I'm sure this is a film some of you have heard of, but not many people have actually watched. Galaxy Express 999 is a hero's journey tale told in the backdrop of a space opera set in the imaginative world of Leiji Matsumoto. Set in a far future where mankind has not only perfected space travel and made friends with various galactic civilizations, they have also learned how to build immortal mechanized bodies and transfer their souls into it. Unfortunately, the bodies and process are incredibly expensive and thus Earth is trapped in a class warfare between the rich robot citizens and the regular human ones. Tetsuro Hoshino and his mother travel to the city to gain jobs and earn a pass on the space train Galaxy Express 999. This is due to hearing tales of the empire in the Andromeda Galaxy giving away free mechanized bodies to anyone who comes. Unfortunately tragedy strikes when Tetsuro's mother is murdered by Count Mecha and his hunting party who hunt regular humans for sport. Distraught, Tetsuro meets the mysterious Maetel who bears a resemblance to his mother and gives him a pass to get on the 999 if he would be her companion on the trip. Tetsuro agrees as he both wants immortality and the chance to hunt down the machine who killed his mother.
The 999 takes them on a whirlwind journey across the galaxy and Tetsuro meets many people who begin to mold him into a better person as he meets tragic survivors of the mechanized monopoly, space faring heroes, space pirates, and even mother smurfing Captain Harlock. Tetsuro's journey makes him start to reconsider why he wants a mechanized body, why he wants revenge, and discover more about an individuals place in a massive unfeeling cosmos. What does he choose when he finally reaches the Andromeda Galaxy and meets Queen Metallia of the Machine Empire?Who is the mysterious Maetel and why did she help Tetsuro? You'll just have to find the film and watch it I guess.
Based on the popular manga from 1977, I really don't discuss Leiji Matsumoto and his works enough on this forum. I love his universe and the space opera he's created with all of these characters and it was the introduction to the sequel manga for this film that got me hooked on it. This film is a very abridged adaption of the manga which focuses more on the pivotal stories of Tetsuro's journey as opposed to the manga which often had several stories about the various worlds and people the Galactic Train crosses paths with. The film did well enough to garner a sequel called Galaxy Express 999 Adieu, and while that film is really good in it's own right, it largely just retreads a lot of the themes the original film.
If you've never had a chance to see what Leiji Matsumoto's work outside of maybe the Interstella 5555 videos for Daft Punk, then you should start here with this film as it gives you a fairly good idea of what his universe is like. If you want to start from the beginning, then check out Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers as it was his first work.
Coming up: I'm not sure what happiness really is...
Last edited by Wolf Kanno; 08-31-2019 at 10:57 AM.
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