Legendary Jump Manga Revived: 69-Year-Old Artist Reveals Comeback Secrets

Have you killed some people?

In the 1980s, Weekly Shonen Jump featured masterpieces like DRAGON BALL, Hokuto no Ken, and Captain Tsubasa. Among them, one series stood out for its hard world-building and gained popularity.

In this story, enemy characters never turn into allies, and even the protagonists are mercilessly killed. The protagonist hunts down villains who stop at nothing with extreme evil—Black Angels. The author, Shinji Hiramatsu, made his debut with Doberman Deka. Black Angels became a massive hit with a total of 8 million copies sold, and many works that continued its world were created.

Now, Black Angels are being revived in the present day!? A reporter who caught wind of this visited Hiramatsu’s home.

“I’ve killed a few people, right? That’s the image everyone has when they come to see me. But I’m not black at all, actually (laughs). I don’t gamble, I don’t drink alcohol. If I cheated, my wife would divorce me immediately, so I have no problems with women, and I don’t associate with bad people either.”

The veteran manga artist, who turned 70 in August, smiled as he said this. His home and workspace are piled high with past works.

“I was actually asked to create a Reiwa version of Black Angels as a vertical scroll manga, and I’m supervising it. What would happen if we combined the crimes evolved through digital technology with Black Angels? I’m looking forward to it myself.”

The story is written by scriptwriter Midori Sato, with art by J-MANGA CREATE Studio. J-MANGA CREATE, founded in 2022 by gal manga artist Britney Hamada and others, is planning to create various projects with other manga artists, according to Hamada.

Hiramatsu, who is supervising the project, focuses on not saying unnecessary things. However, there were parts he couldn’t compromise on.

With a gaze as if looking at an insect.

“The first name I received wasn’t that terrible of a story. But that wouldn’t make it Black Angels. If we’re going to do this, it needs to be thorough, and I told them I want the villains to be as evil as possible.”

In the first episode of the Reiwa version, Black Angels NEO – The Apostle of Justice Who Protects the Good, Revived Across Time, the story of a young man caught up in a dark part-time job is told. FRIDAY Digital has obtained exclusive access to its content! Ahead of the January 31 release, five episodes are being previewed.

For Hiramatsu, Black Angels wasn’t just his breakout work; it was a piece he poured his very soul into, as he describes.

“When I was working on Doberman Detective, there’s something the editor said to me that I’ll never forget. ‘As long as you’re working on a manga based on someone else’s original work, I won’t acknowledge you as a proper manga artist. A manga artist needs to create both the story and the art, but right now, all you’re doing is drawing pictures.’ I was so frustrated by that, and it became the driving force behind Black Angels.

At the time, the Hiramatsu series was popular, so I decided I wanted to create a story of anti-establishment justice. In telling a story of good versus evil, the most important thing is the villain. You need to create a villain who is so bad that the reader feels it’s justified for the protagonist to kill them. They should be so unforgivable that it leaves the audience thinking, ‘This person deserves to die.'”

What kind of bad things should these villains commit? Hiramatsu spent his twenties and thirties collecting reports on real-life crimes from magazines and TV, continuing to think about what made someone truly evil.

“When I look back at old photos, most of them show me not smiling. My eyes were sharp, intense. Even though it was just for the world of manga, if you keep thinking about bad things, it does something to your personality. I couldn’t switch off properly either, and I remember my wife once telling me that I looked at her with eyes as if she were an insect (laughs).”

Although Hiramatsu didn’t drink alcohol, he smoked up to seven packs of cigarettes a day. From 1981 to 1985, he dedicated his life to finishing Black Angels. Now, the revived protagonist, Yukito, returns to face and erase criminals in Reiwa. You should definitely see it for yourself.

[Read the Manga] Black Angels NEO Revived in Reiwa!

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Black Angels NEO First to Fifth Episodes Free Preview!