Leiji Matsumoto
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Leiji Matsumoto (松本 零士 Matsumoto Reiji) is a well-known creator of several anime and manga series. He was born in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture (Japan) on January 25, 1938.
Space opera
Some fans praise Matsumoto for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato. Indeed, many such as Toshio Okada and Eiichiro Oda have remarked in interviews that the Romanticism prevalent in his work has inspired them both. His style is characterized by tragic heroes; tall, slender, fragile-looking heroines with strong wills and in some cases, god-like powers; and a love of analog gauges and dials in his spacecraft. Those prominent gauges and dials are affectionately called "松本ゲージ" (Matsumoto Geji, lit. Gauges of Matsumoto) or "松本メーター" (Matsumoto Meter) by his fans. Another trademark of his is putting a series of "9"s or "0"s in his manga titles. His beloved cat Mī-kun often makes appearances in his work. (His current cat is named Mī-kun III).
Career
Matsumoto made his debut under his real name, Akira Matsumoto, in 1953. In the early years of his career he mostly drew shōjo manga, although he highly disliked this genre. It wasn't until the mid-60's that he was given the chance to publish in magazines aimed at boys.
Matsumoto had his big break with Otoko Oidon, a series that chronicled the life of a ronin, in 1971. The series was met with both critical as well as public acclaim. Around the same time he started a series of unconnected short stories set during World War II, which would eventually become popular under the title The Cockpit.
Both his involvement in Space Battleship Yamato (1974) and the debut of the highly popular series Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 (both 1977) made him one of the most popular artists in the entire manga-industry. Animated versions of both series proved to be very successful too. Both series being set in the same universe spanned several spin offs and related series, most notably Queen Emeraldas and Queen Millenia. This shared universe is often called the Leijiverse or the Matsumoto Milieu.
By the late 80s, Matsumoto's influence seemed to somewhat dwindle. However, the debut of an all-new Galaxy Express 999-series in 1998 was greeted with enthusiastic success and started a "renaissance". Since then numerous anime based on his works have been produced, including a new Captain Harlock-OVA, as well as several animations based on Galaxy Express 999's Maetel and other aspects of the Leijiverse.
Matsumoto also supervised the creation of several music videos for the French house group Daft Punk, set to tracks from their album Discovery. These videos were issued end-to-end (making a full-length animated movie) on a DVD release entitled Daft Punk & Leiji Matsumoto's .
Leiji Matsumoto is also often (mis)credited as the "creator" of Space Battleship Yamato (known outside Japan as Star Blazers). In truth, he was brought onto the project after its conception by producer (and by extension, actual creator) Yoshinobu Nishizaki, but it is now generally agreed that Matsumoto's artistic vision and direction is the primary reason why Yamato was such a memorable success. Matsumoto created a manga loosely based on the series, and the Yamato makes cameo appearances (sans crew) in several of his works including the Galaxy Express 999 manga. A recent work by Matsumoto called Great Yamato featuring an updated Yamato had to be renamed Great Galaxy due to the legal issues with Nishizaki. As of this writing both Matsumoto and Nishizaki are working on independent anime projects featuring the acclaimed Space Battleship Yamato, with the conditions that Matsumoto cannot use the name Yamato or the plot or characters from the original and Nishizaki cannot use the conceptual art, character or ship designs of the original.
List of works
- Space Battleship Yamato
- Planet Robot Dangard Ace (part of the Force Five import line)
- Galaxy Express 999
- Captain Harlock
- Starzinger (aka Spacekateers as part of the Force Five import line)
- Queen Millenia (aka Queen of 1000 Years)
- ''Arcadia of My Youth
- ''The Cockpit
- Queen Emeraldas
- Tiger-Striped Mii
- The Ultimate Time Sweeper Mahoroba (manga)
- Fire Force DNAsights 999.9
- Harlock Saga Der Ring des Nibelungen
- ''Maetel Legend
- Cosmo Warrior Zero
- Gun Frontier
- Space Pirate Captain Herlock The Endless Odyssey
- Submarine Super 99
- Interstella 5555
- The Galaxy Railways
- Great Yamato #0
- Space Symphony Maetel
External links
- () [Leiji Matsumoto Official Home Page]
- [The World of Leiji Matsumoto (unofficial site)]
- () [Albator SSX - French website on Leiji Matsumoto (unofficial site)]
- [Leiji Matsumoto entry at Anime.com]
- [The Cockpit] review
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