It was a shock when Berserk creator Kentarou Miura died last year. The mangaka passed away at the age of 54 due to acute aortic dissection. Miura had written and drawn Berserk since 1989, meaning he had weaved the tale of Guts, Casca, Griffith, and the rest for a long time. The story was unfinished at the time of his death.
While in mourning for the creator, fans had largely assumed that Berserk would never be finished. Without Miura, the visionary at the helm of the story, it seemed unlikely that anyone could close out Berserk in a way that the story deserved.
Today, publisher Hakusensha announced that Berserk will continue publication. The news came via a message from the publisher released on the official Berserk Twitter in Japanese and English. The story will be a collaboration between Miura’s assistants at Studio Gaga and Miura’s close friend and fellow manga artist Kouji Mori.
To our readershttps://t.co/XzJk3Wzra8#BERSERK #ベルセルク pic.twitter.com/czA3UMmTDw
— ベルセルク公式ツイッター (@berserk_project) June 7, 2022
Mori is the creator behind Holyland and Jisatsutou, and was a close friend to Miura since the pair’s high school days. Mori drew a one-shot story about his friendship with Miura, published in the 2022’s 18th issue of Young Animal alongside Miura’s final chapter of Berserk.
Miura would frequently consult with Mori about the story of Berserk, something the former creator noted in his published statement. “Nearly 30 years ago, Miura called me and said, ‘I need to talk to you about drawing a rough draft.’ Strangely, the story for Berserk went on exactly as we discussed at the time, with almost no changes,” he wrote.
“While he was alive, Miura said, ‘I haven’t told anyone other than you, Mori, about the story in its entirety.’ And that was the truth. It is too big a responsibility,” Mori added. “I thought, should I talk to fans about it through an interview? Or should I publish an article with some illustrations? But that wouldn’t convey the scenes that Miura described to me, or the lines of Guts and Griffith…”
When Miura’s assistants asked for help on the last chapter, they also showed Mori the completed manuscript for Berserk. With Mori onboard to supervise, Hakusensha was willing to finish the manga’s long-running storyline.
Berserk ended with chapter 364, in the middle of the Fantasia Arc. According to Hakusensha, starting from the next issue of Young Animal, there will be six more chapters to end the arc. Following that, another as-of-yet-untitled arc will begin. The credits will acknowledge that Miura did the original work, with Studio Gaga handling the manga with supervision by Mori. The existing numbering will continue, and there’s no indication of how many chapters it will take to finish the manga.
“Many of you may not be fully satisfied with the Berserk written without Miura, but we hopes everyone’s thoughts will be with us,” said Mori. Hopefully, the end of Guts’ story will be as amazing as every preceding chapter by Miura, even though the creator himself is gone.
