TOKYO (AP) — Leiji Matsumoto, the anime creator best known for “Space Battleship Yamato” and other classics with fantastical style and anti-war themes, has died at the age of 85.
His manga works “Galaxy Express 999” and “Space Pirate Captain Herlock” were adapted into television anime series in the 1970s and became big hits in Japan and abroad.
Matsumoto, whose real name was Akira Matsumoto, died of acute heart failure in a Tokyo hospital on February 13, his office Studio Leijisha said on Monday.
Born in the southwestern city of Kurume, Matsumoto began drawing at the age of 6 and rose to fame with “Otoko Oidon,” a manga series that tells the story of a poor man from southern Japan who lives in a boarding house in Tokyo and with struggling to balance work and study.
Many of his manga belonged to the genre of “battlefield comics” with more than 150 stories depicting the tragedy of war.
His anti-war theme stems from his father, an elite army pilot returning from Southeast Asia, who taught his son that war should never be fought.
In his 2018 interview with Japan’s NHK TV, Matsumoto recalled his father apologizing to his subordinates’ mothers for not being able to bring them back alive. His father also told Matsumoto that you have to be a demon not to believe that an enemy has a family.
“War destroys your future,” Matsumoto said in the interview, noting that many talented youth who may have contributed to the “civilization of mankind” were killed during the war.
“I was told by my father that every life is born to live, not to die,” Matsumoto said. “I think we shouldn’t waste time fighting on Earth.”
Matsumoto has received several culture and art awards from the Japanese government and the Knights of the Order of Arts and Letters of France.
Matsumoto’s daughter Makiko Matsumoto, who runs the studio, said in a statement posted on Twitter: “Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto has embarked on a journey to the Star Sea. I think he lived a happy life and thought about continuing to draw stories as a manga artist.”
Mari Yamaguchi, The Associated Press
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