Galaxy Express 999

January 5, 2025

Maetel, one of the protagonists from Galaxy Express 999, who has incredible style, that makes me want to emulate it.

I saw Galaxy Express 999 (the movie) last night, and can’t stop thinking about it. Last week I watched the first couple of episodes of the anime and really enjoyed it, but I didn’t feel like investing in a 100 episode show. I thought the movie would be a good way to get the broad strokes of the story in a more condensed format, to see if I wanted to invest the time to watch the entire series.

Background

Galaxy Express 999 is a space opera anime that follows a boy who wants to avenge his mother’s death at the hands of humans-turned-robots (who have basically become immortal, as long as they maintain their mechanized bodies). The destitute boy wants to travel to the end of the Andromeda galaxy via a space train called the Galaxy Express 999. At the end of the line, there is a planet that converts human bodies into robot bodies for free.

While he’s still on earth, he encounters a woman who looks exactly like his recently deceased mother, and gives him a ticket aboard the exorbitantly expensive Galaxy 999, as long as he promises to take her with him. Their journey across the galaxy, stopping at various planets ensues. They encounter all kinds of terrain and side characters along their adventures.

Why I Like It

I discovered this movie after watching Interstella 5555 (the Daft Punk movie from 2003) in theaters, for its one night, world wide screening. I was obsessed with it as a kid, and loved it just as much, if not more in 2024 (in spite of the awful AI upscaling). I wanted to see if there were any other films by the crew, and to my delight, discovered Galaxy Express 999.

The movie is a conceptual and visual beauty. It covers revenge, redemption, regret, and what it means to be human. The stance that it’s better to be human and finite is better than cold, machine immortality, isn’t a particularly new concept, but there were poignant moments in the movie.

“Being human means you have to die, whether you’ve lived out your dreams or not.”

Characters

The characters are complicated, and have complicated relationships with one another. There’s a strong Oedipal component between the two protagonists, and with others, a sense of duty to fulfill in spite of whatever it may cost; the idea of trying to right the previous wrongs, and conversely, doubling down on revenge.

All of this is set in a stunning, space operatic backdrop, with its expected robots, hover cars, etc. But beyond this, the modern world is nostalgic for “the good ole times”, depicted by the Galaxy Express 999 looking like a steam train, hiding it’s ultra high tech guts; saloon-like bars; ramshackle houses; and space ships that look like colonial era vessels.

The film references other series made by the director (Captain Harlock), which was an interesting choice. I’m not sure how I feel about it, since I’ve never seen Captain Harlock, but I am someone who likes to make one universe (KFCU Katherine Frazer Cinematic Universe) across creative practices, so I get it. It makes me want to check out Captain Harlock next.

The narrative is a bit jarring, and you can tell it’s a heavy condensation of the 100 episode anime, but its charm makes you easily look past this. The ending has many twists and turns, and the humanity in it and amazing visual art style make this a movie to remember.

I’m being vague because I don’t want to spoil the insane plot twist ending, but I highly encourage you to check it out!