Personal - Manga

 

 

Artist 1: Kentarou Miura    三浦 建太郎, Miura Kentarō

 

 

Biography

 

 

Kentarou Miura was born on the 11^th of July in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, in 1966. At the age of 10 he made his first manga called “Miuranger” and was published in a school publication. It ended up with 40 tankōbon (a Japanese term for a book that's complete in itself and is not part of a series). Later on in 1977, he created another manga called Ken e no michi (剣への道 The Way of the Sword), and for this he used Indian ink.

In 1979 Miura's drawing techniques improved as he used professional drawing techniques. And with the help of his friends he managed to publish a dōjinshi (self published work) in a magazine in 1982. In the same year he enrolled in art at his high school where the class started publishing their work in a school booklet, he also had his first dōjinshi published in a fan produced magazine.

Miura applied for the entrance exam of an art college in Nihon University in 1985. He submitted Futanabi and was accepted, Futanabi was later on nominated Best New Author work in Shōnen magazine. Miura's next manga, Noa was published in Shōnen the same year, although a disagreement with one of the editors ended up with it being stalled and eventually dropped. Miura didn't get anything else published until 1988, when he bounced back with a 48 page manga called Berserk Prototype which gave an introduction to the Berserk fantasy world.

He managed to win a prize with it from the Comi Manga School. And in 1989 he received a doctorate degree, which after he started a new project called King of Wolves based on a script by Yoshiyuki Okamura, write of Hokuto no Ken. It got published in the monthly Animal House in issues 5 and 7 of that year.

1990 saw a sequel to Ourou, Ourou Den (王狼伝 ōrō den, The Legend of the Wolf King) that was published in Young Animal magazine, the prequel Ourou was also published in Young Animal years before. That year Animal House published Miura's first volume of his solo project Berserk, which had limited success. He then collaborated with Yoshiuki Okamura to make Japan, which was published in Young Animal House from the 1^st to the 8^th issue in 1992, and later released as a stand alone tankōbon.

Miura saw a huge success of Berserk when it was serialized in Young Animal in 1992 with the release of “The Golden Age” story arc, this made him one of the most prominent contemporary mangakas. Miura dedicates himself solely to Berserk, although he intends to publish other manga in the future.

Berserk became an anime series of 25 episodes in 1997, which Miura supervised and it aired the same year on Tv Nihon. Art books and supplemental materials by Miura based on Berserk are shortly after released. In 1999 Berserk also became a game for the dreamcast called “Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage” which Miura made contributions to. And again in 2004 another adaptation was released called “Berserk Millennium Falcon Arc: Chapter of the Record of the Holy Demon War”.

Since then Berserk has 31 tankōbon, with 290 chapters and the end nowhere soon. The series has lots of merchandise all around the world, official and fan made.

 

 

 

In 2002, Kentarou Miura received the second place in the Osamu Tezuka Culture Award of Excellence for Berserk.

 

 

 

Influences

 

 

Miura's inspiration mainly came from a fantasy series called “Guin Saga” by Kaoru Kurimoto. Mangaka (Japanese manga artist) Go Nagai also helped in developing Miura's style. Japanese singer Susumu Hirasawa also had influence on Miura, in Berserk especially (Hirasawa also made most of the music for the anime series and some music on both games). Western movies and productions also helped for example Excalibur and Conan the Barbarian as well as Tim Burton and Sam Raimi movies.

 

 

Works

 

 

Miuranger (1976)

Ken e no Michi (1977)

Futanabi (1985)

Noa (1985)

Berserk Prototype (1988)

The King of Wolves (1989)

Berserk (1990-Present)

Ourou Den (1990)

Japan (1992)

 

 

Interview 1 (Only relevent questions shown)

 

I'd like to know if anything influenced Berserk.

 

 

It is a Japanese novel, but... a novel called "Guin Saga" written by Kaoru Kurimoto was the most influential. Guin Saga is a fantasy novel series, and it's been trying to set a record in the Guinness World Records as the longest fantasy work ever written by a single author. It was planned to be 100 volumes from the beginning. But it's already 80-something, so it'll go over 100 easily. I started reading it when I was in junior high and I'm still reading the new volume every month. So I could say Guin Saga is the most significant novel. And other stuff like movies and cartoons influenced me, too.

 

 

It has the whole medieval theme, like it's happening somewhere in Europe. Is there any real historical events you based Berserk on?

 

 

Not really, I don't really use specific historical events but rather I use fairy tales or fantasy movies. I've been working on the concept of my own fantasy world since I was in high school and college. Like I mentioned, I got ideas from Guin Saga, and from films, like "Excalibur" and "Conan the Barbarian." I came up with the dark fantasy concept from those movies. I don't think I get inspired by the actual historical events. I simply used them as data. I've thought of writing a story based on Dracula. I'm talking about Vlad Tepes, the real Dracula. I wanted to use the real historical records. And there's the famous story from Sherlock Holmes. The story where Conan Doyle got tricked by the Cottingley fairy hoax...

 

 

Do you use anything as reference when you draw?

 

 

I do have a huge pile of pictures that I use as reference. I use a collection of photographs from different countries... but it's actually easier to find the pictures of armor or landscape in Japan. So whenever I need some pictures I'll go find it by myself or ask somebody to get it. So the collection is really big now.

 

 

Is there any cartoonist, director or movie that influenced you?

 

 

Well, it's a Japanese cartoonist, but... like Mr. Go Nagai, I believe he's very famous in the U.S. He was a big influence on me. I love his dynamic style. And I have a couple of favorite American film directors. I like the movies of Tim Burton and Sam Raimi. This is another strange story. Back then I was still in college, it was the day I finished the first episode of Berserk and there was "Evil Dead 2" playing at theaters. So after I mailed it to the publisher, I went to see it. It was so similar to Berserk, I was really surprised by myself. In "Evil Dead 3," I also know it as "Captain Supermarket"... the main character had his arm cut off and he had a chainsaw attached to his arm and had a shotgun on his back. I was like "What the?" Because Guts has a gun on his arm and a huge sword on his back. It was just like Ash. I remember getting worried that I might get sued. I just finished my very first cartoon, but I was already nervous. I'm a big fan of Sam Raimi's movies, I like "Dark Man", too. He got really big after "Spider-Man," but I still like his movies. And I like Tim Burton, because his movies are always 'offbeat.' It's almost strange that a person can be that offbeat and big at the same time. But that's why I love his movies. James Cameron lost his touch after he got big. Well, I don't know if he thinks of himself as offbeat. But when I saw "Terminator," as a Sci Fi fan, I was really excited that he was one of those offbeat geniuses, like Tim Burton... but turns out he wasn't. And of course, "Star Wars" is my all-time favorite movie. I saw it when I was little, so I was really shocked, I was a big Star Wars fan ever since. But "Episode 1" was very weak. The script needed some work.

 

 

Interview 2 (Only Miura's answers shown)

 

 

"The most disturbing parts of my story are taken from the high medieval period, while those that confer a glorious impression are drawn from the period represented by Versailles. They are different epochs. To come to the point, I have created a new period by uniting diverse characteristics of the Middle Ages, from its beginning to its end. At the start, I thought of having Guts wandering through Europe during the period of Dracula and Joan of Arc, but I abandoned the idea because I decided that creating a story that followed real history would limit my imagination."

"I insisted strongly on the idea of the giant sword, and I carefully designed the arm cannon, which at the beginning was going to be only a crossbow. The image of a warrior with only one eye is pretty common... but the great sword and the arm are my own touch. I belong to the generation of Hokuto no Ken, when, rather than the development of the story and the characters, it was a priority to create something unique. I thought about it a lot, and finally I got the idea of creating something gigantic, that is, an enormous sword..." "As far as the battles, my idea is that Guts and his sword should be able to beat anyone with just one blow. I considered this image most important, even if someone could protest that my combat is too unreal. I sought to be spectacular, even if I will never put in a leap in the air like in Kenshiro...(he says this with a laugh) "

"I get up at seven or eight in the evening. I start to work at eight-thirty or nine. After some work, I eat and start again. The next break comes at three to three-thirty. At six in the morning I eat my last meal of the day (day?!) after which I work until midday. When there's a lot to do, I work until two or three in the afternoon. I live like a vampire, but I often think I am cut out to be a comic writer as few others are: I don't have any problem with a hard life without vacations, because it's orderly, but I have trouble concentrating during difficult periods."

"The informations that we have in Japan on the western fantasy are a little strange. I find that the Japaneses are without a shadow of doubt the Asian people who more of all love the european fantasy genre. This perhaps is also due to the history of the post-war period. The vision of the values of this country, in the West and elsewhere, has been for along time erroneously understood: I think that is expressed in a remarkable way in certain kinds of fantasy in which determined images and dreams are carried on the paper . The greater part of the Japanese children has more familiarity' with knights whose body is protect from armors rather than that with samurai and theirs chonmage (the typical hair-do of the samurai, with a hat forelock collected on the top of the head, ndr). "

"The fantasy corresponds just to the magic of the sword. I, too, for how much I can to remember, have grown with this vision. In drawing fantasy manga, I want to realize histories that involve the reader. When I put myself to examine in a deepened way the feelings of who makes part of the scene, it comes natural to me to find myself again in the European Middle Ages. Naturally it is not the true Middle Ages, but a bogus image, recreated, of Europe of the age, that collects a great success today in a oriental country like Japan. Probably, the samurai or the ninja drawn from a westerner will appear strange to our Japanese eyes ,but perhaps the same medioeval world of Berserk appears strange to the westerners, is it not so? Rather, I am been surprised of the acceptance received from Berserk, not by the public of modern Japanese which it was addressed, but by the readers of the place in which the history is carried out, that is Europe and in particular Italy..."

"Dororo is my favorite manga byTetuska Osamu.

It had a great influence on my work. Berserk is blended of my favorite novels and mangas. I've always wanted to make a dark and grotesque fantasy where something like mosters are likely to appear."

"I appreciate both Bosch and Escher, of which I have also the collections of the works. Moreover I like the etchings of Pieter "the young " Bruegel (1564-1637/8, author of obsessive rappresentations of infernal scenes, ndr) and Gustave Dore' (1832-83, scultor, illustrator and French painter, famous for its illustrations of the Divine Commedia, ndr) while among the illustators I admire Frank Frazetta(1928, famous illustrator and American cartoonist , ndr) and Luis Morrison."

"Berserk is first of all a fantasy. The historical parts have been inserted in order to increase the feeling of reality ', for hurling the reader on the place of the action. Initially I made to coexist the two genres in order that also the common readers read me, those that do not feel particular interest for the fantasy and the fantastic genre. I did not want absolutely to make a work for fans only."

"The manga that personally I prefer are those in which the readers succeed "to tie themselves" to the personages, that is to feel sympathy and compassion for them,to identify oneself with them. Like in a prose-poem therefore, I thought that it would have been better to tell the life of the protagonist, all of a breath, so to strengthen the love of the readers for Guts... Certanly, however it lengthened itself in a unexpected way! But now what is done is done. But, in spite of my inexperience, I think to have given a good finishing touch to a work that succeeds to create empathy."