This Week in Anime [Week 20, 2021]

Date Published: Thurs, 20th May, 2021

Ohayou dear readers. We introduce today's article with a humble tone and an attitude of mourning. The mid week of May seemed to hold great promise with several notable releases and upcoming announcements, but these celebrations were heavily overshadowed near the end of the week with news of a devastating occurrence that has cast perhaps an irreparable scar on the history of anime forever. Join the world in mourning as we reveal this week's Rapid Rundown:

1. Berserk Mangaka Suffers Tragedy

2. Komi Can't Communicate Hype!

3. MHA Mobile RPG Released!

1. Berserk Mangaka Suffers Tragedy

Our main headline is one of tragedy- recent news of Kentaro Miura's death made its way to the top of news reports everywhere and has evoked perhaps one of the most unanimous shows of gratitude from any community in the world. Early on Thursday morning, reports started coming in of the event, which was claimed to occur on May the 6th. These were unfortunately found to hold substance and the cause of Miura's demise was listed as an acute aortic dissection. Berserk publisher Hakusensha was the first official source to make this news public, with posts made on the Twitter accounts for Berserk and the Young Animal magazine. Dark Horse Comics, the American publisher counterpart of Berserk later confirmed the news for Western audiences.

Miura's career started off with an instant success in 1985, with the submission of his project Futanabi, which not only earned him a spot in in Nihon University, but also earned him a nomination in the Weekly Shonen Magazine as Best New Author. This would set the tone for the rest of Miura's career and earn him a reputation as one of the most meticulous and fastidious names in the industry. This would culminate in one of Miura's most acclaimed titles: the Berserk manga. Careful planning and attention to not only plot and character development, but even to panel placement and minute details defined and distinguished Miura's works from all others throughout his almost 4 decade career. In terms of western counterparts, Miura's works and personality have been compared to the likes of George R. R. Martin and J. R. R. Toliken.

Perhaps the most tragic element of this news stems from the fact that the Berserk manga, Miura's crown achievement in the world of mangas, shall most likely remain incomplete following his demise. Unlike the case with novels, the realm of mangas remains untouched by posthumous continuations or ghostwriters- meaning that a continuation of Miura's work would be highly unconventional. More importantly, however, it would frankly be impossible to continue the story on the same level of thought and meticulous approach as was the trademark of its original mangaka. The Berserk manga was notorious for its extended delay between chapters, with month-long hiatuses becoming the norm for the community. To replicate and build upon such a foundation is an impossible task, meaning that just like Mirua's demise, his legacy is fated to never reach its full potential.

In light of this news, several prominent authors and gamers have come forth and shared their condolences and grief with the rest of the world. Perhaps most prominent among these tributes comes from Hajime no Ippo creator George Morikawa, who shared a photo of Miura's tribute drawing of Hajime no Ippo character Takemura given to him.

Hiro Mashima, the well-known mangaka behind Fairy Tail and Edens Zero, also had this to say:
"Berserk is what allowed my youth to remain with me. Even at my age, I'd still get excited at each new volume that came out. Now I am stunned in grief. May Miura-sensei rest in peace."

Berserk and its 363 chapter run seem to have come to a close. Adilsons joins the world as we mourn the passing of the legend that was Kentaro Miura.


2. Komi Can't Communicate Hype!

When one door closes, another one opens up. Onto some lighter news, we take a look at the rising popularity of an anime which isn't even out yet! Komi Can't Communicate is a Shounen series which has seen serialization in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine ever since May of 2016. It has also been licensed for english release in North America by Viz Media and has seen english printings since June of 2019. This has been more than enough time for the series to amass a large following of diehard fans, so it's understandable to assume the huge hype that naturally came to follow the announcement that an anime adaptation was in the works!

Released just over a week ago on May the 11th, the trailer for the anime (catch it here!) already has 1.3 million views! Set for release in October of this year by Studio OLM, the anime is one of the most anticipated releases of this year. The best part? They have lots of source material to build upon, with 22 volumes of content just waiting to be coloured and animated onto our screens! You can catch the synopsis of the story here:

"The journey to 100 friends begins with a single conversation. Socially anxious high school student Shoko Komi’s greatest dream is to make some friends, but everyone at school mistakes her crippling social anxiety for cool reserve! With the whole student body keeping their distance and Komi unable to utter a single word, friendship might be forever beyond her reach. Timid Tadano is a total wallflower, and that’s just the way he likes it. He lives to blend in with the background. All that changes when he finds himself alone in a classroom on the first day of high school with the legendary Komi. He quickly realizes she isn’t aloof, she’s just super awkward. Now he’s made it his mission to help her on her quest to make 100 friends!"

Now that's a story we can get behind!


3. MHA Mobile RPG Released!

Ending things off on perhaps the best note possible is our last headline this week: the My Hero Academia game is here and ready to be played on your devices! This game marks MHA's involement in just about every media platform available: everything from movies to video games and novels and mangas have been covered already- and now we have a game right on our mobile devices! Fans will be elated to know that the game, titled "My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero", is already getting rave reviews and has been bug-free in terms of performance.

Set in the time between the USJ invasion of Season 1 and Stain's debut in Season 2, the game is stylised as a 3D landscape fighting style format which puts the user to work on a variety of missions, all of which culminate in a boss fight. The roster currently consists of 12 characters, which you can level up and augment with support cards and boosts. It's quite a simple format, but it does demand some getting used to. Multiplayer options also exist, in the from of versus and co-op modes. The whole thing really puts you into the universe of MHA and allows you to take a few steps in Deku's boots and explore the world we've come to love oh so dearly!



And with that, we come to a close on this week's news. Exciting releases, upcoming anime and a tragic passing of one of the best known names in anime defined the third week of May as the mixed bag of emotions that it is.