Crimson (Berserk)
In memory of Kentaro Miura (1966-2021)
(This is a reupload of a video I originally edited back in 2006. This is not a "remaster" but rather an upscale, cleaned up to the best of my ability - excuse the so-so video quality!)
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SOURCES:
AUDIO
Saxon - In The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson cover)
VIDEO
Berserk (TV, 1997)
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This is an old school-style metal AMV. For those who've seen Berserk, I think it will require little explanation. For those who haven't - please go watch it, or better yet, read the manga! In brief - this focuses on the first major arc of the story, the tale of Guts and Griffith: a powerful swordsman, and an ambitious leader. Once close friends, the two see their mercenary Band of the Hawk rise from tatters to glory on the battlefield - but as the charismatic Griffith draws closer to fame, wealth, and power through political intrigue, Guts the swordsman decides that a life as a court enforcer and assassin is not for him, and departs on his own journey. Griffith, shaken by his most loyal friend's departure, soon finds his fortunes reversed terribly - and as he descends into first a metaphorical, and then a literal hell, he makes the most terrifying of deals with the devil...
The song is an excellent cover recorded by Saxon in 2001 for their album "Killing Ground", of King Crimson's anthem "In the Court of the Crimson King". It's very faithful to the original, though has a bit of that NWOBHM edge to it that I think makes it very suitable to this particular anime source. (Note that both the original song and the Saxon cover are originally much longer, at 6+ minutes - edits to shorten it for this video are my own).
The original song, from King Crimson's 1969 album of the same name, is a legendary foundational work of progressive rock, and in many ways also a piece of proto-metal - with a dark gothic atmosphere, lush instrumentation, and medieval fantasy themes. The lyrics, written by Peter Sinfield, are layered with all sorts of hidden meanings - though its most central allusions are centered around the image of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in the early 13th century - a figure ahead of his time, a secular intellectual at the height of the middle ages, a poet and an appreciator of all things Eastern, and a figure greatly revered by Dante (and duly placed in the 6th circle of hell, among the heretics).
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Technical info:
This video was edited on a system I called "Space Groove", which promptly shorted out and fried its motherboard barely a day after I completed this video in 2006. As a result, no lossless copies or source files for it survived, only a 512x384 compressed file. The editing system specs were:
Athlon 2400+
1024MB DDR RAM
80GB HD + 120GB External HD
GeForce6800 OC
Adobe Premiere 6.5/AviSynth/VirtualDub
Total production time: 45 hours
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Special thanks to:
jasper-isis, Flint the Dwarf, Kai Stromler, Orwell, Tono Fyr, Kalium, madbunny, cLess-R34, Sergeich AYES, Bakemono and the UtenaFan/GDDale contest crew & participants