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This illustration was the cover of Issue 42, 1972 (October 2 Issue) of Weekly Shonen Jump. In 2024, we photographed the illustration using a high-resolution camera. We then digitally retouched the photograph and printed it on 100% cotton paper using an archival inkjet printer. It has been turned into a manga-art piece, packaged as a set containing the illustration in its original size and an enlarged A1-size version.
The work depicts Koji Kabuto onboard the Hover Pilder, and Mazinger Z. Unlike the red Hover Pilder from the anime adaptation, this version sports a refreshing white color. The cover of Weekly Shonen Jump also featured lines of text turned to the same angle as the Hover Pilder’s tilt. They read, “New Sci-Fi Robot Manga Series,” “New Color Series!” and “Mazinger Z.”
Go Nagai aimed to create a new kind of robot manga while paying homage to earlier works in the genre, such as Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s Tetsujin 28. The result was a massive robot operated by the protagonist, who rides in its head as he battles enemies.
Mazinger Z’s head extends upward on both sides to protect the Hover Pilder, which is covered in a transparent canopy. In designing this shape, Go Nagai took inspiration from the walls of a European castle. The lyrics to the theme song of the anime adaptation include a fitting reference to a “castle of black iron.” In addition, the idea of the masked mouth was inspired by the period drama Kurama Tengu. Motifs from hovercraft, Western fortresses, and period dramas were combined to create an original hero.
In the process of converting this illustration into manga art, Go Nagai himself gave it the title Mazinger Z: Giant Machine God.
• The work is sold as a set of two copies.
• The print is signed (with a handwritten signature).
Go Nagai made his manga debut with Meakashi Polikichi (serialized in Bokura) in 1967. In 1968, he began publishing Harenchi Gakuen in Weekly Shonen Jump. The series was a tremendous hit. In 1972, he launched two series, Devilman in Weekly Shonen Magazine and Mazinger Z in Weekly Shonen Jump, while the animated versions were being developed for television simultaneously. In 1973, he started serializing Cutie Honey in Weekly Shonen Champion. His works span a wide range of genres, from gag comedy to dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror. As of 2024, he continues to publish series. In 2019, he was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier) by the French government.
The protagonist rides on a giant robot, battling strange enemies.
In 1972, Go Nagai launched both the TV animation and manga series projects at the same time. By bridging the story’s world with character merchandise, this franchise created a giant robot universe and a new market, which continues to thrive today. This paved the way for such series as Getter Robo (1974–), Mobile Suit Gundam (1979–), and Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–).
Mazinger Z was followed by the sequels Great Mazinger (1974) and UFO Robot Grendizer (1975–), which were big hits in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. In 2024, Grendizer was rebooted as the animated series Grendizer U.
アーカイヴァル インクジェット プリント
Shueisha Manga-Art Heritage has entered into a business partnership with Epson, entrusting them with color management support and printing. The pigment inks used in the company’s inkjet printers are lightfast, preserving the original colors even under lighting that would cause the dye-based color inks used in the original artwork to fade.
On the other hand, original manga artwork is highly prone to fading, especially when it comes to color illustrations created using dye-based markers. Illustrations created for the covers of manga magazines, frontispieces, and comic book covers were not originally intended to be displayed or appreciated as works of art. They were designed to be printed and viewed by readers in magazines and comic books. Illustrations were often colored over copied line art, and in some cases, the characters and backgrounds were cut out and pasted in separately. To transform such illustrations into manga-art, they need to be retouched, such as by correcting discolored areas.
Since 2008, Shueisha has been working to digitally archive manga. Initially, we captured color originals using the EverSmart Supreme II, a high-precision scanner, and in 2015, we began using the Phase One IQ180, a high-resolution digital camera. Since 2020, we have been using Phase One’s Cultural Heritage series. This has allowed us to capture and preserve colors beyond the reproducible range of commercial printing, while also retaining the texture of the paper on which the illustrations were created.
Using this digitally archived data and imaging equipment, we retouch the artwork, restoring the original colors as they were when the illustrations were created. To produce the final print, color is carefully managed at each stage, from the original artwork to the captured data and printing.
For illustrations that were created digitally, we perform color management and printing in the wider-gamut Adobe RGB color space, instead of the sRGB space typically used in commercial printing, resulting in deeper and more vibrant colors.
