DEVILMAN

Go Nagai

The creator of Devilman

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Dynamic Productions

Thanks to the success of Harenchi Gakuen, Dynamic Productions, also known as Dynamic Production or Dynamic Pro,), was founded by Go Nagai with his brothers in April, 1969. Meant to be a group to help him with his works, as a consequence of what happened with Harenchi Gakuen, where he received almost no royalties derived from the TV series, films and gadgets related, Dynamic Productions became a company established to manage Nagai's relations and contractual rights of his work. Dynamic became one of the first companies to require publishers the edition of contracts (even today many manga are designed and published only on the basis of verbal agreements). It would start as a yugen kaisha (limited company) and would change to a kabushiki kaisha (stock company) in 1970.
The same year of the foundation of Dynamic Pro, Ken Ishikawa joined the company. He would become Nagai's second assistant after Mitsuru Hiruta, who had been working with Nagai since the beginnings of Harenchi Gakuen. He would become one of Nagai's regular partners and his best friend. Ken Ishikawa participated as assistant in Harenchi Gakuen, Abashiri Ikka and Gakuen Taikutsu Otoko, particularly in the last one. In parallel with those activities as assistant, he co-produces with Go Nagai what would be in fact his professional debut in manga, Gakuen Bangaichi (1969-09-08 ~ 1970-09-22), and also his second manga, Sasurai Gakuto (1970-01 ~ 1970-05). He temporary quit Dynamic Productions in 1970. This prompted Nagai to end Gakuen Taikutsu Otoko and the story of this series would be left inconclusive.

Cutey Honey issue 1

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Go Nagai

Go Nagai (永井 豪 Nagai Gō, born September 6, 1945 in Wajima City) was inspired to become a mangaka (manga author) after his brother gave him a copy of Osamu Tezuka's Lost World. Since that day, Go Nagai has pursued his dream of becoming a mangaka and has been an important innovator of several genres.

When he was 20 he created Kuro No Shishi ("Black Lion"). In his series Harenchi Gakuen (ハレンチ学園, Shameless School, 19681972, Shonen Jump magazine) Nagai used eroticism and extreme, graphical violence in children's comics for first time in Japan, thus breaking taboos and becoming quite controversial. Its use of violence and gross humour were also widely loathed in many corners of Japan's society. The series ended dramatically: all the characters died during a massacre. This type of content and story would be a trend in most of Nagai's later work.

Despite having done well in college, Go Nagai failed all of his university entrance exams. At around the same time, he fell terribly ill and feared that he would die without ever achieving his dream. It was during these tough times that he created Black Lion (Kuro No Shishi).

In 1970, Go Nagai started a company, Dynamic Productions, to fund his manga and anime ventures. Dynamic Productions' first titles were Getter Robo and Abashiri Ikka (あばしり一家, Abashiri Family).

After Harenchi Gakuen Nagai created the Mazinger Z (マジンガーZ, as well Majinga Z) series, later expanded to Great Mazinger and Mazinkaiser, where he developed the concept of giant mecha. This idea happened to be amazingly productive in many television programmes in his country. Mazinger is, in fact, considered the first successful "Super Robot" anime show, and has spanned numerous imitations, even today.

A few years later Go Nagai created Grendizer, AKA Goldorak (or Goldrake) in some countries. Grendizer was originally intended to cash in on the UFO craze that was en vogue in Japan during the late '70s; it became popular not only in Japan, but in European countries like France and Italy, and specially in the Arab world, where it was popular in eighteen Arab countries, especially Egypt. Grendizer is still a household name today in this part of the world.

Simultaneously to Mazinger, he created one of his most popular series, Debiruman (デビルマン, Devilman), about a hero having spectacular fights against awesome hordes of demons. Devilman is a cult event in Japan. Go Nagai later revamped this popular series by introducing the main character as a female and altering the storyline. This series is called Devilman Lady (デビルマンレディー, Devil Lady in the U.S.). It was first released as a manga and then later as an anime just as Devilman. Go Nagai considers the Devilman series, as well as the Mazinger series, as being his life's work due to their massive popularity all over the world.

Despite its popularity, much of Go Nagai's work (due to its graphical nature, and treatment of subjects such as sex and violence) is little known in the US, where censorship has been the main factor.

Go Nagai had quite a bit of help in creating his works. Ken Ishikawa was his assistant on many projects. Ishikawa went on to make manga on his own. Some of his works are Fatal Fury, Miroku and Samurai Spirits. His art style is very similar to Go Nagai's although much less gratuitous with nudity.

Some of Go Nagai's more recent anime projects have been The New Cutey Honey, Syuten Doji, Abashiri Family, Shin Getter Robo, Devilman Lady, Amon: The Apocalypse of Devilman, Mao Dante and Re: Cutey Honey. He is also putting out more manga now than ever.

In 2004 DEVILMAN: The Movie was released. In a move similar to Stephen King in Pet Sematary, Go appears in cameo as a temple priest. 

Other series created by Go Nagai:

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Copyright Go Nagai / Dynamic Planning

DEBIRUMAN!!!