Go Nagai (永井 豪 Nagai Gō real name Kiyoshi Nagai 永井潔 Nagai Kiyoshi born September 6, 1945) is a mangaka famous for revolutionary, yet controversial, manga and anime. Starting out with gag manga, Nagai started to create more serious and elaborate works, some of which like Harenchi Gakuen were heavily criticized. His most famous works are Devilman, Mazinger Z, Cutey Honey, and co-creating Getter Robo with his assistant Ken Ishikawa.
Background[]
Kiyoshi was born as the fourth son to Yoshio and Fujiko Nagai. As a child he was influenced by The Divine Comedy (which would serve as the inspiration for Demon Lord Dante and by extension Devilman) and Osamu Tezuka. After suffering diarrhea in prep school and recovery the hospital with catarrh of colon, Kiyoshi decided to make himself known by drawing manga despite his mother's insistence not to. Kiyoshi's brother Yasutaka would often help him in his manga, with several rejections. Eventually his works were noticed by the famous manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori.
Kiyoshi took the pen name Go Nagai after becoming an assistant to Ishinomori and started writing one-shot gag manga before writing more elaborate stories for Shonen Jump. While Harenchi Gakuen was heavily criticized at the time for showing erotica, fans saw this as an icon for a new generation of manga. Ironically, these protests gave Nagai the idea to create manga such as Abashiri Ikka, which like Harenchi Gakuen became popular during that period.
With the success of his works, Nagai founded Dynamic Productions with his brothers to help him with his works by funding his manga and anime production and to manage relations and contracts with other companies. There he met Ken Ishikawa who became his assistant. With Dynamic Productions's founding, Nagai started creating his more famous works from the demonic hero Devilman, the giant robot Mazinger Z, to the introduction of the transforming magical girl Cutey Honey. On 1974, Nagai and Ken collaborated ideas which lead to the creation of Getter Robo.
Acting[]
Besides making some of the most profilic manga, Nagai also became an actor first having a small role in The Toxic Avenger Part II. He would later appear in other films and in TV series, often live action adaptations of his original works.
Trivia[]
- Nagai shares his role as a famous comic book writer appearing in his related films with American comic book writer Stan Lee.
- They also share their live-action film debuts on the same year.