Leiji Matsumoto, manga and anime artist, 1938-2023

Leiji Matsumoto, a prodigiously imaginative manga and anime artist, died aged 85. His works, including 'Galaxy Express 999' and 'Space Pirate Captain Harlock', were among the very first Japanese animations to find large audiences outside Japan.

February 25, 2023 . 10:13 AM

1 min read

Leiji Matsumoto was a prodigiously imaginative manga and anime artist whose space epics splashed antiwar morality, existentialism and the philosophy of science across an immense galactic canvas.
His works, including 'Galaxy Express 999' and 'Space Pirate Captain Harlock', were among the very first Japanese animations to find large audiences outside Japan.
Matsumoto's science fiction works spearheaded a decades-long process in which manga and anime emerged from the preserve of children’s entertainment into a mainstream media form.
He was born in 1938 in Fukuoka, Japan and died aged 85.
His works reflected on Japan’s shifting sense of postwar identity.