc, and the beginning of the only animated thread that leads anywhere. Nothing before it is required.

  2. 2
    The Battle for Doldrey Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II - The Battle for Doldrey

    The middle film, and the one that does the work of making you care about the Band of the Hawk before the last film takes it apart.

  3. 3
    The Advent Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent

    Finishes the arc and then keeps going past the point the 1997 series stopped at, which is exactly the material the 2016 series assumes you have seen.

  4. 4
    Berserk (2016), season 1 Berserk (2016 series)

    Twelve episodes of the Conviction arc, picking up from where the third film left Guts. This is the first genuinely new story in the franchise since 1998.

  5. 5
    Berserk (2017), season 2 Berserk (2016 series)

    Twelve more episodes carrying on into the Falcon of the Millennium Empire arc. It stops partway through that arc and no further season was made.

Then what? The animation ends there, unfinished, so the manga is the only way past it. Once you have finished the 2017 season you can pick the manga up from the point that season stops and keep reading. After that, go back and watch the 1997 series for its own sake: it covers ground you already know, but its direction, its music and its pacing are why it still gets recommended twenty-five years on. The Memorial Edition is the film trilogy cut into thirteen television episodes and is a rewatch rather than a first watch.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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