Berserk: The Golden Age Arc

I remember sitting in a horror anime panel and watching clips from Berserk: The Golden Age Arc. I wanted to see how truly horrifying Berserk the anime was.  After watching this anime, I can clearly say this is not designed for children and it should be rated Mature. This is Not Safe For Work. If you choose to watch these films, do not watch around people or in a public setting.
The Golden Age Arc is divided into three movies. The first movie is The Egg of the King, The Battle for Doldrey and The Advent. With each movie, the gore only gets that much more graphic. And the back stories for each character is absolutely horrible. The story always takes a turn for the worse but, it’s really interesting and very unpredictable. You (the viewer) will never know what comes next.

The Egg of The King is when Guts first meets the Band of the Hawk. After losing to their leader Griffith, Guts is forced to join his mercenary group. After joining, Guts quickly became a General, together they defeated Chuder’s Black Ram Iron Lance Cavalry. They were then recruited by Midland to fight against a rivaling Kingdom. In one of the battles, Guts encounters, Nosferatu Zodd, a powerful General who recognized the Behelit around Griffith’s neck and gave advice to Guts. He told him about his impending doom. Zodd than transforms and flies away into the sky.  With the Band of Hawks successful siege the group was given a title in the King’s army. The King’s brother Yurius, attempts to kill Griffith. Griffith then orders Guts to assassinate Yurius which also resulted in killing his son. Guts scarred by his actions searches for Griffith and overhears his conversation with Princess Charlotte of Midland.  What he heard was quite unsettling?

Three years have passed, Guts find himself still in pursuit of Griffith’s dream. But Guts wanted to be seen as his equal. The only way for him to be seen as an equal and as Griffith’s friend was to leave the Band of The Hawk.  After the battle of The Impenetrable Fortress of Doldrey, he and Casca fall off a cliff separating themselves from the rest of the group. During their separation, Casca and Guts encounter General Colorbwitz. Guts allowed Casca to flee and he single-handedly took down 100 men. The two are then reunited with The Band of the Hawk. A month later, they attack Doldrey’s stronghold and with the defeat of General Boscogn, they completely captured Doldrey Fortress. Griffith was given the title Count and the rest of the Band were all granted Knighthood.
Guts still desired to be Griffith’s equal and so decides to continue with his plan to leave the Band of the Hawk, but as a consequence of choosing to depart, he has to face off against Griffith. Guts easily defeat Griffith leaving him devastated and in his moment of weakness Griffith makes a horrible decision.  The Hawks leader sleeps with Princess Charlotte and gets caught by the King. He was charged him with treason and imprisoned Griffith in the Tower of Rebirth and all the members of The Band of the Hawk were charged as criminals.

A year later,  Guts learns about the Griffith imprisonment and returns to free him. Guts meets the mysterious Skull Knight and tells him of Griffith. The Band of the Hawk reunites to free their Leader from the Tower of Rebirth. When they find Griffith he is broken. He endured months of mental and physical torture. The group escapes with Griffith from the tower. Griffith distraught after seeing what he’s become fled to take his own life. The behelit activates when meeting his blood and transport their group to another dimension, where they meet arch-demons known as The God Hand.

Griffith is offered honor to be the fifth member of God Hand but he must sacrifice the others to do so but he still accepts.  A horde of demons kill off all members of The Band of the Hawk with the acceptation of Guts and Casca. Griffith is reborn as Femto and tortures Casca right in front of Guts forcing him to sever his own arm. They both were both saved by the mysterious Skull knight. At the very end, Guts sets out on his journey to hunt down the Apostles of the God Hand.The animated series begins.