Miura's education

[kumagawa]

Hi there everyone. first I'm sorry if it's not a proper place to ask this or if I'm violating any rules around here by posting this thread.
Now then, why I'm posting this thread? To be honest, I've been searching berserk in google, as usual, to see if I can find any new review or interesting analysis of it and by accident, I came across this article by The Times. I know, I know, it's behind a paywall, you can read it free here.
Now, the reason I've posted my first topic in skullknigh.net; if you read through the article somewhere in the middle it says:

Miura was offered a place at the art college of Nihon University, where he also completed a PhD. ...

When I read it, it gave me pause. Because I remember reading somewhere that Miura graduated from his college at a relatively young age, and sure enough, I checked the Miura timeline here on Skullknight and it says he graduated at 23. So I figured I dig a bit, and... I found nothing more. Other sources that mention his Ph.D. are saying the same thing almost word for word, and then I searched through the forum here and I found this topic. It seems it all came from here. But when I searched some more, I couldn't find any more information about the matter.

Now, I know it seems rather pointless and maybe even creepy to waste so much time on the education of your favorite mangaka, but I figured I wasted enough time to want an answer to my question. So now I ask you guys. Can any of you confirm or deny this information?

Thank you in advance and sorry for my potentially bad English. I'm ESL.

 

[Walter]

I would bet that ZKK simply mistranslated degree for doctorate. He used an online translator from the early 00s, after all.

I don’t know of anything that indicates Miura pursued higher education very far. Just Nihon University’s College of Art. He always knew he wanted to be a mangaka, and he’d already proven he could do it well. Why would he stick around for a higher degree? So even apart from the mistranslation, it doesn’t really add up, ya know?

 

[Aazealh]

Hi kumagawa!

This is an interesting topic, because it shows how so many things about Berserk come from here, though often through tortuous paths (and without giving the source).

As you surmised, Miura did not pursue a PhD. Like Walter said above, it was simply a mistranslation or minsinterpretation. I mean, ZKK himself warned not to take it as gospel because he frankensteined and embellished it, but you know how people are... Unfortunately, they rarely take the time to verify whether something's true or not before repeating it. That's why there is still to this day a lot of false information about Miura out there, even in Japan.

Case in point, that Times article is filled with nonsense and falsehoods. It's an insult to journalism. And it's even illustrated with a non-official, crudely colorized picture that they definitely don't have the rights to, because it was taken from an old fanzine.

 

[kumagawa]

I would bet that ZKK simply mistranslated degree for doctorate. He used an online translator from the early 00s, after all.

I don’t know of anything that indicates Miura pursued higher education very far. Just Nihon University’s College of Art. He always knew he wanted to be a mangaka, and he’d already proven he could do it well. Why would he stick around for a higher degree? So even apart from the mistranslation, it doesn’t really add up, ya know?

Thank you very much for answering so quickly. And yes, it makes little sense for Miura to pursue higher education. Especially considering that as far as I know, a PhD would take around 5 to 6 years to complete. When in the world would the young Miura find that time alongside his career ambitions?

Hi kumagawa!

This is an interesting topic, because it shows how so many things about Berserk come from here, though often through tortuous paths (and without giving the source).

As you surmised, Miura did not pursue a PhD. Like Walter said above, it was simply a mistranslation or minsinterpretation. I mean, ZKK himself warned not to take it as gospel because he frankensteined and embellished it, but you know how people are... Unfortunately, they rarely take the time to verify whether something's true or not before repeating it. That's why there is still to this day a lot of false information about Miura out there, even in Japan.

Case in point, that Times article is filled with nonsense and falsehoods. It's an insult to journalism. And it's even illustrated with a non-official, crudely colorized picture that they definitely don't have the rights to, because it was taken from an old fanzine.

Honestly, it's kinda surreal that you and water are answering my stupid question I've been lurking under the radar for so long here and I've always found your guys' posts incredibly insightful and valuable. What you've created here is a valuable resource for all berserk (and manga) fans around the world. Here in Iran, we have a tiny anime/manga community, and having a solid and reliable source of information is hugely appreciated, especially considering the fact that there is a lot of mis-info on berserk even here. For example, once I heard from some guy that berserk inspired A Song of Ice and Fire .

And yep, you are completely right. Thank you very much for responding. I remember watching some YouTube video once and they were bit by bit reading off of the timeline and some explanation Walter had written about some obscure berserk facts and the YouTuber didn't even mentioned the skullknight.net. it was pretty surprising seeing the latest Supereyepatch wolf video on berserk and for once hearing someone crediting the site.

By the way, I found that even the Good reads page for berserk spews this nonsense...

thank you both once again for your responses.

 

[Aazealh]

Honestly, it's kinda surreal that you and water are answering my stupid question I've been lurking under the radar for so long here and I've always found your guys' posts incredibly insightful and valuable. What you've created here is a valuable resource for all berserk (and manga) fans around the world.

No problem, always glad to help. There is much yet to be done, but I hope we will leave behind a comprehensive and airtight compendium of Berserk knowledge.

 

[4M4M]

Weird enough, I do remember an old article in Spanish that featured an inverse falsehood that Miura dropped out of University to pursue his mangaka career. With modern journalism or internet blogs you always lose, I suppose! It's similar with how people mistake Miura as the assistant of Hara Tetsuo instead of Morikawa George, which is a bit weird to say the least; I suppose people liked Fist of North Star too much.

 

[Aazealh]

It's similar with how people mistake Miura as the assistant of Hara Tetsuo instead of Morikawa George

Miura was not the assistant of George Morikawa. That's another falsehood. He helped him out for one afternoon after they met in school once. He drew one panel for him and then they never met again.

Miura started working as a professional mangaka as soon as he finished school, his university graduation project (the Berserk Prototype) having caught the eye of Hakusensha.