Farewell, Arcadia Of My Youth
February 19, 2023 10:31 PM Subscribe
One of the major figures in anime and manga, Leiji Matsumoto, has passed away at the age of 85.
One of the more important and formative creators in the history of manga and anime, Matsumoto started as a shojo mangaka, but is best known for creating the heroic space pirate Captain Harlock and his shared universe, as well as doing character design for Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers, and working with EDM legends Daft Punk to transform their seminal album Discovery into the EDM opera Interstella 5555. Throughout his work, he worked in themes of exploring the meaning of freedom and tyranny, as well as having a very distinctive visual style influenced by his early shojo work with brooding heroes and willowy females, a style that could go from the cartoonishly exaggerated to the realistic all within the same scene. Many of his works have seen multiple versions both animated and live action, as well as being referenced in both Western and Eastern media.
One of the more important and formative creators in the history of manga and anime, Matsumoto started as a shojo mangaka, but is best known for creating the heroic space pirate Captain Harlock and his shared universe, as well as doing character design for Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers, and working with EDM legends Daft Punk to transform their seminal album Discovery into the EDM opera Interstella 5555. Throughout his work, he worked in themes of exploring the meaning of freedom and tyranny, as well as having a very distinctive visual style influenced by his early shojo work with brooding heroes and willowy females, a style that could go from the cartoonishly exaggerated to the realistic all within the same scene. Many of his works have seen multiple versions both animated and live action, as well as being referenced in both Western and Eastern media.
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Captain Harlock was really big when I was a kid, such a cool character with such a cool design. His style was so peculiar you can recognize it immediately which is kind of rare among character designer.
posted by SageLeVoid at 3:18 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Captain Harlock was really big when I was a kid, such a cool character with such a cool design. His style was so peculiar you can recognize it immediately which is kind of rare among character designer.
posted by SageLeVoid at 3:18 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
My first exposure to Matsumoto's style came thru the laserdisc rail shooter video game "Freedom Fighter," which apparently used footage from Galaxy Express 999. Subsequently I became a big Captain Harlock fan. The man was a giant.
posted by Gelatin at 4:55 AM on February 20, 2023
posted by Gelatin at 4:55 AM on February 20, 2023
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Galaxy Express 999 was superb. Matsumoto's style was indeed something else.
For an unexpected crossover, see Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.
posted by bouvin at 5:43 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Galaxy Express 999 was superb. Matsumoto's style was indeed something else.
For an unexpected crossover, see Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.
posted by bouvin at 5:43 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Thins partly just my age and when I grew up and what I was exposed to, but I feel like the further anime diverges from Matsumoto's style, the further it gets from grace.
posted by rodlymight at 6:23 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 6:23 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
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I was literally reading some of the Galaxy Express 999 manga when I heard the news. Farewell to an absolute legend.
I do like that the official announcement doesn’t say he died, it says he “departed for the sea of stars”
posted by Aznable at 7:25 AM on February 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
I was literally reading some of the Galaxy Express 999 manga when I heard the news. Farewell to an absolute legend.
I do like that the official announcement doesn’t say he died, it says he “departed for the sea of stars”
posted by Aznable at 7:25 AM on February 20, 2023 [4 favorites]
Space Pirate Captain Harlock is not only one of my favorite anime's, but also one of my favorite science fiction shows. Many scenes are burned into my brain. Like the scene which contrasts the Mazone empress enjoying a naked swim in an Olympic-sized pool while the rebelling scientist-caste are being slaughtered at her orders. Or the scene in "The Red Sweater" where the spy on the Arcadia listens as Harlock, for whom she yearns, walks past her door (he inexplicably sounds like he's wearing spurs!) and he pauses, hand above the door control, before walking onward. Such amazing stuff for an anime. And I loved the way they often devoted whole episodes to the backstories of the crew members of the Arcadia (as opposed to a show like Star Trek: Discovery, where most of the crew are basically extras). Galaxy Express 999 was magical too in its own way.
"This flag stands for freedom!"
posted by jabah at 7:30 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
"This flag stands for freedom!"
posted by jabah at 7:30 AM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
I love Leiji Matsumoto. His tall, slender women who are much more beautiful and determined than I will ever be. His men and boys with strong wills and stronger hearts. His stories filled with anachronistic spaceships, hopes, dreams, loneliness, romance, and that never-ending sea of stars. Matsumoto-sensei's death weighed heavily on me last night, shortly before going to sleep. I honestly thought he would live into his 90s, as another giant of manga, Shigeru Mizuki, did.
There is, unfortunately, not much of his original manga in official English translation, but the situation has been improving somewhat. Seven Seas has published Space Battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock in gorgeous hardcover editions, and Kodansha Comics' Queen Emeraldas is no slouch, either. Viz released a five-volume edition of the 1996 Galaxy Express 999 many years ago, but it's long out of print and rather pricey these days if you want to collect the whole thing. Seven Seas puts out monthly surveys, and I can't recall the number of times I've requested the original Galaxy Express 999, despite its length, and Queen Millennia. They did recently start publishing a completely different series that I've asked for multiple times, so I'm keeping hope alive. In the meantime, I highly recommend what's available, especially Harlock and Emeraldas. His work can be an acquired taste, but it's like nothing else out there.
"As I looked back, I saw the remains of that man had become glittering stardust and formed a great ring, reaching out through the universe like cosmic filaments. No matter how many times I witness it, seeing brave men like him die brings pain to my heart." -Emeraldas
✷
posted by May Kasahara at 8:42 AM on February 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
There is, unfortunately, not much of his original manga in official English translation, but the situation has been improving somewhat. Seven Seas has published Space Battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock in gorgeous hardcover editions, and Kodansha Comics' Queen Emeraldas is no slouch, either. Viz released a five-volume edition of the 1996 Galaxy Express 999 many years ago, but it's long out of print and rather pricey these days if you want to collect the whole thing. Seven Seas puts out monthly surveys, and I can't recall the number of times I've requested the original Galaxy Express 999, despite its length, and Queen Millennia. They did recently start publishing a completely different series that I've asked for multiple times, so I'm keeping hope alive. In the meantime, I highly recommend what's available, especially Harlock and Emeraldas. His work can be an acquired taste, but it's like nothing else out there.
"As I looked back, I saw the remains of that man had become glittering stardust and formed a great ring, reaching out through the universe like cosmic filaments. No matter how many times I witness it, seeing brave men like him die brings pain to my heart." -Emeraldas
✷
posted by May Kasahara at 8:42 AM on February 20, 2023 [5 favorites]
Interstella 5555 is a beautiful film.
Thanks for all the amazing stories, Sensei.
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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 11:53 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Thanks for all the amazing stories, Sensei.
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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 11:53 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:49 PM on February 20, 2023
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 3:49 PM on February 20, 2023
As a kid growing up in the Midwest, after school cartoons meant transformers, GI Joe, and maybe Mask if you were lucky. They were fine, but they were cartoons. The absurdity that no Joe ever actually hit anything they aimed at, that it was war, but they always showed parachutes from every downed plane wasn’t lost on me.
Then, one day, things changed. The local fox station, back when it was all just syndication, started showing Starblazers, the dubbed and vaguely messed with version of Uchu Senkan, and I was absolutely hooked. There were consequences to actions. People, in a war, died. In fact, they died in droves. The show was relentless, and often verged on despair. I felt excitement every day when it came on, except, dammit, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had Hebrew school. The show was coming to an end, and the finale was shown on a Thursday of all days, and my mother was adamant that I go to the synagogue, cartoon be damned.
It was especially cruel because the cliffhanger from the episode before is (yeah, spoiler) the crippled space battleship Yamato, most of its crew dead, the rest wounded, huddled together on the bridge, facing the enemy’s newest, most impossible weapon, and then? I had no idea. I missed the finale.
And then, for whatever reason, the fox station played the series again. I was able to catch up on all the episodes I’d missed, connect all the missing pieces. I was ecstatic. And then the finale landed on a Tuesday. Recriminations were hurled, pleas were pled, and from four to five thirty, I was in the classroom, resenting the hell out of a language I never came close to learning.
Years later, living in Japan, I saw one of the channels was doing a marathon, and finally saw it. I was over the moon, struggling to ignore how different it was from childhood memories of watching something I’d only barely understood, translated and rearranged to fit someone’s idea of what a foreign audience could handle.
When I heard there would be a live action version, I was giddy until I found out it was going to be a KimuTaku vehicle, certain that SMAP boy would ruin the movie. I was lucky to catch it on a plane, where I watched it with English subtitles, and was shocked as to how faithful they managed to be. That, and I’ve never listed after a movie prop quite so fiercely as I wanted one of the black engineer’s leather jackets, with the yellow details.
I saw this news on a tv with no sound, and I didn’t really put two and two together, having not really ever seen Matsumoto before, so it feels like coming late to a funeral, but even after writing all that, I’m not sure I can really put into words how much Starblazers affected me as a kid, past showing me that animation could be for grown ups, and carry such powerful themes, or cause such strong emotional reactions.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:33 PM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Then, one day, things changed. The local fox station, back when it was all just syndication, started showing Starblazers, the dubbed and vaguely messed with version of Uchu Senkan, and I was absolutely hooked. There were consequences to actions. People, in a war, died. In fact, they died in droves. The show was relentless, and often verged on despair. I felt excitement every day when it came on, except, dammit, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had Hebrew school. The show was coming to an end, and the finale was shown on a Thursday of all days, and my mother was adamant that I go to the synagogue, cartoon be damned.
It was especially cruel because the cliffhanger from the episode before is (yeah, spoiler) the crippled space battleship Yamato, most of its crew dead, the rest wounded, huddled together on the bridge, facing the enemy’s newest, most impossible weapon, and then? I had no idea. I missed the finale.
And then, for whatever reason, the fox station played the series again. I was able to catch up on all the episodes I’d missed, connect all the missing pieces. I was ecstatic. And then the finale landed on a Tuesday. Recriminations were hurled, pleas were pled, and from four to five thirty, I was in the classroom, resenting the hell out of a language I never came close to learning.
Years later, living in Japan, I saw one of the channels was doing a marathon, and finally saw it. I was over the moon, struggling to ignore how different it was from childhood memories of watching something I’d only barely understood, translated and rearranged to fit someone’s idea of what a foreign audience could handle.
When I heard there would be a live action version, I was giddy until I found out it was going to be a KimuTaku vehicle, certain that SMAP boy would ruin the movie. I was lucky to catch it on a plane, where I watched it with English subtitles, and was shocked as to how faithful they managed to be. That, and I’ve never listed after a movie prop quite so fiercely as I wanted one of the black engineer’s leather jackets, with the yellow details.
I saw this news on a tv with no sound, and I didn’t really put two and two together, having not really ever seen Matsumoto before, so it feels like coming late to a funeral, but even after writing all that, I’m not sure I can really put into words how much Starblazers affected me as a kid, past showing me that animation could be for grown ups, and carry such powerful themes, or cause such strong emotional reactions.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:33 PM on February 20, 2023 [2 favorites]
Dave Merrill of the excellent blog Let's Anime, still on Blogger in 2023, wrote last month about the anime of Harlock's origin story, Arcadia Of My Youth. If you don't read it, who else will?
posted by JHarris at 6:41 AM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 6:41 AM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
JHarris - you might be interested in KaiserBeamz' video essay on Arcadia Of My Youth and how it incorporated Romantic ideals and aesthetics. He also did a review of Interstella 5555 that's worth watching.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:09 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:09 PM on February 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
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