“Isn’t anime for kids?” is a question many of us will have no doubt dealt with at some point in our lives. Sometimes it’s just a polite question, sometimes it’s meant as mockery, but it’s a difficult can of worms all the same. Animation is so clearly linked to children’s entertainment in the mind of the mainstream public, and it’s a difficult point to contest if you’re watching the likes of Yuru Camp when it’s being asked.
I recall an awkward point in our history where people flooded the web with screengrabs of ultraviolent and ecchi shows, challenging detractors to watch those and still claim anime is for kids. It certainly wasn’t a highpoint for our community, but if that attitude still lingers, then the fans of ultraviolence recently found a new weapon in Netflix’ Devilman Crybaby.
Based on a manga famously considered to be the best apocalypse story out there, Netflix’ adaptation is true to its source in the sense that it features violence, gore, sex, and demonic imagery. It wouldn’t be the first time that Devilman is adapted into anime, but Netflix’ go at it has put Go Nagai’s name back in the minds of many anime fans. This makes it an ideal time to actually look back on his career and the interesting changes that led to Devilman‘s creation.
Go Nagai started creating manga in the late 60s, during which his work consisted mostly of short comedy stories with quick conclusions. A pivotal moment in his career was Harenchi Gakuen, a series that ran from 1968 to 1972 and would be his usual, comedic-type of story. However, Japanese society just about lost their collective shit over the manga. The sexual influences present in Go Nagai’s work were considered not done in a medium that, in the eyes of Japan’s people, was meant for children.
It’s no understatement to say that Go Nagai became a controversial figure, with parents, teachers, and the usual busybodies protesting his work. This escalated to the point where people were trying to prevent magazines with his stories from being distributed, and actually had some success in doing so. Go Nagai was neither amused nor intimidated.
While he would continue to write funny stories and the 70s would also see him create mecha licenses like Grendizer and Mazinger, Go Nagai’s immediate response to the controversy was to double down on everything. He wanted more violence, more nudity, and he wanted to take the piss out of society. For me, the most interesting work born from this period is Gakuen Taikutsu Otoko, known in English as Guerilla High.
Released in 1970, this 3 volume story features a student uprising against a failing education system. Teachers respond by taking up arms and gunning down rebellious students. It doesn’t take long before the situation gets out of hand and rebel groups sprung up, of which Mondo leads one. Mondo is a psychopath wandering Japan, going from school to school and massacring the teachers there, whereupon he frees the students and makes them part of his temporary armies. Temporary in the sense he gets them killed by the dozens.
While it’s not visually stunning in terms of violence, the grim subject matter of students shooting up their teachers (and vice versa) is a controversial subject that’s still touchy to this day. The manga is blatantly pandering to this controversy, especially volume 1 which tosses in some torture and features a female teacher that just exists to be almost raped in every scene that features her.
With a total of 3 volumes, the story does take a bit of a turn after the first and begins to focus on the rivalry between Mondo and two other rebel leaders, which also tones down and retcons the more extreme sides of their personalities. It has its moments, but it’s very much a manga that lives on shock value and serves the singular purpose of being socially unacceptable. While it’s not a good manga, it is very much an important one.
It takes a lot of effort for society to change its perception of media and Go Nagai was, almost singlehandedly, attempting to make that change happen. He wrote numerous stories and never backed down from pressure. We owe it to Go Nagai and other controversial creators like Hideshi Hino that violent manga gained traction and became normalized. Guerilla High might not have been great, but it was followed up by Demon Lord Dante, Violence Jack, and, of course, Devilman. Alongside Cutie Honey and Go Nagai’s mecha series, these are all titles you still hear referenced in interviews today as sources of inspiration for younger mangaka and anime directors.
students shooting teacher. man, won’t that be a fun manga to adapt. We owe a lot to Go Nagai. The man is a legend
I always found Go Nagai as just a guy who wrote what came to his mind after taking doing some blow followed by medicinal drugs and marijuana and he just seemed he only does what he to be controversial over doing something meaningful. so I don’t really think we owe him much on anything since again a lot of his history just sounds like a guy who always has to be on the opposing side of everything even when there’s absolutely no reason to when similar results were done by others both in and outside of japan but to his credit he is kind of like the ralph bakshi of anime where some will credit him for something but likely don’t ever want to deal with him in real life.
I have no clue what the man would be like in person, but I would say that his work should be judged by more than just the controversy it caused. Cutie Honey and Devilman remain popular series to this day after decennia of adaptations, re-releases, and remakes. Even if you call their historical significance into question, there are few manga series out there that can claim to have remained relevant for over 40 years.
a few but relevant kind of depends since every time devilman appears on something 90% of the time it’s not properly represented for go nagai all things considered especially since those projects were written by other people. crybaby mainly stands out cause it is very different from go nagai’s original work and concept but still familiar. while I didn’t and never will get into devilman in particular at least I’ve at least or I hope I did come to terms some things will be more relevant than others and crybaby for better or worse is an actual legit method of how to actually do a proper reboot of an existing series or franchise that’s familiar but has its own identity.
I can’t really say that for the other devilman projects mostly cause they never really go as all in as nagai would have or have enough of their own identity since the last time I think I saw him mentioned was in cyborg 009 vs devilman. as for cutie honey yeah I’ve seen that thrown around and I can’t speak for any earlier adaptions or remakes I think people have given the recent anime it had a lot of praise.
So again while can’t speak up for all his choices I think Nagai has something of a similar reputation as ralph bakshi who has tried to do similar things in terms of making animation for adults which led to similar controversies and cult followings.