He was responsible for a long line of manga but for me, the ones that will always stand out are "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）and "Galaxy Express 999"（銀河鉄道９９９）. His way of drawing characters may seem rather poignant now but the anime adaptations of the aforementioned projects left a huge impression on me. A lot of the main male characters had that windswept hair and the eyebrows so thick and angry that Peter Capaldi could only look in admiration. Then the female characters always looked so lithe and slender with eyelashes that could sweep an entire wall with just one batting.
Years later during my life in Japan, when I saw this video by techno duo Daft Punk and caught the animated characters playing in the band, I knew that it was Matsumoto behind them from their iconic appearances. I was stunned and very delighted.
One story (exaggerated or not) that I have about Matsumoto may have some of you getting a little disgusted so I'm giving you a chance to scroll past this paragraph and onto the videos. I found out through an old Fuji-TV trivia quiz show that a fellow manga artist often visited Matsumoto. One time, Matsumoto was kind enough to provide a bowl of ramen as part of his hospitality and it came topped with some mushrooms. What had celebrity jaws dropping onto the floor was that the fungi was bred on Matsumoto's underwear that he had never bothered changing. He simply kept wearing them and turned them inside out each day until one day he just decided to throw them into the closet. I forgot how his friend reacted.😈
Anyways, it's still rather sudden news so other than the above, the best tribute that I can give you is through the famous songs from "Uchuu Senkan Yamato" and "Galaxy Express 999", all done by the famous anison artist, Isao Sasaki（ささきいさお）. My condolences go to his family, friends, fans and fellow manga artists.
Uchuu Senkan Yamato （宇宙戦艦ヤマト）
Makka no Scarf (真っ赤のスカーフ）
Aoi Chikyuu（青い地球）[Same link for "Ginga Tetsudo 999"]
The mushroom story was a rather disgusting! I wonder if it is true or it is just an anecdote told just for shock? Anyway Leiji Matsumoto's art work is iconic. It is interesting that there was a late 70's early 80's English dub of Battle Ship Yamato titled 'star blazers" produced even before the original Japanese anime had finished airing. Leiji Matsumoto work is iconic and he clear made an impact on the international scale.
ReplyDeleteHello, Brian. Yep, I first found out about "Yamato" from the "Star Blazers" dub. I think it's one of the best-dubbed anime although certain scenes were excised because of censorship rules in America. By the way, I did find that episode featuring the mushroom incident. Apparently, Matsumoto found bathing too troublesome for the better part of a year.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0twG8nvvIzk
I have the cd for the Columbia Memorial Songs Collection CC-4190 for Ginga Tetsudo 999. I love the OP and ED songs for the series. I also have the Space Pirate Captain cHarlock symphonic suite cd (perfect pirate music) and the Memorial Songs Collection CC-4193 which includes songs from SSX. IIRC I picked them up at the Ala Moana shopping center (Shirokiya? or Daiei?) on a trip in 1987. I had watched Captain Harlock on tv when I lived in Hawaii and had recorded the audio on cassette for many episodes and listened to those for years. Getting the music and songs was a big goal for several years when I had funds which I didn't have when I lived there. I do want to get the Eternal Editions for both.
ReplyDeleteAs for Space Battleship Yamato, I had seen some of the show while in Japan ('78, '80) and one of the movies played on TV, but it wasn't until 1982 after moving to New England that I watched Starblazers first 2 seasons and some of the third. People I know here in New England still love the show, and the new 2199 series, etc continues the epic storytelling.
On another note, I watched Leiji Matsumoto's Cosmo Warrior Zero and recognized the OP theme is an instrumental version of Jidai by Miyuki Nakajima.
"Yamato" was a show that was on rotation on two channels: MTV (Toronto's multicultural channel) and WUTV in Buffalo New York for years on end. Both channels would play the two seasons over and over. The episodes with the wave motion gun were the ones that had us running back from school to catch the show. The third season finally made its appearance here in the mid-1980s with the animation looking a little wonky in parts.
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