Sad day for manga and for the world of Japanese entertainment: the publisher Hakusensha announced that Kentaro Miura, author and mangaka of Berserk, died on May 6, 2021 due to acute aortic dissection.
Here is the translation
“Report on the death of sensei Kentaro Miura
Sensei Kentaro Miura, author of Berserk, passed away on May 6, 2021 due to acute aortic dissection. We would like to express our deep respect and gratitude towards Miura sensei and her art, and pray from the bottom of our hearts that his soul may rest in peace.
20 maggio 2021, Hakusensha Co. ”
Miura is considered one of the most important authors of the fantastic world thanks to his most famous manga, first published in 1989 and over the years it has become one of the most influential works of the genre. Focused on the epic of the anti-hero Gatsu, a mercenary busy making his way through a ruthless world at war and facing a terrible curse, Berserk is considered among the highest meeting points between manga literature and western dark fantasy aesthetics. Miura's style, realistic and brutal, also had influence on many other artists, on cinema and of course on the video game.
Berserk had several videogame transpositions (one in 1999, one in 2004 and one in 2016) and Miura had collaborated on the artistic design of various games, including Dragon's dogma. Influences of his style and his imagination are also in the works of From Software, both for Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
The Berserk manga is still ongoing. At the moment we have no news about the fate of the work.