Interviews

This is the thread dedicated to different interviews we (you) find with Go Nagai over the years.
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On Friday 2008-10-11 the French anime website Fantasy.fr posted an English translation of an interview it conducted with manga and anime creator Go Nagai (Mazinger Z, Cutey Honey, Devilman) at France's Japan Expo in July. Nagai describes the people that paved the way for his four-decade-long career, his favorite personal work, and his thoughts on the later generations of creators that he himself influenced.
Anime News Network

http://www.fantasy.fr/interviews/view/175/go-nagain-mecha-s-master?reload=true

The interview was badly translated. So, I rewrote some parts so that it makes more sense to an English reader.

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Go Nagai Interview: Naples Comicon 2007

Manga Forever Staff is pleased and honoured to give you an interview with one of the greatest and most celebrated japanese authors of all time: Go Nagai.
Meeting the man behind the characters and stories that were with us in our childhood and teens, the ones we shaped our dreams, is a really exciting moment.
We have all fought together with Duke Fleed, Hiroshi or Tetsuya, characters who taught us one essential rule: to never give up!
And that’s what we Manga Forever did to get his interview.
We met master Go Nagai on the 28th of April at Castel Sant’Elmo, during Naples Comicon 2007. The press conference was reserved for a few selected journalists – and Manga Forever was amongst them – We saw the Japanese master answering some questions.
The event took around twenty minutes; each journalist was allowed only one question.
This is just a teaser about what's going on: we have some more gifts for you…come back and visit us and you’ll find them…

Question: What do you think about the censorship placed on your characters who are accused for inciting violence among kids?
Answer: I think it's wrong. Giving a fake and sweetened idea of the real world where violence and competition rule is not very educational and therefore counterproductive.

Q: Did Hiroshima’s tragedy affect your works?
A: I was born three weeks after Japan's surrender, so I lived the horror of the war only through the testimonies and the stories of people around me, and I was affected by it for sure, so all my works were: the fear of the war is clear in every story of mine and I’m often misunderstood because I prefer not to express explicitly pacific messages, but I rather show what would happen if we come to a new world war. I also think that some characters I created share a hippie soul, because I started working just in 1968, so they were inevitably influenced by those years.

Q: What gives you the motivation to write new adventures for your characters created in the past?
A: It depends because I've never been completely satisfied with the quality of my works. I always think it could be improved. On the other hand, animation technologies have a continuous evolution, so I’m curious about what my characters can become and what they can do.

Q: What are you currently working on?
A: I’m on four different kind of stories, two of them are manga about Samurai set in Medieval Japan.

: It’s been some years since you visited Italy: have you noticed any difference since your last visit?
A: It looks really dynamic to me but at the same time it has been able to keep the same setting I enjoyed in my childhood when I watched movies of the Italian neo-realismo for the first time. I’ve also found some traces of ancient Greek and Romans myths, and most of all I’ve been struck by the armour of a statue at the Museo Nazionale; it will probably inspire some new warriors in my future works.

Q: What are must-read works according to you?
A: My tastes are in continuous evolution and they don’t stop to the stories I read 10 or 20 years ago. I still read comics that excite me a lot nowadays and therefore I can't give you a specific list of the finest ones.

Q: Do you often deal with social and political issues in your comics? Does Devilman, for example, have a “political” ending?
A: No, I don’t, I prefer to avoid a political connotation for my manga. I might be misunderstood and be at risk of offending people. Devilman does not have a political ending. I just wanted to underline human stupidity.

Q: What kind of relationship did you have with Italian literature, which you’ve always appreciated – especially with Dante’s Divina Commedia?
A: When I was I child I was struck by the edition of Divina Commedia my father had at home, which was illustrated by Dorè; since then I paid attention to Italian culture, mostly novels and movies imported in Japan. Mao Dante and the following Devilman are for sure children of Lucifer trapped in the ice. These days I spent in Napoli gave me the chance to see the fascinating Pompei.

Q: You’ve almost reach a forty years long career: why is it that in most of your works, you tend to resume characters and situations created in your first ten years in the industry?
A: Because of two reasons:
1) I’m not satisfied with the style of the "Young Nagai", and so by working on the old characters again, I can notice how my style has changed and if possible, I try to improve it.
2) Resuming situations used in the past gives me the chance to update them with historical and social evolutions.

Q: I’ve seen that the science-fiction you tell in your stories has a kind of destructive connotation to them, while we have some other writers like Leiji Matsumoto who give their sci-fi a more “romantic” flavour. Have you ever thought about creating romantic sci-fi comic books?
A: Yes, I have, It’d be nice; but what the publishers want from me are sci-fi comic books full of robots destroying evil aliens. In this way I also avoid misunderstanding: as I write about heroes fighting aliens, I don’t offend anybody; so it’s better to use alien than human beings.

Q: What do you think about the role of comics in our society? How is it evolving?
A: Comics are much more enjoyable than novels, so they can have a more direct role with the readers thanks to the mixing of images and text. They also underwent an incredible evolution over the years and I don't know how far it can go. Thanks to new visual technologies, comics will surely evolve into something important and will keep a leading role anyway.

A special thanks to Master Go Nagai who even answered difficult questions, thanks to Federico Colpi (D/Visual) who took charge of the translation and a very special thanks to Comicon 2007 staff, FactaManent, particularly to Francesca (press office).
Come back and see us for many more goodies..

Thank you so much, it was very interesting

This interview isn't really with him, but rather with a cosplayer who met Nagai.
http://japancinema.net/2012/04/25/cosplay-corner-episode-41-giorgia/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cosplay-corner-episode-41-giorgia

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Go Nagai was discussing with the rest of the jury the score of the contestants who had been on the stage that far, but when he heard us singing, he simply quit the meeting and run out to reach the stage and watch us sing. I will never forget his face, he was happy like a child: he danced and waved at us like we and not him were the stars there. After that I have been told that he was heard saying “I didn’t know I was so popular abroad”. I think that says a lot on the person and why he is who he is.

Go Nagai Interview concerning the DX Chogokin.

http://tamashii.jp/special/mazingerZ/comment.html

I don't suppose anyone on the forum have seen this:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm1265150

This on is not exactly an interview, more like a documentary about devilman, it also features Nagai drawing devilman lady.
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9105455

Thanks.

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(The Dororon Enma-kun MeeraMera [or, as NIS America titled it, “Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up”] complete series premium edition includes a hardcover booklet full of info and interviews, including—as the subject heading says—one with Go Nagai himself! I thought I’d share this for fans of the show and Go Nagai in general to enjoy. Includes his thoughts on the show, freedom of expression then vs. now, the conception of the original series, and his comic-making process.)

Q: What did you think when you saw Dororon Enma-kun MeeraMera on TV for the first time?
A: I watched every episode. It was really fun and over the top. There aren’t many shows like that on TV anymore, you know? So to see them pull off something like this made me really happy. One thing I wish was different was the show’s time slot, so that more kids could have seen it. But I understand that Enpi probably made that impossble. *Laughs*

Q: When they pitched the idea of remaking the show to you, did you have any special requests or advice?
A: No, none at all. I let them do whatever they wanted. Even when I met with director Yoshitomo Yonetani and character designer Takahiro Kimura I didn’t make a single request. When I saw Mr. Kimura’s character designs, I thought they were just wonderfully awesome and I knew I could count on him. I told him he could draw all my other characters too if he want. *Laughs* So even when I saw the script, I didn’t make any suggestions.

Q: The original show aired while the comic was still current. With the comic being over thirty years old now and this new version still set in that same time period, how do you feel about this project?
A: Back then, animated shows were made for all audiences, so I’d have to say it held back on its “over-the-top”ness a little. Just to be clear, I don’t mean that as a complaint. I don’t want to say that’s the reason, but I did go way overboard on the comic. *Laughs* I also noticed some parts that took two episodes in the comic were combined into one episode for the show. Also, I saw that Walter Geso had a way bigger part in his episode, and then later Dokuro showed up. I thought it was really clever how they handled the episodes.

Q: It had a very strong 70s feel.
A: Oh yeah, absolutely. The public bathhouses and the coffee milk, stuff like that. Everyone that grew up in the 70s is pretty old now, but I’m sure all kinda of people are able to enjoy that nostalgic feeling.

Q: There are also plenty of cameo appearances by characters from other works of yours.
A: Yeah, that was really surprising. Kekko Honey for one! God of Poverty was another. I never thought I’d see Ms. Chiiko or Renkonman again. I was really excited to see them all show up. Oh, and another thing—Dobacchiri has a pretty big part in the show, too!

Q: How did the original Dororon Enma-kun come about?
A: Originally, a producer from Fuji TV asked me to do something involving demons. At the time, Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro was the epitome of demon shows, so in order not to overlap too much with that I made Enma a very Western character. I tried to avoid the religious image of the traditional “Enma the Great,” so I put Enma in a cape and boots. At the same time, since it was still supposed to be about Japanese demons, I wanted to make the support characters very Japanese. That’s where the traditional Snow Woman heroine came from. And although mini-kimonos are more prevalent today, I incorporated the mini-kimono at a time when long kimonos were all that existed. Of course, since it was my comic, I didn’t allow her to wear any panties. *Laughs* Also, Kapaeru was meant as a direct counterbalance to Enma’s Westerness.

Q: Dororon Enma-kun was born in 1973, but you were working on a lot of other different things at the time. In Gekiman! (a comic in which the main character, Geki Nagai, is a comic artist modeled after Mr. Nagai himself) Geki had multiple series running in five different weekly magazines in 1972. Quite remarkable, to say the least. *Laughs*
A: At that time, I had four different ongoing series, counting Enma. I felt like I had a deadline every day. I drew at least a hundred pages each week. But I have this ability where I can change my mental focus as if I were changing the channel on TV. I’d do a page of Mazinger Z, then Violence Jack, then Enma.

Q: Really? You drew one page at a time? You didn’t finish one project all the way before moving on to the next?
A: There were times when I did one page per project, yeah. I didn’t have any problems with it. But I had the most fun working on Enma. It was almost like playing. The toughest one back then was Violence Jack. Cutie Honey was pretty easy for me to draw, too.

Q: I’d like to ask—out of all the projects you’re responsible for, where does Dororon Enma-kun rank?
A: I made my debut with a slapstick-style comic, but I’d always wanted to try something more story-heavy. My first attempt was Overlord Dante, and from there I moved on to Devilman. Eventually, people started saying, “Go Nagai can go from slapstick to serious stories—he’s got a huge range of style!” The more I heard that, the more confident I became.

Q: This particular project has developed into a number of different spin-offs.
A: That’s true. I’ve drawn Enma as an adult, and then I added another twenty years to him on top of that to create Demon Prince Enma. I’ve made a lot of changes to him over the years, but overall he’s still just Enma the little kid. *Laughs*

Q: Looking at the kinds of characters you’ve created in the past, it’s nice to see someone as innocent as Enma.
A: Depending on my mood, I can turn Enma into a more serious character like Akira Fudo (Devilman) if I want, or I can make him really slapstick-y like in Shameless School. Enma’s pranks are always over the top, and I can only assume he does all the things he does because he’s just a little boy. *Laughs*

Q: You mentioned in the beginning how they don’t have many over-the-top shows like Enma anymore. As an advocate of self-expression, would you say that shows today have less of that kind of expression?
A: Absolutely. I think to myself, “Wow, isn’t everyone just acting too serious?” Back in my day, there was all kinds of freedom. Actually…maybe not. When I did Shameless School, people were really critical of me. But I didn’t give in, and eventually I earned my creative freedom. But even compared to that, there’s much less freedom these days. I mean, in kids’ comics today, even nipples are taboo!

Q: So Dororon Enma-kun is like an avatar of anarchy rubbing against the grain of society.
A: It’s true. That’s also why something like this seems even more precious. Another good thing is that it doesn’t go over the top just for its own sake—it’s very calculated. For example, how they use Harumi in the new show. In my original comic, Harumi’s role was filled by Tsutomu. But Tsutomu’s a really shy character, while Harumi is very strong. So using her as the more realistic character creates a powerful effect, and watching the show felt like a whole new experience. The show’s music is lots of fun too—the whole project is really extravagant. Anyway, Mr. Yonetani and the rest of the staff created a nice balance between my original comics and their own original material, creating a much stronger show in the end.

Q: Can we get a few words from you for all the fans who picked up this series?
A: I have all kinds of love for Enma—it’s really important to me. And Dororon Enma-kun MeeraMera sticks very close to the original. Many of my comics have been made into shows, but I think this one most closely represents who I was when I made it. Blu-Rays don’t have time slot restrictions *laughs* so parents and their kids can all watch the show together. I honestly think this show is okay for children to watch. And just as the older generation fell in love with Enma when they were young, I really hope today’s younger generation can fall in love with this version. As the creator, nothing would make me happier.

http://miliscarypenguin.tumblr.com/post/32849163849/dororon-enma-kun-meeramera-staff-interview-with-go

Thanks for posting. I didn't know he multitasked his works.

http://www.nicematin.com/monaco/video-go-nagai-jaimerais-beaucoup-un-retour-de-goldorak.1163405.html

Questions and answers with Go Nagai from Mocano Expo 2013. Here's a rough translation from the French voice over to English.

Q: Why did you come to MAGS 2013?
Go Nagai: Just by exchanging facts for the organisation I had trouble imagining what kind of event it would be. I was sure a lot of people would come, not only from Monaco, but also from the entirety of France. I really want to liven up Grendizer a bit, so that the youngsters of the twenties and thirties would become the new audience. So if they're interested in Grendizer, that would really please me and I really wanted to put that forward. That's why I came here.

Q: Can we expect a return of Grendizer?
Go Nagai: Yes, I would like to. I had several projects for Grendizer's return but the necessary elements weren't in place. It was about to happen 2 years ago, but now it's dead, and I'd like to start over.

Q: What are your projects for the future?
Go Nagai: I'd like to come back to TV for remakes, but I'm asking myself if I can get another boom going on. A lot of money and sponsors are needed. If you know any sponsors in France, don't hesitate to contact me.

Interview with Takahiro Kimura [Character Designer of Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera]

Takahiro Kimura discovered Go Nagai as a child, and his life hasn't been the same since. How he's earned the chance to take charge of a Go Nagai project himself, and he's making the most of it by squeezing out as much love and perversion as possible. We sat down with him and delved into his creative process.

Q: What kind of impression did you have of Go Nagai?

A: Well, I always loved his shows when I was a kid. Then I found out about his comics, and from the moment I picked up the first one, I was hooked. Compared to all his other comics, the differences between the comic version and animated version of Enma were pretty hideous. *Laughs* But that and Devilman were definitely my two favorite Nagai creations.

Q: When designing the characters and comparing them to the originals, where did you focus most of your personal creativity?

A: In terms of individual input, I didn't focus on that at all. Retaining the original feel was my top priority, and from there I rearranged things to the liking of the director. If I had to mention one thing - and this is true for any project I work on - I like to follow my libido and sexuality. Me and some other animation directors used to call this "using your penis as a pen." *Laughs*

Q: Can you describe the most important features for Enma, Yukiko, Chapeauldie, and Kappavier?

A: For Enma, it was about balancing the cute with the cool. He's always harassing Yukiko, so I tried to make him as kiddish as possible. For Yukiko, it was cute and really perverted. I made her exactly as perverted as I pleased. I never really gave Chapeauldie too much thought. To be honest, he's one of those characters you could overthink really easily. Like, where's the top of Enma's head going? With Kappavier, it was making sure that no matter how much hardship he went through, he never lost heart. He's actually really cute, and I like that about him. He's everyone's darling little toy.

Q: This time around, the Demon Patrol gets tangled up with a girl - Harumi. How did you approach her?

A: In the original comic, she shows up as Tsutomu's classmate, but she doesn't make too many appearances. A few scripts were nearly finished when I started designing her, so I could take her personality into consideration while working on her.

Q: When we interviewed Mr. Yonetani, he said this version is closer to the original comic than the original show. How was this implemented while designing the characters?

A: This was a golden opportunity for me, considering how much I loved the original comic. My general stance on the character design didn't change, but it did give me the chance to design Yukiko exactly how I wanted her! Of Course, in this day and age where there are all kinds of things you can't show on TV, so the director and I put a lot of thought into how to arrange the show while still retaining the feel of the comic.

Q: Mr. Yonetani said that you learned about sexuality from the original Princess Yukiko, and that she was your first "girl". *Laughs* Is that true? Can you expand on that?

A: So you want me to talk about my sexual experiences? Well, she was my first character love. I was in elementary school at the time, so I would cut her pictures out of magazines, and I hoped to meet her in my dreams. ...Wow, I used to be so pure.

Q: We heard that you created a number of different designs for each character. Exactly how many did you come up with?

A: For each main character I created four different designs - serious (sexy), normal, jokey, and super deformed. The idea wasn't to actually use each of these designs, though. I just wanted to show that there were lots of possible designs. I also thought it would be nice to incorporate what the original comic did as far as the height of each character being kind of an abstract thing.

Q: Do you have any closing comments for the fans who bought this series?

A: Each episode is overflowing with content, making the series fun to watch again and again. Personally, I could watch any Yukiko scene at least fifty times. Since it's a pretty short series, I wanted to keep it going full-power to the very end! *Laughs* I hope everyone can enjoy it and share in it together.