Berserk: The Golden Age Arc: The Advent (2013)

Introduction Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (Japanese: ベルセルク黄金時代篇, Hepburn: Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen) is a Japanese anime film trilogy, which adapts Kentaro Miura’s Berserk manga series’s Golden Age arc. It was produced by Studio 4°C and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan. The first two films, The Egg of the King and The Battle for…

Andrew Marshall

18/02/2025

2–3 minutes

Action, Adventure, Animation, Anime, Mercenary, Military Film, War

Introduction

Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (Japanese: ベルセルク黄金時代篇, Hepburn: Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen) is a Japanese anime film trilogy, which adapts Kentaro Miura’s Berserk manga series’s Golden Age arc.

It was produced by Studio 4°C and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan. The first two films, The Egg of the King and The Battle for Doldrey, were released in Japan in February and June 2012, and the third film, The Advent, was released in February 2013. In North America, Viz Media has licensed the trilogy for English home video release.

A remastered edited version for television with new scenes, labelled as “Memorial Edition”, was broadcast for 13 episodes from October to December 2022.

Outline

A year after Guts’ departure from the Band of the Hawk, he returns to aid them in freeing Griffith from the Tower of Rebirth. However, when they find Griffith he is barely alive, rendered mute, and physically withered after months of torture. Griffith attempts suicide, and his pendant reacts to his despair, opening a portal to another dimension experiencing a solar eclipse that draws in him and The Band of the Hawk. There, they encounter archdemons known as The God Hand and Griffith is told that his tribulations have been leading to this moment, when Griffith agrees to sacrifice his allies in exchange for being reborn as Femto, a member of the God Hand. The Band of the Hawk are slaughtered by the God Hand’s monstrous Apostles (former humans like Nosferatu Zodd) and Femto rapes Casca. Guts loses his left arm and right eye trying to save Casca, but Casca loses her sanity from the nightmarish ordeal. Guts and Casca are spirited back to their world by the mysterious Skull Knight, who tells Guts he has been branded by the God Hand and will be subjected to nightly attacks by evil creatures. Guts leaves Casca under the care of former comrade Rickert and embarks on a journey to hunt down Apostles and the God Hand.