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“Even if we painstakingly piece together something lost, it doesn’t mean things will ever go back to how they were Berserk”
Mourning in the world of souls: Kentaro Miura the author of Berserk passed away due to acute aortic dissection at the age of 54. I was shocked. It was so surreal I can’t even comprehend that it happened like it felt like it’s not just Berserk didn’t end, some part of me died as well. First time I’ve been this affected by a stranger’s passing… but I guess he was no stranger to us. Godspeed to you sir, and enjoy your final hiatus.
Berserk will go down as one the best series in history, but it was not just Berserk in his career, there are also many other works he was involved in along the way. While the works of those early days were intimate, and smaller in impact than the Berserk but still those works defined his career, from his younger days. So today I brought you a recommendation list featuring all of Miura’s best-known work, from his early days in the 1980s to his very last collection. Let’s get started.
7. Futatabi
Did you ever wonder what Miura has in store for us from his teenage days when he was just 19? To know that you need to check out Futatabi. It is neither like Berserk nor like any other titles I’ll mention in this article, but it’s still an amazing sci-fi one shot from Miura, which gave him his official debut as a mangaka in 1985.
It is also worth mentioning Miura created and submitted Futatabi as his application to Nihon University College of Art, Department of Fine Arts. The manga was later published in Weekly Shonen Magazine, earning him the nomination of Best New Author. The manga tells the story of a guy named Rick meeting a strange intruder named Venus, who claims to be from another world. Rick and the police were trying to find out what really happened and got entangled in a ‘Cops and Robbers’ like situation.
6. Noa
In the same year, while attending college he created another sci-fi one-shot manga, Noa, in an issue of Fresh Shōnen Magazine. It’s a short story about Noah’s adventures in a post-apocalyptic desert. As it’s a one-shot I’ll not talk about the story itself it might spoil you but if you love action-packed survival stories with post-apocalyptic settings and want to know more about Kentaro Miura’s world then it’s definitely a must-read title for you.
5. Japan
After graduating the following year, Miura began working as a manga artist in earnest. Along the way, he worked with many artists, video game companies, and illustrators. And surprisingly enough one of them was Buronson. Yes! ‘Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru!’ The legendary author behind the Hokuto no Ken. Miura collaborated with Hokuto no Ken writer Buronson on several mangas including Japan.
Set in the future world where Japanese people have become refugees due to global environmental destruction and food shortages, Miura and Buronson’s Japan explored the action-packed survival world of slavery. While many people criticized the political interference in the manga, but I quite liked it. There is quite a sense of reality in it and the art is damn good. You definitely owe yourself to give it a go.
4. Ōrō and Ōrō Den/ King Of Wolves
Refreshing opening and the climax of shock! Ōrō and Ōrō Den is by far the best collab they have done together.
It tells the story about the life journey of two lovebirds, Iba and Kyoko who slipped in time to 13th century Mongolia during the Genghis Khan era and continues to fight to return to the present age. The series was published by Hakusensha Gekkan Animal House in 1989 and the sequel, titled Ōrō Den, was serialized in 1990.
If you love the historical adventure theme and art of Miura. Then it’s another one-shot you do not want to miss. It incorporates the theory of Minamoto no Yoshitsune = Genghis Khan in a way, you’ll love it.
3. Giganto Maxia
Set in a distant daunting future, where everything has changed and most of the creatures have died in the catastrophe, a mysterious beautiful girl Prome accompanied by a man of athletic prosperous Delos wandering along the earth to drive the biological diversification in the world.
How crazy that sounds!!
Written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura, Giganto Maxia is a wild fantasy sci-fi martial arts manga in which the exhilarating, generous, and compassionate hero, who cannot be found in Berserk, talks with his fists. It was published in Young Animal magazine from November 2013 to March 2014. The English version was released by Dark Horse Comics on February 3, 2016.
If I’m being honest here, despite the crazy theme and things, the story didn’t appeal to me that much but I think it’s definitely worth reading just to see the beautiful landscape painting and the powerful giant battles on every page which is just amazing. Watch the trailer here.
2. Duranki
Between heaven and earth where there is no gender, no human being, no spirit, no god, A new myth started to spin by Usumgallu, who was said to “play with the fate of many with beauty” when he was born.
I’m a Berserk fan like everyone else, but when Duranki was published in Young Animal Magazine in 2019, I had a slightly negative impression saying, “is it okay to take such a detour in Berserk, which is already this late?”However, once I read it, my view completely changed. Rather than the dark nightmarish wave-style elements fiction of Berserk, it was a complete 360° approach of Miura. A new refreshment to his style, which I really liked, and the art! Oh boy! It was just beautiful & soothing both to the soul and the eye I must say. An important fact, unlike his others titles in which he illustrates all the panels most of the time, this time it was done entirely by Miura’s assistants at Studio Gaga with Miura himself only providing the storyboards. You really should check it out.
1. Berserk
Finally Berserk! This is a no-brainer for any manga fan out there. It doesn’t matter if you don’t vibe with dark fantasy or have been in the manga community for few months. Everyone knows about Berserk. From art to story to characters. From action romance to fantasy -Berserk has all these elements blended like a fine wine for summer days, that it just became a top-tier title for any kind of manga recommendation list for decades. While it’s a pity that the anime version didn’t do justice to the story. Be it the 90’s version(which is relatively decent) or the 2016’s version -they all failed to capture the charm in anime format, but luckily for us, they had some amazing soundtracks to them. So I made a Spotify playlist for you containing all those amazing OST and opening, ending songs as well. Be sure to check it out.
Rest in peace sir.
