Eliminating the Dark Bite! Legendary manga from JUMP revived in Reiwa… Veteran 69-year-old manga artist reveals the story behind the revival.

Have you killed some people…?

In the 1980s, Weekly Shonen Jump serialized masterpieces such as “Dragon Ball,” “Fist of the North Star,” and “Captain Tsubasa. Among them, there was one that was particularly popular for its “hard” worldview.

Enemy characters never became allies, and even allies were mercilessly killed. In “Black Angels,” the protagonist kills off the villains who do everything out of the ordinary. The author is Shinji Hiramatsu, who made his debut with “Detective Doberman. Black Angels” was a huge hit, selling a total of 8 million copies of the comic, and many other works have followed suit.

Now, “Black Angels” will be revived in the modern age!　A reporter who got such information directly visited Mr. Hiramatsu at his home.

He said, “I think I have killed some people. People come to see me with that image. But I myself am not a black man at all (laughs). I don’t gamble and I don’t drink. If I were to have an affair, my wife would divorce me immediately, so I have no problems with women, and I don’t associate with bad people at all.

The veteran cartoonist, who will turn 70 this August, smiles. In his home and workplace, he has piles of past works.

I was told that they wanted to make a Reiwa version of “Black Angels” as a vertical manga, and I was asked to supervise the project. What will happen when you cross Black Angels with crimes that have evolved through digital technology?　I myself am looking forward to it.

The story is written by screenwriter Midori Sato and illustrated by J-MANGA CREATE Studio, a studio established in 2010 by Britney Hamada, known as a “gyaru manga artist,” and others. Mr. Hamada says, “In addition to Mr. Hiramatsu, we plan to create projects with a variety of manga artists in the future.

Mr. Hiramatsu, who supervises the project, says that he basically tries to “keep his mouth shut. However, there were some aspects that he could not compromise.

He looked at me as if I were an insect.

The first name I received wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t Black Angels. But that wasn’t the Black Angels. I told them that if they were going to do it, they should do it thoroughly and out of the ordinary.

FRIDAY Digital has obtained an exclusive look at the first episode of the Reiwa version of “Black Angels NEO: The Apostle of Justice Who Protects the Good, Reborn Through the Ages,” which tells the story of a young man caught up in a black market job!　FRIDAY Digital has obtained exclusive access to the first five episodes prior to the January 31 distribution date.

For Hiramatsu, “Black Angels” was not only a career-making work, but also, as he says, a work that he devoted himself to with the utmost care.

I will never forget what my editor said to me when I was working on “Doberman Detective” as a serial. I will never forget what my editor said to me when I was serializing “Detective Doberman”: “As long as you are working on a manga with an original story, I will never recognize you as a full-fledged manga artist. A manga artist thinks about both the story and the pictures, and right now you are just an artist. This frustration was the driving force behind “Black Angels.

At the time, the “Hissatsu” series was popular, and I decided to draw an anti-establishment good-punishment story. In depicting good and evil, the most important thing is the “bad guy. I had to depict a villain who could be killed by the protagonist and make him unforgivable.

In his 20s and 30s, Mr. Hiramatsu collected information on incidents reported in magazines and on television and continued to think about “villains.

When I look back at photos from that time, there are almost no pictures of me smiling. When I look back at the photos from that time, there are almost no pictures of him smiling, and his eyes are glazed over. Even though it was the world of comic books, if you thought about bad things all the time, your personality would become abnormal. I remember my wife pointing out that he looked at me as if I were an insect.

Although Hiramatsu could not drink alcohol, he smoked seven packs of cigarettes a day at the height of his career. How will the protagonist, Yukito, who has been revived in the present day, eliminate the criminals of Reiwa? We hope you will find out for yourself.

Read the manga “Black Angels NEO” which was revived in Reiwa..!

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