Galaxy Express 999

Japanese National Railways Steam locomotive C-62

Galaxy Express 999 (銀河鉄道999（スリーナイン）, Ginga Tetsudō Surī Nain) is a manga written and drawn by Leiji Matsumoto, as well as various anime films and TV series based on it. It is set in a space-faring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer their minds and emotions with perfect fidelity into mechanical bodies, thus achieving practical immortality.^[1][2]

The manga won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1978.^[3] The anime series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1981.

Matsumoto was inspired to create Galaxy Express 999 by the idea of a steam train running through the stars in the novel Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa.^[4]

Plot

Anime and manga

An impoverished ten-year-old named Tetsuro Hoshino desperately wants an indestructible machine body, giving him the ability to live forever and have the freedom that the unmechanized don't have. While machine bodies are impossibly expensive, they are supposedly given away for free in the Andromeda galaxy, the end of the line for the Galaxy Express 999, a space train that only comes to Earth once a year.

The series begins with Tetsuro and his mother making their way to Megalopolis where they hope to get jobs to pay for passes for the 999. Along the way however, Count Mecha and a gang of "human hunters" kill Tetsuro's mother. Before she dies, she tells him to continue the journey they started, and to get a machine body to live the eternal life she couldn't. Tetsuro tries to forge on toward the city alone, but is quickly overcome by the brutal cold and wind. As he succumbs, he cries out an apology to his mother for failing to fulfill her wish, and hopes that in his next life he'll be born as a robot to begin with.

Tetsuro is surprised to awaken by the fireplace in the home of a beautiful woman, Maetel, who is the spitting image of his dead mother. Maetel tells him she had heard the entire incident with a long-range directional microphone she had been idly scanning around the area with. Maetel offers him an unlimited use pass for the 999 if he will be her traveling companion, to which Tetsuro agrees. She provides him with a gun and directs him to the Count's residence, telling him that the Count and his henchmen will be too distracted with their revelries to defend themselves against a surprise attack. Tetsuro bursts in on them in their meeting hall and cuts them down with a spray of gunfire. With the Earth police in hot pursuit, Tetsuro and Maetel flee the planet aboard the 999.

Along the way, Tetsuro has many adventures on many different and exotic planets and meets many kinds of people, both human and alien, living and machine. Increasingly, Tetsuro realizes that a machine body won't fix all of his problems. In fact, most of the machine people^{[lower-alpha 1]} he meets regret the decision to give up their humanity.

Eventually, Tetsuro and Maetel reach the Planet Prometheum, the final stop for the 999. He is shocked by the cruelty and indolence of the machine people there, and witnesses a mechanized human committing suicide, an event to which the others react with scoffs and derision. He asks the dying man why he wished to end his life, and is told that eternal life on Prometheum is utterly empty of joy or purpose. When Tetsuro mentions the name of his traveling companion the man is horrified and tells him that Maetel is in fact the daughter of Queen Prometheum, the supreme ruler of the Machine Empire, and that she is thoroughly untrustworthy. Testuro is outraged at having been kept in the dark and rushes off to confront Maetel. Maetel is at a loss for words, but a government spokeswoman inserts herself into their conversation and begins giving answers on Maetel's behalf. Tetsuro is not impressed and he storms off in a blind fury.

Tetsuro doesn't understand why he has been betrayed by Maetel, but Maetel has plans of her own, and seeks to destroy the mechanized civilization. With the help of her father, Dr. Ban (only named in the film), whose consciousness resides in a pendant she wears around her neck, Maetel destroys her mother and the planet. Afterwards, Maetel and Tetsuro return to the penultimate station on the Planet of Bats where Tetsuro tells Maetel his intention to return to Earth and lead it toward a new future.

Maetel, proud of Tetsuro for his decision to reject mechanization, tells him she has something to take care of and that he should board first. However, Tetsuro finds a letter from Maetel telling him that it was time for them to part ways. Maetel had secretly boarded the 777 (three-seven), a nearby train, with the intention of "leading another boy to his future". However, it is unclear as to whether or not this means that the Mechanization Empire still exists elsewhere, or if Maetel will lead the boy to some other "future". The series ends as the trains both depart the Planet of Bats.

Film versions

Galaxy Express 999

The film version of Galaxy Express 999, released in 1979, serves as a compression of the storyline told in the manga and television series with some modifications. Maetel and Tetsuro again set out for the home planet of the Mechanized Empire, but rather than visiting over a hundred planets, as in the original manga/TV series, Tetsuro only visits four—Titan, Pluto, Heavy Melder, and Planet Maetel. Like Planet Prometheum, Planet Maetel is a mechanized world where machine bodies are made. It is implied that Planet Maetel had once been Maetel's machine body—just as the planet Great Andromeda serves as the machine body of her mother's consciousness in the sequel film, Adieu Galaxy Express 999—and is still somehow linked to her. Maetel says of the planet, "This planet is also me. It is half of my own heart. We're different, but both are myself."

Many of the most popular characters in the manga and television series such as Claire, Antares, Emeraldas, and Captain Harlock made cameo appearances. Rather than kill Count Mecha immediately on Earth as it had happened in the manga and television series, Tetsuro confronts him in the Time Castle on the planet Heavy Melder, with the assistance of Antares. Tetsuro is able to get his revenge on the cruel count, who had the body of Tetsuro's mother stuffed and hung on his wall. The movie concludes as Maetel rebels against her mother, Queen Prometheum, and with the help of Emeraldas and Harlock destroys Planet Maetel. The movie also delves into the true nature of Maetel which is only hinted at in the television series. The body she visited on Pluto had been her original human body. Her consciousness was transferred to a succession of human bodies—including, most recently, one cloned from Tetsuro's mother—thus allowing her to live in human form forever and, in a sense, travel in time. Also, while Maetel's pendant only contains the consciousness of her father, in the movie it contains his consciousness, as well as the consciousnesses of the countless brave young people whom she had likewise led as saboteurs.

Maetel and the 999 bring Tetsuro back to Earth. After a farewell kiss, she and the train head back into space, presumably never to return.

Notable about the movie is that it came out while the television series was still airing, and as a result the ending of the television series was spoiled for anyone who had seen the movie. The footage on Heavy Melder and the Time Castle, which had appeared in the movie before the television series, were revised in the television series in a 3 part sequence where a fake Captain Harlock, not Count Mecha (who was already dead by this point in the television series) ruled the Time Castle.

Godiego performed the film's theme song "The Galaxy Express 999".

Adieu Galaxy Express 999

Adieu Galaxy Express 999 is the sequel to the movie version, and was released in 1981. Adieu presents an entirely new storyline (not based on the manga or television series), which takes place three years after the destruction of Planet Maetel. The Machine Empire now has even more of a stranglehold over the Galaxy. Rumors are afoot of Maetel becoming its new Queen. Tetsuro, now a fifteen-year-old freedom fighter, is shocked when a messenger brings him news that the 999 is returning, and that Maetel wants him to board it. Tetsuro narrowly makes his way to the 999 and departs Earth, now a battlefield.

Although Tetsuro finds that Maetel isn't present on the 999, he does meet Metalmena, a machine woman who has replaced the waitress Claire. Also, a mysterious Ghost Train has been traveling the universe and nearly crashes into the 999. The 999 then pouts about the humiliation of being overtaken by the Ghost Train. The 999 heads to the planet La Metal, portrayed here as the birthplace of Prometheum and Maetel (it is presumed that Prometheum and Maetel were born on Planet Prometheum in the manga and television series). Here Tetsuro helps in the resistance, befriending a cat-like man named Meowdar. While exploring the ruins of an old castle, Tetsuro discovers a portrait of a beautiful, blonde queen who looks very much like Maetel. He learns that it is, in fact, La Metal's Queen Prometheum, even though she looks nothing like she did at their last confrontation. As the 999 departs, Maetel finally makes her appearance.

Shortly after leaving La Metal, the 999 is forced to dock at a station where Tetsuro meets a mysterious machine-man named Faust. When Tetsuro attacks him, Faust causes Tetsuro to drop into a flashback where he must relive his mother's death (which had occurred in the Time Castle in the original manga and television series storyline). The 999 continues on to the planet Mosaic, the last stop before Great Andromeda, capital of the mechanized empire. Here Tetsuro finds the Ghost Train and is nearly killed.

The 999 finally makes its way to Great Andromeda where Faust greets Tetsuro once more. Meanwhile, Maetel travels down to the center of the planet where Prometheum's consciousness still exists. Despite her betrayal in the first movie, Maetel is put in charge of the mechanized empire, just as the rumors said. But, again, she intends to put an end to the operations, and attempts to shut Prometheum's machinery down. She reveals the horrible truth to Tetsuro that the energy the machine people use is actually drained from living human beings, and that they were transported there by the Ghost Train. Tetsuro is shocked to find his old friend Meowdar among a pile of dead, drained bodies.

Prometheum proves that she cannot be killed with just the flip of a switch, and all seems hopeless. At about the same time, a space anomaly called Siren the Witch approaches Great Andromeda, attracted to its abundant energy and absorbing all machine energy. With Great Andromeda collapsing, the 999 is set to depart, but Tetsuro must face Faust one last time. After dealing Faust a fatal blow, it is revealed to Tetsuro that Faust is actually Tetsuro's father (In the manga and television series, it is never made clear what became of Tetsuro's father). The 999 heads back to La Metal where Maetel and Tetsuro separate for the last time, and "the boy [Tetsuro] becomes a man".

The movie is notable for having two songs written and performed by Mary MacGregor, 'Love Light' and the ending theme "Sayonara" of which her version, sung in English, was used for the film. Kumiko Kaori recorded a Japanese version of the ending song.

Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies called it a "dense, fascinating story".^[5]

New manga series and Eternal Fantasy

In 1996, Matsumoto began a new GE999 series, set a year after the original, in which the Earth is destroyed and Tetsuro sets out to discover the source of the "darkness" that threatens all life in the universe.

The movie Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy was released in 1998. Although the movie is based on the manga story line, this movie version follows the plot of the movies and the later TV show, The Galaxy Railways. This movie takes place one year after the events of "Adieu Galaxy Express 999" and is the third movie in the series, where Maetal and Tetsuro reunite to save the universe again from another evil. It also serves as a link between the first two movies and The Galaxy Railways. It is the shortest of the three Galaxy Express 999 movies, based on a portion of the recent series of Galaxy Express manga.

Some may disagree with this view of the movie, but there are several key features in the movie that confirm it is part of the movie story line and not the original TV show story line. Although Tetsuro is drawn in a style similar to his TV appearance, his clothes match the ones that he wore in the movies. Another feature is that the conductor has an orange collar and red 999 lettering on his armband, features that would've been blue and yellow, respectively, if it was part of the TV story line. Also, 999's locomotive carries the number plate C62-48 the same number it carried in the movies and in the later movie A Letter from the Abandoned Planet. If it were the TV show storyline, the engine would carry the number C62-50. Also, the train's paint and headboards match those of the movie style. And finally, it is stated on the official release box itself that the movie takes place one year after the events of Adieu Galaxy Express 999.

The Alfee performed the theme song "Brave Love: Galaxy Express 999 / Beyond the Win".

Also, Space Battleship Yamato, from the Japanese show of the same name and the English version Star Blazers, which are both Matsumoto creations, makes a cameo appearance

The manga has been partially published in English by Viz.

Maetel Legend

This two-part OVA from 2000 serves as a prelude for Galaxy Express 999, explaining a lot of the series' backstory. Maetel (the protagonist) is actually the daughter of Queen Prometheum of the Planet La Metal (both from Queen Millennia), a wandering planet, and one of the first groups of civilization that mechanized their bodies. As Queen Promethium became fearful of the natural decline of her people's lifespan on their freezing, orbit-less world, she decided to mechanize everything, believing the process to be beneficial and enabling the planet's citizens to survive the harsh climate. The complete series was released on DVD by Central Park Media.

Space Symphony Maetel

Following on from Maetel Legend, this 13-part OVA from 2004 reveals that the newly created machine people of La Metal began to mechanise galaxy after galaxy against the will of many humans, and ended up creating rebellions and revolutions. Maetel is asked to return to La Metal to succeed her mother, only to discover the many hardships her mother has inflicted on the humans.

In this series, Captain Harlock and Emeraldas (Maetel's sister) also appear, and work together to assassinate Prometheum, along with Maetel. Parallels with Galaxy Express 999 are prevalent. Instead of a boy who wants a mechanized body meeting her, she met a boy who has a grudge against Prometheum and detests being mechanized. This series remains unlicensed in English.

Galaxy Railways: Letter From An Abandoned Planet

This OVA series is also not licensed for USA but, was released from December 30, 2006 to January 5, 2007 (on SKY PerfectTV!) in Japan. The story takes place between Seasons 1 and 2 of Galaxy Railways: Crossroad to Eternity, and presumably after the events of Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy, where the Earth has since been destroyed. The OVAs featured Maetel, Tetsuro and the Conductor, with their original voice actors from the Galaxy Express 999 TV series.

For unknown reasons, this series started production earlier than Galaxy Railways: Crossroad to Eternity, but was aired much later.

Characters

• Tetsuro Hoshino (星野 鉄郎, Hoshino Tetsurō): The main character of Galaxy Express 999, Tetsuro is a poor Earth boy who witnessed his mother die at the hands of Count Mecha. With his mother's dying wish being for him to obtain a machine body, Tetsuro embarks on the Galaxy Express with Maetel.
• Maetel (メーテル, Mēteru): The mysterious blonde woman who accompanies Tetsuro on the Galaxy Express 999. Maetel is in actuality the daughter of Queen Prometheum, ruler of the mechanized empire. In the movie version, Maetel is responsible for bringing youths from around the universe to the mechanized homeworld where they are turned into mechanized human components to serve the mechanized empire, whereas in the television series, she is grooming them to grow up to become generals in her mother's imperial military. Maetel is secretly plotting with her father, Dr. Ban (who is contained within the pendant around her neck) to destroy the machine empire, and finally does so (in the movie) when it is Tetsuro's turn to be turned into a bolt.^[6] Maetel's soul exists in the body of a human copy, which she occupies until it grows old and she exchanges it for a new one. It is explained in the movie version that she occupies a clone of the body of Tetsuro's mother, which explains the resemblance between the two.
• Conductor (車掌, Shashō): The Conductor is the main crew member of the Galaxy Express 999. He is an alien being with an invisible body; only his eyes can be seen while he is wearing his conductor uniform. The Conductor prefers to go 'strictly by the book'^[6] and frequently cites the Galaxy Express rule book, but occasionally ends up bending the rules and getting into adventures with Tetsuro and Maetel.
• Claire (クレア, Kurea): The dining car waitress on the 999, Claire has a machine body made of clear crystal glass. Unlike others who gave up their humanity by choice, Claire was forced into this existence by her vain mother. She works on the 999 in order to save up enough money to buy back her human body, which is stored on Pluto.^[6] Claire quickly befriends Tetsuro and sacrifices herself for him when a hallucination taking the guise of his mother tries to pull him out of the train. Her body is shattered, all that remains is a single glass tear which Tetsuro holds with him as a memento.^[6] In the movie version, Claire has a somewhat larger role, but suffers the same fate, sacrificing herself for Tetsuro when Prometheum tries to kill him (a machine girl named "Mirai" ("Future") has this role in the television series). Claire returns to life in both Eternal Fantasy and the new Galaxy Express manga published by Matsumoto in the 1990s.^[7]
• Captain Harlock (キャプテンハーロック, Kyaputen Hārokku) and Emeraldes (エメラルダス, Emerarudasu): Famous space pirates who are idolized by Tetsuro. Both have only minor cameos in the original manga and television series, but have significantly larger roles in the movies and assist in defeating the machine empire.
• Antares (アンタレス, Antaresu): A well known bandit who sneaks aboard the 999 after their stop on the planet Titan. Antares despises machine people for the death of his wife and has many unexploded bullets lodged within his abdomen. He warns Tetsuro to "shoot first, ask questions later".^[8] In the manga and television series he lives in a large home with his many children; in the movie he lives on Titan with other bandits and many children orphaned by Count Mecha. In the movie version he assists Tetsuro in his quest to kill Count Mecha at the Time Castle, and is killed when the bullets in his body explode after taking multiple shots from the Count.
• Count Mecha (機械伯爵, Kikai-hakushaku): The wealthy machine man who murdered Tetsuro's mother. In the manga and television series, he is a minor aristocrat, and is killed by Tetsuro before he leaves Earth. In the movie version he appears to have considerably more power, and rules the Time Castle. Acquiring a machine body to get revenge on Count Mecha is Tetsuro's primary motivation in the movie version, and he accomplishes his goal with the assistance of Antares while on the planet Heavy Melder.
• Queen Prometheum (プロメシューム, Puromeshūmu): Maetel's mother, and ruler of the mechanized empire. Once a gentle woman, Prometheum created the machine empire believing it would be good for humanity. Prometheum has considerably difference physical characteristics in each of her appearances, appearing as a humanoid in the television series and movie, and a two-faced head in the manga. Prometheum is destroyed with the destruction of Andromeda in the manga and television series, and killed by Claire in the movie version. Her spirit occupies the planet Great Andromeda in Adieu Galaxy Express 999 but perishes when that planet is destroyed by Siren the Witch.

English-language versions

In 1980, Roger Corman produced an English-language dub of the first Galaxy Express 999 movie. The movie changed the character names (for example changing Tetsuro to Joey and Harlock to Warlock), and removed approximately 30 minutes of content.^[9] Antonia Levi, the author of "Samurai From Outer Space" said that the edited film, released by New World Pictures, was "heavily edited" and that "many otaku consider it too damaged to watch."^[10]

In 1986, Harmony Gold produced rarely seen English dubs of two of the GE999 TV specials, Galaxy Express 999: Can You Live Like A Warrior? and Galaxy Express 999: Can You Love Like A Mother?

The first movie was dubbed into English again in 1996 by Viz, titled Galaxy Express 999: The Signature Edition. Released on VHS, this dub was more true to the source material. Viz also released Adieu, Galaxy Express 999 subbed and dubbed on VHS, although having lost the licenses for the two films, they were never released on R1 DVD by the company. For years, the only official English-language release of Galaxy Express 999 material on DVD were a Korean release of the two movies which utilize Viz's subtitle scripts. The English dubs of both films were run quite regularly on the Canadian channel, Space the Imagination Station, when the station first launched. They were also run in a very heavily edited form on the American Sci-Fi Channel.^[11]

Viz later released five volumes of the second Galaxy Express manga, which was the basis for the third film, Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy. The original manga has yet to be translated into English.

Recently, a subtitled version of the TV series has been released on IGN's Direct2Drive service. Currently, all 113 episodes are available. The streaming website Crunchyroll began streaming a subtitled version on January 9, 2009.^[12]

DVD versions of both Galaxy Express 999 and Adieu, Galaxy Express 999 were released in the US June 28, 2011 by Discotek Media. Both DVD's feature the English subbed and dubbed (Viz dub) versions of the movies. Discotek also released "Eternal Fantasy" on DVD on October 16, 2012. It's in Japanese only, but with English subtitles.^[13]

The TV series was later licensed for a subtitled North American home video release by S'more Entertainment in 2012 as one their first anime releases.^[14]

Publication history

• First manga series, serialized in Shōnen King (Shōnen Gahosha), 1977–1981
• New manga series, serialized in Big Gold (Shogakukan), 1996–??
• TV series, 113 episodes + 4 TV specials (1978)
• Television specials, Can You Live Like A Warrior (1979), Emeraldes the Eternal Wanderer (1980) and Can You Love Like a Mother (1981)
• Film, Galaxy Express (1979)
• Featurette, Galaxy Express 999 Glass no Clair – Glass-made Claire (1980)
• Film, Adieu Galaxy Express 999 Terminus Andromeda – Sayonara Galaxy Express 999 (1981)
• Film, Galaxy Express 999 ~Eternal Fantasy~ (1998)
• TV series, Space Symphony Maetel, 13 episodes (2004–2005)

Cast

Legacy

• The Galaxy Express 999, as well as Space Battleship Yamato, make appearances in Gamera: Super Monster, but have no relevance to the film's plot.
• Homages to the show appear in Adventures of the Mini Goddess and volume 19 of 20th Century Boys.
• Maetel was parodied in the Excel Saga anime.
• A laserdisc arcade game called Freedom Fighter was released in 1984. The game used some footage from Galaxy Express 999 and Adieu Galaxy Express 999. The game also used some original footage done by Toei Animation (the original footage also uses the same kinds of character designs used in both films.). It was later ported over to the Philips CD-I under the name Escape From Cyber City.
• Makes contextual appearance in Girls' Generation's song "Express 999"
• The Doraemon movie Nobita and the Galactic Express, made in 1996, was a tribute to the works of Matsumoto.

Notes

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Galaxy Express 999.

• Galaxy Express 999 and Space Battleship Yamato statues in Tsuruga (Japanese)
• All 113 Episodes of Galaxy Express 999 at Crunchyroll
• All 113 Episodes of Galaxy Express 999 at Funimation Entertainment
• Galaxy Express 999 (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia