Guts is a mercenary who has only ever known fighting, until he is beaten in a duel by Griffith and pressed into the Band of the Hawk. The season is the rise of that mercenary company through a long civil war, and the slow bond between Guts, Griffith, and the woman who commands beside them. It is a medieval story told mostly without monsters, about loyalty, class, and a beautiful leader who will trade anything for his dream of a kingdom. The animation is dated and the cuts are blunt, but the writing is patient and the ending is one of the bleakest things the medium has produced.
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