How 'Berserk' Manga Is Returning One Year After Kentaro Miura's Death

Just over a year after his death, Kentaro Miura's iconic manga series Berserk will return, with the creator's original story reaching its natural conclusion.

The manga artist passed away suddenly in May 2021 after suffering from an acute aortic dissection. He was 54 years old.

On Tuesday, June 7, the comic book publisher that serialized Berserk, Young Animal, announced that the manga would resume on June 24.

How 'Berserk' Manga Is Returning One Year After Kentaro Miura's Death

Miura began Berserk in 1989 and it follows Guts, a lone warrior who garners a fierce reputation for his fighting skills and is forced to join a mercenary group named the Band of the Hawk by its leader Griffith.

At the time of Miura's death Berserk had 50 million copies in circulation, making it one of the most popular manga series of all time.

Young Animal shared a statement on Berserk's official Twitter account to announce its plans for Berserk, saying it intended to complete the manga's unfinished "Fantasia Arc/Elf Island Chapter" before starting one more arc.

The manga will be completed by Miura's apprentices, who worked with him during his time creating the series, and it will be supervised by his close friend, and fellow manga creator, Kouji Mori.

Mori also released a statement of his own to share that Miura had told him the entire story he had planned for Berserk, from beginning to end, and so he felt a "great responsibility" to finish the manga on his behalf.

In his statement, Mori explained: "I think people with good intuitions would realize by now that I know the story for Berserk up to the very end.

"Still, I cannot say that I can draw it because I know it. That is because only the genius Kentaro Miura can write a masterpiece like Berserk. However, a great responsibility has fallen on me."

Mori added that he felt his friend would have wanted him to take up the mantle on his behalf, saying that when Young Animal first approached him about helping: "I thought if I run away now, Miura would say: 'I talked to you about it so much, but you didn't do it!!' Alright, I'll do it properly."

While he will be completing the story, he continued: "I have a message and promise to everyone. I will recall the details as much as possible and tell the story. Also, I will only write the episodes that Miura talked to me about.

"I will not flesh it out. I will not write episodes that I don't remember clearly. I will only write the lines and stories that Miura described to me. Of course it will not be perfect. Still, I think I can almost tell the story that Miura wanted to tell."

Mori concluded by sharing his support for Miura's apprentices, who he said are "brilliant artists," and that he hopes fans of the manga will support them through this journey.

Young Animal reiterated this in its own statement, in which it said: "Since he did not leave behind rough drafts, it is impossible for us to create a manuscript exactly in the way he would have intended.

"However, we will write the manga so as not to deviate from Mr Miura's own words. We would like to take the 'Kentaro Miura' that we knew so fondly through our conversations and work and convey this to all of you in a since manner.

"We believe that this policy, although imperfect, is the best way to deliver the Berserk that Mr. Miura envisioned to everyone as faithfully as possible."