Berserk Avatars

In 1997, production began on a 26-episode anime series (though only 25 were produced due to financial constraints) of the first thirteen volumes of the manga covering the first two arcs (Black Swordsman & Golden Age). Though it chronicles how Guts served Griffith in the Band of the Hawk (Golden Age Arc), the TV adaptation took a lot of liberties with the story, which was too broad to be adapted perfectly to video, hence the title change from Berserk to Kenp? Denki Berserk. The story was taken largely intact, though some characters, and the most violent or brutal scenes, were modified or removed. The series was animated by OLM (Oriental Light and Magic), and broadcast on Nippon Television in a post-midnight slot from October 7, 1997 to April, 1998. The anime broadcast started in Japan between the publishing of the 14th and the 15th volume, tankobon #14 completing the Golden Age Arc and starting the Retribution Arc. The American release of the first two arcs' anime version as a "Season One", which misleads people into assuming that a "Season Two" will be planned later. Currently, nothing supports this assumption. In 2004, a CG anime version of key scenes appearing in the TV series, including Griffith's incarceration and the Eclipse episode, were created for the second video game based on the Chapter of the Record of the Holy Demon War (Millennium Falcon Arc).
In America, the anime series has been dubbed/subtitled and published by Media Blasters in 2002. Both dubbed and subtitled versions were released in VHS. The English and Japanese soundtracks were included in the DVD release that was made available as six volumes and as a "TV series season one complete collection" standard (slim) boxset. By the time of the series' launch, a volume one "War Cry" was bundled with an empty "Box of War" 6-disc case as a special edition. In 2003, the "Box of War" containing all volumes was released as a collector boxset. While fans have suggested that Cartoon Network air the series, one of a series of Adult Swim "bumps" claimed that censorship requirements would butcher it.