Berserk, ep 25

i finished the anime treatment of the Berserk manga last night. overall, it's good: well-drawn and voiced, and full of those morally ambiguities that make for interesting drama.

but the last episode felt more than anything like a bored
father who's gotten sick of telling his kids a bedtime story and
decides to finish it, and finish it fast:

"so then the broken Prince takes was reunited with his loyal soldiers
and fled to a field. and then, uhh, they were all eaten by monsters.
yeah. the end. now GO TO SLEEP!"

the Berserk Manga wikipedia entry suggests a much lengthier, more baroque plot arc centering on an ongoing battle between the survivors of the last anime episode (ie, Guts) and demons, but that doesn't change the fact that supernatural occurrences were pretty subtle until the last couple of episodes, making the series finale pretty jarring.

so i'll echo my brother's advice: if you decide to rent Berserk, you'll sleep better if you stop at episode 19.