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Leiji Matsumoto Animates Music Video for U.K.'s Queen (Updated)

Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: The Nikkan Sports newspaper reports on Monday that legendary manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto produced a music video for the equally legendary British rock band Queen. According to the newspaper, the video uses Queen's signature song "Bohemian Rhapsody" and concepts from Out of Galaxy Koshika, the newest manga from Matsumoto, to tell an original story in anime. Matsumoto is best known for creating space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and Queen Millennia.

Matsumoto and the digital distribution company Sunsoft have been serializing Koshika on the online Wii Shopping Channel for the Nintendo Wii home console in Japan since April . The story begins in Tokyo on September 9, 2099. A dimensional ship, under the command of a beautiful woman named Yō Haguro, launches into space to save Earth from imminent annihilation. A young boy named Hajime Umino finds himself coming aboard for the adventure that unfolds. Secrets are revealed about Hajime and a silver cat pendant with an unknown power.

Queen has used English-animated footage in its music videos before, but not Japanese animation. Nikkan Sports describes the members of Queen as "Japanophiles" who requested Japanese creators to work on the project.

Matsumoto and the Toei Animation studio already collaborated with another musical group, Daft Punk, on a 2003 film called INTERSTELLA 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. Sunsoft producer Tomohiro Seki had already revealed in April that his company had anime plans for Koshika.

Image © 2009 Leiji Matsumoto
© 2009 Sunsoft Kojika

Update: More background information added.

Update 2: Part of the "Bohemian Rhapsody ~feat. Leiji Matsumoto" video will be unveiled on November 24 — the 18th anniversary of former Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury's passing — in special events in Tokyo and Osaka. By the end of the year, the video will be distributed on Japanese mobile phone websites. (The anniversary date has been corrected. Thanks, ljaesch.)