Harlock creator Leiji Matsumoto dies at 85

(Tokyo) Leiji Matsumoto, legend of Japanese manga and animation and father of space pirate Harlock, died last week at the age of 85 from heart failure, the production company announced on Monday. Toei.

During a career of several decades, the mangaka had made himself known in particular for works of science fiction like Yamato, the space battleship (1974) or Galaxy Express 999 (1977).

But it’s mostly the series Captain Harlock (Harlock in original version and in English), recounting the adventures of the space pirate with the barred face of a scar and the long black cape marked with a skull, which made him essential throughout the world.

Released in Japan between 1977 and 1979 and then adapted into a cartoon, this work was a worldwide success, notably broadcast on French television from 1980.

“Harlock is my most faithful and oldest friend. He is my alter ego in his determination, ”assured Leiji Matsumoto in 2011 at the Annecy Animation Film Festival, where he came to present the trailer for the film. Harlock, space corsair.

Born in 1938 on the island of Kyushu (southwest of Japan), this precocious genius, admirer of the great mangaka Osamu Tezuka, had published his first manga at the age of 15, The adventures of a beeafter winning a design contest.

The artist had also said that he was inspired in his work by the atomic bomb dropped by the United States in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, when he was 7 years old and lived in Fukuoka, 300 km away.

“It traumatized me, but was inspiring, like all my youthful experiences. When I was doing the 400 shots, rock climbing, swimming in dangerous waters. Personal experience is essential for a creator, even of science fiction,” he said.

Recalling his very first trip to France or his flight to Rio de Janeiro aboard the Concorde plane during an interview with AFP in 2013, he said he had “already drawn all this in (his) manga , before having experienced it. A sort of premonition.

This pop culture icon had also produced a medium-length animated film in the early 2000s, including the album Discovery of the French group Daft Punk provided the soundtrack.

Decorated in 2012 by France with the medal of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, Matsumoto had celebrated in 2013 his 60 years of career at the Festival of the comic strip of Angoulême, of which he was the guest of honor. .

He had more recently participated in the Japan expo, a large exhibition dedicated to Japanese pop culture, in Paris in 2019 with another manga legend, his compatriot Go Nagai (Goldorak).