To celebrate the arrival in Elfheim:

Miura Kentarou-sensei Tells His Story

A long retrospective interview on Berserk until this point.
The famous, trailblazing work of dark fantasy, Berserk. Now that it has reached a milestone
of a point, the arrival in Elfheim, we asked the author to recount his feelings on creating it from the story's birth until the present day.
(Sign on the right: From "Black Swordsman" to "Elfheim" - a huge dose of secret stories on its
creation)
FESTIVE AND ORDINARY DAYS OF THE SERIALIZATION
Until now, 38 volumes of Berserk have been released, and a new TV anime series was airing
until recently. It's a work that has been alive for a very long time. Tell us about you feelings on
drawing it for this long.
During its creation there were periods when we were all in a merry mood, like around the time
Berserk got animated, and times when I had to simply toil over the next manuscript. I have some
very contrasting feelings about it. With all the noise over the new TV anime, I realized anew that
"I've done something big", recently. Still, a festival is not something that lasts forever, so I will have
to get back to the monotonous everyday again sometime and fight with my manuscript (laughs). I've
kept at it for a long time, so my work has been acknowledged, but my attitude towards struggling
with the manuscript has not changed since my rookie days. When a mangaka has to do it, the only
option is always to bury your head completely into the manuscript on your desk. You spend your
days focusing on it, and then, after you're done with all the pages, when you look back on your
work, you feel the biggest feeling of satisfaction.
When your work gets published, your mind is already occupied by the next manuscript, isn't
it.
Not only that, in your mind, the previous manuscript seems worse than the one you're doing now.
Once, long ago, I wasn't satisfied with how I filled the page and was all regretful, like "Ah, I've
gotten careless!". Therefore, I've decided that each time, I would push myself to the limit, that I
would draw until I was completely content with myself. Among mangaka, there are some clever
ones saying "I will stop developing my drawing now and work on improving my storyboards", but
me, I probably can only achieve satisfaction through drawing.
You're in the middle of a festive period in Berserk's history, so how does the atmosphere at
your workplace look like?
Each week, we're having fun when we watch the anime with the entire staff, getting excited by
checking opinions in the internet, we're having a good time. When this festive period ends, we
intend to switch back to the usual state of facing the manuscript all the time (laughs). If there is any
bigger media expansion of the series after that, things will get hectic for me again, but I decided to
just let that idea into my consciousness - I will experience that when it comes. Not to resist the
current circumstances - that's the trick to being able to keep up your good work for a long time, I'd
say.
That's a very flexible way of thinking, isn't it.
It depends on the mangaka, but once they have a taste of those "festive periods" in their careers,
when those end, they get lonely and even stop being able to draw. This applies to serialized work as
well. Let's say you make it big in a shounen publication or something, while still being very young.
Before you get to mature as a human, you're thrown into the busy life of a serialized artist and when
your series ends, you end up burned out and find yourself unable to draw anymore.

[PAGE 2]
In manga, there are times when you should continue and times when you should not, so when that
happens, you should have a heart fitting your current size, let's say.
(Illustration: When you think "Berserk", this iconic scene comes to mind.)
(Left of Guts: "Huge, thick, heavy and ridiculously crude. It was more like a lump of steel.")
(Sign on the left: "If a man with a giant sword really existed... I started from an idea from a live
action film")
BERSERK STARTED FROM A "CONVENTION"
Describe, how Berserk came to be made.
In the 80s, when Berserk was still in my head, manga in general was, for better or for worse, unruly.
Comics were greedily borrowing fun features from films and anything that was selling well. That
was an epoch when all-new things were being cranked out all the time. The most impressive
phenomenon in entertainment were Hollywood films, therefore, works using those as a standard to
follow were a dime a dozen. Berserk was also being made by gathering features of things I found
interesting at the time, like Hollywood films or Hokuto no Ken (by Buronson and Hara Tetsuo). Just
like other manga of its time, it wasn't based on any special, unique way of thinking (laughs).
Was Guts, the protagonist, what you began creating the story from?
At the beginning, there was Guts' gimmick, or "archetype", let's say. A "dark hero in black".
Something like Hakaider from Kikaider (by Ishinomori Shoutarou). A nihilist guy in black. To that,
I added elements of fantasy stories I liked, like Conan the Great (by Robert E Howard) or Guin
Saga (by Kurimoto Kaoru). And so, it all began from an idea of a "Black Swordsman". Then,
though black and nihilist, what kind of person should he be? It wouldn't be any fun if he was a
normal swordsman, so how should I differentiate him? This is how I was making him, one question
at a time. Since I liked Dororo (by Tezuka Osamu) and Cobra (by Terasawa Buichi), I came up with
the idea of attaching something to one of his hands. When it comes to the Dragonslayer, in Guin
Saga and Pygmalio (by Wada Shinji), there were those huge swords. However, those swords, being
this big, if you were to swing them...? If actual people saw them...? Those works did not bother
answering similar questions. Also, as I said before, back then, Hollywood films were having their
golden age. The live action film had been the king of entertainment. Terminator and Robocop were
not using CG as they would be doing now, those were humans doing their best to play a machine.
There was this phenomenon of "portraying a superhuman using an acting organic body", so if a man
wielding a giant sword could actually exist, how much muscle would he need? How would the
action of swinging it look like? I had this idea, taken from live action films, in mind.
And that is how Guts' appearance was decided on.
At first, Guts only had a crossbow attached to his hand. It was treated as his "hidden weapon", but it
made too weak an impact. His sword was a katana at first, too. "An Asian man with a katana and a
trick up his left sleeve, in a medieval, European setting" was my idea, but as I was considering it,
the idea that made me snap my fingers and say "this'll work" was the Dragonslayer and a cannon
hidden in a prosthetic arm. This balance of "cooler than reality, but still within limits, not destroying
the illusion of reality" is fun, I think. For example, there's a character like Captain America among
Marvel heroes. His abilities are "only a bit above an Olympic sportsman". He's way weaker than
other superheroes. But, in a live action film, it can be represented properly and your mind is into it a
lot more.
[PAGE 3]
(Illustration: A suffering Apostle, after his beloved daughter learns of his true form. A frightening
monster suddenly seems more like a pitiful human.)

(Dialogue: Theresia...)
It's almost as if you're made to think "If I trained my body enough, even I might be able to do all
that". It's realistic within the bounds of your imagination. On the other hand, being able to fly
doesn't feel real. With the Dragonslayer, I wanted to make you think "With a body of a pro wrestler,
I'd be able to swind it once or twice, too. That is how the appearance of Guts came to be. Well
then, where do we go from here...? (laughs)
Character motivations and their backgrounds came later, didn't they?
Actually, that came to me in the most conventional way. If we say that Ultraman has his unique
look, his laser beams and that he came from the M78 nebula, the rest of the details follows
naturally. I think that such stories created based on a convention have the most power to last long.
Their content and execution can be different depending on the era they were made in, but a good
convention is copied, prolonged, and loved forever. When I chose the convention for Guts, next up
was the inner side of his character. For a dark hero, revenge is a fine motivation. Even before
thinking of his reason for revenge, I had prefered to think about "how to exact that revenge".
Do you mean that more than developing his inner side, you thought of what would happen to
him in the future?
Yes. At first, I imagined Guts as an "angry hero". Like Max from Mad Max or Kenshirou from
Hokuto no Ken. "How to make him angry?" "How does he take revenge?" "How to effectively
show off his looks and his gimmick in a story?" - after I milled those questions for a while, what
was born out of this painful process was the first Black Swordsman. Back then, there still was no
Band of the Hawk or anything (laughs).
PROGRESS FROM THE BLACK SWORDSMAN TO THE GOLDEN AGE ARC
And so, the Black Swordsman's struggles continued for 2, 3 volumes...
I realized at the moment when the Snail Count appears: I'm creating a story about Guts defeating
giant monsters. And that the monsters gradually seem more human. In the monster's retrospection
scene, he looks more like a pitiable human. While Guts, the other way round, seems more like the
monster in this pairing... And then, when the monster is toppled, the emotions of the two intersect
and the giant sword is swung down. "What incredible catharsis!" is what I thought. And thus,
finally, the Black Swordsman's form was established, but around that time, the "Animal House"
magazine was decided to be retired and I had to start my comic from the very beginning...
Right at the moment when things actually started getting interesting...
Berserk was then still unacknowledged by the wider world and I had an other work in progress,
written by Buronson-sensei, so for the editors, when the question of "which one to continue?" came
up, the obvious choice would be going with "Buronson", right? (laughs) To do something about it, I
had to try pushing my own original story.
And so, the Golden Age Arc began.
Even though Guts was a complete character in my head at this point, mine still was a rookie artist's
comic and it could not compete with the weight of Buronson-sensei's name. So, as I like shoujo
manga as well, I thought I could change my methods and put in some sad human relationships and
an emotional story. Until then, I was exclusively going down the Hokuto no Ken route, but couldn't
compare with its author, Buronson-sensei (laughs). "This is a good moment to try a different
weapon and borrow something from Versailles no Bara (by Ikeda Riyoko) or Kaze to Ki no Uta (by
Takemiya Keiko). And, to enter some new, unexplored territories, I thought: why not include some
memories of youth and people close to me in my work?

You mean using people around you as models for characters, right?
I didn't really have any manga mentors, so I had no idea what was right or not. I've always thought
that giving form to things not existing in reality with your imagination was what being a mangaka
was about. Then I tried doing it and learned that I was right. You include your thoughts and things
dear to you in a story, so emotions will end up there as well and lies will stop being lies (laughs).
Golden Age did that well. Moreover, I don't think that the environment I've lived in was very
dramatic, so when mixing realism with fiction, I think I maintained a good balance.
[PAGE 4]
I made my manga pals from high school into mercenaries, as "a group of men acting with a certain
goal in mind". They were doing great and I was happy for them, but this story arc was made to
explain Guts' motivation for revenge, so I was like "I made this many great characters and now
they're all gonna die!" (laughs).
(Illustration: The Golden Age arc, about ascending to glory together with friends. Yet, what awaits
them is...)
(Dialogue: Their official name will probably be...
General of the White Hawk, Griffith and his Knights of the White Hawk.
I would like to bestow the title of knight upon all centurions of the Band of the Hawk without
exception.)
(Sign to the right: In the monster's retrospection scene, it's Guts who seems like the monster)
This outcome has been decided on from the very start, right?
Everything up until the Eclipse was already complete and ready in my head, so they really had no
way to escape that! Also, I had a reason why I made Golden Age this long. I've felt that something
was missing in flashback scenes in various stories I'd read. To maintain a story's speed, putting
flashbacks into the story in proper intervals is common sense, but I wanted to feel things like Guts'
reason for revenge, or the basis of characters' development thoroughly, with my whole heart. If I
spend little time on those, the story will only be conveying information. A story written by me has
to be one that you dive into with your entire heart. And so, it turned out this long (laughs).
However, exactly because it was so long, the rage Guts feels can sufficiently get through to the
reader and be understood.
The story had to be made into something the reader could agree with and say "anyone would be
mad after that". And if you want to do that, it all comes down to how dramatically and
naturalistically you can draw how Guts' precious relationships with other people came to be. Among
them, the bond between Guts and Griffith was modeled after me and my close friend, the mangaka
Mori Kouji (Jisatsutou, among others). The matter of which of us is Guts and who's Griffith
changes at times, but it's my standard of manly friendship.
Those characters, so full of emotion, suddenly all disappear in the Eclipse. Didn't drawing
that damage you in any way?
Each and every character had some emotions to drive them, so... Damage? I have to admit I'd been
kind of depressed. What's more, around the time when the Eclipse happened, the comic's popularity
among readers dropped drastically (laughs). There was a lot of angry readers saying "What did you
just do?!" after getting to like the characters. Yet, my editor at the time said "No choice but to do
this till the very end", worryingly. The only point I was cautious about was not to completely stop
the story's flow with the Eclipse. I kept Casca alive precisely for that reason. That's because even if
she died, and if the series continued for a long time, Guts' reason the seek revenge would become a
thing of the past and if Guts formed new relationships with people, his motivation would weaken.
It's a cold, calculating move and it might feel unpleasant, but it's exactly because Guts has Casca at
his side that he can never forget about the Eclipse.

STRUGGLES OF THE FANTASY GENRE

Were the developments after the Eclipse decided on beforehand?
The Golden Age Arc was very long, so, to return to "Black Guts" again, I had to show off his Black
Swordsman form from the beginning and refreshen the reader's memory. That's why the Lost
Children arc is constructed the exact same way as the Count's story. During flashbacks into the past,
monsters show their human side and when they're about to be defeated, Guts looks more monstrous
than they do - another common point. Still, I couldn't do everything exactly the same as before, so I
introduced Rosine, a changeling Apostle.
In Lost Children, there's a scene where Puck gets acknowledged by Guts, right?
Before Golden Age, I couldn't decide if I want to make a pure fantasy story or a piece of historical
fiction. I could do some research on supernatural oddities from the backstage of real European
history, like Count Dracula, and make Guts hunt down monsters from actual folklore - I had an idea
like that, too.
[PAGE 5]
However, the moment when The Band of the Hawk took form in my mind, the name of Midland, a
fictional country, emerged as well. The "historical fiction" route stopped being an option, leading to
Berserk turning into a fantasy story. And if so, I had to try using some trademark tropes of fantasy.
Fairies, witch hunts, sorcery, pirate ships, etcetera. The representative features of medieval Europe.
And when I was trying my hand at drawing fantasy, there were few fantasy manga in Japan.
Really, classic fantasy stories were hard to come by among manga.
If fantasy then Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, and similar games, right? They're completely
different beasts from old foreign fantasy. The Lord of the Rings (by J. R. R. Tolkien) was a novel
which only the few chosen ones knew, while Guin Saga fans were a niche in a niche. Fantasy
started to be widely known because of novels and games, but the major media had none of it. At the
time, publications for the shounen audience had nothing but comics about gakuran-wearing
hoodlums starting fights, there was no place for fantasy in those. Although, the story of "Black
Guts", even in such conditions, unfavorable to fantasy, could be looked at as a "denki-mono": an
eerie, phantasmal story - I realized.
(Illustration: The cooling agent in charge of giving you breaks from the storm of fate. Puck's
presence is a big one.
In spite of all that, you chose the path of fantasy. Were you convinced of your story's worth?
I think that the sense of "fantasy" found in the works of Disney is understandable for the entire
world and any epoch. To summarize this aesthetic in a rough way, it comes down to "once upon a
time, far far away...". If you add anything more to this setting, from the viewpoint of the general
audience, you story ends up being "for nerds". If you stuff it with fictional countries, weapons and
proper nouns, nobody will follow it except nerds. That's why the Apostles at the beginning are
"Snake Baron" and "Snail Count" - they don't even have names (laughs). In that example of Disney,
you are not suddenly thrown into a different world, but you go from a place in the normal world to a
different world, where the monster appears for the first time. In The Beauty and the Beast, things
usually happen in a medieval-like world, but when you enter the different world of the mansion, the
beast is there. In fantasy nowadays, the different world is the setting from the very beginning, it's
taken for granted, but us uncles had had to struggle with it more than you (laughs).
That means that Puck is one of symbols of fantasy in Berserk. What was the concept behind
Puck?
Disney, again. Just like a grasshopper always accompanied Pinocchio, for some reason I have the
impression that protagonists in fantasy always have something small following them, that's why.

Still, Guts and a cute fairy might be too much of a contrast, I've thought that too (laughs). Also,
Puck's convenient in how he's fine to do whatever. To tell the truth, it's been a while since Puck
turned into "Chestnut Puck", his personality has changed a lot, has it not? Exactly because he's a
fairy, his personality can be vague, I think. In Lost Children, he's sympathetic towards Jill and gets
sad, while when he's with Isidoro, he's cheeky and that's perfectly fine. When I'm busy with
something else, he offers me a break. When Puck does my dumb gags, the reader watches him with
a warm feeling. At this point, without a character like Puck, it would get so heavy and menacing, I
wouldn't be able to stomach it, probably.
THE WAY TO FACE REFERENCE MATERIAL
If dark fantasy has warmer spots that don't ruin the atmosphere, it becomes easier to read,
doesn't it?
I guess my intuition works well then. I feel that the story not getting too dark and heavy is one of
the features that differentiate the major from the minor works of culture. Now, most mangaka are
aware of it, but in the case of Berserk, it has maintained that balance accidentally. Also, in my case,
I think my mental structure is free of inclinations. That's why I end up naturally calming into the
same balance as the reader, never becoming too much of a nerd. I'm drawing it thinking that most of
the things I find pleasing are pleasing to the reader as well.
[PAGE 6]
(Sign on the left: I feel that the story not getting too dark and heavy is a feature that differentiates
the major from the minor works of culture)
(Illustration: The Conviction arc, showing the weakness of suffering humans flocking to religion)
To a writer, it's a rather important weapon, isn't it.
There's a lot of mangaka making nerdy knowledge a weapon, but it's not a weapon at all for me.
Only my drawings are for nerds. In all the rest, I look things up and use them as I need them. But, to
begin with, not only in manga, all people do research for their jobs. That's the way it is. I'm masking
it with my art. Even if I do random stuff, with this level of art, it'll appear deep. That's the useful
aspect of it (laughs).
When you look up reference material, do you have any tricks you use?
Because of the lack of time, you have to be selective when choosing material and representative
features of your work. Researching minute details is impossible, unless you involve a lot of people.
What's more, in my case, I only scan a book's themes and information and emphasize the writer's
conclusions. In the Conviction arc, with its witch hunting, I looked at what the reference book's
author thought the witch hunts were, for example. For the Conviction arc, I had read 2-3 books,
what I learned from them was that the witch hunts were "the materialization of the unseen fears of
the Middle Ages". When people experience fear, they give it a shape, and when a group of people
do it, it ends up as a witch hunt.
In this arc, Griffith comes back, not as Femto, but as the "hawk of light".
Even at the beginning, at "Black Guts", I intended to make Femto the enemy later. But, when
Golden Age ended, Griffith's character became too prominent and I wanted him to fight with Guts
in his usual form. Storytelling-wise, if he was in his normal, unchanged form, and then changed into
his powered-up form, the opposition would be easier to understand. Also, setting-wise, as Femto,
the dimension on which he operates becomes more distant.
By the way, Mozgus, who appears around that time, is an interesting character, beginning
from his looks. Do you have any thoughts on him?
The basis for the Conviction arc was the film "The Name of the Rose". I thought I would add some

witch hunting to that, to show the dark side of religion. There are all kinds of ideas on religion in it,
but out of all of them, when I thought of a character embodying fundamentalism, Mozgus came to
be. "Ideology comes first, people are less important". He's an exaggeration of that idea. All religions
have that to some extent, but if you make things transcending human thought and rules of reality
into an absolute and exaggerate that idea, that's what happens. When I tried creating a person out of
this strict thinking, this low-polygon kind of face is what I ended up with (laughs). When I thought
"He's a square" and made that into a picture, he turned out to literally be square.
Mozgus is supposed to be a character made for laughs too, isn't he.
I'm diving characters in Berserk clearly into cannon fodder and ones participating in actual drama.
Mozgus, Wyald or Adon are there to die, in the end. Like the villains in Hokuto no Ken, they're fun,
impactful characters. Those characters are always destined to die the moment they go unruly. But
their henchmen remain. Daiba and Luca appear in multiple chapters.
Daiba and his folks appear a lot lately.
It happens in Guin Saga as well, but when the main characters in that series leave an impact and
disappear from the story, the characters that were hanging around before end up reused. It becomes
a story about the world later in time, so one is interested in "what happened to him after that?", so
when I need new characters, I reintroduce those.
[PAGE 7]
(Upper illustration: Mozgus, who has fans even now that he's dead. One of many unique characters
supporting Berserk.)
(Dialogue: Exactly because it's a courageous soul like you! I want you to endure this trial bestowed
upon you by god!)
(Sign to the left: The most insignificant thing calls forth the most impressive thing)
(Lower illustration: The egg of the perfect world, a big factor for changing the world's nature.)
(Dialogue: As a human would say, everything is heralding the coming of that time. The guidance of
the great will... Or should I call it the gears of fate? It will emerge soon.)
Berserk has a lot of those fun details. New little discoveries in each chapter. Even Apostles
reappear, like the one who bit off Guts' arm during the Eclipse...
He's still working hard as a member of the New Band of the Hawk (laughs). At first, I was
designing Apostles as I was drawing, but thinking up new monsters every time is hard and it just
would be bad if there were many of those in the world. Sometimes, they appear one after the other,
too.
IS THE CONVICTION ARC "SEKAI-KEI"?
Among numerous Apostles, "the egg of the perfect world" is rather unusual.
This one is special. For Griffith to be resurrected, something very specific is needed. When I started
the Conviction arc, I invented something that, I feel, clicked with me. The idea of "a group praying
to god for something" took this form. It happened by accident, in a way. It might have been an
obvious outcome of the witch hunt.
He had a different role than "a monster eating people", unlike the ones before him.
Around that time, the word "NEET" was being discussed by the public. "Someone who never
became anyone and was watching the outer world through a computer from the confines of his dark
shell" - that was the common image, wasn't it? Anyone, when you're young, has a side like that, to
some extent, so it's very relatable. Sitting in a room, holding your knees and feeling anxiety about
your future is something pretty much everybody has experienced. It's a feeling of fear. This
"obscure, insignificant being", "the being to become a vessel for everyone" resonated with me. "The

most insignificant thing calls forth the most impressive thing" - a story like this feels good. Back
then, a term like "sekai-kei" had not yet existed, but if you look at it that way, the Conviction arc
follows the sekai-kei pattern.
"One's emotions being directly connected to the state of the world" - it really is sekai-kei.
The Conviction arc is very exaggerated, but I did want to include a metaphor of the world in it. If I
placed Griffith at the top of it, it would become something super charismatic. On the other hand, in
this sekai-kei story, I would draw a human in a down-to-earth, weak position, to achieve balance. In
a phantasmal world, I would put realistic, mundane people as well. In an eerie world, I would put
Chestnut Puck. When drawing, I want to put in values beyond ones like "win-loss", "strong-weak".
ORIGINS OF HIS TRAVEL COMPANIONS
After that, Griffith is resurrected and Guts gains some companions. How was one of them,
Farnese, created?
I made up Farnese as a second heroine, after Casca. I was struggling with her a bit. In Casca, I
simply contained things I liked.
[PAGE 8]
A brown female warrior. Strong, but still feminine - she was my ideal at the time (laughs). Still,
when I had to create a new heroine, I couldn't do it the same way I made Casca. Therefore, I worked
at her while listening to advice from Mori-kun, always popular with the girls, thinking of making
her a heroine who female readers could sympathise with,. "An office lady who joined society 1-2
years ago, getting used to her job and feeling anxiety about this man's world" was the concept
(laughs). She's trying her best in the male society of her knight order, but doesn't mix well with the
surroundings, butts heads with them and sometimes her dissatisfaction takes sexual form... It's
partly just my fantasies, though (laughs). If you expose such an unstable woman to Mozgus and his
strong impact, she will surely fall for religion. Long story short: Farnese is an "office lady who
joined a dangerous cult" (laughs).
(Upper illustration: Farnese, whose personality and growth was thoroughly described.)
(Dialogue: "I'm... not wrong.")
(Lower illustration: Is Serpico's role "the prince who looks only at her"?)
(Dialogue: "I'll get it out of the way quickly and then return")
What about Serpico?
Serpico is that female reader's "dream". "They probably want a man like him" was my intuition.
Said directly, he's Andre from Versailles no Bara. For women exhausted by society, someone who
does for them things a host would do, who thinks about them first, is an eternal dream, I thought.
What's more, I think women have three types of dream men. Someone always at their side, like
Serpico. A highborn prince they can admire. And someone realistic, who seduces them with money.
Recently, I saw a play "Female Pirate Bianca", based on a manga by Miuchi Suzue, who made
Glass Mask. All three of those types hang around the heroine. Then, I realized: "Berserk did the
same accidentally" (laughs). Serpico, always present around Farnese. Guts, whom she respects. And
the rich Roderick... All three are there!
Meanwhile, Guts also has three heroines - Casca, Farnese and Schierke.
Three characters of the opposite genders for each hero - that's a good balance. That's also
unintended, though (laughs).
What about Isidoro, then?
Isidoro is sort of modeled after a child of an assistant who worked with me at the time. He wasn't as
brave as Isidoro, but he was ambitious. "What do I do to become like you, Miura-sensei? Tell me

the easy way" - he was a kid who'd actually ask such questions (laughs). "I want to go big. But, I
want it to be easy too". He was putting spirit into that line, like Kaneda from Akira (by Ootomo
Katsuhiro), the "healthy bad youngun". The setting of Berserk is all dark, so I like him as the
standard of a boy boldly going through that world.
Even though that world is what it is, Isidoro makes a wholesome impression.
The characters in Berserk have both good sides, bad sides, and their circumstances. I'm drawing
while thinking of that foremost. Vague goals like "For justice!" are something that only characters
like Mozgus could call their own (laughs). Even when you're pursuing profit, if your goals are the
same, people cooperate. If you hang around for long, you become nicer to each other... It's a natural
balance. Precisely because Berserk is set in an other world, I want you to sympathise with the
characters, like "For humans, this is normal". If I were to add anything to that: Isidoro has a side
like "a child of the Shouwa era" to him, in my mind. When I was a kid, there were a lot of children
full of energy, like "I want, I want".
[PAGE 9]
They show off their character and secure their own place to be - an image like this. Children of the
Heisei era are all kind and make an impression of minding their balance with the surroundings. I
wonder what they think when looking at Isidoro? They probably can't relate (laughs).
(Illustration: A vision of moving into a higher plane of existence and watching that world through
the water's surface)
THE IMAGE OF MAGIC: RETURNING TO THE SOURCE
And so, Guts and his crew meet Schierke and head to Enoch village. Had you planned the
appearance of magic around that point?
The Conviction arc was about witch trials, so it followed that I had to deal with witches and magic
later. Therefore, I looked for some books about magic for reference and among them, there was one
book written by a self-styled magician. At a first glance that's suspicious, but apparently, overseas,
magicians do exist and enjoy authority. And so, I decide to draw "the idea of magic as a real
magician would invent". In Japan, game-like magic is the common image, like shooting fireballs,
but obviously, in the outer world, the serious concept of "magic" exists. I'll digress a bit, but if you
want to create a film to rival Star Wars, you shouldn't watch Star Wars. Watch what George Lucas
watched in order to create Star Wars. I've heard than in some documentary. If you trace something
already known to the public, you will only end up creating an inferior copy.
And then, you did research on the foundations of magic.
I gathered some reference and started thinking on the general impression of what real magic is.
What I learned was that magic is, more than I thought, an internal thing. You make a series of
images in your mind and then refresh them, kind of. Conveying this phenomenon properly as
drawings became important. You don't chant a spell and then something pops up. Using magic is
entering a layer of reality above ours - the hidden, supernatural world, and work your magic there.
When visualizing that, it's important to draw this vague image in a clear way. Otherwise, you won't
be able to show the magic that real magicians talk about.
Until then, combat had been only done with a sword. Did you have any conflicting feelings
about drawing magic?
Yes, I did. After all, the scheme of Guts swinging a giant sword to kill monsters was at risk of
collapsing if I added magic. Magic could not become too convenient. Therefore, I balanced it out by
making its casting speed slow and such. One more thing I wanted to give attention to was... magic
in games is all shiny, isn't it? I wanted to avoid that. It could mysteriously make water overflow or
make trees grow suddenly - in a way, I made the imagery of magic very mundane.

So, magic was more of a continuation of reality.

I wanted it to change real things in a realistic way. Like in old films and fairy tales, like the story of
Jack and the beanstalk. So, I did not make new ideas out of old ones, but followed the rules of old
magic. The same can be said about monsters. In Japan, after Pokemon got popular, the word
"monster" gained a cutesy nuance. I did some thinking on what is a real monster and I ended up
with Apostles. They're humans who had some mythical powers put into them, it's a sensibility close
to Japanese "oni". I take the theme of my choice, and rewind it towards its origin this way. When I
return to this "source", its primal form, completely different from what it is now, becomes visible.
(Sign on the right: If you return to the origin, the primal form, completely different from what it is
now, becomes visible"
That means emphasizing "the roots", doesn't it?
Doing that makes your story a major, mainstream one. "Tales of the old" with long history are
something extremely widely known, right? On the other hand, among anime and light novels, which
vary wildly in how they're popular or forgotten, there's no telling what will stand the test of time
and remain in public memory. If you want your work to live long, I recommend you to research
very old things.
GUTS GOES A LEVEL HIGHER WITH THE BERSERKER ARMOR
With the introduction of magic, Schierke joined the story.
Schierke had to appear because Isidoro happened, in a way. They form "the second generation", like
Lin and Bat in Hokuto no Ken. The natural outcome would be for her to pair up with Isidoro, right?
Schierke admires Guts, but right next to this girl being impressed by an adult man, a hardworking
boy is maturing... That is the right state of things (laughs).
Together with Schierke, a whole lot of magical items are introduced into the story, like the
Berserker Armor.
In a long story, the characters and the story need to be ascended to the next, bigger stage a few
times, or it'll be boring. Still, if they do so in a weird way, the story's balance will crumble, ending
in a waste. I drew the Berserker Armor to allow Guts to power up to one level higher - that is its
meaning. After he turns off his limiter and loses all reason, the truly becomes a berserker. Guts until
that point was enough of a berserker, but I wanted to draw him in a state of him losing his mind
even more. To make Guts, swinging his sword, even more impressive, I wanted to pile up some
magic onto him, it would end up a nice balance. The Skull Knight appeared a lot around that time,
so I decided on a cursed piece of armor.
Had it been on your mind since the time Skull Knight was added?
I don't think all mangaka can say so about themselves, but me, the meaning of things I created
sometimes suddenly comes to me as the serialization continues. At times, things I'd been drawing
suddenly click with me, like "so that's what that was for!". When one person keeps drawing
earnestly, instances of things connecting clearly after the fact happen a lot. Maybe it's unconscious,
maybe it comes out of my personality. I came up with Berserker Armor around the time when that
dark beast appeared before the Conviction arc. I've always wanted to give shape to the violent
contents of the depths of Guts' mind, while trying not to change Guts' appearance by doing so. And
so, while drawing, I saw it - the Berserker Armor enveloping Guts and transforming him, as if it
wanted to devour him. It served as a visual representation of his animal instinct overshadowing
reason. I did a good job (laughs).
NEW ROUTE - FROM GRIFFITH'S VIEWPOINT

After that, the story switches to Griffith's side and the dynamic battle with Ganishka happens.
Was that a development foreshadowing the Fantasia arc?
Yes. Ganishka was just a very big piece of cannon fodder (laughs). To make a character on the level
of Griffith work, you need to confront an equally impressive character with him. His story is
parallel to Guts', so after Griffith's resurrection, Berserk becomes a story with two routes.
In Griffith's route, he starts to seem like the protagonist.
I wrote Griffith as a character who doesn't talk about his emotions much, but by placing characters
who expose thier emotions all the time around him, I made Griffith actually stand out among them.
Also, manga characters have the tendency to be divided clearly into enemies and allies, good and
evil. However, I'm creating Berserk without including such values in it. Griffith is Griffith - he
seems attractive and looking from his side, it's Guts who's the villain. For some people, the world
that Griffith is creating might be more in their favor. What will the new stage of Fantasia be like...?
(laughs)
[PAGE 11]
(Illustration: Far away from Guts' adventure, a different battle, one to change the world...)
(Dialogue: "I am the one who steals. Never the one who is stolen from.")
(Sign on the right: I'm making Berserk as always, without wavering)
FINALLY, THE ARRIVAL IN ELFHEIM
Then, Guts and his comrades had an adventure on the sea.
The Guts Route is normal fantasy, a rare sight in Berserk (laughs). He forms a party, gets his hands
on a ship and then pirates appear. Until that point, there was a lot of character development, but
from this point on, the time has come to do some quests. I wanted to do something like this once.
Was Isma joining the party planned?
It wasn't, but I found that I'd regret removing her, so I had her come along (laughs). The party's
balance after introducing Isma turned out surprisingly good. Honestly, she occupies the position of
"stupid child", so she sometimes says frank things that leave an impression. I thought having
someone with a straightforward child's eyes would be good. Even though he's a child too, Isidoro's
wild amibition would turn out too strong and he would end up a laughingstock. Isma is fun when
grouped with someone, so maybe she would stand out together with Isidoro or Puck. What would
happen if I juxtaposed her with some other character? How far would I go? I don't know. Showing
the appeal of a new character is fine, but I would like to push the story forward hard as well.
In volume 38, the party arrived in Elfheim. It's a huge milestone in the story. Any
impressions?
It's been so long (laughs). But still, I've always thought "when will Golden Age end?" or "when will
Falconia appear?". I end up feeling the same in each story arc.
I've heard that you've decided on the developments in the next arc and you're drawing it now,
Miura-sensei...
Not thinking too much and saving good stuff for later is the trick to lasting long. If I stuffed in too
much content at once, it would put pressure on me and bind me, the story at this point would
become too solid. I do some light thinking and when the time to make storyboards comes, I truly
immerse myself in storytelling for the first time, you know. Of course "what you absolutely
shouldn't do" always happens when you do things haphazardly, so thinking of spicing things up
beyond the general outline should be done at the proper time. Especially the way you present the
story - it usually comes to you as you're drawing.

THE REALITY OF FANTASY

Especially after Falconia, you draw even normal people with care, don't you.
Normal manga are drawn only from the viewpoint of main characters, the ones usually made to act.
But, if I am to draw Griffith as the character to whom the people submit, I must draw from the
perspective of the people. If I don't include those regular people in the story, I can't show Griffith's
charisma. However, if I draw something as vague as "everyone", it'll be boring. That's where Laban
and his people become necessary. While drawing, I realized how important those normal people are.
Ones like Luca or Laban, or Magnifico. Now, they're just there, but at some point, there may come a
time when you'll think "I'm glad Magnifico is around" (laughs). Stories all have an established
"direction" they're heading towards. Main characters act to clear some goals and push the plot
forward, but if that's all that happens, you'll only achieve a sense of scale reminiscent of a film.
Serialized manga are long, you see. At the margin, you need a "representative of common people"
kind of character. Those normal people show you "the everyday", so they give off an impression of
being related to the aesthetic of fantasy.
[PAGE 12]
(Illustration: Guts' discountinuous speech resonates exactly because it tells the story of him having
survived numerous bloodbaths.)
(Dialogue: "The place I arrived at... What was there... In the end... Was only another battlefield.)
What you mean is that you thoroughly draw realistic humans, just like you draw the fantasy
world.
Of course, it's possible to construct a story only upon dramatic features as well. Those might be the
majority especially among works for young children. For example, stories with supernatural
powers, set at school - where the world consists mostly of charcters of the same age. No old uncles
and aunties to be seen, sometimes even the parents don't appear at all. However, in those conditions,
the world you can draw is very limited, right? Of course, those works are dense with characters and
aesthetics liked by readers, but that's not how I create my stories.
What is your way like then, Miura-sensei?
I'm going for a "window into another world" kind of sensibility when drawing, so it's a world where
normal people, people not useful to the story, children and old people, live normally. Of course, my
camera is moving, so I choose what I need to show when I need it, but all those things not useful to
my story are still a part of the world in my mind. So, I can't help but draw them.
BERSERK, CROSS-SECTIONING THE 80S
Berserk has excellent dialogue and narration, but do you use any special tricks when writing?
Usually, I don't write anything beforehand to save it for later. At the storyboard phase, I simply
enter lines that seem appropriate in the right places. Or I remove lines. The more important a scene
is, the less words I put into it. At the stage before that, I sometimes mix in some unneeded words, so
next, I need to "decrease the low and increase the high". Also, partly, I just depend on my drawing
skills.
How do the most important lines come to you?
In my case, I write lines in a natural way, as if I was conveying things to another person, I do what I
usually do. It's not like your true intention is conveyed better as the number of words is higher. Your
passion might be conveyed that way, though (laughs). If you really want the person to understand,
you use significant words one after another. In the end, balance is what counts. I'm creating in a
very detailed way, which includes my drawings, so I think that the fewer words, the bigger the

impact and as a result, the lines leave an impression upon the reader.
We're having this conversation after the characters arrived at a milestone that is Elfheim. Do
you have anything you would like to try your hand at in the future as you're drawing Berserk,
Miura-sensei?
I've done some incredible things, so maybe I would "tidy up" all the things I've done until now.
When it comes to entirely new things, I would like to make preparations before the inevitable
deciding battle between Guts and Griffith and make it more exciting.
Well then, to wrap this up, please give a word to the readers who have bought this book - both
the new ones and fans who have been following your work for years.
I think that during this festive period in the history of Berserk, completely new, young readers gave
it a read. Fantasy has its history and as a part of it, I'm still continuing the manga that your
(probably) young self's dad was into in the 80s, drawing and using the same yakitori sauce as back
then (laughs). Whoever found this comic fun - give some old stories a try as well. I'd be glad if,
having become a supporter of Berserk, you used this opportunity to get interested in things I had
been obsessing about. And to everybody who has been reading since ages ago: I will be making
Berserk as always, without wavering. There will be times when the slot for my serialization is
empty, so times when I distance myself from my comic for a while will be happening as well, but
when you get curious about Berserk, come back to check it out. I will be continuing Berserk
without change. And, I would like to somehow arrive at the end in good health. Be good to me from
now on as well!
Thank you for your time!