History Creator / KentaroMiura

The first volume of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' was published in 1990 (by the then-24 year old Miura), though it met with little success, and the magazine it was serialized in was in the process of going under. The series would not really take off until it was serialized in ''Young Animal'' magazine in 1992 with the publication of the Golden Age arc. Miura's epic tale of friendship, romance, betrayal, horror, vengeance, and supreme demon asskicking continued until his death, reaching an eventual length of 41 volumes and having over 50 million volumes in circulation. Over time it's been adapted into the anime ''Anime/Berserk1997'', the 1999 Dramcast game ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheBerserkGutsRage''), the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} game ''VideoGame/BerserkMillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkiNoSho'', the 2012-13 anime film trilogy ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', the sequel anime ''Anime/Berserk2016'', and the 2016 video game ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''. In 2002 he received second place in the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize of Excellence for ''Berserk''.

The first volume of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' was published in 1990 (by the then-24 year old Miura), though it met with little success, and the magazine it was serialized in was in the process of going under. The series would not really take off until it was serialized in ''Young Animal'' magazine in 1992 with the publication of the Golden Age arc. Miura's epic tale of friendship, romance, betrayal, horror, vengeance, and supreme demon asskicking continued to his death, reaching 40 volumes and over 40 million copies in circulation. Over time it's been adapted into the anime ''Anime/Berserk1997'', the 1999 Dramcast game ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheBerserkGutsRage''), the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} game ''VideoGame/BerserkMillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkiNoSho'', the 2012-13 anime film trilogy ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', the sequel anime ''Anime/Berserk2016'', and the 2016 video game ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''. In 2002 he received second place in the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize of Excellence for ''Berserk''.

Sadly, Miura passed away on May 6, 2021, due to an acute aortic dissection. This left ''Berserk'' incomplete and facing an uncertain future. In early August, however, it was finally announced that the manga would return as the work of his assistants, starting with episode 340 in ''Young Animal'' magazine on September 10.

* [[invoked]]WriteWhoYouKnow: Had a tendency to base characters on people he knew.

Sadly, Miura passed away on May 6, 2021, due to an acute aortic dissection. This leaves ''Berserk'' in an incomplete state and its future uncertain.

* ''Futanabi'': In a post-apocalyptic underground city consisting of men who have never seen or heard of a woman before, a mechanic's apprentice named Rick ends up helping a girl named Venus who came illegally from a corresponding female-only city and who is being chased by the police.

Kentaro Miura (三浦 建太郎 ''Miura Kentarō'', July 11, 1966–May 6, 2021) was a Japanese ''mangaka'' born in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. His parents met and got married while they were students at Musashino Arts School: his father did storyboards for commercials, and his mother taught an art class. He credits the artistic environment he was raised in for inspiring him to draw. His first manga, ''Miuranger'', was created and published for his classmates in a school publication in 1976 when he was 10 years old. His second manga, ''Ken E No Michi'' (The Way to the Sword) was the first time that Miura would use India ink, and when he went to middle school, his drawing technique would improve greatly as he started using professional drawing techniques, with a {{doujin}} being produced with the help of his friends in 1982. It was in high school that he got serious about becoming a manga artist, and he was close friends with fellow aspiring mangaka Mori Kouji, who would go on to write ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' and ''Manga/SuicideIsland''. When Miura was 18, he briefly worked as an assistant to Jyoji Morikawa of ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo''; Morikawa quickly noticed Miura's talent and released him, saying the boy needed no further teaching from him.

Kentaro Miura (三浦 建太郎 ''Miura Kentarō'', July 11, 1966–May 6, 2021) was a Japanese ''mangaka'' born in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. His parents met and got married while they were students at Musashino Arts School: his father did storyboards for commercials, and his mother taught an art class. He credits the artistic environment he was raised in for inspiring him to draw. His first manga, ''Miuranger'', was created and published for his classmates in a school publication in 1976 when he was 10 years old. His second manga, ''Ken E No Michi'' (The Way to the Sword) was the first time that Miura would use India ink, and when he went to middle school, his drawing technique would improve greatly as he started using professional drawing techniques, with a {{doujin}} being produced with the help of his friends in 1982. It was in high school that he got serious about becoming a manga artist, and he was close friends with fellow aspiring mangaka Mori Kouji, who would go on to write ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' and ''Manga/SuicideIsland''.

** Guts himself is said to be loosely based on Miura as a college student, with other members of the Band of the Hawk inspired by friends of his. Probably why Guts looks Asian despite living in a MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting.

!!Media that Miura credits as inspiration:

* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: In Nico Nicholson's 2010 comic short based on interviewing him, one of the gags is that she initially mistakes Miura for one of his assistants. Since she was ExpectingSomeoneTaller, she feels shocked that such a mellow-looking guy could draw those epic battle scenes.

* AuthorUsurpation: Ask anyone about manga made by Miura, and ''Berserk'' is the only one they will be able to mention. It's only natural when he spent the overwhelming majority of his career making ''Berserk''.

* RealMenWearPink: While he was (in)famous for some rather dark work (and in hilarious contrast to a...rather vocal [[TrueArtIsAngsty section of the fandom]]) he is an open fanboy of ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster''.

* ''Ouro'' (King of Wolves): A historical scholar goes missing while on an expedition to investigate the Silk Road, and when his girlfriend goes after him, she is sucked into 13th century Mongolia, where she finds him alive and a warrior-slave for UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan.

Sadly, Miura passed away on May 6, 2021, due to a ruptured aorta. This leaves ''Berserk'' in an incomplete state and its future uncertain.

The first volume of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' was published in 1990 (by the then-24 year old Miura), though it met with little success, and the magazine it was serialized in was in the process of going under. The series would not really take off until it was serialized in ''Young Animal'' magazine in 1992 with the publication of the Golden Age arc. Miura's epic tale of friendship, romance, betrayal, horror, vengeance, and supreme demon asskicking continued to his death, with 39+ volumes and some 40 million copies in circulation. Over time it's been adapted into the anime ''Anime/Berserk1997'', the 1999 Dramcast game ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheBerserkGutsRage''), the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} game ''VideoGame/BerserkMillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkiNoSho'', the 2012-13 anime film trilogy ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', the sequel anime ''Anime/Berserk2016'', and the 2016 video game ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''. In 2002 he received second place in the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize of Excellence for ''Berserk''.

Miura was left-handed, and did most of his art with traditional techniques such as the g-pen, Maru pen, and brushes. For his color illustrations, there was wild speculation about how he did them; in fact, he used good old colouring pencils and watercolors. Since the 90s, he had 3-4 assistants helping him. His last group called Studio Gaga consisted of about four or five assistants, who came and went every couple of years. One of them, Mitsuhisa Kuji (''Manga/{{Wolfsmund}}''), became a mangaka in her own right. Miura kept vampire hours and put in 16 hour workdays with no breaks or holidays while working on a deadline. Fans speculated about the cause of his increasingly frequent hiatuses, which made the pace of new releases slow to a crawl, but the reasons remain not entirely clear. One factor seems to have been him reaching middle age, which made it difficult for him to push himself as hard as he used to. In 2016, fans started to speculate about whether Miura had switched to digital painting techniques; his switch to using a tablet and computers for all his art was confirmed in the Berserk Official Guidebook.

Miura's primary influences came from works in various media, with his primary inspiration being Kaoru Kurimoto's long-running ''LightNovel/GuinSaga'' fantasy series, and additional influence being drawn from Creator/GoNagai's two darkest and most violent mangas, ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' and ''Manga/ViolenceJack''. Miura's style is at times quite beautiful and emotional, but at other times, he comes up with and draws some ''[[NightmareFuel truly messed up and frightening shit]]''.

* ''Manga/{{Gigantomakhia}}''

* ActuallyThatsMyAssistant: A gag from when Nico Nicholson's 2010 comic short based on interviewing him has her mistake Miura for one of his assistants. Since she was ExpectingSomeoneTaller, she feels shocked that such a mellow-looking guy could draw those epic battle scenes.
* AuthorAvatar: If the name is of any indication, the lead character of ''Miuranger'' was Miura's own EscapistCharacter.

* AuthorUsurpation: Ask anyone about manga made by Miura, and ''Berserk'' is the only one they will be able to mention.

* DarkerAndEdgier: His stories tend to contain themes of tragedy and horror, and ''Berserk'' is pretty much a TropeCodifier for DarkFantasy manga.

* {{Workaholic}}: Contrary to memes that claim he wasted his time playing ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', Miura spent almost all of his time on ''Berserk''. In 2009 he told the members of Skullknight.net, "I start working at 2:00 PM and I finish at 7:00 AM. Of course, the time I spend eating is included. I work 15-16 hours everyday, without holidays."
* [[invoked]]WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: ''Berserk'' was Miura's first big serial story, and he started out with the concept for Guts as the Black Swordsman before he had come up with a backstory explaining why he was out for revenge. The idea for the Golden Age Arc came to him after he was already pretty far into the Black Swordsman Arc, and it ended up being quite a bit longer than he originally intended. "Lately," says Miura, "I’ve come to trust in my own carelessness. In my experience things often pop nicely into place even without having been planned ahead much. I do think it probably wouldn’t go very smoothly if I were to work with stuff that isn’t me, stuff that I’ve borrowed from elsewhere and simply stuck in, but there’s hardly any of that. Even when I do bring in something from elsewhere, I run it through myself and quality test it before using it."
* [[invoked]]WriteWhoYouKnow: Had a tendency to base characters on people he knows.

He was also a fan of Website/NicoNicoDouga and ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', though contrary to a popular rumor he played other games besides ''Idolmaster'' and was not obsessed to the point of neglecting his work.

* RealMenWearPink: While he is (in)famous for some rather dark work (and in hilarious contrast to a...rather vocal [[TrueArtIsAngsty section of the fandom]]) he is an open fanboy of ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster''.
* {{Workaholic}}: Contrary to memes that claim he wastes his time playing ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', Miura spent almost all of his time on ''Berserk''. In 2009 he told the members of Skullknight.net, "I start working at 2:00 PM and I finish at 7:00 AM. Of course, the time I spend eating is included. I work 15-16 hours everyday, without holidays."

* [[invoked]]WriteWhoYouKnow: Has a tendency to base characters on people he knows.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: His premature passing in May 2021 leaves ''Berserk'' (or at least his original vision of it) currently unfinished.

* IllBoy: It was rumored that the stress he got from writing and drawing for ''Berserk'' could take such a toll on his health that he would have to take hospital breaks in order to recover. This, however, was unsubstantiated, and his death wasn't related to stress or something.
* {{Workaholic}}: Contrary to memes that claim he wastes his time playing ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', Miura spent almost all of his time on ''Berserk''. In 2009 he told the members of Skullknight.net, "I start working at 2:00 PM and I finish at 7:00 AM. Of course, the time I spend eating is included. I work 15-16 hours everyday, without holidays."

* IllBoy: It was rumored that the stress he got from writing and drawing for ''Berserk'' could take such a toll on his health that he would have to take hospital breaks in order to recover. This, however, was unsubstantiated, and his death wasn't related to his stress.

* IllBoy: It's been rumored that the stress he gets from writing and drawing for ''Berserk'' can take such a toll on his health that he would have to take hospital breaks in order to recover. This, however, is unsubstantiated.
* {{Workaholic}}: Contrary to memes that claim he wastes his time playing ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', Miura spends almost all of his time on ''Berserk''. In 2009 he told the members of Skullknight.net, "I start working at 2:00 PM and I finish at 7:00 AM. Of course, the time I spend eating is included. I work 15-16 hours everyday, without holidays."

* ''Manga/{{Duranki}}'': Miura's newest manga, a mythology-inspired story about a child by the name of Usumgallu with the ability to "think up unknown things" who is neither a god nor human, and is neither male nor female.

The first volume of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' was published in 1990, though it met with little success, and the magazine it was serialized in was in the process of going under. The series would not really take off until it was serialized in ''Young Animal'' magazine in 1992 with the publication of the Golden Age arc. Miura's epic tale of friendship, romance, betrayal, horror, vengeance, and supreme demon asskicking continued to his death, with 39+ volumes and some 40 million copies in circulation. Over time it's been adapted into the anime ''Anime/Berserk1997'', the 1999 Dramcast game ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheBerserkGutsRage''), the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} game ''VideoGame/BerserkMillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkiNoSho'', the 2012-13 anime film trilogy ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', the sequel anime ''Anime/Berserk2016'', and the 2016 video game ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''. In 2002 he received second place in the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize of Excellence for ''Berserk''.

'''Works by Kentaro Miura''':

Media that Miura credits as inspiration:

Miura was left-handed, and did most of his art with traditional techniques such as the g-pen, Maru pen, and brushes. For his color illustrations, there was wild speculation about how he did them, but it's since been discovered he used good old colouring pencils and watercolors. Since the 90s, he had 3-4 assistants helping him, and his last group, called Studio Gaga consisted of about four or five assistants, coming and go every couple of years. One of them, Mitsuhisa Kuji (''Manga/{{Wolfsmund}}''), became a mangaka in her own right. Miura kept vampire hours and put in 16 hour workdays with no breaks or holidays while working on a deadline. Fans speculated about the cause of his increasingly frequent hiatuses, which have made the pace of new releases slow to a crawl, but the reasons remain not entirely clear. One factor seems to be him reaching middle age, which makes it difficult for him to push himself as hard as he used to. In 2016, fans started to speculate about whether Miura had switched to digital painting techniques; his switch to using a tablet and computers for all his art is confirmed in the Berserk Official Guidebook.

Miura's primary influence came from works in various media, with his primary inspiration being Kaoru Kurimoto's long-running ''LightNovel/GuinSaga'' fantasy series, and additional influence being drawn from Creator/GoNagai's two darkest and most violent mangas, ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' and ''Manga/ViolenceJack''. Miura's style is at times quite beautiful and emotional, but at other times, he comes up with and draws some ''[[NightmareFuel truly messed up and frightening shit]]''.

He was also a fan of Website/NicoNicoDouga and ''VideoGame/TheIdolmaster'', though contrary to a popular rumor he plays other games besides ''Idolmaster'' and was not obsessed to the point of neglecting his work.

The first volume of ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'' was published in 1990, though it met with little success, and the magazine it was serialized in was in the process of going under. The series would not really take off until it was serialized in ''Young Animal'' magazine in 1992 with the publication of the Golden Age arc. Miura's epic tale of friendship, romance, betrayal, horror, vengeance, and supreme demon asskicking is still ongoing today, with 39+ volumes and some 40 million copies in circulation. Over time it's been adapted into the anime ''Anime/Berserk1997'', the 1999 Dramcast game ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheBerserkGutsRage''), the UsefulNotes/{{PS2}} game ''VideoGame/BerserkMillenniumFalconHenSeimaSenkiNoSho'', the 2012-13 anime film trilogy ''Anime/BerserkTheGoldenAgeArc'', the sequel anime ''Anime/Berserk2016'', and the 2016 video game ''VideoGame/BerserkAndTheBandOfTheHawk''. In 2002 he received second place in the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize of Excellence for ''Berserk''.

Miura is left-handed, and has done most of his art with traditional techniques such as the g-pen, Maru pen, and brushes. For his color illustrations there was wild speculation about how he did them, but it's since been discovered he uses good old colouring pencils and watercolors. Since, the 90s he has had 3-4 assistants helping him, and his current group called Studio Gaga consists of about four or five assistants; they come and go every couple of years. One of them, Mitsuhisa Kuji (''Manga/{{Wolfsmund}}''), became a mangaka in her own right. Miura keeps vampire hours and puts in 16 hour workdays with no breaks or holidays while he's working on a deadline. Fans speculate about the cause of his increasingly frequent hiatuses, which have made the pace of new releases slow to a crawl, but because he hasn't directly talked about it in interviews the reasons are not entirely clear. One factor seems to be him reaching middle age, which makes it difficult for him to push himself as hard as he used to. In 2016, fans started to speculate about whether Miura had switched to digital painting techniques; his switch to using a tablet and computers for all his art is confirmed in the Berserk Official Guidebook.

Miura's primary influence comes from works in various media, with his primary inspiration being Kaoru Kurimoto's long-running ''LightNovel/GuinSaga'' fantasy series, and additional influence being drawn from Creator/GoNagai's two darkest and most violent mangas, ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' and ''Manga/ViolenceJack''. Miura's style is at times quite beautiful and emotional, but at other times, he comes up with and draws some ''[[NightmareFuel truly messed up and frightening shit]]''.

While ''Berserk'' has long been his all-consuming project, Miura has also created Kamui Gakupo--a Music/{{Vocaloid}} whose design is based on Japanese VisualKei artist Creator/{{Gackt}}--and in 2013 he took a break to write his first new manga in 24 years, ''Manga/{{Gigantomakhia}}''.

Along with his creative work, Miura is also a UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} black belt and former school competitor.

Works by Kentaro Miura:

* ''Berserk Prototype'': A wandering swordsman named Guts happens to save a girl named Fricka from bandits, and fights the monstrous nobleman Vlad Tepes. The beginning of what would later become ''Berserk''.

Sadly, Miura passed away on May 6, 2021 due to a ruptured aorta. This leaves ''Berserk'' in an incomplete state.

Kentaro Miura (三浦 建太郎 ''Miura Kentarō'') was a Japanese ''mangaka'' born in 1966 in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture. His parents met and got married while they were students at Musashino Arts School: his father did storyboards for commercials, and his mother taught an art class. He credits the artistic environment he was raised in for inspiring him to draw. His first manga, ''Miuranger'', was created and published for his classmates in a school publication in 1976 when he was 10 years old. His second manga, ''Ken E No Michi'' (The Way to the Sword) was the first time that Miura would use India ink, and when he went to middle school, his drawing technique would improve greatly as he started using professional drawing techniques, with a {{doujin}} being produced with the help of his friends in 1982. It was in high school that he got serious about becoming a manga artist, and he was close friends with fellow aspiring mangaka Mori Kouji, who would go on to write ''Manga/{{Holyland}}'' and ''Manga/SuicideIsland''.