Anime Confronts a New Apocalypse

The death of the manga artist and animator Leiji Matsumoto in February, at the age of eighty-five, marked a sad moment for his fans around the world. His œuvre ran the gamut from teen romances and erotic comedies to the iconic space-opera series “Space Pirate Captain Harlock,” “Queen Millennia,” and “Galaxy Express 999.” Outside of Japan, he is better known for his collaborative projects: “Interstella 5555,” which is a linked series of music videos that he designed for Daft Punk, and, even more popular, the long-running epic “Space Battleship Yamato,” which débuted on Japanese television in 1974 and appeared in the United States, as “Star Blazers,” in 1979. Co-created with the producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, that series recast the Imperial Japanese flagship Yamato as a spacecraft on a daring mission to save humanity from the aftermath of an alien attack. “Yamato” was a major hit, integral in raising the first generation of serious anime fans.