Summary
- Go Nagai's works like Devilman and Mazinger Z have influenced the manga industry immensely.
- Lesser-known manga like Harenchi Gakuen explore taboo topics and break conventions.
- Despite its popularity, Dante Shinkyoku, Go Nagai's take on Divine Comedy, never got an anime adaptation.
Go Nagai is probably one of the most important names in the manga industry. While he may not be as popular or well-renowned as Osamu Tezuka or Akira Toriyama, he is still an incredibly influential artist whose works have changed the landscape of manga as an art form.
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Plenty of Go Nagai's most famous works, such as Devilman, Mazinger Z, and Getter Robo, have received popular anime adaptations that are renowned the world over. However, Go Nagai's body of work is large, and there are plenty of manga he has written that have not had adaptations. Here are some of the best Go Nagai manga that have yet to receive a proper TV anime adaptation.
5 Harenchi Gakuen
Introducing Explicit Content To Manga
- Published in Weekly Shonen Jump
- 13 volumes
Harenchi Gakuen is the first manga to ever fall under the banner of ecchi, opening up the possibility for manga to explore more taboo topics. Set in the titular "Harenchi Gakuen" (translated as Shameless School), the students are constantly beset by the harassment of the teachers, who are all oddballs and lunatics with no sense of shame behind their actions whatsoever. While starting off as a relatively irreverent comedy, the series soon ventured into more explicit topics, cementing it as the convention-breaking series it is known as today.
Aside from a series of live-action films, Harenchi Gakuen has never received an anime adaptation. The closest it has ever gotten one is an OVA for Heisei Harenchi Gakuen, a short sequel to the original series. Despite the number of follow-ups and live-action adaptations, the original Harenchi Gakuen has never been animated.
4 Susano Oh
The Awakened Psychic Warrior
- Published in Weekly Shonen Magazine
- 9 volumes
Shingo Susa and his childhood friend Sayuri Yukishiro are both ESP club members who discover that two real psychics exist at their school: Chigusa Mitsurugi and Rei Uryu. The two psychics have opposing philosophies, and while caught between the two of them, a traumatic event causes Shingo to awaken his own psychic powers on a hell-bent journey for revenge. So begins a violent journey of revenge as the fate of the world spins in the balance.
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Susano Oh originally ran in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 1979 to 1981 before being canceled. However, after novel adaptations written by his brother Yasutaka Nagai became popular, Nagai was persuaded to continue the story, though he never fully finished the manga. Despite the story being serialized for ten more years, it never managed to get a proper anime adaptation.
3 Violence Jack
The Mysterious Giant Of Justice
- Published in Weekly Shonen Magazine, Monthly Shonen Magazine, and Weekly Manga Goraku
- 38 volumes
A massive earthquake shakes the city of Tokyo, decimating it in a single day. The government, unable to do a thing to stop the destruction, abandons the ruined city, leaving it to the mercy of bandits, thugs, and all manner of villains. For the weak and disenfranchised still living in the shambling ruins, their only hope of salvation is Violence Jack, a mysterious 10-foot tall giant who destroys everything in his path. Though strange phenomena follow him wherever he goes, he wanders the wasteland putting evildoers in their place.
Violence Jack is one of Go Nagai's longest-running manga series, with several manga follow-ups and novel adaptations. While it did receive several OVA adaptations covering fairly short Violence Jack stories, the manga has never managed a full TV anime adaptation.
2 Dante Shinkyoku
A Re-telling Of The Classic Journey Through The Afterlife
- Published by Kodansha
- 3 volumes
Dante Shinkyoku is Japanese for Dante's Divine Comedy, the classic poem about the workings of the afterlife, as dictated by Christian religion. The work was incredibly influential on the Christian depiction of the afterlife, with particular focus on Dante's exploration of hell. Many modern depictions of hell draw influence from the Divine Comedy, and anime and manga are no different.
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Dante Shinkyoku is essentially Go Nagai's rendition of the Divine Comedy, done in a much more mature rendition of his usual artstyle. While his style may not necessarily be to the taste of his usual fans, it may be interesting to others to see Go Nagai tackle such a complex work. Compared to his more famous works, Dante Shinkyoku is rather obscure, and naturally never received an anime adaptation.
1 Shin Getter Robo
An Overlooked Midquel In The Getter Robo Series
- Published in Weekly Manga Action
- 2 volumes
The Getter Robo series is one of the most influential manga in the history of mecha manga and anime, spawning several iconic anime series in the Super Robot subgenre. There are various Getter Robo manga and anime series, and it can be hard to keep it all in order. Shin Getter Robo is a prequel to Getter Robo Go, the third main series in the franchise, and covers various story elements not covered during Getter Robo Go.
While Go Nagai created the Getter Robo series, he had little involvement in Shin Getter Robo, with co-creator Ken Ishikawa taking up the reins of the manga instead. Though the manga covered topics incredibly relevant to Getter Robo Go, it never received an anime adaptation the way its predecessors did.
Best Manga By Go Nagai, Ranked
Go Nagai is a household name in the world of manga. These are some of his best works.