Oh I've only seen the anime, I read a wikipedia summary of the manga. I've read like 3 chapters of Renya of the Darkness as far as manga goes, the rest of the time I just can't quite... find it in me to stick with it. Er, anyway it's been awhile I can't remember whose exact role was that died and which ones lived. I was just thinking of the gang.. like Pippen, the knife guy... them.. yeah. Were we only discussing the manga? Er..
Anyway, I don't really rate story or cuteness above and beyond any other factor for the most part. I think I just find the kind of cutting and fleshed out... stuff.. more in Japanese video games or western media than Japanese anime. Like FFX12 for instance, or Let Us Cling Together, or FFT, all of them have the same kind of me middle ages atmosphere and horror characteristics, but they just make a lot more sense to me.
As far as CLAMP goes a lot of their later stuff is kind of just cute, but the earlier stuff I found to be rather insane. Also there's <spoilers for Blood C> Blood C which was the goriest thing I've ever seen, ever, anywhere. If the eclipse makes western stuff look tame than Blood C makes Eclipse look tame. However, that doesn't make it all entertaining, which means the horror of eclipse rests more on gravitas of the character development and designs than the shock value of all the death and destruction, IMO.
Killing characters isn't what made the Eclipise an impressive moment for me. It's the simple fact that it was such a "wtf" moment without feeling it was trying too hard to be "wtf." Berserk forewarned you about it, you knew that something was coming. But never in your frickin' life would you have expected that.
It was surprising, if nothing else, that's true.
Hey um, does anyone want to try and convince me the current anime they've seen is the greatest thing since sliced bread? I wouldn't want to miss out and all...