Quiz

The music group Daft Punk are huge fans of Matsumoto's work and commissioned him to work on the music videos of their album "Discovery". This inspired Toei Animation to hire both the group and Matsumoto to make Interstella 5555 (2003).

His animated series I guerrieri delle stelle (1974) was dubbed and released into the United States as Star Blazers (1979) to wide popularity and acclaim. The animated series is considered a groundbreaker for introducing a current term/genre to the world - anime.

He had a deep fascination with German culture, and expresses this through his work, especially on Capitan Harlock (1978).

The basic look for all Matsumoto's heroines was inspired by an old photograph he discovered during World War II. The photo was of Takako Mise, the granddaughter of Dr. Philipp Franz Von Siebold, a Dutchman and the first European to teach Western medicine in Japan during the 1800s. Matsumoto was also inspired by actresses Marianne Hold, Eleanor Parker, Danielle Darrieux and Kaoru Yachigusa.

He held a collection of antiques, especially ancient weaponry (mostly swords and guns). He was such an aficionado on historical weaponry that he was able to verify their authenticity and approve ownership applications for such artifacts.

In his youth, he was quite a globetrotter, travelling to the United States, Brazil, Peru, Africa, Russia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, India and China.

He participated in the design and commission of a Tokyo water bus, the Himiko, which runs between Asakusa and Toyosu. Its design featured a futuristic look or décor and contains models of the main cast of Galaxy Express 999 (1978) (Tetsuro, Maetel and the Conductor).

He used to draw pictures of actress Kaoru Yachigusa (her faces and hands) and carry them around as a lucky charm.

He cited sci-fi writers Jyuza Unno and H.G. Wells, artists Shigeru Komatsuzaki, Tetsuji Fukushima and Fukujiro Yokoi, and cartoonists Walt Disney, Max Fleischer and Osamu Tezuka as an influence on his work.

He owned a Revi C-12D gunsight, used in World War II fighter planes. This gunsight was used as a visual reference for the animators working on Capitan Harlock: L'Arcadia della mia giovinezza (1982).

His character Captain Harlock was voted by Mania.com as the fourth most iconic anime hero.

His widow is manga artist Miyako Maki, who achieved renown as the creator of Licca-chan, a popular Japanese doll.

Kaoru Shintani served as Matsumoto's assistant; Matsumoto claimed that one of his characters, Yatterman from "Space Pirate Captain Harlock", was drawn to resemble Shintani. When Shintani went on to make his own career in anime, his works had a distinct Matsumoto influence (notably, his saga "Area 88" was a military drama like "Space Battleship Yamato").

Matsumoto had originally planned to a course in mechanical engineering, but due to family financial difficulties he instead took a course in art. He later encouraged and supported his brother Susumu Matsumoto to take the engineering course. Susumu went onto become the director of the Nagasaki Research Institute, and as of 2011, is a technical officer at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries technology HQ (he designed the core of the H-IIA missile).

In grade school, he made up the word "harlock" and would call this out while walking down the road. The term became the name of his hero Captain Harlock.

Apart from anime, he had also written a great deal of children's fantasy stories, mostly fairy tales about girls and animals.

His pen name of Leiji means "eternal samurai", while his birth name of Akira means "become sun/light/fire".

In 1981, to promote his upcoming series La regina dei mille anni (1981), he shot a special video which combined animation with live-action. The video features the Yamato (the eponymous I guerrieri delle stelle (1974)) docking on Earth, and its crew disembarking. While most of the crew rendezvous at a park to honour their Captain, Yuki Mori heads to Matsumoto's house, along with her comrades Queen Starsha and Sasha; Maetel from Galaxy Express 999 (1978); Queen Emeraldas from Capitan Harlock (1978); and Yukino Yayoi of La regina dei mille anni (1981) (all Matsumoto's heroines). There, all the women interview him about his work. This is considered the first feature to combine animation with live-action, long before huge films like Space Jam (1996) did the same.

His favourite actress is Marianne Hold, whom he had watched in Marianne de ma jeunesse (1955).

Matsumoto had based many of his characters on people he personally knew. Captain Juzo Okita was based on his father; Susumu Kodai was named after Matsumoto's younger brother; Yuki Mori was based on a pen pal of Matsumoto's; Doctor Sado was based on an assistant who served Matsumoto; Captain Harlock was based on an elementary-school classmate.

He had allowed many characters in his series to cross over into each other's stories. This has caused fans to officially link together the worlds he has created (although this has resulted in continuity issues) into a fictional universe, known as the Leijiverse.

In 1999, the Matsumoto Symbol Road was constructed in the city of Tsuruga, to commemorate the town's 100th anniversary (Tsuraga is noted for being a place of science and progress). The Symbol Road is lined with a series of four-foot bronze statues, of characters or scenes from Matsumoto's series I guerrieri delle stelle (1974) and Galaxy Express 999 (1978).

He supervised the creation of several music videos for the French electronic-music group Daft Punk (who are huge fans of Matsumoto), set to tracks from their album "Discovery". These videos were issued end-to-end, making a full-length animated movie titled Interstella 5555 (2003).

He cited the period/military drama "Shinsengami keppuroku" as an influence on his space opera "Space Battleship Yamato".

He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by the Government of Japan in 2010 for his services to literature.

He was awarded Knight of the National Order of Arts and Letters by the Government of France in 2012 for his services to literature.