Kentaro Miura was always a man to take things at a soft and leveled pace when it came to drafting and drawing Berserk. One of the very reasons why it is such a loved manga is because of the wide variety of stories and complexities it dives into. The pedestal it stands on is difficult to move and rightfully so.
While the series stands as one of the best, it is not without its flaws. Kazuhiko Torishima, former Dragon Ball editor pointed towards these exact flaws. As a manga that deals with the complexities of life, there is so much that goes into its making and the thoughts that compete with no one. Torishima, although acknowledging all that, could not help but notice one problem.
Kentaro Miura Rushed Things
During an interview in the Berserk home anthology Young Animal, (via Crunchyroll), Kentaro Miura talked with Dragon Ball editor Kazuhiko Torishima as they discussed the ins and outs of his manga. It became a topic of concern for the editor when the tenth volume rolled around. He even reiterated his problems, conveying his concerns to the mangaka.
Having read Berserk, there’s something I’d never have let you do if I were assigned to it. In Volume 10, when we’re about to find out how Griffith gets ahead, he seduces Charlotte with ease. That really hurt! I felt like you were trying to bring the story to a climax, to hurry to Volume 13, to make a homage to Devilman (Nagai Go).
But I was reading Devilman as it came out, and that kind of out-of-control storytelling wasn’t a good idea in a Shonen manga. Even in Berserk, I knew what would happen in Volume 13 after Griffith fell. You can’t normally just let a character go down like that so easily.
Torishima acknowledged how Miura’s work may have been trying to pay its respects to Devilman but also criticized how its writing and pacing were never something he liked in the first place. It was the way in which Griffith seduced Charlotte. As per the editor, were he in charge of the manga, he would have never let things happen that way.
He felt that things were too rushed and that Miura was eager to jump to the next volumes rather than complete the arc that was ongoing. He admitted that Devilman’s storytelling wasn’t fitting for a Shonen manga and so for Berserk to follow the same pattern, things became even rougher.
Berserk was Never a Shonen Manga
While Kazuhiko Torishima viewed things from the perspective of a Shonen manga editor, it is to be noted that Berserk was never a Shonen manga to begin with. It classifies as a Seinen manga. Kentaro Miura’s main objective was never to make it a Shonen manga because of how the genre was seen to have characters who lacked emotional expression at that time.
Shojo manga is all about expressing every feeling powerfully, and in that sense it’s not as contrived as manga for men. Men’s manga tends to come off as more calculated to sell well, whereas shojo manga are somehow just… fluffier. I realize that’s not a very descriptive word, but anyway, that might be something I have in common with shojo manga.
During an interview with Yukari Fujimoto (via Berserk Fandom), the mangaka admitted he saw the series to be more inclined towards Shojo than Shonen. It was a classic segregation between a female and male audience at that time with stereotypes ruling over who read and viewed what. Miura wasn’t one to bend to those norms, instead making a manga filled with emotional depth despite being a man himself.
Despite the mixing of genres, that is not to say Torishima’s claim becomes rudimentary. His issue was with its pacing and how they overlapped with an already ongoing story. It was necessary for him to properly tell the story instead of rushing it.
Berserk can be read on the official Dark Horse Comics website.
