DeadYep, this is a thing that’s happening. For some reason.
The official website for this three episode OVA series went live this past week and brought with it the trailer above. The OVA, which will be directed by Jun Kawagoe (he directed a couple episode of Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier, Mazinkaiser SKL, and one episode of Baccano!) with production being handled by Bee Media and Actas, marks the first time these two franchises have crossed over. Not surprising, as I haven’t even thought of these two things together up until I read about this OVA.
The anime will be premiering in a limited two-week engagement in eight theaters across Japan this October. It will then be released as a three episode OVA.
For those who don’t know, Cyborg 009 is about Joe Shimamura and eight other people becoming cyborgs after being subjected to involuntary experiments by an evil organization. They then used their new powers to protect the world from said organization. As for Devilman, that’s about Akira Fudo, a whimpy kid, getting possessed by a demon and using the powers he from that possession to fight off a horde of invading demons.
Source: ANN
I meant Tezuka’s own son, since Tezuka obviously passed away a long time ago.*
Because the guy who made Devilman (Go Nagai) was Shotaro Ishinomori (Super Sentai, Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider)’s assistant in his early days, and this is his way of paying his respects to his late former boss.
He did the same thing with Osamu Tezuka’s Dororo and his Dororon Enma-kun which resulted in a manga called Dororo to Enma-kun, with Tezuka’s own approval of course. Nagai wasn’t Tezuka’s assistant, but it’s thanks to him that he got into manga in the first place.
So there you have an author making two tributes to his heroes.
And before you know it, authors like Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) and Kentaro Miura (Berserk) are both fans of Go Naga and Devilman, and the cycle continues…