Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
Legendary Japanese manga author Matsumoto Leiji has passed away a week ago, aged 85
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-...d-85/102000658

Matsumoto specialised in the space opera genre, and some of his best known works include:
* Space Battleship Yamato (a.k.a. Star Blazers)
* Captain Harlock
* Galaxy Express 999

He also mentored Magami Ban, who was the writer/artist for the G1 manga as well as the animation model designer for Toei's Transformers from The Headmasters onwards (i.e. when Toei decided to split from Sunbow and artistically move away from Floro Dery's designs).
This was very sad news for me, I think Star Blazers had a profound effect on me when I was young the theme was fantastic! and the Hadoho cannon (I can't recall the English name of it right now) was one of the coolest weapons ever. Also recently saw Galaxy Express 999, and while it was long, and repeated itself quite often, I found it rather enjoyable, with some very deep themes. I was always fascinated by the nature of Maetel, she picks up Tetsuro and you assume she is a good person, but in the advetures, she causes the destruction of at least two planets. I was surprised, that even though Tetsuro managed to help a fair few people on his journey, Maetel had no qualms about blowing up celestial bodies. Much like Rodimus Prime. :P