Comics Update: "Beserk" manga to continue using "comments and sketches" Miura made before his death as a starting point

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 "Berserk Manga Creator Kentarou Miura Passes Away at 54 - News - Anime News Network"

Berserk Manga Creator Kentarou Miura Passes Away at 54

WWW.ANIMENEWSNETWORK.COM

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Berserk manga creator Kentarou Miura passed away on May 6 due to acute aortic dissection. He was 54. His family held a private service. Miura was born...

 

 

[Ghost_MH]

Oh no. This is another one that hits me pretty hard. I've been reading Berserk for well over twenty years now. That is way too young. This sucks in the same Satoshi Kon's death came out of nowhere and left a void in the industry.

 

Now this has got me thinking about other mangaka like Eiichiro Oda of One Piece and George Morikawa of Hajime no Ippo.

 

Berserk has been running since the '89. That's a crazy long time for single serialized comic. This sucks. Not just because the series may never come to a clean end, but because he was also one of the greatest artists out there. He managed to get through the 90s unscathed while the rest of the American comic and Japanese manga world got weird. One Piece totally falls under the weird 90s stuff. Early One Piece is weird. Fight me. Current One Piece is still weird, but that's besides the point.

[IdeaOfEvil]

This one stings...

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

"Final Fantasy 14 players band together to honour Berserk creator Kentaro Miura | PC Gamer"

Final Fantasy 14 players band together to honour Berserk creator Kentaro Miura | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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The manga author died earlier this month at the age of 54.

 

[Reputator]

 

[Bacon]

I'm am not a Berserk fan, but I am a fan of many, many things that have taken inspiration from Berserk. RIP in peace to a legendary Mangaka.

[Brian]

It’s a shame his life’s work won’t be finished. 

[LazyPiranha]

He’s playing Idol Master in the sky now. 

[Brian]

 

[Kal-El814]

Super sad. I always assumed Berserk would never be “done” but this is a lousy reason. I’ve had Guts’ brand tattooed on my shoulder for a while now.

[Greatoneshere]

This is the saddest news I have heard in awhile. Berserk is one of my favorite artistic works of all time. It has heavily influenced me. I was always worried he wouldn't finish Berserk but what the fuck. 

 

An amazing artist. Truly. A legend. This blows. Like @Kal-El814, I'm such a big fan I've been planning to get the brand symbol as a tattoo as well on my forearm underside. This suckssss.

 

Dying at 54 of an acute aortic dissection means he was either super fat or overworked like many mangaka's. I know that's hard to believe with Miura since he hardly released chapters but his age and death are very similar to Yoshifuni Kondo of Ghibli who died after Whisper of the Heart due to stress and overwork at age 47.

[Kal-El814]

41 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

Dying at 54 of an acute aortic dissection means he was either super fat or overworked like many mangaka's. I know that's hard to believe with Miura since he hardly released chapters but his age and death are very similar to Yoshifuni Kondo of Ghibli who died after Whisper of the Heart due to stress and overwork at age 47.

 

Smoking increases the risk of this pretty significantly and he’s a Japanese man of an age where him smoking wouldn’t be uncommon.

[Greatoneshere]

56 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Smoking increases the risk of this pretty significantly and he’s a Japanese man of an age where him smoking wouldn’t be uncommon.

 

Yes this is absolutely true. Not sure if he smoked specifically but very likely. I'm still pretty sad over this damn. It's unlike me.

[Kal-El814]

Every now and then I think about how ASOIAF’s Red Wedding is so memorable for what it did and how it changed that world.

 

And then I think about the eclipse at the end of the Golden Age Arc and how it’s like the Red Wedding on acid. I really wonder what it would have been like if the whole presence of demons and the faye weren’t telegraphed up front / that arc wasn’t a flashback.

[Ghost_MH]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

Every now and then I think about how ASOIAF’s Red Wedding is so memorable for what it did and how it changed that world.

 

And then I think about the eclipse at the end of the Golden Age Arc and how it’s like the Red Wedding on acid. I really wonder what it would have been like if the whole presence of demons and the faye weren’t telegraphed up front / that arc wasn’t a flashback.

 

I often wonder what a GoT-style adaptation of Berserk would look like. I'm with you. No flashback up front, just start with young Guts being recruited to the Hawk.

[Kal-El814]

3 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I often wonder what a GoT-style adaptation of Berserk would look like. I'm with you. No flashback up front, just start with young Guts being recruited to the Hawk.

 

The first time I watched the original anime, I got so absorbed that I forgot the “intro.” When the behelit stuff started happening I kinda remembered but the eclipse came out of nowhere for me.

 

I wonder how things would have ended. More recent stuff suggests a “happier” ending than I would have imagined for most of the run. I don’t think it would’ve been sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, but… who knows.

[Ghost_MH]

1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

The first time I watched the original anime, I got so absorbed that I forgot the “intro.” When the behelit stuff started happening I kinda remembered but the eclipse came out of nowhere for me.

 

I wonder how things would have ended. More recent stuff suggests a “happier” ending than I would have imagined for most of the run. I don’t think it would’ve been sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, but… who knows.

 

I don't think he was looking to end things all grimdark. My prediction for a number of years has been that Guts dies/becomes a god, most world governments fall, and a LOT of civilians die. However, in the end all the non-demonic species, including humans, all learn to coexist in peace.

[Kal-El814]

2 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I don't think he was looking to end things all grimdark. My prediction for a number of years has been that Guts dies/becomes a god, most world governments fall, and a LOT of civilians die. However, in the end all the non-demonic species, including humans, all learn to coexist in peace.

 

Yeah, that tracks.

 

Whenever I re-read it, I’m always taken aback by Casca. In real time as a reader the shit that happens to her and her response to it are wildly… unfair? I don’t know how to say it. I get that’s the point to an extent, but it’s A LOT. Most of the other characters come to some way of confronting their trauma that involves at least the illusion of agency from their own perspective but the hand she gets dealt is just awful. And now with Miura’s passing, she won’t have her story finished and she’s been borderline vegetative since what… 1996??? Ugh. It’s not like Case Closed or Ranma 1/2 where the chase for “a cure” is some kinda macguffin that keeps a neverending story in a perpetual motion machine, there was no way that the story was going to end with her drooling.

 

Ugh.

[Brian]

20 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Yeah, that tracks.

 

Whenever I re-read it, I’m always taken aback by Casca. In real time as a reader the shit that happens to her and her response to it are wildly… unfair? I don’t know how to say it. I get that’s the point to an extent, but it’s A LOT. Most of the other characters come to some way of confronting their trauma that involves at least the illusion of agency from their own perspective but the hand she gets dealt is just awful. And now with Miura’s passing, she won’t have her story finished and she’s been borderline vegetative since what… 1996??? Ugh. It’s not like Case Closed or Ranma 1/2 where the chase for “a cure” is some kinda macguffin that keeps a neverending story in a perpetual motion machine, there was no way that the story was going to end with her drooling.

 

Ugh.

Casca’s arc while not completed, left her in a good place. 

[Ghost_MH]

1 minute ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Yeah, that tracks.

 

Whenever I re-read it, I’m always taken aback by Casca. In real time as a reader the shit that happens to her and her response to it are wildly… unfair? I don’t know how to say it. I get that’s the point to an extent, but it’s A LOT. Most of the other characters come to some way of confronting their trauma that involves at least the illusion of agency from their own perspective but the hand she gets dealt is just awful. And now with Miura’s passing, she won’t have her story finished and she’s been borderline vegetative since what… 1996??? Ugh. It’s not like Case Closed or Ranma 1/2 where the chase for “a cure” is some kinda macguffin that keeps a neverending story in a perpetual motion machine, there was no way that the story was going to end with her drooling.

 

Ugh.

 

How current are you in the manga?

 

Spoiler

Casca was healed a couple years back, which for Berserk's glacial pace, was like five chapters ago. The series will have ended on a cliffhanger. Guts was about to finally meet Casca's child and Griffith is planning...something.

 

[Greatoneshere]

54 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Yeah, that tracks.

 

Whenever I re-read it, I’m always taken aback by Casca. In real time as a reader the shit that happens to her and her response to it are wildly… unfair? I don’t know how to say it. I get that’s the point to an extent, but it’s A LOT. Most of the other characters come to some way of confronting their trauma that involves at least the illusion of agency from their own perspective but the hand she gets dealt is just awful. And now with Miura’s passing, she won’t have her story finished and she’s been borderline vegetative since what… 1996??? Ugh. It’s not like Case Closed or Ranma 1/2 where the chase for “a cure” is some kinda macguffin that keeps a neverending story in a perpetual motion machine, there was no way that the story was going to end with her drooling.

 

Ugh.

 

Like others have said I don't think you are current. The last few uncollected chapters really pushed the story forward into what looked like could be the long end game.

 

Casca's story actually ends in a good place and we learn a good bit about the Skull Knight's backstory too. It was getting REAL good recently. Miura had just gotten past his writer's block (he was putting off the Casca thing for a long time cause he wasn't sure how to handle it) and on a roll again. Sucks.

 

And while I am torn on how the first three volumes reveal demons and stuff when discovering them first in the flashback would be cooler at the same time all the dark fantasy definitely hooks and intrigues you. I'd be down starting a GOT show with young Guts in medias res. Which Berserk deserves.

 

And while the culmination of the Golden Age arc is epic, the end of the war with Kushan later in the manga is even more epic and insane. Would be nuts in live action.

 

Since we clearly will never get more Berserk now, I want a beautiful, 2D, anime show adapting the whole manga, properly, in full. Because now we know there's no more reason to hold off. The Castlevania animated show guys are huge fans of Berserk, even sneaking in easter egg in the latest season. I'd be down with them doing it.

[Kal-El814]

I am current, it’s still the better part of a couple decades of her being the way she was. I didn’t write out my thoughts well at all.

[Ghost_MH]

9 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

I am current, it’s still the better part of a couple decades of her being the way she was. I didn’t write out my thoughts well at all.

 

Ha, yeah, that was awful. That means we're mostly on the same page. I can envision where he wanted to leave us based on the last few chapters. We've known he was having issues with his health for a while now. It wouldn't be impossible to pick up the pieces and finish it, assuming Miura left notes with the rest of Studio Gaga.

[Greatoneshere]

12 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Ha, yeah, that was awful. That means we're mostly on the same page. I can envision where he wanted to leave us based on the last few chapters. We've known he was having issues with his health for a while now. It wouldn't be impossible to pick up the pieces and finish it, assuming Miura left notes with the rest of Studio Gaga.

 

Ooof I dunno if I trust anyone else with it. Did not work out for Dune and other properties. Just publish every scrap of a note and paper napkin idea Miura had into something and I'll just read that and that'll be that.

[Greatoneshere]

30 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

I am current, it’s still the better part of a couple decades of her being the way she was. I didn’t write out my thoughts well at all.

 

This is Berserk bro this isn't fun and games. Casca suffered for so long cause Berserk!

[Fizzzzle]

I wish the anime kept going. It ends in such an unsatisfying place

[Kal-El814]

2 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

I wish the anime kept going. It ends in such an unsatisfying place

 

Which one

[Fizzzzle]

Just now, Kal-El814 said:

 

Which one

I always thought there was just the one from the 90's. Did another one get made at some point?

[Kal-El814]

10 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

I always thought there was just the one from the 90's. Did another one get made at some point?

 

3 movies and 1 other series, yeah. The quality is pretty variable, the general consensus is the original is best.

[Ghost_MH]

19 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

Ooof I dunno if I trust anyone else with it. Did not work out for Dune and other properties. Just publish every scrap of a note and paper napkin idea Miura had into something and I'll just read that and that'll be that.

 

I don't know. The entire purpose of Studio Gaga was so he could take a step back, take care of his health, and not be stuck drawing so much. They've got his drawing style down. Check out Duranki. I don't think Miura drew a single panel.

[Fizzzzle]

4 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

3 movies and 1 other series, yeah. The quality is pretty variable, the general consensus is the original is best.

It was good, but then it just stops.i remember being like "what? This is the end? That's it?"

[Kal-El814]

3 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

It was good, but then it just stops.i remember being like "what? This is the end? That's it?"

 

The original anime came out in the US at a weird time. Assuming I recall it correctly… the manga in Japan had moved beyond that portion of the story so it was a dope animation of many people’s favorite part of the story released to date. When the anime came out in the US I don’t think Dark Horse had even started publishing the manga here, so it ended with how you experienced it, an enormous WTF.

[Greatoneshere]

1 hour ago, Fizzzzle said:

I always thought there was just the one from the 90's. Did another one get made at some point?

 

I'll just give the breakdown in case you ever decide to get into Berserk because I'll help anyone get into Berserk. There are multiple different anime that adapt the original manga, which will now end at 41 volumes when they finish compiling the now final chapters that have been released but not put together in a complete volume format. 

 

-Berserk (1997): 25 episode anime

-Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (2012): 3 film trilogy covering the same material as the 1997 anime, basically a remake done in a unique/weird 2D/3D animation style

-Berserk (2016): 24 episode anime that picks up the story where the original anime and the remake trilogy left off. Basically a sequel. Done in a similar animation style as the trilogy, a unique/weird 2D/3D animation style

 

Of the three, the original anime from 1997 understands Berserk (the manga) best. In terms of music, tone, atmosphere, and philosophy, it just gets Berserk. It's old, it's animation style is more still shots with camera movement than actual animation, but it all just comes together really well. The anime adapted what it could - it adapted the first 14 volumes of the manga, which is all that had come out by that point in Japan when the anime first released in Japan. Obviously the manga has kept going, and was still going until today's news dropped. Now at 40 volumes, you can imagine how the anime adapts a fraction of what has since come out. So there's a lot of story after the first anime and trilogy. While the original anime and film trilogy both end in a good place in terms of the original arc of the manga, much of what comes later explains and elaborates on and follows through on what happened in the final parts of the anime/trilogy. Some of it is even more awesome than the original anime's story, hence why Berserk fans have been starved for so long for more of the story to be animated than just those first 14 volumes.

 

And we finally got that with Berserk (2016), a 24 episode, recent anime. All Berserk anime are good, some are merely just good (the film trilogy, Berserk 2016) and some are amazing (Berserk 1997). Getting more Berserk beyond the original arc (finally!) helps a lot in enjoying Berserk 2016 even though it doesn't get Berserk like the original anime does. The source material is so good that it's still good enough, but given the source material, it should have been so much more at the same time. The manga's art is known for being some of the best panel art in all manga - Miura was just that good, and took his time. It shows. Any anime adaptation should be given an immense budget and be drawn in a 2D art style in as beautiful way as can be managed to honor the art of the manga which is so good. It requires that. The style of Berserk 1997 nailed it, but it just didn't have the budget to manage and it's old. 

 

For some weird reason, the remake trilogy and Berserk 2016 do this weird 2D/3D art style that does sometimes nail Berserk's look but often just looks low budget or inadequate. The bluray releases help a lot, but there's a lot of stiffness and weird integration at times. Again, the story is so good you kind of don't mind, but this animation style is very unpopular with Berserk fans. Anyways, if you ever do watch Berserk again I'd do it in production order. And even if you know the story, reading the original manga (which has been fully released in English at this point by Dark Horse, who have recently been re-releasing large size 3-volume books which are gorgeous, with Miura's art in the size he originally wanted it to be seen in) from the start is worth it because there are differences. Anywho, that was a lot about Berserk (I could go on - there are 3 videogames adapting Berserk as well, two of which have been released in the US). 

 

 

57 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I don't know. The entire purpose of Studio Gaga was so he could take a step back, take care of his health, and not be stuck drawing so much. They've got his drawing style down. Check out Duranki. I don't think Miura drew a single panel.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean the art. I think that can be done. I meant in terms of the story/storytelling/where the story goes.

 

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

The original anime came out in the US at a weird time. Assuming I recall it correctly… the manga in Japan had moved beyond that portion of the story so it was a dope animation of many people’s favorite part of the story released to date. When the anime came out in the US I don’t think Dark Horse had even started publishing the manga here, so it ended with how you experienced it, an enormous WTF.

 

The anime from 1997 adapted the entirety of what had been released of the manga so far in Japan. So even Japanese audiences were stuck waiting for chapter releases once the anime was done, just like us in the US. Of course, as you said, they were getting the releases - it took years after the anime's original release in America came out for the manga's release in America to catch up and go past where the anime ended. When the anime first dropped in America the manga hadn't even been licensed yet. Of course, you could always find really good fan translations of the chapters/volumes online easily enough in the interim.

[Brian]

 

[Greatoneshere]

All the greats come out to honor Miura, including Susumu Hirasawa, who did the excellent music of Berserk 1997, a musician whose music Miura used to listen to when he'd write and draw the manga. Hence why he was hired to score Berserk 1997. There's even a shared interview from just April 14 of this year in there where Miura talks about ending Berserk. He even says "one can keep working until they're 90 nowadays". Like I said, aortic dissections are sudden but very painful and most die in just a few minutes before they even reach the hospital is my understanding. I don't think he had any idea what was coming with that kind of quote. 

 

Creators Offer Condolences for Berserk Creator Kentarou Miura's Passing

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