Duranki is a manga inspired by Greek, Mesopotamian, and Sumerian myths, with a setting likened to Anatolia. The main character, Usumgallu, is a child with the ability to "think up unknown things" who is neither a god nor human, and neither male nor female.
Kentaro Miura created the story concept, storyboards, and rough copies, but left almost all of the actual artwork (including the inking) to his group of assistants, Studio Gaga. Since his assistants (5 total in 2019) were full time employees (unusual in the manga world), and normally didn't have time to work on projects other than Berserk, Miura wanted to give them a chance to spread their wings and earn some recognition for themselves. He also clarified that this would not slow down the production of Berserk, since he does most of the artwork of Berserk by himself anyway. It was even hoped that the additional training for recently-hired assistants would soon allow Miura to delegate more of his work on Berserk, and thus speed up production. This information about Duranki comes from an Otaquest article
that summarizes an interview of Miura by Comic Natalie.
The first two chapters of Duranki were published in the inaugural issue of Hakusensha's magazine Young Animal Zero on September 9, 2019; the last chapter to be released was number six on May 9, 2020. Miura died of an acute aortic dissection on May 6, 2021, and in September of that year the publisher announced that Duranki was cancelled. The collected volume was released in Japan on December 24, 2021.
Duranki provides examples of:
- Cut Short: The sixth chapter came out in May 2020 and the series was officially cancelled over a year later.
- Divine Parentage: Usum was created by gods.
- Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: Usum is a child created by the gods who's neither male nor female.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: While bathing, Usum's friends try to get a look at them to see whether they're a boy or a girl.
- Waterfall Shower: Usum takes one before joining their friends group bathing.
