Galaxy Express 999

Though Leiji Matsumoto is a popular mangaka and anime director, I will admit the only work of his that I was familiar with for the longest time was his collaboration with Daft Punk, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, based on the band’s Discovery album. Aside from that, Matsumoto also has a number of works, either his creation or with his direction, that share a universe with an overarching space setting known by fans as the Leijiverse (Intertsella 5555 being one exception). Among these that I’m more aware of are Space Battleship Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999; the last of these was a manga by Matsumoto that was adapted into an anime that itself received a more compressed film adaptation directed by Rintaro, which I recently decided to watch. Without having seen the source material, I thought the movie was overall really good, though there were some minor nitpicks that bothered me a little.

Along with a group of other kids, Tetsuro Hoshino (Saffron Henderson) attempts to steal a train pass so he can board the Galaxy Express 999. A mysterious woman named Maetel (Kathleen Barr), whom Tetsuro sees as a dead ringer for his mother, helps him evade the police, though he loses the stolen pass in the process. Upon learning why Tetsuro wants to board the Galaxy Express, to get a mechanical body so he can avenge his mother, Maetel decides to help him out, so long as she gets to go with him.

Tetsuro Hoshino (Saffron Henderson, right) with Maetel (Kathleen Barr, left).

The movie tells a very engaging and well-written story, with a strong theme of humanity vs machinery. To wit, while Tetsuro does initially set out on the Galaxy Express 999 to obtain a robot body, a recurring theme is what it means to have an immortal mechanical body as opposed to remaining human. That said, even if you aren’t aware the movie is a condensed retelling of an existing anime series, the mildly uneven pacing makes it feel like it’s compressed. Knowing that it was compressed without the original context, I could also still tell where certain sections of the movie could have originally been a longer story arc. As an example, one of the many stops on the Galaxy Express’ route is Pluto, which is where one’s original body is buried for potential retrieval after replacing it with a mechanical one; the events of this section are interesting and creates some world-building, however the pacing feels a little rushed and could’ve benefited from having a little more breathing room.

Characters from Matsumoto’s other works at the time the Galaxy Express 999 manga was published, Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Queen Emeraldas, also make cameos in the story and participate in its events, however these cameos thankfully don’t detract from the fact the movie is telling Tetsuro’s story. From my understanding, some other creative liberties were taken for the sake of narrative, including expanding the roles of some characters, though whether or not these changes are for the better is up to those who are more familiar with the source material.

The concept of the Galaxy Express is very intriguing in itself.

The animation is a high point, for the most part looking very fluid with a lot of detailed environments, with each planet the train stops at having its own unique look to it. The train itself is also an interesting design, with just enough information given through dialogue to make it seem believable. Leiji Matsumoto’s art style is rather unique and expressive, however, though more of a nitpick, his noted tendency to recycle faces is a lot more noticeable here than it was for me when watching Interstella 5555. One of the bigger recurring plot elements is the fact that Maetel looks like Tetsuro’s mother, however what muddies this a little is the fact that most of the major named female characters in the movie also look like Maetel to some extent, save for hair color and costume design; even though two of the “Maetel clones” in question have mechanical bodies and even lack a face, they still use Maetel’s body type as though it were a template.

Even Interstella 5555 (pictured) is't safe from this.

Though the film itself came out in 1979, the English dub included on the DVD release by Discotek Media, through which I was able to actually watch it, was recorded by Viz Media in 1996. Though it came from a time when the overall quality of anime dubs was starting to improve, the Viz dub still holds up pretty decently, with the voice actors putting a lot of personality into their characters, though there is some noticeable hissing sometimes when characters make an “s” sound in their dialogue. As a rather interesting side-note, though the pool of voice actors in the dub is very talented in general, this dub features the talents of Kathleen Barr (Maetel, Promethium) and Nicole Oliver (Emeraldas), both of whom would go on to make a splash in recent years in the highly-popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic franchise. While researching Galaxy Express 999, I also found out that another English dub preceding the Viz dub had been produced in 1981 by New World Pictures, which, among other things, featured some questionable name changes and cut over 30 minutes from the movie’s runtime; the Discotek DVD, in addition to the original Japanese version, only includes the Viz dub as its English audio track option.

Galaxy Express 999 is an enjoyable movie with a very engaging narrative in spite of its more compressed nature. The setting and unique concepts present a rather intriguing world that can make you want to see more of it, and possibly even look into Leiji Matsumoto’s other body of work. Even if you aren’t familiar with Leiji Matsumoto, or have only seen Interstella 5555, I would still recommend giving it a watch for its story and world-building alone, so long as you look past its somewhat rushed pacing.