Written by: Jei Beltrano | Published on: May 20, 2021 at 3:14 PM PHT (GMT+8)
Kentarou Miura, the creator behind the hit-classic dark fantasy adventure manga series "Berserk", passes away on May 6 according to an announcement by the manga's publisher Hakusensha on their website posted on Thursday. Miura died due to acute aortic dissection at the age of 54.
The official Twitter of Berserk has also posted the announcement Thursday noon.
Born in Chiba, Japan on July 11, 1966, Miura started his passion for manga when he was 10. He first publish the manga "Miuranger" for his school publication which ended up spanning 40 volumes. He then created his second manga "The Way to the Sword (Ken e no michi)" a year after. At the age of 18, he began his professional career as an assistant to Hajime no Ippo's creator George Morikawa, where his skills were greatly acknowledge by the Morikawa.
Miura was nominated as Best New Author in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine after submitting his project titled "Futanabi" as an entrance examination piece for his college application in the art college of Nihon University in 1985.
In 1988, he then published a prototype of the "Berserk" manga in Hakusensha's Gekkan ComiComi magazine where he landed second place at the 7th ComiComi's Manga-School prize. Miura was then became notable and made his "Berserk" manga as one of his most successful work after its full serialization in Hakusensha's Monthly Young Animal (formerly Animal House) in 1989.
In 1997, he supervised the TV anime adapdation of his Berserk manga series airing the same year. His other work includes "Noa", "Gigantomakhia", "King of Wolves", King of Wolves's prequel "Ōrō Den", and his latest work "Duranki".
The Berserk manga had over 50 million copies in circulation as of May 2021 in the span of 40 volumes. The series was the inspired different merchandises such as action figures, trading card games, video games, and more. In 2002, Miura received the second place in the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize of Excellence for Berserk.
Source: Berserk Official Twitter, Comic Natalie
Reference: Kentarou Miura's Wikipedia entry page
