Akira Matsumoto

Akira "Leiji" Matsumoto was born in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The son of an Imperial Japanese Army air officer, Matsumoto was obsessed with flight and machines from boyhood. He debuted as a manga artist at age fifteen, winning a contest in Manga Shonen with his comic Mitsubachi no Boken.

Matsumoto became a central founding architect of modern anime and manga through his romantic, grand-scale science fiction space operas. In 1974, he directed and provided character designs for Space Battleship Yamato (broadcast in the West as Star Blazers), an epochal hit that transformed anime into a serious cultural medium in Japan. He followed with iconic creations: the melancholic, skull-flagged vigilante Space Pirate Captain Harlock, the space train allegory Galaxy Express 999, and Queen Emeraldas. In 2003, French electronic duo Daft Punk collaborated with Matsumoto to create Interstella 5555, an animated feature visualization of their album Discovery. In 2012, France honored him as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.