The only manga series to do justice to the narrative of the Dark Ages, Berserk by Kentaro Miura has been an inspiration for everyone who likes gore, violent, dark, and horrific stories. The series has been sitting at the top of the manga world in terms of dark fantasy psychological thrillers, and it truly deserves the hype.
When Miura started working on Berserk, he put his mind and soul into the narrative, and he got the results that he hoped for. However, when he took his first step toward becoming one of the biggest manga creators of all time, he came across Evil Dead 2 by Sam Raimi, which was released in 1987. The movie almost crushed Miura’s dreams.
The manga creator once revealed that he was terrified that the protagonist from Raimi’s classic was too similar to the one that he created for Berserk. In fact, not only the protagonist, but even some of the plot points shared a parallel with each other, which made Miura think about how he was going to move forward with the series.
Kentaro Miura Was Surprised After Seeing Evil Dead 2
The fourth volume of the Berserk North American DVD release by Media Blasters featured a video interview with Miura from 2002 where the manga creator revealed a strange story about him submitting Berserk for the first time. Miura was in college at the time when he started Berserk, and his dream was about to be crushed.
Miura stated:
I like the movies of Tim Burton and Sam Raimi. This is another strange story. Back then I was still in college, it was the day I finished the first episode of Berserk and there was “Evil Dead 2” playing at theaters. So after I mailed it to the publisher, I went to see it. It was so similar to Berserk, I was really surprised by myself.
Miura has been a big fan of American film directors Tim Burton and Sam Raimi. While Burton is known for his gothic horror movies like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, Raimi is popular for the Spider-Man trilogy and the old classic Evil Dead films, which were a mixture of comedy and horror.
Being a fan, Miura decided to watch Evil Dead 2, and it was there that he realized that he might have created a story that draws parallels with Raimi’s movie, which got him nervous.
The Parallels Between Guts From Berserk And Ash Williams From Evil Dead
After talking about the similarities between Evil Dead and Berserk’s storyline, Kentaro Miura went on to explain the biggest parallel between the two. It was the protagonist of both stories. Ash and Guts are not only physically similar, but their character development also draws parallels with each other.
Miura stated:
In “Evil Dead 2”, I also know it as “Captain Supermarket”… the main character had his arm cut off and he had a chainsaw attached to his arm and had a shotgun on his back. I was like “What the?” Because Guts has a gun on his arm and a huge sword on his back. It was just like Ash. I remember getting worried that I might get sued. I just finished my very first cartoon, but I was already nervous.
Miura was surprised to see that he unconsciously created a story that was a lot similar to the one his favorite director had been working on for so long.
“His actions are still terrible”: 5 Kentaro Miura’s Characters From Berserk That Disgusts Anime Fans
The mangaka was both nervous and excited to see what the future holds for him. Luckily he did not get sued, and Berserk went on to become one of the greatest pieces of art the industry has ever seen.
You can read the Berserk manga on Dark Horse.
