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Berserk is basically a shoujo manga wrapped in Fist of the North Star
Despite the depictions of blood and violence, Kentaro Miura thought there was a certain “fluffiness” to Berserk.
NewsbyTrent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer
Published on Wed Aug 19 2026
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Nearly 40 years after it first debuted, Berserkhas become one of the cornerstones of the seinen manga genre. With its depictions of violence and dark themes, Berserk couldn’t feel farther from the pages of a shoujo manga like Sailor Moon if it tried. Unless, of course, you ask creator Kentaro Miura about it.
During an interview from 2000, Kentaro Miura talked about being inspired by the likes of Fist of the North Star in both his character design and for the story. However, he also admitted that he took elements of the shoujo genre to help give Berserk its emotional core. “If I were doing a story like Fist of the North Star, I would be able to really concentrate entirely on just drawing well. The manga I want to create, however, has aspects to it that can be downright shoujo mangaesque, and I wouldn’t be able to pull that off if I went all-out Fist of the North Star in terms of art. So I have to strike this balance between delicate drama and Fist of the North Star, and after much wrestling with this, I finally ended up with my current art style, although I imagine that will still be subject to change.”
When the interviewer mentioned that some fans consider Berserk a shoujo manga due to its soap opera drama and focus on emotion, Miura didn’t discard the idea.
“Makes sense to me. Shoujo manga is all about expressing every feeling powerfully, and, in that sense, it’s not as contrived as manga for me. Men’s manga tends to come off as more calculated to sell well, whereas shoujo manga are somehow just… fluffier. I realize that’s not a very descriptive word, but anyway, that might be something I have in common with shoujo manga… I guess what I mean is, like, in order to express emotions, logic comes second, whereas it’s usually the other way around.”
Each week, Popverse’s resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say “greatest,” in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included…
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Trent Cannon: Trent is a freelance writer who has been covering anime, video games, and pop culture for a decade. (He/Him)
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