Short answers, pulled from the story.
Berserk was created by Kentaro Miura. The series debuted on the 25th of August 1989 in Hakusensha's magazine, following a 48-page prototype published in 1988 in Gekkan ComiComi, which placed second in the seventh ComiComi Manga-School competition.
As of August 2025, over 70 million copies of Berserk are in circulation worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The series had over 10 million copies sold in English alone by February 2026.
Miura died on the 6th of May 2021 from an acute aortic dissection at the age of 54. His final chapter was published posthumously on the 10th of September 2021. On the 7th of June 2022, Hakusensha and childhood friend Kouji Mori announced the series would continue, with art by Studio Gaga and supervision by Mori, based on plans and storylines Miura had shared with Mori nearly 30 years earlier.
Berserk won the Award for Excellence at the sixth annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2002. The series had been a finalist at the second, third, fourth, and fifth installments of the prize in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001, respectively.
Berserk has been adapted into a 25-episode anime television series that aired from the 8th of October 1997 to the 1st of April 1998, produced by Nippon Television and VAP and animated by OLM. The Golden Age arc was also adapted into a trilogy of theatrical films by Studio 4 degrees C, released in 2012 and 2013. A second anime series produced by Liden Films aired across two 12-episode seasons in 2016 and 2017.
Miura cited Fist of the North Star by Buronson and Tetsuo Hara as the most significant influence on his work and artistic style. Other key influences included the films Hellraiser (1987), Conan the Barbarian (1982), and Excalibur (1981) for the setting; Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira for panel composition; Osamu Tezuka's Dororo as his favorite manga; and the original Star Wars (1977), which he named his favorite film and credited for teaching him storytelling fundamentals.