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TASK 4 | GENRE CRITICISM: BERSERK (1997) & ATTACK ON TITAN (2013)


TASK 4 | GENRE CRITICISM: BERSERK (1997) & ATTACK ON TITAN (2013)



Berserk (1997)
BERSERK (1997)

Attack on Titan - 進撃の巨人 (Attack on Titan) season 1 Scripts ...
ATTACK ON TITAN (2013)

Berserk (1997) and Attack on Titan (2013) both are animated television series and aired on several countries’ television station. Berserk (1997) was aired from 1997 and 1998. It is an adaptation from manga Berserk. However, Attack on Titan (2013) or also known as Shingeki no Kyojin in Japanese was aired on 2013 and up until now. Both have dark humour story telling and not suitable for audience age under 18 without parental guidance. The reason is because both series have included scary death moment such as being eaten by the giants (from Attack on Titan) and many more. To analyse genre of the series, it must be including three types of approaches that we can used which is Aesthetic approaches, Ritual approaches and Ideological approaches.

Both Berserk (1997) and Attack on Titan (2013) have shared the same Aesthetic Characteristics. In term of Aesthetic, it can be defined as a combination of several types of genre into one story. It means that in 1 series or movie there are few genres that been use to make the content more interesting. In this case both series have shared at least 3 same genres which are Action Fiction, Dark Fantasy and Anime. However, in Attack on Titan, there are some addition genre which is Doomsday to make to make the audience feels more into the series. In Attack on Titan, it is shown that the main character’s mother, Carla Yeager have been eaten alive by the titan in front of his son, Eren Yeager. Their city has been attacked by numerous titans and that is why the series have been put under the Doomsday genre. For Berserk, even though it has the same genre with Attack on Titan which is Dark Fantasy, the story line is completely different from Attack on Titan. Berserk is about a group of demon hunter attacked the demon lair and without they know, they have step into the trap that the demons have prepared for them. The whole group have been killed, eaten, and raped by the demons, but only Guts (the main character) who have successfully escaped from the lair but he lost his right eyeball and right arm.

Berserk (1997 – 98) Review – Midnight Cinema Junkyard
 (Guts being held by the demons and lost his right eye)

Besides that, ritual mean the element that need to portray in some story to ensure a story become a story. For example, in Berserk the director and writer portray the story a bit of dark which is a group of demon hunters that have been ambushed. But in Attack on Titan, the director and writer portray the story to be a little bit doomsday alike because of the set in a fantasy world where humanity lives within territories surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as Titans.

5 Brutal Deaths From Attack On Titan Which Can't Be Unseen
 (Carla Yeager eaten alive from Attack on Titan)

Lastly, the ideological for these two animated series is a bit different. Even though Berserk and Attack on Titan shares at least three identical genres, the story is different. For Berserk, Guts is a skilled swordsman who joins forces with a mercenary group named 'The Band of the Hawk', led by the charismatic Griffith, and fights with them as they battle their way into the royal court. After that, The Band of Hawk have been slaughtered by the demons and Guts have to face the demons alone because of the curse mark that have been given by one of the superior demons. While Attack on Titans is about teenage boy Eren and his foster sister Mikasa witness something horrific as the city walls are destroyed by a colossal titan that appears out of thin air. As the smaller titans flood the city, the two kids watch in horror as their mother is eaten alive. Eren vows that he will murder every single titan and take revenge for all of mankind.


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