The Legend Leiji Matsumoto Dies at 85

The artist died due to heart failure!

Tokyo: On Monday, 20 February 2023, production company Toei said, Manga master Leiji Matsumoto, who was famous for his epic sci-fi stories in Japan's comic-book and anime worlds, has died aged 85.

Matsumoto's epic works such as "Space Battleship Yamato", "Captain Harlock" and "Galaxy Express 999" were adapted into animated TV series and films that gained global popularity in the 1970s and 80s.

He also supervised production of an anime set to the songs of French electro duo Daft Punk, who used a few parts of the film as the music video for their 2000 hit "One More Time".

The artist died last week of heart failure, Toei said in a statement.

A precocious talent and teenage admirer of the manga artist Osamu Tezuka, Matsumoto published his first comic "The Adventures of a Bee" at the age of 15.

From interstellar steam trains to battles against aliens wielding radioactive meteorites, Matsumoto's fantastical depictions of machinery and space travel were revered in Japan and abroad as well.

He was awarded with the prestigious Order of Arts and Letters in 2012 award by the French government, and even today in Japan, songs from his cartoons are karaoke favourites often played by brass bands at baseball games.

In a 2013 interview with AFP, Matsumoto described living through the 1945 bombings that brought World War II to an end.

"The plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima went right over my head. The second was for a town close to Fukuoka, place where I was living. It was bad weather that condemned Nagasaki," he said.