Leiji Matsumoto Archives

Space Cruiser Yamato (1977)

Rating: ★★½

Sep 11, 2001Anime Space Opera

Anime film spun off from a popular Japanese tv series. Despite crude animation, this has a colourful vigour and taps the same space opera vein as Star Wars, which came only three months earlier

Director: Gino Tanasescu, Yoshinobu Nishizaki

Category: Science Fiction

11 September 200120 March 2025 by Roog

Galaxy Express 999 (1979)

Rating: ★★★

Dec 16, 2000Anime Space Opera

Classic anime space opera adventure made not long after Star Wars and filled with moments of glorious visual poetry including the conceptually absurd image of a spacegoing train

Director: Rintaro

Actors: Saffron Henderson, Kathleen Barr, Janyse Jaud, Terry Klassen, …

Category: Science Fiction

16 December 20005 March 2026 by Roog

Interstella 5555 (2003)

Rating: ★★

Apr 19, 2004Anime/Intergalactic Rock Band

Dance music duo Daft Punk collaborate with anime directors to create an animated space opera based on their album Discovery about an intergalactic rock band and their fight to save the galaxy

Director: Kazuhisa Takenuchi

Category: Science Fiction

19 April 200422 April 2026 by Roog

Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013)

Rating: ★★★½

Aug 15, 2016Anime/Space Opera

The brooding space pirate Captain Harlock is one of the famous anti-heroes in manga and anime. Harlock gets a big screen revamp here from Shinji (Appleseed) Aramaki, one of the most amazing of modern anime directors, who delivers a series of epic space battles with a breathtaking beauty

Director: Shinji Aramaki

Category: Science Fiction

15 August 201625 March 2025 by Roog