Berserk: the life and legacy of Kenturo Miura

Kentaro Miura was the creator of the long-running best-selling dark fantasy manga BERSERK. According to his US publisher, Dark Horse the author passed away on May 6, 2021, at age 54. His legions of fans ae in shock and mourning and wishing his family well. The cause of death was from acute aortic dissetion which is a condition that occurs when the aortic valve (which leads to the heart) tears and causes bleeding.

Thousands of followers of the prolific author have been gathering online and hosting memorials for Miura who was the artist and writer, for the series and had been working on it since 1989. Kentaro Miura was considered to be a "master artist and storyteller" whose legacy includes the fact that BERSERK is one of the bestselling manga series that has been written to date.

Miura was born in 1966 in Chiba City, manga Chiba Prefecture, Japan, He made his first manga at the age of 10 in 1976. It was titled MIRURANGER and was published for his classmates in a school publication. The series eventually turned into a 40 volume work and in 1977, Miura created his second manga, Ken e no michi (剣への道, The Way to the Sword), It was during this period that he utilized India ink for the first time. While in middle school in 1979, Miura began using professional drawing techniques.

In 1982, while in high school Miura enrolled in an artistic curriculum, and he along with his classmates began publishing their works in school booklets. At the age of 18, Miura started working as an assistant to George Morikawa, of Hajime no Ippo fame. Morikawa quickly recognized and acknowledged Miura's high artistic level. He dismissed his pupil saying there was nothing that he could teach that Kenhturo did not already know.

In 1985, Kentaro Miura applied for an entrance exam to the art college of Nihon University and was granted entry to the school. Miura later received a nomination as Best New Author in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. In 1988, while working for Buronson Miura published a prototype of BERSERK Hakusensha's Gekkan ComiComi. This 48-page prototype won the author second place at the 7th ComiComi's Manga-School prize.

In 1989, the full serialization of Berserk became Miura's most famous and successful work, and it began in Hakusensha's Monthly Animal House in 1989.In 1990, a prequel to Ōrō entitled Ōrō Den (王狼伝, The Legend of the Wolf King) was published in the magazine. Monthly Animal House was renamed Young Animal, in 1992.

In 1997, Miura supervised the production of a 25-episode anime adaptation of BERSERK that aired that same year on NTV. The talented artist and author also release various art books and supplemental materials related to BERSERK. Miura made contributions to the Dreamcast video game Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage, in 1999 and even co-wrote the story's plot. In 2004 Miura co-wrote another video game adaptation entitled BERSERK MILLENIUM FALCON ARC: Chapter of the Holy Demon War.

In 2013, Miura released the short standalone manga GIGANTOMAKHIA, which was released in 2016 in English speaking nations asGIGANTO MAXIA Maxia by Dark Horse. As of 2018, BERSERK has over 50 million copies in worldwide circulation and has been collected in 40 tankōbon volumes including digital versions. and had over 50 million copies in circulation worldwide, including digital versions.

At the time of the author's death there was a host of merchandise in circulation, that has been made by fans and also official items ranging from action figures, statues, trading card games video games. BERSERK has not been without cotroversy as some consider it to be too dark. Kenturo was very private and it was said that he never married and spent his life on his work. Now that he has passed some fans want to know more about him, but probably never will.

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