Kentaro Miura's tragic loss shook the world and opened a long-ignored conversation about authors' conditions in this ruthless industry. Concealing the pain and focusing on the light within this dark fantasy, praising his immutable influence in the genre he made known sounded like the way to go.
Most get lost in how great Berserk was, its unfinished ending or its implications while debating what is the right way to read it or which anime adaptation is the good one. In all the grieving and debating, Kentaro's legacy may be overlooked, but never forgotten for those who took his blueprints to expand the rather niche world of dark fantasy.
Early Steps And Latent Ideas
There is always a path to greatness, and in the case of Miura, it started quite early in life. As it's often the case with talented artists he showed flashes as a kid, which didn't really surprise his parents. Both of them were Art School graduates with his father working as a designer for TV commercials and his mother as an art teacher. Precisely, he would attend his mother classes and draw with the rest of the much older students. Between that and his father's storyboards it seemed as destiny that he would develop an interest for creating manga.
At the age of 10 he already completed his first manga, Miuranger. But it was towards the end of high school when he first tried to get published, although unsuccessfully. At that point he had met his friend and rival Koji Mori. Miura described his friendship with Mori as the inspiration for Guts and Griffiths relationship, an example of masculine friendship. When started university he also met George Morikawa, who was a year above him, and acted as his assistant for Kazuya NOW. At the time Kentaro already had some preliminary designs of a warrior with a great sword. When he showed them to Morikawa, Hajime no Ippo's author was shocked by the detail and expression of his thick line unique style.
His debut in the editorial world came with Noa (1985), but its poor reception ended up with a cancelation. Three years later, he had a complete pilot of Berserk which he submitted to a competition, finishing in second place. However, it didn't go unnoticed. Hakusensha was hooked by it and asked him to keep working on the series while he was growing as an author with other projects. In August 1989 Berserk started publishing, and dark fantasy would never be the same.
A Growing Shadow
Making a list of the things that made Berserk great would be easy. However, a lot of them are such unique that trying to imitate them would only lead to mistakes. Kentaro Miura just wanted to talk about rage and in doing so the dark fantasy genre was perfect. Definitely thinking about Lovecraft, but with some closer references like Guin Saga, Violence Jack or Fist of the North Star, Miura started giving shape to the idea that would become the reference for the authors to come.
When this level of talent comes around is hard trying to imitate or base a series on it, simply because his drawing style wasn't something others could simply copy. In that sense, apart from futile intents, what really transpired from Berserk was the tone, the theme, the narrative, the characters developments or personalities, the action, to sum it up, everything else. A great deal of successful dark fantasy mangas have followed Miura's groundbreaking ideas. It's the case of Black Clover, Blue Exorcist, Attack on Titan, Bleach, Chainsaw Man, Black Butlerand many others.
Miura paved the way for the dark fantasy to become a worldwide popular genre. Thanks to its action-packed storytelling with deep troubled characters and eye-catching aesthetic, the shadow of the darkest of fantasies kept growing, so series like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen can now break records in sales. This key elements he introduced decades ago are now inseparable from the genre he was able to completely redefine.
Beyond Manga
Of course, Kentaro Miura's impact wasn't limited to one entertainment industry. In fact, some would argue his most decisive influence is found in JRPG. The video game industry found gold with Berserk. The trope of a troubled warrior with a giant sword fighting his way in a dangerous world plagued with monsters might be the most used trope in history. As such, many creators haven't been shy about recognizing the inspiration.
Hidetaki Itsuno and Hidetaka Miyazaki have always been very open about their love for Berserk. From Itsuno we found this trope in the entire Devil May Cry franchise, a series the author said he redesigned with the lessons he learned from Berserk having Dante as his own Guts. In Dragon's Dogma, Itsuno left Miura's footprint in a more literal way, adding Guts and Griffith armor sets. In the case of the beloved genius Miyazaki, he pretty much mastered this trope and made it the identity of the souls games. Apart from the evident influence, the boss Slave Knight Gael from Dark Souls III is a Guts reference in how he fights with the berserker armor. Even Castlevania, a franchise that started before Berserk, made public the direct influence for their anime adaptation and more recent works.
Difficult not to mention Final Fantasy when talking about JRPGs, specially when Cloud's Buster Sword is as close as it gets to the Dragon Slayer, plus he also has the being a troubled mercenary aspect. Sephiroth shares some resemblance with Griffith, but in a more general idea, almost the entire Final Fantasy franchise shares Berserk's aesthetic. That can be seen, for example, with the Dark Knights in Final Fantasy XIV or even the character design, the world design or Clive's armor and appearance in Final Fantasy XVI. Hard to imagine before the legacy of an unfinished series that was able to reach the heights Kentaro Miura's work has.
Berserk is available to stream on Crunchyroll.