Kentarou Miura has passed away

Hello. We don't know each other. I will never meet you and you will never meet me. That's ok. All I wanted anyway is to share the single immutable thing we have in common: the strong love and devotion to a man and his work. Wall text warning.

I found Berserk during my edgy years... Not sure I am using the right term.. Edgy? Is it.. Well whatever, by sharing a bit from my teens it will decide on its own what it is.

Anyway, I was surrounded by literal trash. My school was full of it. Drug addicted ruffians, the worst version of football hooligans, vindictive girls and indifferent and passive teachers. In a way I was in the mix of all of this, many times I felt like the only sane person and I kept this madness, this circus that was in front of my eyes a secret from my parents. Without dramatizing I felt like I was part of those prisons for teens that you get sent to when the law decides you are in need of conditioning in order to function like a proper citizen. My dislike towards them was strong enough for my inner voice to start talking to me with reminding them how bad they are, how undeserving and useless they are and how better the world will be without them. You can say my personal Beast was talking to me and everyone has that inner voice that reminds them of the unpleasant thoughts they have in the back of our mind.

Berserk helped me cope with the hatred I felt to a not a small part of humanity. Stick around toxic people long enough and you are bound to drown in their toxicity. And though I sensed that some of their essence rubbed on me, just like Guts I knew I was imperfect human being, just like Guts I hated all of them and wanted nothing to do with them or be part of them. And just like Guts I found my Band of the Hawk with decent human beings.

Now we are here dealing with the passing of a man legend, that helped many people go trough life in different way. And just like being the imperfect human beings, I might not like all of you, and you might not like me, which is fine by me.

I don't know if the story will end, I may sound selfish by saying I want it to continue, I want the flame of Berserk to burn again, but this will not be made by my decision and my respect to The Great One is bigger, thus I put his decision over my desires. The only man who knew this is no longer among us and whatever words of wisdom and wishes he left to the people close to him, we may never know.

In the end, regarding the story I will say only this: though warmed by the complacent peacefulness of the island in my honest and humble opinion the clash between Guts and Griffith was inevitable. The way I saw Miura-san messages reading the manga more times then I can remember, has showed me what I already know - humanity can be equally warm, welcoming and repulsive and unredeemable at the same time. These are things beyond our control and the only thing we can do is move trough it and try to make the best of us, even if we stray away and succumb to our inner beast.
Berserk was a story of revenge, love, redemption and how in the end if you struggle enough you can live to see the light of the day on your face.

Future of Berserk is:

1) That's it. The manga won't be continued and we will continue to honor Miura-san

2) He did make a contingency plan, and though he will not be there, the spirit of the story will not change even if quality takes a light dip

3) See 1) but we might see a person from the inside give us some kind of conclusion via points to give a general outline of how the manga will end, giving the fandom means to craft and reach some kind of conclusion (Episte3 style with Half Life).


That is all.
Rest in piece sensei, your lessons and your work are now part of my soul forever.
 
After a few days realizing what happened I want to share a few words too:

I am 32 years old and found out about Berserk very late, I think it was in 2015. After I read a few chapters online I went all in and bought all of the "German Max Editions" that were on market to this day.
After I read all of them I was screwed, I loved the mix between Dark Fantasy, Mystic Creatures, the epoch it plays in and all of the individual characters who have their own goals and try to follow their destiny (or fight it). Miura found a way to write and draw his story so extraordinary that Berserk very soon came one of my all time favorite Manga.
To this day and in the few years I read the chapters several times, bought MANY Berserk Merchandise and let Berserk come to an important part of my life.
After I read the news what happened I couldn't believe it at first and even now I have moments when it hits me out of nowhere and I grieve.
I thought if this short joyful travel will end now? But then I remembered very soon again what Berserk is about: to move forward against all odds, against your own destiny, to struggle. No matter which decisions will be made the next weeks about the manga I will not end it here and look forward and it will live on, no matter what, no one can take these beautiful memories I have until this day, not even such tragic happening.

I want to thank all of the great community all over the world, especially in this Forum, who dedicated a big part of their time and life for Berserk and are part of my joyful travel all these years, even now you help a lot to handle the current situation.

In the end I want to thank Miura-sama, to whom we owe this beautiful endless journey of joy and happiness, Rest in Peace.
 
Yoshihiro Kurosaki, chief assistant to Miura at Studio Gaga, took to Twitter a few days ago to clarify some things about the life Miura lived.
@puella graciously translated the relevant part of those comments for us.

Because many people may think, based on old information that's from over 20 years ago like the comments at the end of the magazine, that Sensei had continued his harsh life, I’m going to clarify things not to stain his honor. For the last 15 years, he had practiced a healthy diet and commonsensical exercise (including muscle training) so he was healthy mentally and physically, without a chronic illness.

Even I, who try to be careful about my health, always suffer from colds, the flu every year and even Covid-19. I'm bitter, because Sensei was always healthy.

I'll go away for a while, since I don’t know how things will go from now on, and I’m not in a position to decide. Even if there is something concrete, it'll take time. Finally, I thank you for being fans of Miura sensei’s work, including Berserk, and please continue to enjoy them.
Click to expand...
 
I've always believed that he will finish Berserk no matter what was being said or what kind of bad thoughts I've had, even tho it was hard sometimes. Incredibly sad to see this news.
 
Miura, you are legend.
Legend never die.

My armor, my spirit, my body. You are in my heart, forever.
One knee on the ground, sir.
 
I learned of his death last Friday and since then I’ve pretty much felt empty, like a part of me got cut off. I’ll start by saying I watched the 97 anime back in 2009 after putting it off for quite some time, and like so many have said before, even though the animation wasn’t that good, I was mesmerized by the story and couldn’t leave it at that ending. I never read manga before so I was a bit reluctant, but I really needed to know what happened after the eclipse. Boy was I floored. It was simply breathtaking. The story was sooo much more than what was presented in the anime, the art was incredible. It was like nothing I ever read before.

Sadly I don’t have friends that really enjoy anime and manga so I naturally searched the internet and found this great community with which to share the Berserk experience. I was a lurker for some time but in early 2011 I finally decided to make an account and become more active.

Then I met a girl, we married, we have two kids, I got a new college degree, changed my job and even though for all these years I followed each chapter release of Berserk and briefly visit the forum to know other people’s opinions and for a better understanding, that was about it.

I always wanted to do a thorough reread, but there were other priorities and so I drifted away from the series and this community. Then Covid-19 came so I was able to work from home and have more spare time. That's when I reread the manga and I was able to understand much more than the first time - it further solidified my initial impression that Berserk is a masterpiece and Miura is nothing short of a genius. I also started to follow this community again, to listen to the podcasts, which by the way are awesome and planned to become a more active user. I can't believe that my first post on this forum after 9 years is this... :(

A couple of years ago, a high school colleague of mine died suddenly. I remember I stupidly thought then: "I hope I don't die before Miura finishes Berserk".

I guess I considered him kind of like an infallible robot, programmed to write and draw perfection. But in the end he was just a guy who wrote a story - in my opinion the greatest of them all.

May he rest in peace. I am grateful for being able to enjoy his monumental work. It's tough to come to terms with the fact that he is gone, like others have said, there is nothing to look forward to now...

We'll just have to wait and see what the future holds for Berserk, but one thing is for certain, there won't be another Miura.
 
I heard the news and wanted to stay away from this site. I knew coming here, I would see posts that would seriously tug on some heart strings and bring up all sorts of memories from the past. Given the release schedule, I can clearly remember where I was in life reading almost any given episode of the series. I've been reading Berserk for almost 20 years and have frequented this site for almost as long. Berserk was very much a part of my life. While it would have a dominant presence, then fade a little, it would always return with a vengeance...for almost two decades. Reading this thread is incredibly sad. For so, so many reasons. Because of Berserk, I've learned so much, met different people (both online and off), and feel the story and fandom shaped the person I've grown to be.

Miura-san gave us all so much, aside from his masterpiece we all fell deeply in love with. From this day until I lose my wits, I will always, always wonder, "what if?" I fear this will chronically plague me and I am utterly dreading having to endure it.

Part of me, part of all of us, died with Miura-san.

Rest in peace.

Thank you.
 
It has now been 1 month since Kentaro Miura's passing. Back when this happened, I had logged into Skullknight.net to find out if it was actually real... and it was.:sad: I had looked to see who was online and I was astonished because I'd never seen so many online before (at least in my active years since early 2013)

Thought I'd share this screen shot I took the day we found out to show how much we loved Miura and respected his great works and achievments.

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Rest In Peace Miura :beast::casca::isidro::iva::magni::rakshas::SK::zodd::azan::griffnotevil::femto::slan::mozgus::shrug::ubik::void::stop::schierke:
 
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I used to watch anime like crazy and, of all the anime I watched, the 1997 Berserk anime left the deepest impact on me. I then read the manga, fell in love with the characters, the story and the sheer scope of the world. After that I didn't actively look for Berserk for awhile, and mostly kind of put aside thinking about all fiction to focus on (stuff related to) school and then work.

I later studied Japanese studies, got fluent in Japanese and moved to Japan. When I heard about Miura's death, it was a big shock and brought back a lot of memories. I instantly bought all 40 volumes in Japanese and read through them in the next 3 weeks. I suddenly remembered that being able to enjoy Berserk in its original language was one of the reasons I started seriously getting into Japanese in the first place. These 40 volumes are literally the only pieces of fiction I have at home - the best story I've had the pleasure to enjoy, from any medium.

It's truly sad that we've lost such a great visionary storyteller. Rest in peace, Miura-sensei.
 
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