Let's La Gon (レッツラゴン, Retsura Gon) is a gag manga by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro, that ran from September 5, 1971 (#37) to July 14, 1974 (#29) in Weekly Shonen Sunday.
It tells the story of Gon, a young boy living with his dysfunctional father, and the bizarre antics that go on in their lives.
Overview[]
The cover to the first Weekly Shonen Sunday issue featuring the series. A preliminary design of Gon, even rougher than that of the early chapters, can be spotted.
"The humor in “Osomatsu-kun” became nonsense with “Genius Bakabon” and then surreal with “Let's Lagon”. This was the world I was aiming for."
After the failure of Bukkare*Dan, Akatsuka took a trip to New York City to visit MAD Magazine and to prepare for his next series idea. He embarked on this trip with Kenji Morita, Kunio Nagatani, and his current mistress, spending two months in the USA. The culmination of his trip would result in him sending a color photograph of himself at the Statue of Liberty back to his editor Toshiki Takei, with the title of the new work: "Let's La Gon".
From the midpoint of the series, Akatsuka and Takei would aggressively collaborate in idea meetings that would quickly spawn the most outlandish ideas, to the point where Akatsuka would immediately forgo the idea of doing rough drafts of the manga and have it immediately drawn on manuscript paper. This made it so that once an idea started, it could not be undone and had to be run with.
The overall tone of the series became more chaotic and surrealist than what had been seen in Osomatsu-kun and The Genius Bakabon, with content challenging the younger demographic of the magazine. Akatsuka and Takei would be used in meta jokes for the series, depicted as battling and fighting one another, or there would be other off-the-wall, unrelated gags to the main story. The "graphic novel" picture approach would be used as well, where characters would suddenly become more hyper-realistic or detailed for dramatic moments. After a while in the series, Akatsuka would attempt to repeat the success of the "Sheeh!" pose by having characters strike the "Ajapaa!" pose of the actor Junzaburo Ban.
The title itself was coined from Akatsuka's English phrase of "Let's la go!" that he had used while in NYC, and the character of Beramatcha would take his name from the pronunciation of "very much". In the early period of the series, Gon will also utilize "Let's la Gon!" as his own catchphrase.
Although there have been alternative ways of representing the title in English, due to the katakana usage, the official title of "Let's La Gon" can be seen clearly displayed in some of the original serialization frontispieces (which were restored for more recent editions).
Akatsuka would later remark that as a "real nonsense manga", Gon was his favorite to have drawn. However, when compared to series like Osomatsu and Bakabon, it did not explode in the same type of mass popularity they had. In fact, it became somewhat of a shame for the magazine to where its later editor-in-chief, Keizo Inoue, personally set about to discontinue the series as a way to keep the Sunday brand from being stained with any of its brutal depictions. He dismissed Toshiki Takei from being Akatsuka's editor for the series, and informed that a new work and writer would be taking Gon's place. Akatsuka would grudgingly accept the announcment of cancellation, figuring that since he was able to do Gon due to Takei, it only made sense that it should end without him.
While the characters would pop up now and then in the Star System, only Beramatcha seemed to get the most popular usage. The work would appear to fall into a gray area for Fujio Pro in whether or not it's considered one of Akatsuka's "big" works; the corporate site excludes Gon from the listing of the major titles for licensing, but it is counted on Koredeiinoda.
Characters[]
For more, see List of characters in Let's La Gon
Gon[]
A dry young boy who goes about life at his own pace, having grown up and adapted to his father's lack of parenting. He was the youngest of six sons, but all his older brothers died when he was a toddler due to his father's harsh ways of punishment. This also resulted in his mother's death.
Gon is rarely seen in school, and mostly wanders about. However, he can be very helpful when it comes to doing some questionable work such as doing others' homework for them.
Gon's Father[]
A self-centered, harsh and laissez-faire father who does not care to actually act as a parent. His true occupation is unknown, though he is initially set as a carpenter that doesn't really do work. He considers the deaths of his wife and other children due to them having "given up" and being unable to tough out his treatment.
Irako[]
The family cat. He is docile while sleeping, but becomes violent when disturbed awake. The exception is when a cute classmate of Gon wakes him, leaving him to only show happiness.
Beramatcha[]
A wild bear that Gon and father brought home from the mountains, and that learned to speak English and walk like a man. He is often involved in unfortunate happenings, but will reappear fine by the next story.
Fujio Akatsuka[]
The very author of this manga, seen in the mid-point to be pushed around by his editor Takei and at odds with him.
Toshiki Takei[]
Akatsuka's boss, a rude and controlling man with a huge nose and incredibly smelly socks.
Serialization[]
See List of chapters in Let's La Gon
All chapters except #12 for 1974 were represented in reprints, though more recent releases such as the eBookJapan edition include it.
The separate special feature of "Cyrano do Beramatcha" is also included in the reprints.
Reprints[]
A comparison of a frontispiece of Gon by Akatsuka vs. reprints. Note the dark skin on Gon which never recurs past this coloring.
- Akebono: 12 volumes (1973-1975). As was the standard of the time for reprints (and what occurred with other Akatsuka series), many frontispieces were discarded and colored ones were traced by assistants to create new lineart-only versions.
- Tachikawa: 1 volume (1975)
- Futabasha: 3 volumes (1984)
- Gomashobo: 12 volumes (1999-2001). This version, which was used as the base for the DVD-ROM set, contains various censorship to terms that would now be significantly discriminatory in Japanese language (eg: "kichigai" is toned down to "baka").
- Shogakukan: 12 volumes in the "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" DVD-ROM set (2002), 1 volume of "Let's La Gon Masterpiece Selection" (2005).
- eBookJapan: 12 volumes (2011). Restored colored frontispieces that were lost in the previous reprintings, along with a missing chapter.
- Fukkan: 7 volumes (2013). Restored frontispieces, missing chapter, and other material previously unseen. The discriminatory terms that were censored have been re-instated.
Media[]
No-Good Father[]
Episode 24 of the No-Good Father anime features an appearance of Beramatcha. During a typhoon the titular father boards up the house using a sign from a ramen store, leading Beramatcha to think he can order ramen there. He gives chase after Damesuke says he doesn't have any.
Curriculum Machine: "AIUEIO Song"[]
This 1977-1978 educational program by NTV notably featured the characters in the animation for a song about katakana in one episode. Most of the song was centered around Beramatcha and The Police Officer with the Connected Eyes, although Gon briefly appeared at the start.
The animation was provided by Studio Lotus.
Hitachi Television City: Nyarome's Fun Mathematics Classroom[]
Gon, his father, and Beramatcha were seen among the numerous Akatsuka characters in this 1982 TV special. However, it has yet to ever get a home video release.
Beramatcha was voiced by Yasuo Tanaka, while Joji Yanami provided the voice for Gon's father.
Unaired Anime Pilot[]
In 1989, a Gon TV series was planned to be animated by Studio Gallop and a pilot film was completed in 1990 for Fuji TV. Unfortunately, due to the source material being seen as problematic and hard to work with for anything further in an animated adaptation, the series did not happen.
Very few details are known on the pilot, and it has never been screened; it is also questionable if it still exists, due to the loss of the film masters for other Gallop works produced in the same time-frame (notably Miracle Giants Dome-kun and Gaki Deka). Three voice actors for it are known through the scant planning information available at the time:
- Gon- Chika Sakamoto
- Gon's Father- Kenichi Ogata
- Beramatcha- Shigeru Chiba
Stage Show: "Men's! Let's La Gon"[]
Written by Toru Hosokawa, this stage show revolves around the life of Gon, his father, and Beramatcha. It was performed at the Honda Theatre from July 30th to August 9th, 2015.
Gallery[]
Original Artwork[]
Covers to Reprints[]
