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Go Nagai is one of the most successful mangakas and is currently famous for creating series likeDevilman, Mazinger Z,andViolence Jack.Devilman Crybaby, a popular ONA, is also based on Nagai’s initialDevilmanmanga. The series has mature content and portrays a battle between demons and humans.
The mix of s*xual and violent acts makes it slightly traumatizing for even adults.Crybabywas far darker and grittier as well as more explicit than its source material, but you should not judge Nagai’s manga solely based on that. After all, one of his very first works had teachers and PTA protesting on every other street in Japan.
Go Nagai’s most explicit manga was neverDevilman
Harenchi Gakuenby Go Nagai was one of the first manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, the same magazine that has become the SHIELD for all of Shonen’s Avengers. It debuted in 1968 and ran till 1972 and was one of the most erotic manga of the time. It was Nagai’s first big success and is also credited for being the first ecchi manga.
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Harenchi Gakuenbecame the initial smash hit of the magazine. The story takes place in a school but is filled with extremely erotic gags. Male students and teachers were portrayed as lecherous, as everyone was trying to get a look at the underwear of female students. Depiction of the male genitalia was everywhere, and women were simply objects of male fascination.
Both teachers and students were involved in perverted situations all the time. Masaaki Yuasa, the director ofDevilman Crybaby, aptly admitted inan interviewabout Go Nagai:
Yet Nagai-sensei did all of this in a shonen magazine. If you look at his later works, they’re even more extreme.
FromViolence JacktoDevilmanandHarenchi Gakuen,Go Nagai stopped at nothingto portray sexually explicit and violent storylines.
The Japanese PTA and Go Nagai were at each other’s throats forHarenchi Gakuen
The erotic jokes inHarenchi Gakuen, which was published in a magazine intended for young boys, were not taken well by the scandalized adults in Japan. The Japanese Parent and Teachers Association led a Shonen Jump boycott, which got the magazine banned in several shops across the nation. It triggered such a big media circus that journalists accosted the author at any event they could find him.
Despite the notorious reputation of the manga,Harenchi Gakeunwas still a huge hit. In fact, every magazine began to pursue its own version of the series. Series with dirty jokes suddenly became the norm.
In response to all of the controversies, Go Nagai decided to end the manga with the most controversial arc ever, the Harenchi War arc (Shameless War). In this arc, a majority of the characters were killed in gory and disturbing manners and it remains an extremely infamous arc to date.
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The famous ending ofHarenchi Gakuenbecame a symbol of freedom and rejection of hypocrisy. The students and teachers in the manga were killed by the PTA and other parental forces while defending their freedom of expression. The manga never received a proper anime adaptation, but it got adapted into an adult OVA film calledHeisei Harenchi Gakuen.
Aaheli Pradhan
Anime Content Writer
Articles Published :1558
Aaheli is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with 1300+ published articles. With five years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. From Shonen and Shojo to the most niche anime, nothing escapes her radar. Her poisons of choice are Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Ouran High School Host Club and every Ghibli movie ever. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cats.
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Devilman Crybaby
