Gosaku Ōta was a manga artist who was once an assistant to the late Shotaro Ishinomori, before coming under the employment of another one of Ishinomori's assistants, Go Nagai. Ōta was known for creating Groizer X with Nagai and for his own adaptations of the first three Mazinger series.
History[]
Ōta was born on March 16, 1948 in Kaminoyama within the Yamagata Prefecture. He started his manga career as an assistant to Shotaro Ishinomori. He went under several pen names until joining Dynamic Productions where he became under the employment of Nagai and became one of his collaborators along with Ken Ishikawa. He died on December 12, 2022 from complications caused by COVID-19. He was 74 years old.
Ōta in Mazinger[]
Besides Nagai's original manga, Ōta made his own adaptations of Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, and Grendizer. The manga was more episodic and had more comedic elements than the original, while having elements from the anime. For example: Sayaka pilots Aphrodite A in its anime coloring and wears the same pilot suit, later she pilots Diana A whereas in the original manga Aphrodite's replacement was Venus A. Chibified characters are also seen in some of the more comedic parts of the manga. They also provide a few major plot twists compared to the original (e.g. Koji is made into a cyborg by his father after he is injured in a fight with the Mycenae Empire). Ōta's manga is also more complex and connected to each other than other manga.