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Berserk Manga Has 70 Million Copies in Circulation Worldwide, Including 9 Million in English
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The manga has 9 million copies in circulation in English, 8 million copies in circulation in French, and 5 million copies in circulation in Italian.
Of those 70 million copies in circulation worldwide, 30 million are foreign editions released outside Japan.
Hakusensha will release the manga's 43rd compiled volume on August 29.
Miura published the one-shot version of the manga in Hakusensha's Monthly Comicomi magazine in 1988. He launched the full Berserk manga series in Hakusensha's Monthly Animal House magazine in 1989, and the series continued in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine.
Miura died on May 6, 2021 due to acute aortic dissection. He was 54. The manga went on hiatus after his death, but then resumed in Young Animal in June 2022. The manga now has the following credits: "Original work by Kentarō Miura, manga by Studio Gaga, supervised by Kouji Mori."
Studio Gaga is Miura's studio with his assistants and apprentices who also worked on Berserk alongside him. Mori is a close childhood friend of Miura's, whom Miura frequently consulted with for plot details on Berserk. Mori said in June 2022 he "know[s] the story for Berserk up to the very end." Mori drew a one-shot manga in Young Animal in 2021 that tells his story of lifelong friendship and creative relationship with Miura.
The manga's latest 42nd volume is the first compiled book volume for the manga since Studio Gaga and Mori continued the manga after Miura's death. The volume shipped in Japan in September 2023. Dark Horse Comics released the volume in English on March 18, its first release of a volume of Berserk in three years since the 41st volume released in November 2022.
The 41st volume of Berserk, which includes the final chapters that Miura had created for the series, shipped in Japan in December 2021.
The manga follows Guts, a superhumanly strong warrior who wields a large sword, as he wanders a dark medieval world filled with demons, corrupt and decadent nobles, and other horrors. Every night, he is assailed by demons, attracted to the curse branded on him after a traumatic event. He makes his way through the world on a quest to slay a former friend turned demon, who took everything away from him.
Source: Young Animal issue 16
