Galaxy Express 999

One of Leiji Matsumoto's Masterpieces, this is one of those unique exprerience anime that come once in ten years, a classic of Space Operas, Galaxy Express 999 is a life Journey. Our Journey takes place in a rather futuristic setting where humans are able to transfer their minds to a mechanical body in order to achieve enternal life. While this seems to be a somewhat perfect world, it is in reallity a dystopian Universe full of opression, suffering and tragedy for the poor and the weak ones. Our Protagonist, Hoshino Tetsuro,a proud and rightous young boy boards the Galaxy Express 999 with help of mysterious Maetelin order to reach the planet where you can get a mechanical body for free. If you are familiar with Leiji's works you will know what kind of Journey you will expect, for those who aren't, this will be a Journey full of Painfull situations, tragic heroes and shatered dreams, in other words, the definition of Drama. While the Story seems rather episodic, from time to time, you will get a tiny revelation about the storyline, which in my oppinion, is a boost in the morale of the viewer since it can be sometimes tyring to watch such a long anime. The art is that from Leiji's previous and future works, beautiful long-haired and fragile looking women, aerodynamic haired and proud males, small and sometimes comic looking elders. One small flaw I think is that, at some point females look like revamps from one another wich is a consequence of the large number of characters throughout the series. The Soundtrack is very good in my opinion, whether it is a comic or serious situation it addapts to the moment you are experiencing, you will sometimes listen Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and songs sang by characters that add an even more dramatic tone to the scene. What I really want to say about this series is that this is a life learning experience, in each of the 999 stops you will get your persona lifel lesson out of the diferent situations that our protagonists will enconter, I felt that I learned something valuable from characters experiences, that is, in my oppinions, the greatest thing about this Anime.

Admittedly, when I was watching Galaxy Express 999, I was watching it cause it was related to Harlock (I wanted to fully prep myself for when the Harlock CGI movie became available to watch in English). But after watching it, it's an amazing series. The story may seem old nowadays, but the way the characters interact, and how they develop (more so for Tetsuro as he begins to realize getting a mechanical body would prove to make him more laid back and that everything his mother taught him about hard work would have seemed pointless in the end). The characters themselves are all unique andvery enjoyable. Tetsuro, despite how he became a bit of a brat in later episodes, is an enjoyable character, and he certainly becomes quite the badass for being a 10(?) year old. The Conductor was hilarious to watch in almost all episodes he was in due to his strict nature to follow the rules of the Galaxy Railroads, but also fighting the the 999's computer. Maetel is without a doubt my favorite character in the show, because of how complex, and mysterious she is. You spend the series wondering who she really is, and why she keeps asking her father to stop the journey with Tetsuro to Andromeda. The soundtrack is amazing, and so damn catchy (so much that I downloaded the soundtrack on my laptop) that the songs are all stuck in my brain and I don't want to get them out. From the opening song, to the next episode preview, I could listen to the soundtrack on a loop and never get bored of it. All in all, I fully recommend Galaxy Express 999. Despite it's 113 episode run, it's still a great series.

This has been a long time coming and the series is finally completed. Truly, Galaxy Express is an epic at heart and the first watched on this quest. Another original creation of Leiji Matsumoto, if the art style didn’t give it away already, this is a series coming in at 113 episodes. How did it live up to the legacy? It is long and episodic at its core. Now, this may sound like a total turn off right away, but the series sets a universe of mystery and true imagination that captivates the viewer. Each world our two main characters travel to has its’ own unique reasonto exist, evolution into why, and the life-form’s interaction with the planet. Our young protagonist, Tetsuro Hoshino wants nothing more than to have a mechanical body to live an immortal life, but how can he get it when: a) it’s expensive and he is poor b) the only way to get a free one is to get the expensive pass for the train 999 to take him to the robot planet Andromeda... Well, it just so happens he meets Maetel. This beautiful mystery woman gives him a pass as long as he joins her on the journey to Andromeda and she will be his tour guide. Therefore, the two set off on a journey unlike any other. Tetsuro discovers and learns countless life lessons, such as what it means to be truly human and the meaning of life and reasons to live, and many more. The story and development of Testsuro over his quest and encountering each planet is why to watch this epic. However, this is episodic even if each planet has its own story itself. Tetsuro and Maetel are always having their pass stolen, lives threatened, and/or seeing a young couple die they just met. It does get stale after a while. One would wonder why wouldn’t you become paranoid, stay in the train, and never leave the comedic relief Conductors side before reaching their destination. Anyways, never mind all of the faults and holes in GE 999, like a train in space it could go on forever. This is the only gripe the show has throughout. Overall, you can watch the epic series as follows: first 8-12 episodes, the two-part episodes in between, and the last 10. You won’t miss a thing and the journey will be just as epic as the show.

It might have taken me over two years to finish, but despite the major time commitment that Galaxy Express 999 demands, it is one well worth pursuing and finishing, as its episodic and varied nature means that even when accounting for its (arguably excessive) length, it never ends up feeling particularly repetitive or overdone. The format of each episode of Galaxy Express is fairly basic. After Tetsuro’s mother is killed by cyborgs, he sets out to travel on the 999, an old-timey steam train that flies across space, to go to the planet Andromeda, where he can get a mechanical body for free, and by extension,immortality. Long before works like Robocop and Cowboy Bebop decided to merge the motifs and conventions of the Western and sci-fi genre, there was Galaxy Express. For that matter, Tetsuro’s hat and cloak are right out of a Clint Eastwood film, and the typical episode setup of Tetsuro finding his way onto a hostile new planet and finding himself having to sort out the local conflict is almost a direct pastiche of Eastwood’s own High Plains Drifter, but with less rape. Although Tetsuro going to a new planet and sorting out other people’s problems is a common story route, it is not the only one present throughout the series, as there are some episodes in which Tetsuro has a rather minor effect on the overall events, and it’s not uncommon for an episode’s most poignant moments to happen without him. But despite its sci-fi setting, the individual planets are able to take on just about any theme the writers could come up with: the futuristic urban metropolis is expectedly there, but also planets that didn’t evolve beyond prehistory, jungles, deserts, underwater cities, there was clear creativity on display, as the locales across each episode manage to all feel different, and even if the general premise still remains, it manages to avoid ever feeling like a rerun of an idea they’d already covered. This feeling of originality within each individual episode is further accentuated by the superb visual design, which manages to always feel imaginative yet believable. The landscapes are something to behold, not only for their impressive scale and use of architecture, but because the placement of characters within these landscapes manages to be just as evocative as the places themselves. Just like the desolate towns on the American frontier, most these planets are harsh places to live, if not because most the residents left for somewhere better, then because an oppressive regime is forcing them to stay. In all of its aspects, the stylistic use of cinematography is undoubtedly excellent, but the one area that stands out more than any other is the use of shadows and lighting, which manages to reinforce the ideas that were previously conveyed through the architecture in a manner that makes it a lot more engaging. The level of significance and attention to detail that Galaxy Express attaches to its visuals is almost comparable to a neo-noir, very few anime even begin to use lighting to this effect, and even fewer manage to make it work as seamlessly. The storytelling in Galaxy Express is remarkably nuanced, and manages to make good use of its episodic format, as while its stories are often parabolic, they are still given enough layers to acknowledge the different perspectives on the issues created, and the closing minute of each episode typically ends with either Tetsuro or the narrator contemplating and asking questions about what is right, rather than outright telling the viewer what they are supposed to think. The issues it tackles are certainly varied, the issue of cyborgs is undoubtedly a central part of the series, and the one point that comes up more than any other is the loss of humanity that comes when cyborgs are deprived of their original body, but the series is far from one-note. It might have come out during the height of détente, but that didn’t stop them from doing an episode on mutually assured destruction and nuclear paranoia, plus other issues that don’t concern cyborgs, such as an episode that takes place in an actual Western-style town, stories involving social outcast bibliophiles or struggling artists, some of whom just so happen to be fans of series creator Leiji Matsumoto, a crossover episode with Captain Harlock, an episode that takes place in a post-scarcity society, and plenty of other cases that don't fit the stereotypical notions of a sci-fi story. Perhaps the most important of all, not only did Galaxy Express come up with the sci-fi Western 15 years before Robocop, they came up with the idea of having a golden irradiant briefcase whose contents are never revealed but manage to subdue anyone who looks inside it, 20 years before Pulp Fiction. Galaxy Express is a damn fine series, in some ways its episodic format makes it a jack of all trades, it does not focus intensely on a single aspect, but being this scattershot is not a negative point when it never manages to falter, nor does it ever feel like it would have been a much better series had it been a 13-episode character drama focusing on just one of these planets. The number of planets and different societies they are able to create feel limitless, and the visual design is a masterclass in visual design, which is only exemplified by great cinematography and use of lighting that make Galaxy Express a worthy successor to its Western origins. Samuel Johnson may have said “he who is tired of London, is tired of life”, but he wouldn’t have said that if he got to fly a train into space and talk to a robot skeleton.