Guts defeats most of Adon's men while covering Casca's escape, but begins to lament his life's path and decides he will eventually leave the Band of the Hawk, find and pursue his own dream, and become a true friend to Griffith.
[12][13][14] Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I – The Egg of the King (ベルセルク 黄金時代篇I 覇王の卵, Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen Wan Haō no Tamago) was released on February 4, 2012, in Japan.
[15][16] Berserk: The Golden Age Arc II – The Battle for Doldrey (ベルセルク 黄金時代篇II ドルドレイ攻略, Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen Tsū Dorudorei Koryaku) was released on June 23, 2012, in Japan.
[17] Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III – The Advent (ベルセルク 黄金時代篇III 降臨, Beruseruku Ōgon Jidai-hen Surī Kōrin) was released on February 1, 2013, in Japan.
[39] A special TV program, narrated by Akio Otsuka (the voice actor for the Skull Knight), that summarized the events of the first two movies, used the Hirasawa song "Horde of Thistledown" (冠毛種子の大群, "Kanmō Shushi no Taigun") (from The Secret of the Flowers of Phenomenon) as its ending theme.
[44] Ko Ransom of Anime News Network (ANN) gave the film a B+ and wrote, "This concise and well-adapted story results in an exciting, intense action tale full of intriguing characters and drama.
Unfortunately, the decision to heavily utilize 3D CG throughout the movie drags the overall production down, but does not quite deal a fatal blow to the film, which despite this shortcoming should find a receptive audience from fans of the series and newcomers alike.
"[45] Fellow ANN reviewer Carl Kimlinger, in a critique of the film's Blu-ray release, was similarly receptive, awarding both the Japanese version and the English dub a B and stating, "That The Egg of the King isn't crushed under the weight of our expectations is a testament to its strength.
"[49] Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis enjoyed The Battle for Doldrey more than its predecessor, opining that it was "a great improvement over The Egg of the King in every conceivable way" and further stating, "And while I hesitate to call it a good movie, I certainly don't feel like I wasted time or money in seeing it.
[52] Fellow ANN staffer Carl Kimlinger, in a review of the Blu-ray release, awarded a C to the Japanese version and a C+ to the English dub while noting that beneath its "thundering medieval warfare and gut-splattering violence" the film was an "emotionally impoverished facsimile, a wispy shadow of the rich stretch of deepening character and subtly shifting relationships that it adapts.
"[53] Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku, after panning the first film and offering moderate praise to the second, commended The Advent, which he labelled "the most graphic mainstream anime movie I have ever seen" while noting it delivered "an experience surpassing even the original manga in both emotional turmoil and eye-wrenching ultra-violence.
"[54] Carl Kimlinger of ANN criticized many aspects of The Advent, such as the animation and the streamlining of the story, and deemed it an "inferior and redundant movie" and a "clunker" before giving the Japanese version a C+ and the English dub a B-.