I've been kind of interested in Berserk for a while now, as I like dark fantasy. Any recommendation on if I should start with those new movies, or start at the beginning of the manga, or some other spot?

@belegorm: The movies are probably the easiest way to see if you'll be into the series. If you like it, reading the manga would be the best thing to do next. One of the problems the movies had, being movies trying to cover a lot of material, is there isn't a ton of character development. So I'd say it's worth it to read through the arc even if you know what's gonna happen by the end of it.

The TV show is great, but it covers the same arc as the movies, so at this point you might as well just watch those instead of the show.

There was an anime back in the 90s I think? Its very good but only one season or first couple of arcs of the manga. There are 3 new movies which cover the exact same story as the anime. They are well done all in all, but I enjoyed the anime more. Mind fuck of an ending.

Watched Arc III tonight and it was maybe the most painful thing I've ever watched and the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Such an incredible conclusion. I need to figure out how this "reading manga" thing works and read this damn manga.

I missed the more traditional animation done in the TV show. The mix of traditional and 3D animation in the three movies was jarring and looked kinda terrible when placed side by side with the 2D animation. I don't know if they made the 3D animations 24 FPS to match the frames of the 2D but it felt like a game with terrible frame rate issues. That said, I couldn't be happier that Berserk is getting more exposure via the films than it has in the past decade. I still hope the films do well enough to justify making another trilogy that finally covers the story beyond the Golden Age Arc.

Id watch the anime over the movies. Otherwise read the manga.

Well, you get the book, turn to the back, which is actually the front, and read it like a regular comic except going from right to left instead of left to right with panels and pages.

You can do it!

I watched every episode berserk last night for some reason and now I feel sad.

I think it's a little unfair to say Guts hasn't developed at all since then, especially since you've only read up to Volume 17. He starts rolling around with a party not long after the end of that arc and has gradually (Since everything in Berserk takes so damn long) but very obviously changed as a character.

So, he's gone in circles then since the entire golden arc was him learning to not be such a loner asshole and to work with the Hawks.

I havent been able to read the manga (also I assume it is on the expensive side so no go from me at the moment) but man that anime is soe amazeballs .... really great and fantastic music , the animation quality is so so as you can see clrearly were they saved money but do see it you wont regeret it.

RIP Kentaro Miura. This was a good read to help remember just how influential Berserk has been over the years, visually and in tone/character. Video games owe a lot to Miura.