Berserk manga will continue without the creator Kentaro Miura

After the tragic and sudden death of berserk Creator Kentaro Miura last year at the age of 54His fans had wondered if the series would, or even could, continue without him. After more than a year of waiting, they now have their answer.

berserk will continue with six chapters of the current story to be released before the team embarks on a “new arc”. These new entries will be labeled “Original work by Kentaro Miura, manga by Studio Gaga, supervised by Kouji Mori” and their numbering will continue in the same order as older chapters.

In a series of statements published on her company’s website (and social media accounts), the manga’s production team has said, “We will continue the serialization of berserk‘ using comments and sketches made by Miura before his death as a starting point. “We believe this policy, while imperfect, is the best way to achieve this berserk which Miura-san has introduced to everyone as faithfully as possible,” they say.

The first statement, signed by the young animal editorial department, reads:

To our readers

We will continue the serialization of Berserk.

Please accept our apologies for the long wait before we could make this announcement.

We read as many of your comments as we could for Dai Berserk-ten (The Great Berserk Exhibition) , Young Animal Memorial Issue (Young Animal 2021 No.18) and Berserk Volume 41. We are very grateful for every single word you have and for the messages you send us via social media. We are truly touched by the love you all have for Berserk and the impact it has had on your lives. It’s really sad that Kentaro Miura himself isn’t here to read your comments with us.

Before his death, Kentaro Miura spoke to his close friend Kouji Mori about the stories and episodes he had in mind for Berserk. He also had similar conversations with his studio staff and editor. He wondered if everyone would be surprised if I drew something like this? How about a character like that? Would this story be interesting? The conversations weren’t meant to be his last words, but part of his ordinary days as a manga artist.

Such ordinary days lasted for more than a quarter of a century. Our minds and hearts are still filled with the thoughts Mr. Miura shared with us during this time. We also found notes of ideas he wrote and designed for characters he drew and left behind.

We hesitated to finish his story without sharing it with his fans.

We hope everyone reads the last episode we put together up to the very last frame.

In resuming the series, our production team decided on a basic guideline.

“Mr. Miura said so.” That’s what the production team thought of.

Since he left no rough drafts, it is impossible for us to produce a manuscript exactly as he would have intended. However, we will write the manga in order not to deviate from Miura-san’s own words. We sincerely want to give you all the “Kentaro Miura” that we knew so well through our discussions and work.

We believe that this policy, while imperfect, is the best way to faithfully deliver to everyone the berserker that Mr. Miura envisioned.

From the next issue, we will first publish six chapters till the end of “Fantasia Arc/Elf Island Chapter”. After that we start a new arc.

The credits after the revival will read “Original work by Kentaro Miura, Manga by Studio Gaga, Supervised by Kouji Mori” and the manga book numbering will continue in order.

Looking back, the first volume of Berserk was published in 1990 with a circulation of 28,000 copies. It wasn’t an instant success and only a small group of people knew about it. Despite this, it attracted adoring fans and was able to keep their interest because people sensed Miura-san’s desire to hone his craft. After a while, through Miura-san’s extraordinary efforts and good luck, Berserk became a big hit. Today the first volume was read by 2 million people around the world. We believe Berserk has touched the hearts of many fans, and Miura-san would be happy to know that his thoughts have had a major impact on people’s lives and work. We hope that everyone will continue to have the same connection to Berserk in the chapters to come.

Thank you to all the fans who have sent us messages.

We are also grateful to the many fans who have silently supported the manga with their thoughts.

Each of you will be the source of our energy as we move forward.

We are really grateful to you all.

June 2022

Young animal editorial department

A second statement signed by Miura’s close friend and Holy Land Creator Kouji Mori elaborates on the path that the manga’s future storylines will take, saying:

Almost 30 years ago, Miura called me and said, “I need to talk to you about drawing a rough draft.” I went to his work station just to talk, as we always do, but Miura looked more serious than usual.” I have to draw the eclipse,” he said. I knew it was going to be hard work, but couldn’t believe it when I was locked indoors for a week… At that moment, the story of Berserk was complete up to the very last chapter.

Oddly enough, the story for Berserk continued exactly as we discussed at the time, with almost no changes. I continued to talk to Miura often when there was a big episode. We’ve been doing this since college days, advising each other while working on manga.

I think people with good intuition would realize by now that I know the story of Berserk to the end. Still, I can’t say I can draw it because I know it. Because only the genius Kentaro Miura can write a masterpiece like Berserk.

However, a great responsibility fell on me.

In life, Miura said, “I never told anyone but you, Mori, the story in its entirety.” And that was the truth. It’s too big a responsibility. I thought should I talk about this with the fans in an interview? Or should I publish an article with some illustrations? But that wouldn’t convey the scenes Miura described to me, or the lines from Guts and Griffith…

Just as I was trying to decide what to do, I received a message.

“The staff say they’re going to finish the last chapter that was left behind, so can you take a look?”

The last few pages of the chapter were incomplete. Some didn’t even have the characters drawn on them.

I looked at the manuscript without expecting much.

Desperation can make people work miracles – There it was, the finished manuscript for Berserk.

“Mr. Mori, will you let us do this?”

Miura’s apprentices, of whom Miura had been so proud when he was alive, asked me directly.

Company director Shimada, a mentor to me and Miura, also said, “If you do it, the company will give our full support.”

I thought if I ran away now, Miura would say:

“I talked to you about it so much, but you didn’t!!”

In order. I’ll make it right

I have a message and a promise to everyone. I will remember the details as much as possible and tell the story.

Also, I will only write the episodes that Miura talked to me about. I won’t fill it in. I will not write episodes that I do not remember clearly. I will only write the lines and stories that Miura described to me. Of course it won’t be perfect. Still, I think I can almost tell the story that Miura wanted to tell.

The talent Miura’s apprentices have is real!

They are brilliant artists.

Many of you may not be entirely happy with Berserk written without Miura, but we hope all thoughts are with us.

We ask for your continued support.