Go Nagai

Born on September 6th, 1945, Go Nagai is a Japanese manga artist (mangaka) and an important innovator of the genre.

When he was 20 he created 'Kuro No Shishi' ('Black Lion').

In his series 'Harenchi Gakuen' ('Shameless School', 1968-1972, Shônen Jump magazine) Nagai used eroticism in children's comics for first time in Japan thus breaking taboos and becoming quite controversial. Its 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.

In 1970, Go Nagai started a company, Dynamic Productions, to fund his manga and anime ventures. The first titles of DP were 'Getter Robo' and 'Abashiri Ikka' ('Abashiri Family').

After 'Harenchi Gakuen' Nagai created the 'Mazinger Z[?]' (as well Majinga Z) series, later expanded to 'Great Mazinger' and 'God Mazinger', where he developed the concept of giant mecha. This idea happened to be amazingly productive in many television programmes in his country.

Simultaneously to 'Mazinger', he created one of his most popular series, 'Debiruman' ('Devilman'), about a hero having spectacular fights against awesome hordes of demons. 'Debiruman' is a cult event in Japan.

Nagai has worked with Ishimori Shotaro and Ken Ishikawa. He is currently being more prolific in manga production than ever. Many of his manga series have anime versions.

Other series created by Go Nagai:

• 'Getter Robo[?]'
• 'UFO Robo Grendizer[?]'
• 'Kotetsu Jeeg[?]'
• 'Gaiking[?]'
• 'Cutey Honey[?]'.