Messages to Kentarou Miura: Kouji Mori (3)

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Part 1 of this translation can be found here.
Part 2 of this translation can be found here.

Page 12

For 7 years, while I was frustrated, Miura never asked me “don’t you want to draw manga?”
He just called me as usual and did his manga consultation,
Just (that)…

No matter how busy he was, he never let me help with his manuscripts.

[He had long hair because he was too busy to have his hair cut]
[His long hair looked garish]

While some friends had even been working as assistants…

Miura told me why he didn’t, years later.
I think it’s thanks to those words that I could become a mangaka.
I’d also like to write about this in detail when I have the opportunity.

Miura’s manga was selling well.
I was earning money, but my life was a mess.
And then I died in a motorbike accident.

Page 13

As I was dying, what I realized was…
I don’t want to die in this kind of place. There is only one place to which I want to go back alive.
If I can go back there, I don’t need anything else.
That’s what I thought.

“Sorry, I want to start drawing manga again.”
“Well, I apologize because I should.”
Because I said so, Miura kindly shook my hand.

Five years later, I became a serialized mangaka.
Let me tell you that without Miura, I’m not sure I would still be alive, let alone have become a mangaka.
People who know me well all say “without Miura, Mori would either be dead or behind bars.”
I’m afraid I have no objection to that.

Page 14

Miura: Awesome…..
Mori: Unbelievable.
Even scary
Miura: Yeah…

Miura: Holylan is at its peak
Miura: I heard it won the first place again in the poll.
Miura: Beru (I) was also in there…

Note: They use abbreviations for their respective series.

Mori: It’s because your (Berserk’s) readers have been waiting for the tankōbon.
There have been too many breaks.

Around that time, Miura’s Berserk, which had been made into an anime, games and a movie, unquestionably reached the peak of a fantasy manga.
Meanwhile, my “Holyland” was made into a (TV) drama and so on

Which made it possible for it to compete for the first place with such great works like “Berserk” and “Futari H” in the readers’ poll.

Miura: I can’t believe it.