Berserk and The Legacy of Tragedy

Kentaro Miura and The Magnum Opus ‘Berserk’

As the month of October comes to a close this year, I ponder on what Kentaro Miura stood for and the impact he has left behind in our world. Berserk spans nearly three decades and is loaded with cruelty, beauty, violence, and tragedy. As a model for numerous dark-fantasy manga, Berserk has led the movement on top of any manga since.

Since the death of its creator, Kentaro Miura, earlier this year, the echoes of loss and optimism that the series’ continuance is in the works begin to make us ponder. Unfortunately, Young Animal imprint, the publisher in charge of releasing Berserk manga, had a lot to say about it. Regardless, the series conclusion, based on Miura’s final picture and plot, abruptly brought all of us to the end of its trip.

Throughout the year of its run, the man, the myth, and the legend were treated with the utmost reverence by both new and old admirers. Berserk managed to provide us a room of wonders through its own tale, tragic characters, world-building, and as an inspiration for many creators that followed.

Tragic Hero, Unfulfillment, and Last Second Doubt

Berserk’s start to its epic plot was just a sequence of grim twists of fate that followed the protagonist Guts. Through the first part of the personal portrayal of violence and how dark a guy may be living so close to the edge of darkness.

Cornered up by mission that he has, upholding his own brand righteousness, Guts fated to hate his own lack of faith. The undertone of his whole journey up until the unfortunate finale by Miura’s untimely death, also serves us the incapability to escape the fate that has been given unto him.

His whole life always lingers around death, sadness, and rage, pure unadulterated emotions, that bridled with darkness. Unsatisfactory and unfulfilled has already been Miura’s way of telling the characters growth through each and every one of them.

One of the fundamental themes that runs the fabric of the entire Berserk universe is the concept of ‘idea of evil,’ which was almost scraped from its releases and somehow converted into a legendary unreleased chapter of the series.

Regardless of what stans and die-hard fans had to go through for the last decade regarding of this creation. We stood firm even when his sickness overtook him in the last minute of his life, without being able to finish his magnum opus.

The Spark of Inspirations

Many product of male characters, figures, weapons of choice, tone and even themes had try to recapture the essence of Guts and his band of misfits. Final Fantasy VII creator even cited the main inspiration for Cloud Strife was Guts himself, judging from the size of that great sword that he has. Dark Souls, a genre of survival game, had the whole theme and vibes basing solely on Miura’s work. And who can remember Dante’s Rebellion sword from the Devil May Cry series, it screams Guts all over the place.

Even the creation of inside the manga landscapes, many authors cited that Berserk is one of the main manga that inspires them. We can instantly see in the likes of Yuki Tabata, the creator of Black Clover by seeing Asta the main character’s choice of weapon and even Hajime Isayama, the author of Attack on Titan, said that Miura’s work was magnificent.

Probably for the years to come, many creators among many medium of the same genre or more, can have the same experience of being inspired by Berserk. Albeit the ending was not like any of us predicted, Berserk has created a formula of how a tragic character supposed to be written, and it has left a mark in the history of manga itself, launching Miura into a new pedestal.