,seems like i can't take the shorter road
Heard the manga's high point is the arc that is being adapted into the movies and that the later arcs never reached that quality again. Is the plot and world building that good?
I think that has to do with some sort of familiarity people have with that arc , and how the series takes a huge turn after it. And i think that sentiment is accentuated by the tv series. Manga is a little different , the beginning (first 3 volumes) is typical action adventure fantasy , it reads like a motion picture , and only then we start with that particular arc which puts a lot of things in perspective.
Another big problem people have is that arc is a flashback , so its closed. We've been on a journey for some while , and the author just takes a huge amount of time to release episodes. I cant criticize it. The art is magnificent. The level of detail is astounding. It takes a lot of time. But it kinda erodes that sentiment of anticipation and awe when you get a 20 page episode after months and months of hiatus. I've re-read Berserk a bunch of times , and the later arcs to me are as good as the first ones. Simply its still incomplete.
I would have loved that my first exposure to Berserk was the manga , but i got to know it by watching the tv series which blew my mind and helped me discover a fantastic series.
So if you have the time i would recommend you to start with the manga. But i saw the tv series (which is faithful to the material outside of the first and last episodes) and it didnt ruin anything to me. The movies , i actually showed the first one to a friend of mine and he was very interested , so much i ended up borrowing him my books. It's very short , so maybe a little intro to see if you enjoy the setting. But i certainly would never recommend anyone to watch for the first time Berserk watching the movies , because they castrate that arc of its core....the web of relationships between characters that's masterfully created. Both movies are events after events after events. And they're not even particularly well animated (quite the contrary)
I think its that good. I would recommend it blindly to anyone. And if you enjoy dark fantasy (let me underline the dark) and medieval settings , then i don't see how you can't enjoy it.