Introduction
Tetsurou Hoshino is a boy bent on obtaining an immortal mechanical body in order to take revenge against his mother's murderer, the machine man Count Mecha. However, due to the incredible cost of obtaining what he seeks, his only hope is to steal a boarding pass for the Galaxy Express 999, a space train that travels across the galaxy and whose final stop is a planet where the metal replacements are provided for free. After swiping a pass, Tetsurou is pursued by the police and ends up collapsing into the arms of a mysterious woman named Maetel, who closely resembles his mother. Once he awakens, she tells the boy that she will provide him entry onto the 999 as long as he agrees to travel with her. Accepting her proposition, Tetsurou boards the cosmic railway with Maetel and begins a journey across the galaxy.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
9 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Spirit_Chaser
The Galaxy Express 999 movie is a piece of media that scares me. Upon this re-watch, it felt a bit intimidating as soon as the first emotional part began with Tetsurou's flashback. What scares me about this anime is that it forces the viewers to confront and think about very emotional and unpleasant topics. Still, Galaxy Express 999 forces us to confront these emotionally painful lessons for the best of us. Due to the episodic nature of the 113 episode TV series, it was easy for the staff to summarize it all in a satisfying way in a 2 hour film.
The topic of eternal life. Can living forever make you happy? Would it last forever? It's talked about as if it is the ideal existence, and yet no one has lived forever to tell us the results. Through Leiji Matsumoto's interpretation, eternal life…
Read at the sourcefatal_strategys
Regularly scheduled disclaimer: I don't believe in the MAL rating system, so ignore everything but the overall score if you actually want to know my opinion for some reason.
Here's the short version: Ginga Tetsudou 999 is fun and gorgeous and absolutely worth watching.
The most obvious appeal is the visuals: it's directed by Rintaro, and you can tell. Every single sequence in the movie is beautifully animated and expressive. The big action set pieces are just plain fun to watch if only to marvel at how great they all look. The opening scene is in particular a standout, especially because it (like the entire film) has beautiful character animation that gives you an immediate sense of the personality and attitude of every key player. Tetsuro in particular is instantly likable, even before…
Read at the sourceTheCoolGuy82
Galaxy express 999 is a summary of the whole 113 eps tv series in condensed form but in better way. This is really one of the most enjoyable anime films with such cool characters such as harlock, emeraldas, maetel. I liked this film so much.
Story- the story is well written all the way from the beginning to end. the story is set in futuristic world where every people must get mechanical body to live eternal life. It focuses on tetsudo a poor orphan boy who wants to get a Mechanical body for his dead mother's wish. He was then accompanied by Maetel a mysterious woman.
Characters- the characters are also very well written. There some great cameos of characters such as captain harlock and emeraldas.
Art- the artstyle holds up pretty well even to this day. Even though, most of the woman lo…
Read at the sourceTacas
Based on the TV anime of the same name, Ginga Tetsudou 999 plays in the distant future and follows Tetsuro, who wants to avenge his mother by killing the person responsible for her death. In order to reach this goal, he wants to ride the Galaxy Express 999, an intergalactic locomotive. What may seem like a really simple and predictable concept at the beginning, develops into a way more intriguing and complex tale as the film goes on.
At first, the story is about Tetsuro visiting several planets where he learns about various aspects of life, especially about the relationship between humans and machines. In a certain way, it is similar to Kino no Tabi but unlike that anime, where the stories are not connected, Ginga Tetsudou 999 has an overarching plot and a goal the protagonist is moving t…
Read at the sourceBowlingJD
The movie, was directed by Rin Taro (Astro Boy, Captain Harlock), while the series was directed by Nobutaka Nishizawa (Slam Dunk, Zatch Bell); so it makes sense the movie was more action oriented than the series. Tetsuro gets an upgrade in his character design, which was a big boost, and the overall art gets an upgrade as well. There was even some music added that the original series really lacked, but hey, it was anime in the 70’s.
So, how do you compress a 113 episode series into two hours? Basically, you take all of the important events, planets with the best lessons, the characters that impacted Tetsuro the most, and take away all of the “filler” planets. Many questions are answered outright instead of wandering through space and slowly forgetting the original question, and there is e…
Read at the sourcesilversongwriter
Story 9/10
The story is bery straightforward and simple. Yet it contains a lot of depth. But what's great is that all of it's deep philosophical ideas are explained in a very easy to understand way. It gets profound messages across without confusing the viewer. The story is about a young boy, determined to avenge his mother, who rides the Galaxy Express 999 on a pursuit to have a mechnical body and to kill the machine who took his mother. Without spoiling anything, he goes through a deep journey and discovers what it means to be human. He learns that the temporary nature in life makes it valuable.
Art 8/10
The art style is pretty good. The animation is great for 1979, and the character designs are really awesome. For the most part, the main character's eyes looks weird at times, and some…
Read at the sourcebarcaman101
For those who can appreciate the classics,you'll have a great time with this gem.Tetsuro seeks to go to the robot planet so he can get a robot body so he can kill the evil robot Count Mecha who killed his mother.He meets a mysterious woman who saves him from the police , she offers to take him on the condition that she goes along with him,Tetsuro agrees and the two set off on their journey.While travelling in the Galaxy Express 999 the train must make three checkstops at different planets before they reach the robot planet.along the way there is danger and adventure,and with each obstacle he learns about the value of human life and what it means to be alive.
This movie is very emotional because as he travells through space he meets many individuals with robot bodies, who regret their deci…
Read at the sourcecobrascope
You can't buy this film in this country and I'm not even sure you can get it on import in the USA but I managed to track it down on youtube and I'm very glad I did. This is a retro golden oldie that condenses the main plot of the TV series (which was 113 episodes long) into an easy to digest feature film. It's one of those rare films that can be enjoyed by everyone regardless of age or sex. The dated visuals and music might put some off but I think it actually added to the retro charm and a low budget production like this was never meant to be a feast for the senses anyway. A film like this hardly needs eye melting spectacle or to bombast you with incredible sound when it's filled with so much imagination and heart.
It's no masterpiece but then it was never meant to be. What it is is a fu…
Read at the sourcejmoriarty84
This anime has a great story and awesome cast of characters. Outside the movies, I have little to no familiarity with the other mediums this story has been told. I heard the TV series was 113 episodes!! I don’t get how you can make a story that big!! Plus, I heard the manga was also 20 volumes.
Regardless of how much is compressed in this version, you still feel the maturity of Tetsuro and how strong the bond is between him and Matel. The bond they share is something comparable to what Naked Snake and the Boss have in Metal Gear Solid 3. It’s beyond mother and son, brother and sister and a romantic relationship between man and woman despite Matel’s mysterious age and Tetsuro still not yet hitting puberty. There are some elements that are predictable and others that are n…
Read at the source