When Kentaro Miura first released the Berserk manga in 1989, he changed the entire Seinen manga genre by portraying a new side of dark, epic fantasy storytelling that was never seen before. It became such a big hit that even after his death in 2021, the production studio decided to keep the manga going in honor of his legacy.
Miura had a deep understanding of how to make a dark and depressed-toned story attractive to readers. However, he was not born with this skill but acquired it through reading almost every genre of manga as much as possible. He kept reading manga, irrespective of their nature or the type of storyline, and absorbed as much as possible.
This was a big change in his lifestyle, but it helped him figure out the perfect way to create a story and make it intriguing for the fans. This ultimately led to the smashing success of Berserk as one of the best manga series of all time.
Kentaro Miura Made A Big Change in His Everyday Schedule
In 2000, before the release of volume 20 of Berserk manga, Miura was interviewed by popular Shojo manga writer Yukari Fujimoto, and this interview was shared by Mangabrog. During the interview, Miura talked about the references he used in Berserk from other manga series. He revealed that because he read so many mangas, all of them had some kind of influence on Berserk.
Miura stated:
The thing is, when you’re just an ordinary manga fan not aiming to become an artist yourself, you get to choose whatever manga you like and read within your own safety zone. When you’re trying to become an artist yourself, though, that’s not wide enough. You won’t make it.
Miura was hellbent on making it a popular mangaka, and he would try to read as much as possible:
So there was a time that I was trying to read as broadly as possible – which there’s a limit to, but I’d try to read basically anything that wasn’t painful to read, anything that people recommended to me, anything that was popular.
He wanted to widen his horizons as a storyteller, and the best way to do it was to read as many unique and different narratives as possible. He would read anything that was either recommended or popular. He even went further and started including books and movies in his schedule to gain even more knowledge.
Berserk Mangaka Went Way Beyond Other Aspiring Manga Creators
Further talking about broadening his storytelling horizons, Kentaro Miura explained that when he tried to draw manga, he felt like he didn’t have much experience, and this made him unconfident. Being a manga creator was his dream, and he thought that he could at least grasp every possible story that he was recommended.
Miura stated:
The truth is that I sat at my desk drawing manga all the time and seriously lacked personal experience, and I felt insecure about that. Which is why I started thinking that I had better at least absorb as much of the stuff people recommend as possible.
Miura’s change in his daily life helped him go beyond other aspiring manga creators, and all his reading came to use when he started working on Berserk.
He dominated the dark and fantasy genres, and now the manga series has been taken over by his friend Kouji Mori, who, in collaboration with Studio Gaga, aims to finish what Miura started.
You can read the Berserk manga on Dark Horse.
