'Berserk' Creator Kentarou Miura Dies at 54

Prolific manga author Kentarou Miura, best known for creating Berserk, died on May 6 at 2:48 p.m. due to an acute aortic dissection. He was 54 years old.

"We would like to express our utmost respect and gratitude to Miura's works and pray for his soul.," reads a brief obituary posted by Hakusensha on Thursday. The publisher thanked the readers for enjoying his works. The funeral was held privately by his family.

Miura was born in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture in 1966. Both his parents were designers and supported his passion for drawing. At the early age of 10 in 1976, Miura created his first work Miuranger, which appeared in his school's publications and spanned 40 volumes. The following year, he created his second work Ken e no Michi (The Way to the Sword) using India ink. While still in junior high in 1979, Miura began training himself with professional drawing techniques.

In 1982, Miura entered an artistic curriculum in high school, where he and his classmates began publishing their works in school leaflets. With their help, Miura published his first doujinshi in a fan-produced magazine that year. At the age of 18, he briefly worked as an assistant for Hajime no Ippo (Fighting Spirit) creator George Morikawa. Acknowledging his artistic talent, Morikawa promptly dismissed him, saying there was nothing he could teach that Miura did not already know.

Miura applied for an art course at the Nihon University in 1985 and submitted a work titled Futatabi (Rewind) at the entrance examination, which granted him admission. The title subsequently earned him the Best New Author prize in Weekly Shounen Magazine. Miura's first serialized work, Noa, began in the same magazine later that year. However, the manga was stalled and eventually dropped due to Miura's difference of opinion with one of the editors.

While attending college in 1988, Miura published a 48-page Berserk prototype in the November issue of Monthly Comicomi. He began his career in earnest after graduating the next year, simultaneously drawing Ourou (King Of Wolves)—based on a script by Buronson (born Okamura Yoshiyuki) (Hokuto no Ken)—and Berserk in Monthly Animal House.

Young Animal, successor to the Monthly Animal House magazine, serialized Ourou's sequel Ourouden (Legend of the Wolf King) in 1990. Hakusensha published the first volume of Berserk in November that year with relatively limited success. Miura once again collaborated with Buronson on the manga Japan in 1992. Following the serialization of Berserk's Ougon Jidai-hen (Golden Age Arc) in the same year, Miura rose to popularity, becoming one of the most prominent contemporary manga creators due to its immense success.

In 1997, Miura supervised the production of the 25-episode television anime adaptation of Berserk by animation studio OLM. Studio 4°C produced an anime film trilogy in 2012–2013. A second anime series, co-produced by Millepensee and Gemba, debuted in Summer 2016, followed by a second season in Spring 2017.

Miura serialized a seven-chapter mini manga series Giganto Makhia (Giganto Maxia) in Young Animal in 2013–2014, originally planned as a 20th anniversary commemorative project of the magazine. The manga marked his first original title in 24 years since he began Berserk. Miura began a new manga titled Duranki in Young Animal Zero in September 2019, in collaboration with Studio Gaga—a manga production studio founded by him.

Source: Oricon News