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, 1968–1972, 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:
