OH MY GOD. I am not an anime person at all. I mean I've seen like 5-10 shows and at best I find them to have potential to do smth good or interesting, never liked thr format.
This show is instantly one of my favourite works of art. Atleast amongst narrative art forms.
Quite honestly my sole critique would be the treatment of women in the show (or in any anime ive seen so I presume its an industry issue).
The music, the visuals, the tone, the depth of philosophical themes, some of the best character writing ever.
Deep deep understanding of what the show set out to do and succeeded. Rarely do I say a movie/ show hit every beat it intended to.
This has sparked all my creative instincts, this show is SO worthy of thorough analysis and deep thought.
Now I obviously havent read thr manga (never read any) but I suspect I'd like that too.
As someone whose weeb phase has long gone - I can recommend the manga with very high praise. While the arc you watched is the most popular one, the real genius of the series is, IMO at least, that it builds on that in genuinely creative ways, continuing to explore the characters and developing the world further.
I was originally turned off from the very first chapters when I had a look many years ago, thinking it'd be just another "edgelord" dark fantasy manga - I regret I only picked it up again a long time after that. It is so damn good at doing real, deep character work. I mean, you already knew that from what you watched, but it continues to do so and explore the consequences of what happened in that arc.
So even if manga normally aren't your thing - Berserk is a good manga for both weebs and "usually not my thing"-readers.
If theres any manga that I could be convinced to read its berserk. I'll try to find a copy the next time I have a chance