When I was a kid, I got into drawing because of anime and manga. Growing up with the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Dragon Ball Z, Naruto and more, it wouldn't take long for me to go after other works by my own account.
When I was around 13 years old, while searching for whatever I could find at an old newsstand, I came across with something called "Berserk". It had an age recommendation of 18+ in the cover, so my 13 years old me decided that would be just the thing. Even though I had no prior context and much less the maturity it takes to really appreciate it, I was astonished with the artwork, the brutality, everything. Some time later, I watched the anime from 1997 and instantly fell in love.
Flash forward to 2019: I'm 21 years old, studying Fine Arts at college, distancing myself from drawing manga (surprisingly, not because of the prejudice of some teachers); at that point, as much as I loved Berserk, I never got around to take the time to read it and the latest TV adaptations were... Well, some of the anime ever made.
Around that time, I was also coming back to this cultural niche (not as a manga fan or otaku, but more like an enthusiast) and decided to actually read Berserk. It was like that time when I was 13, but now I was astonished because of the things I had matured enough to understand.
Kentaro Miura was one of my strongest creative references. His art style is nothing but beautiful, inspiring, as much as gruesome, visceral. The contrast of such horrid things drawn so carefully, the composition, everything. Even his way of making the reader uncomfortable with some pages and scripts, it all goes absolutely well with the adult tone of his work. Wouldn't be any kind of exageration to say that Berserk is and probably will ever be my favorite manga of all time.
That said, I was shocked and sad to find out, in May 6th 2021, about his passing. This is, at least for me, long overdue: my late tribute to the late Kentaro Miura. May his work live on and keep inspiring many more artists for the years to come, just as it did me.
Watercolors, fineliners, brush and gel pens
The original artwork that inspired me, by Kentaro Miura, the master.
