Captain Harlock manga creator discharged from hospital

(ANSA) - Turin, December 4 - The veteran manga creator of Captain Harlock and other iconic space characters was discharged from a Turin hospital Wednesday after being admitted after a bad turn on November 15.
    Leiji Matsumoto, 81, famous for space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato, will return to Tokyo later Wednesday.
    He had the bad turn while talking to an association which had invited him to Turin to talk about his work.
    Sources at Molinette Hospital said Matsumoto was "in good conditions of health".
    They said he "thanked the doctors for the treatment received, showing appreciation for the attention and professionalism of the staff at the Città della Salute".
    Matsumoto had the bad turn in his hotel, where he was awaiting a Ristotram to take him on a tourist trip around Turin.
    At the city council he had spoken about Captain Harlock, a character created 40 years ago who has accompanied several generations of manga readers.
    Admitted on November 15 following electrolitic alterations and pneumonia, he was first taken to intensive care at Molinette and then the university internal medicine ward.
    Matsumoto is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato. His style is characterized by tragic heroes; tall, slender, fragile-looking heroines with strong wills and in some cases, god-like powers; and a love of analog gauges and dials in his spacecraft.
    Matsumoto made his debut under his real name, Akira Matsumoto, in 1953. His wife is shōjo manga artist Miyako Maki (better known as the creator of the doll Licca-chan, the Japanese equivalent of Barbie).
    Matsumoto had his big break with Otoko Oidon, a series that chronicled the life of a rōnin (a young man preparing for university entrance exams), in 1971. Around the same time he started a series of unconnected short stories set during World War II, Senjo Manga Series, which would eventually become popular under the title The Cockpit.
    He was involved in Space Battleship Yamato (1974) and created the highly popular series Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 (both 1977). In 1978, he was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen for Galaxy Express 999 and Senjo Manga Series.[4] Animated versions of Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 are set in the same universe, which spanned several spin offs and related series, most notably Queen Emeraldas and Queen Millennia.
    Matsumoto supervised the creation of several music videos for the French house group Daft Punk, set to tracks from their album Discovery. These videos were issued end-to-end (making a full-length animated movie) on a DVD release titled Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.