Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine
revealed on Friday that the Berserk manga currently has 70
million copies in circulation worldwide. Of that figure, 30
million correspond to foreign editions published outside Japan.
Global
impact of the work and legacy
Of the
total, 9 million copies are in English, 8 million in
French and 5 million in Italian, demonstrating the enormous
international reach of the saga. On August 29, Hakusensha will
publish the compilation volume number 43.
Kentarō
Miura debuted
a single chapter of Berserk in 1988, then began full
serialization in 1989. The work was first published in Monthly Animal
House and later in Young Animal. Following the author's
passing on May 6, 2021 at the age of 54 from acute aortic
dissection, the manga went on hiatus. However, in June 2022 it returned under
the credits: "Original work by Kentarō Miura, manga by Studio
Gaga, supervised by Kouji Mori".
The team
behind and the manga
Studio
Gaga, made up of
Miura's assistants and apprentices, works alongside Kouji Mori, a
childhood friend of the author, who claimed to know Berserk's story
until its end. In 2021, Mori published a one-shot in Young
Animal chronicling his friendship and creative collaboration with
Miura.
Volume 42,
released in September 2023 in Japan, was the first to be published after the
resumption of the series, and Dark Horse Comics published it
in English on March 18 of this year. Volume 41,
which includes the last chapters created directly by Miura, was published in
Japan in December 2021 and in English in November 2022.
A dark
and epic story
Berserk follows Guts, a
warrior of superhuman strength who wields a gigantic sword and travels through
a medieval world plagued by demons, corrupt nobles and unspeakable horrors.
Marked by a curse that attracts creatures every night, his journey is a bloody
quest for revenge against an ancient friend-turned-demon, responsible for
snatching everything from him.
