- Adapted from Puella's translation.
This is part from an interview when Miura got the second Tezuka Osamu prize (2002).
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"Dororo" is my favorite manga by Tezuka Osamu. It had a great influence on my work. Berserk is blended of my favorite novels and mangas. I've always wanted to make a dark and grotesque fantasy where something like mosters are likely to appear.
I think the big sword of Guts, the main character, could be some kind of consequence to make readers feel extreme reality. I made the two main charcters like this: Guts goes through the ground mixed blood and mud while Griffith, antagonist, stays in some high place with white wings. I heard Hirasawa (composer of Berserk anime) saying "I think Guts' sword represents a penis and the monsters destroyed by it represent women's genitalia." I think he noticed some symbolic things play an important role in the story development.
I made the one-eyed child show up to Guts in vol. 1 as a symbol of the 'weakness' which Guts hates. But I also think the child is connected to the image of Griffith (vol. 10-12) in my subconciousness who lost the freedom of his body because of the horrible torture when he was still young. For this reason, I think I made a setup which the child played a role to accept his spirit when Griffith as a demon king got his new body (vol.21). The story gets much bigger because of this. Honestly, I myself don't know when it will end. I just draw with my pen thinking only of each day's assignment.
Is my drawing going well as much as the serilaization goes on? Sometimes I feel a great pain that I can't endure when I look at the drawings I did long ago. This could mean I've got better. I think it is good to change continuously because when the drawing doesn't change anymore, then that means that the story is set. As I work on detail, unknowingly I get to have more lines. I think I gave a lot of attention to the line I drew with G pen. I can feel a fiery spirit from it. A drawing done like that seems to reply "I've waited" when the one who drew asks "what do you think?". I love such a kind of manga and I want to draw that way.