Welcome to Leijiverse, the.Otaku.com-based fan-site WORLD that focuses on the anime and manga works of legendary manga author Leiji Matsumoto (such as Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Submarine Super 99, Cosmowarrior Zero, The Galaxy Railways, Queen Millenia, The Ultimate Time-Sweeper Mahoroba, SF Sayuiki Starzinger, Danguad Ace, etc) as well as the late Yoshinobu Nishizaki's most legendary sci-fi franchise Space Battleship Yamato (which Matsumoto himself helped create). This will also focus on non-Leiji Matsumoto-created movie and T.V. projects based on the master's characters and works.
If you wish to submitt your own posts on a topic that has anything to do with Leiji Matsumoto's works, please PM me first, and I'll add you to the "guest posters" list, then I'll PM you back an O.K. to add your posts to this WORLD.
Here are some interesting weblinks you should check out:
Back in 2013, the 3D animated film Harlock: Space Pirate (called "Space {ire Captain Harlock" in Japan) was released. This week, Gainax of Gurren Lagann fame revealed its plans to take a crack at producing a theatrical anime based on character of Harlock lore. This time, the anime will be a trilogy of films called "The Zero Century" with the first instalment (The Zero Century: Emeraldas) to be released in 2020..
Check out a shot of the first promo art for 2020's instalment below.
Image source: Anime News Network
If you're the kind of anglophone otaku in North America who have long waited for an official English sub release of Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (the 1982 Captain Harlock-centric anime T.V. series and sequel to the film Arcadia of My Youth) to happen, the wait is over as Anime News Network reveals today that America-based anime distributor Discotek Media has acquired the rights to distribute the series on English sub DVD in the continent. No full date has yet been given, but Discotek hopes to bring out its English sub edition of the show sometime this year.
6:36 PM Canada ET
Word has it that a 6-image Ukiyo-e series focusing on three of Leiji Matsumoto's most major works is currently in the works, and Anime News Network has shown all the six images. apparently, each of the Matsumoto trinity (Space Battleship Yamato, Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999) is the focus of two images in the Ukiyo-e series. Here's an example from the illustration series below, and visit Anime News Network to see the rest. Note that the black ship with the numbskull insignia in the example image shown here is Harlock's Deathshadow from Cosmoship Yamato, Matsumoto's manga adaptation of the first Space Battleship Yamato television series (the other ship in the picture is of course the Yamato), but I'm sure some may notice that black ship from watching Galaxy Express 999: The Movie.
Image source: Anime News Network
11:04 PM Canada ET
It's official! Space Pirate Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage (alternately known as "Captain Harlock - Space Pirate: Dimension Voyage"), the first Harlockverse manga not illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto (but it's written by him of course), finally got licensed for an English language edition treatment. The edition itself will be published by Seven Seas Entertainment for distribution in North America, which means those residing in the Quebec province of Canada will have two language versions to choose from to read with one of them being the still-running French language version that's available in print in Canada and France under the title "Capitaine Albator: Dimension Voyage". The Seven Seas Entertainment-published English version begins its run on 10/03/2017.
11:00 PM Canada ET
Last night, I found out from ANN that the makers of the film series Space Battleship Yamato 2199 are currently working on a film sequel scheduled for release sometime in 2014. This announcement was first brought up on Japanese television right after the airing of ep. 26 of the edited-for-DVD cut of the film series itself (ep. 26 was originally shown as the last fourth of the 7th and final installment of the film series, titled "Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Chapter 7: And the Warship Comes").
You know, I was hoping that after Chapter 7 of the film series came out, Enagio would start working on the sequel to the primary SBY universe-based film Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection since the story that began in SBY: R is still remains incomplete. But perhaps the owners of the Space Battleship Yamato franchise felt the need to abandon plans on going back to the primary SBY universe due to the lack of support suffered by SBY: R in Japan and Yamato 2199 becoming more popular than its 1970s predecessor.
2:11 PM Canada EST
