Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, well known for his works “Space Battleship Yamato” and the series “Galaxy Express 999,” died of acute heart failure at a Tokyo hospital on Feb. 13, his company announced Monday. He was 85.
A private funeral was held with next of kin. The ceremony was hosted by his wife, Miyako Maki, a former manga artist notable for creating the illustration for the dress-up doll Licca-chan, the Japanese equivalent of Barbie.
“Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has departed for the sea of stars,” an official statement from his company said — tying in with how many of his works were set in space.
“Matsumoto used to say, ‘At the faraway point where the rings of time come together, we shall meet again,’” Makiko Matsumoto, who heads Studio Leijisha, said in the statement. “We trust those words and look forward to it.”
In November 2019, Matsumoto fell ill and collapsed in Turin, Italy, and had to undergo treatment for pneumonia. He returned to Japan the following month, saying he was “feeling very good and happy to return home.”
Born in 1938 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Leiji Matsumoto began drawing manga at the age of 5.
He rose to prominence in the 1970s for works such as “Otoko Oidon,” a manga series starring a poor, young man preparing for university entrance exams in Tokyo.
“Space Battleship Yamato,” is an animated sci-fi series about humanity’s war against alien conquerors. The series has had a number of sequels, spinoffs, remakes and even a live-action film starring popular singer and actor Takuya Kimura from the boy band SMAP.
The anime is said to have influenced “Gundam” and “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” both of which are critically acclaimed in Japan and overseas.
His fascination with history as well as the origins and destiny of humanity were prominent in his work. In a 2017 interview with The Japan Times, Matsumoto shared his belief that enlightened extraterrestrial beings once lived on Venus, leaving behind traces of cities they abandoned, and may have fled to Earth.
“When I was a child, and indeed throughout my life, I was always thinking and reading about the Earth and sentient beings in the past, present and future,” Matsumoto said in the interview.
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