BENGALURU: There’s nothing worse for a fan than not knowing how a story he or she has been following for years ends. Japanese manga artist Kentaro Miura (54), who created the Berserk series, died earlier this month, leaving fans worldwide mourning the loss of a loved author who left his most famous series unfinished. Bengaluru-based developer Kishore Rajendra coorganised a viewing party of the first Berserk film when he heard of Miura’s death.
“The story had been playing out for 30-odd years and the last chapter, which came out in April, ended at a pivotal point,” he says. Miura was known for taking long hiatuses, and his fans patiently waited for each twist in the story. As one fan explained, One Piece – another popular manga – came out with one chapter a week while Miura brought out 2-5 chapters a year. But to his fans, the wait was worth it. “He was a perfectionist and you could see it in the detailing in his comic panels.
It’s one of the reasons his work is so highly revered and fans didn’t mind waiting ages for chapters,” says Arvind Menon, a Chennai-based artist, who is a frequent participant in Bengaluru’s Comic-Con events. Rajendra adds, “Miura was an art history student. So his art was detailed and carried references to many famous artists.” Menon won a prize in the anime category for his cosplay on Berserk’s main character Guts in 2019. The 28-year-old took Miura’s death hard, and took some days off of work.
“I spent at least 60 hours listening to the Berserk soundtrack,” he says, explaining that the protagonist Guts’ perseverance helped him gain emotional strength. While manga fans are spoilt for choice, those who follow Berserk tend to be loyalists. “If you had a room of 100 fans, maybe 10-20 would like this series. But that’s not to say others haven’t heard of Miura. His influence is everywhere… like the character design of Dark Souls video games and the Netflix animated series Castlevania,” explains Rajendra.
Fans are still coming to terms with Miura’s death and his unfinished series. “Reading Miura’s trail notes in hindsight reveals the pain this work inflicted on him. He had been working on this one story since he was in his early 20s. He never intended for the series to go on as long as it did but there was a lot of pressure to live up to, from both publishers as well as the audience,” says Tarun Prabhu, who has followed Berserk since 2006. Besides reading it in English, the banking professional also started re-reading it in Japanese some years ago. “The story as well as art quality grew up with Miura, he outdid himself with every chapter. We can take solace in the fact that in its current form, a lot of loose ends have been tied up and the main characters had achieved a form of peace,” he adds.
The manga series has 40 volumes and belongs to the dark fantasy genre
Plot: Guts, a lone mercenary, fights other-worldly beings seeking to devour him while he defies his destiny. He does this to save his love, Casca and to exact revenge on Griffith, a former friend and commander of the Band of the Hawk