#5 Miura Kentaro

So all I've been reading lately have been books about the WW2 pacific theater for class and the current book I'm on in Monogatari, Nekomonogatari Black. Not too jazzed about talking about Nisio Isin for a 5th time (the only thing of note is that Neko began on an 80 page long uninterrupted dialogue), so here's a bit more depth on Miura's masterpiece Berserk. I honestly can't praise this series enough, although it's hard to say a lot about it without giving away any of the plot or good moments. I'd recommend it to people who don't even like or read manga. Although I would certainly say this is "basic fiction" so if adult fiction isn't really your thing then, eh. It has pretty graphic depictions of gore, trauma, and rape. So, yeah, not really YA.

Berserk is a serialized, dark fantasy manga published in the magazine Young Animal, and is published in America by Dark Horse Comics, who handle a lot of comic publications (the one I best know them for besides Berserk is Frank Miller's Sin City). It's been going since 1989, and it's still chugging along, although it's been seeing a lot of hiatuses over the last several years.

This is kinda outdated but it gets the idea across (this only goes up to chapter 353, but the most recent chapter, 359, came out 5 months ago). Thanks reddit.



So the best way to describe this series is as slow-burn dark fantasy adventure that focuses on the nature of good and evil, a broken man grappling with revenge but also his sense of responsibility, and how much of a grip fate has on the world and those who inhabit it. This series throws around the word causality so much.

Okay, so the writing. Miura is amazing at fleshing out his world and his characters. The story is slow, and I mean slow. But I loved its pacing, and that's intentionally a "loved". When I was reading it for the first time the pace and absolute slow burn of it all was so satisfying and engaging, but now, having caught up and I get a few chapters a year, it's a little unbearable. Still think the pace is ultimately healthy for the quality of the story, but experiencing it as it comes out is a little yikes.

He sets up things that come into play much much later down the line in the story, and I adore moments like that. For example, around book 8 I think (out of 40), a character is introduced that's played off as being an unimportant fodder kind of character, and very recently (in book 38 I think) he's returned, and is now a pretty important dude. This series has so many instance of planting seeds that come into play further down the line, and I just love that kind of set up in anything.


Now, while the writing is impeccable, the art holds to the same level of quality. It's incredibly detailed and beautiful, hand drawn by Miura and his four assistants.

 

 

The series didn't start with this level of art, not in the slightest. His art style and skill evolves over the course of the series' 31 year run, which is cool to see in its own right.

So yeah, a fantastically crafted story of adventure through an unforgiving world, filled with monsters, pain, and loss, but also wonder and amazement, with inklings of hope here and there for our protagonist and the allies he slowly learns to trust.