Kentaro Miura, Author of Berserk, has died.

[TazerFace!]

Well, it fucking sucks for this to be my first topic, but as I know there are a LOT of fans of him on here and I know quite a lot of hardcore fans in real life, well. Fuck. 

https://www.hakusensha.co.jp/information/60696/

Trying to find a translation.

[KingintheNorth4]

I'm in shock. The manga industry and the dark fantasy genre has lost a giant. He was such a great artist and storyteller. Condolences to his family and friends. This one hurts. Only 54.

[Ran]

What a legendary creator. Rest in peace, Miura.

[Arakan]

Rest In Peace, Miura. Your work was not only stunning art but full of soul and reflective moments of silence. A work of philosophy and a worthy part of the pantheon of fantastic literature. 

[jurble]

One of the best pieces of fantasy literature ever created.   Imagine having to juggle being both an amazing artist and an author and the long delays between Berserk's publications were understandable.   Generally speaking, forcing both roles onto the mangaka is incredibly stressful and I don't doubt it contributed to his death.   Prior to his death, Miura founded his own 'manga studio' to try and streamline his production process and was in the process of training his assistants in his art-style.  I do wonder if the manga industry's reliance on the whole auteur production process, where the mangaka wears all the hats (though most have assistants to help with the drawing) needs changes.

[Arakan]

On 5/21/2021 at 12:58 AM, jurble said:

I do wonder if the manga industry's reliance on the whole auteur production process, where the mangaka wears all the hats (though most have assistants to help with the drawing) needs changes.

I don’t think so. I would say the autonomy the creator enjoys over their own creative ideas/story is what differentiates (in a positive manner) the Japanese manga culture from the American comic industry. I mean, the best works of American comics were those, were the author had universal autonomy. Miura was a special case. He was clearly driven by his own expectations/perfectionism and it shows in the artwork. The level of detail and craftsmanship is breathtaking. But it took its toll and I can only imagine under which pressure and stress he put himself to not disappoint his fans and readers. 

He gave all for his work and I as a reader am grateful for it. As could be expected the discussions are starting if the series should be continued. Ultimately I would say no, let it stand as it is, and maybe there never would have been a true ending to such a story anyway. For me personally the key motif/message of the manga was always that the true glory of life lies in the struggle itself, against all odds and in the face of certain death. This is a powerful message, worthy of philosophical introspection (thinking of stoicism, existentialism and absurdism). To continue one‘s fight without hope of ever „finishing“ or „winning“, driven by integrity and principle. That alone gives sense and meaning in a meaningless world. As Camus rightly put it: one must imagine Sisyphus happy. 

[karaddin]

21 hours ago, Arakan said:

Miura was a special case. He was clearly driven by his own expectations/perfectionism and it shows in the artwork.

I'm not arguing against the special status of his work, but he's not the only mangaka in this, or a similar, category - albeit the expectations and perfectionism manifests in different ways. Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) is working to a (mostly) weekly release schedule and still only lets his assistants do the backgrounds - all major detail and character work is done by him. He's commented in interviews in the last few years (after his own health scare) that he doesn't sleep until 2am, wakes at 5am and resents those 3 hours a day for taking him away from his work.

Some of you might be surprised by me bringing something like One Piece into the conversation when its tonally about as far from Berserk as you can get, but it belongs in the conversation for exceptionally ambitious in scope and scale long form fantasy and especially that with mangaka at risk of killing themselves for their work. My only fear with regards to the end of One Piece isn't that he won't stick the landing - just that he won't last until he gets there. 

I'm not as well across some of the other big series, but I have the impression from the way people talk about them that Isayama (Attack on Titan), Horikoshi (My Hero Academia), and Tite Kubo (Bleach) all keep/kept pretty firm grips on the reigns. To be fair though I have heard that Isayama regards the anime as the finished version with the manga functioning more as a draft where he discovers things that he didn't think worked the best which does imply accepting greater input from the team than just the solo auteur approach. The increasing level of details skipped over in the manga then fleshed out in the anime for One Piece might indicate similar for Oda as he realises he simply can't do it all himself if he hopes to ever finish it.

I think they definitely deserve their autonomy to be telling their stories, but do need to let the pressure off for the sake of their health. That just happens to be a difficult tight rope when they're not simply authors of stories though, but also the artists that bring them to life.

[Ran]

I saw this posted discussing Miura's passing. It's said to be an anonymous manga artist's weekly schedule, but Shiibashi Hiroshi's name is on it.

[KingintheNorth4]

Did you know anime made a great tribute video for Miura, guest starring the english voices for Guts, Griffith, and Casca.

 

[Bankmannen]

On 5/21/2021 at 12:58 AM, jurble said:

I do wonder if the manga industry's reliance on the whole auteur production process, where the mangaka wears all the hats (though most have assistants to help with the drawing) needs changes

On 5/21/2021 at 12:58 AM, jurble said:

I do wonder if the manga industry's reliance on the whole auteur production process, where the mangaka wears all the hats (though most have assistants to help with the drawing) needs changes.

I'd say that the bigger problem is the extremely intense production schedule. Luckily this seems like it might change with the advent of online publication since that isn't tied to a weekly physical publication. An added bonus is that pages can be laid out with a greater variety and that chapters can vary by length.