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Mazinger/Cutey Honey/Devilman's Go Nagai Interviewed
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The website for the magazine Egypt Today posted an interview with manga creator Gō Nagai (Mazinger Z, Cutey Honey, Devilman) from its December issue. Nagai learned that his works were being dubbed for Arab audiences during a visit to France, and decided to take a Middle East tour to give lectures and workshops for young animators. According to Egypt Today, both the Mazinger Z and Grendizer series are popular in Arab countries.
In the interview, Nagai explains how growing up in Japan immediately after World War II influenced his works. (Nagai was born the month after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan's surrender.) "The reason why I depict the effects of war in my comics," Nagai said, "is because I strongly believe that a person should learn from childhood how war can be destructive and how much people and societies may suffer from it, just the same way I learned it from the stories of adults around me when I was a little child."
Nagai also talks about his influence from manga creators Osamu Tezuka and Mitsuteru Yokoyama, the origins of the Mazinger franchise, the masculine/feminine duality of his villains, and his take on the human-machine fusion in his stories.
Nagai also admitted his surprise at the popularity of manga and anime in the Western world, but added, "I believe animation has helped the world to discover the real soul of Japanese people and their culture, more than anything else."
A live-action film adaptation of Nagai's The Abashiri Family manga opened in Tokyo on November 21.
[Via Icarus Publishing]
